“Oh, and Calin? Don’t worry, we will get her back. I promise.”
“I know. Silas has crossed a line and now he is going to pay. By the way, if you can spare any agents drop them off in Caldera City. There will be some fireworks and fun happening soon you may want to be a part of.”
“Oh?” after a slight pause Nilos asked, “You’ve already started the uprising in Caldera City?”
“Just get some boots on the ground and be ready to join the fun.”
“Um… OK. But last time I checked I was the top secret agent who gave the orders around here, but I’ll go with you on this.”
“See you tonight. Out.” Calin closed the channel. He immediately commed Jonus’s private frequency next.
Jonus's face came on screen. “Hey! I’ve already heard about Shona. I’m really sorry bud. What can we do to help?”
“I know you have already stirred the pot in Caldera City, but do you think you can kick it up a few notches? I don’t care what you have to do, but speed up the timetable and get those fires blazing as fast as you can. We need Caldera City to be at a boiling point by tonight, understand?”
Jonus rubbed his chin, “All right. That may be tough to pull off on short notice but I will see what we can do.”
"I need you to stir up enough trouble to get the PPD out of my way, then maybe I can get in and rescue Shona." Calin slammed a fist on the console. "So now it the time! Get that keg to blow!"
“Gotcha, will do. And good luck getting her, she brought some much-needed class to your crew. And beauty.” Jonus smiled.
Calin couldn’t help but nod his head in full agreement, “That she did, that she did. Go do what you got to do, create enough chaos to keep those troops out of my way. I will take care of Silas myself.”
Chapter 23
Calin brought the Sea Rover in low and skimmed the surface of the Moon. They headed to his hidden outpost outside Peary Crater. He slid the ship in through the hangar door and deftly squeezed the ship to the side to make room for Nilos and his Atlantean shuttle, due to arrive soon.
When they exited the ship, Mouse stopped and turned around and around in circles. “Man! This is sweet! I feel like we’ve stepped back in time. I never thought I would see tech like this outside of a museum.”
“Hey, it’s old, but it works. And it’s reliable,” Dean said defensively. Calin suppressed a laugh. He knew Dean hated it if anyone criticized their home. Dean was proud of getting the old tech of the outpost back in working order.
Calin headed to the galley and activated the large vid-screen on the wall. He pulled up the Caldera City news feed and yanked out a bottle of beer from the wall cooler. He chugged half of it while he stared at the news. Dean and Mouse grabbed their own beers while Dean gave Mouse a quick tour of the outpost to point out the special modifications and upgrades they had installed over the years.
According to the newscast Jonus had more than fulfilled his promise to cause a ruckus. They had organized protest marches to fill up First Avenue in front of the Capitol Building. Banners and signs that demanded basic civil rights, better working and living conditions filled the streets. The news video flipped from location to location throughout the City, showing fresh graffiti that called for a Revolution. Crowds of protesters and government supporters clashed in the streets. Fights were everywhere. Jerret had been right, Caldera City was a powder keg ready to blow, all it needed was a spark.
The clashes in Caldera City had turned into Sub-Level versus Corporate, workers versus white collars. Crowds of people in utility coveralls fought and clashed with the suits and well-dressed citizens of the Corporate Level. But the citywide chaos had the desired effect Calin desired. It looked like they had deployed most of the PPD troops throughout the city in an effort to restore order. Even on live video, the PPD beat citizens with shock sticks and taz-stunned entire crowds, regardless of economic status. The City had devolved into utter chaos, the property damage would be in the millions, and all the hospitals would be overrun with injuries.
Calin had to reassure himself this was all temporary and necessary. He hated to see the City in such a state, but he told himself it was time. Governor Silas brought this onto himself, and it was time for Caldera City to start a new age.
Rose’s voice came over the outpost speakers and interrupted his thoughts. “An unknown ship has requested hangar door access, but I can’t tell where or who it is.”
