“We call them the Creednax.” Zed injected.
“The Creednax are entering this structure. Employ whatever stealth technology you have, because the Creednax outnumber your party by better than ten to one.”
“Is the first party we sent back to the ship safe?”
Athena paused for a moment. “Yes, Zed. They were fast enough to avoid potential confrontations.”
“Wonderful. Thank you Athena.” He turned to the other two. “Time to go. You heard the lady, full stealth and use your night vision.” He looked up into the air. “How do I get in touch with you, or you with me?”
“If LOLA will permit me, I will use your neural link to speak to you as LOLA does.”
“I’ll talk to you later then.” Zed turned out the lights, and the three humans stepped into the lightless corridor to start his 13 hour hike.
A dozen kilometers later LOLA rousted Zed from the walking daze into which he’d fallen.
The trio stopped twice for quick cold meals before they continued the march.
He didn’t hesitate. He touched the Chief and Larisa, gave them the news, and they all began to run. A kilometer later he discovered just how out-of-shape he really was as he leaned against the corridor wall, puffing like a steam engine. Sweat ran down his face.
Zed chuckled.
The three humans discovered that the Creednax, following in ant-like precision one after the other, made a high keening screech as they fell. The squeal of their claws on the metal walls of the elevator shaft raised the hair on the back of Zed’s neck. The sound faded and was gone, although he knew the Creednax would still be falling in the darkness for several more minutes. The elevator dropped to their original level, and the door opened. “The way is clear.” Athena’s low voice said out of the air. “But you should hurry. I will have LOLA send the small electric cart to pick you up.”
“The cart will only hold one, Athena, or perhaps two.”
“Leave all your equipment.” Athena said shortly. “Drop it down the elevator shaft. Your combined weight will probably ruin the cart, but it will get you to where you need to go faster than by foot. Now run! The cart will meet you.”
An hour later the small cart met the staggering humans. They piled aboard, hanging on for dear life as the cart set off at a breakneck speed for the questionable safety of the Rose.
“Do you smell something burning?” Larisa whispered. For the last few minutes some metallic part had been grinding in the small cart’s motor.
Zed sniffed. “Yup.”
Something in the cart’s strained motor let out a metallic squeal and the vehicle jerked to a stop. “The hatch is just ahead.” Zed whispered loudly to the Strike Team members. “Go!” The last to exit the structure, Zed felt an irrational wave of relief as he closed and sealed the heavy hatch behind him. As a final insurance measure he disconnected the release that allowed the door to be opened from the inside. They were as safe as he could make them.
The airlock door hissed open, and he looked into the face of Katherine Johansen Yates, his new wife. Her pale skin was even paler than normal, but she stood straight and looked him in the eye. “Well?”
Zed dropped his helmet on the floor of the changing room as the airlock door closed behind them. “We got the job done and nobody was hurt.”
“You’re late.”
He shrugged as he unzipped his gloves and dropped them into the helmet. “We had company. The Creednax are in the structure now, so exploration will be risky.”
Picking up his discarded helmet and gloves, Katherine gave him a very direct look. “You can tell me all about it… later.”
Zed put his arm about Kat’s waist. “That sounds like a marvelous idea.” Both Larisa and the Chief gave Zed wide smiles as they left the room.
The next morning Zed looked up from his breakfast and poured himself another cup of coffee. The woodland decor in the dining hall never ceased to impress him. Katherine sat very close beside him, so close in fact that he could feel the heat of her thigh next to his. He smiled to himself at how good it felt.
“I hate to interrupt you, Zed, Katherine,” The soft voice of LOLA said from behind them. “but something has come up and I need to see you both in the small conference room as soon as it’s convenient.”
He looked down to see Kat take a small nibble of the last of her toast. “We’ll be right there.” As he stood, coffee cup in hand, his empty dishes and tray disappeared. “Thank you.” Around the room at tables tucked beneath the towering trees, others were standing.
As the last person slid into their seat LOLA began. “I was looking over some of Athena’s data, specifically facility schematics and locations, when I noticed the location of the Callidus R&D lab.” Zed leaned forward to study the holographic map LOLA projected over the conference table. “If you’re having trouble finding it, that is because it’s here…” A blinking red dot appeared. “It lies beneath the western mountains, and is inaccessible by normal means. Like the Main Power Plant, and Central Computing, R&D is accessible only via Athena. 23,000 years ago, just after the Great War ruined both the Dramul and Chamdar Empires, it was decided that the planet of Callidus be decommissioned as too expensive for an impoverished Empire to run. The R&D labs were not decommissioned, however. 15,000 years ago there was a breakthrough in replicator technology that allowed living people to be broken down, transmitted, and reassembled at a preselected recovery point. Without harm.” She emphasized. “Using this technology, the Main Power Plant, Central Computing and R&D were effectively and permanently isolated from the world. Nobody can enter those areas without the specific assistance of the AI. In this case it would be Athena, who is at this moment restoring power to all vital sections of Callidus. Some sections, remember, have been shut down for 15,000 years.” She paused for several long seconds. “Athena has requested Fleet Captain Yates’s presence in the R&D area to make certain command decisions.” Katherine’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Why me?” Zed chimed in, primarily to defuse the impending explosion from Kat.
