Redemption Protocol (Contact) (42 page)

“Nooo!”

Charles plunged through the dark surface and vanished.

Havoc tensed, Kemensky screamed and then they were through, hurtling down a dark hallway lined with gigantic obelisks. Havoc winced as Charles deflected off the right wall, spun upward and smashed into the top of an obelisk with a wrenching explosion of his suit's primary collision bag, which tore off as he cartwheeled away before crashing to the floor and careering down the hallway. Charles came to rest wrapped around the transparent plinth of an obelisk.

Havoc, Tomas and Kemensky screamed down the center of the passage until they slowed to a halt. Havoc lay on his back like a starfish.

“Well, gosh, Charles. That was exciting.”

There was silence.

Kemensky activated his suit lights. The beams of light pierced the darkness and augmented Havoc's radar image. Kemensky pointed as he lay on the floor.

“Oh dear.”

Havoc looked up. The huge obelisk that Charles had caught the top of with his collision bag was toppling ever so slowly past the point of no return. Havoc watched with a mix of fascination and horror as the obelisk accelerated and fell into the obelisk beside it.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

In slow motion, punctuated by a thunderous boom from each impact, the entire avenue of obelisks down the right hand side of the hallway toppled into their neighbors one at a time. The collisions continued like a rolling gun salute until the last obelisk in their section smashed into the first archway.

The silence was deafening.

Havoc dropped his head back to the floor with a clunk.

“We come in peace.”

 73. 

Weaver navigated the abstract carousel with the thrill of an explorer in a new land.

She picked a puzzle level that was easier than the entrance panel. A sequence appeared in front of her and flowed across her horizon, brightening as it did so, demanding a solution. Weaver analyzed the sequence and manipulated the symbols. She felt confident. She worked through the equations and offered a solution, knowing it to be right.

Another carousel coalesced on the plain of her awareness as well as a doorway that she intuitively knew led back to the first carousel. But, she noticed, the sequence that she’d solved was still flowing; extending, permutating and requiring more attention. She worked through it and provided an updated solution, keen to examine the carousel.

The sequence moved forward again as Weaver realized that she could manipulate the carousel in the center of the abstract space, spinning it to reveal arrays of ideograms. The ideograms were coded at the level of the puzzle that she’d accessed to get into this place and had varying and generally low power levels alongside. She picked one with a low power level and was transported to another location.

A creature appeared, similar to the gargoyles that were guarding the pyramid. It was a winged creature, more like a dragon of folklore than anything else. Aspects of its physiology were highlighted as her attention shifted over it. In her awareness there was also a doorway back to the second carousel.

The sequence flowed along the base of her horizon, demanding her attention. It was frustrating; she couldn't concentrate on the content before being drawn back to the sequence. She solved another term.

If she could only focus long enough, she could access the details of this dragon creature. She solved the sequence again, trying to get ahead. Every time she advanced the sequence she felt a flush of success, but the sequence continued to press on her. It was relentless.

She felt she had so much potential if she could only manage the sequences. She felt flustered by its continuous demands. She didn’t want to mess it up.

She took the doorway and stepped back out.

 74. 

Havoc watched Charles get to his feet, grinning like an idiot. How appropriate, Havoc thought.

Charles cradled his right hand in his left. He’d lost his smallest finger and only the first joint remained of his fourth. He was remarkably lucky. Still, Havoc thought, better to be lucky than good.

“Your suit sealed?”

Charles nodded, still flushed with adrenalin.

“It’s fine.”

Havoc nodded and walked back to the entrance. He stepped through cautiously, ready to leap back in the unlikely event that any of the guardians still existed. He needn't have worried. The guardians were gone, annihilated to dust with craters for tombstones. They might have been advanced alien technology but there was only so much you could do when a meteor hit you in the face. The kinetics had damaged the pyramid, though far less than Havoc had expected.

He was pleased to see that Novosa had blades circulating inside the walls already. One transmitted images of the remains of the fourth Guardian, midway between the pyramid and the wall. Most of its structure was missing but the shards of claw suggested it had taken some kind of kinetic hit, though not of the same order of magnitude as the kill shots that Havoc had delivered from space. Did it mean someone else, or something else, had already visited?

“You ok?” Novosa asked.

“Sure.”

“What happened?”

Charles couldn't hear Havoc, since the signals didn’t pass through the pyramid entrance, but Havoc wouldn’t have cared if he did.

“Ask the idiot,” he replied with feeling.

“You were instructed not to use orbital weapons, Havoc,” Whittenhorn said.

“I didn't think we had a choice.”

“You could start a war or worse,” Whittenhorn said.

“Using orbital weapons sets a very bad precedent for the other nations,” Bergeron said.

“Has it occurred to anyone else that those guardians might have had a purpose?” Touvenay said.

“What do you mean?” Whittenhorn said.

“Well, it occurs to me they might be there to keep something in, rather than keep us out.”

Good point, Havoc thought. He supposed they’d find out, one way or another. Tyburn spoke on a different circuit, cutting over a comment being made by Bergeron.