“Let it in Rose, it’s Nilos,” ordered Calin.
He chunked his beer bottle into the recycler and made a beeline to the hangar floor. The Atlantean shuttle Allia, its hull shimmered in a rainbow of colors as it settled onto the hangar floor. After she landed the shimmer disappeared and a ramp descended from underneath.
Nilos exited the ship at a fast pace, the all-important Atlantean tablet clutched tightly in his hand. He gripped a landing leg as he got to the end of the ramp and spun around it to looked up at the ship. He said over his shoulder to Calin, “This ship is amazing. You would not believe what we have learned from her already.” The ramp below the ship retracted and melted back into the underbelly, the seam disappeared right before their eyes.
He pointed up at the ship with a smile, “Did you see the shimmer? That was her active cloaking field, there’s not a radar or sensor in existence that can find her.”
Calin rubbed his chin, he had forgotten about Allia's cloak. “Do you think she can get us across the surface to the mine undetected?”
“I’m sure she can!” answered Nilos proudly.
“Come on, let’s go sit down and work out a plan. We only have until tonight to rescue Shona.”
Nilos followed Calin back to the galley. Before they sat at the table Calin grabbed another beer and passed one to Nilos.
“Well, first and foremost, we cannot give this up,” said Nilos as he held up the clear glass tablet in his hand.
Calin paced around the table and agreed. "It won’t do us any good to rescue Shona if Silas blows us all up." He pointed to the newscast on the vid-screen, "The guard count in the mines will be low with all the rioting in the City. But we need to hurry, my friends can’t keep this momentum up for long."
“Agreed. If we try to go back down through the tunnels, it will be a long fight without the element of surprise. So I suggest we go through the hangar tunnel. Allia still has the access codes to open it remotely.”
Calin stopped pacing and nodded his head in agreement, “That could work. With her cloak, they will never see us coming. You said she has fast engines?” he asked.
“Ha!” exclaimed Nilos. “Does she ever! In the past few days we have learned more about Atlantean tech than we have the past decade.”
In his excitement, Nilos stood up from the table and walked to the glass window that overlooked the hangar. "Allia has filled us in on a lot of gaps in our knowledge about my ancestors. But she has also created more questions than she has answered." He pointed through the window at his ship. "For instance, advanced artificial intelligence like her was standard in all their ships and bases."
Calin looked confused, “But even I have an A.I., it’s not something special.”
“Ah, but she is!” Nilos said excitedly and pointed again through the window at the Atlantean ship. “She truly is self-aware. Modern A.I. is a facsimile of intelligence, in truth they are nothing more than fancy computer interfaces. Allia is a true artificial intelligence, she can make her own decisions and conclusions.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“Oh, my ancestors weren’t stupid. There are built-in limitations to her capabilities and they programmed her to follow orders and commands.”
Nilos continued on like he was giving a sales pitch, full of energy and excitement. “You asked about her engines. Boy, you would kill for these. She is the fastest ship we’ve ever seen. Her power supply is revolutionary by our standards. It puts out an incredible amount of power.”
“What about weapons? Anything we can use?” Calin asked hopefully.
>
“Unfortunately no, she is more of a command and scout ship. She only has light weaponry, pretty close to what we have on our regular ships.”
“How come she was the only ship in that base?”
“She doesn’t know. My ancestors deactivated her a few centuries ago, about the time we started to really settle and populate the Moon. We believe the base was an observation post to keep an eye on our development on Earth. And once we made it to the Moon, I guess the Atlanteans decided it was time to leave.”
“Where did they go?” asked Calin.
“No idea and they didn’t tell Allia before deactivating her. They left her behind as a rescue ship, just in case an Atlantean came back and needed help.”
At that point, Mouse and Dean came back from their little tour of the outpost. After introducing Mouse to Nilos, Calin glanced at the time on the vid-screen. “All right kiddies, it’s time to load up and get this show on the road. Shona is counting on us.”
