Exiled to the Stars

by Zellmann, William

  Ras slowly relaxed, and finally nodded to Ron. "Thank you, sire," he said, and Ron suppressed a flare of irritation. He was certain he wasn't old enough to be called 'sire'. But more and more of the youngsters were doing it. Elaine caught the irritation, smiled, and shook her head.

  The dim red light was becoming a bit brighter. Still not up to human comfort, but brighter than it had been when they entered the cavern. Ron was also sure he could hear a faint hum of power.

  "Jazzy," he asked, "range to the unknown power source."

  "Range fifty meters," the robot replied.

  "Fifty meters and still no tracks in the dust," Ron remarked. "I think Tran was right, and somebody just left the lights on. And not just yesterday, either. Jazzy," he continued, "let's head directly for the power source. Everybody else is looking for footprints, right?"

  A chorus of "right"s answered him.

  Chapter 25

  Fourthmonth 2, Year 39 A.L.

  Ron could feel the hum of power before he even saw the building. The building itself was unremarkable, and looked almost exactly like those surrounding it, octagonal, with low stories. But it was the only building in the place that was five stories tall, and the windows, black and empty in the other buildings, emitted a strong, steady red light.

  Ron stopped the team and examined the dust. Just as deep as elsewhere, and unmarked. "Stay here," he ordered. "I’m going to circle the building. If I don't see any fresh prints, I guess it'll be time to visit the neighbors."

  Elaine was frowning, and mouthed a silent, "Be careful!" Ron gave her a reassuring smile. He was pretty sure, now, that they were alone here. But that didn't prevent him scanning his surroundings while checking the dust for tracks.

  He returned, smiling broadly. "All right," he said in a normal tone. "Who wants to be the first to visit the neighbors?

  "I volunteer Jazzy," replied Tran.

  "How generous of you to save her the trouble of volunteering herself," Ron replied. “I'm tempted to send you in to hold her hand. Jazzy," he said, turning to the robot, "Please enter the building. Report what you find on the first floor, and what arrangements exist for access to higher floors."

  The robot had to angle its upright portion to enter the low doorway, but otherwise seemed to encounter no difficulties. The others stood around the door, nervous and poised to burst into the building if one of Jazzy's alarms sounded.

  None did, and after some ten minutes, the machine emerged from the building. "No life signs were detected within the confines of the artificial construct," she began. "The first floor consists of several large rooms with low dividers separating them into 64 cubicles each. Access to upper floors is gained by the use of two ramps, each approximately two meters wide. No motion was detected. Energy source is beneath the building, but no access point was apparent."

  Ron grinned. "Thank you Jazzy. Tran, for your bravery in volunteering Jazzy for that mission, you have earned the honor of leading us into the building."

  Tran grimaced. "Gee, thanks, sire. If it's all the same to you, I'd rather have a medal."

  The building's entrance was about two meters wide, but all of them, even Elaine, had to bend to enter, since it was only slightly more than a meter high. Once inside, only Elaine was short enough to stand comfortably straight beneath the approximately two-meter-high ceiling. All of the other Explorers had to lower their heads or crouch to some degree.

  As Jazzy had mentioned, the first floor consisted of five large rooms of interlocking octagons, each containing walls about a meter high, dividing the room into what were apparently octagonal cubicles. Each cubicle contained a "saddle" similar to those in the tube car, adjoining a raised step. On each step was an octagonal box, covered with indecipherable squiggles, and several straight lines that appeared to be indicators of some sort. They could locate no source for the red light. It seemed pervasive, coming from the walls themselves. Hampered by the low ceilings and dim red light, the Explorers checked each room, ensuring their emptiness.

  The ramps Jazzy had mentioned were located along two of the walls. They were slightly less steep than human stairs, and like the floor, were covered with a soft material with a pebbly texture. The Explorers' weight caused the carpets, if that's what they were, to crumble into dust with a dry rustling sound.

  "It's pretty obvious that this place has been abandoned for a long time," Ron told the others. "But don't let your guard down. Remember, there is still power here, and there could be active automated defenses or even robots of some kind." He split the team into two five-man squads. "One squad will go up each ramp. We'll send Jazzy up first, in front of my squad," he explained. "If there is something or someone active up there, maybe she can attract their attention while Tran's squad sneaks up the other ramp."

