Exploration (15 page)

Commander Martinescu noted the PDS fire as well as the fact that none of the missiles escaped to threaten the ship. He continued to work his weapons console. "Targeting their sub-light drive. Primary batteries at 60 percent. Firing." He paused and checked his sensors. "Firing again." The weapons officer checked his sensors one last time and smiled.  "Their shields are down. Their reaction drive is offline. Sir, if I were a betting man I would suspect they are ready to talk now."

"Excellent," Jason said with a matching smile. "Thank you, Commander."

***

Ricky Valen whistled. He looked at the decoded translation Honey had just intercepted. A priority communication to the
Vengeance
from the Modos Syndicate had been received. The young Lieutenant who was manning the comm station that had received it practically fell out of his seat in his rush to get a secure tablet to his commanding officer with the "Captain's eyes-only" message on it.

It seemed an armada was being formed to establish a protected beachhead into another universe.   There was no question in Ricky's mind as to which universe was to be the target of this activity.

Honey, still looking oddly enticing in the blue-white Aenar skin that was part of their current disguise, leaned forward and winked at Ricky. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

The movement caused Ricky to gulp. He had already noticed that the
Honey Dipper's
avatar had enhanced the size of her cleavage as well as the cut of her jumpsuit when they had adopted their disguises. When she leaned forward like this, he found the sight distracting in a very pleasant and at the same time oddly disturbing sort of way.

"Probably not..." he said, looking at the gentle swell in the front of her jumpsuit.

She giggled softly, which did not help matters. She leaned back and continued to smile coyly. Almost subconsciously she adjusted the nanites controlling the appearance of Ricky's skin to compensate for the reddish blush that threatened to overcome his active camouflage. She was tempted to share with this man she loved just how fully functional her organics were, but decided that would wait for another day. Instead she waggled a finger and said "Hey there, space cowboy...my eyes are up here."

His only response was a guilty sigh and to look up at her beaming face. "It seems to me we should do something about this beachhead they're trying to establish," he said finally.

"Agreed. I have an idea, but what we really need is a distraction."

He looked at her closely for some hint as to what she was considering. Honey, for her part, kept a straight face as only a highly sentient super-AI could. "OK, I bite. What are you thinking?" Ricky said.

"I like being able to play with this ship. We have control of any number of systems. Just think about how much fun it would be to play around with an entire fleet." Honey cooed seductively.

Ricky shook his head. "You scare me sometimes."

Chapter Fifteen: Discovery

Ben scanned the walls of the small room with his enhanced cybernetic eyes. A polarized view showed microscopic stress fractures against one wall. It was almost as if a metal door had been welded shut and then carefully sanded and buffed so as to hide it was ever there.

Under Admiral Kimbridge's orders, he and a team from the
Bluefin
had been exploring the abandoned Suhtii facility's bottom-most level to see if they could discern a better understanding of its purpose. There was no question that the facility had a role in controlling a now-defunct global defense grid but there were odd inconsistencies. The number of sleeping chambers and the size of the mess halls far and away exceeded what would be needed for a facility this size. The hidden door Ben had discovered might well be the answer.

Ben toggled his commlink. "Admiral, I think I may have something."

"Go ahead, Ben," came the immediate response.

"I think I have found a hidden door. Someone went to a lot of trouble to weld it shut and hide that it was ever there."

"Interesting. Be careful. Whatever is on the other side may have a more active defense."

"Will do, Admiral. I'm going to ask Captain Running Stream to provide a security detail."

"Good idea. Can I do anything from my end to help your investigation?"

"A chocolate bar and a plasma torch would be nice."

Cat chuckled. "I'll see about the torch. Ken and a team from engineering are on their way to you now."

***

The security team beat the engineering contingent to the lowest level. Whether this was because they were closer or because security teams, in general, were just accustomed to deploying quickly in response to threats, Ben didn't know. In any case the security team was forced to wait with Ben for the proper tools to arrive to gain access to whatever was on the other side of the hidden door.

The Modos Security Chief looked closely at the wall. He was the biggest Bearephant Ben had ever seen. His trunk extended almost to the floor and his hands were of epic proportion
s—
easily twice the size of Ben's which were on a par with human hands. The Modos symbiote nestled under the right earflap was almost completely hidden. He had introduced himself as Lieutenant Feihc when Ben had met him for the first time earlier in the week.

The lieutenant pointed towards the expanse of burnished metallic white surface. "I don't see anything. Even touching the surface I don't feel anything. What makes you think there is a hidden opening here?"

"My eyes are cybernetic and I can tune them to see a much broader spectrum of light than yours. In addition, I can selectively filter incoming light by polarization. When I do that I can see there are microscopic stress fractures here, here, and here," Ben pointed at various points in a line on the metallic wall.

The security officer nodded in a very human gesture and felt the wall with the tip of his trunk at the spots that Ben had pointed out.

