by Isaac Hooke
Fire team one led the way. Rade’s team followed behind by thirty meters, plodding through the thick sand of the purple-hued environment.
Twenty minutes passed. During that time, those crystalline structures slowly grew in size, until they towered over the party. The oval-shaped formations were about as tall as thirty-story buildings, and as thick as a stadium in the middle.
“Look at that,” TJ said.
Rade switched to TJ’s perspective and saw that the man had zoomed in on one of the crystal cones. At the top, nesting upon a cup-like structure that seemed made of dried sand and bones, lay one of the giant winged lizards. It was resting its long neck upon its tail, as if sleeping.
As TJ panned to the right, taking in other nearby crystals, Rade realized that the rings looping the upper portions of the cones weren’t actually floating, and instead were connected via conduits to the main structures. A black sludge flowed down some of them, as if those rings served as some sort of waste disposal system for the dragon nests.
“Here be dragons,” TJ said.
Rade dismissed TJ’s video feed.
“Let sleeping dragons lie,” Harlequin added.
“Hm,” Bender said. “I always thought it was, let sleeping dragons die. Can I shoot one, boss? Can I? Just one.”
“You really want to bring the rest of them down on us?” Rade said.
“Yeah,” Bender admitted. “I sort of do.”
“I have a really good idea,” Manic said. “We can send Bender climbing up one of those cones, and while he serves as a distraction, letting the lizards eat him, we can proceed safely forward.”
“I love that idea!” Bender said. “Except for the part about letting the lizards eat me. How about I bring you along on my back instead, and you can serve as bait while I shoot them down?”
“I wonder what that black stuff oozing down those conduits underneath the rings is?” TJ said.
“Has to be feces,” Manic said.
“Your dragons crap in their sleep, Harley boy,” Bender said. “Maybe we should send you up there to act as their diaper?”
“Okay, I think it’s time to low crawl,” Rade said. “Tahoe, I want you to send Algorithm ahead twenty meters.”
“I get to be the bait?” Algorithm said.
“No,” Rade said. “It’s your job to make sure we don’t walk into a trap.”
Algorithm moved away from the first fire team, crawling across the sand. The other two fire teams followed behind.
The teams wound between the different structures. Each one was separated from the next anywhere from between five hundred meters to a kilometer. The surfaces appeared composed of multifaceted mirrors up close, with each facet usually one meter in height and width, and ranging from three-sided triangles to six-sided hexagons. When he looked at one of those cones, Rade could see his reflection returned a thousand times, along with the reflections of other dragons nesting on top of nearby crystals.
Rade and the others searched for entrances in those cones, but there weren’t any. At least none that were obvious. He kept an eye on his overhead map, but Surus’ indicator did not appear.
At one point, as Algorithm and the two teams low-crawled across a wide span of terrain between two of the conical structures, a dragon perched overhead awoke from slumber and raised its eyeless head, seeming to tilt it down toward the Argonauts.
The squad members froze.
From the height of the crystal cone, the lizard continued to seemingly observe the barren dunes. Its tongue flicked in and out, and Rade heard the distant chirping of echolocation as transmitted to his helmet via the external microphones of his jumpsuit.
Finally the head lowered once more.
Rade and the others remained motionless for the next fifteen minutes, and only then did he give the order to resume the crawl. The lizard hadn’t moved again during that time.
“Algorithm, rejoin the first fire team,” Rade said. “This is taking too long. I want to get done here, and out from under these dragons as soon as possible. Tahoe, once Algorithm gets back, take your team and search the crystal cones on the western side. My team will explore those on the east. Circumnavigate each structure, search for any entrances. Stay close to the crystal walls, and out of view of those dragons as much as you can.”
“You got it,” Tahoe said.
