11
Captain Samkange of the Corvallis was able to locate the automated HuK base on the dark-side surface of Alphus. Clement had briefly considered going down to the enemy base to see what they could acquire in terms of intelligence and technology, but decided against that tactic on the basis that the base could be booby-trapped. He ultimately ordered it destroyed with a nuke, and they made three more passes of the planet just to be sure it was clean of any other enemy installations.
They also took the time to scan Admiral DeVore’s old encampments. They were indeed abandoned and dark, as Captain Kagereki of the Antietam had initially reported, and it looked like they had been that way for several months.
The return trip to Bellus was a good one for all concerned, taking nine hours using the ion plasma drive. Clement ordered his command crew to rest up while they could, using techs to run the Beauregard’s main systems while his principals rested. The admiral kept an eye on things remotely from his cabin, but still managed four and a half hours of sleep, which for him was a full sleep cycle. When they arrived back with the fleet at Bellus, Clement honored Captains Samkange and Kagereki with Star of Valor awards for their actions at Alphus. Both ship captains had shown innovation and strategic initiative during the battle, which was something Clement hoped to promote within the fleet. After the awards ceremony aboard the Agamemnon, which was broadcast fleet-wide, it was time for a situational strategy meeting.
Yan reported that the consolidation of the settlements into the three main camps was eighty percent complete. They had been successful in moving many of the modular living units to the camps, which Yan had designated Camp Alpha, Camp Beta, and Camp Theta. Clement thought this might be confusing with the names of the other habitable Trinity worlds, but Yan convinced him that the familiarity would be helpful. Camp Alpha was the one closest to the original settlement that they had encountered on their first trip to Bellus, and it also happened to be the closest one to the “Hill Place” station, which was clearly artificial and beyond the skills of the natives to construct. Setting that discussion aside for the moment, Clement turned to Captain Samkange for an update on the fleet’s strategic status.
“We are well positioned to protect the three camps from space,” reported Samkange. “I have nearly equal forces of cruisers, destroyers, and the gunships protecting each camp. We are well stocked with munitions and supplies, our crews have been rotated, and we’re ready for whatever might come next. All of the transports are on the ground, tucked away as much as we can from attacks from space. All of the migrants are now on the surface, as well as Colonel Lubrov’s Marines.”
“Thank you, Captain. Please keep the fleet on high alert. I think it’s obvious by now that we can expect more trouble, probably sooner rather than later.”
“Do you think it’s possible the HuKs you fought at Alphus are remnants of DeVore’s original fleet?” asked Yan.
“That seems unlikely,” stated the admiral. “Those HuKs didn’t resemble anything in the Five Suns fleet. In fact, they seemed much more like evolutionary variants of the HuKs we fought from the first Earth Ark in the last battle.”
“First Earth Ark?” said Yan. “Are we expecting another?”
Clement let a grim look cross his face. “I would argue that the mere presence of those HuKs is all the proof we need that there are additional Earth forces in the Trinity system as we speak.” There were concerned looks all around the table at that, and on the captains’ faces that were piped into the meeting via visual telecom. “But just to reassure you all, I’ve got every ship in the fleet scanning the system. We should be able to detect anything bigger than a ground car heading our way. Hopefully, it won’t come to it, but I have my doubts that we will get through this without more battles. That’s why I’m so thankful that Captains Samkange and Kagereki were able to get some battle experience. I think we’re all going to get the opportunity to engage in battle before this mission is up.”
“That brings up the question of what our mission actually is now, Admiral,” said Yan. “Has this migration become a military mission?”
“I’m not sure I know what you mean, Captain,” responded Clement, with some annoyance in his voice.
“I mean that our original mission was to come to Bellus, bringing thirty thousand migrants here and settle them safely on the planet. It doesn’t seem like circumstances are going to allow that mission to be completed.”
“We can’t know the full scope of our mission until we know what the full circumstances are, Captain. Are we facing another invasion force? Is it another Earth Ark–generation ship? We just won’t know until we get further into the mission. Enemy forces have attempted to take out one of our ships, a gunship, in fact. Someone programmed those HuKs. Someone gave them a seek-and-destroy mission over the planet Alphus, which implies that they knew we were likely to at least attempt to observe our exiles on that planet. Were they trying to protect an escape by Admiral DeVore and her crews? Or have they been destroyed and we’re facing another, unknown, enemy? We just don’t know those answers yet, so in the meantime, the mission continues as designed. We need to get on with settling our people in the three camps and make them as safe and secure as possible. And we have to hope that our fleet will be strong enough to protect us from whatever is out there.”