"The micro-fractures occur when metal is point-welded and then cooled. If the builders of this facility had painted these walls after the fact I would never have been able to detect this," Ben added.

"As it is... you can," Lieutenant Feihc finished for him.

The sound of footsteps interrupted their discussion. Yhsif, Ken Kirkland, and a couple of junior engineers from the
Bluefin
entered the room. All were carrying equipment cases from engineering.

Ben nodded to the Commander and his friends.

"I brought a polarized imager that should help us mere mortals see what you see," Ken said with a cheerful smile. "Where should I set it up?"

Ben directed him towards the back wall of the small room. Yhsif opened his case and brought out a plasma cutting torch. The Modos equipment used available room air to form its plasma so there was no need for a separate gas cylinder. The rechargeable power source could supply enough current to cut roughly ten linear meters of half inch steel. If that didn't do the trick then Ken would have a portable GCP fabricator brought down and they would use its fabrication nanites to 'unweld' the seams securing the hidden door.

It turned out this was not necessary. The Modos equipment was more than up to the task. The metal in question was relatively thin and the plasma torch made short work of the welded seams.  Yhsif attached a magnetic grapple and in a few moments he and Ken were carefully lifting the recently unfrozen door panel out of its frame.

The smell of musty and stale air permeated the space around the men as the atmospheres mixed. The room or hall on the other side of the opening remained obscured in darkness. Ben carefully approached the door and adjusted the sensitivity of his optics. It was apparent that the space beyond the opening was in fact a medium size square room with a single door on the opposite wall. The room appeared to be empty but the D'lralu cyborg knew that looks could be deceiving.

Ken made to enter the room with a flashlight but Ben raised a middle arm to stop him. "It might be better if you let me go first, Sir," he said. "There may be booby traps.  I have better eyesight and faster reflexes."

Ken put a hand on Ben's front shoulder. "Just remember you may be fast and strong but you are not invincible. If you spot something dangerous...you get your fur-covered behind out of there ASAP."

"Hey, i
t’
s me. I don't do dangerous! You know that, Sir," the D'lralu cyborg said with a toothy grin.         

"Yeah right," Ken said dryly.

When the D'lralu entered the chamber the walls flickered and then began to glow with a soft white light. Ben's cybernetic implants detected a brief broad spectrum sensor sweep but nothing else.

"It seems safe," he said to the men behind him, "but there was a sensor scan so keep your guard up."

Commander Kirkland was the next to enter the room. Again Ben's implants detected a brief scan. His muzzle twitched in puzzlement but he said nothing. If Ken saw the twitch, he too said nothing.  

The two looked around for a moment and Yhsif poked his head through the door to take a quick peek. He reached back to grab his pack and Lieutenant Feihc stepped past him. Immediately all hell broke loose.

The walls turned a deep red. A low 'thrump thrump thrump' filled the room. At the same time a series of panels opened in the ceiling. Small laser turrets descended and began actively targeting the large Bearephant...more to the point, they targeted the Modos symbiote. Two of the lasers fired and Feihc screamed. The shots had hit gripping tentacles. Had they hit its main body, there was no doubt the shots would have been fatal.

Ben dove into the massive creature and drove him physically out of the room. Immediately the lighting returned to a soft white and the ceiling mounted weapons retracted. The thrumping continued for another second, before it too stopped.

Ken froze, afraid to move. "Any guess as to what caused that?"

Ben, who was now in the middle of the doorway into the room, shook his head. He stared at the ceiling trying to discern the openings. He could not. This disturbed him more than he cared to admit.

Ken continued to speculate while moving very slowing to see if there was any change. "The funky light show began when the Lieutenant tried to enter the room. What do you think? Weapon sensor?"

"Lieutenant Feihc, are you going to live?" Ben yelled through the door.

"Affirmative commander. As soon as we are done here, though, I'm going to want to see the Doc."

"Yhsif, take his weapon and guard the door. Do not let any of the
Bluefin
crew in. Lieutenant, go ahead and call a replacement and then get yourself to medical," Ken ordered.

"Aye, Sir," the Lieutenant responded.

Ben chuckled. The
Bluefin
crew was not in Ken's chain of command, but the human had taken charge and they responded as if they were.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Ben asked as he carefully reentered the room.

"Probably," Ken concurred. "You and I were scanned, apparently to see if a Modos bio-signature was present."

"The lieutenant was also scanned, but obviously when the symbiote was detected he failed the test," Ben agreed. "I'll notify the Admiral."

***

Farnin the Elder stood by the early warning console.  He had been in the sensor chamber as part of his fifth day watch. It was his turn at the watch rotation. He took his turn like all Suhtian did. His age and rank had no bearing on this most sacred of duties. That having been said, he nearly expired in shock when the unthinkable happened. A small indicator beacon began to blink. He stared in disbelief.