by Alex Kings
Feeling almost as though he were about to settle under a rockslide, Hanson sat in one of the chairs opposite her.
“We're generally not suspicious of the Alliance Navy,” Orlov began. “Which is why we hadn't looked closely until a few minutes ago.” She fixed him with her gaze. “Your ship is heavily damaged.”
“I am aware of that,” said Hanson.
A trace of Orlov's former smile came back, but only for a moment. “What I find myself wondering is: Why would the Alliance send such a damaged ship to investigate a planet like this? For that matter, why aren't you getting you ship repaired this moment? That is the standard procedure if you're still jump-capable and on a non-essential mission, isn't it?”
“You're right,” said Hanson. “On all counts.” He sighed. “But I would count this mission as pretty damn essential.”
“So, not just a quick look around? Not just following up on a piece of evidence you happened to find?”
“No,” said Hanson.
“The IL lab,” said Orlov. It was a statement, not a question.
Hanson nodded.
“Are you planning to find a way in there?”
“Yes.”
Orlov sat back in her chair and sighed. She scratched at the arm of her chair. “We're not a central planet, Captain,” she said. “But we still have sovereignty. I hope you're not trying to subvert that.”
“I'm worried about IL and what they're hiding here,” said Hanson. “I don't want to harm Iona, the colony itself. All I can say is that the mission I'm on is essential, in the strongest sense of the word. Thousands of lives could be riding on it.”
“But the IL lab is on Iona territory,” said Orlov. “And they've done a lot for Iona. In many ways they're an integral part of the colony.” She sighed. “What would you do if I said you were forbidden to investigate it? At least until you came with the right papers from the Solar Alliance.”
“I suppose I'd just have to go on my way,” said Hanson
Orlov studied her tea in silence. Eventually she said, “Okay. If you can find a way into the lab, go ahead.”
“Thank you, Mayor,” said Hanson.
“Don't make me regret this.”
*
When Hanson returned to the shuttle, he could see Yilva and Agatha lounging outside, talking. He waved as he approached, and asked Yilva, “Any luck?”
“Got some keycard details,” said Yilva. An extended tablet, held in her tail, moved calmly back and forth. “No access to the lidar yet.”
“How'd the second meeting go?” asked Agatha. “Are we screwed or not?”
“Not yet,” said Hanson.
Srak was stretched near the rear of the shuttle, tail curled up against one of the weapons compartments. He looked like he might be asleep at first, but one eye opened in a bored fashion when Hanson entered.
Moore and Saito sat by the front. Moore polished the coils of a rifle. “We got the orbital scan of the lab from the Dauntless, sir” she said “Any news?”
“Not really. We're good to go. Orlov just wanted a promise not to mess up the planet,” said Hanson, resting his hand against the shuttle's wall.
Srak laughed briefly, with enough bass that Hanson could feel the shuttle's hull vibrate under his fingertips.
Hanson moved to the back of the shuttle and sat on one of the benches near Srak. “How about you?” he asked. “Is your mind on the mission?”
Srak opened his eyes and looked up at Hanson. “I should say so,” he said. “Why?”
“It's clear you're still not happy about what happened on the Afanc,” said Hanson. “If you're distracted, I can't count on you.”
“The Afanc,” said Srak. “I thought about it. You're right, it was necessary. It was the only way out of there. That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.” He growled slightly, stretched out. “But I can concentrate on the mission. I saw the same things you did, Hanson. The clones, the weapon, the organisation. These people – Project Renaissance, IL, or whatever – are dangerous. I understand that. I'll do what it takes to stop them.”
Hanson could hear the sincerity in Srak's tone. He nodded. “Good,” he said. “Thank you.”
“But I still expect to be paid at the end of this,” said Srak. He grinned, showing the edges of inch-long teeth.
“I never doubted it,” said Hanson.
Srak settled down again.
Hanson went back to the front of the shuttle and said to Moore, “Let's see the scan, then.” he told her.
She brought out a tablet and handed it to him. “It's inside the dead region between the local ecosystem and the Earth plants,” she explained.
Hanson studied the scan. The lab itself was clearly visible – a rectangular structure. Most of it was below ground, to some depth the Dauntless couldn't tell. Near what looked like the front wall, there were a few ancillary structures, and the outlines of a crane by a hovercraft port.
Then, to the side, there was something else. A plate of metal three hundred metres long and close to a hundred metres wide.
The scans showed a hint of what might be on the other side.
“They've got a ship down there,” he said.
“That's my best guess,” said Moore.
A ship – and it was bigger than the Dauntless.
“The bay doors covering it,” said Hanson. “How high off the ground are they?”
“About two metres.”
“If anyone cares to look at the landscape, they'll be in the building. If we approach from that direction and keep close to the ground, no-one will see the shuttle.” He frowned and studied the map again. “What about access points?”
“Apart from the front door? There's what looks like an access hatch here, by the bay doors. I presume it leads into the hangar where the ship is waiting.”
“There's our access point, then,” said Hanson. “We can hide the shuttle alongside the bay doors and walk around.”
“And when we're in?”
