Frontiers 07 - The Expanse (19 page)

“What’s wrong?” Jessica asked.

“
If I go much deeper, I may damage whatever is underneath the snow. I am afraid we must dig the rest of the way.
”

Jessica looked at the two Corinairans standing behind her. “You heard the man; start digging.”

All four of them began digging at the wall of icy pellets standing in front of them. They scooped with their gloved hands, carving away at the snow for several minutes until, finally, one of them found something solid.

“
I found something!
” one of the Corinairans announced. “
I think it’s a wall.
”

The rest of them concentrated their efforts in the same location, quickly revealing a stone wall.

“There’s got to be a door around here somewhere,” Jessica said. “Stand back,” she ordered the Corinairans. “Start firing again that way,” she instructed Mister Taves as she pointed to the right of the uncovered section of wall, “parallel to the wall. Cut us a path about two meters wide. If we don’t find a door by the time we reach the corner, we’ll go back the other way.”

“
As you wish,
” Taves answered. He stepped up and began firing Jessica’s adjusted weapon once more, carving away at the snow. He soon learned to cut only a few centimeters away from the wall and allow the remaining snow to fall away of its own weight. Within minutes, they reached the corner of the wall without finding a doorway.

“Let’s go back the other way,” Jessica said.

“
Lieutenant Commander,
” Taves began in his most diplomatic fashion. “
We do not know what wall the entrance would be on. It could be around this corner for all we know.
”

“Good point,” Jessica agreed. “Waddell,” Jessica called over the comms, “send me one of your guys from the LZ, and make sure he’s carrying an energy pistol.”

“
Understood,
” Waddell answered.

“As soon as he gets here, adjust his weapon the same way,” Jessica ordered. “I’ll have him cut back the other way while you keep cutting this way, around the corner. One of you has got to uncover a door sooner or later.”

“
Good thinking,
” the Takaran agreed. “
That will be much more efficient.
”

* * *

“Why aren’t you eating with Vlad today?” Cameron asked.

“He’s busy overseeing the installation of the first plasma torpedo cannon.” Nathan picked at his salad. He had already eaten the small chunks of meat that the chef had added on his request. “You really eat only vegetables?”

“For the most part, yes.”

“What if you were starving, and there was nothing but meat?”

“Then I’d eat it. I may be a vegetarian, but I’m not stupid.”

“What about bread?”

“I eat bread on occasion.”

“On occasion? I don’t think I could survive without bread.”

“You and Vlad were made for each other, you know that?” Cameron said. “That man eats nothing but meat, potatoes, and bread.”

“Yeah.” Nathan pushed his unfinished salad away, leaning back in his chair. “The first thing I’m going to do when we get back to Earth is get myself a nice big steak.”

“I thought we had plenty of steaks on board.”

“Dollag steaks,” Nathan corrected. “It’s not the same thing; trust me.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“What are you going to do when we get home?”

“New clothes and some fresh sea air,” Cameron said. “I’ve been wearing the same three sets of uniforms forever, and I miss the sound of the ocean.” She sighed at the thought. “But I imagine we’ll all be quite busy writing reports about what happened.” She glanced at Nathan, noting the quizzical look on his face. “I mean, a lot has happened. Over sixty of our crew died, including the entire command staff. We engaged in hostile actions with not only the Jung, but another previously unknown interstellar power. We even formed an alliance and initiated attacks. I imagine we are all going to have a lot of explaining to do.”

Nathan stared at her for what seemed like forever. “You think it’s that bad?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted with a shrug, “but there have got to be investigations. There are always investigations, especially when people die.”

“You think we’re in trouble?”

“I’m pretty sure
I’m
okay,” Cameron stated. “I know the regs pretty well, and so far, nothing you’ve done
required
me to override you and take command. Not even the forming of the alliance.”

“Then I’m probably okay as well.” The day-to-day activities, as well as the discovery of the Jasper, had managed to distract him from such thoughts. Now, he was starting to become nervous again.

