Guardians of the Galactic Sentinel 1: The Deimos Artifact (31 page)

Chapter 37.
Betrayal.

Capri, Voltaire Crater, Deimos, July 14, 2676.

Meanwhile, down in the boardroom, Krupski had quietly gotten up from his chair, reached into the waistband of his uniform and produced a compact but very deadly pulse pistol. The four academics, still engrossed in their work with their backs to him, had missed his subtle movements.

"You will cease working for the time being," said Krupski.

"Whatever for?" asked the Professor as he turned around. "Ah...I see!" he added when he spotted the hand weapon. He raised his hands and nudged the companion on either side of him with an elbow. The others, even Olga, copied the Professor and raised their hands as they turned away from the projections and towards their aggressor.

"Dr. Dostoyevski?" said the Political Officer, "You need to come over here behind me." Olga, wearing a perplexed and conflicted look, brushed past her companions and did as she had been commanded.

"Now Professor, you and your assistant will place the artifact back into its carrying case. It will be leaving with me."

Arnold and MacPherson, on opposite sides of the table, carefully walked over towards the artifact with their hands still in the air. Having watched Cliff while he had unwrapped the clear protective case earlier, they had a pretty good idea how to go about repacking the artifact. They folded up the padded sides and secured them with the padded lid on top. That task accomplished, Arnold pulled the trunk out from under the table and placed it next to the padded case. Under the watchful eye of the Political Officer, they carefully slid the padded case into the trunk before Arnold closed and latched the lid.

"You can't possibly get away with this," said the Professor.

"It is obvious that you don't know what you're dealing with," replied Krupski. "We have powerful allies that will crush all opposition."

"So this is how the downfall of Mankind begins," said Arnold. "Betrayed by members of our own race? Do you have any idea what kind of horrendous future your actions will be responsible for?"

"Enough to know that those who cooperate will be richly rewarded."

"At the expense of enslaving your fellow men?" asked Arnold, "No reward is worth that!"

"Another word and I will silence you permanently," said Krupski, brandishing the pistol.

Arnold stopped talking but he wore a look that should have bored holes in the turncoat Soviet officer's tunic. MacPherson looked on in mild astonishment; he had never seen his usually meek assistant so angry.

Meanwhile, Gertrude, Ariane and Sergei had arrived outside the hatchway to the boardroom. As they drew closer to the opening, Ariane could see that Kathryn, with her back to the aft bulkhead, had her hands in the air and was looking apprehensively towards the far end of the room.

Having been in the room more times than she could count in the last few days, Ariane formed a picture in her mind of a compartment that was about twice as long as it was wide with the doorway in front of her opening into the middle of one of the longer walls. A conference table ran the long way down the center of the room and the bulkhead with the projections on it that Kathryn was standing in front of was to the left of the central door. That meant that the threat Kathryn was responding to, whatever it was, was at the forward end of the room, to the right of the hatchway.

Ariane motioned to her companions to line up behind her with their backs against the corridor wall as they slowly crept up to the open hatchway. She stopped next to the door and, exposing only as much of the left side of her face as was absolutely necessary, carefully peeked around the opening and into the room. What she saw was not encouraging. Arnold and her father, both of them also holding their hands up, were on opposite sides of the table with the now crated-up artifact between them. At the forward end of the room, in front of the cylinder of the
Capri's
turret, she could see Dmitri Krupski holding the three Federation scientists at bay with a small pulse pistol. Olga Dostoyevski, with an anguished look on her face, was behind the Political Officer, her back against the turret.

"Ah," said Krupski, "I see we have company. I wondered how long it would take. Sergei? If you're out there I could use your assistance."

His two companions looked worriedly back at Sergei, as though they were not completely sure of his loyalty. He put them at ease immediately by shaking his head vehemently and mouthing the words "Never! Nyet!" softly enough that only his two companions could hear.

A relieved Ariane glanced back and forth between Gertrude and Sergei before putting a finger to her lips. With her mind churning feverishly through a short list of inadequate options, she fabricated what she hoped was a plausible lie, "Captain Popov has been taken prisoner by King Holger," she said, "I must warn you that I am armed with a pulse rifle and I know how to use it. Holger and his men will be here shortly. I suggest that you surrender now, before anyone gets hurt." She shrugged helplessly at her companions.