“Keep our heads low. Gather as much evidence as we can. Cripple their operation if we get an opportunity.”
At that point Yilva bounded into the shuttle. Her tail was wrapped around her tablet, and she was grinning broadly. “We're in,” she said. “We can go as soon as you're ready.”
Chapter 39: Meeting Ecosystems
Dead grey soil skated past less than six inches below the shuttle. To their left, a little over fifty metres away, behind a nano-chemical barrier, the soft green grasses of Iona rippled on the breeze. They were in the dead region – the ten-kilometre wide barrier between two incompatible ecosystems. On one side, the poisonous and mildly acidic ecology of Iona; on the other, mediterranean plant and animal life brought from Earth. Nothing, not even bacteria, grew in this soil.
Hanson, now in full armour, sitting on one of the benches inside, looked ahead. Up ahead, he could just made out the facility in the distance – a metallic line on the horizon. That would be the bay doors to whatever ship was hiding inside.
It grew quickly. In less than a minute, he could just about make out the details. By all appearances, Yilva's lidar trick seemed to be working. By now the facility should have seen them and contacted them, or sent something to intercept them. But they'd come within a kilometre without being noticed.
Hanson readied himself as the facility approached. Now he could see it properly – the edge of the bay doors, the flat roof of the main structure behind. The rear of a hovercraft with its skirt deflated was visible behind the bay doors. It was the same one he'd seen being loaded with stasis pods at the port.
Moore slowed the shuttle and brought it down right next to the metal wall that formed the edge of the bay doors. The soil gave a dry crunch as the shuttle settled on it. Moore scanned once more to make sure nothing else was in the vicinity, then opened the shuttle's doors.
“All right,” said Hanson, “Let's move.”
Heading left, they edged out along the wall, turned one corner, walked a hundred metres and came to the next
corner. Round here was the facility itself – and the access hatch. Moore, who was in front, glanced round the second corner, then summoned the team forward.
The rest of the facility came into view – a squat, long box on the dust-grey ground, one story high. Its plain metal walls were painted scuffed white and interrupted by the occasional square window. The parked hovercraft was half visible beside an idle crane. They were in clear view of the windows, but that couldn't be helped. All they could do was keep low and hope they were lucky. Nothing seemed to move.
Up ahead was the access hatch. It jutted out from the wall that made up the bay doors. A lone door leaned down at a 45-degree angle. It probably opened directly onto a ladder inside the hangar.
Moore led the forward towards the hatch. Once there, Hanson and the others kept watch while Yilva took her a tablet, extended to a little way, and held it above the panel next to the access hatch.
After a few seconds, she tapped at it, moved it away, then back again.
“It's not working,” she said.
Hanson looked round at her. “Why not?”
“It's the highest level of security. The access pass I skimmed doesn't have a high enough security level to access it.”
Hanson pulled them back to the wall of the facility itself, where they wouldn't be visible to anyone looking out the windows. “I guess that only leaves one way in, then.”
“The front door,” said Moore. “Are you sure we can get in that way?” she asked Yilva.
“Yeah,” said Yilva. “The person whose access pass we have … that's how they got into the building.”
“Front door it is, then” said Hanson. “Let's go.”
“Oh, wait. Hold on!,” said Yilva, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a small transparent square made of some thin transparent film, and pressed it briefly against the access panel. When she'd peeled it away, she put it back in her pocket, and explained, “Nanofilm. If anyone uses this hatch, we'll get their details too, transmitted straight to my tablet.”
With that done, they moved closer to the main building, edging along a side wall until they reached the corner. The dead ground crunched softly under their boots.
Moore, again in the lead, looked round the corner. “There's no one there,” she reported. “Just a set of doors.”
“All automated?”
“I think so.”
“That would make it easier. Let's go.”
Moore glanced round the corner again, stepped out, then jumped back. “Wait!” she hissed.
Hanson heard the whisper of doors opening, followed a few seconds later by voices. The workers in the building were talking –
“Orders from on high or something. I don't know,” said one.
“But why? If they're going to pull out, why keep up production? We're not even at full capacity yet.”
“Secrecy?”
“Maybe something spooked them.”
Hanson pulled his team back a little way to reduce the risk of being spotted. The voices faded with distance, and were followed by the clanging of boots up a series of steps to the hovercraft. Hanson waited. The hovercraft cockpit afforded a clear view of the main doors. A few seconds later there came the soft roar and electric hum of the engine. That too began to fade with distance. Hanson checked to see the hovercraft heading back to Iona city.
Moore looked round the corner again, and this time summoned them forward. The place was clear.
The front of the facility presented a bare, bleak metal face. To the right of the main doors was a large IL logo, scuffed by dead soil blown across the surface. To the left were a pair of blank windows. Yilva went up to the panel by the doors and again held out her tablet, slightly extended.
The doors slid open.
Hanson, considering the possibility of resistance, held his pistol ready, but the other side was clear. The door opened onto a corridor with a black rubber floor and shiny white walls lit by fluorescent lights set into the ceiling.
Hanson summoned his team in, and the doors closed behind them.