  As Ron had expected, though, the second floor was deserted, as were the third and fourth floors. The second floor was largely open, with a forest of "saddles" like those in the car. A clear space alongside one of the octagonal walls was clear of "saddles" though. It was framed by a wall only about 30 cems high, apparently forming a sort of basin. The "basin" was the only area not covered with the knobby covering. Instead, it was apparently the same rocky substance as the ramp at the airlock tunnel.

  "We've found the showers," Tran commented.

  Ron grinned and shook his head. "Not unless they showered with an audience," he replied. "Besides, I don't see any shower heads."

  The only artifacts on this floor were an assortment of wicked-looking knives with strange-looking handles in a rack attached to the wall. They continued upward.

  The third and fourth floors were arranged similarly to the first floor, and were as uninteresting. Ron gathered the Explorers at the foot of the ramp to the fifth and highest floor.

  "I know this has been pretty boring so far," he said. "But this top floor is where the hum and the red light are coming from. Something is still running up there, so watch out for any kind of automated defenses."

  He crept up the ramp behind Jazzy, laser at the ready. He no longer expected to encounter a living being, but he was very concerned about automatic defenses that might still be powered.

  "No life signs detected," Jazzy reported. "No movement detected." Still, Ron was very cautious as his head lifted above the floor level. But there was no sound except the loud, more-felt-than-heard vibration. The red light was no stronger here than below.

  When no blaster-wielding robots appeared from the walls, Ron climbed the final meter of the ramp. The large room was dotted by more of the low-walled cubicles, but here the walls were higher, almost a meter tall. The cubicles were also larger than those below, and most held more than one of the ubiquitous saddles. The cubicles seemed to be scattered haphazardly, with no apparent system.

  The center of the floor, though, was a cleared space, surrounded by a circle of saddles, each with one of the low shelves on the outside of the circle. The center of the circle was occupied by eight more saddles, arranged in a smaller circle or, Denis remarked, perhaps an octagon.

  As below, the shelves held octagonal boxes. But nearly all of these showed activity, mostly yellow bars where the boxes below had shown only lines.

  A surprised shout from Elaine brought all the team's lasers to bear in her direction. Ron slapped down the barrel of Ras's laser, just as it discharged harmlessly into the floor. "Fool!" Ron snarled, but he didn't have time to deal with it. He was more concerned with Elaine's alarm.

  When he turned to her, she was standing rigid, her arm extended, finger pointing into one of the "office" cubicles. He hurried to her side.

  This "office" was one of the larger ones; it featured eight of the saddles. But four of them were occupied. Ron gasped, but after a moment he realized that these weren't living things, but only dead husks.

  They had finally found the builders. After a moment, Ron stepped into the 'office' to investigate. He had to suppress a shudder. Mankind has an instinctive revulsion for spiders, and these resembled nothing more than huge,
terrestrial tarantulas.

  He took a deep breath and approached the long-dead creatures. Their bodies rested neatly on the saddles, their eight legs dangling beneath them around the supporting pole. Their bodies, though, seemed different from those of the spiders he remembered seeing on the comp. They were nearly a meter long, and did not seem segmented, as Ron remembered spiders to be. Round heads hung from articulated segments resembling a neck, and four eyes stared sightlessly at the boxes before them.

  Ron stepped back and tried to visualize the creatures in life. If the legs had been carried similarly to those of terrestrial spiders, they would have been over two meters in diameter, from foot to clawed foot. The reason everything was built so low was now obvious. The claws on the front legs were adapted to provide four horizontally-opposed chitinous 'fingers' on each.

  The Explorers gathered around comparing notes on the creatures, though Ron would not let any of them touch one. "We don't know how long they've been here," he said. "Just a touch might make one fall to dust. If that's going to happen, it's going to be one of the scientists that does it, not an Explorer!"

  Tran shuddered theatrically. "I'm not a big fan of spiders," he said. "Especially intelligent, two-meter spiders. Anyone else up for finding an exit? Fast? Please?"