“I wouldn’t be so sure. Whenever something bad happens, someone always needs a scapegoat.”

“And you think it’ll be me,” Nathan said.

“You would be the logical choice. The captain of a ship is responsible for everything that happens under his command. I don’t think they’ll toss you in prison or anything, but they may ask you to resign.”

“I think I can handle that,” Nathan said. “I think I’ve had enough excitement and adventure to last me a lifetime.”

“Still, I’d consider an attorney if I were you,” Cameron added. “Surely your father knows a few good ones.”

* * *

The snow wall on their left suddenly collapsed, revealing a short tunnel that led into the stone wall.

“Stop! Stop!” Jessica ordered. Mister Taves deactivated the weapon. “I think this is it!” She looked about at the snow still piled up around the entrance to the tunnel. “Clear all of this. That snow piles up fast, and we don’t want to get buried inside.”

As Mister Taves continued using the weapon to melt the snow away from the entrance, Jessica and the two Corinairans proceeded into the tunnel. The tunnel darkened as they approached the far end. Jessica switched on the chest-mounted lighting panel, casting a pale white glow in front of her. Her light revealed a large wooden door built of vertical strips of heavy lumber. The strips were held together with rusted, iron straps, with heavy hand-forged rivets holding them in place. The door reminded Jessica of the old fortresses built by the early villages that formed in the first century after the bio-digital plague back on Earth. She had seen the images in school in the holo-suites used to educate children in groups. From the Data Ark, they had learned that such fortresses had been built by humans on Earth a thousand years before the great plague.

“
Should I be recording this?
” one of the Corinairans asked.

Jessica turned to look at him, taking note of the name on his helmet. “What do you think, Mister Soutter?”

“
I should be recording this.
”

Jessica turned back around to face the door as Mister Soutter’s chest-mounted lighting plate also snapped on, casting its own pale, white light in addition to Jessica’s. She stepped forward and pulled at the great door, but it did not move. She pulled again and again, but it was stuck.

“
The hinges are probably frozen shut,
” Mister Taves commented as his own light panel came to life.

“Or rusted in place,” Jessica added. “How are we going to get it open?”

Taves held up the weapon that he had been using to carve away the snow. “
This weapon has many useful settings,
” he proclaimed with no small amount of pride. He stepped forward and made several more adjustments to the weapon’s power settings and the tip of its barrel. He took aim and fired at the door, this time sending a narrow, precise beam of red light that burned a clean line through the heavy door. The tunnel began to fill with smoke. Mister Taves struggled to see clearly, hoping to avoid the uppermost metal strap for fear of collapsing the entire door. Within minutes, he had completed a clean cut across the door at about shoulder height just below the uppermost iron strap. After another minute, he’d managed to cut through the iron strap at the bottom. “
Give me a hand,
” he said as he handed the weapon back to Jessica.

Mister Soutter and his fellow Corinairan, Mister Kilbore, stepped up on either side of the Takaran. Together, they pushed inward on the cut door timbers, slowly forcing them to move until they finally fell inward.

Jessica crouched down and leaned inward through the shoulder high opening. She shined a handheld light about the space on the other side. There appeared to be several pieces of equipment, all in various states of disrepair. The room was dusty and frozen with icicles hanging from the beams as well as from points on various pieces of equipment where they had once leaked fluid.

“
This place hasn’t seen light in years,
” Mister Soutter commented as he peered from behind Jessica.

“More like centuries,” she corrected as she advanced through the opening, stepping over the fallen door timbers. “Waddell, Nash. I’m stepping inside. How do you copy?”

“
Loud and clear, Lieutenant Commander.
”

“I’ll check back with you every few minutes.”

“
Understood.
”

Jessica slowly made her way deeper into the dark room, followed closely by her three team members.

“
It looks like an entry chamber,
” Mister Taves said. “
There are stalls along that wall, as if to hold cold weather gear,
” he explained, pointing to the far wall. “
And those appear to be tool lockers.
”

“
If those are cold weather gear stalls, where is the cold weather gear?
” Mister Soutter wondered.