Meanwhile, Gertrude flashed a wicked looking knife that had been kept hidden somewhere on her person. Ariane's eyes grew wide.

"An excellent bluff, Lieutenant Ariane MacPherson," said Krupski. "You and whoever else is with you will put down your pulse rifles, if you even have any, and put your hands above your heads. You will then come into this room where I can see you. Comply immediately or I will use this pistol on your father."

Sergei stepped softly down the corridor and disappeared back through the offset hatch into the chamber beyond. After a short frenzied inspection revealed nothing handy that he could use for a weapon, he flattened himself against the wall to the left of the hatchway.

Ariane and Gertrude entered the boardroom with their hands on their heads, as they had been instructed. Sometime during the interim, Gertrude had re-stashed her formidable blade.

"We will now be going to the airlock," announced Krupski. "Professor? If you and your assistant would pick up the artifact, we can be on our way."

Arnold and MacPherson picked up the case and held it suspended over the table between them as they transferred the burden towards the wall where Kathryn was standing. The Professor went around the end of the table and Arnold took the lead, facing forward while holding the trunk behind him. MacPherson followed, also facing forward, but with the trunk held out in front. The two of them headed for the door.

"A moment please," said Krupski. "I will warn you now that any violation of my orders will result in someone dying." He waved the pistol meaningfully at Ariane.

"I assure you, there will be no trouble," said MacPherson.

"See that there is not."

The entourage exited the boardroom and headed down the offset corridor towards the front of the ship and the inclined ladder that led down to deck one. Arnold and the Professor, carrying the case between them, led the way. Behind them in single file were Kathryn, Gertrude and Ariane. Krupski, with Olga following behind him, brought up the rear.

As Arnold and MacPherson squeezed through the hatch and entered the open area outside the executive washrooms with their somewhat awkward burden, they spotted Sergei flattened against the wall to the left of the hatch opening. The Soviet captain put his finger to his lips and motioned them to continue as though they hadn't noticed anything. Immediately catching on, the two men continued forward across the area with their package as though nothing were amiss. Kathryn was next and she somehow managed to conceal her surprise and not give away the Soviet Commander either. Gertrude and Ariane were both expecting something and while neither of them gave away the game either, they surreptitiously steeled themselves for some kind of action.

When he sensed that the political officer was about to enter the hatch opening, Sergei cocked his entire body over to the left and balled his fist in preparation. Seconds later, Krupski was straightening up his body after negotiating the hatch, meaning that his pulse pistol wasn't pointed at anyone, at least temporarily. Concentrating his strength and swiveling his upper body to put everything into the blow he intended to deliver, Sergei swung his right arm in a powerful sweeping arc across his body. His balled fist caught the unsuspecting and overconfident Political Officer square in the nose. Krupski's head snapped back and made hard contact with the bulkhead above the door.

Somehow the surprisingly tough little turncoat managed to remain conscious and hold on to the pulse pistol. Before he could bring the weapon back to bear on anyone, Olga Dostoyevski, herself only part way through the hatchway, grabbed the forearm of his gun hand with both of her hands and held on, temporarily preventing him from targeting anyone.

Ariane had stepped out of the pathway and to her left before turning back towards the commotion. Gertrude had pivoted as well but remained directly in line with the hatchway. In that instant, seeing that the Political Officer was momentarily distracted, she whipped into action.

With catlike grace, in a blur of movements so swift they were all but impossible to follow, the tall, blond Viking flashed into attack mode. Ariane glimpsed the glint of a blade in Gertrude's right hand and watched in rapt fascination as the Viking Princess took a single powerful stride up into the hated Political Officer, grabbed him by the throat with her left hand and slammed his head back into the bulkhead. In almost the same motion, she savagely plunged the curved blade of her knife up into the man's heart from a point on his chest just below his sternum. She then jerked brutally upwards on the knife, the powerful thrust actually lifting Krupski up off from the deck!

The gun clattered to the floor while Krupski, a look of startled horror on his face, gurgled helplessly.

The blond Valkyrie, her beautiful face now a mask of pure hatred, held her prey suspended on the knife while maintaining the chokehold on his throat, making absolutely certain that the vile traitor to the human race would never betray anyone again. Only after she knew he was stone dead did she guide the dead man to the floor and lay him down on his back. Any doubts there may have been about the validity of her status as one of Holger Tvedt's Lieutenants had been emphatically put to rest along with the former Soviet Political Officer.

