"Roughly the size of commercial jets," Dan mused.
"Guardians approaching."
Here we go. Zane tried to mimic Patricia's apparent calm. Maybe lacking the full range of human emotion could be a blessing?
"Hypothetical identification request received," said Patricia. "I've responded."
While Patricia stood like someone waiting for a Sunday afternoon bus, everyone else was sitting at or beyond the edge of their seats. But her next words deflated their tension in mid-bloom.
"The Guardians have ceased their approach. No indication of weapons preparation. Identification has apparently been accepted."
Zane sagged in his seat. The air in the room warmed as held breaths were released.
"The Guardians are holding their positions one kilometer away," said Patricia.
"Maybe they're waiting for instructions," said Dan.
"That's possible. A search through our recordings of their communications indicates several candidates for commands, but almost all of them appear related to attack and defense."
Zane rubbed his hands together, attempting to contain a burst of optimism. So many things left to do and so many ways to fail. One step at a time.
"Patricia, check the walls and ceiling for any sign of an exit door," he said. "We'll start at the nearest wall and work our way around. Unless you or anyone else has a better idea."
"I've identified a symbol on the nearest wall, one-half kilometer away."
"Let's take a look," said Zane. "Slowly."
They skirted the tops of the ships at a few KPH. The magnified image of the symbol – an amicable-looking circle enclosing a V-shape – soon loomed in the fore windows as the Cheyenne eased to a hover before it.
"Not seeing any seams," said Malcolm.
Dan snorted. "Would you expect to?"
"Emitting variations of the signal that opened the surface aperture," said Patricia. Several seconds passed. "Captain, the Guardians have resumed motion in our direction."
The swarm flew into view in front of them near the symbol on the wall, gathering into a tight, slowly rotating circle. The circle started to glow a bright crimson. What appeared to be a triangle formed within the circle.
"They're matching the symbol on the wall," said Dan.
From their forward cameras, the Guardians' circle and V appeared to fuse with the symbol, though they were many meters apart. Then the symbol on the wall began to glow.
A section of the wall disappeared. Zane had no sense of it opening. A blink of his eye and it was gone. The dark space within lit up, revealing an empty chamber composed of the same bluish walls.
"I am detecting significant amounts of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide and other gases," said Patricia. "The implication is that an environment possessing breathable air may lie beyond the room. The rush of gases out of the room suggests they were drawn from another environment with a substantial pressure difference."
"It's a compression-decompression chamber," said Dan.
"I agree," said Patricia.
"I'd say that's just about an engraved invitation." Zane rubbed his jaw, wondering what dangers he might be missing. "Can the Cheyenne fit in there?"
"Yes, sir. The chamber is sixty by sixty meters with a twenty meter ceiling."
"We'll take the shuttle in first," said Zane. "David, Dana, Dan – you're with me."
"I think I should go with you, Captain," said Patricia. "For that, we'd need to take the Cheyenne."
"If something goes wrong in there..."
"Then it's probable something will go wrong out here. If you don't bring the ship in, I will lose communication with you, and you may need me to communicate with whatever or whoever's inside."
"You have a point." Zane considered that for a moment before nodding toward the entrance. "Okay, then. Here we go. Take us in, Andrea."
"Yes, sir."
The ship hummed as Andrea fired up the Anti-Gravity Drive. They lifted a few meters off the floor and floated through an opening. They moment they were inside, the outer wall sealed behind them.
"Room is pressurizing," said Patricia. "The air is significantly lower in oxygen and higher in nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane, but within breathable parameters for humans for a short period. Gravity is now .997 g."
"Interesting," Malcolm murmured. "Breathable atmosphere and different gravities in the ship bay and here? And why are both so close to Earth's?"
"I don't know," said Patricia.
"Where are the air pressurization vents?" Dan asked.
"The air is coming evenly through the walls through micro-valves."
