The Lost Aria (Earth Song Book 3) Page 39

  “It is a damned transport; that is all. Somehow modified with weaponry… and shields?” the commander demanded.

  “What fool would waste resources turning a transport into a fighting vehicle?” wondered the scout.

  “Destroy it, before it damages the station,” the commander ordered his sub-commander.

  The sub-commander turned to his radio and began to issue orders, just as Aaron spotted the two spectacularly armored snakes on top of a military vehicle, and promptly vaporized them.

  “Good choice!!” Minu cheered as the commander and his vehicle went up in a fireball. The moment Aaron killed the two snakes, any hint of organized resistance died with them.

  “It took the kick out of them,” Aaron agreed, “but they're still dangerous.” Weapons fire continued to splash against their shield from all sides, but not fast or powerful enough to endanger them. The fighter’s over-powered shield capacitors were designed for sustained abuse and not overly stressed by small arms. “Still, we can't hang in here forever, and we have limited power reserves.” On the display, the fighter’s dual banks of EPC charge levels were displayed, approximately half and decreasing precipitously.

  “Time to get out of here,” Minu said, “it seems we've out stayed our welcome.” She scanned the immense chamber. There were three exits, including the one they'd entered through. The most promising was to their left, a massive set of heavy dualloy doors that split and pivoted upwards from their top like gull wings to reveal a cylindrical passage four times as wide as the fighter. “There,” she told him and pointed to the massive doors; spread open like a split manhole cover.

  “Everyone has to be somewhere,” Aaron agreed and spun the fighter in a dizzying turn, firing all the time. The T'Chillen resistance, now in complete disarray, gave way before them like the darkness before the dawn. They fled on foot, dove behind equipment or into already smoldering transports as the fighter screamed by.

  “You account for my men well!” Var'at called behind them.

  “I'm just trying to stay alive,” she said under her breath while providing whatever assistance she could to Aaron with only one hand. In a few moments they were roaring through the doors she'd spotted, only to find it a huge dead end. The cylindrical passage was only a chamber roughly twice its length. Opaque windows lined both sides. At the far end was a door, far too small for the fighter to fit. “End of the line.”

  Aaron spun the fighter on its axis, pointing her nose and guns back out the massive doors. There was no sign of any organized attack, but he knew it was only a matter of time. Var'at took his soldiers down a side ramp at a run to investigate the doorway of their dead end. Sporadic disorganized weapons fire reached out toward the skittering soldiers and was answered by both them and Aaron in kind. It instantly reduced in volume.

  “The small door is locked,” a Rasa soldier quickly responded, “I can override it, but of course the fighter will have to be abandoned. Further activity continued in the great chamber beyond but nothing definite could be seen through the smoke and flames Aaron had left behind in their wake. He sent intermittent salvos of Shock rifle fire to keep them guessing.

  “Main door is double sided,” reported Var'at himself, “it’s a lot like an airlock in design.”

  “Can you activate it?” Minu asked him.

  “Probably. But if I do, I don't know if I can make it open again. The system is a very, very, old design that predates any of the modern Concordian control mechanisms.”

  Minu chewed her bottom lip. Three choices; abandon the fighter and retreat through the small rear hatch. Fight their way back into the main chamber and try one of the other exits. Or activate the big airlock doors and try to hold.

  “Heavy combat vehicles,” Aaron warned and stabbed at the main tactical screen. The squat, massively armored T'Chillen vehicles were more tank than anything, low to the ground and fairly bristling with energy weapons, shield, and field projectors. It was hovering into view from the smoky haze, searching them out with its sensors. That cut it.

  “Close it, Var'at!”

  The massive exterior doors started pivoting down from either side, picking up speed as they went. At the same time smaller clamshell style doors came out of the interior wall and moved towards each other. A large energy beam lanced out, striking the fighters shields which instantly glowed blue white, globs of pure energy streaking along the outside trying to find a way in.

