CHAPTER 4

SEEKING ANSWERS

U.P.N. Kanto - Bridge

'I've got a bead on the crash site. Bearing zero-one-six, approximately twenty kilometres distance. I've also got eyes on another entrance building. This one looks a bit bigger than the first one we saw,' Victor said.

'Any sign of power from the Lobster ship?' Samantha asked

'No ma'am. It looks dead.'

Ise looked at the display. The landing for the Lobster ship at least appeared to have been gentler than the hard landing suffered by the Nimbus. The alien craft was upright, and there was only a short trench etched in the surface behind it. It had come in a lot slower and softer than Daniel's fighter.

'It doesn't look that bad. The pilot is probably still alive.' Ise commented.

'Scan for life signs Vick.' Sam ordered.

'Scanning... None detected in the ship. What should we do?'

'This could be a good chance to get a closer look at the active defence system they mounted on it, and if we can retrieve a spatial catapult drive off of it, I imagine naval intelligence would be thrilled with us. Victor, I want you and Ise to suit up and go check it out. We'll keep you covered from the ship. If anyone unexpected pops up from the ship, we'll melt them with the Thercon.'

'Yes, ma'am.' Victor said, getting up from his station.

Ise followed him out of the bridge and into a back room. Ise grabbed a suit this time. She didn't know how long she'd be out from the ship, and it was an extra layer of protection. Military pressure suits had some rudimentary armour worked into them. While she was already quite formidable, thanks to her Advocate upgrades, she preferred a little extra protection.

The two strode to the ramp room as it depressurized and the ramp slid open.

'Comms check,' Ise heard Vick say.

'Comms check positive.' she replied.

'Roger, comms check positive,' said Samantha from the bridge.

Victor grabbed a cable line dangling from the ceiling and used it to lower himself to the planet's surface. Ise just jumped from the end of the ramp and landed in the soft dust, kicking up a cloud.

Victor tugged at his line, and it retracted back into the ship. The ramp closed behind it, and the ship pulled up to a higher altitude.

As it pulled away, the area got dark, the light from the ship fading fast. Ise activated her suit lights and saw Victor do the same.

'Come on Victor. Let's give it a look.'

Ise walked toward the crashed ship, Victor following a few steps behind.

As she got closer, she saw the damage to the ship. A jagged hole was ripped open on the top of the fighter. The hole was near the engines, from where Daniel's shot had exited.

Daniel did a number on this thing, Ise thought to herself.

The fighter was bigger than the Nimbus. It was a good six meters long, and at least three high. It was resting on two rectangular engine nacelles on either side of it. The main body was the shape of an upside down 'T' with the cockpit on the vertical part and the struts to the nacelle making up the horizontal section. There were missile racks slung under the struts. Behind the cockpit sat a silver dome.

'What's that behind the cockpit?' Ise asked.

'I'd guess that's the active defence system. It must be an energy projector of some kind. I don't know yet though. I'll need a closer look. Can you get me up there?'

'Not a problem, hold still.'

Ise grabbed Victor tightly around the waist with her arm and kicked off from the ground. Her enhanced strength and the lower gravity allowed her to leap up and alight down on the nearest engine nacelle.

'Thanks.' Victor said, walking across the wing toward the silver dome.

'I will check the cockpit,' Ise said.

'Okay.'

Ise walked toward the cockpit and bent over the clear canopy. She peered inside and saw two seats, and one was empty, the other had a body still strapped in. She could see that the back of the cockpit had exploded. The shot to the underbelly had penetrated deep into the ship.

One seat is empty... Why would he get out and close the cockpit again? Unless...

Ise stood up and ran toward Victor. She grabbed him and pulled him off away from the dome, jumping off the end of the fighter in one great leap. She sailed away from it and hit the ground, tumbling away when it erupted in a flash of light.

'What just happened down there?' Ise heard Sam say over the comms.

Ise stood up and helped Victor to his feet, 'The Lobster pilot rigged the ship to blow. I don't know what triggered it though.'

She saw Victor pull something from his belt and look at it, 'I've got a signal coming from the entrance building nearby. The Lobster could have remote detonated it. He's probably over there now.'

'Well he's not going anywhere now,' Ise said.

'Get back to the ship.' Sam said.

'Yes, Captain.'

The ship lowered down in front of them, the ramp way open. Ise and Victor walked toward it.

***

'Look, I picked up a communication signal of some kind coming from the entrance building. I've checked the signal type, and it's a Linkal communication device. Its short range, probably a handheld device. He must have watched us come down and waited to set it off, hoping to catch the two of us. When he saw Ise jump off, he probably set off the ship hoping to catch us in the blast anyway.' Victor said, his voice even.

'We're not here to chase down one pilot.' Ise said.

