Guardians of the Galactic Sentinel 1: The Deimos Artifact (29 page)

Chapter 34.
Collaboration.

Voltaire Crater, Deimos, July 15, 2676.

Within the next hour, the Soviet symbologist was transported over to Deimos on the
Murmansk's
shuttlecraft. The
Murmansk
remained at her station some three thousand kilometers away from the moon and any of the Viking ships. The Soviet shuttle pilot expertly maneuvered his craft in under the extremely low gravity and brought her gently down within ten meters of the grounded
Capri
and the Viking shuttle.

Zack, having suited up in anticipation, entered the
Capri's
airlock, cycled through and opened the outside door. He exited the airlock and made his way under the ship and over to the port side. There he used a smaller, hand-held version of the cable launching device he had used earlier, to shoot a tether over to the Soviet shuttle. His target was a spot just forward of the shuttle's airlock door. A minute or two later, with a safe and secure connection between the two craft established, the shuttle's airlock door opened. Three figures in spacesuits clipped onto Zack's cable and carefully made their way over to the
Capri
, pulling themselves horizontally along, parallel to the cable just as the
Capri's
personnel had done earlier.

Ariane and the Professor were in the
Capri's
main airlock receiving area to greet the newcomers. The Intelligence officer reflected that the formerly deserted little moon was getting a bit crowded what with two shuttlecraft and the
Capri
herself now cluttering the surface.

Zack and the three Soviets came in through the
Capri's
airlock and immediately began removing their spacesuits. Dr. Olga Dostoyevski turned out to be a short fireplug of a woman who appeared to be somewhere in her mid-fifties. Ariane helped the scientist remove the helmet of her suit, revealing a mop of short, mousy brown hair with straight-cut bangs, shot with grey, and a round face that appeared to be fixed in a permanent scowl. She also had a pair of piercing ice-blue eyes that were just the slightest bit slanted upwards on the outside corners.

"Dr. Dostoyevski," said the Professor by way of greeting, "it is a pleasure to see you again."

"Pleasure is mine," replied the Soviet scientist. Dostoyevski's command of the Federation Standard Language was excellent, but she did speak it with a noticeable Soviet accent. Ariane gave the older woman a hand removing and stowing the rest of her spacesuit.

MacPherson turned his attention to the scientist's companions, one of whom turned out to be a slender man with stern, sharp features dressed in an immaculate Soviet Military uniform.

"Dmitri Krupski, at your service," he said, "I am Political Officer for the
Murmansk.
"

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Krupski."

The Professor then turned to the remaining newcomer, a person who obviously had a great deal more experience with spacesuits than his companions, because he had very quickly managed to shed his own suit without assistance. He had done so while facing the wall. The man finished hanging up his suit and turned towards the Professor who could not suppress his astonishment upon recognizing who he was looking at. It took MacPherson a moment to regain his composure and bestow a proper greeting, "Sergei? You honor us! I...I must say that I'm surprised you came here yourself. It's been quite a while."

"Over a year," said the Soviet Captain, "I had to come and see for myself what you have found so far. You have the artifact?"

"Let's all go back to our conference room," replied the Professor, still a little taken aback, "We can talk much better there. I presume you have brought copies of your own images?"

"We have, Professor MacPherson," replied Dostoyevski.

"Perhaps we could dispense with some of the formalities if we are to be working together," said MacPherson. "Please, call me Harold."

"Olga is fine for me, Professor Harold."

Zack and Ariane departed for the bridge while the rest of the entourage headed for the conference room. Upon arrival, the Professor performed introductions. Krupski was barely engaged by the necessary distraction, his attention drawn to the artifact in its protective case with the lid off, sitting almost casually in the middle of the conference table. The introductions were barely over before the Political Officer and Dostoyevski gravitated over to the artifact as though drawn to it.

"So this is the item we have been seeking?" said Sergei.

"Is truly beautiful," said Olga.

"There's more," said the Professor. He looked at his assistant, "Maybe you should have a seat, Arnold."

Deducing what was coming next, Arnold sat down and braced himself against the table with both arms. MacPherson turned back to Olga.

"Go ahead and put your hand on it," he said. The Soviet scientist looked at Krupski and upon receiving a nod from him, reached inside the container and cupped her hand around one of the vertices of the little tetrahedron.

