Gambler (Aeolus Investigations Book 4), page 10
“Hardly that,” Ron said. “But, yes, it is smaller than our old one.”
Denem shook his head. “It’s not quite as large as the drive unit on Flagon. I know that one was tiny. Do you really expect this to be effective for a ship the size of Urania?”
Ron grunted. “Sure. Why not? Size isn’t everything. Look at the two of us. I’m more than twice your size. You’re far more agile, you have claws and you have fangs. I would not want to fight you hand-to-hand.”
Denem smiled and nodded.
***
Over wine that evening, Ron said, “Denem was curious about the rebuilt hyper-drive. He thinks it’s is too small to be useful.”
Straight-faced, Lexi said, “It has to be small. I need the extra space for my lingerie collection.”
Ron stated, “You don’t have a lingerie collection, kiddo.” He sounded interested though.
So close together their voices overlapped, Geena opened her eyes wide and asked, “You have a lingerie collection?”
Hmmph. That was a joke, guys. Double hmmph. Maybe it shouldn’t be? I need a Victoria’s Secret catalog.
Chapter 19
Penetrating the Base
Lexi’s technology upgrades were fully developed and installed. None of them thrilled her as much as developing the handheld ray-guns had. Still, it was new technology which made it fun. To the extent possible, everyone spent days practicing with Glocks in lower gee in the cargo hold. They had yet to introduce the Ostrieachians to the Zappers. Other than that, they were ready to go.
The relatively straightforward plan developed by the Samues had been discussed over dinner the prior two nights. No one raised any questions. Even Denem, who clearly still disbelieved that so small a ship could loft such a large mass into hyperspace, ceased making objections. He was sure the plan would fail but gave up trying to convince Lexi, Ron, and Geena.
The team was rested and fed. All eight of them gathered in the command bay in spacesuits, armed with Zappers. The Ostrieachians were all wearing external comm headsets that connected to Urania’s virtual private network linking them to the internal comm-gear the Aeolus team wore.
Denem was looking closely at his weapon, his curiosity evident. “I’ve never seen anything like this. I didn’t even think it was possible to build a beam weapon into a handheld device. I understood that the power supply alone is supposed to be impossible. None of our spies, and yes, I’m sure you all know we have spies, ever mentioned the Accord having hand beamers. What do you think, Agart?”
Agart was Flagon’s second pilot. He pulled his Zapper and looked at it curiously. He was already standing next to Lexi. As he pressed it against her side, he said, “I think we want to stop this here, boss.”
Denem nodded. “Not your decision to make, but my thought exactly, my friend. I need you all to carefully, very carefully, place your weapons on the floor.” His Zapper was already leveled at Ron, who he considered to be the most dangerous of the group. He was satisfied that Agart had the second most dangerous covered. He didn’t expect any trouble from Geena when two weapons were pointing at her friends. His own people, especially Kalia, could be a problem but what could he do?
“What are you doing, Denem?” Kalia asked, horrified.
He shrugged his ears, holding his Zapper steady. “Taking command of this ship. I know it talks, but it can’t possibly be alive. It’s just another example of how advanced Accord technology is over our own. You see, I work for the people over our heads. I can pretty much guarantee they wouldn’t be pleased at having their expensive base destroyed which I do believe these people can do. I’m also fairly certain my friends haven’t seen anything like these little toys before either. These should be worth a great deal to me. In fact, the other tech I’ve seen on this ship is worth billions. Our world as we know it is doomed, Kalia. The Unity is going to take over and when that happens I’ve been promised a position of true power.”
Geena calmly looked at Lexi. None of them had made any move toward disarming themselves. “You and Jis were right about him.”
Lexi shrugged, “Yes, but I didn’t pick up on Agart.”
Agart had a brief moment to utter, “Huh?” as Lexi twisted toward him, her cupped hands slamming together over his sensitive ears, rupturing both eardrums. Clamping onto his ears, she forced his body toward the floor while giving his head a quick wrenching twist. Ostrieachians are more flexible than humans, but not enough to save him. The sound of his neck snapping was shockingly loud.
Denem was firing his Zapper without effect. Ron calmly stepped forward and took it from him. “Definitely secret agents, Lexi,” he said matter-of-factly. “I want a decoder ring. Well, it’s nice we have a brand new holding cell. I figured we’d need one someday. I wasn’t expecting to need it so soon. Unfold it for me, would you please, Urania? Back in a minute guys.” He held Denem with both hands behind his back, cognizant of the danger the man’s claws offered. He wasn’t kidding when he said he wouldn’t want to fight the man.
“I am so very sorry,” Kalia said. “I never suspected Denem of treachery. I’ve known him most of my life. We were even lovers for a time, years ago.” She shook her head and looked at Lexi and Geena. “Do any of our weapons work?”
“Yes, and no,” Geena said. “The Zappers are all biometrically locked while on Urania. It’s too freakin’ dangerous to hand someone a gun that can cut the ship in half from the inside. They will unlock once we climb out onto the hull.”
