Helium 3: Death from the Past (Helium-3 Book 2)

by Brandon Q. Morris

  “Understood. The inclination is a measurement of how the field lines are aligned with the surface of the planet. It is ninety degrees at the poles. Here, near the equator, it is close to zero degrees.”

  “Thank you,” Alexa said, “from Kasfok.”

  “Could you speak in a different voice when translating for Kasfok?”

  “That’s a good idea, Kimi.” Alexa lowered her voice.

  “So what now?” she asked, from Kasfok, in her newly adapted voice.

  Alexa answered the question herself. “We’re looking for an elevator down.”

  “And how do we recognize it?” asked Norok.

  “Because there’s functioning machinery inside,” Alexa explained. “The computer and all the elevators are powered from inside the planet.”

  “So we have to crawl into every ruin and check?” asked Kasfok.

  “No. I should recognize the energy output from the outside. Which one of you is carrying me?”

  “Me,” said Kasfok. “Lift the column onto my back. I will then fasten it to myself.”

  They had decided to search to the south first. It didn’t make much difference. In retrospect, the park where they had landed turned out to be a true oasis. Marching through the rubble-strewn streets of the city proved to be exhausting. Only Kasfok wasn’t complaining. He even seemed to enjoy using his climbing skills. Kimi would have preferred to fly, but there was no point. Alexa couldn’t analyze the buildings they passed if they went that fast. They had to walk.

  “Will we meet people in the computer?” asked Kimi.

  “That’s very unlikely,” Alexa replied.

  “But couldn’t some have taken refuge there from the bombing?”

  “That would be possible. But three hundred thousand orbits have passed since then. There’s no food or water down there. Whoever escaped into the computer back then would have had to venture back to the surface long ago.”

  Kimi looked at the destroyed houses of the people. They all had rectangular openings and reminded her of the dwellings that some insect species constructed. I wonder if anyone ever actually lived in them? The houses looked cramped, and the ceilings were so low that Kimi could only stand inside with her head down. At least there was something on the flat roofs that remotely resembled nest constructions.

  Probably the people had possessed flying machines with which they could move from house to house without having to climb down and then back up again. Kimi imagined how people must have slept close together at night in these primitive nests. It was a contradiction she couldn’t understand—on the one hand, they constructed giant spaceships, and on the other, they had to share such cramped quarters.

  “Over there,” Alexa said.

  “An elevator?” Norok asked.

  “A phone booth.”

  “What’s a phone booth?” asked Kimi and Norok, almost in sync.

  “That was a joke. Was it that bad? I don’t know what’s over there, but it gives off energy. So—”

  “—we should go see,” Norok said.

  Alexa had pointed to a gate that was inside the outer wall of a building several spans high. The object that was giving off energy was behind it. They examined the gate. Norok pushed down on a metal bar that was the only possible opening mechanism, but the gate remained closed. Norok jiggled the bar. Then he tried to push the gate open, but his strength was not enough.

  “Will you give me a hand?” he asked.

  Kimi braced herself against him. She smelled his sweat and thought about how long they hadn’t been together. She pushed with all her might, but the gate didn’t budge. Norok took a few steps back and looked up. Then he took a running start and took off. He flew two laps over the building, then returned to them.

  “I couldn’t find another entrance.”

  “Then is this building, of all buildings, the only one far and wide that survived the bombardment?” asked Kasfok.

  “Maybe they fixed it after that,” Alexa said. It still seemed as if she was talking to herself in the column.

  “Then it must have been essential,” Kimi said. “After a war like this, all resources are scarce.”

  “Access to the supercomputer was crucial to people,” Alexa said.

  “But if we can’t get in here, we’re just wasting time,” Norok said. “We’d better look for another entrance into the computer.”

  “Can someone take the column off me?” Kasfok pleaded.

  “What? The place on your back is very comfortable for me.”