On the overhead map, the black areas representing the uncharted terrain around the cones slowly filled out as the two teams explored the cluster of crystal cones. When the Argonauts hugged the walls of a given crystal, and were out of view of the other cones, they usually scrambled to their feet and proceeded at a crouch to expedite the exploration process, and switched to a low crawl when they moved out into the open sand once more. LIDAR bursts were used to supplement the mapping.
There were only two of the large oval structures left when Tahoe issued a transmission. “Got something.”
fourteen
Rade switched to his viewpoint and saw that he had zoomed in on the partially melted wreckage of a Centurion, located on an open stretch of sand between two of the towering cones. The right arm and left leg were missing, and the torso was half dissolved.
“It’s one of the guards Surus brought with her,” Tahoe said.
“Well, on the one hand that’s heartening,” Manic said. “In that we’re on the right track after all. And on the other, not so heartening, considering what happened to the robot.”
“Perhaps I can salvage the AI core?” Algorithm said. “And discover what happened?”
“Do what you can,” Rade said. “The rest of you, continue searching.”
Rade continued toward the structure he had assigned to his team. In fifteen minutes, Algorithm reported in.
“I have been unable to recover the core,” Algorithm said. “The Centurion is lost.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Rade told the combat robot. “Return to fire team one as soon as you are able.”
Rade’s team was halfway around the base of the last conical structure, located on the far eastern edge of the cluster, when he came upon an opening. Located two meters above the sand along the crystal surface, a three-meter wide hole, roughly the height of a human in a jumpsuit, led away into the dim interior.
“Tahoe, finish circling your structure,” Rade said. “Then make your way here. We’ve got an opening.”
Tahoe’s fire team completed their circuit, not finding any other entrances, and then the involved Argonauts low-crawled across the sand all the way from the western side while Rade and the others waited. Rade kept an eye on the nearby structures, watching for signs of movements from the nests on top.
Harlequin tapped in Rade on a private line. “Now that we have a potential lead on Surus’ location, I find myself somewhat reluctant to proceed.”
“We’re all reluctant,” Rade told him.
“It feels wrong to betray Surus like this,” Harlequin continued. “And her host, Ms. Bounty. She is our client, paying us to protect her. We have never done something like this to a client before.”
“No, we haven’t,” Rade said. “But we also haven’t been faced by this particular set of circumstances. Right now, at the moment, capturing her is the only way out.”
“During the past few months, I have visited Surus often in the cargo bay,” Harlequin said. “We have had very many... unique... discussions. Like you, she has helped me come to terms with my rebirth. Helped me realize I don’t need to constantly prove myself, to myself. If that makes sense. She is... I believe she is my friend.”
Rade nodded. “She’s grown on all of us. But what can we do? Falon is essentially holding my crew hostage. The twins hostage. You’ve seen what some of these Greens are capable of. They have no morals. Falon will kill the infants if it helps him achieve his aim, whatever that is. Hell, you remember what Azen did, don’t you? He installed a retrovirus into an alien empress, enabling him to control the entire species. If that isn’t wrong, I don’t know what is.”
Har
lequin was quiet for a moment. “Are you worried that Falon would use a similarly engineered retrovirus to obtain control of you, if you refused to obey him?”
“I never even considered that,” Rade said. “But it’s a good point. And now that you’ve brought it up, I’m even gladder I agreed to this. Last thing I need is to be at the beck and call of some alien against my will.”
“When we’ve handed over Surus to Falon, will we plan a rescue operation at some point?” Harlequin said.
“I can’t guarantee we will,” Rade said. “I want to. But it all depends on the circumstances.”
“You mean, it depends on whether your children are safe,” Harlequin said.
“Am I that transparent?” Rade said.
“If it was me who was the captive, and not the twins, would you be so eager to perform this mission of betrayal to save me?” Harlequin asked.
Rade hesitated. In fact, he wasn’t entirely sure.
“I understand,” Harlequin said. “It’s because I’m not human.”
“You’re just as human to me as anyone else,” Rade said. “But you’re not my child.”
