by Letts,Jason
“Let’s find out if he knows what he’s talking about. That surface over there should be good for landing,” Loris said, picking up his helmet and beginning to undo his straps.
A few other officers from the cockpit prepared to exit the ship. Together, they filed through the doorway toward the main hatch. Panic put her arm on Loris’s shoulder, holding him back for a moment.
“You know, you don’t have to go out there. You’re in command of all of us, and nobody would’ve thought twice about it if you wanted to stay on the Magellan and direct from there,” she said in hushed tones.
“I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself if I sent my crew out into an unstable environment and barked orders at them from the comfort of an armchair. We don’t have enough people for anyone to be doing any less than the most they can to help.”
She looked at him and smiled faintly before letting her hand slide off his shoulder.
Helmets on and gear ready, Loris, Panic, and two other crew members entered the airlock and watched the hatch door open in front of them.
“If you need anything, just tug on the line,” Lopez said from his seat at the nav station in the cockpit. “I’ll keep the engine running.”
The excursion team dragged an unspooling tow line with them toward the gaping elevator shaft. Gravity was virtually non-existent, and all around them small chunks of cement, office supplies, and Unified documents floated near the surface. Reaching the shaft made moving easier. Their boots could be magnetized in rhythm as they walked. The quartet spent only a moment at the precipice to see how far their lamps could pierce the darkness. Loris nodded to the others and took the plunge first.
The Unified Command Center had fifteen subterranean floors, each with an area of about one-hundred meters in length and width. Armand Iotache could provide no guidance about where their prizes might be or in truth if they even resided here among Unified’s best-hidden secrets. Loris was prepared for the laborious prospect of searching for a needle in a haystack.
The team started their search at the very bottom level, where the fallen elevator had crashed and lodged itself in the way. Panic used a torch to cut through the ceiling of the elevator car. Once they made it inside, she was about to go through the same process of cutting through the steel door to the bottom floor, which was already slightly ajar, but Loris stopped her.
“Sometimes the simplest approach is the best,” he said.
He grabbed a section of the elevator handrail that had torn off in the fall and jammed one end into the thin opening. Grunting as he exerted himself, he pushed hard and pried the door open enough for them to slip through. While that may have saved them a few minutes, a few steps into the long hallway made it clear that this was just the beginning of the doors they would need to get through. A few light fixtures in the ceiling flickered and sparked.
“It’s possible the backup generators are still running,” said Vincent Price, who along with Cary Redhook made up the rest of their team. “If we can find a functioning console, I’ll be able to reroute power and make getting around in here a little easier.”
“You know how to gain access to the Unified emergency systems?” Loris asked, surprised.
“I came up through the maintenance and computer engineering corps. It’s not an accident I’m here with you,” he said.
“Good man,” Loris said, patting him on the back. It was an attempt to diffuse the embarrassment of not knowing the capabilities of his crew. Getting thrown headfirst into this continued to punish him.
Although a functioning terminal was nowhere to be found on the bottom floor, there were plenty of other curiosities that got their attention. The section they were in seemed to be dedicated to genetic research. They entered a large laboratory and marveled at what their lamps spotted in the center of the room inside what was a vacuum container. Scanning around, they glimpsed complicated formulas and theories scrawled on wipe boards.
Inside the vacuum container was a tiny sprout, green but looking like it was made out of stone.
“If I’m reading this right, this plant was fortified to be able to withstand exposure to space, to grow in it even, with only a small attachment that would deliver water at a rate of one drop a month. It took five years for it to break through the seed and extend its first leaf. The goal was to develop orbiting farms that would further enable deep space travel. They call it a rock fruit plant. Sounds appetizing,” Panic said.
Loris used the tough elbow guard to smash one of the panels of the vacuum container. He collected the plant and deposited it in a container on his hip.
“We’ve got to take this with us,” he said, amazed.
The next floor up contained research on the Silica. As soon as they made it into the hallway, one greeted them from within a glass case spanning from floor to ceiling. The alien towered over them, its tough silicon exterior shifting colors along a spectrum of dark blue to purple depending on the angle of the light. Anger swelled within Loris, tempting him to find a way to spit on it.
“Look at its eyes,” Loris said. “It’s in carbon stasis but still alive. It won’t be for long unless it can find oxygen soon. It won’t be able to hold its breath for more than another day.”
They noticed a small plaque at the bottom of the case naming their specimen. That apparently hadn’t been enough and the word was carved onto its right shin.
“Rasher? Why give it a name? They all look the same to me. Godforsaken bane of the universe,” Panic said. She had a point.
The search continued through several more floors without much luck. Intermittent reports came in from the other ships about things they found and accidents they had, fortunately none of them resulting in any serious consequences. The Hudson couldn’t find any signs of human survivors. Not even those already in orbit were able to move quickly enough to escape the blast zone.
Some of the subterranean floors suffered damage so minimal that the lights and doors still functioned flawlessly.
