CHAPTER 24

SHIRP

Near Edge of Conservatory Chamber

Sam and Victor were hurrying after the Linkal pilot. Their guns were still held at the ready, but no longer trained on the pilot. The animals seemed to be in a state of disarray, but the robots had gotten themselves under control. They were pursuing them, but they were not fast enough to keep up.

'What now captain?' Victor asked.

'He doesn't seem hostile, let's follow him for now,' Sam answered.

The alien pilot led them to a cluster of rock's and stopped by an opening near the base of the rocks. A cave loomed beyond the opening.

The three of them stopped and looked at each other.

Sam had never seen a Linkal this close before. Its skin was red. It had four slits, two on either side of its face, which were opening and closing in a rhythmic breathing pattern. A beak-like mouth hung slightly open, revealing a thin bird-like tongue. It regarded her with large milky dark eyes. Its flight suit was white. The Linkal itself was bigger than Sam and more intimidating. Its large red hands seemed to have a back plate, like the carapace of a lobster. Three fingers and one thumb ended in claws. Its hands and fingers were long, slender, and strangely at odds with Linkal's otherwise large and formidable frame.

Sam remembered something a trooper had once told her, along their wrists the Linkal had a slit in their skin from which they could fire a poisonous barb at a foe. Even when they had no weapons, they were dangerous, and their physical strength and endurance made them even more dangerous. The thick plate she had seen on the back of its hand, extended over most of its body, forming a natural amour.

The creature reached slowly to a control on the side of its suit. Its other hand hung in front of him, with its palm facing down.

Sam and Victor held their side arms tightly.

The Linkal pilot entered a command on its suit.

It opened its beak mouth and spoke. Its voice was like a mix of chirping birdsong and gurgling noises coming from the slits on its face.

Then a computerized and understandable voice spoke from its suit, 'Name Shirp. Shirp saved others. Others help Shirp.'

It stopped talking.

Sam glanced at Victor, and then at Shirp.

'My name is Samantha. What do you want help with?'

Shirp's suit translated for him, and Sam waited while it finished.

'Shirp enemy of others. Other's enemy of Shirp. This place,' he said, gesturing with his arms, 'is enemy of Shirp and others. Shirp knows of great Mind within walls. Great mind is an enemy of Shirp and Shirp's kin. Great mind helps others; this one does not. This one is an enemy of others. Great mind is dangerous. Shirp on mission to find great mind. Great mind enemy of Shirp's people, steal ships, steal animals. Shirp finds great mind, but cannot return to his people. Help Shirp return.'

Sam bit her lower lip. Victor leaned in and whispered, 'I think he's talking about the Guardian.'

'It's been making friends it seems. We don't have a lot of choices; I think he'd be useful in a fight.'

'Did anyone at HQ know they had translators?' Victor asked

'It hadn't come up in any of my briefings.'

They stood up straight again, Sam looked at Shirp and spoke clearly, 'We will help Shirp, if Shirp will help us. We want to return to our people too.'

Shirp put both his hands in front of him, palms down. 'Shirp agrees. Follow.'

He turned and went into the cave. Sam and Victor followed behind. Inside they found a torn apart grate that had been covering an air shaft. They started down the shaft.

The ventilation shaft was dark, but Shirp was lighting the way with his suit's lights. Sam didn't know where they were going, but anywhere was better to where they had been.

At least she hoped so anyway.

'Captain, we should use our comms and meet up with John and his team.' Victor said.

Shirp stopped and turned; he pointed at their suits, 'Messages over air how great mind sees others. No messages. Go quietly.'

Sam nodded, and they kept moving.

I hope they're all right, she thought to herself.

They came up to a junction in the ventilation system, two smaller shafts branched off of the main shaft, and the main shaft continued, but sloping downward.

***

Dan woke up with a jerk. The movement sent a stab of pain through him, and he groaned.

He was still where he had passed out. The front of his suit had a pink colouration to it due to his bloody coughs.