They all watched as Lexi bent over, lifted Agart and headed towards the rear of the ship. “Where are you taking him?” Zagem asked.
“Med-bay. Urania, run me a complete analysis down to the DNA level please. I want to know if Ostrieachia is another Forerunner project. It’s out of position if it is, but let’s check anyway.” Lexi had a theory that the ancient race generally credited with seeding humanity across Accord space was selecting what worlds to seed following a pattern. Ostrieachia didn’t fit the pattern as she perceived it.
Once Ron returned, Kalia asked, “Who’s staying behind to crew the ship?” Then, as all three humans turned to look at her, she smiled and said, “Of course. Never mind. Sorry, Urania. Denem apparently forgot about her too, or rather, apparently, didn’t believe it.”
Using the eight anti-personnel Zappers that ringed the ship’s periphery, Urania had already surgically carved an enlarged pocket only slightly larger than herself, reaching up to within five feet below the lowest tunnel running under the base. She let one of the large chunks hit her as it fell. They all heard the loud thunk as it hit, but no one felt a jolt. Her hull remained undamaged. “I did that on purpose. Dampeners work pretty well, Lexi,” Urania remarked. She put out the wall shield to intercept any other falling material.
When they were ready to hyper out, she planned to carve her way both closer to the surface and to the center of the flight deck. There were no tunnels under the flight deck. “Everything is holding stable,” she reported. “I don’t detect any settling or cracking. Now let’s see what happens with the ion drive.”
She slowly rose to the top of the cavern, only to stop and settle back down to the bottom after holding there two minutes. “That was really awkward. The n-space drive just isn’t designed for hovering, or really, for vertical ascents. Besides, the turbulence is going to be too intense for you guys to go EVA. There’s nothing I can do to reduce it while holding position.”
Lexi shrugged, “It’s a shame, but we expected that. So let’s try the anti-grav field.” Along with Ron and Geena, she spent days crawling around Urania’s underbelly, mounting the projectors that generated the field. Lexi designed them to be plug-and-play compatible with the shield nodes, primarily because they had extra node housings.
The dampener-technology-based shields they were now using were sufficiently more effective than the prior version. They retained the existing nodes even though the theoretically were no longer required. Pulling some of them out reduced the redundancy factor but did not otherwise weaken the ship’s protection. The next version of the anti-grav nodes would be incorporated into the gravity-technology-based wall shield nodes. It was far simpler and faster for now to keep them as separate units.
Urania quickly learned that using the anti-grav field wasn’t as clean an ascent as it was on the ion drive. No one said anything as the ship momentarily scraped against the nearby wall. The grinding noise echoing throughout the ship was horrendous, but like when Urania let herself be hit by a chunk of the falling ceiling, no real harm to the hull was done. Once she was in position below the base and able to hold relatively steady, Urania said, “There seems to be a knack to this. Whatever. We’re here. It’s your show now, Ron. Ready to breach the tunnel?”
Ron looked at his fellow infiltrators and said, “Let’s do it.” Urania waited patiently as the six members of the assault team exited through the airlock and climbed to the top of her hull. The ceiling of the cavern was no more than five feet above her position, forcing the three humans to stoop slightly as they clambered to the front of her hull.
No one made mention of the fact that she altered the normal gray color of her hull to solid black although both Ron and Lexi fully appreciated it. On the highest level of the curved hull, inside a holographic oval that appeared to rise slightly above the surface, was a stylized bat on a field of yellow.
Sometimes Urania’s sense of humor seemed to be a disturbing combination of Lexi’s and Ron’s. Of course, there was no telling how much influence the Xeas commodity traders, the original users of the educator, the device suspected as the source of Urania’s sentience, might have had. Although, none of those people were known for their sense of humor. Urania lighted the target spot with her hull lights. Ron nodded to Lexi. She would go first, followed by Geena and the three Ostrieachians. As the strongest in the group, Ron would go last with the plug. At Lexi’s nod, Ron said, “Now, Urania.”
Chapter 20
Command Central
Urania bored a vertical shaft through the five feet of solid granite and near-hull metal over their heads. Just as the Zapper cut out, Lexi was airborne, suit thrusters propelling her through the wall shield and into the shaft above. She briefly thought, Yeah, we still need to have wall shields. Do we still need e-shields as well? The wall shield was touching the base of the granite and at maximum hardness, holding the atmosphere inside the tube. Since it only held things away from Urania, Lexi had no trouble flying through it, even at that intensity. She crouched at the edge of the top of the tube, alone and undetected as far as she could tell. Holstering her Zapper, she said, “We’re good. Come on up, Geena.”
Within minutes, Geena and the Ostrieachians were up and spreading out along the utility tunnel. Ron launched, and holding steady at the base of the tunnel, wedged the plug he carried into place. He hit the activation switch creating a perfect seal. None of them expected to be leaving this way, although the plug could be released by entering a short code which they all memorized.
Following the betrayal of both Denem and Agart, before leaving the ship, Lexi asked each of the remaining Ostrieachians point-blank before they left the ship, “Can I trust you?”