As they all filed back into the hangar and walked up underneath Allia, Nilos called out, “Allia, lower the boarding ramp please.” At his command, the ramp magically descended from the hull of the ship.
Calin checked the position of his holster on his thigh as he walked up the ramp. It was time to end this.
Chapter 24
Calin hated to ride in someone else’s ship. He preferred to be the one in control, but he had to admit that Allia was the right ship for the job. Her advanced cloaking tech made it easy for them to fly across the Moon’s surface without being detected. They had enough to deal with without adding surface patrols to the list.
Nilos was not much of a pilot, but luckily Allia was more than capable of self-piloting. He knew he could still out-fly her in a dogfight, but she was still good for an A.I. The tunnel entrance to the hidden hangar was not much bigger than she was but she flew down it without hesitation and navigated the turns effortlessly.
To his left Mouse tapped on a screen that monitored the onboard systems until an alarm blared. Nilos spun around in his Captain's chair and stared at Mouse, “Don’t touch” Nilos scolded. Mouse put his hands in his lap and grinned.
Her access code to the hangar doors worked flawlessly and allowed them into the hangar without sounding an alarm. It was the night shift, and the only people left on duty in the hangar were two guards on patrol. As soon as they flew in through the hangar door a small weapon platform dropped from underneath Allia’s hull, targeted the guards and opened fire. They both dropped before they could sound an alarm.
“Dean, Mouse, go do something about those doors. I want us to get out but no one else to get in, understand?” ordered Calin as they all ran down the ramp onto the hangar floor.
"Aye Aye Captain." Dean replied as he and Mouse ran across the hangar, but not before Calin heard him mutter under his breath "I’m an engineer, I’m supposed to FIX things not break them."
Nilos stopped at a workstation and frantically swiped the icons left and right until he pulled up a map of the Atlantean base.
“There!” he said pointing to a blob of red that blinked on the schematic. “There is a group of people in the control room, with only a few scattered patrols left in the base. Your diversion in the city worked. There are hardly any guards left down here.”
Calin unsnapped the safety strap of his holster, “Now we have to make it there. You ready?”
They both headed to the hangar exit that led to the interior of the base. When it slid open, on the other side was a four-man patrol, themselves about to open the door. For a split second everyone stood there and looked at each other in complete surprise. Until Calin reacted first and snapped up his blaster, his shot hit the lead trooper in the shoulder. Nilos slapped the door shut and shot the control panel to fuse the door.
"I guess we are not going that way," quipped Nilos as he looked around the hangar for another exit.
Calin pointed up to the second-floor catwalks above them, “There! On the other side.” Nilos could see where he pointed and remarked, “That’s not a door, that’s a maintenance hatch. I have no idea where it goes.”
"Anywhere is better than that way!" remarked Calin and jerked his head back at the fused door behind them. He looked around in confusion. "But how do we get up there? There aren't any stairs."
Nilos grinned and gestured for Calin to follow him, “It’s right in front of you, here.” He pointed to a lit circle on the floor next to the wall. In the floor of the catwalk above them was a hole the size the same size as the circle. “Step on it,” suggested Nilos as he did exactly that. He stepped on the circle and did a small jump. But instead of coming back down, he continued to float up through the hole in the catwalk above him. “It’s a nullifier pad, it nullifies the gravity plates. So a little jump is all you need to get up to the second level.”
“What? Stairs too complicated?” Calin asked and rolled his eyes.
“Nope, but these are more fun,” replied Nilos with a laugh.
They jogged down the catwalk to the other side of the hangar and opened the maintenance hatch. Calin peered inside to see a small crawl space between the walls, full of wires and plumbing.
“We have little choice, so let’s see where this leads,” Calin said and crawled into the tunnel. They were in luck, not only did the maintenance tunnel give them a way to leave the hangar undetected, but it also let them sneak through the Atlantean base until they reached the hallway near the Control Room.