"Is getting warmer!" she exclaimed.

"Just watch," said the Professor.

A few seconds later, the mysterious writing that the Federation personnel had now observed on several occasions beforehand, began to appear on the surface of the artifact. The Professor and his colleagues had blocked one side of the little pyramid from view by temporarily attaching a hastily contrived triangle of opaque plastiscene against it.

Olga stood speechless, her startling blue eyes wide in wonder, as the symbols bloomed to full brightness. She continued to watch as she removed her hand and the surfaces of the little pyramid reverted to their former polished-rock appearance.

Meanwhile, Arnold had gone stiff again and was staring intently at the wall in front of him with his mouth open and his jaw slack.

"What is the matter with your Assistant?" asked Sergei.

"He had a powerful vision the last time we...," MacPherson paused, searching for the best explanation, "...for lack of a better word, 'activated' the pyramid. He is convinced that this artifact is connected to all of the 'mass visions' we've been hearing about. Am I wrong in assuming that you're aware of them too?"

"We have been monitoring the situation and wondering what it all meant," said Sergei.

"Now that I have seen artifact with writing, I must agree with Arnoldo" said Olga, "Dreams must be connected."

"I have remained skeptical about it myself," said MacPherson, "but some of Holger's people back at the Viking colony also experienced a vision at the same time as Arnold did just a few hours ago. I am forced to conclude that there must be some kind of connection."

Arnold, who had slumped forward at the end of yet another vision that had obviously been triggered by the activation of the little pyramid, twisted his head slowly from side to side and forced himself to sit up straight.

"Arnold," asked the Professor, "are you okay?"

"Yeah...I'm fine. Just a little light-headed, that's all."

"What did you see this time," asked the Professor.

"It... it was very strange," said Arnold, his eyes closed as he concentrated on remembering, "Last time it was armies and death and war... this time it was completely different. I... I was at a ceremony of some kind. I was in a huge open space and there were hundreds in attendance." He opened his eyes and looked at MacPherson, "Only a handful of them were human, the rest were representatives of all kinds of different alien species. But... none of them were threatening me, it was almost like the humans present were... being honored or something," he shook his head, "I didn't expect that at all."

"From what we've been hearing, the visions seem to come in two flavors," said MacPherson, "They either predict utter destruction and despair or some kind of rather more idyllic outcome. We don't know what to make of it."

"This was the first one I've had that seemed to predict a happy ending for us," said Arnold, "In fact, I feel rather exhilarated right now."

"Maybe if we make some progress on these translations, we can start to make some sense of the whole mess," said MacPherson.

"Is remarkable!" said Olga, "You have recordings?"

"Yes, we do," replied the Professor, "Shall we get to work?"

With an obvious effort, Olga tore her attention away from the little tetrahedron. She went around to the front of the room to examine the displays on the big viewscreen. The Professor and his colleagues had also removed the projections of one entire side of the pyramid in the cavern. Olga nodded her head in rapt interest. As she scanned multiple images of inscriptions that were completely new to her, her eyes were drawn to two of the symbols that Arnold had been studying within a separate display on the far right side of the viewscreen. One of them was the out-of-focus drawing of the mythological scarab-like deity from the cave on Earth. Just below it was the inscription depicting the same beast/god from the topless tetrahedron in the cavern here on Deimos.

"We have seen this scarab-god thing as well," she said. She pointed to the lower image, "This is new symbol?"

"Yes," replied Arnold, who had remained seated after his latest vision, "It was on the pyramid that we found here on Deimos."

"Pyramid on Deimos?"

"Maybe we should start from the beginning," said MacPherson.

Olga and Sergei listened and watched in wide eyed wonder as the Professor told them about the discovery of the foreshortened pyramid in the little cavern. The Political Officer merely observed, betraying no emotion at all.

"You can see what we've been working with," said MacPherson, "Now, what have you got for us."

Olga looked at Krupski who nodded, apparently granting his permission again, "We have much better images from cave on Earth," replied Olga. She swiped her tablet out to full size and began accessing the information it contained.

"Here is hologram of scarab Deity," she said and showed her tablet to Arnold.

"Excellent!" said Arnold, who seemed to be recovering a lot more quickly from this most recent vision than he had from the last one, "The inscriptions are all in focus. May I have a copy of that?"

