CHAPTER 5

DOORWAY

U.P.N. Kanto - Bridge

Ise stood on the bridge, waiting for Lenny to finish his search.

'Advocate, the archival search is complete. Would you like to review the results?'

'Yes,' Ise said.

'Acknowledged. FTL signaler, serial number 693GXX113, was originally installed on the U.P.N. Orca, an automated bulk hauler used by the supply corps to supply a deep space listening post. The freighter was reported missing eighteen years ago. A search was conducted though no sign of the ship or wreckage was ever discovered. The ship was declared lost in space, and a new automated freighter replaced it.'

'Thank you, Lenny.'

'Captain, Lenny says the FTL signaler belonged to an automated bulk hauler that went missing eighteen years ago. It was a military ship.'

'What was the ship's name?' Sam asked.

'The Orca,' Ise replied.

'Hmm... Someone took the effort to install this here, and it's probably whoever found or stole the Orca. Seeing as it's a piece of military equipment, I don't think there's any chance of this being a Linkal base.'

'I'd have to agree,' Ise said.

The sound of Victor's voice came on through the bridge's speakers, 'Lt Hale to the Kanto. Come in, please.'

'Go ahead, Vick,' Sam said.

'Captain, this array is transmitting, to an unknown recipient.'

'Can you track it?'

'Maybe if I was back on the ship. This thing's got an ancient data port. No way I can interface with it.'

'Roger that, Vick, head back to the ship. We'll touch down.'

'Aye Captain.'

'John, set us down,' Sam ordered the helmsmen.

'Yes Ma'am.'

Sam swung around in her seat and looked at Ise.

'If there's more military hardware down there, and the Lobster gets his hands on it, it could be a disaster for our forces.'

'The repeater is almost twenty years old Captain. The Lobsters aren't going to get much from it.'

'They'd love to get their hands on either our jump drives or our faster than light communications systems. They've tried many times to get one of our arrays. Twenty years old or not, we must destroy the array before we let them get one.'

'We can hit it with the Thercon before we leave orbit.' Ise said.

'We've got one more thing we need to do first. If that array is transmitting, it suggests someone is in this base. I want to know who got their hands on military hardware, and I want to know what else they got their hands on.'

'What's our next move?' Ise asked.

'We'll head for one of the entrance buildings and see if we can get in.'

***

Jing had just made it back to the ship when he heard they would go check out one of the two entrance buildings. He walked over to a storage locker and switched out his oxygen gear. Victor had gone back to the bridge to see if he could track down where the transmission was going. Ise had come down and suited back up to accompany him to the building. She carried a pistol and a tablet.

The ramp cracked open, and Jing grabbed a cable to lower himself to the ground. His free hand held onto a rail gun pistol of his own. Ise jumped from the end of the ramp and landed in a cloud of dust. Jing waited.

'All clear,' he heard Ise say.

He walked to the end of the ramp and lowered himself down. He set down on the ground and tugged on the cable. It retracted back to the ship.

Ise and Jing walked toward the entrance building.

This door is much larger than I was expecting, Jing thought to himself.

He looked carefully at the door. It was a single piece of metal, with no visible seams or hinges. He leaned in toward where the door met with the door frame. He looked deliberately at it and noticed the slight evidence of a recess. The door was sitting in a grove. Moving to the other side, he noticed another. He took a step back and saw what looked like a removable panel.

'I think this door will retract downward when it opens.' Jing said over his comm.

'Can you see any control panel?' Sam asked.

'I found a panel. I'm going to see if I can get it open,' he said.

'Be careful.'

'Aye captain.'

Jing looked at the panel and saw a latch and a physical lock.

'This thing has a lock,' Jing said.

'What model? I might be able to hack it.' Victor said.

'Unless you brought a locksmith kit, that could be a bit of a trick. It's an old physical lock.'

'Lock and key type?' Victor asked a note of disbelief in his voice.

'Yeah. I've got a thermal cutter with me. I should be able to cut it.' Jing said.

'Roger that. Proceed,' Sam said over the comms.

Jing grabbed his cutter from his tool belt and lifted it up. He positioned it carefully and flicked it on. The material of the lock glowed. He shut off the cutter to prevent damage to the equipment behind the panel.

Jing secured his cutter and pulled a multi-tool from his belt. He struck the lock with it, and it deformed from the blow. He hit it a few more times before the mechanism gave way. The panel popped open.

'I've got the panel open. It's an older system, but it still seems to be in good condition. Thankfully door control systems haven't exactly been a hotbed of innovation. Now if it had had an encryption and password that would have been different.'

Jing entered a command on the panel and watched as the metal door slid downward. He saw the door itself was around ten centimetres thick. Once it was all the way down, a covering slid out from the floor, bridging the gap where the door had been.

'I've got it open. It was pretty thick. Glad I didn't have to cut through it.' Jing commented.

'What do you see?' Ise asked.

'There's a ramp that goes down a good twenty meters, then it levels off, and the corridor ends in another door.'

