Protector Divak
Beyond the dust, inside this vast structure, there was nothing but darkness. Not a sound existed other than the breathing of the rest of the crew, a noise that Divak would have preferred to go without hearing. Making sure these fools kept breathing was part of her job, though. As little as she liked being here, she would like shaming herself even less.
Divak stepped deeper into the cavernous opening around them, relying on both her power armor’s readings and her own eyes, well suited to the dark, to illuminate things for her.
The acoustics of the place were strange, seemingly never-ending in some directions, close and dull in others. Her armor’s sensors were able to pick out the dimensions of distant objects, their laser-guided readings precise, but they couldn’t analyze them with any success.
Item not found in database. Because it was ancient Caridian, of course.
“We need light,” she declared, and turned to Grayson. “Send your brother off to see if he can access some sort of internal power for this place. To walk around it as it is right now is to invite danger.”
“Yeah, and him walkin’ around in it by himself is inviting its own kind of danger,” Grayson snapped. “To him.”
“You didn’t mind so much when you sent his arm off on its own.”
“That was a fact-finding mission! And an arm is a lot easier to duplicate than the rest of his central nervous system, ya bint, and I’m not–” He paused and turned to look at his brother. “What, really? You sure?”
“Sure of what?” Dr Drexler asked.
“He thinks he might have seen something when he was falling from up there the first time – a switch that could get this place running,” Grayson replied.
“If this ship is what I think it is,” Ix-Nix-Six said, his voice reverent, “then there ought to be a series of such switches on the back wall. They are manual backups to ensure that operations can be shut down to prevent catastrophe in case the automatic systems fail.”
“Catastrophe?” Dr Lifhe – the simpering piece of pond scum – whimpered from where he was half hiding behind Dr Drexler. “What… what kind of catastrophe?”
“What kind of ship do you think it is?” Dr Drexler asked, bright and obnoxious as ever.
“I’m sure it doesn’t apply to our situation,” Ix-Nix-Six said to the Centauran in what he probably meant to be soothing tones.
It was time to take control of this ridiculous situation. “What exactly do you think is going on here?” Divak pressed, stepping closer to the Caridian as Mason Bane slunk off into the darkness, his brother’s eyes following his every move. “Why do you seem to understand this place? I thought it was ancient! You said the distress signal has been going off for over a thousand years, and now all of a sudden you know what’s going on here?” Her talons itched to bring the gun up to bear, but that would only alarm the rest of the simpletons.
Besides, she was quite sure she could kill the Caridian with her own hands if necessary.
“I have a thought, a thought only,” Ix-Nix-Six assured her, either oblivious to the threat she posed him or dismissive of it. How dare you dismiss me? “I promise, if I’m right, I will tell you in–”
THOOM!
A brief flare of greenish light in the distance was followed almost immediately by a cascade of softer, whitish lights coming to life along the walls. They rose up from the ground like a waterfall in reverse, filling clear tubes that culminated in a single point of illumination at the very top of the space. It was incredibly bright, after the darkness Divak had become accustomed to, and she blinked furiously even as her helmet darkened, protecting her vision somewhat.
Well. Whatever that Martian cyborg had been up to, at least he’d found the–
“Mason!”
The cyborg flew through the air, blown back from whatever switch he’d flipped or panel he’d been poking at. He hit the ground headfirst and lay in an unmoving heap. His brother took off running toward him, and the rest of the party followed suit.
Divak did not. Cleaning up after accidents wasn’t her job. She was here to handle threats, not coddle human brains in jars. She looked around at what the lights had revealed, and found herself unexpectedly spellbound.