With her breath coming hard and fast, Gertrude straightened up and backed away from the body. She turned and took a couple of steps before stopping to lean against the wall with her head down and her back to her shocked companions. After giving her Viking ally a few moments, Ariane went over next to her and gently put a hand on the taller woman's shoulder. "Are you going to be alright?" she asked softly.

Gertrude took a ragged breath and replied, "Thanks, Ariane...I'll be fine. I apologize for the violence but...my training kicked in. A deranged man with a dangerous weapon in an enclosed space with six hostages? Attempting to disarm or disable him was out of the question. In a situation like that you must kill quickly, without hesitation."

"You were absolutely fantastic," said Ariane. "I have had a lot of training myself but nothing that compares to
that
!"

Gertrude turned back to face the rest of her companions and took a long, hard look at the man she had just killed. Her lips drew out into a thin line, "I only have one regret," she said.

"And what is that?" asked Ariane.

"A quick death was too good for that treacherous vermin! Besides that, we might've been able to question him. No doubt a wealth of valuable information died along with him.

Sergei knelt down next to the body and shook his head, "It is best that you terminated him quickly," he said, "Questioning him would probably have revealed very little. The conditioning for men at his level is virtually unbreakable." He reached over as if to pull out the knife.

Gertrude stopped him, "Leave the knife in him until we get him into a body bag," she said, "That way he won't bleed out so much...he's left enough of a mess behind him as it is."

The exploration supplies that had been loaded onto the
Capri
contained several body bags, a grim and seldom discussed reminder of the dangers faced by those who venture into the unknown. At Ariane's request, Cliff said he would pull one of the bags from storage and bring it up as soon as possible.

Chapter 38.
Activation.

Voltaire Crater, Deimos, July 15, 2676.

Suited up in his battle armor, Zack made his way as quickly as he could back through the ship from the airlock area and towards the conference room. Once there, he intended to retrieve the artifact and explain what he and Holger were planning to do and why. As he ascended the ladder from deck one, he came upon the aftermath of the short, decisive altercation that had ended with Krupski's well-deserved demise.

"What in the hell happened here?" asked Zack, justifiably shocked at seeing a freshly dead body on the deck with the handle of a knife sticking up out of its chest. Ariane gave him a rundown of the events that had taken place in the boardroom and near the washrooms only minutes earlier. Zack nodded in understanding as the situation was explained to him.

He looked over at the Viking princess, "Well done, Gertrude," he said, "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"I'll be fine," she replied, "all I did was exterminate a rat."

Zack responded with a nod and then swept his gaze over the entire company, "Nice work, all of you, in fact," he said. "Nobody panicked and nobody except the bad guy got hurt." He stopped for a second before continuing, "Unfortunately, Major Krupski was only the beginning of our problems; an even bigger threat is on the way."

Zack took a moment to explain about the rogue Soviet ship that had apparently been taken over by genuine Aliens and finished up with the disturbing news that the weapons on the Viking ships appeared to have been neutralized somehow.

"Aliens?" said the Professor incredulously.

"Believe me, it's true," replied Zack, "They look just like the Scarab deity from the inscriptions. Look, I don't have a lot of detail and we're running out of time. Holger and I are taking the artifact over to the cavern to put it on top of the base."

Immediately, the Professor insisted on going with him.

"I wholeheartedly agree with your reasoning, but I simply cannot miss an opportunity like this!" said MacPherson. "You must allow me to accompany you."

"Then get yourself suited up, we're heading over to the cavern just as soon as we can."

The Professor eagerly went forward and headed down the inclined ladder to deck one.

Zack continued, "Meantime, we don't have any idea what's going to happen with the Soviet ship. I suggest that everyone else get suited up as quickly as possible. There's a strong chance we could come under attack down here."

"Can't we fire up the engines and simply run away?" asked Arnold.

"We don't have enough time," said Ariane, shaking her head. "I figured we'd be here awhile so there was no reason to leave any of the drive systems on standby. It'll take well over an hour for us to get everything up and ready for the ship to take off."

"Was that wise?" asked Arnold.

