21
The shuttle hurtled downwards to the blue-gold surface of Camus. The planet had a great deal more open water than the other Trinity worlds, basically being an “eyeball” planet with a central ocean and significant dry land only around the rim. In the center of the ocean there was a string of nine large islands, the middle one of which was their destination, according to Mary. It contained the largest “mountain” in the entire Trinity system, a four-sided artificial pyramid, undoubtedly constructed by the Makers many thousands of years ago. It also served as a maintenance station and central terraforming device for the entire planet, helping to create a pleasant tropical climate from pole to pole. The far side of Camus, like the other tidally locked worlds of the Trinity system, was an icy, frozen waste. Looking down on the central island as Mika Ori took them in at the fastest speed possible, it was a lush and beautiful place, somewhere Clement would have liked to visit in a more peaceful time.
For now, though, as they endured the bumpy ride down to the surface, Camus and the island were still places of mystery that contained many more questions than answers. If this was the controlling complex for the entire star system—the environment, maintenance, caring for the natives on each of the Trinity worlds—it had somehow fallen into disrepair. Why was unknown. If it could be repaired was unknown, and thus, their ultimate fate was also unknown.
He looked to the young woman at the center of all of this. Mary still carried the appearance of a girl in her late teens or early twenties. Her failed merging with the Machine on Bellus had led to her being “enhanced,” but in many ways he felt she had lost some of her humanity. If she had her way and completed the Ascension process on Camus, she would become not just part of the Machine, but its central and controlling force, and the fate of all the people of Trinity would be in her hands.
“I can have you on the ground in three minutes,” said Ori to Mary. “Is there some place of preference you’d like me to set down?”
“I do not know much of this planet, only of my home world. Can you use your observational skills to find a likely landing location where I can quickly gain entry?”
Clement shared a glance with Ori. That wasn’t the answer they were looking for. “Get us down to one thousand meters above the island; we’ll circle the mountain, take reconnaissance.”
“Sir,” Ori responded, then did as instructed.
As she spun them down closer to the ground, the island appeared covered in greenery, mainly jungle-type trees, roots and vines. The vegetation was heavy, and it didn’t look as though the island was inhabited by any of the natives as there were no open areas where settlements would have been. Clement pondered this.
“We’re at one thousand meters, sir,” said Ori.
“Take us down to five hundred, then start a slow circumnavigation back up the mountain, raising our altitude a hundred meters on every pass.”
Ori took them down ever closer to the tree canopy where Clement used the shuttle’s instruments to look for signs of any access point or points into the pyramid. For several minutes they circled slowly, rising with each pass as they looked for an opening.
Clement turned to Mary, seated between him and the pilot. “Are you sure you don’t have any idea where this entrance might be? The mountain looks like it goes straight into the ground and down for several hundred more meters, but there’s no opening at ground level, or higher, so far.”
“All I know is that this facility was meant to run autonomously. It is even possible that unlike the Hill Place pyramid on Bellus it was never intended for this mountain to need any human interactions.”
“You mean, there could be no way in?” asked Ori, frustrated.
“That is possible, but not probable. More likely any entrance to the facility would be hidden by some sort of stealth technology.”
“That’s not what I wanted to hear. How long until the shield protecting Bellus collapses?”
“Unknown, but in your terms, I would say ‘soon.’ The energy reserve for the Bellus defense grid is shrinking quickly.”
Ori eyed him from the pilot’s chair. “Continue our search,” he said.
They were nearly at the five-thousand-meter height when they found something.
“Do you see it, sir?” said Ori, excitedly.
“I do. A large opening fifty meters wide and almost perfectly round on the north side of the mountain. It’s covered in overgrown foliage; that’s why we missed it on our initial pass. Can you take us in closer, Mika?”
“I can sir, but . . .”
“But what?”