“Have you considered that we should stop the original migration mission right now and reverse course?”
“You mean take thirty thousand migrants back to their hopeless lives on the Rim? I don’t see that as a viable option,” snapped Clement. The tension between the fleet’s two top officers was now apparent to everyone else in the room and on the telecom link. Whatever was decided, it would have far-reaching implications for all of them.
“As your second-in-command, Admiral, it is my duty to inform you of all the viable options at your disposal. Going back home to Kemmerine Station is one of those options,” Yan said.
“And leave the locals to fight off God knows who while we’re gone? No, Yan, we’re too far in. We have too many lives at risk. They’re all safer on the ground on Bellus than they would be on those transports.”
“Are they? We don’t even know who or what we may be fighting against.”
Clement swiveled his chair to face her. “Captain, we have committed the fleet to defending Trinity, both the natives and the migrants. We have the full force of our fleet here now. If we retreated back to Kemmerine we would have to split our forces in order to protect both groups of people. No, we’re safer together, and that’s my final word on it.” Yan opened her mouth to say something else, but Clement had turned away from her and then asked Colonel Lubrov for a report on her Marines.
Lubrov cleared her throat and tried to speak as evenly as she could to reduce the tension in the room. “I’ve got four hundred troops deployed to each of the camps. The men are busy digging shelters and hardening the defenses around the migrants. My hope is that each of the camps can be protected either from an attack from the air or on the ground.”
Clement nodded. “Have you been able to repurpose any of our existing equipment to defend the camps?” he asked.
“As a matter of fact, yes. We pulled the DEW cannons off the transports and set up antiaircraft perimeters around the camps.” Clement’s eyebrows went up in surprise.
“That’s an innovative idea,” he said. He didn’t voice how impressed he was with her initiative.
“Well, they weren’t doing us any good stuck to those sitting-duck transports. I don’t know how effective they’ll be since we’ve had to jerry-rig the targeting equipment, but at least it will be a surprise if any unknown aircraft venture into our space,” said Lubrov.
“That it would be, Colonel. If all else fails, I guess there’s always line-of-sight targeting, like in the good old days.”
“Sir,” acknowledged Lubrov.
Captain Son of the Yangtze came in with a question then. He was an Asian native of Shenghai, the same home as Yan. “I take it, Admiral, that none of these camps will be able to survive a nuclear strike from the air or space?”
“I think that goes without saying, Captain. Our defenses simply aren’t that sophisticated, and quite frankly we didn’t anticipate this sort of situation, so it was never even a consideration in our planning.”
“Not to mention it would be difficult to recruit colonists if we told them they were heading into a possible nuclear war zone,” interjected Yan. Again, Clement did not appreciate the comment, but he couldn’t argue with her reasoning.
“All right, I want to wrap this up,” said Clement. “Everyone proceed as we have done to this point. Stay alert, report anything suspicious, even the smallest thing, up the chain of command at your first opportunity. Anything else?”
“Yes, Admiral.” The voice came from down the table, from Commander Laura Pomeroy. “There is the issue of our planned expedition to the Hill Place. You said you wanted to be involved in that.”
“I did, Commander, and I do. Let’s give it another twenty-four hours. If everything stays calm and we continue to make progress on our defenses, then I can see my way clear to authorizing your expedition. We could gain valuable technology from the base.”
“Will you be joining us, Admiral?”
Clement sat back and crossed his arms, considering that. “I would like to, Laura, but that depends on the circumstances. Save me a seat, but don’t plan on me unless I show up in person in my hiking gear.”
“Understood, Admiral.” With that the meeting closed and the officers began shuffling out of the room. Yan went to Clement to confront him one more time before he could leave the conference room.
“Are you sure you should be considering undertaking this scientific fishing expedition right now? You are the leader of this whole endeavor,” she said as quietly as she could so as not to alert others still in the room.
“As you said, Captain, we came here with a mission. I’d like to stick to that original plan as closely as we can. If things remain quiet, I think it’s important that we show life going on as normal as much as possible. That includes me leading scientific expeditions to unravel some of the mysteries of the Trinity system.” He wasn’t happy with her and his tone showed that. Instead of challenging him, Yan merely conceded the point with a nod. “One more thing, Captain. Please don’t challenge me in front of the command staff again. Bring your concerns to me privately. That’s an order.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Yan.