"Standard procedure," said Ariane, "it saves power and a lot of wear and tear on the equipment."

Zack waited for her to finish her explanation before reasserting command, "Listen, all of you," he said, putting some urgency into his voice, "with the artifact being the prime target, you can bet that that whoever...whatever is in command of that Soviet ship will be keeping close tabs on us. In fact, I'd say we're probably the prime target."

"What good is getting into our suits going to do?" asked Kathryn.

"You'll be able to evacuate ship a lot more quickly if...when it comes to that. There's room for everyone in the cavern."

"That's not much comfort," said Kathryn.

"For now, it's the best we can do," said Zack.

Zack and Arnold picked up the case containing the artifact. Equipped as it was with convenient handholds, the container actually provided the perfect vehicle for transporting the artifact over to the cavern. The two men maneuvered the box as quickly as they could down the stairway and through the hatch to the airlock area. There they found the Professor almost suited up and Holger ready to go.

Zack went to the weapons rack and grabbed the same pulse rifle that he had equipped himself with earlier, realizing with some apprehension that there was a good chance he might really need it this time around. He used his right hand to lift the rifle over his left shoulder and pivot the weapon, stock end up, into the dedicated rack on the back of his armor, leaving both hands free. "Ready, everybody?" he asked. Seeing a thumbs up from each of his companions, he added, "Let's go!"

Back on deck two, Cliff arrived with the body bag. After he had also been given a short explanation of how the Political Officer had wound up dead, he and Sergei lifted Krupski's body and placed it in the bag. Just before they sealed it up, Gertrude finally retrieved her knife and wiped it off on the dead man's uniform before returning it to its concealed sheath. Cliff and Sergei then transferred their grim cargo down to the airlock area.

"As soon as we go outside," said Sergei, "we can secure the body to one of the landing struts of my shuttle. It should freeze almost instantly and we can decide what to do with it when we have more time."

Cliff nodded solemnly.

***

Meanwhile, the academic, the pirate King and the marine had all gone through the
Capri's
airlock together, hauling the artifact in its container with them. Unwilling to take any chances under the low gravity of the moon outside, Holger and the Professor had both attached themselves to the container with short tethers. Outside of the ship, the cable guideline that Zack had established earlier remained in place. Clipping another set of tethers to the guideline for safety, the trio pulled themselves hand over hand along the cable to the cavern. Zack pointed out the handholds in the tunnel and cavern walls to Holger and entered the short tunnel at the entryway. Grabbing one of the handholds himself, he pulled Holger, the container and the Professor towards himself and into the entryway. Continuing into the little cavern, the three men used the handholds to maneuver their way into the chamber containing the topless pyramid.

Zack worked the latches on the artifact's container, taking extra care in the extremely low gravity, and flipped the lid back. He and the Professor then carefully worked the display case and its protective layer of padding out of the container. As they removed the padding, they could see that the little tetrahedron was already glowing faintly inside its protective case, even though none of them were actively touching it.

"Something's going on here," said Zack, "The inscriptions are already visible."

"I'm guessing that it's the close proximity to the base unit," said the Professor, "I wonder if Arnold is okay?"

"Are we absolutely sure we want to do this?" asked Holger.

"We were probably going to do it eventually anyway," said MacPherson, "I just didn't think we'd be doing it this soon with the added incentive of having a gun to our heads, so to speak."

"Step back and record this, Professor," said Zack, "I'll put the artifact on top of the base."

The Professor retreated to the curved wall and turned back to face Zack. Meanwhile, Holger continued to observe the proceedings in wide-eyed wonder from his spot just inside the entryway.

"Here goes," said Zack, noting that, fortuitously, the already softly glowing letters on the artifact were going to greatly facilitate getting the two units into what the group assumed was the proper alignment.

Zack shuffled around the base pyramid until he was in front of the facet that faced away from the entrance to the little cavern and towards the dead-end tunnel he had discovered during his earlier visit. That particular facet of the base had been arbitrarily designated by the gaggle of scientists as "Base unit, facet one." Not that it particularly mattered, but the facets they had designated as "two" and "three" were numbered in a clockwise fashion around the tetrahedron from the starting point at facet one.