“Critics watch the battle then shoot the survivors. Good job, well done.”

“Thanks.”

“You’ve got two hours until you're back in the lovely sunshine. You going back in?”

“Yeah, while we’re here.”

“You think Charles can handle it?”

Havoc smiled.

“If stupidity got us into this mess, why can't he get us out?”

Tyburn laughed.

Havoc turned toward the dark entrance. He wondered if Touvenay had it right. Were the guardians there to keep them out, or to keep something else in?

 75. 

Weaver blinked back into the library.

Karch stared at her with an astonished expression.

“What the hell was that thing?”

“What do you mean?”

“On the wall. It looked like. I don't know. It looked like...”

“A dragon?”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

“You saw that?”

Karch pointed at the large curved section of wall.

“On the wall.”

“Hmm. That's what I saw inside.”

“Is that them?”

Weaver shrugged.

“I don't know.”

Karch’s demeanor was less than enthusiastic.

“We've found a planet full of dragons?”

Weaver looked around the glowing stacks. All of the answers or Pandora's Box? She had to pinch herself to make sure this was real.

“I don't know.”

“How was it? Are you ok?”

Weaver took a drink from her suit dispenser.

“Yes, I feel fine. I feel good, actually.”

Darkwood set a container down at the base of the ramp.

“That's all the equipment in now.”

Weaver turned to him.

“Great.”

Fournier and Touvenay set down the last of their equipment. A smile played across Fournier’s face.

“Stone has gone to help Novosa.”

Weaver grinned.

“I'm sure he has.”

Darkwood pointed at the plinth.

“Do you think you’d be able to locate the map symbol that indicates the alien ship inside the stack?”

Weaver nodded. It would be good to have a goal in there, she thought.

“Good idea. I can try.”

Touvenay highlighted part of the complex ideogram that represented the alien ship on mission net.

“It might be worth searching for this symbol separately as well. I think it’s the element that signifies the energy system of the ship.”

Weaver nodded.

“Great, I’ll do that.”

Novosa streamed them video of three sky lances vaporizing the pyramid guardians. Three mushroom clouds hung in the atmo before drifting sideways to reveal craters and scarred ground.

“Be careful in there, if anything’s going to be pissed off, it's probably now.”

Karch grimaced.

“Ouch.”

“Is anyone hurt?” Weaver asked.

Novosa looked pained.

“Four of my boys are gone, that’s all I know.”

“And the team?” Weaver said.

“They went through the entrance.”

Weaver couldn’t believe it.

“They’re
inside the pyramid
?”

 76. 

Havoc stepped back through the cloak of darkness at the pyramid entrance and into the hallway. In orbit, Whittenhorn and Bergeron were still complaining about the sky lances. Re-entering the pyramid had a pleasing effect on the voices in Havoc’s head. They cut off instantly.

Their suits lights illuminated disturbing fragments of the giant obelisks in the hallway. The effect was atmospheric but it didn't negatively affect his perception – his hyperspectral vision mapped out the corridor ahead in perfect clarity. It looked like a long tunnel into a tomb. Maybe it was?

Kemensky turned as Havoc approached.

“You alright, Havoc?”

“Just some whining in my ears. It's gone now. How’s our hero?”

Tomas looked at Charles.

“He'll live, at least until we get him later.”

Havoc nodded.

“Many a true word spoken in jest, Tomas. And don't pretend you didn't put him up to it.”

Tomas smirked.

Charles grinned.

“We’re all here aren’t we?”

Havoc thought that Charles was proud of his little war wound. He was of that age.

“
We're
all here. I’m not sure about you.”

Charles looked hurt. Havoc didn’t care. If Charles wanted praise for his stunt he wasn’t going to get it from him. For a start, he didn’t want to encourage a repeat performance.

“Are we going further inside?” Tomas asked.

Havoc looked around the group.

“Well?”

They considered then nodded. Havoc sized up the two princes.

“Fair enough. You two can either slave your suits to me or stay here. Your call.”

Both princes adopted the expression of moody teenagers.

But then, Havoc thought, that was the bloody point, wasn’t it?

 77. 

Weaver accessed the carousel to search for the ideogram that denoted the alien ship or its energy system.

She had no idea of the ordering of the alien language – she was working off a tiny base of probably flawed understanding. The only thing she could confidently determine was the difficulty and power level of the concepts she was accessing. She arbitrarily picked a difficulty level that was two below that of the entrance gate and started her search from there.

She continuously solved the sequences so that she could browse the content. She felt a hit of pure elation every time she solved a sequence entry. The sensation was addictive. Every time she was tardy in finding a solution the sequence brightened and her sense of urgency increased. What would happen, she wondered, if she simply stopped solving the unending ribbon that stretched across her horizon?

Once she reached the difficulty level of the entrance gate she finally plucked up the courage to fail deliberately. After all, she reasoned, the indexes had a power level of zero. She stopped solving the sequence. Her stress level climbed as the intensity of the light built, painlessly, to a climax.