  “Damn it!” Aaron barked and slewed them sideways with as much care as he could. The follow up shot missed and instead burned a gouge out of the wall above the forward side of the space, making Var'at's other team run for their lives from great splashes of molten dualloy. Another beam came at them but the huge exterior doors came together with a grinding crash, cutting if off before it could dump any serious energy into their already taxed shields. The inside doors closed a second later with a clank and a hiss. Minu felt the pressure change in her ears.

  She was out of her seat and down the ramp in a second. The Boost drug was still blazing through her body, injuries forgotten almost completely and vision fairly quivering with energy. “Bring Pip!” she yelled at Cherise as she ran out the passenger side door. Var'at and the four soldiers with him were arrayed in front and alongside the fighter, weapons trained on the now secure doors. Even through the massive thickness of dualloy they could hear the thump, thump, thump of the tank’s energy cannon firing over and over again. “Will it hold?” she asked over the radio.

  “I can barely understand how I closed the thing,” he admitted. “If the snakes have someone more familiar with this old Concordia script, they'll be in here in minutes.”

  Minu reached the other team who were examining the huge smoldering gouge from the forward wall. A few meters to the left and the forward door would have been obliterated. Glowing piles of near liquid metal were everywhere. Minu dodged between them without any thought of the risk and quickly reached the small door. The doors controls were alive and displaying a holographic sequence of controls rotating in a circle above the pad. The symbols were a mixture of those common in any Concordia made interface and others both strange and familiar. The Weavers nodded somewhere in the back of her mind.

  “It can be overridden,” the Rasa soldier who'd been examining it said over her shoulder.

  “That won't be necessary,” Minu replied and just like with the control rod a few hours ago, she grabbed and manipulated icons in ways she'd never done, or thought possible. The Rasa gawked as she unlocked the door, and every other door connected to it, in under two seconds. That accomplished, she linked with the rear door’s controls, savagely twisted at a pair of icons, then gave them a snap. There was a clang from the rear door followed by brief klaxon.

  “What the hell was that?” Ted asked as he, Cherise and Bjorn approached with Pip’s life support module floating on its portable hoverfield.

  “I've locked the back door,” she told them as the smaller door before her slid open with a slight hiss. His eyes blazed with unanswered questions, but still she held her tongue. They moved past her into a nearly circular hall way. Minu began to follow, then stopped and turned back to face Var'at. “I can't ask you to give your lives.”

  “You don't have to. They shall not get past us, I swear.”

  “They're not getting past us,” Aaron yelled, still behind the fighter’s controls. Minu went inside, leaving two of her best friends behind to protect her back.

  The circular hallway was lit with light bands that ran around the circumference every few meters giving the feeling of a long drain that appeared to go on forever. Ted, Bjorn and Cherise, escorted by the Rasa, were well ahead of her, blindly running down the hallway. She pushed to catch up.

  The hallway was intersected at one point by two other identical hallways that led off at ninety degree angles. “Straight ahead,” she urged as they approached the turns. The Rasa on point ran on without stopping.

  “What do you think this is?” Cherise asked, breathing hard from the effor
t of pushing the module and keeping it centered in the middle of the hallway.

  “I'm hoping it’s an exit,” she admitted, “we can get out of here and steal a T'Chillen ground car or something and start looking for the technology stash.”

  “And then what?” Ted asked.

  “I haven't thought that far ahead.”

  “So like your father,” Bjorn laughed, even as Ted gave him a dark look. “Oh, quit your glum looks, Theodore, you have been begging to go on missions for so long, I can't remember!”

  “I wasn't expecting a head long race to our dooms.”

  “Welcome to the Chosen,” Minu said. “You can always go back and try to explain it all to the T'Chillen.”

  “No, that's quite all right, I'll take my chances with the fickle hand of fate over the scaly head of evil.” The nearest scaly head of a Rasa regarded Ted for a moment and Minu wondered if the soldier had understood. She hoped not, they depended on every last hand for this crazy mission.