Zack rotated the display case until he was looking at what the scientists had determined was the corresponding facet of the smaller tetrahedron, which they had predictably designated as "Apex unit, facet one." They had even gone so far as to label the panels of the display case on the outside with a marker. He set the display case on the floor of the cavern next to the base, lifted the lid and gingerly removed the artifact. During the process, he absently noticed that touching the artifact with his hands encased in the bulky gauntlets of his battle armor seemed to have no visible effect on the brightness of the lettering on little object's surface.

Zack carefully shifted his body until he was holding the smaller tetrahedron about ten centimeters higher than the top of the base unit. With "Apex unit, facet one" aligned parallel to his chest, one of the little object's sharp apexes was directed away from him, pointing right at the entrance to the cavern. He pushed the pointed end of the artifact out over the base until the little object extended about halfway over the top of the flat-cut destination area. He then gently lowered the artifact until it made contact with the base and, again taking great care, slid the little tetrahedron gently away from himself until it completely covered the flat area on the top of the base.

Nothing happened...

Not ready to give up yet, Zack made some final adjustments in the alignment of the two objects by grasping the two vertices directly in front of him at the joint between the base and apex portions on the now complete pyramid. With one of the vertices in either hand, he twisted the apex unit very slightly, using alternate hands, in an attempt to bring the two portions into better alignment.

He could tell immediately when proper alignment had been achieved as the object seemed to almost "click" into place. After that happened, Zack discovered that it was no longer possible for him to move the apex unit at all. There was no longer even any visible seam. It was as though the two units had become permanently bonded together!

After a short pause, the glow from the artifact on top of the base increased in intensity and the inscriptions on the base unit itself began to glow as well. The inscriptions on the base appeared as though they were being sequentially activated, almost as if some form of energy generated by the artifact on top was flowing progressively downwards into the base. Within thirty seconds, the entire set of transcriptions had reached the same intensity all over the now complete pyramid and the little cavern was illuminated with the eerie greenish glow emitted by the lettering.

Along with the formerly dark inscriptions glowing brightly, the completed pyramid had also become transparent somehow. Zack discovered that he could now see the Professor on the other side of the pyramid by looking at him right through the formerly opaque object! The base of the tetrahedron remained a featureless black triangle, but each of the vertices was now a sharp line of the same glowing, greenish color as the inscriptions.

"Simply marvelous," gushed the Professor, moving around the pyramid to record as much of the scene as he could.

Zack was also totally absorbed by the scene until he felt a slight vibration through the floor. It was hard to tell for certain, but it felt as though the vibration had originated from somewhere behind him. He turned towards the blind corridor at the back of the cavern. To his astonishment, the short tunnel was now lit up with the same soft, green glow that was being emitted by the pyramid.

"Something happened over here," he said, "I'm going to check it out." Instinctively, he reached over his left shoulder with this right hand and grabbed the pistol grip of the pulse rifle. He pulled the pistol grip forward and down across his shoulder, pivoting the weapon out of its rack. He swept the weapon down in arc and brought it into firing position, finishing the fluid series of motions by slapping the forearm firmly into his left palm. It was a practiced and unconscious action, one that he had obviously performed countless times.

His two companions were totally enraptured by the now brightly glowing, transparent pyramid in front of them. The Professor, who was still intent on recording as much of the event as he could, tore his attention away long enough to say, "Be careful, Zack."

Zack took his advice. He was able to easily hold the rifle ready for action using only his right hand under the low gravity. He used his left on the handholds in the wall to pull himself down the short tunnel and around the corner. Where before there had been a blank, solid, stone wall, there was now an open portal into what looked like a cavern very similar in size and shape to the one that contained the pyramid. There also appeared to be a greenish, nearly transparent barrier across the portal. Zack extended his free left hand and found that he could reach right through the barrier without any apparent resistance.

"The doorway is open!" Zack announced, "There's another room down here, but it looks like the doorway is covered by a force screen of some kind."

The Professor, satisfied for the moment that he had adequately recorded the scene in the original cavern, came over to join Zack down in the new entryway, all the while continuing to record.

"Zachary Lynton and I are looking into what appears to be another chamber very similar to the one containing the base pyramid."

With the Professor still recording, Zack pushed his arm through the green barrier up to his elbow and then withdrew it.

"Remarkable!" said the Professor, "Should we go inside?"