CHAPTER 15

UNUSUAL BEHAVIOUR

Near Edge of Conservatory Chamber

Victor and Ise had cut to their right, going around the far side of the shaft they had been heading for earlier. They were sticking close to the rocky wall that lined the edge of the chamber.

'Do you see him Ise?' Victor asked, scanning the area in front of them.

'I've only seen him once more since the first time. He was still near the edge. I think he knows we've seen him.'

'If the elevators are the only way out of this place, then so long as Jing and John get to the far shaft before he does, we should be good.' Victor said.

'We don't know if that's the case. There could be maintenance tunnels.'

Victor nodded, and they kept moving. A herd of grazing animals came into view as they came up over the next rise. They clustered around a small pond being fed by a water source that was gurgling out of the rock wall they were closest to.

'Looks like a detour,' Victor said.

Ise turned and started around the herd. The herd looked up at them and then arranged themselves around the water, facing outward.

Victor stopped and started. 'What the heck?'

'Maybe they're protecting the water source. Come on; we can't stay and stare,' Ise said.

Victor hurried along behind her. 'You know, you're probably right. There probably are maintenance tunnels. We should keep an eye open for them. If he ducks into one, we could have a hard time tracking him down.'

'Yeah. Keep your eye's peeled Vick. We can't lose him now.'

***

As they made their way to the support pillar midway between the far shaft and the shaft on their right, Sam noticed something standing on a hill some distance away from them.

'Dan, at about three o'clock, on a hill, do you see a humanoid figure?'

Dan stopped moving, and looked in the indicated direction. 'About six hundred meters away?'

'Yeah'

'I see it. It's a robot.'

'It's just standing there,' Sam observed.

'Should we go check it out? We wanted to have a chat with them,' Dan suggested.

Sam stood quietly for a moment before saying. 'No, let's keep moving, the pilot is our priority.'

'Yes, Ma'am.'

They continued onward. While they walked, Sam switched on her comm link with the rest of the crew.

'Captain Geer here, has anyone else noticed one of the facility robots standing around watching you?'

'Advocate Okoh here, yes Captain, Victor and I spotted one by the nearest elevator shaft. It seemed to be watching us and not doing anything else.'

'John? What about you and Jing?' Sam asked.

'No captain, we haven't seen any yet, but we'll keep our eyes open. Anything we should do concerning them?'

'Keep an eye on them, but keep going after the Lobster pilot. He's still our top priority.'

Both Ise and John acknowledged the order. Sam switched her comm link off again.

They were getting close to a support pillar. They were keeping to its left. Sam looked up at it as it stretched up away from the ground and to the roof of the chamber.

'Daniel, how big do you think the base of this is?'

'I'm not sure, obviously big enough.'

'I think it seems kinda thin if it's going up two kilometres to hold up the roof.'

'The Guardian said it was reinforced.'

'Which means it cost a lot. Again we are left with some interesting questions about this place.'

'We can come back and ask the Guardian all about it after we get back.'

'If there's anything here when we get back. If this isn't entirely on the level, then they could clear out after we leave.'

'They'd leave some stuff behind, no way you'd move all this short term.'

Sam nodded at that, 'That's a good point, but still, so long as we're here, I'd like to get some answers.'

'We can't really force the issue. If it's just a civilian operation, they still have rights.'

'Blast it, why couldn't this have been a Linkal outpost. It would have made things a lot more simple. Tag the location and fly home to get the fleet.'

'Knowing you, you might have tried to fire a few shots with the Thercon first.'

'No sense making it easy for them.' Sam agreed.

***

John and Jing came up to the shaft they had been heading to. There was no elevator car sitting waiting for them though a small bird was perched on a rock next to it.

'Jing, keep an eye open, I remembered I forgot to tell the captain about that water filtration system we found. That seems like a big deal.'

'Okay, John,' Jing said.

John turned around, looking up the elevator shaft while he toggled his comms on, 'Lt Cmd Macce to Captain Geer.'

'Geer here, what's your status?'

'We've reached the shaft and are holding position around it.'

'Great work you two, you made good time.'

'Feeling a little winded, I'm not cut out for the boots on the ground stuff. Jing is doing well though,' John said.

'Good, stand by while we try to flush the Lobster to you. Vick and Ise are still on its tail.'

'Oh, one more thing Captain, Jing and I found something that might not reflect well on the builders of this facility.'

'Really? What's that?'

John heard a noise behind him, and heard Jing say, 'John, I think you need to see this.'

John turned around. 'Stand by Captain; something’s up.'

As he turned around, he noticed a herd of Soci. The herd stopped in a group just short of them, staring at them.

'John, what's going on?' Sam asked.

'We've got a herd of animals here. They walked up to us and are just standing around looking at us. I recognized them. They're Soci; they're a meat animal from the colony of St. Patrica. They're harmless.' John said.

The herd spread out around them, forming a line. One of the bigger ones lowered its head, horn up, and pawed the ground.

'Uh... well they're supposed to be harmless. Jing, walk slowly back toward me,' John said.

Jing kept his eyes on the animal but walked slowly backwards.

'Don't look away from the one pawing the ground. It will wait until you're not looking,' John said, as he reached for his sidearm and pulled it out of its holster, 'What I'd give for an old-school handgun with actual gunpowder. What I need now is noise, not force.'

John pointed his gun in the air, turned off the safety, and pulled the trigger. It made a high pitched whine as it shot a bolt of iron at high speeds through the air. The animals flinched, but the aggressive one didn't look away.

'That didn't work. Not enough bang with these blasted rail guns,' John said.

Jing finished his retreat and ended up next to John.

'What now John?' Jing asked.

'I don't know. They're not normally this aggressive.'

'Maybe they consider this their territory,' Jing suggested.

'Let's make some noise. Follow my lead,' John said.

John threw his arms in the air and yelled at the top of his lungs. Jing did the same. Some animals flinched and stepped back, but most just stood still, watching, while the one that had been pawing the ground just snorted.

John and Jing stopped yelling and lowered their arms.

'What is wrong with these things? Soci are supposed to be timid!' John barked out.

'John, what's going on?' Sam asked.

'Sorry captain, these Soci aren't budging. They're not acting like they should. Normally they're rather timid, but these seem to have nerves of steel.'

More of the animals lowered their heads and pawed the ground.

'Oh that's just fantastic,' John muttered, 'yeah something’s wrong here. Normally they leave dealing with threats to the herd's alpha.'

'John, let's just slowly move around to the other side of the shaft.'

John and Jing slowly moved to the side of the shaft and inched around. The Soci herd moved slowly and followed them around the edge of the shaft. Half of the herd went the other way and came around the other side.

'Okay... let's keep moving back,' John said, ‘they’re also not know for their flanking tactics.’

The two kept up their slow retreat and moved away from the elevator shaft. The herd formed a line between John and Jing and the elevator shaft but stopped following them.

John and Jing stopped.

'Okay captain, the herd just pushed us away from the elevator shaft. We're still close to it, but I don't think we'll be able to stay next to it.'

'Just keep an eye on it. If the herd didn't want you near it, maybe they won't let the Lobster pilot near it.'

'I hope your right Captain. Just be careful yourself, there's something wrong with these animals.' John said.