The wall before them vanished. They were gazing into what reminded Zane of a vast hospital ward late at night: countless prone figures extended in rows as far as he could see, each figure suspended in a rainbow-colored mist illuminated by dozens of multi-colored lights.
"What are we looking at, Patricia?" Zane asked in a hoarse voice barely above a whisper.
"Bodies of roughly humanoid shape and size, Captain. No life signs. Breathable air. Temperature, 7.2 Celsius. Distance to far wall, .34 kilometers."
"Give us a close up of the nearest bodies, Patricia, and tell us whatever you can about it."
A holograph materialized in the usual forward cabin area, capturing the nearest alien in profile. Zane's first impression was an actor made up to look like a fly in one of the SF human fly movies: multi-faceted spherical eyes under a prominent, fuzz-covered forehead. He thought the nose, mouth, and basic shape of the face was strikingly human. Or maybe that's wishful thinking. On a second look, the nose curled up into a thick, porcine-like shape ending with three holes, and the mouth was more of a gash, like a crooked grin carved in a Halloween pumpkin. What might've been wings – near-transparent, iridescent flaps – jutted from its shoulders and sides. Whorls of fur or its equivalent traveled in and around blueish-green mounds of flesh or exoskeleton that extended down into legs that looked more smoothly human than insect-segmented.
"I can't penetrate the fields surrounding them," said Patricia. "The beings appear to be insectile with some humanoid characteristics, but without cellular analysis I'm only speculating. Nor can I tell if they're in a form of suspended animation or dead."
"No sign of the Peacemaker's crew?"
"No, sir."
"Any indications of danger? Weapons systems, guards?"
"No, Captain. But I would proceed with the assumption that defensive measures for the entities are in place."
Zane mulled it over.
"Okay," he said. "We'll take a preliminary look. A cautious look. David and Dana, you're with me. Dana, bring along your BADD kit."
"Weapons?" Mallory questioned. "Aug suits?"
Zane shook his head. "I don't see a threat, and if they do wake up, I don't want their first sight to be armed aliens. Might send the wrong message."
They stepped out into the cool air. It had an odd, slightly off taste and odor – the kind of smell Zane associated with the inside of a barn housing cattle or maybe a diesel space heater. But he didn't feel lightheaded or any other negative effects. They continued on to the alien bodies.
The view from the ship's holograph didn't begin to do justice to the rows of bodies extending through varicolored mists into a black horizon. It reminded Zane of that scene from Gone with the Wind – a movie his ex-wife had forced him to watch – where the camera panned out on a huge field of battle casualties. But this dwarfed that. There had to be thousands of people in here. Maybe more.
The holograph also didn't do justice to the beings themselves. They were both far more alien and shockingly human. To Zane the alien insect features weirdly emphasized the human-like attributes – and vice versa. Also, for some reason Zane hadn't noticed that the bodies weren't resting on a platform; they were just floating. Since he couldn't feel any breeze, he assumed each person was held in an altered gravity field.
"Looks like someone grafted a giant fly onto a person," said Mallory. "This guy looks like Je
ff Goldblum in The Fly – except better-looking."
"Yeah." Zane shot him a smile. "I was thinking the exact same thing."
"Just our desire to push what we see into familiar patterns," Dana chuckled.
"The Alphas and Zetis share some of our DNA," Zane said.
"That's because they helped create us."
"Hell, maybe they did, too." Mallory grinned at Zane. "Might explain why women are so damn flighty."
"Ha. I'd forgotten your incredible wit, David." Dana broke out a calculator-sized tablet from her waist equipment pack. "One way to find out."
"Hold on," said Zane. "I'd like to see how this system responds to an incursion before we start beaming lasers at the bodies. Empty your tool pack."
Dana removed the tools carefully. Zane swung the small pack in a short arc toward the body. It bounced off the rainbow-colored mist and dropped to the floor. Mallory retrieved it, turning it over in his hands.
"No damage that I can see."
"Okay," said Zane. "Try the analyzer, Dana."
Dana raised the tablet-sized device in one hand. She tapped in some commands and then shook her head.
