by Ste Sharp
John peered up and around the balloon to see a dark line running around the dome.
‘We must be nearly there!’ he shouted and pointed.
‘No, it’s just the bottom of the dome cap,’ Crossley replied. ‘A little further yet.’
‘Oh,’ John said and turned to Osayimwese, who was talking to Rar-kin.
The wind sweeping off the dome was making it hard for them to hear one another.
‘And once they’ve scouted that dome,’ Osayimwese was pointing at various domes, explaining the planned route for Gal-qadan’s cavalry, ‘they’ll meet us at that dome.’
‘Yes,’ Rar-kin replied in its gruff voice, ‘an equilateral triangle… they will travel twice the distance on the tocka.’
Osayimwese smiled and nodded. ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘but we’ll have to walk the whole way.’
John tried to gauge how far they’d have to walk. Without any obvious features, the desert looked no bigger than the plain of battles they had crossed before they fought the Brakari, but if the distant domes were the same size as theirs, it was at least three domes’ wide, which would mean weeks of walking.
‘The tocka travel ten times faster than us,’ Osayimwese said.
‘Eight and a half times faster,’ Rar-kin said and tilted its head.
‘What are you? Some kind of mathematician?’ Crossley asked.
Rar-kin’s muzzle wrinkled in response before replying. ‘The Lutamek tell me various visualisation lobes in my brain have been enhanced.’
‘So you’re good at geometry?’ Crossley said with a laugh. ‘And I thought my skills were useless.’
‘What happened?’ Osayimwese asked, ignoring Crossley. ‘Were you hit? Was it something you ate?’
‘I do not know,’ Rar-kin replied and looked up at the dome cap. ‘But I hope to find out.’
‘Worry about our mission first,’ Crossley said.
‘It’s important,’ Osayimwese said. ‘I want to know more about these powers.’
‘Why?’ John asked, sensing Osayimwese was holding back. ‘So we can reverse them?’ he asked, hoping he might be able to heal his gun-arm.
‘No, I…’ Osayimwese looked away.
‘It’s because you don’t have one, isn’t it?’ Crossley asked.
Osayimwese nodded.
‘These changes aren’t always good,’ John said and nodded at his arm.
Osayimwese looked at John then away again. ‘Those who died didn’t have new powers – Kastor, Tode. They died.’
‘Yeah, but so did Mihran,’ Crossley said.
‘Many of our lost warriors were enhanced,’ Rar-kin added.
‘And Sakarbaal died,’ John said, remembering when the crazy Carthaginian had been the first human he had met in this strange world. ‘Li as well.’
‘Yes, maybe.’ Osayimwese still looked glum. ‘But I would be grateful for anything to aid me in our next battle.’
‘From what I heard, you didn’t need anything extra,’ Crossley said and gave Osayimwese a smile.
‘Look,’ Rar-kin said and pointed with its furred hand. ‘The curve of the dome suggests we will be reaching the cap soon.’
John sensed One-eight-seven slowing down.
‘I just hope Delta-Six made it past any gun emplacements,’ Crossley said. ‘This thing’s gonna be protected, you know that, right?’
John looked from Crossley to the dome. What if Delta-Six had been shot down or if One-eight-seven strayed into enemy fire and they fell onto the shell of the dome and slid all the way down? He gripped the metal pole tight and kept his eyes fixed ahead. A flash of light and a dull thud made him turn.
‘Some kind of explosion,’ Crossley said, ‘but it wasn’t near the cap… more like in the sky.’
‘Was it Delta-Six?’ Osayimwese asked.
‘Hell knows,’ Crossley replied. ‘But something’s happening up there.’
John craned his neck to look around One-eight-seven but the black balloon was in the way. His gun-arm clicked and the knuckles on his good hand were turning white as he gripped tighter.
‘Shit!’ John yelled as a whooshing sound made him jump and swing out his gun-arm in defence.
‘Hold tight!’ Delta-Six shouted.
‘Don’t bloody jump up on us like that,’ John shouted back.