Twenty-four hours later and everything had been quiet. Yan had arranged (and provided translation) for a meeting with the local natives on the surface. They told Clement that Mary, the native they had connected with on their first mission, had left their village nearly a year ago and no one had seen her. One of the elder women said she was “called” to the Hill Place, whatever that meant. This made Clement a bit sad as she was a charming, intelligent and beautiful young woman.
After introducing the natives to some of the more prominent migrants, Clement turned over the integration task to Yan and decided to gear up and join Pomeroy’s expedition. An eight-seat VTOL aircraft was on the landing pad warming its engines via the auxiliary power unit as the admiral approached. He noted the large detachment of Marines digging trenches into the nearby hillside and pouring nano-reinforced concrete into the defensive bunker moldings already laid down. It was an impressive sight.
He hustled over to the waiting expeditionary group in his full gear, coil rifle, pistol, backpack slung over his shoulder. He walked up to Colonel Lubrov and she saluted him, which he returned. “Impressive work by your men on the bunkers, Colonel,” he said.
“Thank you, sir. We should be able to house five hundred souls in there by midnight, and another five hundred tomorrow.”
“That’s welcome news. If only we could be so sure that our adversaries would hold off attacking us until we can complete our work.”
“Obviously, we can’t assure that, Admiral. But it is progress.”
“It is that.”
Laura Pomeroy came up then and saluted him.
“We’re just waiting for your go order, Admiral,” she said, nodding at the VTOL. “This vertical takeoff-and-landing craft will do nicely for our run up the mountain, sir, and getting back and forth from the camp if anything requires your immediate attention should not be a problem.”
“Good to know, Commander. Let’s get this show on the road.” With that he started walking toward the VTOL. His com buzzing in made him stop while the others walked on.
“Captain Yan,” he said into the com, acknowledging her unique ID chime.
“Admiral. Still no activity within the defense grid. Requesting permission to send out the gunships to surveil the outer parts of the solar system.” Clement thought about that.
“Impatience can be our undoing, Captain. I’d prefer we maintain the full defensive net, so that nothing can get through.”
“Sir, with all due respect, you’re about to go on a field trip.” Clement didn’t like the tone of that. Relations between him and Yan had definitely become strained.
“A field trip with some very broad implications for this entire star system, Captain. This is not a holiday trail hike. Besides, I doubt it will take longer than a few hours to do the survey, but please, don’t be afraid to call me if there’s any change in our circumstances.”
“You mean, like a full-scale invasion?”
“Well, yes, if I’m being honest that’s exactly what I mean. We know the Hill Place leads to an underground facility inside that mountain, and if it’s artificial, as we suspect, it could contain technology that would help us even things out in case of a greater conflict arising.”
“You mean, ‘even things out’ more than the MAD weapon currently does?”
Clement sighed. She was giving him a lot of static for something that had already been decided. “Yes, possibly. But once again I’m leaving this mission in your capable hands, Yan. Hopefully we’ll see you again by nightfall.”
“But, sir—”
“Listen, Yan. I know you’re upset by not being included on this mission, but frankly Colonel Lubrov is more suited to it than you are, and you’re more suited to commanding the fleet. So let’s both do our jobs and see what happens.”
“But, sir, I’m the only one who speaks the natives’ language,” she said, a last-minute attempt to get on the mission.
Clement sighed. “Commander Pomeroy has been studying their language for eighteen months. I need you to do the job I’ve assigned you, Tanitha,” he said, using her first name (as he rarely did) for emphasis and emotional impact. He wasn’t just ordering her as her commanding officer, he was requesting her agreement as his friend. She finally seemed to get it.
“Of course, Admiral. I’ll see you when you return, hopefully with good news.”
“Thank you, Captain. Clement out,” he finished, then turned his attention back to the expedition team. They were all busy loading equipment onto the VTOL. Beside himself, Pomeroy, and Lubrov, the team consisted of Lieutenants Telco and Tsu, Tech Kim Reck, and a pair of healthy-looking Marines.
“Time is a factor, Commander,” he said to Pomeroy. “Let’s get this little safari off the ground.”
