Joe Hartlet came in and saluted. The captain returned his salute and pointed him at a chair.
"Are you ready to join the action, lieutenant?"
"Yes sir. We"re making an incursion on the alien base?" Joe asked.
"We"re conducting a probe. To gather information, learn more about the base. Ideally we"ll find the alien, and perhaps the smugglers, and bring all of them aboard the Seeker."
"I have reason to believe it"ll be very dangerous. In my reporta""
"Yes. It may be dangerous, but this is vital to our future. These aliens may have technology that we need to learn more about. Having the first live alien ever, would of course come in handy as well."
Relachik watched Joe consider objecting further.
"I can guess what you"re thinking. But given that the base is not responding to our efforts to communicate, and appears largely inactive, we think it may be deserted. And you"ve already come under hostile fire in the installation."
"But that could have been from some other alien culture," Joe said. "I don"t know who it was that destroyed my escort. Also, given the programming of the robots, it could have been a misunderstanding."
Relachik steepled his fingers and leaned back.
"It"s a moot point. The order has been given. The UNSF is prepared to accept the risks to this ship and the marines in order to learn more about an advanced technology in the hands of a race that could still be in existence."
"I see, sir. Then I hope we can find some valuable items or information."
"You"ve been a.s.signed to Major Franks" personal squad. They"ve targeted a sector of the base that looks particularly promising," Relachik said. He sent Joe"s link a pointer, indicating the area on their electronic master map of the outpost.
"Will I have any responsibilities with regard to the... combat effectiveness of the unit?"
"No. Which isn"t to say you won"t be armed... but the a.s.sault robots bring to bear more than ninety percent of a squad"s firepower. Your primary task is to lend us any additional thoughts your particular perspective may offer on the base, since you have been in this creature"s environment before. a.s.suming, of course, that the theories you put forth in your report prove correct."
"Of course I welcome the opportunity to accompany the probe."
"There"ll be more than one boarding party. Someone"ll come up with something."
Telisa and Magnus found Shiny sitting still in a twisty cavern . Telisa thought it looked like the alien was thinking or busy with a mental interface. The familiar leg twitch revealed the gold and silver statue of an alien as alive.
"Hi Shiny. We managed to load your robot into the bay. Thanks for letting us study it."
Shiny responded through their links.
No problem. You"re welcome. You owe me one.
Telisa laughed. "Yes we do. Can we ask you some questions about what attacked your base? We"d like to take some samples of the technology but we"re afraid it might be dangerous."
No time. Collection not feasible. Others in proximity.
"What? Others of your race?"
Humans. Companions. Allies.
"Other humans are here?"
UNSF Seeker, transmitted Shiny. Leave. Rejoin.
"Holy s.h.i.t! The Seeker?" Telisa asked.
"You know the ship?" asked Magnus.
"That"s my father"s ship. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d is probably here to exterminate Shiny and anything vaguely alien." She took a deep breath. "Then he"ll throw us in the brig and bring us back to Earth in chains."
Telisa. Magnus. Rejoin humans. Shiny, leave. Separate.
"Now wait just a minute," Magnus said, raising his voice slightly. "Those guys are after us because we took off with you. If not for us, you"d be their prisoner by now."
"Well, mostly for that reason," added Telisa, thinking about her father. What would happen if she were captured by her father"s ship?
Corrective action. Abscond. Retreat. Flee.
Telisa"s link received an external pointer. She accessed it and saw a scanner interface from the Iridar. She saw that the Seeker had arrived as Shiny claimed. a.s.sault shuttles were disembarking a.s.sault robots and electronic warfare teams from the scout and forcing their way into the base at several points. A message came through to Iridar from the Seeker.
"This is the UNSF transmitting to suspected smugglers aboard unknown vessel. You are to surrender immediately. All contraband will be annexed by the UNSF and you will be held pending charges. Repeat, surrender to UNSF personnel or risk being killed."
"Holy s.h.i.t! They"re going to be swarming in here in a matter of minutes!" Magnus said. Telisa realized that he was examining the same data that Shiny had sent to her link.
The pointer continued to feed more data. Telisa saw hundreds of red points indicated in the three spheres of the base.
Defenses. Weapons. Resistance, Shiny said. A path lit up in green in Telisa"s mental image of the base. Retreat.
"The path leads back to the Iridar," Magnus said. "But what I don"t get is, are those defenses going to be gunning for us, too?"
Telisa. Magnus. Access allowed. Flee.
Shiny turned away and scuttled down one of the side pa.s.sages.
"Where are you going?" Telisa called out, but no answer came.
"The map says we need to go this way," Magnus said.
"Should we go? What"s going to happen to him?"
"I don"t know. Y"know what, we can"t make his decisions for him. This is our chance to leave. And we still have s.h.i.tloads of artifacts. If we can get the h.e.l.l out of here we might still make it."
Telisa shrugged. "Okay. Let"s get outta here!"
She grabbed Magnus"s hand and they ran. "Good luck, Shiny!" Telisa yelled back at the receding alien. Then they were loping through the dim tunnels, pa.s.sing the mysterious cl.u.s.ters of glowing cubes.
Joe strode out into the familiar cavern-like area on the far side of the lock. He wore a stiff new Veer skinsuit and had a military grade scrambler slung over his shoulder, though the weapon was of cheap government issue.
"Link up," the squad leader said. Joe"s link asked for connect permission from the group"s interface and he gave it. A window opened in his mind"s eye, showing him the disposition of the squad. Joe tried to split his attention between the mental display and his natural senses, but had a moment of difficulty.