"Of course," replied Olga. She touched her tablet to Arnold's.

"How long have you had these images?" asked MacPherson.

Once again, Olga looked to Krupski for direction. The Political Officer again gave her a slight nod. "We have had for almost eleven months," she replied.

"How did you get them?"

Again the Soviet scientist looked to her superior for permission, which was granted.

"I went to cavern on Earth and took holograms myself."

The Federation group was astonished by this announcement.

"You've been to the place where the artifact was found?" asked Kathryn, "What was that like?"

"Most inconvenient and very dangerous," replied Olga, "Radiation suits, suspicious persons, ruined cities everywhere."

"I would very much like to hear more about that when we have some more time," said the Professor, "For now, let us make sure that your sacrifices were not in vain." He paused and looked around at the entire assemblage of scientists and the other interested person in the meeting room before making a proclamation: "We are almost certain that this artifact and the one in the cavern in the crater rim in front of us, are not of human origin."

Olga looked at him for a long moment before replying, "Have myself come to same conclusion, Professor Harold. Question is who and why?" As she warmed to her subject, the seemingly permanent scowl morphed into something much more pleasant and her remarkable blue eyes flashed with intelligence.

"Perhaps the answers lie somewhere in these inscriptions," said the Professor, "Let me show what we were working on before you arrived."

"Yes," said Kathryn, "What do you think of this set of symbols here?"

Sergei didn't mind being ignored and looked on with some interest as the four scientists almost immediately immersed themselves in contemplation of the mysteries posed by the two pyramids. He nodded his head in approval. Getting their own scientist connected with the Federation people had been a brilliant move, Ambassador be damned! Perhaps now they could make some real progress.

He watched as the Political Officer slipped into a seat at the far end of the table where he could observe the proceedings with detached interest. Sergei looked away before the vile little man could catch his eye. It would have been impossible, of course, but he found himself fervently wishing he could have come to the
Capri
without him. Krupski did nothing without a reason and although the Soviet Captain had no idea what the man's motivation might be, he was absolutely certain that the politico was up to no good.

Chapter 35.
Metamorphosis.

Murmansk, Near Deimos, July 15, 2676.

Meanwhile back on the Soviet ship, the mysterious Ambassador had been galvanized into a frenzy of activity. The artifact on board the
Capri
was emitting more than the heat and light that the crew of the
Capri
were able to sense; there were other emissions more subtle and far more powerful that had been triggered by the most recent "activation" of the little device. These emissions were not detectable by humans because they had not evolved the sensory organs required to do so.

The object produced a minuscule trickle of these special emissions even when in its "dormant" state. When the artifact was activated by someone touching it, the signal it emitted became magnitudes more intense. Though the artifact had been activated on several occasions in the last few days, on this particular occasion the situation was very different.

During the previous activations, the Ambassador had not even been in the same star system as the artifact. This time, the Ambassador was not only in the same star system, but at only three thousand kilometers away, he was in extremely close proximity. The other difference was that the artifact was within less than a hundred meters of its intended destination. The special signal was intensified a thousand fold by the close proximity of the two artifacts. Inside the nearby cavern on the moon, the base unit was also beginning to respond. It was warming up and putting out powerful emissions of its own. The strength of the combined signals had driven the Ambassador into his frenzied state.

The Ambassador switched on the lighting in his private chambers, shoved aside the human simulacrum that he had been using to interface with the Captain of the ship and the screen that he had been shielded behind. He then quickly and efficiently pulled a compact and deadly-looking combat weapon out of his personal effects. As he crossed the chamber to activate the door and exit his quarters, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror on the compartment's wall.

He saw an image of a creature about a meter and half tall, with an ovoid body topped by a small crown-shaped head. That this creature bore a strong resemblance to the scarab-god depicted in the inscriptions on the artifacts was no accident. His carapace, which was capable of displaying a full spectrum of colors, was currently a dull, non-reflective black and he was carrying a formidable-looking energy pistol in one of his four hands. The creature was male though it displayed no overt evidence of either gender. He used one of his free hands to activate the door controls and slipped silently and rapidly out into the corridor where he immediately headed for the bridge of the
Murmansk
.