“Maybe this is just some sort of outpost?” Jessica said. She came to another door at the far end of the room. “If you’re right, then this must be the inner door.”

Mister Taves examined the second door. “
Its construction is similar to the outer door, only smaller. Odd that there are no latches or other mechanisms for securing the doors.
”

“
The wind blows inward from the outside,
” Mister Soutter noted. “
They probably didn’t need a way to secure the doors.
”

Jessica ignored their debate, pulling the door outward. Its hinges creaked and moaned as the door resisted her efforts. Finally, it gave in and opened. Jessica moved through the inner doorway, confirming her connectivity with Major Waddell and his security teams on the outside as she made her way forward. She paused just after stepping through the doorway, shining her light both left and right. “It’s a corridor,” she told the others. “It goes off nearly perpendicular to the right and at about a forty-five degree angle to the left.”

“
It must connect with the other buildings,
” Mister Taves said. “
There were at least five more rectangular hills in the overhead optical scans of the surface.
”

“Taves, with me,” Jessica ordered. “Soutter, Kilbore, head right. Check in every five minutes.”

“Yes, sir,” Mister Soutter answered.

Jessica watched for a moment as Soutter and Kilbore headed down the right corridor, their suit lights quickly fading into the darkness. She turned and started down the corridor to their left, shining her light from side to side. She did not care for the illumination provided by the panels on the chest of her cold weather garment, as the light was pale, which made it difficult to pick out details.

The corridor was long and featureless other than the pattern of stones that formed the walls. There were light panels every five meters, interconnected by conduit that ran along the upper edges of the wall. The floor appeared to also be made of stone. However, it was smooth and seamless as if cast as one long piece. The colonists must have had considerable technology available to them at some point, as well as the knowledge to use it.

After a few minutes, they came to another door, this time with a sign on the wall next to the door. The sign was carved out of wood, the letters filled in with some type of dye.

“Control room,” Jessica announced.

“
What?
” Mister Taves asked.

Jessica pointed at the sign. “I thought you guys already learned how to read Angla.”

“
That is not Angla,
” Mister Taves objected over the comm-set. He studied the sign further. “
However, it does bear some resemblance.
”

Jessica opened the door and entered the control room. Inside, there were several consoles. They did not appear to be designed specifically for the space, but rather, they looked as if they had been scavenged from a ship of some type and installed here. It occurred to her that most of the technology she had seen so far could easily have been scavenged from a spaceship. She moved deeper into the room, approaching what appeared to be the main console on the far side. She came up behind the high-backed chair in front of the console, slowly turning it around to face her. In the chair sat a middle-aged man huddled in a heavy parka. His hands were clad in gloves and several strips of cloth. His legs were covered by several blankets, each wrapped tightly around his lower extremities. His eyes were half open, and his mouth slightly agape. His skin was pale and ghostly with a fine layer of gray-white ice crystals covering every surface of his body. “I’ve got a body,” Jessica stated calmly.

“
There are two more over here,
” Mister Taves stated over the comm-set. “
They appear to be frozen.
”

“
Lieutenant Commander Nash, this is Soutter,
” Mister Soutter called over the comm-set. His voice had a twinge of panic in its tone.

“Go ahead,” Jessica answered.

“
We’ve got bodies over here,
” he announced over the comm-set. “
There are at least ten of them so far. They’re all frozen, sir.
”

“Copy that. We’ve got some as well,” Jessica answered. “Keep pushing forward, and keep a body count as you go, and record everything, Mister Soutter.” Jessica turned to Mister Taves. “See if you can find a data core or something. There’s got to be a log file around here somewhere.”

* * *

Nathan stood in the main hangar deck as the landing shuttle rolled to a stop and began cycling down its engines. The shuttle looked weather beaten and worn, as did the landing party as they disembarked still clad in their cold weather gear with their hoods back and their air masks dangling from their necks. Jessica separated from the group, veering over to her captain with a case in her left hand.