CHAPTER 21

BLOOD AND STEEL

Lower Levels

Sam and Victor moved down the passageway. Their hall didn't have much in the way of features. They came to a large double door, from under it came a set of rails that went into the hall, turned left, and continued down the direction they were heading. They examined the door.

'I don't see a door control here,' Victor said.

'Let's keep moving,' Sam urged.

'What happens if whatever runs on these rails starts down the hall?' Victor asked.

'We'll just have hope it doesn't take up the whole hallway. Or hope we can get one of these doorways open,' Sam said.

'That's not very comforting, Captain,' Victor said, 'But I don't see many more options. We need to get out of here, and we need to find Ise. One thing that occurs to me is if there's an inter-facility rail system, it probably goes somewhere important.'

Sam stopped. 'I hadn't thought about that. Good point. We'd best be quick though.'

Victor nodded, and they continued down the hall.

'Lt Cmd Macce to Captain Geer, please respond,' said John's voice over the comms.

'Yes, John?' Sam replied.

'We've got into one room on our end, and it seems like there's some kind of medical equipment. There are some bloodstains on the floor, but the equipment itself looks clean.'

'Medical equipment?'

'Yeah, surgical gear, monitors, that sort of thing. It doesn't seem to be set up for humans though.' John said.

'It's probably tied to the Advocate systems within the animals,' Victor suggested.

Sam nodded. 'Keep looking, and keep me posted.'

'Aye captain.' John said.

Sam and Victor walked down the hallway, it was a drab metallic grey, and had a discolouration along the floor. Not all the lighting strips along the top seemed to be working, throwing sections of the hall into patches of darkness.

Not the best-run place I've seen. Who made this place? This Guardian is not running how it ought to, Sam thought to herself.

Sam raised her hand as they spotted a robot walking out of a door ahead. It turned to its right and continued on its path, moving away from them. They rushed to the now open door and glanced inside. There were other doors and a computer terminal inlaid into the wall. The room had storage crates stacked against one side.

The door began to slide shut on its own, and Victor thrust his arm into the open space. The door stopped and reversed, staying open.

'Okay, they're designed not to close with something in the way,' Victor said.

'At least this one is, with the mismatched systems we've found, I wouldn't count on it for all the doors.'

'Keep it open; I'll see if there's anything I can put in the frame.'

Sam nodded and stood in the doorway while Victor went into the room. He opened one crate and pulled out a piece of unfamiliar equipment. It was about the size of his arm and had wires coming out of both ends of its long rectangular shape.

'I have no idea what this is, but it should do the trick,' he said, bringing it back to the door. He placed it in the doorway and Sam stood back. They waited for the door to close again. It slid shut, came in contact with the new door jamb, and slid open again. Victor nodded in satisfaction.

The two searched the room. Victor went to the computer terminal while Sam went to the crates. She noticed a path of splotchy discolouration leading from a door near the back of the room back to the crates.

She sniffed the air. 'Do you smell something?'

Victor sniffed too. 'Something rotten.'

Sam unfolded her helmet and slid it closed over her head. She looked in the crate Victor had opened and saw it filled with a myriad of components she couldn't recognize. Closing the lid, she moved to the next box and found more of the same.

She heard a noise behind her and turned around. A door near the back of the room had opened.

'Oh I found a door control in the terminal,' Victor said. He moved toward the door, and then covered his mouth and staggered back, quickly unfolding his helmet up over his head.

Sam walked to the door and looked inside. It was dark, so she turned on the lights in her suit. The sight before her was not a pleasant one.

There were animal parts, and carcases in various states of decomposition hung from hooks. The pieces were all cut up and mangled in some way. There was a reason Victor had recoiled. Sam was glad she had already put up her helmet.

She stepped into the room and looked around. There was a drain in the floor near the centre. To her right, there was a cylindrical chamber with a door that hung open. It stood on a pedestal and came up to her head. It might have been big enough for her to climb into if she tried. Victor walked in behind her, looking a little paler than usual through his helmet view plate.