At the first corridor intersection, the creature encountered one of the Soviet ship's crewmen. While the crewman stood frozen in shock at the apparition that confronted him, the Ambassador calmly placed the optical sighting dot of his energy weapon directly in the center of the man's chest and pressed the firing stud. A powerful but nearly silent plasma burst burned most of the way through the man's chest and slammed him against the wall of the corridor. The dumbfounded crewman slumped against the wall and was dead long before he finished sliding limply to the floor.

With about a third of the ship's rather limited crew numbers required to man the shuttlecraft and the Captain, the Political Officer and the scholar having gone down to the moon with the shuttle, there were only eight or nine crewmembers remaining on the
Murmansk
. One less than that actually, since the Ambassador had just murdered the first one he had encountered on sight.

Upon entering the bridge area of the ship, the creature, without wasting any motion, immediately and coldly shot and killed each of the three personnel on the bridge using close-ranged, carefully-placed pulses that dispatched the humans but left the bridge and its vital control systems undamaged. None of the unsuspecting bridge personnel had more than a moment to even register that something was amiss before they were coldly and efficiently executed.

After leaving the bridge and closing the hatch behind him, the creature sealed the hatch to the bridge with a small locking device pulled from a pouch in his body. Now only he would be able to access the bridge area. The precaution may or may not have been absolutely necessary but enough had gone wrong during this rather lengthy and frustrating mission that the Ambassador was taking no chances.

He headed for the main cargo hold in the rear of the ship, quickly and efficiently killing the single additional crewman stationed there. Immediately after that task was accomplished, he went to the special cargo pod that had been stowed in the bay when he had boarded the ship several weeks earlier. He manipulated a set of controls on the outside of the pod, using two of his four hands, and watched as an access panel slid open sideways.

Inside, were four modules, each of them just over a meter and half tall, resting on a base that was about a meter square. All of them were currently opaque so that whatever they contained was invisible and each was equipped with its own control panel. The creature entered the pod and went from module to module, performing the same series of operations on each of the control panels. Upon activation, the front wall of each module morphed from opaque through translucent and finally ended up transparent. Inside each module was another creature, identical to the Ambassador, enshrouded in a thin greyish mist and in a state of suspended animation.

He watched the mist in each module began to rapidly dissipate as it was evacuated downward. Within about thirty seconds, his counterpart in the first of the activated modules began to move. The creature pushed a button on a small control panel inside his module which caused the transparent wall to dissolve and enabled him to step out into the cargo container. The others awoke from their dormant state and followed in sequence shortly after.

In less than five minutes, there were five of the grotesque creatures crowded into the main cargo hold of the Soviet ship. The Ambassador went to another container in the rear of the cargo pod and began removing and distributing weapons identical to the one he was carrying. Finally, he removed a portable container in the form of a cube that was some thirty centimeters square.

His companions dispersed to go hunting for the remainder of the
Murmansk's
crewmembers.

Two of the creatures swiftly and silently slinked down into the bowels of the ship. One of them entered the engineering section and immediately dispatched the head engineer by the simple expedient of shooting him in the back while he worked at his station. A quick visual scan of the compartment by the creature revealed no other obvious personnel in the engineering area. It shoved the dead engineer roughly out the way and took the man's place at the engineering console, where the creature began making rapid and incomprehensible adjustments to the equipment. The creature's companion had continued forward down the corridor outside until it reached the crew quarters. There it ruthlessly shot and killed the two sleeping crewmembers it found there.

Back in the engineering section, technician second class Rudolph Lysenko found himself cowering inside the waste disposal unit he'd been servicing when the alien had burst into his section and coldly shot his superior with some kind of strange energy weapon. Lysenko, trembling in fear, warily peeked over the rim of the disposal unit. He concluded that he was probably safe if he remained inside the unit, at least temporarily; but if the creature decided to turn the unit on for some reason, the result would be messy, excruciatingly painful and ultimately fatal.

The young engineer had heard the commotion earlier and witnessed the shot from the alien's weapon that had killed his superior. Rightfully deducing that he would suffer the same fate if he were discovered, he had ducked back into the waste unit and thereby escaped detection. The onerous duty he had been engaged in had enabled him to escape the deadly takeover of the ship with his life.

For whatever that was worth.

