“Lieutenant, I think you’d better see this.” Will Mendenhall addressed Sarah by her rank for the benefit of the Chinese general. “Sergeant, show the lieutenant and the general what we’re standing on,” Will said.
Forty feet away, a French sergeant scraped away some of the lunar dust. When that didn’t seem to do the job fast enough, he went to his knees and clumsily started shoveling handfuls of dust into the light gravity. Metal tubing. As her eyes followed the shape under the lunar surface, she could now see what had caused the rise in the moonscape. There was something buried just under the surface.
“You men spread out and follow the line under the surface. Stand as far apart as necessary, until we can figure out the shape of this thing.”
As she spoke, the general ordered his men to follow the American lieutenant’s instructions. Sarah walked to the center of the circle of men and saw something at her boots. The general saw it at the same time and both bent over to dig. When three of her men came forward to assist, she ordered them back to their line.
“Hold position, Will,” she said over her radio, as she and the Chinese officer dug at a rapid pace.
“Be careful not to pierce your gloves, Lieutenant. I wouldn’t want to lose you now.”
“Yeah, we took the same classes,” she said. “Whatever this thing is, it’s sitting in an impact area.”
They uncovered a hard, silver-looking surface.
“My God,” she said as she stood up. “It’s round.”
The Chinese general staggered as he saw what Sarah was pointing out.
“Oh, shit,” Will Mendenhall said. “It’s a damned flying saucer, Lieutenant.”
The men were silent as they realized that they were standing on wreckage. The round shape made Will’s words understandable to everyone.
“There is something here also,” a voice said over the radio.
The men turned and saw one of the ESA men waving a short distance away. They covered the distance in a brisk hundred steps. Another object. This one was elongated, far larger than the round form in the dust. She could see the remains of massive steel-like rails that ran on for six hundred feet. Compartments of some kind? Was the wreckage of this behemoth lying on its side?
The general and several of his men started uncovering something else. When they were finished, they stepped back and became silent as Sarah approached. The Chinese general pointed at the mangled mess that was buried half in and half out of the lunar surface.
“From historic photos I remember seeing the very formidable ships of the world war. If I didn’t know any better, Lieutenant, I would say we are looking at a gun turret—a rather large one.”
Sarah looked up at the general and then her eyes saw the shape her lineup of men had created. Then she looked down at the bent and protruding barrel of a large bore weapon. She saw the cannon as it disappeared into a housing like a giant gun turret. Long and shaped like an elongated arrowhead.
“General, I think what we’re standing on is a warship.”
* * *
Sarah, the general, and the French colonel stood off to the side as the American and Chinese broke down the four American sleds and the six Chinese transports.
“The mineral is a main concern. It seems all our governments want this item more than anything. They seem to think that it’s here on the Moon in some abundance. I for one will not chance the safety of the men here for the sake of bringing back such a dangerous material. We will bring back only samples, along with an estimate of its availability. We’ll leave recovering larger quantities for another, better-equipped expedition. Are we agreed on this?”
General Kwan bent at the waist inside his bulky space suit, indicating his agreement with Sarah’s proposal, as did Captain Jarneux.
“I suggest that we break into two groups, one to uncover as much of this warship as possible for closer study, the other to continue into the crater to examine the remains of the base,” Kwan suggested.
“Agreed,” Sarah said, and then looked at the Frenchman.
“Captain,” Kwan continued. “may I suggest that you and half of the men remain here and excavate as much of this vessel as you can, while the lieutenant takes the other half and reconnoiters the crater?”
“Yes, I can do that, General.”
Sarah hit the COM switch on her wrist.
“Will, bring me four of our men and half the equipment. Make sure we have the magnetometers and Geiger counters. We don’t want to run into anything that will contaminate our ride home. Tell Sergeant Andrews he’s to be our scout and he will be accompanied by four of General Kwan’s men.” Sarah looked at Kwan, who nodded inside his helmet.
