Exploration (10 page)

"Given what we know of this system what are the chances it will miss us?"

Sassi looked up at his friend and commanding officer. "Sir, somewhere between zero and nonexistent.  Even if the ejection occurs on the far side of the sun, which is unlikely given the relative mass of the planet behind us, the planet's magnetic field will focus the charged particles. The moon is essentially in a Lagrange point so it will always be on the sun side of the planet. When that CME approaches our orbit, all that material will be sucked in. We are talking about 6 x 10
²⁵
joules of energy. The pinnace is the only thing with shields strong enough to survive that. Anybody caught on the
Bluefin
or on the moo
n’
s surface will be fried."

"Options?"

"Find a big hole." 

The focus of the repair and construction crews changed suddenly with the news of the impending solar CME. The
Bluefin's
cargo shuttles were retasked to ferry down crew and passengers from the
Bluefin
to the moon's surface. The
GCP Esperance
, which had the best sensors of the group, was kept busy running a grid pattern over the island. Its objective was to find a sufficiently large cave or cavern.

Several potential candidates had been found but it would mean splitting up the group. Ken continued his scans. The strong magnetic fields, as well as the increasing solar activity, were playing havoc even with his advanced sensors. Several times he had thought he had seen an active power signature on the planet's surface only to discover it was a reflection from his own systems, or solar activity.

Because of this he almost missed seeing his magnetometer jump off the scale. Somewhere below him was something generating a massive electromagnetic field. A signal this strong meant metal and lots of it. He switched to active ground penetrating radar. Yhsif, who was riding co-pilot heard his sudden intake of breath.

"What is it?"

Ken looked at the Modos as if suddenly realizing he was not alone. "If I didn't know better I would swear we just found a buried city. There is a series of connected open caverns down below and lots of metal
.…
lots and lots of metal."

Yhsif toggled the communications array. "Base station this is the
Esperance
. Come in base station."

"
Esperance
, this is Admiral Kimbridge. Tell me you have good news. We just got confirmation of a coronal ejection. We are running on a fixed clock now."

Ken smiled.

***

   It took the better part of two hours to find a way into the underground chambers but that left a full ten hours to move the crew and passengers underground. In addition, they managed four equipment and supply runs before conditions outside prevented further ventures to the now deserted and abandoned
Bluefin
in orbit. Ken's pinnace was parked over the opening to the caverns, with its shields extended to protect the entrance.   All signs of wildlife had disappeared several hours before. Apparently the locals had learned to seek shelter underground when the temperatures outside began to rise.

The caverns appeared natural to the untrained eye but that was only because of their age and state of overgrowth.

Cat, Ben, and Doctor Lacidem were one of six exploration teams that were venturing deeper into the complex network of tunnels and chambers they had found. There was no longer any question about the artificial nature of the facility, as Ken had started to call it.

There was no power but clearly there had been at one point. Littered about the various rooms were machines and consoles that looked like they could have been used and built by humans or humanoids. They were, however, as dead as anything currently trapped on the moon's surface.

Cat toggled her commlink. "Ken, what are you guys finding?"

Ken was with Running Stream's group. Like Cat's party they were looking for a source of water that could be made potable.

"Lots of dusty rooms and dead equipment. The engineer in me would give my eyeteeth to be able to spend some quality time with this tech, but as for water... nary a drop."      

"Same here. If we don't come up with something we may be forced to use the
Esperance
to scoop seawater. Sassi's best estimates indicate we may be down here for as long as a couple of months before the swollen radiation belt has degraded enough to allow us to live on the surface again."

"Understood, Admiral. I'd love to try and power up a few of these systems to see what they do and to see if one of them might be a city directory."

Cat smiled. "We'll keep that as an option. For the moment lets continue mapping the areas we can reach. When we get back together with the other groups we can compare notes."

***

Sassi worked on a portable computer console they had brought from the
Bluefin
and set up in the main chamber. This chamber was no less than fifteen hundred meters wide and several dozen high. It was massive. The floor was a polished marble-like stone that, despite its age, had not so much as a single scratch in i
t…
once the accumulated dust was cleared away. The
Bluefin
had a limited supply of shelter tents that had been erected. It was in one of these that Sassi's equipment was set up.

He was collecting data feeds from the various exploration teams and constructing a three dimensional map of their new underground home. It was clear from the data he was seeing that the facility was organized in a series of concentric rings and spokes. The size however was astronomical. He estimated the diameter would approach ten kilometers and there was every indication that there were multiple levels.

"Admiral. This is Sassi. I believe you should see a corridor about ten meters ahead on your left. Am I correct?"

"Indeed you are, Lieutenant," Cat said. "Can I assume your mapping software is detecting a pattern?"

"It is, Ma'am. I think if you follow that corridor it will branch on to a much larger one. Follow that one to the right and you will arrive at something in about four kilometers."

"Did you say kilometers Lieutenant?"

