D'Mok Revival 1: Awakening (24 page)

They gathered around and looked at her display. There was a single recognizable symbol on the screen.

“Nukari?” Mencari whispered.

“Yes, but look,” Toriko said pointing to the corner. “Powered by… Bansa.”

Toriko’s fingers summoned her holographic cube which bloomed into a virtual interface. She quickly patched in, scoffing. “This isn’t even my sister’s work. They call this encryption?” One by one, four little red areas on her screen turned green.

“Got it!”

The area under their feet began to tremble. As the dust cleared, Toriko saw a small circular opening. “We wouldn’t have an operation out here,” she said, her voice annoyed. “But it looks like it has a recent system patch. The Nukari must be farming out the tech developed at Bansa.”

Mencari nodded. “Making the most of what they got from your world, aren’t they?”

“Yep. Which means I can crack it!”

They peered down the brightly lit tube before entering, Toriko first. As she reached the bottom, she found a port and was able to jack into it while the others followed. As the last one climbed down, the surface hatch closed.

“I put it on a delay,” she said, as the others looked at her. “Don’t worry. I should be able to get us out without any trouble.”

Something on the floor had caught Allia and Ichini’s attention. Mencari looked to see but couldn’t make anything out.

Suddenly, the glow around them began to fade.

“There must be some artificial atmosphere here,” he said.

Using her holographic interface, Toriko called up a display not much bigger than the width of her two hands side-by-side.

“What are you doing?” Mencari asked.

“The port on the surface was only hooked up to the hatch, but this one . . .” She looked at the display as if it was taunting her. “There’s more here. Just a second . . . There!”

The display began to cycle through a series of information panels.

“Okay,” she said. “I have the floor layouts!”

A hologram of the current floor layout appeared before them. She pointed to a section in the northwest corner of the map. “This is where we are now.”

“Anything else on what’s inside?” Allia asked.

Toriko looked up gleefully, then back at her armguard. “Looks like there’s motion detectors installed. Let me see . . . Wait . . . blips moving along the hallway. Not people, but robot patrols. Sentries, maybe?”

“I don’t like staying in one spot too long,” Allia said, glancing around.

The young girl stared at the display. “They seem to be moving in rhythm. Regular routes. Can you record their movements? So we could predict where they’d be at a certain time?”

Toriko looked up, then down again, as her fingers danced around the hologram. “Can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

Again Mencari caught Allia looking at the floor, her gaze intense. He was about to ask her what she was looking at when Toriko popped her plug from the port. “All set.”

The foursome scurried to a closed door at the end of the hallway. They watched the hologram, waiting until a robot-guard’s blip tracked well past their door, then they eased open the door and peeked into another long hallway.

In the distance, a robot moved lazily away from them along a track of colored light. Allia stared at the beam, amazed. Toriko nodded at Mencari, then mouthed, “Simulation’s dead-on.”

When the robot disappeared from view, Mencari motioned to them. “We need to stay together. Let’s go.”

They made their way down the corridor toward the intersection.

They kept themselves pressed against the wall, a few steps before the intersection, as Toriko sidled up to the corner. Allia’s eyes were drawn to the room at the end of the intersection. The grinding noises they’d heard seemed much louder here.

Toriko motioned all clear, and the group darted through the intersection and into the room. Inside, they watched Toriko’s hologram in silence as another small dot outside approached, then moved past the room without a pause.

“Seems like a bunch of low-tech patrol bots,” Toriko whispered, “Not that I’m complaining.”

Feeling more comfortable, they began looking around the room. Toriko found another access port near the entrance, pulled out her holographic interface cube and connected in. Mencari looked over her shoulder at the strange displays and virtual control panels, as Allia and Ichini wandered to the far corner where a window jutted out.

Allia attracted his attention and motioned him over. He saw a cavern on the other side of a small canyon. Machines seemed to be grinding rocks, and carts disappeared into the darkness of a tunnel.

“It’s a mine,” Toriko whispered.

She sat on the floor, reviewing a new holographic panel. “This port has more access.” She smiled triumphantly. “The reports say it’s operating about fifty-percent output.”

“What are they mining?”

“Doesn’t say. The systems are mostly maintenance reports, very utilitarian.”

He looked back out the window, spotting heaps of colored ore. “From those piles, it all looks the same.”

Allia tugged at his shirt and pointed to a small robot about her size, with oversized drills for arms.

“Mining bots,” he said.

On the canyon floor, a half-dozen similar robots marched along. Joining the first one, they continued into the mine shaft.

“We should see if we can bring back a sample,” he said.

“Gimme a minute.” Toriko looked up from the display, as her hands continue to work the holographic interface, a wily grin on her face. “I’m just returning the gift they gave to Ujaku . . . with a little enhancement.”

“We’re not done here yet.”

“It’s time-release, don’t worry.”

Mencari cringed.

“Are we going down there?” Allia said, eyes wide.

He was about to confirm when Toriko called out, “Wait. A message. No, an
alert
. Something about a robot found destroyed. Other bots have been dispatched to investigate.”

“But we didn’t destroy any robots!” Allia said confused.

Mencari examined the cavern map Toriko pulled up. A targeting symbol converged on a spot deep inside the mine. “According to this, it happened pretty far in,” Toriko said.

“Things fall in caves all the time,” Allia said, relieved. “It probably got smushed.”

Mencari frowned. “Regardless, they’re on alert now. We need to be careful. Let’s get the sample and get out of here.”

Toriko popped her plug and stood. A hologram appeared before her, scanning for routes down to the mine area.

“There,” she said. “There’s another maintenance shaft, not far from the one we used to get in.”

He waved a hand forward. “Lead on.”

