“Negative Gil, I am not aware of…”
“Say Val, where are the staff? I was told there was supposed to be some pretty nurses taking readings to make sure I was ok. Tell them to get me…”
“Since I and the main computer were brought on line most all staff was sent on to other bases Gil, or at least that is what Dr. Rand told me. Only a minimalist skeleton crew was kept here and…” for the first time Val was silent.
“Val something wrong?”
“I am sorry Gil, but I have only what information Dr. Rand told me from his control console in the control room or his personal office. The last he informed me of anything was when he had me awaken Joe, eleven years ago.”
“Why Joe he was an engineer, I was to be the pilot?” Gil’s half smile turned to horror “Christ! Did…you say…eleven years ago?”
“Affirmative, eleven years, six months, and twenty-one days ago. I can provide you with the hours, minutes, and seconds if you would like.”
Gil was stunned yet managed to slip off the horizontal and now fully uncovered stasis pod. There was a slight wobble as he stood and took a few test steps as his bare feet slapped on the floor. Somehow he made the wall of the narrow but long room and took one hand to run along the wall as he carefully stepped toward the door. The room was a sterile white and devoid of any other color, even the lighting seemed to be whiter than most light.
“My status Val?”
“You, just like Joe, were cleansed of all viruses and non-essential bacteria six months after entering stasis Gil. All shots have been given and abnormalities were addressed; you are one hundred percent healthy and ready to make your journey…but…”
“But?”
“I cannot extrapolate more as I was never informed of your mission. Dr. Rand said I only needed to watch over this complex’s stasis area and of course you and Joe. That was to be my primary and only mission.”
“I see.”
“No Gil, I am afraid that you do not see. That is why I had to awaken you.”
“So Zed is not a go?” Gil snorted “So why the hell was I awakened?”
Val paused as it was apparent to Gil she was encountering something that she…it, whatever, was not programmed for.
“There are…were anomalies Gil. The main computer is picking up anomalies.”
By this time Gil was getting extremely perturbed “Jesus Christ! What kind of anomalies?”
“If I knew Gil, then they would not be anomalies would they?”
Gil stopped just short of the door, craned his neck to see if he could spot some sort of monitoring camera for Val, but saw none.
“Did you just dis me Val?”
“I do not understand ‘dis’, Gil.”
“Never mind, what kind of instance would you call an anomaly? Oh! And while we’re at it, why the hell did you wake me from stasis and not just contact someone from the team…or Dr. Rand? Hell he’s smart enough to know what kind of anomaly you ran into.”
“Gil the complex is empty, you are the only human here.” she replied without emotion.
However to Gil the statement hit him like someone just smacked him with a bat. Gil stumbled and luckily found the tiny white bench that seemed to be suspended from the wall. He shook his head and muttered “Repeat that Val.”
“I said we are quite alone Gil, we meaning you and myself as a semi-sentient entity. As I mentioned earlier I know only what Dr. Rand told me when we chatted. Usually he told me of things not related to our project or science. I believe that he wanted me to learn how to converse better with those I had to talk with. I think that he attempted to install humor in me, but something happened and I only received a brief message that he and Joe and some of the others were called to the main complex in California. He told me he would be back, but it might be a while and to tell the small work crews that were staying if something should occur.”
“What about them? I’m assuming that they aren’t here if you said that we’re alone.”
“I am sorry Gil, but I have no knowledge of them. I did log supply shipments that came in every four months, or special orders of course, but nothing came shortly after Dr. Rand left. If I had to calculate, I would think that they would have left sometime after they received no further shipments of goods. The goods were logged by me as they were for any needed repairs I might have to do to the area here, or your chambers.”
“And they didn’t wake me?”
“They were work crews Gil, they had no knowledge of my controls, nor could they access them. I would have to calculate that they just left. Please hold…” after several minutes “There are some older data bases I removed from the vault. I have put all my filled hard drives there for storage…affirmative Gil. Five months after Dr. Rand and the others left, and one month after the supplies should have begun to run out; the main hatch was opened, closed, and locked. I also have a record of the elevator going to the surface…strange…I have no log of the elevator coming back down, or the main surface door ever being closed, or at least its electronic lock never engaged. But then again this was just what I heard from the main computer.” a pause “You might check with the main computer for more accurate data Gil.”
“No problem Val, they boogied and left us hanging.” Gil rose and took the last few steps to the door and opened it “Guess they left in a hurry and didn’t bother closing up behind them. Strange that they locked up down here, but not on the surface. What about security? Christ, I had to go through two gate check points at each of those twenty foot high chain link fences, again at the main door, the elevator, and again once I reached this level…where the hell is security? What about the security cameras? Hell, what about all the cameras they have all over the place?” Gil muttered frantically as he looked up and down the long hallway and saw cameras at each end pointing in all directions of the hall.
“I am not integrated into the complex systems other than the ability to read maintenance data. I cannot even communicate with the outside world, Dr. Rand never completed that part because of his fear of computer hacking. That is why I am a self-sustained system.”