He raised his arm and wiped at his mouth. It came away smeared with blood though not as richly as before.

Maybe the bleeding stopped. Not much I can do right now except rest, he thought.

The door swished open, and a robot stepped into the room. The door shut quickly behind the robot.

'Hello,' said the robot.

Dan looked up at it and let his hand slide to his holster. 'Hello,'

'I am XO-33, Guardian of this facility, do not bother engaging this robot, it will not harm you if you do not attack it.'

Dan struggled to stand up.

The robot raised a hand and waved him back down. 'Do not bother yourself. There is nothing to fear.'

'Can you let me out?' Dan asked, sitting back down.

'Not at this time. I am afraid there is something I want from you and your band of friends. Something I have had difficulty acquiring thus far.'

Dan leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and listened to the hum of the equipment in the room.

He heard a noise and glanced out, the robot had settled into a sitting position against the wall by the door.

'Does this make you more at ease?' the robot asked.

'If you have to ask, it's probably not working,' Dan said, closing his eyes again.

'Interesting, Sam never taught me that,' the robot said.

The name caused Dan to open his eyes again and look back at the robot. 'Sam?'

'Samuel Jennings, my first Advocate. He taught me many things about humanity.'

'Our captain's name is Samantha, though she goes by Sam. I think it was what her mother called her growing up.'

'I am familiar with the concept of nicknames. I have one myself. I went by Exo.'

'Not very creative,' Dan said. He coughed again. The pain caused him to fall to his side. His muscles tensed him into a fetal position, but the pain forced him out of it again. He closed his eyes and just tried to focus on his breathing as he laid on his side.

'I can help you.'

Dan opened his eyes and looked at the robot.

'I can numb the pain.'

Daniel noticed the robot was holding something in its hands now. It looked like a patch of tan coloured material.

The robot lifted the patch, 'This is a dermal applied painkiller. If I place it on you, your pain will numb. It won't fix what's wrong with you, but it will give you a moment of respite.'

Daniel eyed the patch. 'What's the catch?'

'The first is free. It will give you time to think about an offer I will have.'

The robot moved over to Dan. Dan tried to move away, but couldn't find the strength. The robot knelt down next to him and held his head with its free hand while the other applied the patch to his cheek. A numbness rushed through his body, and he felt himself relax.

'Do not strain yourself. Your body is still injured.' The robot said.

Dan didn't try to get up this time. 'What's your offer?'

'Stay with me.'

Daniel paused, unsure of what he was just asked. 'What?'

'I need someone of your crew to stay behind. I wanted someone in particular, but I have realized that I can make thing work with you. In your current state, you would not survive the trip back. You have made your precarious situation into a lethal one.'

***

John and Jing stood in yet another set of branching corridors. This was not the first they had run across since they had tried to make their way back to Daniel.

'How can we be at another one! The passageway was a straight shot back to Dan.' John said in frustration.

Jing was examining the walls next to them, 'I think these halls can change their configuration. The rooms all stay in the same location, and wall panels deploy or retract to form new passages.'

'Who would need anything like that?' John asked.

'I don't know. It would make for easy compartmentalization.'

John placed a hand on the wall nearest him and leaned on it. 'It might be useful for herding animals. You could just open and close the passages as you went, forcing the animals to go in only one direction.'

Jing stopped his examination. 'Yeah, only we're the animals.'

'More like rats in a maze.' John said, his voice tight.

'So what now?'

John threw his hands up and exclaimed, 'I don't know! We can't get to the Captain, and we can't find Daniel.'

'We could try calling him again.' Jing said.

'We couldn't reach him before, he wasn't answering, but it couldn't hurt to try again. If we can get a signal, we can try to track him.' John said.

John turned on his comms and looked down the hall, 'Lt Cmd Macce to Lt. Higgins, come in please.'

'I hear you, Commander.'