'Feel all right?'

'The smell caught me off guard is all. I'm good now,' he looked at the animal parts, 'well... mostly.'

Sam pointed at the chamber. 'Any idea what that is?'

Victor bent in and examined it. He tapped on a control panel and the panel lit up. He searched through the menus and turned back to Sam, 'It's a parts cleaner. I think we've stumbled on the Guardian's recycling centre. After an animal dies, he pulls the advocate systems out of its carcass, cleans them, and stores them in the crates.'

'If he's just killing the animals, they're not being sold, and we now have no good theories as to what this place is.'

'Could be an illegal research project,' Victor offered.

'Could be. We need to keep moving,' Sam said, turning to leave the room.

'Captain, hold on a minute. I had an idea.'

Sam stopped and turned to Victor. 'Go on.'

'The robots have the run of this facility, they can get into the doors we can't. If we can disable one, I may be able to hack into its systems and get us a door key of our own.'

'How would we go about incapacitating one?'

Victor smiled through his helmet. 'I think I can rig something up using some of that equipment in the crates and the power pack from my sidearm. I'll just need a few minutes.'

Sam nodded. 'Get to it. I'll watch the door.'

***

Victor stood out in the hall, holding his hot-wired robot stunner. He looked at it, it was the same thing they had used to keep the door open, but with some new additions. On one end, he'd used the wires to strap his power pack into place and then connected one to the terminals on the pack. The other end was a nest of stripped cables, with one significant modification, which kept the charge from discharging unless he jammed that end against something. He'd have to stab it against one of the robot's, and then hopefully the charge from his pack would shut down the robot without destroying what they needed.

They were moving down the hallway hoping to find another robot.

It wasn't long before another wandered out of one of the doors in the hallway.

It turned toward them and paused.

Victor took a step forward. 'Hello.'

'You are not permitted here. Please return to the conservatory,' the robot said.

'We know you've got our Advocate, return her and we can resolve this peacefully,' Sam said.

The robot took a step back. 'I do not know what you are talking about. If your advocate is missing, we can return to the conservatory and search for her.'

Victor tensed, and tightened his grip on his stunner. 'We know you aren't quite what you say you are Guardian. I mean you already ambushed me once from behind.'

The robot turned and ran down the passageway. Victor and Sam took off after it.

The robot moved quick, but it couldn't gain any ground on its two pursuers. A door along the hallway opened, and another robot leapt out, lunging at Victor.

Its metal frame collided with him, surprising him. He slammed hard against the wall. He kept his grip on his stunner, but couldn't get a good stab at the robot.

Victor saw the robot pull something out of its leg. It was holding a sharpened metal rod and pulled its hand back to stab it in Victor's arm. He heaved himself away, knocking the robot off balance. The rod connected with the wall and sparks flared from its tip.

Victor pushed himself back more, and brought his stunner up, brandishing it toward the robot.

Another door opened behind them, and another robot exited, while the running one stopped its flight and turned around. Victor heard the whine of Sam's railgun and saw the first robot's head and neck explode in a shower of sparks.

His attention was brought back to bear on his assailant as it lunged at him with its rod in hand once more. Victor stabbed it with his stunner and connected with its chest as its attack just missed the side of his arm. The robot went still as a crackling sound emanated from its feet. Victor pulled his stunner back and kicked at the robot. Behind him, he heard another series of whines.

He turned around, and saw the third robot fall to its knees, a smattering of holes in its torso. It fell to the ground with a clatter.

Victor dusted himself off and stood up, pulling his side arm's power pack free from his homemade stunner and putting it back into his gun.

'Did we get one Vick?'

Victor indicated the one at his feet, 'I dropped that one with the stunner. Don't know if it did any damage to its systems, but with the other two you dropped, I should be able to make something work.'

'Get started. Let's see what's behind the doors.' Sam said.

Victor pulled out his multi-tool, 'Right away captain.'