The chamber was immense. She had known it would be, judging from the outside of the monolithic ship, but seeing it laid out as it was – seeing the tall, sharp-edged machines that appeared to penetrate directly into the floor beneath them; seeing the rows and rows of neatly packaged containers extending into the distance as far as her unaided eyes could make out; seeing the ships to the left and along the back walls… wait… the ships…
Ships. There were ships here! Small ones, perhaps a third the size of the one Ix-Nix-Six had transported them all in, but the design was faintly reminiscent of it. Not nearly as sleek, but the materials, dusty as they were, seemed almost modern in design and flow. The ships themselves were oddly shaped – hexagonal boxes with oversized eternal thrusters and the most basic of visual amenities, but clearly something that was meant to be flown through space. They wouldn’t do well in a planet with any sort of atmosphere, which Sik-Tar had thanks to the constant swirling moisture.
Purely exploratory vessels? Then why did they show up in such numbers – she counted three, four, more in a long line marching around the periphery of the room… and they appeared to be stacked along the walls as well, held in place with some sort of ratcheting system. Perhaps…
“…have to get it off him!” Grayson shouted loud enough to draw Divak’s attention.
“We can’t risk it! He’ll be exposed to the atmosphere if we do!”
“So bloody what? It’s breathable, isn’t it?”
“There’s no telling what kind of substance he could be exposed to if we–”
“His life support system’s disconnected from his lungs,” Grayson snarled at Dr Drexler, menacing them with some sort of tool… what did they call those things… wrenches? Screwdrivers? Something for nest guardians who didn’t know how to wield a sword. “If we don’t take his helmet off, he’ll be exposed to death without air running over his skin, so sod you, but I’m not gonna let that happen to my brother on my watch.” He reached down and undid the clasps at the top of Mason Bane’s helmet, twisted it to release the seal, and then pulled it off over his head.
There was no subsequent gasp for air or similarly dramatic indicator that the cyborg was functioning again. That was something Divak liked about them, actually – they didn’t embarrass themselves with protestations of pain or discomfort the way so many other, lesser types did. As Divak finally strolled over, she saw the cyborg slowly open his closed eyes. His pupils were blown wide, but it didn’t take long for them to normalize. His skin, which had gone a bit gray, regained its boring beige tinge. Then all at once, every limb on his body convulsed, like his brain was running a systems check, making sure the rest of him was still functioning.
“He says he’s all right,” Grayson reported after a moment, his face losing some of its stress lines. “He feels fine. No permanent damage from the fall, although that was a helluva kick from the batteries that run this place coming back online.”
“I am sorry for that,” Ix-Nix-Six said, yet again apologizing for things that were out of his control. What a useless habit. “I believe this structure uses nuclear energy. It makes sense that it would still be functional, even after so long untended, but clearly the conduits he touched were not in their best condition.”
“Don’t blame you for it,” Grayson said, pulling his brother into a sitting position. “This asshole shoulda taken more care.” As soon as he saw that Mason was stable, he reached up to his own helmet and, in a few short seconds, had it off and on the ground next to him.
The human scientist squawked like a molting swamp owl. “No! Don’t take your helmet off too! There could be all sorts of issues with silica and radiation and infectious agents and–”
“Eh, stuff it,” Grayson snapped. “I’m not gonna let you make my brother into your ‘control variable’ or whatever the hell you eggheads like to call it. You scanned the place and didn’t find anything livin’, right? And the silica’s all outside, where the water’s tampin’ it down, and none of us knew this place was nuclear powered before Six told us that because it’s shielded so bloody well, so stop frettin’, and relax, would you?”
There was a moment of silence, and then: “Your logic seems very sound,” Six said, something oddly satisfied in his voice. He then took off his own helmet.
“No!”
Divak didn’t need to be told again. She retracted the face shield for her power armor and breathed in deep, tasting the old, musty air. It smelled like ozone, and emptiness, and… something else. Something new, a scent she’d never smelled before. It was sharp at the edge of her senses, almost like… like someone had captured lightning and held it nearby. What was that? She moved closer to the source of it.
“I think the chances of harm coming to us from in here are very low,” the Centauran told his colleague. Divak rolled her eyes – if even a coward like that was willing to risk going without a helmet, then surely they were safe. “We did a very thorough scan of the planet before disembarking, after all.”
