Euthara (49 page)

Jon returned the salute as he spoke, “Report.”

A Marine Corporal stepped forward as he spoke, “The doors are sealed Sir. No one has entered or exited through them and we can’t access the system to open them.”

Before Jon could speak Atlantis frowned and stepped forward and looked around the door. Then placed her hand on the access panel and shook her head. She turned back to Jon as she spoke, “This area is a dark spot in my sensors. I can’t see beyond this point and I can’t access any systems past this door. Including the system that controls this door. It’s as if someone has yanked all my connections from this point forward.”

“How? The ship is you,” Breq said. “How could someone do this and you not know?”

“There was a routine maintenance check ran in this section in the past two days,” Atlantis said. “It could have been done while that was happening as I’m disconnected from most systems when they’re checked to prevent any feedback or inadvertent usage while the checks are run.”

Jon arched an eyebrow. “Who was in charge of the check on this section?” he asked .

Atlantis opened her mouth to speak and then said, “That’s strange the records have been erased. However, I remember there was a check run in this section. Give me a second to dig a bit deeper.”

“Corporal get a Marine Engineer Tech down here to open these doors,” Jon said.

“I’ve already had one dispatched,” the Corporal said. “They should be here momentarily.”

“Good,” Jon said as he nodded. “Have additional forces deployed here and keep the other units in their sections. This will be our entry point and I don’t know what we will find beyond this door.”

“Tech Sergeant Mardius is who authorized and oversaw the maintenance in this section,” Atlantis said.

“Eutharan?” Jon said.

Atlantis nodded as she spoke, “Recent recruit from the defecting troops that showed potential and had the background to do the job. That is why he was promoted so fast, he showed aptitude.”

“Locate him and bring him here. I want to speak to him,” Jon said.

“I’ve already notified the Bridge and they’re sending out security to detain him,” Atlantis said.

“Good, run through any other Eutharan recruited at the same time and have them all detained for the time being,” Jon said. “Then start a sweep of all their records both through the Eutharan main frames and our database and flag any anomalies. Then I want a secondary check done on all personnel on
Atlantis
and any other ADF ship. Again flag anything out of the ordinary for further investigation.”

“That will take some time,” Atlantis said.

“I know, use the other active AI’s to help,” Jon said. “I want you and your sister AIs to handle this. They can link in through my suit and communicate directly with me. Start with the Captains and work your way down. Once the Captains are cleared we can move them into the loop as to what is going on and then they can start dealing with their own ships. But, I want to be apprised of what is going on.”

Brief pain flared in Jon’s head as he finished which made him put his hand on the wall to steady himself. Whatever was going on was getting worse and he was starting to get a little worried. He knew whatever happened to him could affect those women attached to him through the bond and if he died, well he didn’t want to think about that.

Atlantis watched him as she monitored his vitals. Unknown to anyone she was constantly tweaking the nanites in Jon’s bloodstream to help him and to keep his vitals stable. It was however getting harder to do with each passing minute.

Jon was looking down at the floor as he tried to deal with the pain burning through his brain. A cool hand touched his forehead which caused him to look up. Terri was standing there with a look of distress on her face.

“Jon are you okay?” Terri said. “You’re as white as a ghost.”

Jon dropped his hand from the wall and stood upright, giving his sister a smile. “I’m fine, just a bit exhausted and still have a slight headache,” he said.

“Okay, just be careful,” Terri said. “If you need, we can handle things here and you can go back to your room and rest for a bit.”

“No, I need to see this through,” Jon said. “For some reason I feel like I need to be here when we get through this door and into Main Medical.”

“Okay,” Terri said. She glanced over at Breq and Sa’oliq who just nodded their silent acceptance of what Jon said. They might not have liked him pushing himself, but they both understood the need to see something through.

Jon stood up as straight as he could and took a deep breath as he tried to will away the pain that was flowing through his mind. His stomach threatened to force him to his knees as it turned again. Jon closed his eyes and took another deep breath as he focused on calming his stomach.