“Aye, sir,” Pomeroy said, then turned and yelled at the crew, telling them to expedite loading up and to get in to the VTOL transport bay. Lubrov nodded to Clement as she jumped in the back with her Marines, while the admiral sat down next to Pomeroy in the pilot’s nest. At his nod she fired up the VTOL engines and they were off the ground in less than five minutes.
As they flew, Clement asked Pomeroy for an update. “How is your Imperial Korean study going?”
She shook her head. “Frankly, sir, I’m not good enough with their language to negotiate any treaties, despite my studying. Maybe you should have brought Captain Yan.”
“She has other duties, and I know learning archaic Imperial Korean couldn’t have been easy for you.”
“No, sir,” she replied, then they flew on. The trip to the Hill Place took another ten minutes. From the air it did look like a mountain, but the ground-penetrating radar scans showed that the “mountain” was in fact artificial, shaped like an almost perfect four-sided pyramid. They landed just a few hundred feet from the Hill Place shelter that they had first investigated nearly two years ago. The crew deplaned and started loading up their scientific equipment and their weapons. They’d found nothing there in the Hill Place bunker the first time they had investigated it, but there was no point in taking any risks. They already knew there was a hidden stairwell behind one of the walls and Clement wanted to know where that stairwell led. As everyone loaded their equipment and packs, the admiral reconsidered. They were carrying a lot of stuff.
“Everyone leave their coil rifles, except the two Marines. We don’t need to be burdened with too much equipment in case we have to make a quick retreat back to Camp Alpha. You Marines just bring your weapons and field rations. Everyone else stow their rifles and ammo magazines back on the VTOL, but keep your cobra pistols.” Lubrov insisted on carrying her rifle, but Clement’s decision considerably lightened the load for the rest of the expeditionary team. It did leave them more vulnerable to whatever they might find inside the mountain, assuming it was hostile.
After a few minutes’ walk to the concrete bunker the natives called the Hill Place, the group went inside and quickly found the door location, hidden behind a wall of concrete blocks. Tech Reck did the first probe of the wall blocking the stairway entrance. “This is simple concrete, sir. Old, crappy, concrete actually. I’ll have this open in a hot minute.”
“You’re authorized to do so, Tech Reck.”
She set about placing five incendiary charges around the perimeter of the poorly constructed portal, setting timers on each one of them, then taking about ten paces back, holding a remote detonation device in her hand.
“Ready when you are, Admiral,” she said. Reck seemed to have an almost childlike exuberance at the prospect of blowing things up. He guessed that’s why most crew members spelled out her name as “Wreck” on their reports rather than the more accurate spelling.
Clement and the crew took shelter behind concrete pillars, then the admiral yelled out “Proceed, Tech Reck.” They all took another step back then, even further behind her, just to be safe.
She pressed the remote, then scrambled back behind a pillar. Rather than an explosive charge, the incendiaries lit up as bright as a welding torch, slowly making their way around the perimeter she had set up. Two minutes later and the charges had burned out, leaving melted concrete in a small, gooey pile on the floor. Clement walked up and peered down the stairwell. It was dark and more than a bit foreboding.
“Laura, can we check for oxygen levels? I don’t want to lead us down there and then find out we can’t breathe. This has been here a long time.”
“Aye, sir,” Pomeroy stepped up and over the quickly hardening concrete threshold to start her scans. After a moment, she looked up at Clement. “Oxygen levels are rather rich, sir. I mean, some obviously came in from us breaking the seal, but if I’m reading this right then the O2 levels are actually higher the further down I probe. It seems as though the oxygen supply is coming up from whatever lies below.”
“Implying that rather than a coal mine situation, we might be heading into some . . . underground oasis?”
Pomeroy nodded. “I’m detecting a warmer climate as well. It’s only nineteen Celsius up here, but I’m reading twenty-three Celsius the lower down we go.”
“Very odd,” replied Clement. “How far down does this stairway go?”
“I’m guessing about five hundred steps, sir. Then there is a larger landing area. Beyond that, I can’t say.”
Lubrov came up. “Sir, this stairway is only wide enough for us to go single file. I recommend one of my Marines up front, one in the back, and you somewhere in the middle.”
“Where will you be, Colonel?”
“Behind the first Marine, sir.”
“Then I’ll follow you. Pomeroy, you’re behind me. I want steady reports. Telco and Tsu, you keep your eyes on the commander.”
“Aye, sir,” they both acknowledged. Lubrov signaled one of her Marine privates to lead the group, and the other to follow last.
