by Tobias Roote
RIGA closed her eyes, opening the synapses between her bio-electronic brain and the Quantum Distributed Entanglement buried in the centre of her neocortex. The world around her disintegrated, as she plunged into the timeless depths of infinite data. It took only the space of a few seconds to analyse the wiring. As her mental processes returned to normal the red light, indicating abnormal energy drain winked out and she opened her eyes.
Standing back from the craft, RIGA understood that the flitter had somehow been rewired to release the full energy from its drives directly into the fuel, batteries and ammunition store. It would activate as soon as she disarmed the flitters canopy locking mechanism. The explosive reaction would have completely obliterated her, as well as the flitter, leaving nothing to identify.
Now, there was a new problem. She could not fly the vehicle out of here, but could not leave it here either. If the authorities discovered the armaments built into her car they would withdraw her residency as Fellie Jinks and prosecute her under their laws. That could not be permitted to happen, there were too many ties to the ESSG that might be uncovered. Yet, she couldn’t think of a way to remove the danger it posed either.
‘Ship, can you hear me?’ RIGA asked across her private comms channel.
‘Yes, RIGA, what’s the problem down there? I monitored an explosion, but when I checked my sensors - you were fine. There was some chatter about an accident.’
‘It was a bomb, Gossie. It took Councillor Tempus in his flitter right after my meeting with him. My flitter is also sabotaged. I’m sending you the rewired circuit diagram I discovered. Check all of the other flitters in the hangar and lock down your own access points against foreign intrusion. We have a security issue. Relay the full datafile directly to ESSG.’
‘You want me to intense scan the area? I can send down some drones if it will help?’
‘No, I think it will attract too much attention right at this moment and I still need to find Kalla.’ RIGA said, then had a thought.
‘Ship, what’s the range of that jump drive you have there? Could it pick up this flitter and jump it away from here, possibly to the hangar, or better still into outer space?’ she asked.
‘I’m checking now, if I can, you should see it disappear right... now!’
The flitter RIGA was looking at, vanished. The only sign it was ever there were the three footprints where its undercarriage points had sat at rest.
‘Well done, Gossie. Make that flitter vanish permanently,’ RIGA said.
She remained still as her eyes zoomed in on the tracks around where the flitter had stood. Other than hers, there were none to be seen. How had it been sabotaged? When, and where? It was too sophisticated to have been done in the short time she had been in the park. Was it already set before she collected it from the hangar? How had it then been rigged not to go off then?
RIGA was about to leave the scene when she noticed a thin layer of grey dust that seemed to coat the ground where the flitter had stood. She remembered seeing the same dust inside the flitter’s inspection hatch.
Glancing around to ensure she was still alone, RIGA knelt down, then shifted the focus of her eyes into zoom mode. Without touching the dust, she examined it microscopically.
The evidence became clear as her vision expanded the view of the grey substance. It wasn’t dust at all; it was millions of inert nanites, dead and fused. They had somehow been physically inserted into the flitter to do a job, then, when finished, had self destructed to destroy any chance of identification, or reverse engineering. She hadn’t seen anything this good before.
RIGA realised she was dealing with very advanced technology. The Empirum had nanites, of course, but nothing like the ones on the ground which were highly sophisticated. It was looking more like the Terran Empire, were involved. Who specifically could want her dead. She remembered Jennings talking about sophisticated nanites being a problem for the Terrans. Yes, there was definitely evidence of a major conspiracy here, one that seemed to have taken a turn for the worse by placing the Terrans and the Tochin into the same plot. Were they working together against the Empirum, after all?
She decided to take a sample. Pulling out one of the eggs kept in her abdomen, RIGA opened it up. There were a few empty capsules; she pulled one apart, filling it carefully with the inert nanites. She would see what ESSG made of them. Returning the egg to its hiding place, she stood, and having no further reason to stay in the park, walked out into the main thoroughfare, where she could lose herself amongst the mass of humanity that called Helis ‘home’.
