2041 Sanctuary (Dark Descent) (77 page)

Chapter Fifty Four

Imprisoned in the military vault, Sarah looked around in despair, imagining the hordes of soldiers that even now must be homing in on her location.
Wait
, she thought. Something she remembered seeing in the Smithsonian vaults sent her running back down the walkway; at the end, as she’d hoped, hung an emergency exit sign. Opening the door beneath, she ducked inside to descend the staircase within. Guided by the lights of her Deep Reach helmet, Sarah emerged into a small corridor running around the vault’s curved exterior wall. Passing through a heavy fireproof door, she arrived at another exit. This new metallic barrier had been plastered in warning signs and bristled with complicated security systems, all of which appeared inactive, wisps of smoke rising from some of the circuitry.
Did the power surge from the Anakim shield reach this far?
she wondered.

Above this formidable steel door, in red lettering on a white background, a military sign read:

U.S.S.B. SANCTUARY

United States Military

Scientific Laboratory Complex

Under this, another sign read:

WARNING!

Restricted Area

Level 9 Special Access Personnel Only

Sarah pushed at the door, which swung silently inwards. Wary, but knowing she had no other option, she moved through it and out of the vault. Switching her torches to infrared, to avoid detection, she altered her visor’s spectral field allowing her to see in the dark. Now in the laboratory complex, she flicked some switches on a wall next to her. The lights in here were also out. Amazed the shield’s energy had extended so far, apparently through solid walls, she proceeded down an empty corridor searching for a way out.

Arriving at an intersection, Sarah surveyed some signs stuck on the walls, the department names and arrowed symbols working much like those found in large hospitals. Sticking to basics, she followed the placard with
Way Out
on it. Jogging along, she heard voices ahead.
Guards
, she thought,
who else would be here this late?
Dodging right down another hall, she went down a flight of stairs and pushed through a set of sturdy double doors, the card reader outside sparking sporadically as she passed. The whole damn security system was fried. Whatever that Anakim shield had done, it was on a massive scale; she just prayed it hadn’t reached Jason and Trish back at the SED’s shuttle bay.

Moving ahead, she now found herself in a deserted, yet extremely sophisticated, laboratory. Computer equipment abounded, surrounding individual curiosities undergoing various procedures and tests within their own sealed rooms. One such area contained a huge Anakim body lying face up on a slab. While clearly decayed, the form was frighteningly intact, its dark, sunken flesh the only giveaway to its incredible age. Finding it hard to ignore the macabre scene, she carried on, the time ticking away and her fear of capture rising.

Making it to the other side of the lab, a buzz of electricity passed over her head and the lights that remained undamaged blinked on. Her helmet’s internal computer adjusted automatically, shutting down the torches and returning the visor to its default transparent state. Opening another door, she entered another bland, white-walled corridor. The lights out here had also resumed functioning, the building’s systems beginning to reboot after the blackout. Sadly for Sarah it made her escape that much more unlikely.

More voices echoed down the hall; she went to return to the lab but as she cracked open the door she glimpsed two armed Terra Force soldiers entering from the opposite side. Panicking, she sped down another passageway, past a large antechamber and on into another corridor, before sliding to a stop as yet another SFSD patrol approached from that direction, their armoured shadows looming on the wall ahead. Rushing back the way she’d come, she stopped outside an imposing entrance protected by a security checkpoint consisting of turnstiles, full body scanners and large thick panels of glass. The area looked to be even more restricted than the complex she’d already inadvertently infiltrated. Reluctant to enter somewhere so secure in case the locking systems resumed operation, she froze, unsure of what to do next.

Footfalls echoed from either direction. Her eyes widened in fear and her head spun this way and that as she sought a place to hide. She had nowhere else to go. Her hand forced, Sarah opened a toughened glass door, compromising its vacuum seal, and passed into the restricted zone. Behind her, the heavy security door swung closed; adorning its exterior surface were an array of warnings and restrictions. Two of these read:

U.S.S.B. SANCTUARY in partnership with GMRC R&D DIVISION and

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

WARNING!

RESTRICTED AREA

Level 10 Alpha

Special Access Personnel Only

Below, sandwiched in the very fabric of the glass, were the emblems and insignias of USSB Sanctuary, the GMRC and NASA, and underneath these, an elegant silver logo:

Chapter Fifty Five

Deep in the bowels of USSB Sanctuary, Sarah moved cautiously forwards, each step drawing her further into the military’s highly restricted laboratory complex. With every sense heightened and every muscle tense, her eyes darted in all directions seeking out any danger ahead. The way seemed clear, the many security measures on show appearing dormant, knocked out by the power surge she’d created with the Anakim shield. Aware that she was still visible to the soldiers approaching from outside the glass façade, Sarah vaulted over a turnstile and ducked through a black tunnel-shaped scanner before emerging into a cold, steel-clad room.

On the walls around her numerous white lab coats hung on hooks. In front, there was another door plastered with warning signs and hazard symbols. A noise behind her made her jump. Had someone followed her inside? With no time to think, she grabbed one of the coats and pushed open the door, the steel handle cold to the touch. Cooled gases vented into the air around her as she entered, their mist clinging to her body. After quietly closing the door behind her, she found herself in a long white walled corridor. Running to the end, she came out into a small area surrounded by glass enclosures, each seven foot high and three wide. Inside these were white, full-body hazmat suits with inbuilt breathing apparatus. On the far wall a heavy metal hatch barred her way. Peering through its small letterbox-shaped window, Sarah gazed out at a massive, brightly lit chamber, the size of a warehouse. Within this she could see ten self-contained laboratories, their grey sides full of oblong shaped windows, stacked two storeys high.