"The laser's not penetrating the field around the body."
"All right. Let's not mess with the bodies more now. We'll bring the shuttle in and check if the Peacemaker crew is here."
A short while later the crew watched from the Cheyenne as the shuttle flew remotely over the rows of aliens, its "human-recognition" software complimenting the crew's eyes.
"Is it just me," said Mallory, "or is this starting to look like a case of being asleep at the wheel?"
"Or dead at the wheel," said Dan. "I can't imagine any gravity dampening technology that could adequately protect human-sized beings from the level of shock generated by a solid hit from a planet roughly the size of Mars with a relative velocity of at least twenty thousand KPH."
"The scan of the chamber is complete," Patricia announced. "No humans are present."
Zane faced her. "What's your best guess, Patricia? Are these people sleeping or dead?"
"If they're dead, why devote so much energy to preserving them?" she replied.
"Why do we preserve Lenin - or Elvis?" Dan asked.
"The Alphas did say that Animus is some form of relic," said Andrea.
"If they're alive," said Zane, "and if we could wake them up..."
"They might be willing to help us," said Dana. "In fact, I'm betting they would."
"Assuming they have the capability of altering Animus's orbit." Dan gave her a skeptical shake of his head. "No mean feat, even for this level of technology."
"Let's check out another symbol for a door," said Zane. "Hopefully, the Guardians will continue to provide the key."
Patricia sent out the opening signal that had gotten them inside, and the wall behind them opened obligingly. They backed the Cheyenne out and flew across the hangar toward the nearest symbol on an opposite wall. One of the doorways, Zane prayed, would lead them to the Peacemaker crew.
They hovered before the second symbol, and once again the Guardians appeared, quickly performing their circle and V dance. A doorway appeared, and they floated in to a chamber of the same size as before.
But when the wall dissolved this time, after the pressurization was complete, the crew gazed with stunned expressions out at the primeval tableau: lush forests, overgrown ferns, an African savannah.
"Detecting multiple life signatures – none human," Patricia spoke into the stunned silence. "Ranging in size from .4 kilogram to eight thousand kilograms."
Dan released a low whistle. "That's around elephant size."
"How far does the enclosure extend?" Zane asked.
"Ceiling, 183 kilometers. Far wall, 4873 kilometers. I can't detect the other walls from here."
Zane nodded to Andrea. "Take us out there."
They coasted forward. As they approached the opening, the ship slowed and then bumped to a stop. The humming of the AG drive rose to a feverish pitch.
"We've run into some form of force field," said Andrea. "No clue what it's made of, but in AG mode we're stopped dead."
"They don't want the ship in there," said Dan.
Zane weighed their options. "Set it down, Andrea. Try sending the shuttle in there."
"Yes, sir."
The shuttle flew remotely out of the launch bay and ran into the same invisible barrier. Patricia guided it back into the ship.
"All right," said Zane. "We'll try it on foot. I can't believe they'd let us in this far and shut us out here. Since we're detecting large life forms, we'll break out the mini-lasers and kinetic rifles and suit up in PAS. Also, Planet Packs, in case we need to do some serious walking."
As they tugged on the form-fitting Parnell Augment Suits – part-armor, part-skeletal/muscle exo-skeletons that could amplify natural body motions up to five times – Zane tried to remember the last time he'd worn an aug suit or carried any kind of personal weapon on a mission. The only thing that came to mind was a meeting with the Chinese, Russians, French, and British a few years back on the King International Space Station. There was some grousing by the Chinese and Russian officers over the Americans wearing augment suits and armed with mini-lasers and assault NDs, but they had little choice but to take it. The U.S. had been the first to recover downed alien craft and to forge a fragile relationship with two alien civilizations and had built a lead in harvesting alien technology that endured to today.