She needed to think, but also needed to stay on the move. Returning to the ship wouldn’t help. Tempus had been eliminated because he was a threat to the Tochina, the Terrans, or both. There was a conspiracy here that was large enough that an Artis Prime Council member would be assassinated. As well as putting the constant attempts on her own life into a new context, this indicated that the conspiracy was further advanced than previously thought.
‘RIGA, when I sent the disarm code to your flitter - it exploded,’ Gossie advised.
‘The flitter had been modified by nanites, Gossie. They had redesigned the interior of the drive compartment and then dissolved into dust,’ RIGA responded, sending through images of the nanite husks she had imaged from the ground around the car.
‘Be careful down there, RIGA. It’s obvious there are some highly important events being covered up by the Tochin conspirators. They may well increase their efforts to remove you. Meanwhile, I will pass this information back to Bollida.’ Gossie signed off.
As RIGA walked through the human sector, she examined the information that Tempus had managed to download to her data store. She had no choice except to access it, as Tempus himself was now gone. She needed to know what it was he had discovered. It took her some time before she had checked it for hidden malicious code. When she was satisfied that it was clean, she accessed the files.
He had been busy. Besides holding a dossier on every member of the council, there were records going back several years covering meetings, conversations, surveillance and intercepts. Pelon and Fregal were the main ones. RIGA concentrated on them. Pelon was a much bigger influence in Artis Prime’s affairs than ESSG realised. In fact, the council didn’t seem to have much power at all, it was mostly controlled by Pelon.
RIGA felt herself dropping into QDE mode again. There was just too much information here that couldn’t, or wouldn’t correlate to what she already knew. She walked onward leaving her externally focused sensors alert to any hostile activity. She was learning to rely on the sixth sense she was developing. It wasn’t twitching at the moment.
The analysis took longer than expected. She was almost out of the human sector before returning to full external awareness, allowing her threat sensors to stand down. It was a lot clearer now. What it certainly wasn’t, was neither easy, nor safe. Especially now she pretty much knew the whole picture, at least as far as it related to Artis Prime.
There wasn’t much time, the enemy plans were closer to the conclusion than anyone previously thought. If they upped their timetable, their efforts would already be too late. RIGA needed to know what shipments were sent where and why, and what was their significance?
She needed to find Kalla. She was on the board of Councillors, so obviously had input into what was happening. The link to the DNA meant something that RIGA couldn’t yet place. It had to do with the Terrans and the Tochin as well as their own human population. It was obvious they were one and the same race. RIGA wasn’t a biologist, or a geneticist, she knew it would be a matter of value to historians as well. It would be for them to unravel the history of the ‘human race’ as the Terrans referred to themselves. It wasn’t her concern at the moment.
Kalla seemed of importance. Firstly, because she was aware of the DNA and had placed it on RIGA believing it was of relevance to her. So, was the virus parasite attached to the DNA supposed to have infected her. If so, what was all that about? Was Kalla also trying to kill her?
; Secondly, her involvement with the conspiracy on Artis Prime had to be on the side of the Empirum, otherwise why attempt to help at all - unless she was using her own comms beacon to pinpoint RIGA’s whereabouts for the conspirators, a possibility that hadn’t escaped RIGA’s mind from the outset.
Lastly, RIGA was concerned that since her brief communication that had ended in her ship being attacked, nobody had heard, or tracked Kalla’s AI signature anywhere on, or off, Artis Prime. In fact, all efforts to trace Kalla had failed and RIGA felt there were strong odds that she knew much more about the Terran/Tochina angle than anyone else, including Tempus, who from his records didn’t know much, as he had said, anecdotal notes taken by inexperienced investigators.
All this time RIGA had continued to walk, oblivious to the human traffic using the streets around her. Something shifted her perspective from outwards in her reflective mode back onto the street. A change in the temperature and ambience brought her to a stop at an old stairwell leading down to the lower levels. That precognition of hers at work again, RIGA considered speculatively.