Gil’s head was finally cleared of the fog “Ok, gotcha Val.” he stumbled across the hall into the locker room that he’d changed into his white sterile jumpsuit fifteen years before.
“Hey! My clothes are gone!”
“Affirmative Gil, I was told that you would be wearing the uniform that you have on now during Project Zed. As I have no complex access, I do not have any information on where your civilian clothes may be. I have no actual complex information other than basic blueprints, and if any changes were made, I have no…”
“Enough!” Gil sat on the long locker bench and tried to grasp everything that had been fed to him since awakening “Let’s just slow this all down Val…I have to know what is happening, is there any way you can help me with that?”
“Affirmative Gil, you may manually interface me in the main control room. I do have access to the records of both yourself and Joes’ and I see that you are an Air Force pilot, astronaut, and an avid skydiver…oh this is useful.”
“Useful?”
“I see that you fly and build hang gliders and other powered ultralight aircraft. This means that you have some working knowledge of…”
“Val, I built them from a kit.”
“Oh.”
“Oh?”
“As in I had hoped that you might be able to interface me to the complex computers and with some skill also perhaps to some outside sources.”
“Outside sources?”
“Radio, television, satellites, and like signal gathering devices to assist you in your mission with information. Wait!”
“What now Val?”
“You put together your ultralights from kits…perhaps you could follow my verbal instructions on how to interface my systems with the others, pretend it is one of your kits and I am walking you through the setup. I will try to make my instructions something that you can understand.”
“Wait! Val…did you jus
t dis me again?”
“I do not understand…dis.”
“Never mind Val, I’ll tell you later. Tell me how to get to command, I never was allowed in there. While I walk, you talk.”
“Sure Gil, what would you like for me to tell you?”
After a bit of a pause Gil smiled and nodded at one of the cameras in the hall, can you talk to me in the stairwell to level one where the main control room is?”
“Affirmative Gil, what information do you require?”
“What…what’s this anomaly you woke me up for?”
“There were several anomalies Gil.”
“Ok tell me about the first one.”
“One week and three days ago there was a power fluctuation that caused the secondary generators to start up. This would mean that all solar and wind power is down or something caused a temporary break in our main power source. As you know this complex is self-sustaining. Yesterday, it went down completely and we are on the small nuclear power plant six stories below us. The secondary generators kept us with power long enough for the rods to be lowered and the power plant to begin operation. Gil…the main power never came back on and there is no one here to check it out.”
“Gotcha…and the other?”
“That I am not sure about Gil. Two weeks ago sensors detected vibrations in the elevator, I thought it might be supplies or a new crew had arrived, but it never triggered the switches on the entrance and cargo level. A few days later more and stronger vibrations and last week I detected the complex computer started spewing damage reports from the elevator and then it stopped.”
“Earthquake?” he shrugged “Never mind Val, we’re in a converted underground missile complex left over from the cold war. I was told that it never has had a serious earthquake here…tornado maybe?”
“I would doubt that Gil, the system computer did not show any damage to other related systems. I fear an intrusion.”
“Ok so your anomaly was an intruder, hell Val we’re behind two feet of solid of steel that can’t be opened from the outside and wrapped in five feet of steel reinforced concrete, no human is going to break in here.”
“That would be the other anomaly Gil.”
“How so Val?”
“The readings the complex computer detected did not seem to be human.”
“So some freakin’ animal got in.”
“I am sorry Gil, but the readings the computer gave me, did not match any in my data base. And before you ask Major, my data base covers every known living creature on this planet. The main computer could have faulty sensors, but as the information passed between us is audible data, I had no way of verifying…”
Gil stopped on the stairs as he looked at the camera before him just outside of the main command’s access.
“I don’t understand…you must have an error in your data base, or the complex’s computer is in error, sensors or something.”
“There was no error Gil…Major…”
“Why all of a sudden you are calling me major? What happened to Gil? Is something wrong?”
“Affirmative Major, the anomalies are back…there seems to be two of them and rechecking the data, the life forms do not appear in my data base…I am now in military mode Major Wells…it would appear that we are being probed by a species not of this earth.”
Chapter 3.
Gil pulled the handle of the door and it didn’t budge.
“Val, did you say you were in military mode?”
“Affirmative Major.”
“Command override Alpha 3-5-4 Zed.”
“Countersign?”
“Project Zed override all codes, orange, five-niner, alpha. Confirm command.”
“Command confirmed Major Wells, all access accepted.” The door to the command room clicked and Gil entered.
It was just as his friend Joe had told him and the good Dr. Rand described as his mind raced back to the day he was given his quick briefing on command override protocols and read his emergency manual. His mind wandered back to a time that seemed like a few hours, but in reality had been fifteen years.
