“Let’s have a look at this console,” said Gabriel. “Maybe I’ll be able to call up a map of this place.”

  For a moment, he studied the panel in front of him. None of the functions were labelled, though he doubted that would have helped him much anyway. With a mental shrug, he used his index finger to poke a green button located near the panel’s centre. Nothing happened for a few seconds, and then the dim lights brightened a little.

  Gabriel watched for a short while longer, but the console gave no further indication it was coming online.

  “You should start pushing some of these other buttons, Sergeant,” Corporal Hennessey suggested helpfully. “Sooner or later, you’ll get lucky.”

  “When you get older, maybe you’ll develop some patience, Corporal.”

  “You’re only two years older than me, Sergeant.”

  “In that case, I hope you’re a fast learner.”

  Despite his words, Gabriel’s patience was indeed wearing thin, and he was tempted to follow the Corporal Hennessey method of alien hardware interaction. Crouching down, he listened carefully and heard a quiet humming sound coming from the within console, though he didn’t know if that meant the hardware was booting, or if it always hummed even when it was offline.

  “I think something’s happening,” said Hennessey.

  Gabriel rose quickly, just in time to see the touch controls illuminate in a mixture of sombre reds, yellows, and oranges. A half-second later, the switches and buttons brightened further, and labels ingeniously incorporated into the top panel glowed softly with text which had been invisible only a moment before. Then, a series of curved screens appeared in the air at the top of the console, just in front of the window.

  “Awaiting,” said Gabriel, reading the single word on the nearest screen. “I wonder if it’s still booting.”

  “Or maybe it’s ready for an operator to authenticate,” said Hennessey.

  Gabriel studied the panel, looking for a security scanner. A few of the touch input screens looked like possibilities, but their labels weren’t clear. The word awaiting remained on the screen.

  “Damnit,” said Gabriel angrily.

  Unwilling to tiptoe around any longer, he laid his palm on a flat panel made from an opaque material. Straightway, the prompt on the screen changed.

  Biological scan initiated.

  Biological scan complete.

  Galos modifications identified.

  Access granted: Ragnar-3.

  “Ragnar-3?” said Hennessey. “Do you reckon that’s—”

  Gabriel raised his head and looked through the viewing window at the spaceship parked in the bay outside. A jolt of fear mixed with something else ran through him. “Maybe.”

  “So what do we do now, Sergeant?”

  “Give me a moment to think,” said Gabriel, his eyes back on the viewscreen.

  The authentication messages vanished, to be replaced by more than a dozen different menus which were arranged neatly on the screen. Gabriel skimmed quickly through the options – most of which were technical terms he didn’t recognize, but there were others whose functions seemed clear enough.

  “We need to speak with Captain Lanson,” said Gabriel at last. “Assuming he’s alive.”

  “That means getting to the surface,” said Hennessey.

  Gabriel nodded. Reaching out, he touched one of the menu options which had caught his eye. A map appeared on the screen.

  “Let’s see how this works,” he said.

  Fortunately, the map could be manipulated in the same way as the one in the Scalos underground facility, and it didn’t take Gabriel long to figure it out. The squad’s current location was shown as Control Station 1, which was positioned centrally to everything else.

  “This place is big,” said Gabriel, marvelling at the warren of tunnels and rooms, not to mention the vastness of the central bay. “And that warship is definitely the Ragnar-3.”

  He re-centred the map on the control room. The second airlift shaft went a long way up to a large room that appeared to be just below the planet’s surface. From there, another lift went topside.

  “That’s where we need to be,” said Hennessey.

  “I reckon.” Gabriel pursed his lips. “The upper room from here isn’t linked to anything else, so we shouldn’t find any Sagh’eld.”

  “Unless they entered from the surface.”

  “That’s a chance we’ll have to take,” said Gabriel. “We need that comms link to Captain Lanson.”

  He was about to give the order to move out, when Private Wolf called for his attention.