“This is what I’ve been looking for,” Price said, almost giddy, as a few taps on a console brought it to life.
“Are you going to reroute the power?” Panic asked. She checked the charge remaining on her torch, which had seen a lot of action and would need to be replenished soon.
“I’ve got a better idea,” Price said. He grinned back at them. “Let’s cut to the chase and see if we can search for the location of the probes. Down here, I should have access to most of Unified’s classified data.”
“Great,” Loris said. “Then we can head straight there, hook it up to the tow line, and get out of here. I’ve heard the rock rumbling and I wouldn’t mind getting out of here ahead of schedule.”
But searching out the location of the alien probes wasn’t as easy as it would seem. After a while, Price was left slapping the side of the machine.
“I don’t think they’re here. Maybe they’ve been moved and the location was kept off the database.”
“Isn’t there anything about them on here?” Loris asked.
“Oh yeah, there’s a fair amount of information about the probes’ landing points, flight path, even pictures of the exterior, but there are also descriptions about it being made of a strange material that defies photography. None of these pictures show us the runes on the probe.”
Loris clenched his teeth.
“Knowing which way they came from is something,” he said. “If they’re not here, maybe the information from this terminal will be enough. Can we get that transferred back to the Cortes?”
Price clicked his tongue and tapped a few more buttons.
“The encryption of the classified system won’t even let the Cortes download any data, and there’s no way for me to bypass that without extensive programming time. The best option is for me to localize as much data as possible before we truck this entire console back to the ship.”
“OK, let’s do it.”
While Loris, Panic, and Redhook prepared to separate the console from the wall, Price h
aphazardly selected terabytes of data to take with them, caring only that the details about the extraterrestrial probes were included.
Sometime around the middle of the data transfer, an unfamiliar voice came over the com.
“Commander Roderick, this is Yamaguchi. We’re picking up a flurry of signals on our scanners.”
Loris felt like he’d just been dowsed with cold water. He didn’t need to think to know what the Chief of Defense was telling him. Down here, could there be a worse place to learn of an imminent attack?
“The Silica, damn. How much time do we have?”
“Five minutes, if that. We’re readying our defenses, but the Magellan will not be able to withstand this without the fleet. The only positive is that they’re coming from the opposite side of the planetary fragments.”
“All other ships must withdraw immediately and regroup at the Magellan. We’ll be there as soon as we can,” he barked over the com.
Panic and the others looked at him anxiously.
“Double time, come on. Let’s get this out of here now,” he said. Panic fired up the torch one more time and was about to sever the console from the wall when Price gasped.
“Wait, I’ve found one of the probes. It’s here,” he said.
“Are you kidding me? Where is it?” Loris asked.
“Three floors up. It’s in the back, but I can get the doors,” Price said. His hands were shaking over the console, ready to act.
Loris felt like he didn’t have time to breathe. He knew from his days as a fighter pilot that the Silica were never to be taken for granted, and being anything less than perfectly ready and in position was a reliable way to die young. Then there was that one time when he was the only one from his squadron to make it home. But if they left without the probe they might never get another chance to come back.
“OK, Price and Redhook, you two will take the console back to the Cortes. Panic and I will go after the probe with the tow line. It’s going to be tight but we don’t have any other choice.
Price nodded and began pounding on the controls.
“As soon as I’m done with the doors, you can slice the wall mount,” Price said to Panic, who fired up the torch and held it close. “Now!”
The flame melted through the steel, leaving the wide and thin computer screen floating in the air. Redhook began pulling it toward the elevator shaft after the rest of the team.
Taking Panic’s hand, Loris let the tow line pull them up three floors to the gaping doorway faster than they could make it with their magnetic boots. As they swam down the hall, he glanced back to see Price and Redhook continuing up toward the ship. They’d make it with no problem, but then what would the ship do when it was caught in close quarters by a swarm of Silica fighters?
“Keep an eye out for that open door,” Loris said, his eyes darting down every hallway. The halls were lined with vinyl tiles and had little other than doorknobs they could push off from. Their progress was painfully slow, each stroke a struggle to get closer to their destination.
“There,” Panic said when they reached the next intersection, pointing to an open set of double doors on their left. They barely made it to the room when Yamaguchi came through on the com.
“The Silica have reached the planet’s outer fragments and have changed course toward us.”
Loris tried to chart where the Unified Command Center landed between the Magellan and the approaching enemies. It wasn’t dead in the path of the Silica, but there was no doubt they’d be noticed.
“Lopez, if any of them turn to engage you, I want you to take off and raise the shields.”
“If the shields are up, you won’t be able to get aboard the ship,” Lopez said.
“I know that, but we can’t lose the Cortes.”
“We can’t lose you!”
When they entered the room, they found a black square about three meters tall and wide. To say it was black didn’t do it justice. It looked like the blackness sucked in the light around it, giving it a fuzzy appearance as if it were part of a dream. Only after a few moments of staring did they see the large runes covering the sides.