'Can you see another control panel?' Ise asked.

'Yes. This one's not even covered.'

'Permission to check out the second door captain?' Ise asked over the comms.

'Permission granted. Make sure you know how to open the first door from the inside first.'

'Roger that Captain.'

Jing stepped past the door frame and looked around. He spotted another panel on the wall. He walked up to it and tried a close command. The door slid closed. Ise was still standing outside.

'Jing?' Ise asked. The comm could still broadcast through the walls. That was good a good sign.

'Hold on a second.'

Jing tried another command. The door slid open.

Ise glared at him. 'Little warning next time.'

'Wouldn't have been any good to get both of us trapped. You could have gone back to the ship and got my cutting gear. Let's try the other door.'

Ise nodded, and they walked down the ramp. The second door looked a little different, but it opened without trouble. Inside there was yet another door and panel. Jing examined them, leaning in close.

'Okay, this one's an airlock. It could take a minute to cycle.'

'Can you show me how to start it? You should wait outside. If they're waiting for us, I'll have a much better chance of surviving this.' Ise said.

'I can, but I don't think we should get our Advocate killed.'

'I have no intention of dying.'

Jing looked at her and turned to the panel. 'You'll need to activate the airlock cycle with these commands here, once that's done, the inner door should automatically open. Once you're through, I can start another cycle from the outside and join you.'

Ise nodded. Jing stepped outside of the airlock and closed the door.

***

Ise triggered the airlock cycle and waited as the sound of air rushing filled her ears. She checked the HUD on her suit. It gave her an analysis of the air in the airlock. It said it was breathable, but she left her helmet on, anyway.

Gripping her pistol, she raised it at the ready. A green light came on over the door, and it slid open.

Lights flickered to life as she stepped inside. There was no one waiting for her. She saw an open room with a concrete roof, walls, and tiled metal sheets making up the floor. There was another door across the room from where they entered. She slowly stepped out of the airlock and swept her gun around the room. There were holding containers on the left side of the room. They sat empty, with unknown stains in them. On the left side of the room, there were metal tanks with pipes coming off them and disappearing through an alcove in the roof. Next to those sat two glass tanks which held a clear liquid.

'Ise?' said Jing over the comm.

'Looks like a holding room for something. It's all clear.'

She didn't wait for Jing to come through the airlock before she walked over to the holding containers on the left side of the room. There was a compartment in the wall. She pulled it open and looked inside. She looked thoroughly at the items and checked her link with Lenny. It was still active.

'Lenny, identify these items.'

'Yes, Advocate. Please wait.'

Ise picked one item up and looked it over.

'The items are various pieces of medical equipment. They are mostly diagnostic devices and some surgical implements. The devices are obsolete though still commonly used by outlying colony worlds.'

Ise looked at the device in her hand more fully; it had a handle, a switch, and a thumb trigger. There was a small display screen on the back of it.

'What's this?' Ise asked.

'Medical Diagnostic tool. The medical attendant grasps the device by the handle and points the far end toward the patient. When the trigger is pulled, the device will take a medical snapshot of the subject and display the results on the screen at the back of the device. The device is used for emergency situations to prioritize treatment over multiple patients.'

Ise set the tool back down. She went over to the containers. Ise bent down and looked at them. She saw anchor points inside the boxes where a chain could be fastened.

She turned around and saw Jing standing on the other end of the room looking at the tanks.

Ise walked over to him.

'Any ideas?' she asked.

'Filtration system. The metal tanks are for air, and the clear tanks are for water. There'll be a few more like this depending on the size of the facility. These are just the buffer tanks; the actual filtration plant will be somewhere on the other side of the wall. It strikes me as odd they've got them right on the other side of an entrance. This system is rather important and built somewhere in the most protected areas of the base.'

'Any idea why?' Ise asked.

'If this was the first part of the base made, it stands to reason that would be one of the first things they built. We have no way of knowing if this was the first place made though, so it’s just a guess.'

'But we know it's got power and air. That means someone's probably still home.'

Jing nodded. 'Yep.'

Ise looked over at the other door, 'Think you can get it open?'

'Other than the lock on the outer door, this place has been light on security measures thus far.'

'That's a point against it being smugglers or terrorist,' Ise commented.

'Hold off on opening that door, Jing. I want you to see if you can access any computer systems and learn anything about this place,' Samantha said over the suit comm.

'Could be a trick Captain, the only panels I see in here are door controls. No access terminals to be seen.'

'Ise?' Sam asked.

'Lenny, do you detect any wireless signals we can tap into?'

'Affirmative. A wireless network is present though it is too weak in signal for a meaningful connection. Recommend getting closer to the source.'

'Direction of the source?'

'Approximately two kilometres below your position.'

Ise's eyes widened in surprise. 'Captain, I've got a wireless network below us, but its two kilometres down. I'm surprised were picking anything up at all, either this rock is really insubstantial, or this is one heck of a network.'