Immortal Guardian: Hoast Saga Book 2 (Host Saga)

by Michael Farlow

  “Over here!” shouted Bobby Calhoun, pointing at a bright spot on the face of the Martian rock.

  Kicking up dust, the whole group rushed as fast as they could in the light gravity to see what Bobby had found.

  “Yes!” said Van, bouncing from foot to foot. “Look, Harry, an access bar. Will it work with the suit glove on?”

  “Yes, Commander. You already have the electronic impression, and the bar should detect the other bio signs that are necessary.”

  “OK, here goes.” Van grasped the bar with his right hand.

  Just like at the Arizona site, there was a loud rumble and vibration as a door appeared on the rock face. Unlike the Site R doors, however, this one was relatively small. Just big enough for two people to enter side by side in combat suits.

  Harry and Van exchanged glances before Van asked, “Why such a small door, Harry?”

  “Uncertain, Commander. It may be that this is just the access to the internal site and that there are larger doors elsewhere.”

  And that was the case. After they all entered, the external doors closed and, according to their suit detectors, the space became pressurized. Lights also came on, revealing another touch panel on the wall in front of them.

  CHAPTER 29

  “Commander, the air is breathable and safe.”

  Reluctantly, Van removed his helmet, and after everyone saw that he was OK, they all followed his example. Van also removed the armored glove from his right hand and placed his palm on the control panel. Just like at Site R, a set of wings briefly appeared there and then the panel went green, followed by a door to the left of the panel sliding open to reveal a huge lighted space hundreds of feet high and nearly a thousand feet deep and wide.

  “Holy smokes, Harry. This is big enough to house two or more Auroras.”

  “It would appear so, Commander. But like Site R, I believe this is just a staging area and flight deck. Like Site R and the Moon base, I suspect there is much more to see. Right now, I need to plug in my memory module so that I can become fully functional here. Ah, I believe I see a memory access port against the far wall.”

  Harry proceeded to transit the depth of the space and opened a small access door in the wall. Just as he’d done in the Moon base, he lifted the memory module from the case he had been carrying and placed it in the open enclosure. Immediately the access doors closed with a hiss, and a green light came on.

  Not knowing what to do or what was going on, everyone just stared at Harry and Van, waiting for an explanation. And it came.

  “Good news, Commander. I have gained access to all of this facility, which you now command. What would you like to know first?”

  “Is there a lot to learn?” asked Van, believing he already knew the answer.

  “Yes, Commander. May I suggest that we proceed to this site’s operations center? It is on this level and access is to the left of us.”

  “Lead the way, Harry. And send a signal to CS1 inviting them in to meet us,” said Van as the group followed Harry to a door, which opened into a huge nerve center.

  When all had gathered in the operations center, Van said, “OK, Harry, now that you’re plugged in, what do you suggest we do first?”

  “My new understanding of this facility, Commander, includes an address from the previous Host commander. The instructions I have read request that you listen to the address as soon as possible. Although the Host language is similar to English, I have translated it for you as I did the first message.”

  Then Van thought, This is something I need to share with everyone. They are briefed in and have made big sacrifices to get here. They deserve to hear. “Interesting. Is there any way you can patch what we are about to hear to the Aurora so the others can listen?”

  “Yes, Commander. I have just made that link and alerted the crew aboard the Aurora.”

  “Then run the message,” said Van with anticipation.

  At that moment, a slight glimmer on the main viewing screen of the center resolved itself into the image of a remarkably human-looking man in his mid – or late fifties, and a larger-than-normal head. He was dressed in a crisp gray uniform with unfamiliar markings and stood in what appeared to be this very operations center.

  Van was struck by his piercing blue eyes and his air of confidence and command.

  “Greetings,” the slightly graying officer said. “My name is Adm. Amal Spector of what remains of the Galactic Host depot fleet that escaped the Arkon. When you see this, I cannot know how much time has passed since we started our journey, but the Caretaker who assisted you can likely fill in the time gaps if necessary. The fact that you are receiving this message says a great deal about you. You have obviously discovered at least two of our old sites—one on your planet and one on your Moon. Aside from meeting the basic biological requirements of the Host, you have obviously shown initiative and drive to have come this far.