With no time to spare, she shrugged into the white coat and deployed her Deep Reach helmet’s breathing system, the mask generating an air-tight seal in combination with her visor. Turning the wheel on the hatch through three hundred and sixty degrees, she hauled it open and went through. Closing it behind her, she locked it again by spinning back the adjoining wheel on the other side. As soon as the lock bit a buzzer sounded, then a powerful blast of freezing vapour engulfed her from above and below.

Moving away from the decontamination zone, she searched for a way out. With no obvious exits in sight, she glanced back through the door, inside she could see a man removing one of the hazmat suits from its cabinet. He looked like a scientist rather than a soldier and it didn’t look like he’d seen her, but if he did, it wouldn’t take long for the Special Forces to arrive. Feeling like a cornered animal, she ran to the right along a metal walkway and descended some stairs, before heading for an archway which took her into another smaller chamber beyond. Out of sight of the entrance, she leaned back against a wall to catch her breath while inwardly cursing her stupidity for touching the shield.
Don’t worry about that now
, she berated herself,
you need to get out of here!

Taking in her new surroundings, she saw, sixty feet away, a familiar sight resting within a semi-circle of tall lighting rigs. It was the mysterious object she’d seen being retrieved from Sanctuary Proper by General Stevens and his men, back in the SED’s shuttle bay. Peeking back into the main chamber, she could see the scientist, who’d followed her in, walking away in the other direction. Counting her blessings that she hadn’t been spotted, and unable to help herself, Sarah approached the pool of light which encompassed the fifty foot high monolithic structure. The dark, rough, coral-like surface, interspersed with lighter seams of sediment, glinted and glistened under the powerful illumination. Up close, the ancient pentagonal prism soared above her head. Around this bizarre artefact, arranged on either side, were rows of tables blessed with a cornucopia of state-of-the-art scientific equipment and holographic computer screens, all of which appeared to be operating normally, untouched by the shield’s power surge. Sprouting from this mass of technological hardware and onto the surrounding floor, reams of cabling snaked out like many long, black giant worms, to terminate on the artefact’s rocky substrate.

In front of this most primeval of edifices, a wide set of portable stairs had been positioned. These aluminium steps led up to the rectangular transparent enclosure that lay sunken into the stone, some ten feet off the ground. Sarah glanced back in trepidation. Making a decision, she swiftly ascended the steps to stand in front of the glass-like casing, its edges framed by a heavily corroded metal surround. Inside, the thick, pale, viscous liquid she’d glimpsed before, remained static and lifeless. She looked down at the three indented discs set into a ceramic panel and tentatively reached out a hand. Her pendant and the circular depression grew warm. The colour of the liquid darkened and a small blue glow blossomed into being in its centre; the light intensifying to sparkle like a distant star, beautiful and mesmeric.

‘Hey, what are you doing up there?’ a muffled voice said.

Snatching her hand away, the light died and the liquid reverted to its pale state. Sarah turned around to see the scientist in the biohazard suit looking up at her from the bottom of the steps, an expression of concern on his face.

Lost for words, Sarah stared back at him through her visor.

‘Where’s your hazmat suit?’ the man said, his tone querulous, ‘why are you wearing that helmet, who are you?’

Sarah descended the steps towards him. ‘I was sent here to clear up this mess.’

He looked around. ‘What mess?!’

‘The power failure of course,’ she said, improvising for all she was worth.

‘Where’s your security pass?’

Sarah noticed the official looking rectangular badge attached to the outside of his suit. ‘I got special dispensation.’ She walked away to one of the monitoring stations.

‘Under whose authority?’ he said, following her.

‘General Stevens. It’s a digital certificate. Here,’ she picked up a computer tablet and pointed at the graphs, ‘look at this.’

The man snatched the device from her. He peered at it for a moment and then looked back to Sarah. ‘I don’t—’ he began before a glazed expression spread over his face and he dropped to the floor unconscious.

Sarah chucked the heavy piece of computer hardware back on the desk she’d taken it from and bent down to see if the man was okay. Looking into his protective headwear she saw his breath appearing as a fine mist on his transparent facemask. Relieved she hadn’t killed him, she ripped out some leads from a nearby computer and tied his arms and legs up. With some effort she dragged him out of sight before plucking the security tag from his chest and attaching it to the breast pocket of her white coat. Running back to the main chamber, she was pleased to see no one else appeared to be around; probably due to it being in the middle of the night. Jogging around the rest of the area, she searched for a way out. Out of breath again surprisingly quickly, she slowed to a walk, her limbs feeling heavy and ponderous. There were no emergency exits, she realised. It was as she’d feared, the only way out was the way she’d come in.

Why am I so tired?
she asked herself, moving over to lean against the side of one of the grey standalone laboratories, her breathing still laboured. A recollection of feeling similarly drained drifted up from her memory banks.
I felt like this after I’d used the Anakim transportation device
, she thought.
The shield and the thing I just activated must have sapped my energy reserves somehow. It makes sense
, she hypothesised,
if the pendant taps into my body’s bioelectricity to power the ancient technology then it stands to reason such reserves are finite; which means my original theory about the pendant utilising a battery that never runs out is erroneous. Although, while it’s an obvious flaw in the Anakim’s design, their bodies would have been much larger than mine, thus having a much bigger power source to draw upon
.