The Ruins of Karzelek (The Mandrake Company series Book 4) (36 page)

“
Follow us in,” Sedge barked. “Quick, before they’re close enough to spot you.” A vain command, most likely. If his people could detect the fighters, the fighters would be able to detect them. Unless the sensor-dampening qualities he had theorized could make them seem to disappear once they entered the water.

“
Into the tunnel. That one.” Kalish pointed at the opening yawning in the side wall.

Tia turned into the passage, bumping against rock, sending shudders through the craft. Air bubbles burst upward in front of the view screen, making it difficult to see the route ahead. Their lights flooded the passage, a lumpy natural tube that had never seen a miner’s drill. Sedge had no idea what they would do if they hit a dead end.

“
Thatcher, Calendula?” he said. “We’re far enough in that you should be able to follow us.” Assuming the fighters had not already blasted into the cavern to harry the shuttles.

Nothing except static and fuzz answered him over the comm.

“
What’s going on up here?” came Striker’s voice from the corridor.

“
Are we
underwater
?” Tick asked. “I thought I heard—”

The shields bumped against a rounded chunk of rock hanging down from the ceiling, and more bubbles arose around them, the swishing of the currents just audible.

“
Yup, that’s what I heard.” Tick stared at the view screen.

He and Striker pushed onto the bridge, though there was scarcely room to breathe with everyone up there.

“
We’ve lost contact with the others,” Sedge said.

“
Oh?” Tick tapped his comm-patch. “Thatcher? Val?”

“
Our
comm
is fine,” Kalish said. “It’s something in the rocks. Our sensors aren’t working, either.”

“
So we can’t tell what’s ahead?” Striker asked. “Or if
anything
is ahead?”

“
Just visually.”

The passage bent downward, then swung to the left. Sweat gleamed on Tia’s forehead as she navigated the tricky route.

“
Kalish?” Sedge asked softly. “Does any of the information you gathered imply what size spaceships the aliens might have been building here?” He remembered that the wreck that had been found had been large, what remained of it, more like a colony ship than a scrappy little freighter.

“
No,” she said.

He kept his thoughts to himself, that it seemed unlikely that such a passage as this could have led into and out of a secret shipyard. Even if the water had not been here ten thousand years earlier, this course would not have allowed anything except small ships through. Even the
Divining Rod
was having trouble, a thought emphasized when they bumped against another rock in the ceiling, bounced downward, and scraped along the lumpy floor. The shields should protect them from damage, so long as they did not get stuck.

Sedge grimaced, trying to decide if the passage was growing narrower or if that was his imagination. It continued on much farther than he would have expected, and as the minutes and rocks rolled past, he worried about Thatcher and Val. As capable as Thatcher was, Sedge did not know if they could beat four-to-one odds, especially since they would be reluctant to risk killing shots. They would most likely try to disable the ships instead, while the Fleet pilots would be shooting to kill. What did they care about scruffy mercenaries that might very well be breaking laws by being here?

“
There’s no sign of the shuttles behind us, is there?” Sedge asked, hoping the others might yet zip into the tunnel behind them.

“
Sorry, no,” Kalish said.

“
They probably took off,” Tick said, “up the caverns and out the miners’ entrance. Might be leading them away from us, or just getting out of the tunnels. Once they make air, the shuttles are every bit as fast as anything Fleet has.”

Sedge did not answer. He hoped his comrades found a safe escape instead of fighting a losing battle against the Fleet, but either scenario meant the
Divining Rod
was all alone now, to face whatever fate awaited it.

“
We’ve descended three hundred feet,” Kalish said. “Looks like we might be rising now. I hope so.”

A groan came from within the belly of the ship, some support protesting the water pressure—or the bumping and jolting ride through the tunnels.

“
Me too,” said her mother. “I don’t have unlimited parts and patches.”

Another ten minutes passed, and the tunnel grew wider, the walls less lumpy and more even.

“
Look.” Kalish pointed toward the sides. “That doesn’t look natural, does it? Maybe this area was carved out by human hand. Or
alien
hand.”

Sedge grunted noncommittally. The miners could have explored back here at one point, too, found ore, and excavated it back when the pump had been operating.

A beep came from the panel.

“
Sensors are getting readings again, for a little ways at least,” Kalish said. “There’s an opening up ahead. A
big
one.” She squirmed in her chair.

For her sake, Sedge hoped they found what she had been hunting for all this time.

“
Is it underwater?” Striker asked. “Because I’m not a good swimmer.”

“
I thought you were good at all sports, Chief of Boom,” Tick said. “I’m certain I’ve heard you mention that.”

“
Swimming’s not a sport. It’s a torment to your ear canals, nose, and other holes where water isn’t supposed to go.”

“
So you’re a sinker, eh?”

“
It’s not my fault. Look at all this muscle.” Striker thumped his fist against his chest. “It’s iron hard. Iron doesn’t float.”