Chapter 40: The Facility
For a while, Hanson stood and just listened. The fluorescent lamps hummed faintly. Some way in the distance below him, he heard the faint growl and whirr of heavy machinery some distance below them and muffled by the floors.
Ahead, the corridor seemed to stretch the length of the building, with junctions to other corridors at two places down the length. He had no map of the insides, no guide on where to head next.
Any door could have someone behind it, could lead to them being discovered. It could also have the secrets they were looking for.
“It's like there's no-one here,” murmured Agatha.
“Makes sense as a strategy,” said Hanson, walking forward. The floor gave a muffled squeak. “Fewer people who are in on a secret, the easier it is to keep. So you automate as much as possible and only use people where you have to.”
He read the descriptions by the doors, looking for anything that might hint to evidence. Most seemed like administration. Then, at last, he came to something marked holding bay. He listened carefully, heard nothing on the other side, then silently summoned Yilva over.
She held her tablet up to the door's panel, and it opened.
The door let straight onto a set of stairs. Inside was a large bay, a good eight metres deep. Its ceiling was flush with the ceiling of the corridor, but its floor was some five metres below. In the middle, against a solid floor, were the two blocks of stasis pods that had been loaded into the hovercraft. They'd come in thorough a now-closed portal set into the roof. It didn't look like anybody had touched them.
He stepped a down a few stairs and examined the bay. There was another door on the floor proper, leading out onto the second floor down.
From the corridor outside, he heard the whisper of a door open. Immediately, he summoned his team through into the bay. The clang of their boots against the staircase seemed far too loud – whoever was outside had surely heard them. Once the team was through, Yilva closed the door. The staircase creaked under Srak's weight, but held firm.
They waited, Hanson holding his pistol just in case, as muffled footsteps came close to the door outside – and passed.
Hanson counted out a few seconds to make sure they were truly alone, then sighed and started down the staircase. It still clanged as he descended. The sort of sound people would become used to and eventually ignore in a place like this.
At the bottom of the bay, they headed round the blocks of newly-delivered stasis pods, and out the door into a deeper level of the facility.
The corridor here also had a rubber floor and white walls, but it was larger – three times as broad and at least a metre higher. And this time the walls were lined at regular intervals with circular sockets near to the floor, with pairs of open clamps like insect mandibles set higher up.
To the right, the corridor was a dead end. Hanson led them to the left, and round a corner.
“Shit,” said Agatha.
The corridor was lined with stasis pods, two rows deep on each side. Each pair of clamps held two pods, one close to the wall and one in front of it. But the part of the corridor closest to them was empty, like the one they'd just come from.
Agatha ran forward to the nearest pod and, standing on the tips of her toes, peered through the window.
“Hello, beautiful,” she said.
Hanson checked the pod on the other side. Watery, lidless eyes stared back sightlessly.
Behind them came the faint whirr of an electric motor. Something squeaked loudly across the rubber floor.
“This way,” whispered Hanson, gesturing them forwards into the full part of the corridor and round another corner. It seemed like there were no rooms on this level – it was just used for storage.
Squatting with his back against a row of stasis pods, Hanson peered round the corner, back they way they'd come. Agatha leaned in over him so she could see too, and, when he gave her a look, shrugged silently.
The vehicle came into view – standard industrial machinery, painted will yellow and black bars and marked with the logo of one of IL's subsidiaries. Its little black wheels squeaked against the floor. Its driver, sat in a narrow cabin on the middle, drove up to the nearest full section of the corridor.
Clamps extended from both sides of the vehicle, grasped the stasis pods on either side. The clamps in the wall opened with a faint clunk, and the vehicle, now holding a full load of pods along its flanks, reversed along the corridor and turned out of sight.
“Come on,” said Hanson. He jogged down the newly-empty section of corridor and, at the corner the loader had turned down, looked out cautiously. He was just in time to see the loader come to a stop inside a lift, and the doors slide shut behind it.
He remembered what the two worker leaving the facility had said: If they're going to pull out, why keep up production?
“They're loading the ship,” he said. “That's it … they're going to take it all and leave.” He looked over to Yilva. “Are you recording all this?”
“Yuhuh.”
“It could enough to break the conspiracy, but …”
Srak's broad tail thumped against the wall. “They ain't running off with the blanks for the fun of is.”
“Yeah,” said Agatha. “An army of these guys could do a shitload of damage anyway, whatever their plan it.”
Hanson looked at them both. “You're right. So we need to stop that ship.”
“Agreed.”
Hanson turned back to the lift. He didn't want to use that unless he had to – it was too likely to get noticed by the loader's driver. “Check the rest of the level for lifts or stairways,” he said.
It didn't take long. The floor was, as he'd thought, just corridors filled with – or emptied of – stasis pods. On the far side of the floor, Moore and Saito found another lift and called everyone over. Yilva opened the doors, and they stepped inside.
Inside the large, white lift, there was another panel which laid out the various levels. At the top, the ground floor. Below that was the floor they were on now, labelled “Storage.” The next two levels below that were labelled storage, too. Then, below that “Growth,” and below that, at the bottom, “Hangar Access.”