“Aren’t I?” Harlequin said. “You brought me back. Birthed me, essentially. If anyone is my father, it’s you.”
“I don’t know what to say to that,” Rade said.
“No, I suppose it was wishful thinking on my part,” Harlequin said. “To be elevated to the same level as a biological child. I am merely a robot, when all is said and done.”
“You’re more, so much more,” Rade said.
“If you say so, boss,” Harlequin said, and disconnected.
Rade smiled sadly.
What do you do when you have a robot who thinks you’re his father?
He hoped Harlequin would come to terms with his existence, and his place in the universe, in time. Because if he did not, his would be an extremely lonely existence, considering that he would outlive Rade and all of the Argonauts.
Assuming Harlequin survived the current mission...
“Brat, while we’re waiting, I want you to explore that opening,” Rade ordered.
The robot easily leaped the two meters to the entrance. It was a good thing the opening was not too much higher, as the surface would have been difficult to climb: the joins between the mirrorlike facets didn’t protrude enough to offer much of a hold. He wondered if he should have allowed the Argonauts to bring jetpacks after all.
By the time Tahoe’s team arrived, Brat had mapped out a tight corridor that led deeper into the structure, underneath the surface, emerging in a subterranean passage beneath the sand. Brat didn’t pick up any signals from Surus or the other robots with her in that passage, however.
“So what do we have?” Tahoe said as he came up.
“Apparently this opening leads underground,” Rade said. “We’re going to take it, seeing as we don’t have any other options right now.”
“There’s always an option,” Manic said. “It’s just a matter of choosing the one that makes the most sense.”
“Thanks for the leadership advice, bitch,” Bender said. “You should write a book on personal development. You’d make billions. You could call it: How To Be The Village Idiot On Your Team, by Manic Bitchtits.”
Manic smiled behind his faceplate. “And you should write a book on bad sarcasm.”
“Maybe I will,” Bender said.
“Good,” Manic said. “That way I can use the pages as digital toilet paper.”
“Huh?” Bender said. “There’s no such thing. That would imply the existence of digital poop.”
“Poop?” Manic responded. “Who says that? And you claim I’m a moron? Poop. Pussywillow Poop. That’s your new name.”
“Yo bitch,” Bender said. “That’s right. Keep up the insults. Please. That way you can tell me what the atmosphere tastes like after I smash in your faceplate.”
“Guys,” Rade said. “The opening. Algorithm, lead the way. Join Brat. Bender, you’re next.”
Algorithm leaped up and vanished inside, followed by Bender and the remaining members of the squad in turn. It proved a relatively easy jump, though Rade found himself dialing up the settings of his strength-enhanced suit nonetheless. He weighed a fair amount in that jumpsuit, and the Earth-like gravity didn’t help in that regard.
The tunnel walls inside were made of the same multifaceted crystalline structure, though the individual mirrored faces were an order of magnitude smaller. The passage was wide enough to fit three jumpsuits abreast.
“Headlamps on,” Rade said.
Those crystals scintillated in the illumination. The reflections seemed comforting, because they boosted the background light to a degree that was even brighter than outside.
The downward sloping floor was covered in a thick layer of sand that swallowed Rade to the ankles, like the exterior, but it quickly diminished as the squad proceeded deeper until they were walking on bare crystal. It was good that there were so many facets in the floor, because otherwise their boots would have readily slipped on the surface.
Eventually the crystal passage opened out into a tunnel of darker sandstone, which was even wider and taller: there was enough room to operate a Hoplite within. Because of the nature of the minerals composing the cave walls, the headlamps didn’t illuminate as far as in the previous tunnel, so Rade had Brat supplement the illumination with LIDAR bursts to map out the blacker areas farther along, creating a white wireframe representation of the cave in the darkness ahead.
“I still think we should have taken along the holographic emitters,” TJ said over the comm. “To hide ourselves. The echolocation masking mods Surus added would be extremely useful right about now.”