Just as Jon got most of the pain and nausea under control the Marine Engineering Tech showed up and began working on the door. He hoped it wouldn’t be long before the tech got through the door because he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold out. The strain was starting to wear on Jon and beads of sweat began to form on his brow. He also knew that Andie might be able to help him though she was currently locked on the other side of the door.

Along with his current discomfort he was worried about what they might find on the other side of the door and in Main Medical. Why was the whole section locked off? What reason would there be to do so? It was only a small medical staff and various other personnel. What would who ever had done this gain from locking it off? Unless this was another attempt on the Queen’s life. However, that doesn’t mesh with what they just learned from the man in the Brig. That is if he was telling the truth about the Queen being behind the whole situation here on Euthara.

Then if the Queen was behind the whole thing how was she manipulating the King into doing her bidding and what was she gaining by doing it? Jon actually had more questions right now than answers and it was making it hard for him to think straight as they kept popping up in his mind and he tried to fit all the pieces together.

Jon was snapped out of his thoughts by his com unit. “This is Captain Hunter go ahead,” Jon said.

“Sir this is Lieutenant Najesta in the Sciences Division,” a female voice said.

“What do you have Lieutenant?” Jon said.

“Well, it’s about the other side of Euthara Sir,” Najesta said.

“Go on,” Jon said. By now everyone present was listening in as Najesta spoke.

“Well Sir, it’s clean,” Najesta said. There’s no signs of the virus program or of anything being affected.”

Jon raised an eyebrow as he looked up at the people arrayed around him. “How is that possible?” Jon said.

“We’re still not completely sure but we passed through some type of electronic disturbance about mid planet,” Najesta said. “If I had to guess, I would say whoever is causing what is happening on the other side of the planet has set up some type of deactivation net that doesn’t allow it to be passed to this side.”

“Is that even possible?” Terri said. “I mean the power consumption needed for a net that big would be huge.”

“It’s the bunkers,” Breq said.

Jon looked at him and said, “What do you mean?”

“We thought the bunkers were causing the problems,” Breq said. “And maybe they are. However, what if they’re the power source for the net too? We found large reactors deep down inside the one that was attacked from space. At the time we didn’t think anything of it, thought they were backup systems or something. But what if they were running and helped power this net?”

“There was some destroyed equipment that the engineers had no idea what the function was for,” Jon said. “The question would be how many of these secret bunkers are there and would it be enough to keep this net running? Then you still have the whole question of why would someone do this to the people here.”

“We know there are at least a dozen more bunkers like this one arrayed across the planet in a line,” Terri said. “Our scans show they’re in a perfect line, almost like a wall and I bet if we looked hard enough we would find more of these secret bunkers.”

“A dozen?” Jon said. “I knew we had found a few more but not that many.”

“We learned what to look for after the inspection of the one that was attacked,” Terri said. “We just haven’t had time to scan the rest of the planet. I was in the process of making a report when all this happened. Plus we’ve been a bit busy trying to discover how they worked. The next logical action would have been to take a bunker by force to see how it operated. I had Captain Anders working on a plan for that when things got accelerated.”

Jon nodded, it didn’t seem like a very important thing at this moment. There would be time to correct this problem later and discover the true function of the bunkers. Plus he trusted his sister’s ability to deal with the situation. “Well, after this is all done I’ll leave it up to you to figure these bunker things out,” Jon said to Terri. “But, I still don’t understand the why. Why would someone do this to an entire planet, what is there to gain?”

“That I might have an answer to ,” Najesta said.

“Really?” Jon said. “Please explain.”

“We’ve detected a large city on this side of the planet,” Najesta said. “It only became visible to us because we got close enough to get a faint power reading that drew our attention. We sent whiskers out to investigate and they stumbled upon a city full of people.”

They’re using a dampening field to keep themselves hidden from orbital scan and it was just dumb luck we stumbled on them. As far as we can tell it is a fully functioning city and has a population in the millions. It’s much larger than the Crown City and they have transport ships coming and going.”

“What? How come we’ve never seen them?” Jon said.

“They’re using the same dampening field to mask their signatures as far as we can tell, and, they have cloaking devices,” Najesta said. “Sir, I would like permission to gather data on this net using a few whiskers. If the Matriarch would have her people transmit the data from their findings we might be able to discover the rest of these bunkers.”