She called Gossie.
‘Gossie, can you tell me anything about the levels below me?’ RIGA asked her. Something about them was prickling her senses and it had to do with the darkness her scanners could see in the area below. They were unable to pick up enough information.
‘Yes, and no. The materials used in the past depended greatly on shielding to protect inhabitants from solar radiation. As a result there are no recorded scans below level four, and sporadic scans on level three because materials from the lower levels were frequently re-used.’
RIGA accepted that, but still needed more. ‘OK, I understand. How deep are you able to scan and are there specific areas that you feel might hide something that might want ’not’ to be found?’ she asked.
‘Analysing,’ Gossie responded.
RIGA waited. Something told her the answer to some of her questions might lie beneath her feet. If you wanted to hide a conspiracy, especially one that involved high-tech smuggling operations, you would do so in an area where nobody would think to look. While Gossie’s analysis ran its course, RIGA checked her blasters and felt her collar, making sure her shield was switched to powered. She felt threatened.
‘RIGA, your uncanny instincts are spot on again. Below your feet is an area the size of a city block that is not showing up on the scans from level three downwards. It is suspect because it is a uniform area, everywhere else is sporadic with scan areas within the dark zones. It’s high on the probability scale that there is some form of disguised area down there and the entrance to that point is in front of you,’ Gossie updated her.
RIGA thought about that. Kalla was a successful AI, she would normally be in the high-rise apartments they were prone to enjoy. It was a prestigious place and essential to be seen up there. It would be difficult, but not impossible to be hidden and maintain your industrial presence. Kalla was definitely one of those low-profile AI’s that sometimes evolved; hiding in a place nobody would expect her to be seemed a likely scenario.
‘Gossie, catch the data bubble I’m sending you. Transmit it on a high priority to Bollida on an ‘eyes only’ basis. Update it with the scans you carried out. I’m going to proceed with my search for Kalla. Something tells me I will find answers below,’ RIGA signed off.
The QDE analysis she had compiled along with her personal thoughts on the output were included in the compressed file they termed a data bubble. It was encrypted and could only be read by the Director.
RIGA scanned her internal menu and reset her operational parameters to HOSTILE mode. She immediately felt her responses speed up, her muscles tightened, then relaxed gaining a degree of extra flexibility from the pre-tensioning.
18. Kalla’s Sanctuary
The entrance to the lower levels consisted of a metal staircase that seemingly extended into a black pit. Light didn’t penetrate that deep and with no illumination down there RIGA kept her senses on full alert, wondering, as she descended, why the staircase was even there? Nobody was using this access. The dust showed the lack of footfall, for how long, she conservatively judged - months?
Her leather boots clacked on each step. Rather than activating her scanners as she left ambient light behind her, the helm lights switched on automatically, illuminating the way. She would need every ounce of battery power available in her core before this investigation was completed and RIGA had experienced enough power exhaustion already.
If RIGA was right about the unknown area below, then she would be coming up against dedicated security before she got too far in. Not knowing what effect it would have, if any, she flipped up her Armillo hood and heeled her leathers with a charge of electricity, watching with satisfaction as everything shimmered and became transparent beneath her so that she could see the steps through her invisible torso.
She arrived at the last of the metal stairs and walked onto plascrete flooring. This type of surface was no longer used in the upper levels because they had newer, more flexible products that self cleaned and absorbed the sound of thousands of feet on metal-based decks. This plascrete material became scratched and grubby imprinting the world of grime over the time it was laid. As she looked down she saw it was practically black, used over a long time and never upgraded.
Her sensors began picking up a weak, intermittent signal ahead. Switching off her helm lights, she slowed her walking to a silent prowl, her active sensors on passive, giving her limited feedback. It would help her remain undiscovered longer and allow her to get deeper into the sector before having to possibly fight her way through. RIGA was familiar with this hostile terrain; she was trained for it even before she joined ESSG.