  Ron chuckled. "I think we can assume that if any of their cousins were around they'd have disposed of the bodies."

  Tran nodded, and shuddered again. "Yar. But how? I'll bet they ate them!"

  Elaine grimaced. "You have a nasty imagination, Tran. Sometimes I worry about you."

  "He's right about one thing, though," Ron said. "We've checked out the place. We know it's not inhabited, and we know there's power. We've done our jobs. We need to start looking for a way to the surface, so we can report in and get some eggheads out here. Anyone offering odds on whether Kerry will manage to talk her way onto the first airship?"

  Raj snorted "One to one is the best you'll get on that one!"

  "Okay," Ron said. "Let's see if we can find a way onto the roof. This is the highest building in the cavern. We might be able to see an opening from here with our field glasses."

  "Yar?" Denis replied. He gestured at the dead aliens, or natives, or whatever they were. "Maybe they stuck around because there wasn't a way out, after the cave-in."

  Ron shrugged. "Maybe. If so, we've got a long walk back ahead of us."

  "I vote for an opening!" Tran shouted.

  Ron smiled. "Be nice if it was up to a vote, wouldn't it?" The team split up, looking for an exit to the roof. Finally Ras found it: an oval outline in the low ceiling, with a rough textured pole on one edge.

  Ron nodded. "That's it. A trapdoor. And that pole would give plenty of purchase to those things' claws.

  Vito Carelli lifted Elaine, the lightest, onto his shoulders. Elaine struggled for a moment before she found a complicated latch set into the trap door's surface. In seconds, she swung the trap door open, revealing the top of the cavern some three meters above them.

  Vito boosted her through, and Elaine went seeking a place to anchor a rope. No one seemed tempted to try the pole. Finally, she was able to find an anchor, and they all climbed to the roof. All the men stretched their backs and necks, stiff and sore from the forced bending they'd endured in the low-ceilinged building. Finally, though, they could turn their attention to their surroundings.

  Seen from here, the installation was much smaller than it had appeared from the tube tunnel. If it was a city, Ron reflected, it was a small one. The cavern was a rough circle, about 150 meters in diameter. Ron estimated that the cluster of buildings measured something over a hundred from edge to edge.

  Since the building they occupied was in the center of the installation, the cavern walls were only about fifty meters away. After a moment's thought, Ron looked for and located the tunnel through which they had arrived. Near the tunnel was what appeared to be a terminal, with two more of the tube cars awaiting passengers.

  "Got it!" Raj called out. "Big ramp. See it? Just to the left of that weird tower thing?"

  Ron swung his glasses, and easily located the ramp. Raj was right. It wasn't exactly a ramp, though. Rather, a wide approach in the cavern floor appeared to end in a huge door some three or four meters wide. And only about a fifty meters away! He was very tired of dark tunnels and red-lit buildings where he couldn't even stand straight. "Looks good," he said. "Let's go!"

  They lost no time descending to the street and hurrying to the door. Caution was ignored this time; they knew they were alone.

  The huge door appeared to be a cut-off circle in shape, but they soon realized it was a complete circle, but one mounted into a deep slot in the cavern floor. The door's mechanism was similar to that on the door of what Ron was calling the "airlock tunnel." But there would be no hope of pushing this door open. Actually, they found that it rolled, and it was counterweighted somehow, so that it rolled with remarkable ease. As sunlight flooded the cavern, all the humans sighed deeply with pleasure.

  The door opened onto the floor of a large valley, floored with two-meter-high grasses. It was a nice day, and the warm sun nourished their Planetborn bodies.

  "Tran, Raj, Guard," Ron snapped. "Ras, run back to the tunnel and bring up a spray tank. Everyone stay inside the door until we can get some spray up here and clear a safe zone."

  Tran and Raj jumped, and their lasers snapped to the ready. With a longing look at the bright sunlight, Ras pounded off along the edge of the cavern toward the tunnel. The rest of the Explorers simply luxuriated in the warm, nourishing sunlight until Ras returned a few minutes later.