Jon looked over at Terri who just nodded as she spoke into her com. “They’ll be transmitting the data shortly,” Jon said. “Keep me informed.”

“Yes Sir,” Najesta said. “What would you like me to do about the city?”

“I’ll handle that,” Jon said. “For now, focus on the net and these bunkers.”

“Of course Sir,” Najesta said.

“Hunter out,” Jon said as he closed the connection. “Lieutenant Patel I assume you were monitoring the communication,” Jon said.

“Yes, Sir,” Patel said. “Though we already knew about everything that had been discovered. I was just waiting on your orders.”

“Well, you handle the situation,” Jon said. “Pick a Special Forces team and have them recon this city to gather intelligence about what is going on there. I suggest you make them all Eutharan though. Also keep some whiskers around the city in low power mode and try to get ship IDs and cargo scans. I would like to know what is coming and going. If you can, get a tracking beacon on one of the ship so we can see where they’re going.”

“Yes Sir,” Patel said. “I’ve already contacted Lieutenant Oojoung and he’s sending me his best Eutharan people. He also said to let you know he is in the area and if you need him just holler.”

Jon chuckled, when is that guy never around. “Thanks for letting me know,” Jon said.

“I’ll help them with the tracking and scanning of these ships,” Atlantis said. “If you need me holler, but I’m afraid there’s not much I can do beyond these doors as I can’t even manifest myself there.”

“Atlantis will be joining you to help you with the recon and such,” Jon said as he nodded. “Keep an eye on my family please.”

Atlantis reached out and put her hand on his cheek. “And you of course,” Atlantis said as she faded from view.

“Yes Sir, operations are now underway,” Patel said.

“Do try to keep us hidden, even if you have to take up an orbital position,” Jon said. “I want surprise on our side.”

“Of course Sir,” Patel said. “I’ve already put us back across the net and have been following it in a weaving pattern.”

This man was going to make a good Captain and Jon aimed to see that he got every chance. “Smart, keep up the good work,” Jon said. “Oh, one last thing, contact Captain Anders and have him stop the attack and hold position. Just tell him we’re having ship problems and he needs to delay until we can support him.”

“Yes Sir,” Patel said.

“Carry on then Lieutenant,” Jon said as he disconnected the link.

“That man will make a very dangerous Captain,” Breq said.

Jon nodded his agreement. “Good thing he is on our side,” he said.

“Sir, I think I’ve got it,” the Engineering Tech said.

Jon took a step towards the bulkhead doors as he said, “Open it.”

The control panel lit up and the doors cycled open as the Tech shunted power from his portable to the control panel. Rifles immediately focus on the black darkness beyond the door. Jon stood there staring into the darkness for a second before he motioned to the marines around him.

The Marines began making their way into the dark corridor scanning for anything out of the ordinary. They used a standard leap frog pattern as the team split into two separate units and start working their way down each side of the corridor.

Jon motioned to the Marine Engineer Tech as he spoke, “You’re with me.”

“Yes, Sir,” the Tech said as he fell in next to Jon and grabbed his weapon after stowing the last of his gear.

“Sir,” Patel’s voice said from Jon’s com unit. It made Jon give a small jump in surprise as he wasn’t expecting it.

Jon adjusted the volume down and spoke softly, “Hunter here.”

“Sir, we’ve located Tech Sergeant Mardius,” Patel said.

“Well, we’re a bit busy here right now. Just put him in the Brig I’ll talk to him later,” Jon said.

“Sir, he’s been shot,” Patel said. “It looks like an execution style slaying.”

“Someone didn’t want him talking,” Sa’oliq said.

“Which means there are more hostiles aboard,” Breq said.

“I want all Marines in Engineering sections and the Bridge doubled,” Jon said. “No one in no one out. Contact Oojoung and have him send you extra Marines to both those locations. I want all new personnel, Eutharan or not, rounded up and taken to landing bay two and placed under heavy guard until we can figure out what is going on here and who is and isn't involved.”