“
And here I would have thought all that hot air in your lungs would keep you up.”

“
Looks like the water ends,” Kalish said over the men’s ribbing. “We’ll have to wait until we break above the surface to measure the content of the air inside. And to see if there’s anything in the cavern.”

All eyes were locked to the view screen as the ship ascended, nothing except for its lights illuminating the darkness around them. Sedge had thought they might come up outside of the cavern complex, in some lake under the stars, but given the lack of moisture they had encountered on the planet, that was probably unlikely.

His ears plugged up as they rose, and he was in the process of yawning and trying to pop them when the ship broke the surface. Tia turned off the thrusters, and they bobbed in the water, waves rippling outward. Rivulets streamed down the front of the craft, and fog obscured the view beyond it.

“
We’re in a big lake,” Kalish said, her eyes toward the sensors. “And there’s an island in the middle. Looks flat. I think you can land on it, Tia.”

“
I’ll see what I can do.”

“
Anything
on
the island?” their mother asked.

“
Yes,” Kalish said. “Some large buildings. They’re similar in shape to those from the refinery, but they’re larger. Maybe like hangars.” She turned in her seat, meeting Sedge’s eyes.

He nodded back. They could not see anything visually yet, but he hoped this was it, that their guesses would prove worth it.

“
The ceiling is high,” Tia said. “I’m taking us up and over.”

Sedge leaned over Kalish’s shoulder, so he could see the sensors, trying to get more of a feel for the space around them. She caught his hand and squeezed it.

“
This is it,” she whispered.

He squeezed her hand back, hoping the senior Ms. Blackwell was too busy watching the view screen to notice or comment.

Water sloughed from the ship as Tia lifted them out of the water.

“
Commander Thatcher,” Tick said, trying his comm again. “This is Sergeant Tick, do you read me?”

“
The sensors don’t show anything beyond this chamber,” Sedge said. “I can see the mouth of the tunnel we exited, but that’s it.”

“
So we think the aliens deliberately put something in the rock all around this place to keep others from finding it?” Tick asked.

“
It’s possible.”

“
How would they have communicated with each
other
then?” Tick asked.

“
Maybe they didn’t,” Sedge said. “Maybe their people were isolated when they worked here. Or maybe the entire place was automated with robots doing the work.”

Striker grunted. “Not more of those black robots that hurl lightning bolts, I hope.”

Sedge’s shoulder twitched at the memory. He hoped they would not find any more of those either, though he admitted that a shipyard would likely have just as much security as a refinery. They would have to be careful. At least he did not see any cliffs that he could fall from in here.

The island came into view, the
Divining Rod’
s lights skimming across the relatively flat land mass. It was at least a mile wide, with several buildings in sight. As Kalish had guessed, they were large enough to be hangars. Anticipation fluttered in Sedge’s stomach. Even if this was not his quest, he could not help but be excited at the prospect of finding alien spaceships, especially when so little evidence of them had been discovered in the centuries humans had inhabited the system. What if they found an intact craft? They could be written into history for such a discovery. Of course, at the moment, they were likely to be written into it as criminals, rather than intrepid explorers. Neither that thought, nor the knowledge that Fleet ships waited in orbit, could completely squash his eagerness, and he searched the shadows for clues while Tia brought them in for a landing.

“
That building got squished,” Striker said, pointing to the closest one. Massive rocks had fallen from the ceiling far above, breaking through the roof.

“
You get to explore that one,” Tick said.

“
The others appear to be in fairly good condition,” Kalish said, “at least from the outside. The air outside is... surprisingly breathable. I don’t see another way out, but maybe there are some of those strange plants that don’t need sun out there, filtering the air.”

“
Plants.” Sedge grimaced. He far preferred mechanical air purifiers.

“
Can you tell if there’s anything
in
the buildings?” Tick asked.

“
No, they’re a blur to the sensors. Protected by whatever protects the tunnels.”

“
How about killer robots?” Striker asked. “Can you detect any of them?”

“
Not yet.”

“
Got your grenades ready?” Tick asked.

Striker patted his bandolier. “Always.”

Sedge looked toward the darkness overhead, though the ceiling was too far up and too shadowed to see. If a rockfall had happened once over the years, they should not be tempting another one by flinging explosives around.

Kalish tapped her foot on the deck. “There’s a good spot, Tia. On that beach. Take us down.”

“
Yes, yes, I’m working on it, Ms. Impatient.”

By the time the ship landed, Kalish had grabbed her weapons and a pack of gear and stood by the exit hatch, bouncing from foot to foot. Sedge joined her, giving her a simple nod rather than sharing his doubts that they would run into trouble out there. If not robots or hungry flying creatures, then something else. Even if they found exactly what she hoped to find, how would they get an intact ship out of here? The
Divining
Rod
probably had a tractor beam, but hadn’t she hired Mandrake Company to come along so the shuttles could help haul out a ship? And even if they found something small enough to tow, how would they pull it through that tunnel?