"Roger that, Admiral. You are in an outer ring of what looks to be a multi-ringed spoked wheel. I'm directing you towards the central core on the assumption that this is where facility-wide services will congregate."

"Logical, Lieutenant. I'll get back to you with what we find."

Cat looked at Ben and the doctor. "Sassi just gave me directions to what looks to be a central core or nexus. It's several kilometers away. I'm going to leave you two here and go check it out. Ben, protect the doctor. If something happens to me you are to return to the main camp, drop the doctor off, and only then lead a team bac
k—
if the situation warrants."

Doctor Lacidem started to open her mouth to object when she saw Cat take off at a run down the corridor. She covered the ten meters to the corner in less than a quarter of a second. Ben chuckled.

Cat dialed up her ocular sensitivity. The nanites in her forehead began to emit light in the ultraviolet range. Her Heshe enhanced retina captured the faint light and amplified it. For Cat the corridor might have been a brightly lit causeway located in any major city. She proceeded according to the directions Sassi had provided. Her encounter unit recorded everything she saw, which they could review later. As a result, she didn't spend too long to consider what was flashing by. Her legs carried her in an effortless run that chewed up ground at over eighty kilometers an hour. She could run faster but this was unknown territory and she wanted to play it safe.

Within three kilometers it became clear that she would not be able to proceed all the way to the hub nexus. Much of the corridor had become impassable by virtue of a collapsed system of ducts.

"Sassi, this route has some serious issues with structural integrity. If I back up to the previous branch, will I find another spoke leading in towards the hub?"

"Unknown Admiral but that would be consistent with the overall layout. Of course, there is no guarantee that the wheel and spoke pattern continues for a full 360 degrees."

"OK, monitor me closely. I'm going to give it a try and see if there is a better passage through one of the other spokes."

Cat's next attempt, as well as the one after that, met with the same type of obstacle. It was on her fourth, and what in her mind would be her final attempt, that she finally found a passage that led all the way to the hub. In total she traveled a little over twenty kilometers in the course of an hour. Her Heshe enhanced body barely felt the strain.

She followed the passage until it opened into a chamber that was beyond massive. The entire
Bluefin
, and
Yorktown
for that matter, could have fit in the room with relative ease. Unlike the other areas she had viewed, this one was pristine. The floor was clear of rubble and dust. Its surface was marbled in green and gold. It extended twenty yards into the chamber. At that point it simply stopped. The floor ended and a chasm opened up.

Off to the side, about sixty yards away, Cat spied a glass column. She approached the column and was caught off guard when a control panel flickered to life. She stopped dead in her tracks and extended her augmented senses to their maximum range. She could sense the lingering swirls of air from her passage. She could hear perspiration evaporating off her skin. She could see individual motes of dust floating by. Strain as she might however, she could sense no other activity. Three amber lights lit a small panel. Three lights and nothing else. 

"Captain... I've found something interesting."

"Go ahead, Admiral. Where are you and what did you find?"

"I'm in the central core. Lieutenant Sassi can give you directions. I've found a vertical shaft that extends down as far as I can see. There are dozens of levels."

Cat heard Running Stream shout assembly orders off comm. "I've got a couple of survey teams heading your way."

"Captain, we have an active power source. Might I recommend an engineering team as well?"

Cat heard a noise down the corridor.  She counted six distinct footsteps. Likely this was her D'lralu friend and the
Bluefin's
doctor. Given the acuity of her hearing she estimated they were still the better part of a kilometer away. If they were planning on spending any time at this site they would want to set up a system of electric trolleys, given the distances involved.

Next Cat did something no human would normally be capable of. Her body's construction nanites were capable of harvesting and transforming foreign matter. The little machines were in constant communication with her internal Heshe designed encounter unit. This unit, a massively parallel quantum neural net, was in reality a computer system and database second to none in human space. Stored in its archives were the designs, at a molecular level, of dozens of complex tools. In Cat's experience, however, none of her schematics were as useful as a simple flashlight.

Having found a suitable piece of metal and using some of the silicon stored within her tissues, she instructed the nanites to fashion a series of LED lamps fed by a small super capacitor. The units were capable of illuminating a sizable area for up to seventy-two hours. Cat had just finished anchoring the fifth such unit when the others showed up.

Doctor Lacidem stood in awe. Being unaware that the LED array was Cat's contribution she immediately went over to inspect one of the lights. Ben of course was quite familiar with this little trick that Cat could play. He smiled at the Admiral as he headed over to the console with the three red indicators.

"Figure out what they mean and I'll fabricate some chocolate."

Ben turned to look at her with a look of utter distain on his canine face. "What, do you think I am? Some type of domesticated animal content to perform for treats?"

"Yes."

"I do so hate it when you are right," he said in a resigned tone.

The doctor joined the other two. "Those lights are nothing special. Just some type of light emitting diodes coupled with a temporary power source. What I don't understand is how they powered up."