And with that, they began their descent into the unknown.
“What do you think we’ll find down here?” Clement asked of Pomeroy as they began their slow but steady descent.
“I don’t know what I think, but hopefully we’ll find some evidence of the technology that was used to terraform the Trinity worlds. And hopefully, some of it is still working,” she replied.
“So, do you think it was alien technology?”
“I don’t know what to think, sir, except that I expect to be surprised.”
They proceeded down the stairwell in orderly manner, the lights from their helmets illuminating the way in front of them. The stairs were dusty but otherwise showed very little sign of wear. They could’ve been abandoned for a decade, or a thousand years. After a few minutes of descending the first Marine and Colonel Lubrov reached the landing area. It was very dark and the room was shaped like a hexagon. On one wall there were double metal doors and what appeared to be some kind of control box. The box had no obvious sign of power of any kind, but there was a raised crystalline object in the middle of the box.
“What do you think, Commander,” Clement asked Pomeroy.
“I’d say we’re looking at an elevator, likely one that will take us down considerably further from where we are now.”
Clement turned to Lubrov. “What’s your recommendation, Colonel? Do we go on? How safe do you think we are?”
“I would say we’re currently safe, Admiral. The question is, do we take another risk to try to find answers to our questions? It seems to me the only way to discover the mysteries of this place is to try and activate that elevator and go down further.”
“Should we leave someone up here as a safety measure?”
Lubrov shrugged. “If you like, sir. Quite frankly, I thought this expedition was to find answers to the evidence of artificial construction that we’ve seen. I don’t think we’ll find those answers if we stay up here.”
“Good point, Colonel. Nonetheless, I think caution is always a good idea, especially when you’re facing the unknown, and this is about as unknown as it gets.” He turned to his team. “Lieutenant’s Telco and Tsu, you’ll remain here as our safety net. Stay in com link with Colonel Lubrov at all times. Sorry that you don’t get to come down and discover Wonderland with the rest of us, but if there’s trouble I think the Marines will be of the most use. If anyone besides one of us comes up this elevator, or you get an order to bug out, or you do so. Understood?” He got a pair of yes sirs in response, then turned to Commander Pomeroy.
“If you can’t get these doors open, this is going to be a very short expedition.”
“Understood, sir. I’ll take a crack at it.”
At that Tech Reck stepped up. “Admiral, let me do it. I don’t think you have anyone else on this team as good with mechanical devices as I am,” said Reck.
Clement looked to Pomeroy, who shrugged.
“I don’t think we have anything to lose, sir,” she said.
Clement nodded his assent. “Proceed, Tech Reck,” he ordered. The diminutive woman stepped forward, pulling a pair of electronic devices out of her hip pack. She waved the first one over the lock mechanism, and then placed the second one in touch with the crystal on the lock itself. After a couple of seconds of lights blinking in sequence, the doors magically split open.
“Simple magnetic lock, Admiral. If this is the best security they have, we’re going to have an easy time of it,” she said confidently.
Clement couldn’t help but smile. “Thank you, Tech Reck. Please remind me to include you in all of my future field trips, and to change out the locks on my cabin door.”
“Sir,” Reck said, smiling, and then stepped aside. The six remaining members of the expedition stepped on to the elevator. It was large enough to bring twice that many, at least. Inside, on the door panel, there was another control box.
Clement looked to the two young lieutenants he was leaving behind. “Take no chances, gentlemen. Wait thirty minutes, no more. If we haven’t answered in that time, bug out back to the VTOL and get ahold of Captain Yan.”
“We will, sir,” replied Telco.
Clement nodded in return, then turned to Tech Reck. “Whenever you’re ready, Tech.” Reck used the same two devices to activate the crystal, which began to glow with a white pulsing light. The doors to the elevator slowly closed, and the team was quickly ushered down into the unknown.
The descent seemed swift, and at one point Clement was worried that they were in fact in free fall. But in the end there was the sensation of slowing, and then a gentle touching to the ground.
“Thirty-three seconds of descent, Admiral,” said Pomeroy, “but without knowing what our speed was it’s impossible to say how far down we’ve actually gone.”
“Kilometers, I’d say. But that’s just a guess.” Clement turned to Lubrov. “Can you raise Lieutenant Telco?”
Lubrov shook her head. “I’m getting nothing down here,” she said. “No com signals at all, and no uplinked telemetry from the fleet either. We are in the dark.”