Loris’s excitement at seeing the probe immediately met with sharp disappointment when he saw that it was locked into some kind of base.
“Go ahead and cut it out,” Loris said.
“No, it would take me an hour to get all the way around it, and this torch only has juice left for a couple more cuts. We’ll have to find another way,” Panic said.
Loris lowered his head and wished someone could give him a hand when one tapped him on the shoulder.
“Ahh!”
The body of a Unified researcher had been floating above the doorway inside the room with the probe. Around his neck was a cord attached to a key card. Loris shuddered with relief as he took the key card and fed it into a reader near the probe’s restraints. Panic began securing the tow line to the exposed upper half of the probe.
After a few taps on the small control panel, the locks on the probe released and shifted apart. The probe began to float in the vacuum of gravity.
“Grab hold of the line,” Panic said.
“Lopez, start reeling it in,” Loris said once he was in position.
“Sir, a couple of Silica ships have left the others to pursue us,” he said.
This was going to be too close. It took time to squeeze the probe through the double doors, but once they made it to the hallway they began to pick up speed. Soon they were flying through while they held on from behind the probe, which occasionally crashed into the walls as it hurtled toward the elevator shaft. While the speed was welcome, it was also an indication that the Cortes had taken off.
The walls shook around them as something, most likely a missile, slammed into the surface above. The probe snaked into the gaping elevator shaft and began its ascent, pulling Loris and Panic up with them to find out what was going on above.
“We’re taking fire from one of the ships, and if I’m not mistaken the other is trying to land,” Lopez said.
“Are they coming after us?” Panic gasped.
The darkness in the shaft receded as they approached the surface. All at once they were flung out into open space and sailing out of the destroyed Unified Command building toward the Cortes.
“Brace for impact!” Lopez said only an instant before something collided with the probe, shaking them violently and sending them spinning in another direction.
“The tow line has been cut!” Panic said.
Loris attempted to drag the tips of his toes against the surface to hold them in place. The spinning slowed enough for them to see not just a Silica ship parked a short distance away but two of the monsters hulking toward them. They wore small oxygen tanks on their backs that had a tube running to masks over their faces, but Loris had his eyes on their extremely large and strong hands.
They bounded off the surface toward them with fingers like steel vice grips outstretched. Loris managed to hold on to the section of tow line wrapped around the probe and pushed off enough to kick his attacker in the torso, knocking it back. Panic dove at the other, sliding under its arm with her torch activated, slicing a wide gash from wrist to shoulder.
Loris wished he could’ve heard it scream as it writhed in agony. Too many of his friends had died at the hands of these wretched creatures, and getting a little payback always felt good. But Panic wasn’t done. The Silica swung wildly at her with its other arm but connected only with the torch’s red flame. Soon that arm was floating away out into space. She was about to drill the torch into the center of its chest when the flame suddenly vanished.
“Shit,” she said as she stowed the depleted tool at her side. All she could do was push it away. That particular Silica didn’t seem to have any intention of returning to the fight.
A blast a few feet to Loris’s left reminded them that these two attackers weren’t all they had to worry about. He glanced up at the Silica fighter hovering above at about a forty-five degree angle. The Co
rtes moved to get in the way just in time to block a couple more shots.
“I can drop the shield and quickly pick you up,” Lopez suggested, but Loris knew that with the probe, getting aboard wouldn’t be fast even under the best of circumstances.
Loris and Panic danced with the remaining Silica, which pressed forward and searched for an opening to strike, when they saw something emerging from the command building. Another Silica waded towards them through open space, the one that had been encased in the lower levels.
“The carbon stasis wore off. Rasher’s going to be angry,” he said.
“We’ve got more coming out from the landed ship,” Panic said. There was no way they’d be able to fend off a handful of them.
“Sir, you’ve got to trust me on this one. We don’t have time to deliberate,” Lopez said. “Get ready!”
The Cortes vented its smokescreen toward the two enemy ships before dropping its shield and repositioning directly over the probe. The instant the hatch opened, Loris and Panic dove for it, but Loris wasn’t fast enough to escape the grasp of the Silica he’d kicked. It clamped down on his calf, flooding his brain with a searing pain. One of the Cortes’ legs impaled the alien clear through the chest, then separated into five blades that carved the creature into chunks.
Panic pulled Loris into the hatch and then into the ship, where he collapsed against the floor and reached for his injured leg. He was surprised his foot hadn’t somehow popped off. The shields were back up once the other legs had a good handle on the probe, which Redhook was there to handle. Panic helped Loris back toward the cockpit.
“You did great out there,” he said, trying to forget his pain.
“I grew up fighting four older brothers,” she said. “Proportionally, they were bigger.”
Another crew member gave Loris a shot to help with the pain and began treating his leg once he’d limped into his seat and strapped in. They got the call that the probe had been properly stowed.
“It’s time we give these guys a proper introduction to the Cortes,” Loris said, trying to swallow the rest of the pain.