  “Sergeant, maybe you should attempt a data link to that console,” she said. “If you passed the authentication, it might allow the connection.”

  “I’ll give it a go,” said Gabriel.

  He instructed his suit comms to seek out nearby receptors. A single option came up and Gabriel requested a link.

  “Link accepted,” he said. “Now what?”

  “If this works anything like Human Confederation hardware, you won’t be able to remotely access the real juicy stuff, but you could try downloading the facility map.

  “Good idea,” said Gabriel.

  After a short period of experimentation, he discovered that the options available over the datalink were indeed limited, but he was able to extract the map files. Once that was done, the 3D-model was viewable on his HUD.

  “Got it,” he said. “I’m leaving everything else well alone for the moment. If we’re unable to contact Captain Lanson, maybe then I’ll start guessing.”

  In reality, Gabriel didn’t know what he hoped to achieve if it did come down to guesswork. He suspected from the continuous rumbling which pervaded the facility that the Ragnar-3’s engines were either online, or in a state not far off, but he wasn’t sure exactly what he could achieve from the control station, beyond – as Corporal Hennessey kept recommending – pushing buttons to see what happened.

  “Listen up,” said Gabriel. “I’m going to share the map datafile, in case anything happens to me. I’ll save you the effort of searching through the model. That out there—” he thumbed towards the bay. “—is the Ragnar-3. This lift—” He pointed across the room. “—will take us to the surface. Once there, we’ll attempt contact with Captain Lanson. If we’re lucky, he’ll be alive and within comms sight, and will be able to either assist us, or offer guidance.”

  “What if we’re unlucky, Sergeant?”

  “You know the answer to that, Private Castle.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Maybe a couple of us should go up first, Sergeant,” said Ziegler. “Even if we’re not expecting to find Sagh’eld, we might run into something else.”

  “Let’s do that,” said Gabriel. “I’ll head up with Private Chan. As soon as we’ve confirmed the coast is clear, I’ll let you know on the comms.”

  “Aren’t you going to use the extendible sensor?” asked Hennessey.

  “Not this time,” said Gabriel, checking the singularity timer.

  00d:01h:40m

  With the plan made, Gabriel headed for the airlift.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Once he and Private Chan were inside the lift car, Gabriel touched his finger on the operation panel. The doors closed and he felt acceleration. After a few seconds, the feeling of acceleration ended, but the lift journey continued. Judging by the base map, the control room was a long way underground, so Gabriel wasn’t surprised that he was still heading up.

  Thirty seconds later, the lift came to a halt and Gabriel held the butt of his rifle tightly into his shoulder. The doors opened and he stared out into a dimly lit space measuring about two hundred metres by two hundred, with a fifty-metre, unsupported ceiling. Every surface was of rough-textured grey stone, and Gabriel guessed there was some tech installed to prevent it all from collapsing.

  A shuttle with a low profile, and about sixty metres in length, hovered two metres above the bay floor, flank first to the airlift, its droning engines filling the confined space with heavy bass and the scent of ozone. Directly above the transport, a vertical shaft - which appeared only just wide enough to accommodate the transport – cut directly through the ceiling.

  Exiting the lift quickly, Gabriel went left and Chan went right, the two of them scanning the bay watchfully.

  “Looks clear,” said Gabriel.

  “Unless there’s something hiding inside that shuttle,” said Chan.

  “Not likely,” said Gabriel. “But let’s take a look anyway.”

  As he walked rapidly towards the transport, he checked the signal strength of his comms link to the other soldiers. It was at one hundred percent, which he hadn’t been expecting.

  “There’s a shuttle up here. We’re taking a look, but so far everything’s quiet,” he said on the squad channel. “Private Wolf, can you tell me why there’s been no signal degradation? The lift journey was a long one.”

  “I’ll check it out, Sergeant.”