“What if we missed something?” Dr Drexler insisted. “What if we couldn’t detect it because we didn’t know how to scan for it? Take yours off if you want, but I’m leaving mine on until I make sure none of you come down with strange tumors or fevers or respiratory distress.”
Dr Lifhe bowed his head in acknowledgment of his superior’s will and left his own helmet on.
“Think it’s clear what they were doing here,” Grayson called out from where he’d ambled over to the closest wall, where a series of those black, fifty-meter-high machines was set up. Each of them had a hole in the front of it, where debris – rocks, perhaps, what else could you get on this boring planet?– could go. Those led onto conveyor belts that most likely led to a mill or a furnace of some kind – the first step in what was probably a lengthy smelting process, given the size of these machines and the fact that they stretched from close to the entrance all the way to the back wall.
“This is definitely a mining setup,” Grayson went on as he pointed up at distant holes in the ceiling, where some of the machines were connected via long, slender metal pipes. “An’ those probably lead out to some of the spires we saw outside. Don’t know what they were originally, but they’d been converted to smokestacks.”
“Mining.” Dr Drexler, their tiff over the helmets already forgotten, moved over to the nearest machine with a gleaming eye. “Mining for what, I wonder. The Xenium in the atmosphere was in such trace amounts…”
Divak didn’t really care what they were mining for; she was more interested in the ships. It might be ancient Caridian technology, but there was almost certainly a modern analogue to it, and everything she could glean from her surroundings was information her people could use against the Glorious Hegemony someday. That they would eventually go to war, she didn’t doubt, and if she was still around by then, then by tooth and tail, she was going to be on the winning side.
The ships were all sectioned off neatly except for the one at the very end, closest to the massive door they hadn’t opened. This one had been shifted slightly, almost like it had been pushed. Even as small as it was, it still had to weigh several tons. That was more than she could shift even in her power armor. What had pushed it? Another vehicle of some kind?
There appeared to be something in the space between it and the ship beside it… Divak crouched down to take a look.
Oh. Interesting. “We have bodies,” she announced.
That got everybody’s attention. Divak backed out of the way to make room for Dr Drexler and Ix-Nix-Six, who were the first to reach her.
“Those are… remains, certainly,” Dr Drexler said after a moment. “Very ossified. No sign of clothing or armor, but after so long it’s not impossible that they deteriorated, even out of the weather. Two individuals, I think.”
“Yes,” Ix-Nix-Six confirmed. “There are two skull carapaces. Two of my people died here many, many years ago.” He tilted his head for a moment, the light refracting in a way that made his eyes gleam extra bright. “I believe I know what this place is now.”
“Great,” Grayson said as he joined them, Mason and Dr Lifhe trailing after him. “Want to share with the rest of us?’
“Indeed. This is a legendary ship called Nexeri that was lost one thousand, three hundred and fifty-eight of your Coalition years ago to a malfunction during wormhole travel.”
Dr Drexler held up a hand. “Wait. Your people could travel by wormholes back then?”
“No,” the Caridian said, shaking his head. “We could not. Not with any reliability – the technology was in its infancy. This ship was a grand fool’s errand, the result of one hive’s desires for autonomy. They planned to transport themselves into the middle of what has become Coalition space – well before most of the species living there achieved space travel. Then they would set up mining colonies on various planets and pave the way for the Glorious Hegemony’s eventual arrival. Instead… the wormhole sent them here.” Ix-Nix-Six looked around. “I assume that their landing on this planet was the result of a crash. However, it’s clear they tried to carry out their mission.”
“And your people thought they had simply been destroyed?” Dr Lifhe asked.
“Indeed. That is the most likely outcome of wormhole malfunctions, especially back before we had developed any safeguards to keep the space-time continuum from ripping us to shreds, but there was always the barest chance that they had survived somehow. And now we know that they did, at least for a time.” He seemed excessively pleased by the discovery.
“Great.” Dr Lifhe didn’t sound anywhere near as happy. “Now we have to worry about what did kill them. Wonderful. I wish I could go back to my bunk,” he said with a sigh.