“This shuttle has limited VTOL capabilities in the atmosphere. Flying into a small space when we don’t know what’s inside and then presumably landing vertically on a pad of some kind, even for me that’s some tough flying,” she said.
“That’s why I brought you, Pilot. You’re the only one I know of that could pull this off.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Ori with more than a bit of sarcasm.
“Take us in at the slowest speed you can without stalling us,” ordered Clement, then turned his attention to Mary.
“What can you tell us, Mary?” She had been busily moving her hands and fingers as if she were once again manipulating the holographic systems, but there was no visual display that either he or Ori could see. She went on for a few more seconds as the shuttle slowly approached the ominous dark opening in the side of the pyramid.
“There is nothing, Jared. I can’t sense the Machine’s higher functions at all. There are several basic and rudimentary systems running, but everything else is dark.”
Clement gave that a moment to set in, then: “We came here for a reason. Take us in, Pilot.”
She did as instructed.
The shuttle crossed the threshold of the opening as Clement took readings of the mountain’s material. It took several seconds to pass through the opening, but once inside, they were in an open but very dark cavern similar to the one on Bellus, but larger by a factor of ten.
“Lights,” ordered Clement. The shuttle’s forward search lights and lower landing lights came on. As they illuminated the interior walls of the pyramid, something became apparent: there was severe erosion inside the mountain; water dripped through the opening and fell a great distance toward the floor, like a waterfall; large sections of latticework metal had partially detached or fallen thousands of meters to the floor below. As they descended it could be seen that the interior walls of the pyramid held massive facilities for what looked like residences, laboratories, or work facilities of unknown function.
“Thousands could have lived and worked in here,” commented Clement.
“Highly possible,” replied Mary.
“Was it your people?”
“No, Jared. This was the handiwork of the Makers. We could not have constructed or maintained a facility of this scope. It would be impossible.”
“Sir, I’m detecting a platform below. There appears to be room to land. The base of this thing must be dozens of square kilometers across.”
“More than that,” said Mary confidently.
“I’m detecting a considerable amount of debris on that platform. It looks like destroyed landing craft or some kind of military gear. Pick your best spot, and then set us down, Pilot, but be careful. It’s clear a battle of some kind was fought here. Probably long ago. And no need to remind you that time is of the essence.”
“Sir,” she replied. Ori took them down at a faster pace and started looking for a safe landing space. Two minutes into her accelerated descent she had it. “There, sir. Some sort of holding facility, a warehouse or something. If it will hold, I can land on the roof.”
“That seems risky,” commented Clement, then he was overridden by Mary.
“No, this place will not do. Continue to the west approximately 1.5 kilometers.”
Ori looked at Clement.
“Are you sure? Are you in contact with the Machine?” Clement asked.
“No,” she said honestly, “but I can feel its energy, what remains of it. It’s there,” she said, then quickly punched in coordinates to the nav system.
“Go,” said Clement to Ori. “We really have no other option at this point.”
The shuttle set down gently on a floor very similar to what had been in the cavern on Camus. Once they stepped outside, however, the comparison ended.
There were columns like in the original cavern, but none of them were illuminated. The floor was dark, hard and brittle. There was what appeared to be a central control platform, and Mary ran quickly to the console and managed to raise several dim projections over it, but nothing compared to what she had previously rendered on Bellus. He and Ori approached the platform.
“The system is at a critical low function,” she said. “It is only running the most basic residual programs. I’m not sure if it can be fixed. Please give me time to investigate.”
Clement looked at his watch, concerned. “How much time do you need?”
“That much is uncertain,” she replied, then focused her full attention on what her meager displays were able to show her.
Clement signaled Ori away from the platform, leaving Mary to her work. They used their lights to illuminate their immediate surroundings. Whereas the cavern on Bellus had columns of tall walls which contained their version of the Machine, this facility dwarfed it by comparison. The components of this machine were like skyscrapers, hundreds of meters tall and broad as a city block at the base. And there were dozens of them. There was also heavy debris, what looked like military equipment, strewn about the cavern.
