Sargasso of Souls – Session 14
“No. No. No. This is unacceptable. I cannot be expected to work like this” Santino fumed. “Your men are poking around in things they don’t understand. Their meddling is compromising the site and risking our lives. I will not have it. You must control them”
I felt this was a little rich coming from a man who had himself chosen to completely disregard my orders only three days earlier, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Since then he had behaved himself.
I endeavoured to placate him and explained that it was an isolated incident but he seemed to take this as an attempt to excuse Bauman’s actions, which was certainly not my intention. I myself felt let down by what had happened.
“And what about this so called ‘scientist’ Veldin Phipps?” Santino went on. “Are you aware of the samples that he has collected?”
I sighed. This certainly wasn’t how I had anticipated starting the day.
“Look professor, I’m sorry for any mistakes that have been made thus far; I can only assure you that I will make every effort to see that they are not repeated. You must understand that none of my people are familiar with the protocol for dealing with something like this. That’s why you are here. I am depending on your expertise. You are right to raise your concerns and they will be addressed. That said, I must remind you, this is not your dig.”
“Yes. Yes” Santino waved dismissively. “I did not mean to imply any ownership”
I nodded. Though I had the impression that the Professor felt he ought to be running things. Perhaps from an archaeological perspective he was right, but there were other considerations.
“From now on you will brief any teams that go into the complex on proper protocol prior to their departure. It should be clear that, where matters of security are concerned, the security team have overriding authority, but conducting the exploration of the site will be your responsibility and we will rely on your judgement. Is that acceptable to you?”
“Yes. That is most satisfactory” Santino replied.
“Good. When do you envisage us making another trip inside?”
“First I would like to review all the recordings from our cameras and sensors. It will take me a day or so. Perhaps the 30th?”
“Very well, the 30th it is professor”
On the 28th the Salvation completed its third rendezvous in orbit and the last of the construction workers departed. A number of technicians and engineers who were handling the assembly of the base modules remained, but everything was coming together. The chief of construction estimated that by the 31st the base would be finished.
When the shuttle returned it brought with it a couple of unexpected arrivals: a weather expert from the Chandra Science Station, named Lindsey Walsh, and a two metre long container from Morris. Locke drew my attention to the latter soon after they had landed; making it known that Morris had ordered its transportation but had refused to divulge the contents. Locke wryly observed that Morris had maintained that any information concerning the ‘package’ was on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. Randall raised an eyebrow; I could tell he wasn’t entirely comfortable with this. And much the same could be said of me.
He handed me a note that Morris had asked him to deliver along with the container. It came as no surprise to me that Morris’s ‘explanation’ didn’t make things any clearer.
The note read:
Ramona,
Can you store this on the planet. It must be held securely and must not be brought back to the station unless I say so. Do not scan it or tamper with it.
I only trust your experience in this matter – NO ONE else must know – Deniability.
Morris
PS
The smaller package is for you as an apology for any inconvenience.
In the ‘smaller package’ I found an assault rifle with under-slung grenade launcher. Morris certainly knew how to butter a girl up, but then I wondered just how much trouble the container was. In addition to being tightly sealed, it was vaguely warm and gently hummed with its own internal power-source.
What the f**k did Morris have in there? I didn’t like it at all.
The good news was that Locke had brought with him a batch of new security personnel that Razor had recruited on Rani station. I was gratified to see that my concerns about how far we were being stretched were being quickly addressed.
Though they were unknown to me, Locke assured me that the new recruits were all competent and seemed like ‘good people’. I immediately put them to work clearing the cavity around the main base before the engineering team sealed it.
As for Morris’s container, I wasn’t sure what to do with it. What exactly did he mean by ‘held securely’. Secure from what? Besides I couldn’t think of anywhere on the planet that really fitted that description. Whatever was in there, it didn’t seem like a good idea to keep it on the base.
Once the new personnel were settled in I put a small team together of people I trusted and transported the container to a ’safe’ distance. We took it further down the canyon to one of the caves we had discovered on an earlier reconnaissance. It was tempting to go and check out the old emergency base while we were nearby, but I chose not to. Instead we scanned the container and determined that it was lead-lined. Our equipment was not powerful enough to penetrate any deeper, so we buried it and went back, leaving it concealed there.