  “I’m sorry, but with what I’m about to do, you’re hindering me.” Kasfok turned his head slightly and spat a thin slime over the column.

  “Great. Now I have to get slimed, too,” Alexa complained.

  Kasfok laughed. “The slime dissolves the goo,” he explained.

  “Why are you laughing?” asked Norok.

  “Slime—goo, you understand? Now take the pillar from me.”

  Norok followed the request. Kasfok stretched all his limbs and then climbed up the outer wall at breakneck speed. He seemed like a small machine, moving his feet so quickly and yet so smoothly. On the ground, the Mendrak looked clumsy, but he was magnificent in the discipline of defying gravity. Kasfok climbed vertically, all the way up to the base of the roof, which jutted slightly forward, then followed it to the right.

  Suddenly he had disappeared. One moment it looked as if he was probing an obstacle with his front legs, and the next moment he was gone. Norok climbed up. Fluttering, he examined the wall, but finding nothing, he landed next to Kimi again.

  “There’s nothing up there,” he said, “except a narrow crack between the wall and the unevenly pitched roof.”

  “Then Kasfok must have crawled through there,” Alexa said.

  “But the gap is narrow. And Kasfok’s abdomen is pretty fat.”

  “You heard him,” Kimi said. “He’s not fat. He can apparently squeeze his body to fit through the smallest gap. Hopefully he’ll find something.”

  “Two of us couldn’t get the gate open from the outside, so how can he do it alone from the inside?”

  “Let’s wait and see,” Kimi said.

  They waited. The gate did not open, and Kasfok did not return, either. The sun was low. Kimi kept expecting it to set soon. Then it would get dark, and they had already lost another day. But the angle of incidence of the sunlight did not change, and Kimi remembered that the planet always turned the same side to the sun.

  A shrill squeal startled them.

  “The gate is moving!” shouted Norok.

  “I can see that,” Kimi said.

  “Maybe I activated a timer earlier,” Norok said.

  That was nonsense. The gate was not moving voluntarily. It was essentially resisting, holding on to its frame and tightening its hinges. Only one person could be responsible for this, but where did Kasfok suddenly get such strength?

  “We should hurry,” Kimi said when the gate was open enough for them to fit through.

  “Don’t forget about me,” Alexa said.

  Norok grabbed the pillar and disappeared through the gap in the gate, and Kimi followed him. Inside, it was darker than outside, but it was still bright enough to admire Kasfok’s work. It was indeed an ingenious construction. The Mendrak had wound several ropes around various parts of the roof structure and connected them to the inside of the gate, creating a pulley that multiplied Kasfok’s strength. The Mendrak was waiting for them, and pride was evident in his face.

  “It was a great idea,” Kimi said.

  “Not bad,” Norok said.

  “Just a bit of mechanics,” Kasfok replied, trying to look casual. He let go of the rope and the gate closed again. “Sorry it took so long, but my spinning gland is not as efficient as it was fifty years ago.”

  “The main thing is that we’re in,” Kimi said.

  “Now the gland is all hot,” Kasfok said. “Do you want to touch it? Don’t worry. It’s empty anyway. For a couple of hours I won’t be able to spin the smalles
t thread.”

  “I thank you for the offer,” Kimi said, “but let’s make better use of our time by looking for the elevator.”

  Alexa showed them the way. In the hall, a few vehicles were waiting. They had apparently been used to transport loads, but now their load-carrying areas were empty. Along the walls were flat tables with tools attached to them. Presumably, people had used this place to maintain the vehicles. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust. Kimi started coughing when Kasfok accidentally kicked up dust from one of the vehicles. The air smelled of oil.

  They left the hall at the far side through a door that had been secured with a crossbar. Kimi and Norok had to duck their heads to pass through. Behind it, they reached a paved courtyard. Not a breeze stirred; high walls on all four sides kept the wind out. This was where they found the first man—or what was left of him. Over the back of a bench hung a bright garment that might once have been pink. Below it, a second blue garment with two legs reached to the floor.