  “You may well be disappointed that we are not here to greet you personally, but there is much that remains for us to do away from this solar system before we can return home. We have been giving you information and advice incrementally and will continue to do so. For now, however, we have left you this facility and all it contains in the anticipation that you will use it wisely. I regret that the ships and some equipment we leave you are not our newest or most advanced. We need the newer systems for our continued journey. However, even though they are old, the ships and equipment here are likely far in advance of what you can produce currently. Use all that is here wisely and, when you are ready, you may continue onward. I emphasize ‘when you are ready,’ which does not mean now. You and your AI will know the best time, I promise. For now, congratulations on your success so far. Be a wise guardian and a good commander of this and the other facilities.”

  The image faded to a black screen and a silent audience.

  “Ah, Commander?” asked Danny in a low tone.

  “What is it, Danny?”

  “We’re gonna need a lot more people!”

  And then, with the spell broken, the room broke into laughter.

  “That’s an understatement. Harry, I assume there’s a chair here I need to spend some time in?”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  “OK, set me up in the chair and then give everyone else a tour of the place. I’ll get what I need from the chair.”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  Four hours later, the tour group rolled back into the operations center, chattering excitedly among themselves. They stopped when they saw Van standing in the middle of the room.

  “Had fun, did you?” Van asked with a broad smile.

  Speaking for the group, Stan said, “Do you realize that there are three more ships here? Looks like a destroyer, something smaller like a frigate, I guess, and what looks like a cargo ship, to say nothing of the additional shuttles and even fighters!”

  “And bigger fabricators, lots and lots of new parts, more and better weapons, and so forth. I saw the same things and more while I was in the chair,” said Van. “Unfortunately, we can’t do much with all that right now. We’re already off our timetable for getting back to Earth. Harry can take a mobile memory storage cell back with us, and we can learn about all of this at the Moon base. If we can find a new cable to replace the one that burned out and the one salvaged from the plasma torpedo bay, I think that’s all we can do for now. So let’s gather what we can and get back to the ship.”

  Paul and Jan stayed rooted in place.

  “Something on your collective minds, Paul?” asked Van.

  “Well, yes. You see there are four of us pilots, not counting yourself of course, and we were really getting tired of flying the shuttles around. And the Aurora is a crew-operated ship that, so far, doesn’t go out much….”

  “So you were wondering if we could take some of the fighters back with us. Am I right?” asked Van, trying to keep a stern face.

  “Ah, well yes, sir! That way we could hone our skills and stay in tip-top operational readines
s,” said Paul, hoping to convince Van.

  “You don’t even know how they work, much less how to fly them,” said Van, egging them on.

  “But we can learn. I’ll bet they have built-in simulators just like the shuttles,” said a strongly supportive Jan.

  “And how would you get them to the Aurora if you can’t fly them?” Van was nearly bursting from the effort not to laugh.

  “We’ve already thought of that. Harry can fly them remotely to the Aurora and into the flight deck. There’s room for five of them, by the way,” said Paul, suddenly looking guilty by disclosing too much information, probably from a talk they’d had with Harry while Van was otherwise occupied.

  “OK. If Harry says he can do it, you can take five on board,” said Van at last, seemingly giving in to what he had already decided to do.

  “Yes! Cha-ching!” shouted Paul and Jan simultaneously, both making a gesture simulating pulling the winning handle of a slot machine.

  Back in the Aurora with the flight deck doors closed, repressurization achieved, and five new fighters tucked away, Van waited for everyone to exit the CS2.

  Rose had switched from the CS1 for the return trip and was the next to the last one off the shuttle. She couldn’t stop smiling, and Van wondered if she ever did.

  “What do you think?” he asked her.

  “Amazing! There are no words! I had no idea of the magnitude of the issues you and Harry are facing. This is really big!” she said, shaking her long black hair loose from the skull cap she had been wearing.