  “Door ahead!” yelled the lead Rasa.

  “It'll open for you,” Minu assured him. And sure enough, when he was within a meter the doorway split and opened, a miniature to the huge outside doors they'd come through earlier, admitting them to a wide sweeping control room with a number of low squat seats and a panoramic display. Not at all what Minu hoped to find. She was about to order an about-face when a narrow snake head rose over the back of the center seat.

  The T'Chillen's eye stalks jerked up to their full extension in unmistakable shock at the sight of the human/Rasa party’s arrival. One of Minu's enforcers was in her left hand in a heartbeat and she almost fired before one of the Rasa called out. “Do not shoot, it is not a warrior!”

  “So?” Minu asked, her gun leveled dead between the eye stalks. The T'Chillen watched her with both eyes, the entire head shaking, scales sending off colorful reflections of light. Its tongue darted out, tentatively tasting the air. Not liking what it tasted, the tongue shot back in.

  “It might be able to tell us a way out,” the soldier said. He aimed his accelerator rifle at the T'Chillen and spoke. “What is this place? How do we get out?”

  “Do not kill this helpless one, please?”

  “Answer the questions,” Minu snapped and took a step closer, “and we'll think about letting you live.”

  “This is the control room,” it said, the translator managing to convey a shaking quality to the voice. “You leave the same way you came in!”

  “Fuck,” Minu spat, never taking her eyes from the T'Chillen. She could see now the Rasa was right, this snake was less than half the size of their warriors, and wore no armor at all. She moved sideways to see it was curled in the wide chair; both serpentine arms hung at its side and it shook almost uncontrollably. She began to feel guilty for scaring the shit out of the poor thing. “What do you do here?”

  “I am in control of this,” it said and gestured vaguely at the banks of controls.

  “Show us,” Minu instructed, and lowered her gun, slightly. The T'Chillen moved so quickly to comply she almost shot it on the spot.

  With fast, deft motions the controls came alive, or part of them. There looked to be dozens of sub-panels and only a few lit up in response. They were programmable data panels of an advanced design she'd only seen a few times before. The displays flowed with alien script that made her brain tickle, and after a second the floor began to vibrate. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

  “Showing you!” And with a slight bump they felt the unmistakable sensation of movement.

  “Is this a craft of some sort?!”

  “Yes, yes! I am in control!” It stroked a control and gestured before it, and the wide panoramic display became clear to the vista of stars beyond.

  “Minu,” Var'at's voice spoke in her ear, “we can see through those windows. We are in space!”

  “Yeah, we just noticed that as well. Stand down and come forward, please. I don't think the fighter is in any danger, but leave a soldier just to be sure. Aaron, as a pilot you'll appreciate this.” Outside the view banked as the ship turned and they could see the edge of the huge space station they'd just left behind. Nowhere was there any sign of a planet. “Enigma, indeed,” she spoke.

  Chapter 10

  January 14th, 522 AE

  Transfer Craft, Enigma Star System, Galactic Frontier

  The pilot proved very chatty once she was certain she was not about to die. She humbly explained that as a female she was limited to breeding and technological services, like all T'Chillen females. Wasn't that normal in all species? She also explained that this was a transfer craft, though what it transferred she didn't know. She assured them there were no other T'Chillen aboard, that she'd just unloaded her passengers and cargo and was patiently awaiting orders to prepare another flight, or go off duty.

  “How long would you have waited?” Minu asked.

  “Why, until I was ordered, of course.” She displayed little self-initiative, and was very malleable to anyone who would give her instructions with some authority. Her specialty was piloting and out of date Concordia technology, something of which she was very proud. “My nest mother was also likewise gifted in such things.”

  “Is she here in this system too?”

  “No, she could not understand a locking mechanism a few cycles ago and had to go.”