‘There’s no time,’ Delta-Six replied, his dark eyes showing he was in a fighting mood.
‘What was that explosion?’ Osayimwese asked.
‘Nothing to do with me,’ Delta-Six replied. ‘A new ship’s coming in. The explosion was high in the atmosphere.’ He looked away for a second and John saw his eyes flicker as though he were reading a book. ‘Looks like a starship – unidentified – tried to follow the first but was destroyed.’
‘What?’ Crossley almost screamed. ‘There are other spaceships up there?’
‘It doesn’t affect our mission – I’ll send Ten-ten the video recording, then we must maintain radio silence. You understand, One-eight-seven?’ he asked, looking up to a face John couldn’t see.
A series of bleeps responded.
Delta-Six floated beside them. ‘We’re in luck. It looks like a ship docked on the dome last night, so we’ll get to see everything in action. I’ll cut a hole for us to climb in and One-eight-seven will attach to the outside, okay?’
‘Sounds good,’ John said with a nod and turned to see the others agreeing.
Like him, he guessed they just wanted to get their feet back on something solid.
Delta-Six nodded and gracefully flew out of view.
‘Let’s hope he doesn’t get shot or we’re screwed,’ Crossley said loud enough for John to hear.
As One-eight-seven drifted closer to the metal of the dome cap, John could see how it matched the images the Lutamek had taken from information in the sample ships: the dome cap was a torus-shaped building of five levels, sitting on the flat top of the dome, supported by numerous huge, red, granite pillars: the red cliffs John and the army had seen when they had sailed their rafts through the waterways of the dead centre of the dome. The hole in the centre of the doughnut shape gave the dome cap access to the inside of the dome.
‘Here we go,’ Osayimwese shouted as they drifted over a sloping wall.
‘Nearly there…’ Crossley said in between coughs.
John braced himself for impact as One-eight-seven connected to the metal wall of the cap, then saw that Delta-Six was directly below them, standing inside the dome cap itself, under a perfect circular hole cut in the curved metal.
‘Just drop down!’ he whispered and beckoned.
John let Crossley go first, then swung his legs off his trapeze and dropped, landing with a metallic thump on the pleasingly solid floor.
*
John took a sip of water from Crossley’s canteen and studied the inner wall of the dome-cap structure. Delta-Six had covered the hole with what he called a chamelo-cloth, leaving One-eight-seven outside, and John couldn’t see the join.
‘It’s lighter in here than I thought it would be,’ Crossley said.
‘Just like inside the starships,’ Osayimwese said, stroking the white, ceramic-like walls which curved up to a flat ceiling.
John stared down the curved corridor which led in either direction away from them and, he assumed, circled the entire cap. White from ceiling to floor, the inner walls were punctuated with rectangular panels which flashed with coloured lights.
‘The air quality’s the same as outside,’ Delta-Six said.
‘What? You didn’t check that first?’ Crossley asked.
‘There’s nothing to suggest organic life inhabits the dome caps,’ Delta-Six replied. ‘But why would the designers go to the effort of creating a vacuum if they didn’t need one?’
‘So how come we have all these species from across the galaxy breathing the same air?’ Crossley asked, arms folded.
Delta-Six squinted at the American, then said, ‘My guess is, this planet was adapted to house oxygen-breathers and other ha
bitats were created to host other air-breathers… look, we don’t have time for this.’
‘Right,’ Crossley replied, ‘I thought we were here to answer questions, so…’
Delta-Six ignored him and gestured for them to huddle closer. ‘We have four hours before the docked starship leaves, and we need any information we can find, okay?’
John nodded.
‘We’re in the top level, so I suggest we make a complete circuit then descend to the next level where we can split up. John and Osayimwese – you collect data. Anything this place holds about our different species: home-planet coordinates; biology; names; anything. Save it on your storage units.’
John fumbled his satchel open and pulled out a metal strip, feeling its cool, smooth surface through his fingertips.