  “So this is better than the astronaut program after all?” Van said with a sly grin.

  “No comparison. Most of the class I would have belonged to haven’t even left the Earth yet, and some will never. Danny said this is the ultimate in passion and dreams, but I suspect he never anticipated all of this.”

  “Good to hear it. You should be talking to Elaine. She didn’t even go to the new site, yet I’m told she hasn’t stopped talking long enough to take a breath.”

  “I’m sure I’ll get the chance. But now I’m hungry. Mind having dinner with me?”

  “Don’t mind if I do. While you change, I’ll go back to the bridge and get us ready to go home. Then I’ll meet you in the mess.”

  They both went in separate directions. He had to wonder if women had some sort of built-in thing about dinner. They all wanted to go, but then they hardly ate anything.

  An hour later they met as planned in the mess. After making their selections, they were about to sit down when Harry came up on implant communications.

  “What is it now, Harry? I just left the bridge, so it can’t be all that urgent.”

  “I believe it is, Commander. I just lost contact with Site R.”

  “This far away from Earth, I’m not surprised,” said Van, though a tickle at the base of his spine told him something was up.

  “No, Commander. As we flew from Earth to Mars, I periodically dropped a linking buoy to maintain contact. Until just moments ago, that link was active. Now it is gone.”

  “Couldn’t that be the failure of one or more of the buoys?” he asked.

  “No, Commander. All buoys are active and responsive.”

  “So what do you think happened?”

  “Unknown, Commander. The Site R system has several backups. For the site to stop transmitting suggests that a failure has been forced.”

  “You mean by somebody entering the site and shutting it down?” Van could no longer ignore the alarms blasting in his head.

  “Yes, Commander. That is exactly what I mean.”

  “Shit! Sorry, Rose. Dinner will have to wait.” He stood and grabbed his tray to toss on the way out. “Harry, call all section one watch to the bridge and alert engineering that we’ll be getting underway pronto.”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  CHAPTER 30

  The B1 sat in the center of Level 1 with its nose pointed toward the open doors and Meier and Dieter at the controls.

  “OK, Dieter. All systems appear to be correct. I think it is time to visit the Moon for ourselves. We deserve the adventure—and the opportunity to stir the pot for profits.” And the B1 rose from the deck, shot out of the doors, and pitched nose up toward the Moon.

  Later, approaching Vallis Alpes, Meier turned to Dieter and said, “This is much better than what we gave the Chinese and far better than that museum piece the Russians are flying. Stealth systems are engaged and nobody knows we are here. Let us see what our Chinese friends are doing. I believe the Chang’e 5 is around someplace, as is the Pitchka.” He steered the B1 southwest down Vallis Alpes.

  The overflight of Fan Lau went unobserved by the Chinese as they methodically continued to develop their base. On the ridge above the lava tube opening, they were finishing the final touches on a communications and surveillance array pointed toward Earth. As the last man stepped down from the tower ladder, massive eruptions disturbed the surface, throwing Moon dust everywhere. Two of the workers fell over with serious injuries.

  “Now that was too easy, Dieter. This time you strafe the communications tower and I’ll turn off the stealth system for a few seconds. Just enough for them to see that they are being attacked from the air.”

  As instructed, Dieter took control and maneuvered the B1 in an arc to line up on the tower as Meier had done before. And just like Meier, he poured 30mm shells into and around the tower, causing it to completely collapse.

  “I think I may come to enjoy this work after all!” said a grinning Dieter.

  “I believe it is one of those things that grows on you, as the Americans say. I see the Chang’e 5 coming this way, so let us set a course for Tycho Crater and see if we can draw the Chinese away toward the Russians before we go home. If we are lucky, they will think the Pitchka just fired on Fan Lau and take revenge in one of their typical emotional reactions.” And the B1 turned southeast for the Pitchka, leaving a faint radar trail for the Chang’e 5 to follow.

