“No!” I pushed away his hands. “Whatever happened to Mara Quida and Chiaru Starchild may be connected to these. We don’t know what these do. What if it exploded you?”
He regarded me with something strange in his eyes, an intensity that for years I’d thought meant he was angry. I understood it better now. Whatever I’d said stirred up strong emotions, the kind he and I almost never expressed. “Eh, Bhaaj,” he said. “Don’t worry about me.”
“Can’t let you blow up. Need you to pull up the ladder when we leave.”
He laughed, a good-natured sound. “For you, Bhaajo, I’ll pull up the ladder.”
I smiled, remembering we were married. Sort of. “Eh, Jako.”
He touched my cheek. “Name is Mean Lean Jak.”
“Yah, that too.” It was, after all, how everyone else knew him. “I think the High Mesh isn’t just trying to make new tech-mech.”
“Maybe steal tech from these ships.”
“Yah. But what is it?” I recognized nothing here. “Whatever blew up the tunnel affects matter on a molecular level, like a quasis field.”
“A what?” Jak asked.
“Quasis,” I said. “It fixes the wavefunction of matter. The military uses it during space combat to protect fighters from strikes and large g-forces.”
Jak squinted at the boxes. “These aren’t going to protect star fighters.”
“No reason to put the pilot in a box. Their entire ship goes into quasis.”
“And anyway, the military already has quasis tech.” He touched the lid of the box. “Maybe they got it from these.”
I considered the idea. “I don’t think so. Our technology for space combat comes from our modern development of science. None of the engineering depends on the libraries of these ships. That only applies to neuromathetics.”
“Mind sciences.”
“Yah. Kyle.” I felt like I was missing something.
My gauntlet comm hummed. Startled, I tapped on the comm. “Bhaaj here.”
“We’ve checked the other ships,” the lieutenant said. “Neither has a chamber underneath.”
Angel spoke. “One deck on first ship. Two on second. Nothing else.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Come on back.”
“Over and out,” the lieutenant said.
A clang came from above us.
I looked up. “What the hell?” The hatch had closed.
Jak went over and pulled on the ladder. It fell down around his feet, minus the clamps that had held it to the rim of the hatchway.
I touched my comm. “Lieutenant, come in.”
No answer.
I tried another channel. “Angel?”
No response.
I switched channels again. “Ruzik, answer.”
Nothing.
Jak was stabbing at his own gauntlet. “I’m not getting any signals, either.”
“Max, why aren’t they answering?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Max said. “I can’t link to their comms. My signals are blocked.”
The lights went out.
“Gods damn it,” I said. “I’m really sick of people screwing with us.”
“The lieutenant must have contacted the High Mesh.” Jak sounded ready to hit someone.
“I think this is unlikely,” Max said.
“Why?” I flicked panels on my gauntlet, trying to turn on its light. Nothing happened.
“I ran the recording of her last communication through my voice analyzer,” Max said. “It shows none of the tension I would associate with someone in the process of betraying you.”
The lieutenant hadn’t struck me as false, either, but I didn’t trust her anyway. “How accurate is your ability to analyze a voice?”
“It’s reasonable,” Max said. “For an EI in a gauntlet. Which isn’t that sophisticated.”
“Angel sounded normal, too.” Jak’s voice came from across the cave, along with the drumming noise of his fingers playing across his gauntlet.
“Is your light out, too?” I asked.
A man spoke in a deep, resonant voice. “Neither the light nor the comm are working.”
“Eh, Royal,” I said, greeting Jak’s EI. “Can you reach Ruzik?”
“My sensors are blunted. I can’t tell if he’s there.”
Max, toggle me into combat mode, I thought, testing my neural link. I need my IR vision.
Done, Max thought. Your biomech web is operational.
The cave became visible again, as a dim red glow created by the heat. The temperature was dropping, which meant the glow would soon fade and turn bluer. Jak’s body blazed white over by the wall he was examining.
“You find anything?” I asked.
“These walls are porous.” He scraped his fingers along a rocky projection. “Like stone lace. It reminds me of the Maze. Maybe we can make it to the aqueducts.”
“It’s kilometers away.” I went over to him. “And the Maze is almost impossible to navigate even when you can see.”
“Send one of your beetles,” Max said. “If it’s possible to reach the Undercity, the bot has a better chance of doing it.”
“Smart idea.” I took the red bot from my jacket. “Go, little droid.”
It hummed away and buzzed around the cave until it disappeared into a crevice in the wall.
“Can you see anything?” Jak asked.
“You,” I said. “You’re like a fire on my IR. Try yours.”
Royal answered. “It doesn’t work. Whatever fried his comm is also jamming his other tech.”
“Why isn’t it jamming mine?” I asked.
Max said, “You have a military system that you regularly update through legal channels.”
“What, are you saying mine isn’t as good?” Jak growled.
“You get it on the black market?” I asked.
“A cyber-rider designed it, years ago.” He ran his fingers across the curves engraved in the wall. “She does get a lot of her tech-mech on the market.”
“You need an upgrade,” Royal told him.
“First we have to get out of here.” Jak continued searching for an exit.