She came upon a broken signal, it was a damaged camera unit. An ESP43, just old tech, and unused for thirty years, or more. RIGA wasn’t fooled though. She decided this might be an attempt to create a false sense of security in inquisitive agents.
Her growing sixth sense brought her to a stop. Exhaling a breath of hot damp air that she didn’t need, RIGA watched it form a cloud in front of her as it made contact with the cold air of the tunnel. At the same time her infra-red detector in her helm switched on showing the cross beams of tiny lasers two feet in front of her, highlighted by the fast dissipating cloud. Trap one identified, she noted warily.
She looked up, sensing that the higher area of the tunnel corridor was clear, then sprang upwards, her hand catching the ridge left from an early pre-anti-grav fitting where heavy equipment was carried on a hanging rails the length of the corridor. The rails had been removed leaving a recessed track that went the length of the corridors. Pulling up her body parallel with the ceiling, she clamped the toes of her boots into the recess on either side, using the toes to keep her legs out of the way. RIGA then over-armed the length of the corridor until she was past the labyrinth of beams, letting go to fall lightly on to the plascrete surface.
Landing soundlessly and still invisible in her cloaked leathers, she gave the suit an added charge. It would wear off if the electricity wasn’t constantly replenishing the suit’s unique cell structure. In real life, the animal would be constantly producing the charge in its body, feeding its cells with the invisibility enabling static.
Carefully, she continued to move forward avoiding rubbish that she would have kicked up if she hadn’t the benefit of versatile optics in her artificial eyes. RIGA was sure some of it was rigged to either provide warning, maim, or kill the unwary, and so avoided it, carefully noting its exact location as she made progress through the labyrinthine tunnels.
She arrived at a slope that would take her to level three, where Gossie’s sensors were showing the anomalous readings. RIGA adopted a strange rolling gait as she entered the ramp. This spread the forward motion over the whole of the foot, enabling her to roll walk silently (a trick she had learned on Kathyros hunting the highly dangerous Armillo tiger), she soon arrived at the lower corridor and moved off, still in darkness.
Ten minutes later, R
IGA turned into a new corridor that had an apparently walled off entrance. On the plans she should be able to pass through and couldn’t immediately see the reason for the closure. Then, as she looked closer she noted the subtly staggered placement of two walls coming out half way into the corridor at a single person’s width. From a distance the walls looked like a single section across the space, only on approach did the gap become visible. Spending a few minutes analysing, RIGA couldn’t detect any hazard to herself from this alone and considered the risk. She knew she had no choice but to continue on, her mission was too important, and the dangers of the unknown formed a big part of her way of life. She gave a nod to Gossie above who could still communicate, but not well. The frequencies they used were difficult to read down here. She considered changing them, but this might make the owner of the underground hideaway aware of their movements. The high frequencies they maintained for themselves were way off the scale of normal communication.
A hundred metres further in and the prickling sensation that seemed to be a regular precursor to personal danger started to kick in and RIGA halted, carefully scanning around and in front, of her position. Stillness descended on her as something probed the air with vibrations; she quietened her systems until her output was negligible. Using her sight, RIGA increased the gain to give advance warning of any approaching threat.
The readings were confusing her sensors, as whilst the threat was actually evident, RIGA also noticed that it wasn’t where it was emanating from. She saw the reason why and froze, as a probing insect-like apparition moved towards her, about a metre behind its perceived emanation. How did it achieve that, she wondered.
RIGA remained perfectly still as it appeared out of the darkness floating toward her. It hesitated, detecting the electric current emanating off her invisible leathers, but seeing nothing it recognised as a threat, it continued on.
It was a worm of some kind. Its six inch length hovered near her at waist height, then moved effortlessly forward. Her zoomed-in vision could make out its armour-plated features and peculiar piercing eyes on four sides which gave the impression it seeing in all directions at once. Its body undulated as it glided past her.