‘Good,’ Delta-Six continued. ‘Crossley and Rar-kin, I need you to observe the new species coming in on the ship. Find a good place to observe what happens to them.’
Crossley nodded and Rar-kin’s eyes widened.
‘In the meantime,’ Delta-Six said, ‘I’ll infiltrate their systems, searching for future plans.’ He gave a nod. ‘Right, follow me.’
Delta-Six strode off down to the right and the others followed. John strapped his gun-arm tight and stepped as lightly as he could, worried the sound of his Lutamek leg would betray their position. Not that there appeared to be any signs of life here, he thought.
The corridor was a perfect circle, so the angle didn’t change, giving them a clear, but unchanging view for a few hundred feet ahead of them.
Crossley coughed and said, ‘The floors are way thinner than the walls and are pulsing with electrical activity, like energy waves or information flows.’
‘Is there a way down?’ Osayimwese asked.
‘There’s a service hatch here,’ Delta-Six replied and leaned into a rectangular hole to scan. ‘There’s activity below,’ he said. ‘I’ll go first and signal when it’s safe.’
John looked around nervously and asked, ‘So what’s this floor for then?’
‘Storage?’ Crossley guessed. ‘Extra capacity?’
‘But for what?’ John whispered.
Osayimwese tapped Crossley on the shoulder and motioned for him to be quiet, then pointed to his ear. John leaned forward to listen down the hatch, but all he could hear was blood pumping in his ears. What if Delta-Six had been captured and whoever guarded this place was already surrounding them? A flash of light caught his eye. He looked down the dark hatch and caught a double flash again.
‘That’s the signal. We’re good to go,’ John whispered and slid down.
On the next level, Delta-Six was waiting with a finger on his lips. He pointed down the corridor, which looked identical to the one they’d just left. Shadows danced on the curved wall, suggesting movement beyond. When the whole team arrived, Delta-Six guided them to another hatch, gesturing for them to repeat the process.
‘Right,’ Delta-Six whispered once they’d regrouped on the next level down. ‘We’re on the middle level away from the activity and,’ he pointed behind them and John turned slowly, ‘this is where we’ll retrieve our information.’
John’s mouth dropped and his eyes widened as he took in a fantastical view: the whole inner wall of this level was transparent, peering out over the hole inside the doughnut-shaped structure. Looking up, John could see the belly of the starship docked on top of the cap – its dark-grey surface was identical to that of the ships they’d found, though half hidden by a swarm of moving tubes and robotic arms which extended from the inner cap walls. Looking down into the swirling mist, John saw clear patches revealing glimpses of the red crag rock and blue waters.
‘Wow.’ Crossley was the first to speak, leaning on the long silver desk which ran along the inner wall, beneath the window.
‘I suggest we work here,’ Delta-Six said. ‘Collect data from these banks,’ he tapped the metal desk, ‘and watch the new species on the visual links.’ He pointed at a glass pane set in the desk. ‘Meanwhile, I’m going to observe the activity above.’
Crossley and Rar-kin were already pressing buttons, but John felt lost. He turned to Osayimwese, who looked equally confused, then at the panels of coloured buttons and shiny screens. John didn’t have the faintest idea where to start.
*
Delta-Six breathed a sigh of relief as he climbed out of the hatch and back onto the fourth level. It was good to be on his own again. He’d spent his military career working in teams and had trusted every member completely, but that was because they had literally been bred together – to complement each other. The group of soldiers on this mission made Delta-Six feel like a babysitter and he was growing frustrated with having to explain everything to them.
He took a second to calm down. He had distracting questions rushing around his mind, like how they had travelled to this world so fast. The spatial anomalies Ten-ten had mentioned intrigued him, but he didn’t have time to investigate now, so he concentrated on the readings coming in from his sensors. Signs and lights blinked in his view but, since his suit had melded with his body, his direct connections with its various motion, wave and radiation detectors enabled him to sense the world around him in a new way.