"It"s a little awkward at first, but believe me it"s helpful when you get used to it," the marine next to him signaled.
"Second nature after a while, right?"
"Exactly. Just stick with me, we"ll watch out for yah."
"This look familiar?" the squad leader asked Joe.
"Yes. The cubes are banks of equipment of some kind. The caverns tend to be the same size, seemingly random variations..."
"Weapons? Defense systems?"
"I have no idea," Joe said. "But both of my robots were destroyed quickly and they only managed to get a couple of shots off."
The leader nodded and signaled for the group to move out. Joe watched half the time in his mental interface, trying to get used to the added input to his brain without stumbling around. Joe felt immensely nervous as they started into the complex, waiting for all h.e.l.l to break loose. Presumably if this incursion was unwelcome, a superior technology like Shiny"s could make it very bad for them.
After a few minutes of moving through the caverns, Joe"s link signaled the presence of another network in range. He checked its source. For a moment he thought the aliens had brought up a network to talk with them. Then a message came through to his link.
"You lied to us. You said you would let us go."
Joe checked the sender and saw that it was unidentified. But he could guess who it was.
"Tam? I was willing to let you go. But not the alien. I wouldn"t have paid any attention to you if you hadn"t kidnapped the alien."
"Kidnapped? Shiny followed us. We had no choice, how could we turn him away after he helped us escape from that place? We don"t even know how the installation worked, for all I know we would have died in there without his help."
"Who are you talking with Lieutenant? Our networks aren"t operating in here, we"re completely scrambled. Is it the renegades?"
Joe found it difficult to think of Mark, Tam and Shiny as renegades. But it was an accurate enough term now.
"It"s them. Tam and the other one."
"You"re sure? The link frequencies are all scrambled... how could you be reaching her?"
"Yes, I"m sure."
The comm officer nodded and then retreated back into himself. Probably alerting the entire fleet, Joe thought to himself. The rest of the squad stopped and kneeled against the walls of the room, waiting for information from the Seeker about where the signal was coming from.
"We"re having trouble with the telemetry," the officer said. "This place is s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with all our ECCM. It doesn"t make any sense that they"re coming through to him."
"This is Joe. I"m here for the alien, true, but the captain of the Seeker also wants us to bring you back to safety. How is it that you can talk to me? A huge chunk of the EM spectrum is completely trashed in here."
"We"re doing just fine. Besides, Shiny isn"t here right now. I don"t know how we can talk to you... Shiny said something about giving us access."
"He said? Well where are you? And where is he?"
"If you can only get us or the alien which one are you supposed to bring back? If I were you I"d be looking for him instead."
"We"re getting you both. Look, this could get dangerous. Just come turn yourself in before someone gets hurt. Is the alien with you?"
"No. Good-bye, Joe." Telisa cut the link.
Joe shrugged to the members of the incursion team. "She won"t cooperate. Somehow she has the help of the alien, I don"t know how but apparently he made it so her link still works."
The comm officer shook his head. "These links use a limited set of frequencies, you can"t just jam one and leave the others alonea""
"Well the alien can," Joe said. "I don"t know how."
"We"ll see how much it can do with bullet holes in its a.s.s," came a comment from somewhere in the squad.
"Enough arguing. Back to the old fashioned way," the squad leader announced. He pointed to an exit. "Sims on point, that direction."
Joe"s nervousness increased again.
Chapter Twenty Six.
Kirizzo searched through the many chambers in the base by accessing the system interface. Data flowed into the cybernetic parts of his body and became part of his memory. Kirizzo accessed the new information as if thinking of events that had occurred seconds ago. He now knew that hundreds of alien war machines were in the base with him, moving in from three access points. Well behind this force, teams of the aliens themselves came in, forty one of them in all so far.
He considered the advantages of their presence. The aliens seemed to be of an inferior technology level. It seemed they had little to offer in comparison to his own civilization. Still they would have access to large amounts of natural resources and perhaps information that could be useful. They might even know of others of his kind, or of the disposition of his enemies.
On the other hand, the aliens posed many problems where they were. Kirizzo faced potential malfunctions in base equipment while the aliens were milling about. If they sought to capture him at an inconvenient moment his aims could be impeded. There even existed a chance that their weapons, although primitive, could harm him. And since they were so primitive, it seemed unlikely that they could be successfully resisting any of the foes of his race.
Kirizzo decided to activate the automated defenses against the intruders. He calculated a fair chance that the aliens might overcome the defenses through sheer numbers based on his combative interactions with them in the Trilisk installation. But it was the best he could do for now; he decided to concentrate on gathering what he would need for leaving the base in a fast ship that could take him home as quickly as possible. Almost as an afterthought he left a few automated ent.i.ties to make sure that the ones he had dealt with would remain unimpeded. He had developed a rapport with this tiny faction and he decided to keep that investment intact in case he required their cooperation later.
An almost imperceptible shudder came through the floor.
"What? What happened?" Telisa asked.
The only answer came a moment later. A spray of projectiles impacted the cavern in a random pattern, sending one or two ricochets nearby. Telisa and Magnus threw themselves onto the smooth floor. Nightmare images of the deaths of Jack and Thomas raced through Telisa"s mind.
"s.h.i.t! They"re trying to kill us!" Telisa snarled. "Those are human weapons!"
"They"re probably moving in after us. But I don"t understand why they"re firing lethal rounds at us. I"d expect an ultimatum first, at least."
"My father"s a hard core soldier."