“The decisions you have to make will affect the lives of all humans, Zed; not just the ones on this shi
p.”
“Oh.” He replied in a flat voice. He’d guessed it was something along those lines, but Katherine looked startled. “Well then… When does she want us there, and where?” He ignored Kat’s glare. “Since I’m obviously not traveling alone, I’ll take Larisa and the Chief, again.”
“As soon as possible, Zed, and there is a transmission pad located beneath the center of each support leg of the dodecahedron. Since the support legs are so large at the base, twelve kilometers in diameter to be exact, there is an exterior hatch located at each of the cardinal points around the base. This will give us access to interior passages. Once you enter and reach the corridor, it will be a simple six kilometer walk to the platform beneath the center of the pillar.”
“Simple she says.” Zed scoffed. “Six kilometers through black Creednax infested corridors.” He gave Kat a wink. “I’ll do it. Have Larisa and the Chief meet me in the airlock in an hour.”
“Very good Zed. It should be an easy trip.”
“For us. While we’re away I would like the Strike Teams to begin setting hidden sensors up and down the corridors, both in the dodecahedron and in Callidus proper. I want to know what the Creednax are up to all the time. It will be up to you to keep our Strike Teams safe while they place the sensors.”
LOLA was silent for several moments. “Yes Fleet Captain.”
Katherine was silent all the way back to their suite. “Okay, what’s wrong?” Zed asked at last.
“You know damn well what’s wrong.” She stopped and glared at him. “I don’t like you going off on these jaunts where I can’t accompany you. It makes me nervous as hell.”
He took her shoulders in his hands. “I don’t want our children growing up under the threat of the Creednax, my love, and I’m doing something about it.”
“Children?” Katherine’s green eyes blinked. “You’ve never mentioned children before.”
Zed chuckled. “It’s usually the reason two people get married, my dear, rather than just shack up. That should give you something to think about while I’m gone.”
“Children…” She mumbled to herself as she walked off. Zed grinned at her retreating back.
Chapter Six
PLAN A
“And you want us to do what??” Zed stood on the hull of the Rose, and looked in the general direction of the ‘ground,’ 3,100 kilometers above him.
“Simply let go of the ship. I’ll use your anti-grave belt to accelerate you toward the surface of Callidus, and soon gravity will take over to do the rest. I’ll slow you down for landing.”
“How comforting.”
“You volunteered for this I’ll remind you.”
“Before you let me know all the particulars, I see.”
“Ummmm.” LOLA mused.
“Oh well.” He turned to the Chief who was staring into the dark over his head. “The only easy day was yesterday, right Chief?” He stepped off the Rose, and fell upward.
“Chyort voz’mi!” Larisa cursed in Russian as she too stepped off the ship and fell away.
Senior Chief Petty Officer Emilio López watched the other two disappear into the black. “My old man told me I’d come to a bad end in the SEALS. Oh damn!” He grumbled as he stepped free and began to fall.
Traveling just under the speed of sound, in a strongly CO? environment, the fall took them between two and three very boring hours. LOLA had ensured the party that the Creednax were nowhere near them, and they fell in darkness and utter silence. About halfway through the drop Zed had LOLA pipe some Dave Brubeck music into his earbuds, and things were much more acceptable after that.
The music ceased abruptly. “Zed.” LOLA’s voice was calm. “You are approaching the base of the supporting pillar and I am about to begin your deceleration. Larisa is twenty meters on your right, and Chief López twenty meters on your left.”
“Thank you LOLA. Please tell the others.”
“I already have.” The belt tugged at Zed, and then more strongly a second time. He grunted. “Are you all right Zed?”
“Fine LOLA. This is much better than the last time, but you might be sure to turn me over so that my feet are facing the ground.”
“What!!!” LOLA snapped in his small earpiece. “I… you… Your feet ARE facing down you wise-ass. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“You don’t have a heart LOLA, per-se.”
“Thank you for that tidbit. You are coming up on the ground in three, two, one…” His feet touched.
“Ahhh.” The anti-grav flicked off and he took a springing step. “Low gravity.”
“I warned you.”