At that time there were thirty-four of us on the surface: myself, Locke, Pietersen, Butler, Johansson and the five new recruits, Phipps, Santino, Lindsey Walsh, the two-man advanced team from Certified Bioware (Heather McKay and Peter Colt), the Head of Construction, six technicians assembling the base, two cartographers, a five-man geo survey team, the Salvation’s three-man flight crew, a medic and a communications specialist.
I had rotated Bauman and Ramsay off planet on the last transport, leaving Phipps, Santino, the Head of Construction and myself as the only personnel who had been on planet for the whole mission.
With the pressures on security eased by the fact that most of the work was now being done inside; I was able to take more time to select the team for the patrol on the 30th. It occurred to me that Pietersen had gone on both previous missions and it was time I gave someone else a crack at it.
Katalina Johansson was an obvious choice. I wanted someone I could rely on to watch my back and, like Pietersen, I got on well with her, in addition to knowing that she was extremely good at what she did. I wouldn’t have to worry about her messing up.
Choosing the third and final member of the security team was a little more difficult. I spent a while reviewing the dossiers that Locke had given me on the five new recruits. Zofia Jankowska stood out as the most promising candidate. Her soldiering credentials weren’t any more or less than the others but she had a background in mechanics and electronics, which might well come in handy while we were exploring the complex. Not that I wanted her ‘meddling’, as Santino had put it.
I called her in to get a feel for what she was like and we immediately hit it off. She was a ‘no-nonsense’ type and I felt she would be an asset to the team. I was confident that I had made the right choice.
And so, on the morning of the 30th, Santino, Phipps, Jankowska, Johansson and I attended a pre-mission briefing in which Santino went over the standard protocols and I made sure that everyone was clear that we didn’t touch anything without Santino’s say-so. He was the expert and any poking around would be left to him. I made quite sure that Phipps understood that this included him.
Though I sincerely hoped there would be no need to test it, I was relieved to learn that Heather McKay and Peter Colt of the Certified Bioware team had already identified a drug that they thought would help ward off the effects of the bio-contaminant. As they put it, “It should give you a remote chance of survival even if you have inhaled the atmosphere”.
Having seen what limited exposure did to Maya’s skin, this sounded pretty good to me. I was damn grateful for any help I could get. Besides I’d take a remote chance of survival over none any day of the week. Wouldn’t you?
We all took our shots and the medic, Mickie Hendrie, gave us a brief medical so she could do a comparison when we returned. Then I told Locke that if we weren’t back in eight hours he should come looking for us and we suited up, hefted our extra oxygen tanks onto a small rover unit and set off into the roaring wind.
We reached the entrance and passed through the airlock without incident. I had got pretty used to it by then but I guess, as it was the first time for Katalina and Zofia they probably viewed it from a different perspective.
When we got to the main hall we waited while Santino retraced his steps looking for any differences from last time. Nothing appeared to have changed.
We left the rover and extra oxygen there, in case of an emergency, and moved cautiously over to the next doorway. When Santino opened it we could see that the corridor beyond was very faintly illuminated by a pale green glow that seemed to emanate from the crystals all around. This was different from before.
Santino noted the change and then moved cautiously forward. Jankowska and I followed him, slightly behind and to either side, then came Phipps, and Johansson brought up the rear.
The ‘lab’, as it had been christened on our previous visit, was much as it had been, though a degree of illumination had been restored. Veldin remarked that the fluctuating energy field that had been across the chamber with the skeletons was also down.
A moment later I thought I heard a vaguely female voice whispering something unintelligible from right behind me, but when I span round there was nothing there.
“Sorry, I thought I heard something” I said to the others, who were all looking at me questioningly. “Guess I’m a little jumpy”
We moved cautiously into the room, being careful not to touch anything while Santino looked around. Johansson remained at the back by the door.