“So we are. Let’s be hopeful that our two lieutenants are good enough sailors to follow their orders. Keep a watch on the clock, please, Colonel. Tech Reck, um, can you please open the doors?”
“Aye, sir.” The tech did her magic again, and when the doors opened, Clement felt like they were indeed about to enter Wonderland.
Clement stepped out into a room that was cavernous, literally. Looking up, he guessed it was at least three hundred meters to the top of the cavern. There were dozens of natural-looking columns scattered throughout the cavern, and each of the columns emitted light from what appeared to be a purple-white bioluminescence, much like the type they had discovered at the pond on their original mission. But this light seemed to emanate from the columns themselves, and as they scattered through the open area they illuminated the whole cavern, far off into the distance. As the six souls stepped out onto a landing platform, they all stared in stunned silence.
The bioluminescent columns extended into what could only be described as an underground valley. “How far . . .” started Lubrov.
“Kilometers, I’m guessing,” said Clement. There were buildings and structures far off into the distance. A gentle mist filled the cavern, and gave the air a warm, almost tropical humidity. The air smelled of flowers and blooms, and indeed there were many types of flora, different and lusher even than what was on the surface, scattered throughout the cavern. It was darker where they were standing than it was near the distant city, which was bathed in a gold-yellow light from above, almost as if there was a tiny sun illuminating the cavern. From where Clement stood, it looked like it could be raining over the city. He had to tear himself away from the sight before him and pay closer attention to what was directly ahead. Down a gentle, inclined slope, there was a large open platform, one side of which contained an entire wall of four uneven rocklike towers that were at least four meters high. The devices contained within those columns hummed and pulsated with light in a fluid, organic way. These devices, whatever they were, were clearly actively working at some kind of tasks. Clement took a couple of steps down the smooth ramp, looking closer at a central raised platform. There was a circle of command consoles, which looked designed to be accessed by something similar to the human form.
“Do we proceed, Admiral?” asked Pomeroy. Clement turned to look at the commander and then to Colonel Lubrov, who was silent.
“Colonel, are we safe?”
“That’s impossible to say, Admiral, but we did come here to explore so . . .” She trailed off.
“We proceed then. I will lead us from here.”
“Sir,” said Lubrov. The two Marines fell in to line closely behind Clement, followed by Lubrov, her rifle drawn, then Pomeroy and Reck. As they descended down the long sloping ramp they could hear their boots clicking on the floor, as if it were a hard surface. Clement stopped and bent down to touch the dark purple material. It felt like an impossibly smooth stone, almost like slate, polished to an incredible fineness. The slope was low and easy, but it still took some time for them to walk down it with the heavy equipment they had in their backpacks. There was a strange sensation about their progress, almost as if the slope was getting smaller as they descended.
“This floor, it seems to be rising up to meet us as we walk,” said Pomeroy.
“I felt the same thing,” replied Clement. “What could it be?”
“Some sort of nanomaterial, maybe, employing both the principles of a solid and a fluid at the same time.”
Clement held his hand up to stop the troop. “Tech Reck, see if you can get a sample of this floor material.”
“Aye, Admiral,” she replied, then turned and tracked back up the slope. She bent down on one knee and started hammering on the floor material with a small pickax she pulled from her backpack. The material just seemed to “flow” away from the chisel strikes and then return to its original form when she stopped pounding. It made no sound when she struck it.
“Try a different method,” said Clement.
“Like what?” replied Reck, as if she were annoyed by the suggestion. “Sorry, like what method, Admiral?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe try something a little less, um, aggressive.”
“Try scooping some of the nanomaterial a few centimeters behind where we last walked,” said Pomeroy, then handed her a glass vial.
Reck tried that, and after a few failures, the material finally gave way and slowly oozed its way into the vial, the “scooped” material being immediately replaced by more material. Reck sealed the vial and handed it back to Pomeroy.
“Almost like it allowed us to take a sample,” she said to Clement.
“Will you get to analyze this or will I get a crack at it?” asked Reck.
“We can work on it together when we get it back to camp,” replied Pomeroy. That brought a smile to Reck’s face. Then Pomeroy nodded to Clement that they could continue.