  Gabriel returned his full attention to the bay. “There’s the next airlift over there,” he said. “On the far side of the shuttle.”

  “I see it,” Chan confirmed. “I wonder if this shuttle is the escape route for the officers in the lower control station.”

  “Maybe.”

  The soldiers stopped a few metres from the shuttle, which was accessed by means of two visible doors, one near the nose and one midway along. An access panel had been installed adjacent to each entrance, just above the transport’s undersides. Gabriel chose the midsection door, and reached up to see if it would allow him inside.

  A couple of seconds after he touched the access panel, the door slid open, and an extendible boarding ramp unfolded onto the ground.

  Aware that he was in danger of becoming side-tracked, Gabriel climbed the steps rapidly and entered a compact airlock. Passing into a bay containing a few metal-frame seats, with some offline viewscreens on the wall, he hurried through the forward exit.

  A steep flight of steps brought him to the cockpit, which was empty. Descending again, he tried the aft door from the passenger bay. Like he’d expected, the door led to a cargo bay, which contained a half-dozen reinforced alloy crates, each with its own security access panel.

  Resisting the temptation to open a couple of the crates, Gabriel exited the cargo bay and then the shuttle.

  “Are you going to bring up the rest of the squad before we enter next airlift, Sergeant?” asked Chan.

  Gabriel was struggling to see the point in summoning the other soldiers, since he was convinced this area of the facility was safe. He grimaced. If he called up the rest of the squad, he’d have to leave them in this shuttle bay while he and Chan scouted the upper level. It seemed unnecessarily complicated.

  He got on the comms. “Private Wolf, you’re coming up to join us. Corporal Hennessey, Corporal Ziegler, you stay put with everyone else.”

  Soon, Private Wolf emerged from the airlift and sprinted towards the shuttle. “I figured out why your comms are working, Sergeant,” she said. “Your suit comms unit has automatically connected to the facility’s internal hard links – it must have happened after you authenticated with the base security systems.”

  “What about everyone else?” asked Gabriel.

  “Corporal Ziegler made everyone authenticate with the airlift panel below.” Wolf slowed to a halt in front of Gabriel. She smiled thinly. “Not everything about the Galos was bad.”

  “You can say that again,” said Gabriel, remembering his recent recovery from the normally permanent state of death. “Does this mean we can contact Captain Lanson from here?”

  “No, sir – unfortunately, we’re only tied in to the internal comms. I imagine access to the external comms will require a separate and higher level of authentication.”

  “Which we could probably obtain at the lower control station,” said Gabriel.

  “I imagine so, sir.”

  Gabriel muttered a curse. “Screw it – we’re here now, so we’re sticking with the plan. Let’s get our asses over to that lift.”

  He had a superstition about walking beneath hovering spacecraft – unless the quantity of incoming enemy bullets was enough to make him overlook it – so he hurried around the shuttle rather than taking the quickest route to the airlift.

  A few seconds later, Gabriel arrived at the lift, and he placed his hand on the access panel without hesitation. This time, the authentication message didn’t appear, but the door opened anyway.

  A lift car was revealed, no different to any of the others. Gabriel entered, closely followed by Chan and Wolf. Nobody spoke as the lift climbed, and the tension was palpable.

  “Ready,” said Gabriel quietly, as the car came to a halt.

  The doors opened and he remained stock still for a moment, staring into near darkness. A couple of seconds passed, and then lights came on automatically.

  “Looks clear,” said Chan, in a whisper that made it obvious the pressure was getting to him.

  Gabriel exited the lift into the centre of what appeared to be a circular room. The lift housing occupied the centre four metres of the floorspace, and the room itself looked to have a diameter of about twelve metres. Heading quickly around the lift housing, Gabriel confirmed the place was empty of hostiles, and also that it did indeed form a complete circle. The only tech in evidence was a single offline console, which looked ancient and with side panels covered in shallow dents.