  Kasfok examined the remains.

  It seems empty, he drummed, and Alexa translated.

  Oh no, here are some metal parts.

  “Artificial spare parts for the human body,” Alexa said, “The dead man must have been poor if he couldn’t afford an original.”

  Kasfok crawled behind the bench and pulled out another piece of cloth. It was round and flat.

  “That could be a cap,” Alexa explained. “That’s what some people wear on their heads. Wore.”

  I guess he was a little bigger than Mart, Kasfok drummed. Or was it a female?

  “I don’t have the information to determine gender,” Alexa said.

  Mart was the only human being they had ever met. Kimi only now became fully aware of this. How much might the individual specimens differ? Their behavior indicated a eusocial organization, but what did that mean for individuality?

  “Over there!” said Alexa.

  The building’s outer wall across the courtyard was not plaster-covered, but instead, covered with a smooth, organic-looking fabric that still shone despite the 300,000 years that had passed. There were even two doors, and neither was locked. It was dark inside, but enough light came in through the two doors. The room was about the size of the Sphere’s headquarters. In its center was a large, box-shaped structure made of a transparent material.

  “That’s where the energy comes from,” Alexa explained.

  Kasfok went ahead without hesitation. When he was still half a wing length away from the box, a white ceiling light turned on inside it. They heard a squeak, and part of a side wall slid aside, creating a passageway.

  That must be the elevator, Kasfok drummed.

  Cautiously, Kimi stepped onto the white rectangular floor plate that Kasfok had discovered inside the glass box. Since the floor was just as shiny-white, it was hardly noticeable. Kasfok, however, had found the thin gap that delineated the plate. Kimi felt a slight tingling in her feet. The plate appeared to be forming an electric field, and the Iks’s magnetic field sensors were capable of sensing it.

  Norok stood beside her and placed the column with Alexa in the center of the rectangle. What would happen now? Was this the elevator? There was no operating device anywhere in the chamber. Was it even what they thought it was? Maybe they had just entered some kind of scale, and the building had been a market long ago?

  A shrill sound rang out, and Kimi’s heart pounded. This had to be a warning signal. The sound repeated itself. The plate under her feet began vibrating.

  All of a sudden, black walls pushed up around the white rectangular floor plate. They were trapped! It took Kimi a moment to realize what was happening. It was—they were—going down. They had found the elevator.

  First, the walls changed. The matte black gave way to natural stone that was perfectly smooth. The elevator accelerated almost imperceptibly except for the walls moving upward faster and faster. Kimi had to avert her eyes to keep from feeling sick.

  Shortly after, curtains slid down from above, hiding the walls. Now it was difficult to determine how fast they were moving. This was probably intentional, to spare the passengers.

  The curtains filled with colors. Kimi looked around. She found the projectors on the ceiling that created the color effects. They were drawing abstract patterns on the curtains. Music began to play along with them. The harmonies seemed unfamiliar to her, but they had a strangely soothing effect. The elevator’s designers had been highly imaginative.

  How deep were they? The air pressure did not seem to have changed perceptibly. The shaft was probably sealed off from the outside world.

  “Can you measure something, Alexa?” she asked.

  “The elevator is no longer accelerating, but that’s all I can tell you.”

  “How fast are we going?”

  “I can’t measure that without looking outside.”

  “But you could do the math. You know how long we accelerated and by how much.”

  Alexa sighed. Kimi still didn’t know the intelligence level of the ship’s control, but she had figured out Alexa was lazy.

  “Yeah, okay, wait. We should be down in half an hour.”

  “Thank you, Alexa.”

  The elevator had been braking for some time. All conversation had dried up after Kasfok had secreted a cloud smelling strongly of mustard cabbage. The Mendrak had apologized profusely for this, but the cabin’s ventilation system had failed because of the cloud. Apparently it consisted not only of vapor, but also of microbes that pooled in the air. When the elevator began to brake, the cloud had sunk to the floor and was now spreading there as a damp patch that no one wanted to enter.