  “Go where?” Ted asked her.

  She glanced at him with one flexible eye stalk then looked away. No one pushed her any further, the answer seemed self-evident. “Tough life,” Minu said quietly, and then spoke up to her directly. “Where are we going?”

  “I was so eager to show you my job; I did not set a course. We are orbiting the Portal Station at five hundred kilometers awaiting orders.”

  “Where do your orders come from?” Minu asked. She pointed to a quietly glowing sub-panel. “I see,” she said, and caught Aaron's attention. He'd been busily examining the control interface as he looked up at her. She casually indicated the communication panel and made a slashing motion across her throat, then got the pilot’s attention again, she'd begun explaining an instrument reading to Bjorn who was having the best time in his life. “Pilot, wait, what is your name? What do we call you?”

  She gave a quick hissing spit that their translators interpreted as “Sally Two Eleven.” It wasn't the first time Minu found herself wondering where the hell the translators came up with their names.

  “Did you all get that weird name?” Minu asked them.

  “More a designation than a name,” Ted said.

  Minu nodded. “How about we just call you Sally?”

  “That is accurate, though there are many other Sallys from my nest, since I am the only one here, it is good.”

  “Great, Sally, can you tell me what this panel does?” Minu asked, pointing to a little display on the opposite side of the radio. While Sally explained the approach radar, Aaron reached over and, using the universal script found on all Concordia devices, disabled the radio. Minu cocked an eyebrow and he nodded in reply. “That is interesting. Okay Sally, we have orders for you.”

  “I should wait for orders from the Portal Station.”

  “These orders are more important, and you must follow them now.”

  “Okay.” she said meekly and swiveled her eyes away from Minu and downward, a sign of acquiescence.

  “Show me a holographic map of the solar system.” Sally made one appear above their heads and Minu examined it. “Primary star only, no planets. Looks like a brown dwarf, wouldn't you gentleman agree?”

  “Yes,” Ted agreed.

  Bjorn ran a finger along the line of Concordia script under the sun and thought for a moment. “Everything on this ship is either T'Chillen or old Concordia script; damned hard to understand. This star is notated as decayed, or discarded. That is strange. But yes, it is a brown dwarf, sequence two I would think.”

  “Good,” Minu said, glad Bjorn hadn't gone completely off the reservation with one of his detailed but irrelevant dissertat
ions. “What are these?” she asked Sally and indicated four floating icons.”

  “We call them work sites. I don't know if there is another name. We have been to all of them, but are currently working in this one.” A delicate point of tentacle touched one in space that flashed briefly. “Do you want to go there now?”

  “No. Does this craft have enough power to go to any of them?”

  “Yes, it was recharged less than a day ago. We only have to top it off once a ten-day. It is very power efficient.”

  “I see,” she said and looked at the others, in particular Ted and Bjorn. “What do you think?” she asked no one in particular.

  “Well,” Ted began, “it would stand to reason that the best opportunity would be found at the site the snakes are using now, but for obvious reasons we must rule that one out. Beyond that criterion, one would seem as valuable as the others.”

  “Sally?” Minu asked, the T'Chillen looked at her attentively. “Which of the other three sites provided the best finds?”

  “It is not my specialty, really,” she said, looking down.

  “So at which location were you most often needed to solve problems or look at machines?” Bjorn tried.

  “Oh, that is easy, this one!” she indicated the third in the system, farthest from their current location.

  “Then take us to that one,” Minu told her. Sally practically applauded as she entered the coordinates into the craft’s controls. Aaron watched her every move.

  As they cruised along silently through the void Minu and her friends chatted with the T'Chillen Sally. Minu was amazed at how well she seemed to interact with the humans and Rasa. The snake seemed particularly curious about Var'at and his men, and eventually her curiosity to get the better of her. “I know you are Rasa,” she said, nodding her head towards Var'at, then turned her eye stalks towards Minu, “but I do not know your species.”