“Roger,” Mendenhall said as he chose the men and started making sure of their supplies.
“A wise precaution, Lieutenant,” Kwan said. He turned to his second in command and issued orders for five of his men to get ready to enter Shackleton.
Then, the Moon moved.
Sarah saw the dust underneath her shadow jump and then settle back.
“I don’t believe we were briefed on the possibility of moonquakes,” Jarneux said. He looked around nervously.
“There can’t be a moonquake, because there’s no seismic activity on the Moon in any form,” Sarah said, as she looked to the others for a possible explanation.
“You don’t think there could be a power source still active on whatever it is we have uncovered here, do you?” Jarneux asked.
“All I can say is that I doubt very much this thing is active. It’s hard to tell its age because there looks to be no deterioration of the metal properties due to the lack of an atmosphere. And since this is no earthly design, unless the colonel here has been hiding a Chinese leap in technology we didn’t see coming, I would say it’s old. I doubt anything on it could possibly be working.”
“I hope you are right, Lieutenant,” the French captain said, and went to begin directing the efforts of his men.
Unlike Jack in Ecuador, Sarah didn’t connect the use of her electronic communications equipment to the strange vibration. She never even felt the first effects when she tried to contact Jason in Altair.
“Will, General Kwan, we should be off,” Sarah checked her chronometer. “I would like to send two men back to the Altair soon to make contact with Ryan and find out who could be jamming us.”
“I wish to send someone back also, Lieutenant, and since our two landers are on the same compass heading, may I suggest a joint effort? It would leave us shorthanded, but I would rather err on the side of caution in this instance,” General Kwan said, looking around the area.
Sarah again nodded her head. “Sergeant Tewlewiski,” Sarah said over her shortwave. “Join us, please.”
The general called over one of the men who was preparing for the short trek into Shackleton. The two men joined them and they were given instructions.
“I suspect we’re far beyond secrets here,” Sarah said as she looked the two men over, “and since Altair is closer, you should replenish your air there before moving on to Magnificent Dragon. Regardless, continue to try to raise Ryan as you go. Maybe this jamming will let up.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the sergeant said as he half bowed to his Chinese travel companion and gestured that they should start out.
“Shall we go, General?” Sarah said.
The Chinese general looked around the airless void, then turned to McIntire. “Yes, Lieutenant, because in all honesty, I would wish to conclude our business here as quickly as possible.”
* * *
Sergeant Tewlewiski tried to make small talk, but with the two communications systems sounding scratchy at best and the two soldiers unable to speak the same language, he had given up any attempts at conversation as they trudged through the lunar dust toward Altair. He knew that the Chinese soldier was a sergeant too and that his name was Chao. He didn’t understand the man’s first name so Tewlewiski just called him Chao; for everything else he used hand gestures. He would point to his wrist when it w
as time for Chao to attempt contact with Magnificent Dragon. The signal transmission was still being jammed, but by what they didn’t know. All of their attempts to raise Altair or the Chinese LEM were being made while they were on the move. Like Sarah, the two soldiers never felt the vibrations coming through the lunar dust. After attempting contact, they would simply bound away, actually enjoying the walk toward Altair in the light lunar gravity.
Finally Tewlewiski saw the Altair, only sixty-five feet away. He saw no movement at the large triangular windows on the upper deck, so he assumed Ryan was either on the crew deck or going through his preflight checklist as ordered by the lieutenant. He pointed his gloved hand almost proudly at the LEM. Chao nodded in the exaggerated way necessary in the bulky environment suits. The sergeant raised his left wrist and pushed the blue button just above the wrist.
“Altair, this is ground team, do you copy, over,” he called through the embedded microphone in his helmet. He didn’t want to surprise Ryan without making a last attempt to contact him. “Come on, Ryan, you got your ears on?” Tewlewiski said, breaking proper radio protocol.
Sergeant Chao grabbed Tewlewiski’s wrist and held it still. He raised his right boot from the dust and nodded his head downward.