I went back and studied the hatch in the ceiling. My IR vision blurred details, but it looked firmly in place. I couldn’t jump high enough to reach it, and I didn’t see any way to climb up there. The ceiling was smooth around the hatch, and none of the rock formations were close enough to access that part of the ceiling.
“This cave must have another exit,” I said. “One that goes up to the desert.”
Jak turned toward me in what, for him, must have been complete darkness. “Why?”
“Bessel said Daan Bialo could get here from the desert. If they can go in, we can go out.”
Jak walked forward with one arm stretched out. “That also means if someone is out there right now, they could get in here while we’re trapped.”
I reached toward him. “They didn’t know how to find it. Apparently they need Bialo.”
“He could be with them.” His hand bumped my wrist. “Or someone else who knows how to get into this place.”
Taking his wrist, I drew him to my side. “We need to get out of here.”
“Royal, did you get my comm working?” Jak asked.
“Not yet,” Royal said. “It’s getting worse.”
“Max, what about my beetle?” I asked. “Has it found a way out?”
“It’s traveling underground through a series of conduits. They go farther out into the desert, however, rather than toward the Undercity or up to the surface.”
“That’s no good,” Jak said. “We need to find something we can use.”
We started a detailed search, Jak working on one side of the cave while I did the other, looking for crevices, tunnels, conduits, any exit large or small. I found a few holes big enough for a beetle but nothing a human could fit through. I couldn’t squeeze behind the coffins, which made it a lot harder to check the walls there.
“Someone had to put these boxes he
re,” I said. My IR vision showed them as slightly bluer than their surroundings, which meant they were cooler. The difference wasn’t enough to feel, but it made me wonder. Air in the aqueducts tended to be cooler than on the surface. I pushed my hand behind one of the boxes, running my fingers over the cave wall.
“I found a hole.” I kept speaking so Jak could follow my voice. “Behind a box.”
He came over, stopping when his hands hit the casket next to me. “Is it big enough for us to fit through?”
I felt around the opening. “Not a chance.” My hand hit a much smaller box crammed onto the ledge behind the casket. “That’s odd.”
“You find a door?”
“Nahya.” I picked up the box, which was a couple of handspans wide, and managed to get it out from behind the box. Even in my IR vision, it glittered. I lifted the lid. “It’s a jewel box.”
“Down here? Whatever for?”
“Hell if I know.” I drew a medallion out of the box. It had what looked like an old-fashioned photo in its frame, but I couldn’t see the details with my IR vision. “I think this is a picture of two people.”
Jak stood next to me, staring off into the dark. “That’s an odd thing to put here.”
I rummaged through the box. “It’s all keepsakes, holocubes, necklaces, that sort of thing.”
“We should examine them all.”
“Yah. I don’t think carrying this is a good idea, though.” We needed our hands free and able to maneuver, and my jammer took up too much room in my backpack to leave room for the jewel box. “We’ll have to come back to check it out. I’ll take the medallion and see if I can identify who it belongs to. Maybe they can tell us why this box is here.” I slipped the necklace into my jacket pocket and returned the jewel box to the ledge.
“First we have to get out of here,” Jak said.
Max spoke. “The beetle has found a route that goes toward the Undercity.”
“Good.” Relief trickled over me. “Is it large enough for people?”
“It’s too small. Also, the bot had to go several kilometers into the desert before it found the passage to the Undercity. It’s worse than the Maze. You’d never make it out there and back.”
“Strange,” Jak said. “Why all these underground mazes?”
“They crisscross the desert.” I spoke absently as I explored the opening behind the casket, pushing the wall to see if anything moved. “They go all the way east to the ruins of Izu Yaxlan in the desert and all the way north to the Temple of Tiqual.”
“Seriously? How the blazes did you know that?”
Damn! I’d let myself be distracted by this puzzle and the fact that Jak was one of the few people I trusted. I straightened up, facing him in the darkness. “I didn’t just tell you that.”
“Fine,” he said. “I don’t know it. How do you?”
“I figured it out during my investigation last year when we were fighting that ancient EI. General Majda doesn’t like that I know. The information is secured.” I shrugged. “Not that it really matters. The routes are blocked, apparently including any path from here to the Undercity.”
“What routes?” His grin flashed. “Never heard of them.”
I smiled. “Let’s find one of these routes that doesn’t exist and get out of here.”
We continued exploring. The wall felt solid behind the middle box, but the third had a larger hole. We might be able to squeeze through if we could move the casket. I tried shoving it, and the lid slammed closed. When I pulled on the lever, the lid opened but nothing else happened.
Max, tell me the codes that the lieutenant used to open the ship hatches. I thought to him instead of speaking to make sure our connection still worked.
It depends on the location of your fingers, he answered. Put them in the position you would use to play a piano.
What’s a piano?
An instrument. Never mind. Try the position you’d use for an old-fashioned computer keyboard.
I rested my fingers on the rim of the coffin. What else?
It also depends on the frequency and strength of the tap. Try three taps with your thumb, lightly, two harder with your index finger, three twice as fast with your smallest finger, two at the initial speed with your fourth finger, but half as hard, and three fast with your index finger.
I tapped the pattern. Nothing happened. Did I do it right?