“I guess it is a little late to ask, but you do have the control tablet?” Calin asked Nilos before he placed his hand on another hatch that led out of the tunnel to the main hall.
Nilos nodded an affirmative and patted his jacket pocket.
Calin stuck his head out through the hatch and peered up and down the curved main hallway. He waved Nilos forward and they both crawled out into the corridor. As quietly as possible they crept down the hall, they both hugged the smooth sides with their hands on their guns.
When they heard a soft whir from around the curve of the hall behind them, they ducked into an open door and plastered themselves against the wall. An armored security drone slid by as it scanned the hall for movement.
“Damn! Those drones didn’t show up on the heat scan, I didn’t know they were using them.” Nilos whispered.
“With everyone in the City, they needed something to patrol the base,” Calin suggested. “It’s OK. We don’t have to avoid them forever, we are almost there. Let’s get going.” They continued down the hall toward the Control Room and kept an eye and ear out for both squads and flying drones.
Nilos silently tapped Calin on the shoulder and pointed to a set of double doors at the end of the hall.
“We are not going in through the front door, I’ve got a better idea,” whispered Calin. He pointed to a small maintenance hatch in the floor next to the double doors.
Chapter 25
Shona, handcuffed to a chair, watched Avis as he coordinated his troops in Caldera City to deal with the revolt. They had installed a temporary Command Station in the Atlantean Control Room, which Avis used to yell obscenities at his officers.
“I don’t care what you have to do, get First Avenue cleared of those protesters!” he ordered over the comm. “Once we have full control of the Capitol Building and the surrounding blocks, we will use it as a staging point and work out from there into the city.”
When he switched to another channel Shona heard him ask, “Where is he? What is your ETA?”. He nodded his head silently in response. Captain Avis turned to Shona, “Governor Silas is almost here, and a squad spotted your boyfriend when he tried to leave the hangar. You may get to live after all.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” spat Shona. “And you're damn right I am going to live. You, on the other hand, you I’m going to kill,” she said venomously.
“Haha!” laughed Avis and shook his head in amusement. “Damn, girl, you have spunk I can give you that. A lot more spunk than your brother. Maybe I will keep you around, for amusement.�
�� He sneered, “Yup, your brother tried to be the hero too. He organized the miners into an escape attempt, even took out one of my guards.”
He turned to look her in the eye and said without emotion, “And that’s why I put him down.”
Shona glared at him, her fist clenched and strained against her restraints.
They were interrupted when Silas entered the Control Room with two bodyguards in tow. “Where are they?” Silas demanded, “where is my control tablet?”.
“They are in the base somewhere, but we are having trouble tracking them down.” Replied Avis over his shoulder as he toggled through various security camera feeds throughout the base.
Silas stomped over to where Shona was retrained in her chair, “Aren’t you the one who broke into my Security office and stole the MG10 security stick?”
Without a word, Shona launched a mouthful of spit in his face.
Calmly Silas wiped the spittle as it dripped down his face and flung it to the floor with a flick of his fingers.
“Careful Sir, she’s a handful,” warned Avis smiling.
“She is nothing,” said Silas flatly. And before Shona could flinch, he swung his arm in a fast arch to land a backhanded slap across her face. As the left side of her face stung like all hell, Shona spat a mouthful of blood on the floor. She raised her head up and quietly glared at Silas.
He turned his back to her, dismissing her from his mind while he addressed Avis. “What's the current situation in the city?” he asked.
“Not good Sir. We are having trouble regaining control. The troops are severely outnumbered. If we can establish a beachhead at the Capitol Building, we can push out from there.”
Confused, and disappointed Silas snapped, “What’s so damn hard about it? It’s a bunch of filthy Moonies!”
“They are being coordinated somehow, by someone with experience. Very strategic and very logical. This is no random uprising, Sir.” reported Avis.
Silas walked around the Control Room and pondered the information while he touched random screens, screens he could not read or understand. “Do we have any idea who is leading the revolt?”
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