Tewlewiski didn’t understand at first, then he felt it. There was a vibration emanating from the lunar dust. He tilted his head and wondered what it could be. As he went slowly to his knees he felt the same vibration through his gloves, only stronger since the gloves weren’t as thick as their boots.
“What the hell is that?” he asked through the COM system.
“This is Altair. Is that any way to talk on the radio, you Army puke? You want the FCC to fine us?”
Tewlewiski gave out a yelp as Ryan’s signal blasted through loud and clear. Even Sergeant Chao jumped when he heard the call. Tewlewiski rose to his feet with heart racing. Both men started to laugh.
“Damn, Ryan, we’ve been trying to raise you for the past two hours, over.”
“Well, that’s funny. I’ve been trying the same thing with you guys. I was about ready to suit up and come out there looking for you. I do have some more bad news. The Russian command module went off the air. It seems they may have COM problems too. Or maybe they lost the whole shebang, I don’t know. I could hear them one minute and nothing the next. We can still receive from time to time, depending on the orbits of COM satellites, but we can’t broadcast. So it looks like the Russians are out of the ball game altogether.” There was a pause as Jason climbed onto the command deck. “Hey, I see you brought a friend with you.”
Tewlewiski looked over at Chao, who was not looking at him in return. He was staring down at the surface of the Moon and not moving. Then the American understood why, the vibration had increased to the point it felt as if a bus were passing by just underneath the surface.
“Hey Ryan, do you feel anything?”
“Yes, dear, I feel lonely out here all by myself.”
“Nut, that’s not what I mean. There’s a vibration that keeps—”
Suddenly the ground between the two men erupted skyward, sending Sergeant Chao flying through the airless space to land twenty feet away. As the ground sprayed upward in the thirty-yard arc, a massive shape seemed to rise above Tewlewiski.
“Jesus, what the hell was that?” Ryan called out, as he gripped the triple window pane on the command deck of Altair. Then he became silent as he saw for the first time just what was standing over Tewlewiski. “Oh, shit, get the hell out of there!” Ryan called out.
The American finally raised his helmeted head and saw what was looking down at him. The machine stood just shy of twenty feet tall. He could see the stainless steel gears spinning and grinding inside its humanoid frame. The torso was thick and covered in armor plate. The arms looked as though they were made from six different lengths of thick hardened steel, culminating in a hand with three sharpened fingers. The head was rounded and there was no mouth, only two giant red eyes that rotated left and right as they took in Tewlewiski. As the sergeant watched in shock, he saw two more arms exit the armored torso. The thick left leg lifted and took a step toward the sergeant.
“Oh, shit, Ryan, tell me you’re seeing this?”
“Tewlewiski, just get the hell out of there!” Ryan called out.
The giant mechanical monstrosity tilted its rounded head and swiveled to the right. The neck elongated and spiraled outward toward the spot where Sergeant Chao had landed. He was attempting to rise to his feet when he saw what was confronting him. Chao hesitated as he gained his knees. As if in a slow-motion dream he tried to remove the weapon from his back, but the strap caught on his oxygen container. The beast’s eyes rotated; it was following what Chao was doing. Its neck retracted into its body. The mechanical monstrosity took two steps backward and halted. Tewlewiski froze, but the Chinese sergeant didn’t. He finally maneuvered the kinetic weapon from his back and without aiming he fired it three times, launching the faster-than-sound bolts of tungsten steel toward the beast. The first two rounds slammed into the steel plate of the torso; the third hit a shoulder blade that was nothing more than hardened plate. The machine rose and waggled as if it were a man who had accidentally hit himself on the thumb with a hammer. A solar panel rose from the area under the plate and then vanished again almost as quickly. The beast turned its eyes toward Chao. It moved faster than either man could believe. It reached Chao in three giant steps and picked him up. While holding the sergeant in one hand, the beast swiped at Tewlewiski with the other. He managed to duck, but the Army sergeant knew he’d be dead in a moment anyway as he felt the sharpened steel fingertips penetrate his suit at the waist. He cursed just as several kinetic energy rounds struck the metal giant in the back.
