CHAPTER 13

NO SIGNAL

'Lenny, did you get the file okay?' Ise asked over the uplink.

'Yes Advocate,' replied Lenny.

'Cross-reference the video file with the archives; I want to know what the tree is and where it's from,' Ise ordered.

'Please standby. Approximate analysis time is twenty minutes. Remaining dark is limiting my processing ability.'

'Keep me posted.'

'Yes, Advocate.'

Ise looked around and saw Victor a little ways off, recording the area with his tablet.

'It will take Lenny twenty minutes to analyze what I sent him. Let's keep looking around.'

'Right,' Victor put his tablet away and pointed to the hill across from them where the bowl-shaped alien was still feeding at its base, 'let's get on top of that hill and have a look around.'

'Sounds good, let's give our friend a wide berth though.'

'Wouldn't want to disturb its dinner,' Victor said dryly.

They walked towards the base of the hill, giving the creature plenty of space, and started their climb up it. The hill was steep, and they had to use their hands to grab onto things and help themselves to the top.

When Ise and Victor reached the summit, a handful of small lizard creatures clustered around an outcropping of rocks and hissed at them.

'Maybe it's a nest? Let's give them some space,' Victor said.

Ise nodded. They moved around the edge of the crest and looked out over the chamber.

One of the massive support pillars stood just to the right of them, and an elevator shaft stood in front of them.

Victor toggled his communication system on his suit, 'Lt Hale to Captain Geer, come in please.'

'Sam, here. Go ahead.'

'We've got a clear view of the next nearest shaft on our side. We're going to head toward it.'

'Roger that Victor, We're going to head for the far shaft. Swing that way after you hit your nearest shaft and we'll all meet up back there.'

'Yes Captain,' Victor toggled his communication off and looked to Ise, 'We're going to head for the far shaft after we check this nearest one on our side.'

Ise nodded, 'Hold on a moment, I've got something coming down my uplink from Lenny.'

'Yes, Lenny?'

'Advocate th.. s... an...h...at...' his message was fragmented.

'Lenny, you're breaking up, I can't make you out.' Ise said.

'Exp...t...dif...stand...y...'

'Victor, I'm losing my connection to Lenny.' Ise said, looking over at her companion.

'What?' Victor toggled his communication back on, 'Lt Hale to Captain Geer, come in please.'

'I read you, Vick, what's up?'

'Just checking our comms captain, Ise is losing her connection to the ship. I wanted to make sure we weren't going to lose our comms as well.'

'I hear you fine. Try and see if you can figure it out.'

'I've got a very limited tool set on this suit, but I'll try it.

'Keep me appraised.'

'Yes, Captain. Lt Hale out.'

Victor reached down and pulled his tablet out of its holding pouch on his suit and turned to Ise.

'Ise, do your internal systems read any faults?'

'No. Want to plug into one of the access ports and see what you can see?'

'If you're not reading any faults, I may have to. Maybe I can patch your Guardian uplink through your suit communication system.' Ise turned her back to Victor and raised a hand to the back of her head, pushing aside some of her short black hair and revealing a small plug on the back of her head.

Victor pulled a cable from a pocket on his suit and plugged one end into his tablet and another into the plug on her head.

'Do you see my connection?'

'Yes. I see the tablet; I'm allowing it to access my systems.'

'Got it. Thank you.'

Ise looked out toward the elevator shaft they were heading toward while Victor did his work. She noticed something in the distance and activated her enhanced eyes. They zoomed in, and the image sharpened showing a metallic robot like the one that had met them earlier. It was standing by the next elevator shaft and looking at them.

'We are being watched,' she said.

'Pardon?' Victor said from behind her.

'There's a robot over by the next shaft, and it looks like it's watching us.'

'Not much we can do about it right now. I am ready for you to give this a try. I've got you linked up to the suit communication, but these things are pretty short range, I don't know if it'll work.'

'I'll give it a try.'

'Lenny, do you read?' Ise said, over her uplink.

'P...Tr...B...,' came the staggered reply.

'It's still not letting me communicate.'

'Blast, nothing I can do then unless we can link to the communication systems of this installation. What about that wireless network we picked up coming from here?' Victor asked.

'Without the access codes, I won't be able to link in,' Ise said.

'If one of those robots gets close again, we should ask the Guardian here if we can use it,' Victor suggested.

'Maybe that one I spotted will still be by the other shaft when we get there.'

'Let's get moving.' Victor said.

***

Dan was standing on his own, not needing support from Sam. He seemed to be almost healthy. Sam knew he was still just as injured, he just wasn't feeling the effects at the moment. She was acutely aware of the risk he still had to contend with of becoming further hurt.

'Captain Geer to Lt Hale.' Sam said through her communication system.

'Lt Hale here,'

'Any luck on the communication front?' she asked

'No captain. We tried connecting to Lenny via the suit comms, but we can't establish a solid connection.'

'Any suggestions?'

'If you see a robot, ask them if we can use the facilities systems. There's still that wireless network we detected earlier, but it is encrypted.'

Sam glanced around, looking for robots watching them. 'Could you hack it?'

'Possibly. If it's running on older systems like the rest of the place, I might be able to crack it, but I can't recommend it,' Victor replied.

'Why's that?'

'If the facility Guardian decides it doesn't want us to crack the encryption, there's not much I can do without having Lenny back me up.'

Sam nodded to herself, realizing what that implied. Without their Guardian in contact, they'd never be able to keep up with the efforts of the facilities own Guardian, PE model or not, 'Let's not do that. Keep an eye out for a robot then. We'll ask nicely. If that fails, we can always us an override code.'

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea Captain,’ Victor said.

‘Why’s that?’

‘This thing is an older model, we don’t know just how old, or how old this base is, I’d be willing to bet it pre-dates the mandatory military over ride codes.’

‘That’s a fair point. Alright, we’ll just ask then.’

'Yes Captain, it seems like the best option.'

'Captain Geer out.' Sam closed the channel.

She walked over to where Dan was standing. She looked at him, he had a small smile on his face and was looking out over the field in front of them.

'How are you doing Daniel?' Sam asked.

'Just fine. Whatever the robot gave me is really taking the sting off. I'm enjoying myself a little. I mean this place is amazing. Granted, we have no idea why it's here or what it's being used for, but if you had told me at the outset of this mission that I'd be standing in a room full of plants and animals, I probably wouldn't have believed you.'

'I don't think anyone could have expected this,' Sam took a moment to look around. She looked up at the powerful solar lamps in the roof of the chamber. The fact that there was a roof ruined the illusion of openness, but did nothing to diminish the impressiveness of the facility. 'I will call John and Jing and have them on the lookout for more of our robot friends.

Dan nodded.

Sam toggled her comms back on, 'Captain Geer to Lt Cmd Macce'

'John here. What can I do for you, Captain?'

'Keep an eye out for any of the Guardian's robots. We need to ask them for permission to use their wireless and communication systems.'

'Aye Captain. We'll keep our eyes open.'

'Good. Captain Geer out,' Sam toggled the communication off and turned to Dan, 'Well Daniel, shall we continue?'

'Yeah, I think can handle the next leg of the journey Captain.'