  “We’re almost there,” Norok said, pointing to the wall where the automatic system was pulling the curtains back up. Kimi caught another brief glimpse of grown rock, then black plastered walls like they’d seen shortly after the start. People had a passion for symmetry.

  But Kimi was mistaken. All at once, the walls disappeared. Although she was used to great heights, she felt dizzy. Kimi held her breath. They had plunged into a vast cavern that stretched as far as the eye could see. From the ceiling of grown rock, huge spotlights sent white light downward. It illuminated a construction that resembled a three-dimensional atomic lattice. Cube-shaped structures served as the atoms, with connecting cables, pipes, and walkways equipped with railings. The cubes flashed around in all colors. But apart from themselves, there seemed to be no one to appreciate the flashing colors, making it seem pointless to her.

  Kasfok approached the edge of the cabin and stretched one leg forward.

  The walls are transparent, he then drummed. Alexa’s translation came with a delay—she was busy examining the cave.

  Kimi was relieved. The dimensions of the cave instilled respect in her, if not fear. Didn’t the ceiling have to be supported somehow? She’d never had a problem with great heights. However, the sky above had always been open—not ready to come crashing down on her to bury her under its debris.

  “Are you all right?” Norok asked.

  The fear must be showing on her face. She swallowed it down. “It’s just a little unusual,” she said.

  “I don’t like being a passenger either,” Norok said.

  She understood what he meant.

  I like being a passenger, Kasfok drummed. When I was still Netmaster, my subordinates sometimes had to carry me.

  Kimi imagined four Mendraki carrying their netmaster around in a sort of sedan chair.

  “Now would be the time to develop a search strategy,” Alexa said.

  “We’ve gotten you this far, but we’re unlikely to be able to help you now,” Norok said.

  I hope we don’t have to go through every single cube, Kasfok drummed.

  “The cubes are connected,” Alexa said, “I just need a terminal.”

  “And where do we find that?” asked Norok.

  “In a secured place near the bottom of the elevator shaft.”

  “But then there’s no problem at all!”<
br />
  “I hope so, Norok.”

  First Exchange of Blows

  “Enemy contact!”

  The exclamation was not about the Genia—the ultrasonic battleship was still far too far away from the attacking fleet of Artificials for there to have been an exchange of fire—it was directed at the forward line of General Alexya Koppa’s squadron.

  Her ships had lunged toward the Artificials’ approaching ships at maximum acceleration, as if she couldn’t wait to expose her own units to enemy fire.

  Fleet Admiral Marty Joorthan could follow on the battle display in the holotank how Alexya’s squadron fanned out just before it came into firing range of the enemy ships. On the one hand, her ships could offer the Artificials a variety of targets as difficult to hit as possible. On the other hand, they could pounce in small formations of two or three ships on the far superior opponent. Perhaps it was possible in this way to establish a limited superiority, at least locally and for a short time, and to place and destroy individual battleships of the enemy with surprising advances of small formations.

  It was a desperate tactic, as the fleet admiral knew only too well, and could not succeed for long. As soon as the Artificials realized what Alexya was planning, they would also split their own units into small formations of a few ships and thwart the general’s plan. Then Alexya would no longer be able to pick out individual enemy ships and attack them. The status quo ante would have been restored, and the defenders’ defeat would thus have only been delayed.

  But Marty Joorthan knew that anything that could delay defeat was justified. The more they gave the impression of wanting to defend, at all costs, the colony on Krungthep with its 4,000,000,000 inhabitants, and especially the evacuation ships launching every second, the less it would occur to the Artificials that there might be something deep beneath the surface. But that something was even more important than the colonists’ cities in the densely populated zone of the rotation-bound planet, and perhaps more important than the ships on which millions were trying to escape at the last second—even if it was completely unclear where they could flee to.