But the Zetis and Alphas weren't so accepting about meeting armed parties. It violated their "dress code," as Colonel Hurtle had put it. One such meeting had occurred decades ago. When heavily armed Space Commandos showed up with high-ranking officers, violating the agreed terms of the meeting, the alien emissaries had departed without a word, ignoring General Dunlap's protests that this was "standard procedure." Later, the President had tried to explain that Americans had a special, near-sacrosanct relationship with guns, but his words had fallen on deaf ears. Two years passed before the Zetis and Alphas agreed to another meeting. The lesson had been learned.
Their alien so-called friends had been remarkably reticent on the subject of life in the universe and what kind of hostile forces they might encounter, so USSC did what people always did when they headed out into the unknown: they brought every damn weapon they could carry. So far, on this mission, that didn't seem to be working out too well.
Outside, they stood near the nose of the Cheyenne, facing outward, everyone seeming hesitant to take the first step into the invisible barrier. Zane took a steadying breath and stepped forward, feeling no resistance as he departed the chamber. He turned back to the others. Mallory, shouldering his Dual Armament Hyperkinetic (DAH) rifle and scowling as if embarrassed he hadn't taken the first through, followed Zane into the bright daylight.
Sunlight. Zane shaded his eyes and peered up at the single yellow orb – an exact match to Earth's as far as he could see. One by one, his crewmates followed his example.
The sun wasn't the only familiar thing in the sky. What appeared to be a flock of birds – extremely large birds, if that's what they were – passed over a forest to their...north? A creature that might've been an elephant – or woolly mammoth, Zane thought – eased out of sight into a grove of trees a couple of kilometers distant.
"Where's the sign?" Mallory asked.
Zane frowned at him. "What sign?"
"'Welcome to Jurassic Park.'"
Neither Zane nor anyone else cracked a smile.
A breeze ruffled through the group and nearby grass, which appeared trampled down. Animal or human? He resisted a burst of hope. The wall extended as far as they could see in both directions, and so did the grasses and trees and what looked like a mountain range in the distance. If Zane had written a list of possible things they'd find in the core of Animus, this would not have made the list.
They pointed their laser distance-finders in opposite directions down the wall to measure the distance between the other two walls, getting figures of 2,201
and 2,447 kilometers for a grand total of 4448 kilometers across.
"4873 times 4448." Dan whistled. "21,675,104 square kilometers! Christ – that's bigger than Russia."
"And that's just this enclosure," said Malcolm. "We're only down two thousand kilometers from the surface. The available surface area here would potentially be larger than Earth's."
"The land curve corresponds to a sphere slightly larger than Earth," said Patricia. She stepped over to the trampled grass, directing her Biological Analysis and Detection Device (BADD) downward. "I'm detecting human skin and hair fragments. DNA matches several members of the Peacemaker crew."
"All right!" Mallory's voice rose in a triumphant growl. He shaded his eyes, gazing at the forest two kilometers distant. "I wonder where the hell they went."
"I can't detect them," said Dana. "But we should be able to track them with the BADDs and visual clues."
"We're going to need an Aerial Transceiver Surveillance Drone to guarantee continued contact with the ship," Dan stated.
"Fine. We'll go back for one – assuming the force field will let us carry it through."
"They let us carry our weapons and aug suits through."
The words had scarcely left Dan's mouth when the wall rematerialized behind them. Mallory grunted out a curse. Dana gasped as Patricia started tottering drunkenly, eyes rolling back in her head. She took two staggering, straight-legged Frankenstein steps and collapsed.
Zane dropped down beside her, startled by the shock of emotion. It was like Keira dying all over again. He lifted her head, chilled by her expressionless face. Dana stooped beside him, touching her throat, peeling back one eyelid.
"Her pulse is strong. No sign of a stroke."
"It's the signal," said Dan. "She just got cut off from Patricia's mainframe. The NDs will keep her going. She's fine."
Zane's breath drained out in relief.
The opening in the wall reappeared. Patricia coughed, her eyes blinking open. She sat up into Zane's arms. He helped her to her feet.
"Sorry," she said. "I should've anticipated that."
"Let's get you back to the ship."
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