Chao was firing a continuous stream of tungsten rounds at the mechanical beast and he could see the giant flinch as the half pound missiles struck its back. It was as if the rounds were causing it pain.
“The solar panels on its back, can you hit them?” Ryan called as he scrambled inside the command deck on Altair.
The Chinese sergeant took aim and fired again. The beast turned its full attention on the struggling Tewlewiski. Chao heard the desperate sounds coming from the American’s COM system and knew the sergeant was being squeezed to death. Chao kept up the steady stream of rounds, trying to aim for the spot where the double blades of steel covered the solar panels that Ryan must believe was its power source. Except for the loud pinging coming through the Chinese radio system, the small battle was as silent as the grave.
Finally it was if the beast had had enough of the game. It turned partially toward Chao and smashed the American astronaut with its free hand. The two steel claws slammed into the helmet and smashed it flat.
“No!” Chao shouted, as he advanced. The robotic killer turned toward him. It charged, but the sergeant held his ground. The beast jumped. Chao kept up the fire even as the beast came down on him, pounding his crushed body into the soft soil.
Ryan stared through the triangular window with the environmental suit only up to his waist.
The mechanical assassin straightened, its steel foot still firmly planted on the body of Chinese soldier. Its head rotated left and then right, and then went completely around in a circle. It seemed to look straight at Ryan, but paid him no attention. Then the robot simply fell over into the dust, curling into a large ball. It started to roll like tumbleweed in the direction of Shackleton Crater.
GALLERY NUMBER TWO, MÜELLER AND SANTIAGO MINING CONCERN, 100 MILES EAST OF QUITO
Alice Hamilton watched Garrison Lee as he mumbled in his drug-induced sleep. She had been against his traveling, but she knew that arguing with him would have been as useless as shouting at a brick wall.
She was sitting on a small camp chair in the darkened tent next to his cot. She reached out and took his hand and squeezed it. He stopped mumbling and settled down. She heard him call out her name softly and then his face relaxed. She reached up with her free hand and wiped a tear away
that had slid down her cheek. Alice had never been one to cry, even when sorrow was bursting to break free of her soul.
She took a deep breath and reached over to retrieve his old brown fedora. She looked it over and sighed. She always wondered why he insisted on wearing that particular one. She was getting ready to place it back at the foot of the cot when she heard men outside of the tent. She looked at Lee for the briefest moment to make sure he had indeed settled into a deeper sleep, and then she eased her hand out of his. She stood and made her way to the tent flap.
Outside, underneath the hanging lights of the first gallery, Alice saw four men talking to three of Jack’s people that he had left behind after the main force had advanced. She overheard part of the conversation and stepped out of the tent.
“Excuse me, did you say that Colonel Collins has sent you to bring in more men?”
One of the soldiers, a Special Forces sergeant, saw Alice and nodded his head.
“Uh, yes, ma’am. He wants a backup force brought into gallery number two.”
“Has the colonel found something?” she asked, hoping for any information that would take her mind off Garrison.
“So far, ma’am, all I’ve seen are skeletons—Nazi skeletons, close to a thousand or so. If you’ll excuse me, ma’am, we’d better get—”
That was as far as the sergeant got before the bullets cut him down. The six men with him didn’t even have time to bring their weapons up before fifty silenced bullets struck them down as well. Alice barely escaped being hit as one of the bullets slammed into the tent pole where she had placed her hand. As she ran to the closest of the fallen men, a hand reached out and took her by the arm.
“I’m sure he is far beyond the need for your attention, madam.”
Alice looked up into the dark eyes of the Mechanic.
She had seen the dossier on him that the FBI had sent Jack. She easily recognized the eyes. The beard was gone and the hair was longer than he wore during his insurgent days in Iraq, but it was the Mechanic.
Legacy: An Event Group Thriller Page 51