He smiled despite himself. “Yes mother.” Touching a small button on his wrist, his contact lens HUD lit. Larisa and the Chief were clearly visible in the contact’s night vision display. A red dot in the HUD caught his attention.
“The red dot is your destination, Zed. 320º, 1500 meters. Everything is quiet, and all sensor teams are about their business. No contact with the Creednax.”
“Good.” His mastoid mounted mic allowed him to sub-vocalize his reply, speaking to LOLA without making a sound a listener could hear. They were about half way to their destination when a dull rumble filled the air, and the floor shook. “LOLA, what was that?”
“From first indications, I would say that Athena has just destroyed the auxiliary Computer Center. I’ll admit I am impressed. She used a standard half kiloton Dramul scuttling charge, set to look like it was armed when the station was abandoned. The Creednax patrol took many recordings, just before they were vaporized, ensuring to their controlling queen that there were no humans involved in the blast. We should be relatively safe.”
“If you say so.” Zed waved the group on, and turned his head to look at the kilometer high mountains that ringed the base of the pillar. “This place would look amazing in real light.”
“If Athena gets rid of our unwanted guests, she can turn on the interior lights. I’ve read about it. It was one of the wonders of the Empire.”
“I can imagine.”
“You are approaching the hatch, Zed.”
Something beeped in his earpiece. “I see it.” He no more than touched the hatch when it swung open. Even with night vision, the entrance looked dark and ominous. “That’s our way in.” He put a foot on the ladder and began his descent.
The transporter pad was a black 4 meter wide by 15 centimeters high disk sitting in a plain undecorated room. Zed hesitated as he stood in the doorway looking at the thing.
Light flooded into his eyes. “You can take off your masks and gloves.” Athena said out of the air around them. “The atmosphere and temperature have been adjusted for humans.”
Stretching, Zed pushed back the hood that had covered his head for warmth during the long fall. Pulling off his breathing mask, he took a deep breath of the warm, slightly pine scented air around them. “Nice. Thank you Athena.”
“You’re welcome, Zed. The replicator here has been slaved to the replicator database on the Rose of the Dawn, so I can offer you all a hot meal, if you would like.” Zed saw the Chief’s and Larisa’s eyes widen. “That would be very nice, Athena. I’ll have a bowl of cream corn soup with crabmeat and a side of plain Jasmine rice.”
“The Cantonese variety, or the Sichuan soup?” Athena replied, nonplussed.
Zed laughed aloud. “The Cantonese variety, please.” The other two ordered and he relaxed into one of the surprisingly comfortable chairs, soup bowl balance on his leg, rice bowl on the other. “What do you have for me, Athena?”
A wall sized display flickered into life. Pictures and diagrams appeared to be three dimensional. “Many things were being researched here.” She paused, and it sounded like she was consider
ing her words. “Some things were so exotic I can’t imagine why they would waste the time or energy. Some items were marginally useful.” The screen scrolled to stop at the image of a 40 centimeter by 10 disk. “This device is a new and improved scuttling charge for Dramul vessels.” An animation showed a damaged Dramul cruiser in orbit about a distant planet. “If a warship is about to be captured, friendly forces can just slap these small scuttling charges on vulnerable places about the hull and…” The flashes weren’t bright or violent, but everywhere a scuttling charge had been placed, a hole was punched through the entire ship. “If the scuttling charge is placed opposite the power plant…” A hole punched though the engineering section of the cruiser. An instant later the entire ship was engulfed in an expanding white glare. When the glare subsided the ship was gone. “The scuttling charge ruptured the containment on the power plant. These were being developed during an era of universal retreat for the Dramul Empire. If a ship was abandoned three men working in EVA suits for a handful of minutes could destroy it before an enemy could capture it. Many other things were developed here; new EVA suits were designed, new prefabricated habitats for colony worlds, new ship drives that could travel thousands of time the speed of light. The transporter you used to get to this area was being refined for general ship-to-shore use. Heavy weapons were also being developed, but those required dedicated warships or platforms, and the expense was much too great for a crumbling Empire. Bionic enhancements were being researched, and genetic development and modification. The feline CatTrace aboard your ship is a good example of that.” Her voice stopped for several moments. “I’m sorry, Fleet Captain. I can’t see that what is in development will help you significantly.”
Chief López caught his eye, and it was obvious that he wanted to speak. Zed gave him a quick nod.
The Chief ran a hand through his short hair. “What are these new EVA suits you were talking about?” A picture appeared before them of a woman and a man, both wearing seemingly skin tight single piece suits of bright colors. The collars appeared to be round and made of a metallic substance. The two snapped on simple gloves, and then touched the back of their collars. A clear shield rose from the collar to enclose the entire face. The Chief frowned. “But what about the air supply?”
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