  They sprayed an area some four meters in diameter on the paved apron outside the door. Ron found that communication was once again possible, and he called Ken.

  "It's not a city or a town," he reported. "I'd say it's more an installation, something like a mine or power station. There is a power source operating, but of course, we didn't try to mess with that."

  Ken nodded. "Good work, Ron. The Council voted to recall the big airship and remove the R65C temporarily. I've got a feeling we're going to need all the air transport we can muster."

  "Well," Ron replied, "make sure Michiko is on the first airship. We've got bodies!"

  Ken's tone was shocked. "Bodies? Are you sure?" He waved a hand. "Sorry. Of course you're sure." He paused. "What were they like?"

  Ron shrugged. "Think spiders with meter-long bodies and a two-meter legspan, and you'll be pretty close,"

  "Spiders," Ken said reflectively, "hmm." He straightened. "All right," he said, "Don't let any of your people put any spider pics or vids on the 'net. I'll make sure Michiko gets on that airship if I have to hold Kerry off with a blaster!"

  Ron chuckled. "I was trying to get odds on whether Kerry would talk her way onto the first airship, but nobody thought the odds were better than one to one."

  Ken grinned. "She sure doesn't make it easy to refuse her," he said. "But I'll handle it. Expect all the airships. Is there a place we can use for a marshalling area?

  Ron nodded. "There's a large door opening on a nice, wide valley. No trees, just two-meter high grasses. Maybe we can do a burn-off, and follow it up with spray. But you'd better send up the helis with more Explorers and more spray, along with fence and those 'mole repeller' things."

  Ken nodded. "Will do. Who's in charge of the Explorers?"

  Ron looked pained. "Sorry, sire. I should have told you before. It's Ben Pendar."

  Ken nodded. "Ron, this is the biggest thing to happen to the colony since the plague. We've got to keep it from getting out of hand. I might be able to keep Kerry off the first airship, but I can't guarantee the second. Don't lie to her, and don't try to hide anything. I'll probably tell her about the bodies, myself. I think I can count on her to help me control the excitement and panic. Actually, I'd like to sit on the bodies until Susan could make a dry, scientific report, but I don't dare. How many bodies are there?"

  "Four, sire."

  Ken nodded. "Well, if
Michiko wants to put one or more of them on one of the helis to get it back faster, let her. Meanwhile, it'll be the same thing as at the cave tunnel: you're in charge of safety. Angel will probably head up the science team again, but Michiko will be a special case Whatever she wants, she gets. Right?"

  Ron nodded. "Got it, sire."

  "All right," Ron told the other Explorers, "In a few hours, we're going to have visitors. Lots of visitors. We need a camp like the one at the cave tunnel, but larger. Let's spray a nice big starting area. Then Tran, you're our resident pyromaniac. Start us a grass fire that won't stop short of the colony itself."

  "Got it, sire," Tran replied, rubbing his hands together with a theatrically villainous cackle.

  Ron rolled his eyes. "The rest of you know what to do. You all worked on the cave tunnel camp. We've got fencing, alarms, and mole repellers on the way. And watch out for the boojums!"

  With many reluctant groans, the Explorers set to work. They sprayed an area covering several hundred square meters before Tran, with his usual theatrics, used his laser to start the fire. The dead vegetation whooshed! into flame, igniting the sprayed area in seconds. The flame front slowed when it reached the living grass, but by then, the fire was well established.

  The smoke finally forced the Explorers to retreat to the cavern, and close the door after them. After half an hour, though, Ron dared wait no longer, and he reopened the door. The helis would be arriving soon, with supplies and more Explorers.

  The fire had moved a satisfactory distance down the valley, and the Explorers began spraying a landing area for the helis.

  The first heli's wheels had not yet touched down when Pedro Johnson jumped to the ground. "I've brought another ten Explorers and a big bunch of fencing," he told Ron. He glanced at the huge door open behind the Explorers. "You sure set off an explosion at the colony," he continued. "What'd you find? Gold?"

  Ron grinned. "Better. I'll tell you all about it after we get this camp set up!"

  Pedro frowned. "You mean you didn't get us hotel reservations? Ken promised me a suite!"