Using the map the Lutamek had given him, Delta-Six created a visual representation of the torus-shaped level he stood in and laid it over his visual view. He fed in the information from his sensors to create a three-dimensional moving picture of his surroundings and up to fifty metres around each corner. Concentrating on the movement he’d sensed earlier, he could now make out fifteen humanoid shapes around the curve to his left. Silent and fast, they were shorter than Delta-Six and moving around one another like choreographed dancers. He analysed their behaviour, discerning five distinct groups moving between the control panels on the inner wall of the cap.
Delta-Six crept around the corner to allow his sensors to pick up more detail. The only sound he heard was the squeaking of the creatures’ rubber feet as they stomped from station to station, so he flicked through frequencies until he found a series of high-speed, short-burst emissions, based on a quinary system. His processors correlated it with the language used on the obelisks inside the dome and soon had the code reconfigured. He overlaid the speech as streams of text next to each individual as they communicated.
‘Synchronisation complete,’ one shape told another.
‘Start local environment synchronisation,’ it replied.
A third shape moved over and reported its completed work to what Delta-Six saw as the team leader – each group’s leader gathered information and gave out new tasks.
‘Synchronisation complete,’ an individual from a different team reported back.
Delta-Six made a note to call these robotic creatures Synchronisers.
Keeping out of view, Delta-Six prised open a white panel on the inner wall, giving him access to the circuits and information relays within. A patch on his wrist glowed orange as it made a connection, and new information flooded into Delta-Six’s view: he looked up to see the docked ship; then below, to an empty corridor, which suggested the dome’s sensors hadn’t picked the team up.
Delta-Six focussed on a huge doorway which had opened beneath the docked starship. Shapes of various sizes were being lowered down from the aft section, each one pulsing erratically as metal arms and scoops prodded and manoeuvred them into the empty top level where they’d entered the cap. Were these the new soldiers? Delta-Six thought. Is that why the top floor is empty? He focussed on the starship and, using the dome-cap sensors, could see rows of stasis pods, just like in the humans’ ship, but they were still occupied. So what was being brought out?
The process of emptying the ship was efficient and fast, reminding Delta-Six he needed to speed up if they were going to get out of the cap undetected. He tried to match the Synchronisers’ activity with the emptying of the starship and sent a variety of auto-viruses into the cap’s data stream to find information on what plans were in place for victorious armies w
ho had left the dome.
With the connections made, Delta-Six retraced the team’s original path up a floor, checking the chamelo-cloth on their entrance point was still in place, and scanned the new beings brought in from the ship. They were diverse in size and solidity, but the information was limited so, with a sigh, he set his suit to camouflage and crept around to get a direct visual check.
‘What on Earth?’ Delta-Six found himself whispering when he saw them, and backed away slowly.
*
John yawned as he swiped the thin metal sheet across the glass screen. The top right corner of the sheet glowed orange, showing it had absorbed the information, then he pressed the button to change the screen. The first twenty had been interesting – those with pictures – but these were full of alien writing that made no sense, even though he could read it. In fact, he wasn’t totally sure if these pages were different to the last screen, but he wasn’t going to tell Osayimwese that.
‘Three more rows,’ Osayimwese said and sounded as bored as John felt.
‘And then what?’ John asked.
Osayimwese shrugged. ‘We find another panel or we see what Crossley and Rar-kin have found?’
‘Are the other panels different?’ John asked. ‘If each one’s like a book it’ll take us forever to get the information out.’
‘We don’t have forever,’ Osayimwese replied.
‘I know,’ John said and looked up at the array of huge metal arms which was systematically removing more panels from the belly of the starship. ‘Okay, let’s find Crossley.’
With only one way to walk around the circular building, it didn’t take long for them to find Crossley and Rar-kin, who had a visitor.
‘How did you get back?’ John asked.
‘There are hatches everywhere,’ Delta-Six replied. ‘I’m not sure what data you’ve got, but this is what we’re really after.’ He nodded at the screen in front of Crossley. ‘It’s a mirror system, monitoring the new soldiers as they’re brought out of stasis.’
‘What have you found?’ Osayimwese asked.