“I guess this is what you would expect from a facility that controlled the environment of an entire star system,” said Ori.
“You would, but there’s more to it. This complex didn’t just fall into disrepair, nor was it abandoned. It was evacuated, and in a hurry. There was a huge battle here. Perhaps this was the control center for the entire star system, and two different factions were fighting for control of it.”
“So one side won, the other lost, and then the winners just . . . left?”
“There’s evidence of it all around. Facilities hastily abandoned, equipment strewn about the floor, and the most damning evidence of all.”
Ori looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“That ‘hole’ we came through. Almost completely round. Made of melted carbon fiber and exotic alloys I couldn’t define, and, perfectly smooth. A meteor or some kind of natural disaster didn’t make that hole. It was an unknown high-yield Directed Energy Weapon. This station was definitely attacked from the outside.”
“By whom?”
Clement shrugged. “It appears that several thousand years ago, the Makers had enemies.”
“Jared!” called Mary suddenly from the platform. He went running to her.
“What is it?”
“My interaction with the systems here has caused a ripple effect throughout the system. It is coming back online in a limited capacity. There may be a danger—”
At that moment an orange DEW blast swept over Clement’s left shoulder and burned a large hole in the ground. Clement grabbed Ori and threw her to the ground, looking for cover. He took her by the hand and dragged her behind a melted vehicle, likely thousands of years old.
“What the fuck!” said Ori.
“An internal defense grid! It was likely activated by Mary’s tinkering with the system.”
Another blast and then another and another rained down on their position and they had to scramble to another position behind a small bunker-type building. The next DEW blast disintegrated the vehicle they had been hiding behind.
Clement looked up at Mary, who was now furiously working at the platform controls.
“Can she stop this?” asked Ori. Another DEW blast hit the bunker, destroying almost half of the building.
“Christ, I hope so!” He pointed to another smashed vehicle, but more together than the first one. “There!” he said, pointing the way to the vehicle, about twenty meters. They both scrambled out from behind the bunker.
The next shot disintegrated the vehicle when they were halfway there. They were now exposed, in the open. Clement leaned back toward the bunker but before he could even move it was destroyed by the DEW fire from high above their position. He put his arms around Ori, to protect her, then yelled out.
“Mary!”
The next shot hit about five meters away and they were both knocked to the floor. Clement was sure that they were finished.
Then the firing abruptly stopped.
“I have shut off the defense system,” shouted Mary from the platform.
“Thank fucking god,” said Mika. They picked themselves up off the floor and dusted themselves off before approaching the platform again.
“That was close,” stated Clement to Mary.
“I am sorry, Jared. I was trying to access the defense systems and I may have inadvertently activated the internal security systems.”
“May have?” said Ori.
“Yes. By activating the systems in this sequence I have managed to get a reading on the Solar League fleet over Bellus. The defensive shield has collapsed. They have broken through.”
“Broken through to do what?”
“I detect multiple landing craft, materiel carriers, ground equipment, and the like. In short, it looks like they are preparing a full-scale invasion. They have also sent three destroyers to intercept us here.”
Clement glared at Mary, his anger rising. “You promised me that you could defend our people if we brought you here to Camus, now we’re here and you’re telling me this is a lost hope? I’m prepared to return to Bellus with the Antietam and bring the MAD weapon to bear on their fleet if they start killing my people.”
“You must give me more time. I need to raise more systems up to functional levels if I’m to activate the Machine.”
“Damn the Machine! We have to go, now. There’s no more time, and we’re out of options. It’s the MAD weapon or nothing.”
She pivoted swiftly toward him. “If you must go, then go. I must stay behind here and perform the Ascension, or my people will become slaves of your enemies. That is my choice, and my will.”
Clement looked to Ori, who nodded in agreement. It was time to go.
“Mary—” started Clement before she interrupted him.