They gathered around her to watch the floor layout with the sentinel dots, moving along their programmed paths. On schedule, the hum outside the door grew as the holographic dot approached their position. When the patrol bot had passed safely by, they slipped out of the room and headed toward the maintenance shaft.

When they located it, they found a ladder leading down a hole to a lighted area below. Nothing seemed to be moving around. Ichini leapt down ahead of the group. The lower they went, the more rumbling they heard from the mining machines. Their descent ended on a metal plateau.

As Mencari was about to step off the ladder, he noticed a few loose bolts along with scuff marks on the ground. He pointed to them and whispered, “Looks deep, like something heavy’s been dragged here.”

His eyes traced along the markings as he hopped off the ladder. Allia traced his gaze and found a small side panel, went over to it and crawled inside while Ichini stayed with the others.

They heard metal clanking, and the sound of something being hit.

Worried, Toriko called out, “Allia?” When there was no response, she went over to the cubby and peered into the dark. A robot head popped out, causing her to yell and flail backwards. Losing her balance, she hit the floor hard.

Allia’s laugh echoed from inside the robot’s head before she pulled it from her face. “Look what I found. It’s all busted up, though.”

Toriko scowled at her. “That wasn’t funny.”

Mencari looked behind Allia, struggling to make out details in the dark. Strewn across the storage area were the mangled parts of a patrol sentinel. “This isn’t right,” he said. “They’re already looking for one destroyed robot, right? Something else is going on here.”

He peered farther down the crawlspace. “How far are we from the ore we saw, Toriko?”

She checked her map. “We’re very close.”

They made their way down a second ladder, which ended in a room-sized chamber that opened into the mines. Toriko opened the door to reveal piles of ore sitting mere feet from them.

Mencari looked out, confirming no bots were lurking around. He dashed out to a pile and grabbed a few pieces of the ore. He turned to sneak back to the others.

Suddenly, the lighting turned crimson, and an alarm began to blare.

Toriko, Allia and Ichini burst out the door and dashed past Mencari. “Robots coming! Plan B—this way!” Toriko shouted.

Mencari ran to catch up. From behind, the sound of clanking feet grew closer. Mencari peered back to see a man appear, chased by a huge guardian robot.

Ahead of them, a wall of sentinels approached. Allia took a defensive stance as Ichini transformed into a beetle-like creature. Mencari activated his hand-phaser and aimed, unleashing a steady stream of low-powered blasts. As Ichini charged, Allia reached to her sides and gripped something concealed under her clothing, drawing out a dark-metal object. As she gripped it, barbed edges flowered from the main shaft, creating small but deadly-looking sabers.

From behind them, they could hear the stranger attacking the larger robot.

Relying on the others for defense, Toriko twitched her fingers to summon her holographic cube. In moments, she was hacking the nearest robot using her virtual interface. It suddenly stopped dead. Emboldened by success, she attempted it again on a second. Her face pruned instantly. “Reactive firewalls? Oh Eudora, they’re adapting fast to my hacks!”

Allia and Ichini double-teamed one of the robots, gashing its critical systems and sending it crashing to the ground. Mencari raised the power of his hand-phaser and fired, destroying the fallen robot and riddling the remaining robots with shrapnel.

Mencari blasted another, then joined Allia and Ichini against the final opponent blocking their path, easily taking it down. They all turned in time to see the stranger struggling against the giant sentinel behind them. Its massive hand swatted the stranger, sending him reeling. He hit the ground hard and tumbled a few times before his body flopped and was still.

Mencari fired a few shots into the sentinel’s head, while Allia scampered to the fallen man and helped him to his feet. “He’s breathing, just stunned,” she yelled.

Ichni morphed back into a tiger-like creature, and ran circles around the large sentinel to distract it.

Allia suddenly yelled “Rhysus! Watch OUT!”

He turned, as to his amazement, a battle-damaged small sentinel streaked past him and engaged the large one.

“It’s on our side now!” Toriko shouted. “Hurray for hacking!”

Getting the most from the distraction, Mencari hollered, “Let’s get out of here!”

Toriko pointed to an open vent. “This should take us back up a level!”

“Come on!” Mencari said, helping the stranger to his feet and dashing for the vent. Inside two mining robots were waiting, drills pointed at the group, ready to attack. Mencari used his hand-phaser to take out the first one, while Ichini transformed and used his bladed arms to slice through the second.

Suddenly, the whole vent began to shake violently, and in the next instant, a mammoth robot hand ripped through the floor. With one jerk, the vent was torn apart like wet paper beneath them, and they tumbled out as the floor gave way.

Before them stood a guardian robot twice the size of the large sentinel they had been fighting. Its hand raised, ready to strike. Mencari saw Toriko directly in its path. He cried out to her, knowing he couldn’t get there in time to prevent her death.

In a flash, the man they’d helped barreled into Toriko, knocking her out of the way just as the robot’s arm whooshed by and embedded into the cavern wall next them. Mencari kicked his blaster setting to maximum. Squealing with charge, he unleashed a barrage of blasts.

Despite direct hits, the robot only stumbled a few unbalanced steps back.

“Oh, Eudora,” Toriko shrieked.

“It’s BIG!” Mencari yelled.

Slightly stunned by the fall, Allia winced and held her arm. Ichini circled her, ready to protect her.

A bleep from her armguard drew Toriko’s attention. “Rhysus, it’s Spark. The two scout ships. They’re headed back this way.”

The man’s head jerked toward Mencari. “You have a ship out there?”

Mencari nodded.

“Those scout ships will bring reinforcements!”

The man spoke with the confidence of knowledge, and Mencari had no reason not to believe him. They had to get out of here, back to the ship and away, or they’d all die here.