  “Mikhael, what happened this time?” asked a shocked Anikin, looking at a blank screen on the wall of the control center.

  “Unclear, sir. We were in the middle of a transmission from Tycho when everything just stopped.”

  “You have tried contacting them again?” asked the general.

  “Yes, sir, multiple times, but no response.”

  “Where is the Pitchka?”

  “The Pitchka is exploring the area about one hundred miles northwest of Tycho, sir. We have contact with Major Bovarin, and he said they were recently overflown by the Chang’e 5.”

  “Tell him to proceed to Tycho to see if they can make contact.”

  “Done, General. The Pitchka has turned and is now headed to Tycho at best speed.”

  “I don’t like this, Mikhael. I feel something wrong has just occurred. Very wrong.”

  “We have broken Martian orbit, Commander, and the return course to Earth is locked in,” said Jan at the astrogation console.

  “Good. Helm, make speed .01 light,” Van said to Danny Ramos now at the helm.

  “Accelerating to .01 light. Are we sure that’s safe, Commander?”

  “Not really, but if all goes well for the next hour or two, we’ll increase to .02 or higher. Stan, get Brice, Bob Cooper, and Dr. Ramos up here for a meeting in the briefing room in ten minutes, and that includes Ross as well.”

  “On it!” said Stan as he started making calls.

  Ten minutes later Van and Harry entered the briefing room with all present. “OK, Harry, tell everyone what you told me.”

  “Yes, Commander. As we traveled from Earth to Mars I ejected a series of communications buoys to maintain a link with Moon base and Site R. Several hours ago, I lost contact with Site R. All buoys are working correctly. My conclusion is that the site has been compromised and external communications have been cut off.”

  No one moved or said a thing.

  Brice was the first to react. “I know that isn’t a good thing, but what are the implications?”

&nbs
p; “Neither Harry nor I can be sure,” Van said. “However, if the site has been compromised, then all the technology it holds is also potentially compromised.”

  “But aren’t there numerous safety protocols in place to defeat even a determined intruder?” asked Rose.

  “In most circumstances, yes. There is one possibility that I hate even thinking about, however.”

  “And that is?” said Bob, asking the question on everyone’s lips.

  “That Meier has used the Chad computer to access the site and the technology inside.”

  The breath seemed to leave the room. They all knew who Meier had been, or was, and they also knew about the computer they’d failed to recover in the raid on Avantek. The possibility was beyond shocking.

  “So you can see why we are headed back and at this speed. If we can go faster, we will. Harry will be trying to contact the site as we proceed, but I don’t hold out much hope. We will also be trying to intercept news from Earth in case Meier has decided to do something stupid.”

  “What would that be?” asked Rose.

  “Harry and I are convinced that Meier is behind the Chinese and Russians getting a head start in the new space race. We believe that he engineered the theft of the Passaro II, which now flies under the name Chang’e 5. His company EOS Chemicals has been the exclusive provider of fuel to both countries and has repeatedly denied fuel to the US after Space Ship 4 was shot down.

  “Finally, as Harry has suggested to me, we believe that the ALS drug Meier developed and is taking is adversely affecting his decisions. He may have an interesting plan to make more money, or he has gone mad and is setting up two major powers to destroy each other and throw the world into chaos.

  “I don’t know what we’ll find when we get back to Earth space and the Moon, but it probably won’t be good. Harry, work with engineering to watch the cable and engine performance in general. I want to accelerate to .02 light within the hour. Stan, see that your pilots get food and rest; they will likely have work to do when we get home. Brice, have a look in the armory and familiarize yourself and your men with what’s there if we have to use your team. Ross and Jimmy, the chances that we will use our weapons just went up. Pull a survey of what we have available and review your weapons system and consoles again. If you can, see if you can replace the plasma cable we took to fix the engine problem. Use the new cable we took from the Mars site. Doctor, you have been preparing for the use of your services since you came aboard. If there is anything else you need to do, do it.” Van was silent for a moment, letting what he said sink in as he looked around the room. “If there are no questions, then let’s get to it.”