Lysenko could see that the creature now in control of the engineering section was working feverishly at the main console, using all four of its hands. The alien had its back to the disposal unit and the technician fervently hoped that the creature didn't have eyes in the back of its head. Chief engineer Alexander Travkin, with a large, blackened wound in his upper back, lie crumpled on the floor in an extremely unnatural position, forcing Lysenko to conclude that his superior would not be getting up again. He choked back tears, realizing that now was not the time to give in to grief or despair. There would be time for that later.

If there was a later.

The tech had heard two more weapons discharges coming from a short way down the corridor forward of engineering. From what he could ascertain from the nature of the noise, another attacker or attackers had raided the crew quarters, killed the men inside and had moved on, probably heading towards the bridge area of the ship. Lysenko ducked back down into the disposal unit and did his best not to give in to complete panic. His fevered mind went into overdrive.

The things were aliens! Where had they come from? What could they possibly want? They had powerful weapons and they were ruthlessly killing the crew of his ship.

How many of the damned things were there anyway?

What could a single, low-ranking crewmember do to stop them?

The Ambassador and his companions now had complete control of the
Murmansk
. Arriving down at the engineering area himself, he brought his portable container inside. The alien engineer left the control panel and helped his leader open the box to reveal a complex device of unknown function. They removed the device from the case and, with deft and confident movements, connected it directly to the ship's power plant through an unused ultra-high power port.

The port, which could be used to power up an additional main battery turret on similar ships that happened to be so equipped, was not connected to anything on the
Murmansk.
A control panel came to life on the top of the device. The two aliens looked the device over carefully. Apparently satisfied that all was as it should be for the time being, neither of them made any further adjustments to the complex control set. The leader left the chamber and the remaining alien resumed his post at the engineering console.

The Ambassador headed back up to the bridge, removed his locking device from the hatch and headed immediately for the pilot's station. He clambered into a chair that was not at all designed for his anatomy and adjusted the seating the best he could to accommodate his non-human frame. Using all four hands, he expertly activated the ship's autopilot and set course for the three Viking raider ships that were stationed nearer to the moon. Per the Ambassador's request earlier, Sergei had ordered his navigator to preprogram a course that would take the ship towards the Viking contingent, just in case such an action might be needed.

The Ambassador contacted his agent down in engineering and directed him to raise shields and charge weapons. Over the course of the next few minutes, the Ambassador was joined by two of his companions who took up the navigation and auxiliary engineering stations on the bridge of the captured ship. The remaining alien had gone to the
Murmansk's
turret and was familiarizing himself with the little ship's powerful Matsukov pulse weapon.

***

Capri.

Holger Tvedt had transferred over to the
Capri
to better observe the progress of the investigations and to keep a close eye on the Soviets as soon as he heard that Sergei and a sinister-looking Political Officer had come down to the moon along with Dostoyevski. He was on the bridge with Ariane, Zack and Gertrude when an urgent message came through.

"
Capri?
This is
Warbird One
."

Ariane hit the transmit toggle on her command console and replied, "
Capri
, here. Go ahead
One
."

"That Soviet ship has begun to move towards us."

"Have they communicated with you or anything?" asked Holger.

"Negative, Commander. This is not good! Sensors tells me that the ship has shields raised and weapons charged!"

"Get everyone to battle stations!" shouted Holger, "You all know what to do!"

"Aye, Commander, but this makes no sense, he doesn't stand a chance against one
Warbird
, let alone three."

"Holger?" said Zack, "You should know that the Soviet ship is equipped with a Matsukov cannon. You'd better make sure your people keep their shields at full power."

"Thanks, Zack," said Holger, "I'll let my men know right away. Meantime, will you go get that Soviet rat and bring him up here to the bridge! We need to find out what his game is."

"On my way," said Zack as he dashed off the bridge. Twenty seconds later he poked his head into the now somewhat crowded conference room, "Captain Popov? Something is going on with your ship. They've charged weapons and are moving in this direction. Holger wants you to come up to the bridge immediately."

"My ship?" said Sergei, "Charged weapons? I gave no orders! Quickly, let us go." If he was faking his shock at these new developments, Zack thought his acting was pretty good. The stone-faced Political Officer, on the other hand, didn't look surprised in the least.