“Okay…”
It turned out that Hap Galish was right. Whatever ancient security tech the building had was no match for Xooth and his magic lock pick.
After he disabled the controller, a set of blast doors creaked open. Beyond them was a ramp heading down. Guide lights winked on, illuminating the entrance, which was filled with all kinds of dust and strands of some sort of insect residue.
As the team walked the sled down the ramp, wall-mounted security scanners tracked them.
“You guys are seeing that, right?” I asked Ana-Zhi. “Scanners.”
“Affirmative. Nothing to worry about. The drones are messing with them.”
I had forgotten about the micro drones that flew beside the sled. They were almost impossible to see unless they were caught in a beam of light piped down from a tube.
At the bottom of the ramp was another set of security doors that opened into a smaller room that seemed to function as some sort of sally port. Ana-Zhi seemed extra cautious in this room and they did a lot of scanning before proceeding.
“Those doors are sealing behind them,” Chiraine said.
“I saw that. Probably part of the security programming to prevent whatever was in there from escaping. I’m surprised it’s still working.”
“That’s actually a good sign. It means the node is operational. They should be scanning with the Raker now.”
I conveyed the suggestion to Yates, but he replied that they had been scanning continuously since entering the complex. “We’re not getting any signal strong enough for a connection. It looks like these security controls are hardwired.”
The next part of the corridor was where it got a little dicey. Light tubes illuminated the space enough so that we could see that the corridor was flooded with disgusting-looking liquid—with large patches of slime floating on it.
“That doesn’t look good,” Chiraine said. She had her shoulders pulled tight and was rubbing her hands together.
“You okay?”
“Fine.” She took a deep breath. “This is just a bit stressful.”
“Report!” I told Ana-Zhi.
“Not much to report, Captain,” she said. “We’ve got some ancient pond scum. A third of a meter deep. No life forms. Moving on.”
The team sloshed its way through the corridor, hanging on the edge of the sled for balance. Soon they arrived at a three-way junction. Ana-Zhi consulted the tableau in her datapad and then chose the left corridor.
This hallway was quite a bit narrower—maybe three meters or so. There wasn’t much clearance on the sides of the sled, so the team had to change formation—with some in front of the sled and some in back.
“Getting close now,” Yates said. “Signals getting stronger.”
“That’s a relief.”
They passed through another sealed chamber lit by light tubes. And fortunately, it was dry. Beyond the chamber ran a short corridor which ended in a large pressure door.
“Dead end?”
“Looks that way,” said Yates.
“Hang on.” Ana-Zhi double-checked her datapad. “Just as I thought. This is a vertical shaft. Probably leads down to a lower level.”
“You’re talking about an elevator, right?” I asked.
Ana-Zhi didn’t answer. Instead she directed Xooth towards a wall-mounted panel. The Plargond worked his magic and the door slid open to reveal an empty shaft.
“No sign of an elevator car,” Ana-Zhi reported. “We’ll use the sled to go down.”
“Why not go around?” I asked. “One of those other branches will get you closer to the node.”
“Negative, Captain. We’re right on top of it. Signal’s still too weak, but we’re close.”
Chiraine turned to me, her face pale with worry. “You got anything to drink around here?”
“Like what?”
“Gin would do it.”
“Sorry, no drugs or alcohol on board. Company regs. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll buy you a drink once we get back to Tor-Betree.”
“Deal.”
With the sled in the shaft, it was hard to see what was going on. From the movement along the walls, I could see that they were descending—slowly. But everything was dark and shadowy, except for the little pinpricks of light from the micro drones.
Then I heard Murroux call out, “Quiet! I think I heard something.”
The sled stopped in place. The only sound coming through the feed was the faint hum of the sled’s z-field generators.
“Why don’t they just send the damn Raker down there by itself?” Chiraine asked. She had leaned close to me and I was pretty sure she wanted a reassuring hug.
“Did you hear it?” Murroux asked. “A creaking sound.”
“Settle down, ladies. In all likelihood it was just a light tube duct expanding,” Obarral said.
“He’s right,” Ana-Zhi said. “We need to press on.” She keyed the sled’s drive and it began to descend again.
They didn’t get a half dozen meters before the shaft erupted in chaos. The sled’s cameras spun wildly and the sounds of yelling and radiant blasters echoed throughout the shaft.
“Oh my god!” Chiraine screamed.
“Report! Report!”
A flash of light blinded the cameras and before the image could return another blast of light hit. A burst of static crackled over the audio feed. I could hear people shouting frantically, but the transmission was too distorted to make out what they were saying.
“Hap, get over here!” I yelled into the intercom. “We’ve got a problem!”
“I know,” he said. “I’m trying to switch to another camera.”
“I can’t believe this!” Chiraine’s nails dug into my arm.
“Oww!”
“Sorry!” She moved away, and took a deep breath—trying to regain her composure.
“Incursion team, come in!”
The camera was still lurching crazily, and I couldn’t hear anything besides static. I thought I caught a glimpse of a smooth rippling black shape. But it might have just been a shadow.
Suddenly the video changed to another angle. I saw Obarral’s face, splashed with something thick and dark. The audio cut in—
“—repeat, we got it.”
“Report!”
“Beck?” It was Ana-Zhi Agrada.
“Yes, what’s your status?”
“Two down.”
“What?”
“Xooth and Murroux are down. Possibly critical. But the threat is neutralized. I think.”
Spots danced before my eyes. I couldn’t believe what was happening.
“What the hell—”
“Something was down here. I couldn’t tell you what it was. Looked like a big manta ray.”
“A what?”
“Batoid. Never mind. It came out of nowhere.