She received three affirmative responses, Kalia adding, “With your life. You are the only chance my world has of survival. I will never, I can never, betray you.”
Lexi nodded, satisfied. Jis said Ostriechians were hard to read. She didn’t find that to be the case. But of course, what do I know? Looking directly at Kalia, she said, “Wow! Thank you. I’ll do my best.” She hugged the smaller woman before she said to the others, “They’re OK.” Becoming attuned as she was to the Rose of Light, she knew none of them lied. They weren’t, as Agart and Denem were, or rather had been in Agart’s case, in the employ of Unity. That ability was beginning to feel normal to her. She shrugged mentally afterward. Better than feeling creepy. She had struggled with that briefly.
In the poorly lit utility tunnel, Ron looked at the group. “We’ll comm once we have Command Central under our control. You guys work your way closer to the flight deck. We’re going to have to move fast once we have the CC.” He gave Lexi a quick hug even though it was somewhat ridiculous in a spacesuit. With a nod to Geena, they took off down the corridor, following the schematics Urania projected to the contact lenses worn by all three of the Aeolus team.
When they reached the point where they had to exit the tunnels and switch to public passageways, they strode with purpose, just two extra-tall pirates going about their regular pirate business. No one paid them any attention. Since they left their swords behind for this job, other than minor differences in their spacesuits, they really didn’t appear that different from some of the other people strolling through the corridors. No one noticed that the holstered guns they wore were odd. For one thing, the general populace did their best to avoid them due to the fear instilled by the armbands they wore, indicating they worked for base security. In fact, they noted people did their best not to look in their direction at all. It was almost like being invisible.
The two Samues made it as far as the command complex before encountering their first difficulty. At least it was one they anticipated. The Command Central complex itself was merely a distinct portion of the base with two restricted surface entrances and a third from one of the service tunnels, also restricted. Unlike every other structure on the base, Command Central did not adjoin any other building, giving those inside a clear field of fire should they need one. At the moment, only remote sensors and robotic weapons covered the roof. According to contingency plans Urania uncovered, in case of an uprising, snipers would take up positions between the automated defenses.
While none of the entrances had standing guards, all were monitored from the security office inside the complex. All entrances required biometric identification, in this case, facial recognition by the software accompanied by a retinal scan. A manual go-ahead from the watch officer on duty had to be issued before the entrance could be opened. It seemed like excessive security for a sealed base that no one knew existed, although it did fit with the extreme vigilance this group exhibited. But then again, they were in the process of being invaded.
Regardless, there was no way they could bluff their way through the security measures. Because of that, they opted for the basement entrance as an easier point to breach, heading back down into the utility tunnels. While the basement passage had the same security protocols as those on the surface, the approach differed. A straight corridor ran from the doorway, back two hundred feet, before intersecting a cross tunnel. In theory, that allowed those monitoring in the security office ample time to notice anyone approaching, and trigger the automated defenses if they felt so inclined.
A single burst from Geena’s Zapper took out the sensor that covered the approach to the hatch. Since she shot through the corner of an intersecting tunnel, they were never seen. No alarms went off, but security immediately dispatched two men to check on why they lost the feed from the sensor. With the sensor more or less vaporized, the two infiltrators waited a moment before racing toward the door. Realistically, rather than sending guards to investigate, the security office should have set off the automatic weapons on continuous fire immediately. Sure, they might have slaughtered the pizza delivery guy and wound up having to order more. Not that there would have ever been a pizza delivery guy down in a maintenance tunnel. Even if they ate pizza on this base. But the sensors going dead couldn’t have been a normal occurrence. They should have assumed the worse. They didn’t.
Waiting on the hinge side of the hatch, Ron tossed a flash-bang over the top of an armored robot that was scooting through as soon as the opening was wide enough. The robot was no more than eight inches high and maybe a foot in diameter. Its perimeter was ringed with what appeared to be three small gun turrets. An equally small sensor package was built into the top. Geena zapped it as Ron followed his flash-bang through the open hatch. He fired twice, killing the two guards sent with the robot. It was cold, he knew. But the fact was, everyone left on this base was going to die when Urania lifted the flight deck into hyper. After pirates slaughtered the innocents on Hepca, the Aeolus team settled on a simple policy for dealing with them. Kill them all.
Now inside the security building itself, they closed the security door behind them and strode purposely through the complex. So far, they had raised no alarms. That was puzzling, especially in light of how otherwise efficient this group seemed to be. The security at the basement entrance had been taken care of expeditiously, but someone on a higher floor should have been monitoring as well. The lack of an alarm caused the two to move even more cautiously. They expected to encounter armed men and women purposely running around trying to find them. Geena finally held up her hand to stop them and commed Urania. “Urania, are you doing anything? There don’t seem to be any alarms.”
“Of course, dear. I’m maintaining control over the CC’s systems. I can’t cancel the alarms that are going off without the control room staff noticing, but I can keep them from getting to the people who would do something about them. As Lexi said, I’m your back office. Go on and be a good remote asset and take out the CC for me.”