At one point I thought she too had been startled by something but, when she saw me looking at her, she gestured that it was nothing. I wondered whether she had heard something as well.
The room seemed largely unchanged, until Santino moved a little closer to one of the consoles and the power came on all by itself. He moved away again and after forty-eight seconds it went off. Then he tried approaching another console and it reacted in the same way.
Thoughtfully he observed that this was a significant increase in activity and suggested that there had been a state change in the base itself. Now it was sensing our presence and reacting, almost as if it had lain dormant and was waking up.
Suddenly Johansson’s voice cut across the comms channel. “Ramona the door behind us has just opened” she warned.
I motioned to Jankowska who immediately readied her weapon and moved to a covering position, while I went over to Katalina.
There was no movement in the corridor but the lights in the entrance hall had dimmed to a faint green glow.
We waited but nothing happened.
Eventually we made our way back there to take a look.
As we entered, the lights came back up.
“It’s probably just some conservation measure” Veldin theorised.
Santino nodded.
I looked at Katalina, knowing she was thinking the same thing that I was; ‘Yes, but what about the door?’ It seemed unlikely that it had opened to conserve power.
There was no sign of anyone there however and nothing had been disturbed, so we returned to the lab. Forty-eight seconds after we left the lights in the entrance hall dimmed.
We moved back through the lab and along the corridor that led to the bunkrooms. We were almost there when Katalina hailed me and asked me to switch to a private channel. Her gaze was fixed down the tunnel behind us and she held her weapon at the ready. I could sense a degree of anxiety from her.
“I know this sounds like I’m losing it Ramona but I swear I just saw something move across the entrance back there” she said to me.
Strange tricks were being played on all of us but I trusted Katalina. If she said she had seen something then she had. I told the others to hold up and informed them that there might be something behind us. Under the circumstances I preferred to be over cautious.
The words had barely left my mouth when we heard an iris valve open. Forty-eight seconds later it closed. I felt a bead of sweat trickle down my spine and I shivered involuntarily. A sense of unease descended around us.
Santino seemed least affected. He voiced his opinion that whatever it was we should ignore it. “There is no point in chasing shadows”, he said matter-of-factly. “Besides if it meant us harm there has been plenty of opportunity.”
Perhaps he had a point but I still felt uneasy.
He and Veldin set up a remote camera covering the corridor and Santino sprinkled some sand he had collected across the floor. He winked at me. “It’s an old trick but worth a try at least,” he said.
Once they were set, we moved on to the bunkrooms. Santino searched them one-by-one while we remained outside in the corridor on watch. The trend that we had seen in the lab continued. In each room that Santino entered power readings rose. Some of the panels glowed faintly, suggesting they had activated.
While the professor was exploring, we were reminded of the unknown hazards that we faced, when Phipps encroached a little too closely to one of the doorways. It closed suddenly and Phipps froze for a moment before gingerly withdrawing his neatly severed scanner. The door had passed straight through the metal like a knife through butter.
“Jesus Veldin!” I exclaimed. “Be careful!”
I looked around at the others. “Let’s stay sharp,” I said. “Or next time that might be one of us”
Katalina and Jankowska both nodded. They understood. Veldin looked a little sheepish.
Jankowska handed him her scanner and said, “Don’t break it.”
Under the current circumstances she looked far more comfortable cradling her weapon.
When Santino was finished with the bunkrooms we went on round to the room where the Ancients had made their last stand.
We had almost got there when I was startled by a strange chittering noise. It was right behind me, at about waist height. Once again I spun round to find that there was nothing there. Then I noticed that the atmosphere tester that was hanging from my belt was running a test cycle. I hadn’t changed the setting, so who or what had?
“Something up?” asked Katalina.
“Just more weird shit” I replied.
She nodded. I didn’t need to say any more.
In the ‘last stand’ room Santino observed that things were unchanged except for one notable detail. One of the bodies had its crystalline forearm guard partially removed. However there were no tracks to indicate who or what had done it.
We moved on again.
A little further along the corridor and Jankowska suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this” she said dryly after a moment, “but was that your hand on my arse Phipps?”