'Aren't we? We came here looking for Linkal activity, and we've found that. There's a Linkal pilot who's gotten access to whatever facility is on this planet. If they're human, they'll be far more likely to help us than to help a Lobster. We should land and have a look.' Victor said.

Samantha was listening closely. She thought for a moment and said, 'I think we should know a little more about what we're getting into before we do that. We should check the FTL signaler for that serial number. If we know which ship it came from, it might give us a sign of who's down there. Have you been able to get any energy or life readings from the buildings yet Victor?'

Victor frowned, 'No ma'am. My sensors stop sensing anything after about twenty meters below the surface. I do see a passageway that goes down from the entrance buildings though. It's conceivable whatever is down there is shielded against our sensors. Whoever is down there took effort not to be noticed.'

'All the more reason to assume they might be hostile.' Ise said.

Victor turned around and keyed buttons on his sensor console. A diagram showed up of the surface of the planet. It was tiny, only about a two thirds the size of Luna, Earth's moon. Victor overlaid a graphic showing what they'd detected on the surface thus far. The two entrance buildings, an FTL signaller, and a sensor array.

'Look at this, since we've been here, the only thing to show any activity is the sensor array and the FTL signaller. But even that is only active on the long-range array, and I have seen nothing in the short or medium range. It’s possible those arrays are broken. Maybe they know we're here but can't say anything back.'

Samantha looked at the map, 'John, take us to the communication array.'

'Captain?' Ise asked.

'We will have a look. If the short-range array is broken, we can fix it. If it isn't broken, we can still get the serial number off it and at least find out where it came from.'

Victor smiled, he hated leaving questions unanswered.

***

The ship sat floating behind them. Jing and Victor had exited the ship and walked to the tower. Jing stood some distance back, examining the structure from afar, while Victor stepped up to the base with a tablet computer and some other equipment in hand. He had a weapon in hand and kept an eye on the horizon.

'With any luck, I'll be able to simply plug in.' Victor said over his suit comm.

'It is a twenty-year-old communication system Vick. I wouldn't hold your breath. Probably uses some old data port.' Jing commented.

'Never know, whoever left it here could have given it an upgrade.'

Victor knelt down next to a panel on the base. The base was a triangle shape, with the three towers coming out of the base at each of the points. The towers themselves were also triangular. Each of the towers was a different height and had a different set of equipment at their apex. The towers were the short range, medium range, and long range systems, the tallest being the long range, and the shortest being short range. Victor went toward a panel on the side of the base, while Jing walked around the array, looking at the towers.

'Looks like it's in good shape. All three towers are still intact though the mid-range tower looks a little neglected. I see at least one strut that's been hit by something,' Jing said. He moved closer to the short-range tower, 'Actually, something hit both towers, but whoever was here took the time to repair the short-range tower. They left the mid-range in its sorry state though.'

Victor knelt down and grabbed a tool from his belt. He worked the panel off of the base. It came free with some effort. He looked inside, there were a few indicator lights active, though most of the electrical systems seemed to be offline. Victor looked around for a data port. He found one, and to his mild annoyance, noticed it wasn't the same kind as on his equipment.

'You were right Mr Fan. It's an older port.'

'Any chance we have an adapter on the ship?' Jing asked.

'Not even a little chance.'

Victor aimed the lights on the side of his helmet. Two cones of light illuminated the electrical systems of the FTL signaler. He saw that there had been some work done to it. Everything was sitting loose.

'What about the serial number?'

Victor leaned down and looked around the cavity. He spotted a plate just under some wires and pushed them aside.

'Victor to the Kanto, come in please,' Victor said over his comms.

'Read you loud and clear Vick,' replied Sam.

'I've got a serial number if you want Lenny to run it through his archives,' Victor said.

'Victor, this is Ise, please give me the serial number.'

'Roger that. It's 6-9-3-G-X-X-1-1-3.'

'Acknowledge. Please stand by,' Ise replied.

Victor let the wires drop again and looked around the cavity, 'Hey Jing, you said the mid-range array looked a little neglected?'

'Yes. Why, what did you find?'

'I've identified the control panels for the different arrays. The mid-range array is completely dead. I don't think anyone tried to fix it either.'

'Didn't look like anyone had bothered fixing the tower. They probably just left the array off after it went down.' Jing said.

'Yeah,' Victor leaned in closer to the mid-range array control panel, 'You know, this wouldn't be hard to fix with the right equipment. Looks like they just didn't bother.'

'That's weird. Looks like they didn't think they'd need to make any in-system calls. What about the other two?' Jing asked.

'Short range seems to be idle. Long range array is live... hang on a second.'

Victor repositioned himself and his light. He looked at one bank of indicator lights. He recognized the layout and remembered what each light meant from his training long ago.

Victor frowned. He stood up and pulled another tool from his belt and pointed it at the tallest array. He looked at the result and turned to Jing.

Jing cocked his head, 'Something the matter Victor?'

'The long-range array is transmitting.'