“Jared,” she said softly. “This is the last time I will be what you call ‘human,’ one of the people, one of Trinity’s children. I am frightened by what awaits me. Would you please stay with me for these last moments?” The plea was heartfelt and emotional, and left Clement in a quandary as to what to do.
“Every second we stay could cost lives on the ground,” said Ori.
Clement turned to her. “If I was facing the end of my life, I would welcome some human contact, of any kind,” he said, then turned back to Mary. “Of course we will stay with you, Mary,” he said. “It would be wrong to deny you your last request of me.”
They both stepped up to the platform. Clement saw a tear run down Mary’s face and she wiped it off, annoyed. When she was done with her settings, she turned to them both, the console at her back.
“Jared, in another life . . .”
“In another life, Mary,” he replied softly.
The floor began to vibrate, subtly at first, then growing stronger. Behind Mary, the console began to glow white, pulsating at a steady rate, like the heartbeat of a living being. As the light enveloped her, wires and tubing began to interact with her, making their way out of the floor and entering her body and boring into every part of her, including her head. She whimpered softly, in pain. Clement presumed that the Machine would give her something to numb the pain, but for now, she was clearly suffering.
The tubing, like viscous, translucent flesh, wrapped and enveloped her. She spread her arms wide, and all he could see of her skin was turning from its normal light amber to a dark matte purple, the same color as the biomechanical nanomaterial he had seen come out of her before. The material of her clothing was absorbed by the spreading purple nano-goo, and for a moment she was naked from the waist up as the tubes and wires continued to snake over her entire body.
Her eyes had lost most of their color, and the irises were gone, replaced by a blank, white stare. The scene reminded him of a religious necklace he had seen once on Ceta, called a crucifix. From what he knew of the story behind that necklace the analogy was appropriate.
It was a horrific sight.
The roiling confluence of wires and tubing enveloped her at a rapid rate.
“The merging of human and machine,” he said to Ori, repulsed by the sight. This type of technology was something the Five Suns had rejected on purely moral grounds decades ago.
Ori nodded, watching helplessly. “Is this our only choice?”
“No. But she chose this path,” said Clement, “and it was her only path.”
“Do you think she’s in pain?”
“I hope not.”
All they could do was stand by and watch her as the Machine took more and more control over her body. Her skin vanished underneath translucent tubing and wires as she became less and less recognizably human with every moment. Ori reached out a hand to Clement and he took it. It was small comfort over what they were watching, but even the simplest human contact was somehow reassuring as they watched her transfiguration into . . . something.
“She was so beautiful,” whispered Ori. Mary’s face, the last human part of her, grimaced in pain and she let out an audible moan as they watched her struggling to survive, to preserve the last remnants of her humanity. The rumbling throughout the complex began to rise again; the floor beneath them was shaking, building to a crescendo.
Suddenly a burst of light came from Mary, spreading out and roiling across the platform, up the consoles, and into the stack of machines. The purple lightning of the burst seemed to be picking up energy from everything it touched: the consoles, the walls, even the floor itself. The stacked buildings in the complex began to crack with energy and light.
When Clement turned back to look at Mary, her face was engulfed by the biomechanical material. She was now nothing more than a mass of purple tubing and wires in the vague shape of a human being.
The energy continued to swirl around and through her body, then in an instant the mass of material pulled in upon itself and collapsed into the platform floor.
Everything stopped.
“What in God’s name?” said Ori.
“She’s gone,” said Clement in the now dead silent cavern. “It’s time for us to go.” He led her back to the shuttle, where she took the pilot’s seat and fired up the engines.
“Do you think it worked?” Ori asked.
Clement looked around the dark mountain cavern as the shuttle rose vertically off the platform. “I don’t know, but we’re on our own now. I hope she lives on in some form, but when this is over, I will mourn her loss.”
“So will I,” replied Ori.
They made the rest of the trip back to Antietam in complete silence.