Veldin, who was standing behind her, looked uncertainly at his hand. “I don’t think so” he replied.
I shook my head. Didn’t he even know?
“Look” I said. “We all know there’s some pretty strange shit going on but, as the professor says, there’s no indication it means us any harm. Let’s just stay cool and alert and be ready in case that should change.”
In the next two rooms other things had moved. The crystalline benches had disappeared seemingly having withdrawn back into the floor. The tools were now littered around.
As Santino turned and headed back over to rejoin us there was suddenly an unearthly shriek that rose quickly to a crescendo and then rapidly dwindled away. Everyone was startled by it but, as Zofia and I swept the corridor looking for hostiles, I realised Katalina wasn’t reacting as I would have expected. She seemed almost frozen to the spot.
“Zofia” I barked, drawing Jankowska’s attention. She covered the corridor as best she could while I went over to Johansson.
“Katalina” I said firmly.
Up close I could see she was badly shaken. I was concerned. I knew she didn’t scare easily. “Katalina what happened?” I demanded. “What did you see?”
To her credit Katalina was just about holding it together.
“Fan!” she cursed. “I don’t know what it was Ramona. It came down the corridor at me. It was so fast that there wasn’t time to react. One moment it was there and then it was gone.”
“Whatever it was it wasn’t Human” she added.
“Are you OK?” I asked.
“Yes. Sorry. It just shook me up a bit” she assured me.
At Santino’s suggestion we headed back in the direction of the bunkrooms, where he and Phipps had set up the camera. It was from there that the phantom had appeared to come.
A few minutes later, Santino was squatting by the sand he had spread in the corridor, puzzling over the strange swirls that had been left in the grains. Phipps reviewed the pictures from the camera and discovered a blur of movement on two frames just prior to when we heard the scream.
Santino then theorized that what we were seeing might be some kind of ‘imprint’ that had been left behind, like an echo of what had happened there.
We went back to the entrance hall then. The crystal bridge was the only area that we hadn’t explored and I for one was keen to finish so we could leave.
As we suspected, in the alcove on the far side of the bridge was another door.
Following the same procedure as before Santino opened it and we covered him.
On the other side of the door was a huge room illuminated by numerous crystal pillars that glowed spectacularly with weaving, twisting columns of light. Some were shattered but those that weren’t pulsed with energy.
“Magnificent!” Santino exclaimed.
Then something moved above us. High up, amidst the pillars a massive ‘tumbleweed’ creature suddenly appeared. Its spidery legs propelled it quickly as it scuttled down towards us.
“Look out!” Jankowska shouted and Santino dived for cover. In unison the security team opened fire.
The huge creature’s advance was halted but it had got close enough to reach out and swat at Santino with one of its long appendages. The professor hit the wall hard and collapsed to the floor.
As a unit Jankowska, Johansson and I swept forward. We pressed the creature back, but then I noticed our suit lights wavering. A low power warning came on. Somehow the creature was draining the power from our suits.
There wasn’t much time but I felt we had it on the run. We kept on firing, concentrating our fire at the central mass of the creature.
Slugs thudded into it in a continual stream and it lurched and staggered before eventually collapsing in a mass of flailing limbs. Suddenly its egg sack burst and a cluster of smaller creatures spilled out.
Methodically we finished them. We kept on until there was nothing left but a mass of bloody pulp.
Once the situation was under control Veldin rushed over to Santino. To our relief, although the professor was injured he was OK.
It was clear that we had found the Ancient’s power source and, if I was not mistaken, we were standing beneath the ‘silver trees’ that Santino had spotted up on the ridge. It seemed likely that they were in fact lightning conductors that were set to fuel the pillars.
With the death of the giant energy leech the intensity of power in the columns steadily increased. Elsewhere in the complex lights were coming on as the system was restored. I wondered if unleashing it was such a good idea, but it was a little late for that now.
In the rock above us there was a fracture, presumably where the creature had got in, but for the time being there was no way to get up there and seal it, and there were no other exits. So, with Santino injured and our immediate objective completed, I gave the order to withdraw and we returned to the Salvation.
