Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle (38 page)

Gina was out of range of suit and viper comm. Without satellite relays or
Hobbs
in orbit, she might as well be on the far side of the planet. He couldn’t remind her to grab the supplies set aside for them. He had to hope she remembered. He wouldn’t chance another trip. His instincts were screaming at him that the raiders were coming down and wouldn’t leave the base unexplored. He hoped they wouldn’t just blast the domes. They were thieves first. Surely it made more sense to steal than destroy? He hoped so; he needed them on the ground.

Part of the work done at alpha site had been clearing away rubble to allow the crane to access the stairwell. A by product of that clearance was a boon to Eric now. He could land the shuttle on the cleared area vertically. He did so. He carefully hovered next to the crane and reduced power to his anti-grav. He touched down without a bump and lowered the cargo ramp before shutting down. He was surprised but pleased to see Liz’s people dash toward him to help the unloading. He didn’t plan to leave the shuttle sitting here too long. It was a target and vulnerable from the air.

Eric left the cockpit intending to help with unloading, but Liz accosted him before he could start. She took his arm and pulled him out of the way.

“We found it!” Liz said excitedly. “She was right, Eric. We found it!”

“She was right?” Eric said in surprise. “You found the A.I?”

Gina would have him on a yacht as soon as they got home, he thought. Well, he had agreed to the wager, and boats were okay. Better than some other things he had tried in his time. Atmospheric surfing had to be the stupidest thing he had ever tried, though the skydiving part of it was fun. Very soothing it had been, falling at terminal velocity and trying to decide whether to open the chute or let nature take its course. He had deployed the chute, obviously, but he was always unsure what he would do the next time he faced that choice.

He shook his head. That kind of stupidity was why he quit the sport. Liz was still talking.

“...backup power. The geothermal plant is still running. Amazing really. I would have thought at least the lack of maintenance would have caused a shut down, but no. It’s up.”

Eric checked his log. They hadn’t found the A.I but had found evidence of it. That realisation disappointed but didn’t surprise him. So they had found a server and Liz was hoping it contained a backup of the mind they came for, but she hadn’t found it yet.

“How long until you know?” Eric interrupted her. “Can I see?”

“Of course!” Liz said. “I’ll show you how far we’ve got.”

Eric followed her toward the bucket they were using as a quick way down. Liz told her people to stop loading it with supplies, and they rode it down. More of her engineers unloaded the boxes when they reached the bottom, and Liz hurried toward the stairs.

Eric descended the stairs following Liz. Five flights and they reached the last landing. The builders of the facility hadn’t been kidding. It wasn’t as deep as the archive on Snakeholme. Not even close, but it was deep for a civilian design. His altimeter read -112m in red. It had certainly been strong enough to withstand the atomics that the Merkiaari had used to wipe away the city above. Impressive indeed.

“Gina asked me to make a place down here where we can stay for awhile. This is it.”

Eric looked around the server room and nodded. It had power and he saw a pair of doors at the far end marked with the familiar signs for restrooms.

“Water?” Eric said.

“The facilities work if that’s what you mean. I wouldn’t trust the water to drink, but we have purifiers. With supplies we can hold out a few weeks. Won’t be comfortable mind you, but we can do it.”

“Geothermal you said. Not here surely?”

Liz shook her head. “We’ve traced the incoming power and water lines to a service tunnel. We haven’t followed it very far. It’s too narrow. No idea how far it goes, but my guess would be a long way from here. I’ve rarely seen any power station or pumping station built within city limits. Power stations can be dangerous in uncontrolled situations. That’s one thing. And pumping stations are ugly buggers. No way to make recycling look or smell nice.”

Eric grinned.

He wandered over to what appeared to be the centre of attention. Some of Liz’s people were sitting amongst piles of equipment working with the servers. They already had everything up and running. Liz followed and pointed out this thing or that, but what had Eric’s interest was the data displayed upon multiple screens.

“How long?”

Liz shrugged. “How long do we have?”

“Don’t play with me, Liz. You know we’re here for however long it takes.”

“Then there’s your answer. We might find it in ten minutes or ten days. No way to be sure.”

“But you think it’s here?”

“I
hope
it’s here,” Liz stressed. “But I really think it probably is. Gina gave me a copy of that file header she found, and she’s right that it came from Landing. Probably from right here. Then there’s the nature of all this,” she waved a hand around. “This facility is hardened against shock and EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse). It has earthquake countermeasures—it’s built on springs to you amateurs.” She grinned at him. “It’s isolated within its own faraday cage, just like a military grade facility. I think it’s here.”

Eric nodded. “Good enough for me, Liz. All we have to do now is find it, copy it, and get it home.”

Liz pursed her lips. “About that—”

“Working on it,” Eric said. “Gina is collecting supplies for you. We hold here and defend this place if necessary. The stairwell is the only way down?”

Liz nodded.

“You’re absolutely sure?”

She nodded again and then frowned. “There’s the service tunnel, but like I said it’s too narrow.”

“Good. One of us will defend the stairs at all times.”

“And the other?”

“The other goes to war,” he said grimly, already planning his battles. He would put Gina on the stairs with plenty of ammo and tell her to hold until relieved. “All fucking hell is going to break loose.”

His face must have been something, because Liz paled. The death of
Hobbs
and her crew would not stand un-avenged.

The first hour passed with Eric helping to unload his shuttle and then moving it to a better protected and more remote location. He didn’t want to see it damaged or destroyed, but more than that, he didn’t want it attracting an airstrike and perhaps having collateral damage to the crane or stairwell. He used the APC to return, and stashed it close by with overhead protection. It wouldn’t be detected.