Dr Drexler patted him on the front shoulder. “Leave worrying about their deaths to me. You try to figure out what they were mining.”
“What they died of is irrelevant.”
Everyone turned to look at Divak with varying degrees of disbelief. “It is,” she insisted. “Such a long period of time has passed that it is impossible that whatever killed them will be a bother to us.”
“Killed them?” Ix-Nix-Six’s antennae perked up a bit. “What makes you sure that they were killed, rather than simply dying on their own?”
Divak scoffed. Did he think her a fool? “Look at where they are, tucked between two of these ships like they were trying to hide… or perhaps to burrow, knowing your insect roots,” she added snidely. “I cannot be sure, but either way, this is neither a case of accidental death, nor is it a proper burial. Unless Caridians are even stranger than I’ve imagined.”
“We are quite strange at times,” Ix-Nix-Six said, not taking offense. Curse him. Divak was raring for an argument. “But not so strange we wouldn’t inter our people properly.” He looked around the massive room. “In fact… I wonder where we did inter them. A ship of this size, with this many pods – the crew must have numbered well over a hundred. If they did not all die at once, then the ones who lived the longest would have made a point of burying their comrades.”
“Maybe they did so in another room, or underground,” Dr Drexler suggested. “We can look as we explore the rest of the ship.”
Grayson Bane had already moved on from the corpses, heading back to the refineries. “What were they mining?” he asked, looking the equipment over before moving on to the stacks and stacks of crates to the left of them, piled up in the space between the machines and the little pod ships. “What was so good about bein’ here that they figured they might as well stay and mine instead of tryin’ to get out of here with their ships? I mean, look around.” He gestured vaguely toward the massive door that would open to the outside. “Not much here really, right? Pretty dull place, all things considered. Their little ships might not have been able to go beyond impulse, but they could get to a better system with a few years of steady travel. So why not make the trek there?”
“Xenium,” whispered Dr Drexler. “It’s got to be…” They unslung the particle detector from over their shoulder and turned it on, typed in a quick password to modify its operations, then pointed it around the room. “Ha. Aha!” Their smile was triumphant. “The concentration of Xenium particles in this room is more than a hundred times what it was outside!” They stepped toward the refineries, then the crates. “The concentration is particularly high inside there. Mason, would you mind opening one up?”
Grayson Bane muttered something, and a moment later Mason plodded forward, still on two feet, still looking at nothing in particular. For all that he moved slower than a tortol, though, he was able to rip through the outer covering of the crate with no hint of strain whatsoever. Divak respected that strength – reluctantly, but she did respect it. She would have to kill him first, if it came down to such a thing.
Within the crates were a set of eight large metal bottles, around one meter high and half a meter wide. Divak sniffed, flaring her nostrils – the strange scent she’d caught a hint of when they first entered was stronger now.
“Those,” Dr Drexler said rapturously, their eyes wide and their mouth stretched in a smile so broad that if they had been Thassian, Divak would have considered it an offer to duel. The device in their hands was practically buzzing, working overtime to share whatever it was in the process of discovering. Despite herself, Divak drew closer to Dr Drexler. Their enthusiasm was catching. “Those are full of Xenium.”
“What? Nah,” Grayson Bane said, leaning in and pushing one a little. There was a distinct sloshing sound from inside. “Can’t be Xenium, then, that’s a rock.” He glanced at Dr Drexler. “Unless you’re holdin’ out on us, doc?”
“Not holding out, just not prepared for this!” The two Coalition scientists exchanged excited glances before Dr Drexler continued, “I’ve never heard of Xenium like this before, but it seems clear to me that the Caridians who landed here located the Xenium, then managed to refine it into a liquid state. This is the purest form of Xenium imaginable! One bottle of that could probably power the jump drive for a ship like ours for dozens of journeys within Coalition space.” Their eyes were as bright as stars, and burned almost as intensely.
Oh, really?
Perhaps Divak was going to get more out of this trip to Sik-Tar than she’d originally planned.