“And I think we should have taken the Hoplites!” Manic said.
“If Surus didn’t need the holo emitters, then we don’t, either,” Tahoe said.
“Tell that to the disabled Centurion out there,” Manic said.
The Argonauts continued along the downward sloping passage for about ten minutes, at which point the LIDAR bursts indicated the tunnel ahead opened into a wider cavern.
“Headlamps off,” Rade said. “Let’s not give any tangos advance warning.” Of course, that assumed any enemy units inside the cavern wouldn’t detect LIDAR.
The tunnel plunged into darkness. The bodies of the Argonauts remained silhouetted in blue on Rade’s vision, thanks to his Implant. The sandstone walls were replaced with the white wireframe outlines generated via the previous LIDAR scans.
When Algorithm reached the edge of the tunnel, Rade had the Centurion emit a LIDAR burst. Almost instantaneously, the wireframe representation of the cavern beyond was transmitted to the rest of the team.
What Rade saw wasn’t merely some chamber. Algorithm stood upon a ledge overlooking a veritable subterranean valley. A massive cavern stretched before the robot, filled with square-shaped structures stacked one atop the other, like closely packed skyscrapers swaying slightly under their weight.
“Well that’s interesting,” Brat said.
“Looks almost like a city,” Manic said. “And you see those small shapes in the lanes between the structures? Could be lifeforms.”
“I concur,” Harlequin said. “On the highest zoom level, I am detecting what appear to be torsos and legs belonging to those shapes. Some of them are attached to the structures themselves.”
“If those are lifeforms,” Rade said. “It stands to reason that a few would be moving, correct?”
“Correct,” Harlequin agreed.
“Algorithm, send out another burst,” Rade said. “Let’s see what has changed since the last snapshot.”
Algorithm complied. Most of the small shapes indeed updated, their positions changing.
“Definitely have to be some kind of lifeforms to move like that,” Tahoe said.
“It’s a good sign that they didn’t seem to respond to the LIDAR bursts,” Rade said. He weighed the pros and cons of his next course of action, and then made the choice: “Algorith
m, try sending out a continuous LIDAR stream.”
The wireframe display began updating in realtime: most of the small shapes situated in the lanes between buildings moved, as did some of those located upon the structures themselves, but most of the latter appeared to be perching, as if resting.
“Can anyone tell if they’re flight capable?” Rade asked.
“I’m not perceiving any indicators that would denote wings of any kind,” Harlequin said. “I believe their mode of travel is restricted to the locomotions of walking and climbing alone.”
“Algorithm, are you getting a signal from Surus yet?” Rade asked.
“That’s a negative,” Algorithm replied.
Rade observed the scene for several moments, taking everything in. “Okay, it looks like there is an opening on the far side of the valley, leading into a separate cave system. Here’s the plan: we take the small path winding down from this ledge to the city proper. Once there, we keep close to the city periphery, following the outer wall of the cavern. There aren’t many of the lifeforms in that area, so if we’re careful, we should be able to get around to the farther opening without sounding the alarm.”
“If these creatures rely upon echolocation like the ones on the surface,” Tahoe said, “then perhaps if we keep close enough to the outer wall, they won’t even notice us.”
“That’s what I’m hoping,” Rade said.
“It’s going to be tricky,” Manic said. “Because even if we do make it to that opening, if we encounter resistance beyond, say from a pair of guards, we’ll likely bring the whole city down on us. Trapping us inside.”
“We’ll deal with any resistance as we come to it,” Rade said.
“I’m sure we can handle a couple of alien guards with our rifles,” Tahoe said. “These ones don’t look that big. Shouldn’t be a problem to eliminate a few of them silently.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Manic said. “While they might be smaller, look at the bodily structures of these latest aliens on your LIDAR. They’re different from those we encountered on the surface. Who knows, maybe their skin is even more naturally armored against lasers?”