The troop started up their descent again, the platform with the console on it drawing ever closer. As they closed in, he could feel the low vibration of equipment running, energy flowing, the towers of “rock” humming with power as they did their incomprehensible work. Everything on the columns lit up from moment to moment, displaying a vibrant array of colors that ran smoothly up and down. There were no visible controls of any kind, just a fascinating kaleidoscope of colors, shapes, and movements. It was like watching a stained-glass window in constant motion, changing form. It was mesmerizing, and Clement had no idea what it meant, or what the control columns were doing.
They reached the platform and Clement sent Pomeroy and Reck to investigate the towers closer while he, Lubrov, and the Marines went to the center control platform. The raised consoles were made of the same material as the floor, and though they were inclined for what appeared to be easy access for a pair of standard humanoid hands, they were completely featureless. Lubrov ordered her Marines to set up a perimeter looking down on the “valley” below just in case their arrival had triggered any unwanted visitors.
“What do you make of this?” he said to Lubrov, running his hand over the blank, smooth console.
“I’d say someone is missing some equipment. It seems logical that this console controls those stacks somehow, but without any input panels, it’s impossible to guess how they might interact.” Clement called Pomeroy over while Tech Reck continued to scan the towers.
“What’s your report, Commander?”
“I’d say we’re dealing with a vast computing system that might make up this whole complex, possibly controlled from these consoles.”
“There’s only one problem with that theory: these consoles don’t appear to have any type of human interface.”
Pomeroy looked at the console, then ran her hand over it. “It seems to be made of the same material as the walkway, and this platform for that matter. The towers and columns are made of a different material but where they intersect with the platform, it’s a completely seamless join, like they’re both part of the same mechanism or material but serve different functions. My best guess would be that you have to have some sort of key to unlock these consoles, and if you have that key likely all the interface mechanisms you need would simply emerge from the console itself. I could be wrong but that would be my working theory. Tech Reck seems to think that this entire cavern is part of one huge, singular mechanism. Although, based on the magnetic and electrical-pulse outputs we’ve been recording, this entire complex could also be organic, or maybe some combination of organic and mechanical materials. That’s what I expect I’ll find when I analyze this nano-goo,” she said, holding up the glass vial to the light.
“That’s a level of technology far beyond what we possess,” said Lubrov to Clement. “As your security chief, that worries me. Contact with a higher technology, or a more advanced civilization, usually ends up badly for the less advanced civilization.”
“Noted, Colonel,” said Clement. “At this point, though, we’re still in the
information-gathering phase of this expedition.” He turned to Pomeroy. “Continue with your investigation, Commander. I want as much information as we can get.”
“Are we going to explore further into this cavern?” asked Lubrov.
“Unless the circumstances change, I think not. I gave us a three-hour window to complete this mission. We still have potential enemies and thirty thousand vulnerable migrant settlers on the surface above us. We’ll do what we can, Colonel, but if it will ease your mind, I’ll let you know that I have no intention of going further than we have to in order to start our analysis of this place.”
One of the Marines called to Lubrov. “Colonel, we have movement in the valley.” The two Marines were quickly on high alert, their rifles drawn. Lubrov went running to the edge of the platform with Clement close behind.
When Clement got to the edge of the platform he saw what all the commotion was about. About a hundred meters away there was a dull gray cylinder rising out of the pathway. It “grew” up to about the size of a standard human, and then stopped. A door then slid aside, revealing a dark interior.
The Marines, including Lubrov, raised their rifles, as they were trained. Clement stayed one step behind them, his pistol still sheathed in its holster. Then he motioned the Marines to one side and stepped around them.
“Admiral,” protested Lubrov.
“Hold your position, Colonel,” snapped Clement. They all watched as a dark-suited figure emerged from the cylinder. It stood in front of the opening for a few seconds, long enough for Clement to recognize the amber-colored skin and platinum blonde hair that was typical of the Trinity natives. As the figure began moving toward them up the pathway there was no question in his mind that it was both human, and female. Her hair hung down past her shoulders, and it was braided at the ends in an attractive style. As she approached them, Clement was impressed with both the femininity of her figure and the beauty of her face. And, to his great surprise, it was a face he recognized.
She stood directly below them now, and Clement signaled for the Marines to lower their weapons.
“Hello, Captain Clement,” said the woman in perfect standard English. “I suppose you are as surprised to see me as I am to see you?”
Clement stood speechless for a moment, then took a few steps down off the platform to meet her at her level.
“Hello, Mary,” he said. “How nice to see you again.”
“Thank you, Captain. I wish I could say the same to you in return.”