'Dan! Thank heavens, how are you holding up?' John motioned for Jing to start tracking. Jing pulled out his tablet and worked on it.

'Not so great if I'm being honest. I hurt myself bad trying to get out of here. I... I'm coughing up blood sporadically.'

John was quiet for a moment. 'Don't strain yourself, we will find you.'

Jing motioned John down one passage. John walked after him.

'I'd appreciate that. I'm not bad right now. I've been given some painkiller.'

'Given?' John asked, frowning.

'Yeah. One of the Guardian's robots is here. He's given me an offer, and some painkiller.'

'What's the offer?'

Jing led them along carefully though he seemed to grow frustrated.

'If I stay with him, he'll help me, and you can all go home,' Daniel said, tiredness evident in his tone.

'What did you say?'

'I'd think about it. How bad is it? I've been resting and haven't heard what's going on.'

'That doesn't matter right now, you're in bad shape, and we need to get you out of there.'

'How's the captain, John?'

John was quiet.

'Yeah... That's what I thought. It's bad isn't it?' Daniel asked.

'We haven't heard from the captain for some time,' John replied quietly, a knot in his stomach.

Jing stopped and stared at the tablet. John looked at him and raised an eyebrow questioningly. Jing drew a circle in the air with his finger.

'John. We can't take this offer off the table yet. I... I don't think I'd survive the trip back, anyway.'

'That's not my call,' he said.

'With all due respect sir, it is. Without contact with the captain, you're the highest rank. I'm only a Lieutenant, and Jing isn't a commissioned officer. We can't all go missing here.'

John ran his hand through his hair. 'Sit tight Dan. Don't do anything rash.'

'Okay, sir.'

John shut off his comms and looked at Jing. Jing pointed at the tablet. 'We're just going in circles, sir.'

'We've got to find a way to get somewhere. Anywhere, just not stuck in this blasted hallway!' John said, pounding a fist into the wall.

'Yeah,' Jing replied, tight lipped.

***

Sam and Victor had heard the whole exchange, but on the insistence of Shirp, hadn't replied back.

'Why would the Guardian want Dan to stay?' Victor asked.

'I don't know. We don't know what he wanted with Ise either. We've still got to find her.' Sam replied.

They had moved from the air vents to some larger maintenance passages. They seemed to be unused. Shirp was still leading them onward, but their progress was slow, as the Linkal pilot would stop, listen, and motion them back. Sam hadn't known the Linkal had such keen hearing. It hadn't been that important for their operations.

'Do you think Daniel will agree to the offer?'

Sam had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach since hearing Dan speak, something in his voice had given her the answer. 'I don't know, maybe, I hope not.'

Victor looked at her anxiously. 'Yeah, I hope not either, but Dan's always trying to be a hero.'

Sam walked forward in silence for a moment before answering, 'Maybe he's had enough of that for one mission.'

'Yeah. Maybe,' but Victor didn't sound sure.

Shirp stopped ahead of them. 'Shirp's companion was a hero to Shirp. Shirp's companion continued to pilot ship even after lethal wound. Shirp escaped because of her. Shirp will tell her story to her family.'

Sam looked at the back of the large Linkal. 'If we get out of here, yes.'

Shirp turned around and looked at them, with its black eyes and unchanging face. 'Shirp angry at humans. Humans rush blindly at Shirp's kin. Human's build great minds to think for humans. Great minds make humans forget to think for themselves. Humans do not know what great minds become. Humans live only for war. What would human know of the importance of story? Every one of Shirp's kin have story. Too many stories ended too soon by Humans.'

Sam took a step back. 'We have stories too. Daniel's story is going on now. We want to help him not end it too soon.'

Shirp looked at them though he didn't move. Sam found its lack of motion unsettling. Suddenly, the Linkal turned and continued down the passage. 'Follow. Anger can wait. Maybe not all humans let great minds think for them.'

Samantha and Victor looked at each other and continued after the creature.