  With the exploration out of the way, Gabriel turned his attention to the single window that went all the way around the wall, starting from a height of a little over one metre and extending as high as three metres.

  Stepping right up to the window, Gabriel stared at the sights outside. He was inside a tall structure – with a height of more than a hundred metres - and from this vantage, he could see perhaps fifteen or twenty other buildings within a few hundred metres. These buildings were either domes, or square sided with windows, and they were separated by gaps of thirty or forty metres.

  Light spilled from within the structures, making them - at first glance - appear like they were floating in the planet’s darkness. When Gabriel’s eyes adjusted, he could just make out the rocky, unfinished surface into which the structures had been embedded.

  “Is that a shuttle over there, Captain?” asked Wolf, with her visor pressed against the window.

  Gabriel looked and, between two buildings about 150 metres away, he could see the familiar shape of a Sagh’eld heavy transport. The vessel was large enough to carry a few thousand personnel, but without knowing the number of enemy soldiers within the facility, he couldn’t be sure if this was the only transport, or if there was another parked somewhere out of sight.

  “We could either blow it up or steal it, Sergeant,” said Chan.

  “Two options worth considering if only this building had a visible exit,” said Gabriel. He turned to face Wolf. “This is your moment to shine, Private.”

  “I always shine, sir,” said Wolf, shrugging out of the shoulder straps of her comms booster.

  She lowered the booster to the floor and opened the pack so she could see the device’s small display.

  “Hunting for comms receptor,” said Wolf. “Fingers crossed.”

  Gabriel watched expectantly.

  “No receptor found,” said Wolf. She leaned closer to her comms pack and adjusted some of the dials. “If the receptor is just across the planet’s cusp, it’s possible there’ll be some atmospheric interference.”

  “Doesn’t look as if this place has much of an atmosphere,” said Chan with a shrug. He tipped his head back and peered upwards. “And I can’t even see the local star.”

  “Quiet,” said Gabriel.

  “I’m still not able to locate a receptor, Sergeant,” said Wolf after a few moments. “Either the New Beginning is destroyed, or this planet is between us and the warship.”

  “I don’t want to wait here forever,” said Gabriel. “This planet’s day could last multiple Earth days for all we know.”

  “Or we could be in an entirely different solar system to Scalos,” said Wolf. “In which case, this booster pack will never locate the New Beginning.”

  “We’ll have to return to the control room,” said Gabriel at last. “I reckon I can figure out how to access the facility’s external comms quicker than this planet will rotate far enough that we have transmission sight on the New Beginning.”

  “What about this console over here, Sergeant?” asked Chan, giving the hardware a kick with the toe of his boot. “Maybe you can authenticate here?”

  “What do you think, Private Wolf?” asked Gabriel once he was standing at the console. In sudden frustration, he flicked a row of switches on the device’s top panel, and pressed two buttons at the same time with his index and middle fingers.

  “There’s nothing about this hardware or this room that makes me think it was ever used for comms, Sergeant. But this is alien tech, so what the hell do I know?”

  Gabriel’s assault on the console had brought it out of sleep and its two screens glowed softly, though without yet displaying a prompt. He could see no obvious place on the top panel where he might request biological authentication.

  “Maybe we should go, Sergeant,” said Wolf.

  Since he’d managed to begin the hardware’s boot sequence, Gabriel was reluctant to leave without finding out if the console could authenticate him to link with the facility’s external comms systems. He knew he was being stupid, since there was nothing he could accomplish here that he couldn’t do in the main control station.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Gabriel said, resisting the urge to deliver a kick of his own to the console’s housing. He didn’t usually lose his cool and experience told him that the surge of anger he was feeling meant he was dangerously close to the edge.

  As Gabriel headed for the lift, an immense flash on the surface outside caused him to snap his head around, narrowing his eyes as he did so. At the same time, he ducked instinctively beneath the window and the other soldiers did likewise.

  “What the hell was that?” asked Chan.