You did it harder and faster than the lieutenant.
I entered the code more gently. Still nothing. Was that right?
I think so. Do you want to try the other patterns?
Yah, let’s do that.
With Max’s help, I tried all the patterns, tapping the rim of the box, its sides, the bottom, inside, all to no avail.
Jak continued to search the cave. I didn’t realize he’d finished until he laid his hand on my arm. “Maybe you’re drumming it in the wrong place.”
I looked up with a start. “Did you find anything?”
“No luck. You have any with the box?”
“Maybe, if we can move it.” I slid my hand over its engravings. They felt rounded by the years, though not much given their age. No wind, rain, or sun could affect them here, and the army probably had protections to keep them from degrading. “It would take forever to try every code on every part of this thing.” I rested my hands on the rim and leaned against the box, closing my eyes. I’d barely slept for an entire Raylicon day. Exhaustion was taking its toll.
Jak stepped closer, offering the support. “You all right?”
“Yah. Just give me a second to rest.” I remained standing, so I wouldn’t doze off, and let my mind wander the way I’d learned during combat, when I desperately needed rest and couldn’t sleep. Just a few moments to recharge . . .
The box hummed.
“Ho!” I jerked away from the rim and stepped back. Fast.
A glow came from the bars that bordered the top edge of the coffin, and sparkles ran along the gears inside like trains of luminance, casting their light across Jak’s face.
“It’s alive,” he said.
“Or something.” I touched one of the bars, and it thrummed against my fingertips.
“What did you do?” he asked.
I squinted at him. “I started to fall asleep.”
He grinned. “You sleep, the box wakes up?”
“Can’t say. I relaxed my mind. The box woke up. I don’t know if it’s connected.”
Jak pushed the box—and it easily slid aside, uncovering the opening in the wall.
“Ho!” I said. “That worked.”
“Weird.” Jak peered at the lights sparkling inside the bars that lined the top of the casket. “Try thinking to the box again. See what happens.”
“Think what?”
“I don’t know.” He laughed. “Ask it to make a steak. I’m starving.”
What the hell, why not? I closed my eyes and imagined food in the box. Opening them, I found the box just as empty as before.
“Oh well.” Jak scrutinized the hole he’d uncovered by moving the box. It had a ragged appearance, as if someone had broken pieces of rock out of the wall. The edges were sharp enough to suggest that had happened recently.
“Come on.” I grabbed the edge of the hole and lifted myself through, feet first, easing into the area beyond. When I tried to straighten up, my head hit the ceiling, forcing me to stay bent over. A cone of rock stood to my left, and a stalactite hung from the ceiling like a stone icicle. Beyond them, ragged walls formed a tunnel with outcroppings partially blocking the way. It would be a tight fit, but we could probably get through.
“Looks passable,” I said.
“You got your other beetle?” Jak asked.
“Good idea.” I took the green bot out of my pocket. “Max, see if it can find where this tunnel ends.”
The beetle hummed off into the darkness.
Jak squeezed in next to me and stood up, also leaning over. “Tight fit.”
“Yah.” I looked back at
the box. “We should leave that light on.”
“You got any idea how to turn it off?”
“I could try thinking at it.”
“Like with the steak.” He sounded amused, reminding me of Max.
I smiled. “Come on. Let’s go.”
We made our way along the passage, which curved to the left. A noise scraped behind us as if the box were moving back into place against the wall—and the light vanished.
“Well, shit,” I said.
“Yah.” Jak didn’t sound concerned.
Living in the Undercity, we’d made our way in the dark our entire lives. During my army years, I’d seen soldiers panic when forced to deal with places this dark and cramped. Claustrophobia never bothered me; closed spaces felt safer. Open vistas were another story; it had taken me years to adapt to all that distance.
A stalagmite blocked our way. I squeezed past it, easing along in the dim light of my IR vision. “Max, has the green beetle found a way out?”
“Not yet. This passage does continue, however.”
“Any barriers?” Jak asked.
“So far, nothing you can’t pass,” Max said.
We kept on, navigating the obstacles. My neck and back ached from staying bent over.
“I think we’re going upward,” Jak said. “It feels warmer.”
My IR did look brighter. “Max, has the beetle found an exit?”
“Not yet.”
We kept going—until the passage ended at a vertical chute. It was so narrow we could climb it by squeezing our way up, pressed against the sides. After about two meters, I hit the top, literally, with my head. A rocky ceiling blocked the way. I braced myself in the chute, my knees and legs pushing against its walls so I could use my arms. When I shoved at the surface above my head, nothing moved. The green beetle buzzed around my hands, also looking for a way out.
“What’s wrong?” Jak asked below me.
“We’re stuck.” I banged on the ceiling with my fist. “This has a lid.”
“Hard to breathe.” His voice sounded more distant, as if he had climbed back down to the passage. “You’re knocking dust on me.”
“Sorry.” Grit saturated the air, making my breath rasp. It felt sandy. The dust in the Undercity and the sand above in the desert were essentially the same, both silicates with traces of aromatic benzene compounds, but the sand felt rougher.
The Vanished Seas (Major Bhaajan series Book 3) Page 26