**********************
“Well gentlemen,” Dr. Rand looked at the two men sitting before him “You two have had your briefings, introductions, and had a dime tour of our fair complex.” the balding gray haired man before them had more degrees than they had ever heard of and he was treating them like royalty. Rand paced as he slowly spoke “You both know why you’re here and we will prep you for your journey to Zed. Your bodies must be as free from disease as possible…” he grinned “after all we wouldn’t wat to contaminate our new planet now would we?”
Joe was a few years younger than Gil and it was he that tended to joke around a bit too much. “So if we’re all going to move there eventually, what’s the big deal about germs and crap professor?”
“Guys,” Dr. Rand sat across from them and politely smiled “look, I know you two basically volunteered without knowing exactly what you were getting into…I understand it, and if I was younger and an astronaut, I would have done so myself. As now know, before you went into stasis, you were told that you would be going to another world and that to this point in time, had been kept hush-hush from just about everyone.” he leaned back in his chair and took a long, slow breath.
“It was about three years ago, and I’m not at liberty to say who, and it wasn’t totally me, but we discovered wormhole technology. Using the space station the U.S., Russia, and two other countries have secretly set up a wormhole generator in space. It took over two years to generate enough power to form a wormhole, or portal if you will. We sent a probe through that was two feet in diameter and twenty feet long.” he leaned forward and shook his head slowly “Sadly the portal sucks up power like a sponge does water and we could only keep it open a few minutes…” he smiled at the two “Gentlemen we found the solar system of Gamma. The probe detected that the third planet from the star Gamma, which we named Zed, appeared to be Earth-like. We had opened the wormhole almost in its atmosphere…” he grinned “talk about good fortune…” and then he frowned “then the portal collapsed. Last year the second portal was opened and this scientist and his team had calculated how to open the portal just inside of Zed’s upper atmosphere so we could fire a football sized probe down to Zed. We found that it is so similar to Earth, it was uncanny. Of course the nations involved decided we had to colonize this planet. We picked up no kinds of radio or electronic traffic…but to be honest, the probe could have been malfunctioning.”
“Whoa, wait a minute Doc…” Joe nearly fell out of his chair “Don’t get me wrong, and I haven’t changed my mind, but are you all thinking that there could be some sort of life on this Zed? You know, like cavemen or…”
Dr. Rand broke into laughter “Cavemen? I doubt it Joseph, I doubt it, but the planet is ripe for life and thus the need for decontamination. Seriously if there is some kind of life, we need to protect it, but the main train of thought is whatever plant life may exist, we do not want to contaminate it and chance destroying it; like Earth it most likely is what provides breathable air. The probe did not detect any kind of communications during the short time we could keep the wormhole open…nor detect any cities, only lots of vegetation, again a best guess situation. Our probe was mainly designed to read atmospherics.”
“Yeah, killing the trees would be bad.” Joe chuckled.
“There might not be trees Joe, guessing it could be any number of things.” Gil added to the amazement of Dr. Rand as Gil had mostly been silent.
“Gil’s correct Joe, whatever makes the air, we do not want to infect it.” he smiled warmly and added “which brings me to why you two are here.”
Joe grinned back “Am guessing that it’s because we’re astronauts…doh!”
“Only partially Joseph. It was decided that our one shot would be in about another two years as that is the projected completion of a new and bigger power source. I’ve been told by command that it will open a portal fifty feet in diameter
and should stay open approximately twenty minutes. In that time we will have to have everything lined up and ready to pass through.”
“I assume that pass through means us?” Gil asked.
“Correct Gil, you two, and six other packages that will allow you to build a portal on your end. Once through, you Gil, will land the main ship and the others will auto land near where ever you decide to set down. At my briefing I was told by the team that Joe here will be able to assemble the mostly preassembled portal generator. Gil you will provide the security and be Joe’s extra pair of hands. While water was detected, we don’t know if it is potable, so water, seeds, food, experiments, and other survival gear will be sent along behind you. It all is programmed to glide down to Zed’s surface and land within a quarter mile of each other. A small treaded tractor is also going to make your jobs a bit easier. As I mentioned your biggest concern is to assemble the portal generator and you’ll have a year to do it as you two will be alone…and trust me gentlemen the timing will be close to get everything through before the portal closes. Now should you find some reason that you cannot live on that world, you can live in the ship that will take you down, work in your suits to build the portal and then return to Earth. ”
“Ok, so you’re gonna drop us on a distant planet…say, where is this thing at? I never heard of Gamma…” Gil shrugged and nodded he hadn’t either.
Dr. Rand sighed deeply “We do not know gentlemen. The team that developed the wormhole just intended to see if we could create a wormhole and feared the consequences if we tried to use it here on Earth. A probe was ready, but no one dreamed that we’d find anything the first time out. Then the second bit of bad news came, the portal sucked far more power than expected…and quicker as well. However we did determine that Zed is somewhere about a third of the way around the Milky Way from us far past the Orian belt stars.”
“I’m afraid to ask Doc, but what was the first bad news?” Gil did look concerned, but it was a fair question.
Well guys…uh…” Rand stuttered.
“There is no way back unless we manage to build this other portal, right?”
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