He spent the next hour in the server room eagerly watching for a breakthrough that didn’t come. Most of the engineers weren’t involved in this part of the work. Everyone was waiting for someone to find the answer. Is it here? They were keeping busy setting up places to sleep and eat. Empty crates were made into makeshift tables. Food was prepared with an autochef. Its power filched from the emergency lighting, and its ingredients poured into its guts directly from other open containers as necessary. It was a lash up with only one redeeming feature... it worked.

The third hour came and went, and Eric’s vague uneasiness became alarm. Three hours was more than long enough for Gina to start back and contact him, but maybe she got carried away and decided to fill the shuttle to the brim. She had to know that he wouldn’t allow a third trip, so maybe she was just being greedy. He didn’t believe it. Gina would be aware of the risk of staying too long. She wouldn’t risk half of their defence like that.

Something was wrong.

Liz suddenly shouted and everyone hurried to her. She was leaning over the shoulder of one of her people and pointing excitedly at something on one of the displays. Everyone began asking questions and clapping each other on the back.

Eric hurried over to get the news, but Liz was too busy to explain. He paced to and fro waiting for good news, and grabbed Liz’s attention the moment she was free.

“Tell me,” Eric said.

“We found it. The backup is here, but Eric...” she lowered her voice. “I think the A.I is still operating! The file was updated the day we entered the system. That means Sebastian is alive somewhere! We have to get him... I mean rescue him.”

Eric took a deep breath. “Get the backup copied. Multiple copies for safety, and designate a few people to carry them for you.”

“But!”

“That’s the mission,” Eric said in a hard voice, but then softened it. “Get that done first. I don’t have to tell you the kind of shit we’re in. We have no ship, we have no idea where the A.I is, and we have no way to transport him off world even if we did know. I’m not saying we won’t try. I’m saying we have other priorities. Mine is getting you and the file off this planet in one piece.”

Liz nodded reluctantly. “Any word from Gina?”

“No,” Eric said grimly. “And that’s not good. She should have been on her way back by now. I’ll have to go find her, and that means leaving you vulnerable here. I can’t be in both places.”

Liz shrugged. “We’re fine here.”

Eric didn’t disagree, but that assumed the raiders hadn’t located them. He wasn’t sure what they had come for. Precious metals was a good bet but he wasn’t sure. If all they wanted was gold and platinum, then they wouldn’t come to Landing. They would take on the mines, and other industrial areas where those metals would have been stored and used. Banks as well, but Landing only had a small one and it didn’t have a platinum reserve. But did the raiders know the bank here was empty?

Again, he didn’t know.

Anything he did now was a huge risk. If they had somehow taken Gina out, he was on his own. That meant he had no choice but to risk Liz and her people while he tried to gain a way off planet. He hated to do it, but he needed to wait long enough for the first copy of the backup. He would carry one in case he was the only survivor... again. The thought was a grim one, but the mission was all that mattered in the end. Burgton would agree. Liz would be a huge loss to them, but there were other engineers on Snakeholme who could take over. Give them the file, and any losses here wouldn’t be in vain.

“I’ll take the first copy with me.”

Liz looked surprised for a moment, but then her eyes clouded. She nodded grimly and hurried away to supervise its creation. Eric watched the process impatiently, wanting to be on his way. He wanted...
needed
to know what had happened to Gina.

The copying process seemed to take forever. At least it felt that way to him, but in the end Liz handed him a case containing six innocent seeming teardrop-shaped crystals each one containing googlebytes of precious data. He held the case in his hand briefly, noting that every eye in the room followed it, before opening his suit to put it safely away in his top pocket. He coughed a little but ignored the warnings flashing upon his internal display.

He sealed his suit and turned toward the exit.

Everyone was in the server room now, including the crane driver. The bucket was hanging high above the shaft in the open air. He ran up the stairs, glad he had insisted they be cleared all the way up. It had been more effort for the engineers, but a hit upon the crane would have been a serious inconvenience without another way up. It took him barely two minutes to reach the top, and another fifteen to reach and ready the shuttle for takeoff.

He chose a different route than before. More direct, but not a straight line. He was aware it was probably wasted effort, but it had to be made. He needed to maximise even a tiny chance. He had so few advantages. As before he hugged the terrain flying manually, and used his enhanced reflexes to avoid collisions. He was so close to the ground, he had to shut off the proximity alarm. It kept squawking at him. He glanced at one of his monitors showing an external view. It was set to warn him of anything behind him. All he saw was snow sucked up from the ground and towed behind him in his wake. He was too close to the ground. He increased altitude by a small amount, enough to prevent the hole in the air he was making vacuuming the snow, and grunted approval. He needed to be certain his six was secure.

Sensors showed no hostiles, but he was moving too fast for viper sensors to be reliable. He linked into the shuttle systems directly and set an alarm to warn him. He couldn’t afford to take his attention from his piloting. Mach two was about as fast as he dared at this altitude. Viper systems couldn’t react in time if he tried for more. Besides, he was driving a cargo shuttle. Another name for cargo shuttles was brick. Its maximum velocity in atmosphere wasn’t much greater than this.

Flight time was less than two hours.

He slowed his approach when his sensors came within range of the base and his pulse sped at what was reported. Gina’s shuttle was parked close enough to dome three for ease of loading cargo. So much wasn’t a surprise. What had his pulse speeding was the other shuttle. His sensors at this range couldn’t tell him much more.

The three domes and two shuttles were the only clear details. It was enough to make him wary. He wouldn’t overfly the base for fear of fire from the ground. One rocket up his arse was all it would take to ground him, and maybe damage him beyond repair if he was unlucky.

He wouldn’t risk it. He chose to land and hike in.

“Terrain, terrain, terrain,” Eric mused. “I need some.”