The Lost Voyager: A Space Opera Novel (7 page)

A twisted piece of metal screeched against the graphene suit, but the hard material resisted splitting. Another rock bounded past him and thumped against the pile collecting at the bottom of the staircase. With only two meters to go, the gap widened to allow Mach to crouch. He immediately got to his feet and rushed forward, descending into the start of the tunnel.
 

“Mach, behind you!” Babcock said over comm.

Mach turned. A head-sized lump of metal stuck his shoulder, sending him flying back and crashing against the ground.
 

Stars flashed in front of his eyes. He moved his shoulder and winced at the pain. A small bug, with chunky black legs and an oval orb for a body, scuttled across his visor. Its legs tapped across the transparent surface.
 

The bug rose on its two back legs and dropped, striking two small fangs against the visor with a click. Thick yellow venom sprayed out and dribbled down the side.
 

Mach grimaced then smiled at the bug’s ambitious but ultimately stupid reaction. “You’re not getting through, little fella.”

But even as he said that, he watched with horror as his visor’s outer polycarbonate coating bubbled underneath the venom. The HUD blinked red and flashed up an emergency alert. The venom was compromising the visor’s integrity.

Chapter Six

Mach shook his head from side to side. The bug slid off his visor, leaving a trail of toxic venom. Sharp pain shot through his shoulder as he tried to raise his glove to squash the thumbnail-sized creature.

The bug scuttled under a crushed piece of plastic tubing on the ground, but Mach had a more immediate concern. Polycarbonate continued to bubble and a small section in front of his left eye, where the venom pooled, sagged inward as if it was made from plastic wrap. The HUD alert flashed an imminent breach.
 

Wiping the venom off with his glove would possibly melt through Mach’s hand. He raced through options in his mind, grunted back to his feet, and staggered to the pile of rubble covering the staircase.
 

Babcock’s helmet strip shone through the dust, creating a murky light blue glow between gaps in the smashed pieces of concrete.
 

“Are you okay, Mach?” Babcock asked.
 

“I’ll live. Have you got your claytronic kit with you?”

“Yep. What do you need?”

“A new helmet, and quick.”

“I’ll start assembling.”

Mach leaned over the rough pieces of concrete and scrambled up. The HUD stability measurement clicked down from twenty percent to fifteen in five seconds. He pushed all thoughts about the stability of the debris to one side and scrambled up the narrow gap, scraping the back of his suit and helmet against the ceiling as he raced for the top of the staircase.
 

Pieces of rubble thumped down into the tunnel below after he thrust his boots against them. When the measurement reached two percent, Mach took a deep breath. A moment later, a small hole appeared in his visor.
 

The freezing, carbon-dioxide-heavy atmosphere of Noven Beta rushed inside. Mach’s face tightened against the stinging cold. He focused, clambered the last two meters up, and ascended back to the warehouse.
 

Babcock stood next to the bottom half of an assembling helmet. Millions of nanoscale robots formed a sparkling silver rim on top, working to the instructions he gave them to create it. Squid Two floated over the expanding shape with extended tentacles and chirped.
 

“Twenty seconds,” Babcock said and turned to Mach. “Are you okay?”

Mach’s lungs were at the bursting point. His dry eyes bulged as he held his breath. He returned a nod and pointed at the hole in his visor.
 

“Oh, I see,” Babcock said.

The HUD display flickered and cut as the hole in the visor expanded. Mach squeezed his eyes shut. His body shook and stars flashed in front of his eyes. He grabbed his helmet, twisted it off and threw it across the warehouse floor.
 

Feeling his legs buckle, Mach dropped to one knee. He held out his hands, hoping a new replacement would be placed in them at any second. It felt like he’d waited a minute already.
 

“It’s complete,” Babcock said. “Hold steady.”

The lower rim pushed into place around Mach’s neck. He heard the reassuring click of his new helmet locking into place against his support pack. The temperature warmed and the HUD pinged to life.
 

Mach opened his eyes and gasped for air. He dropped to all fours while regulating his breath.
 

Babcock passed him his Stinger rifle. “That was a bit close for comfort.”

“Thanks, Babs. You’re a lifesaver.” Mach slung his weapon over his shoulder and glanced around the quiet warehouse.
 

“What happened down there?”

“A little insect’s venom. Stamp on any and you’ll see.”

“Interesting. I haven’t come across an insect species that can do that kind of thing.”

Mach sighed and rose to his feet. “The last thing I’d call it is interesting. I’m going back down. Be ready to do the same thing.”

Babcock nodded. Squid Two drifted toward the staircase and shone its tentacle light down. Mach took a moment for composure, then activated his strip light and moved over to the gap in the ground.
 

The previous descent and climb had created more space and revealed larger chunks of rubble below. This allowed for easier movement and Mach made swift progress to the tunnel. His boots landed with a crunch and he glanced at the piece of plastic tubing the bug had scuttled under.
 

It didn’t seem a good idea to go hunting for creatures with such corrosive power. Mach edged around shattered pieces of concrete and advanced deeper down the dark tunnel. The ground inclined and the debris cleared. He passed through a set of swing doors and entered a large space with a dark machine, presumably the generator, at the center of it.
 

“I’m here,” Mach said through his comm. “What’s first?”

“Do you see any lights?” Babcock said. “The generator’s battery should still be powering them.”

“Nothing. Let me have a look around.”

Mach circled the generator, passed a dark control panel to his left, and walked to the far side of the room. Nine green lights winked on the back wall. Each had a red button below, under a transparent casing.
 

“I can see them, and a row of buttons,” Mach said.
 

“Place the token in the slot above them. When the lights turn white, hit the buttons from left to right to activate the boot sequence.”

“As simple as that?”

“The token acts as a switch,” Babcock replied. “It’s OreCorp we’re dealing with here.”

Mach recognized the contempt in Babcock’s response and wondered if he was offended by the simplicity of the operation or just hated the large corporations. Whatever the reason, their potential payday made it irrelevant. He grabbed the token from his thigh pocket and placed its edge into the thin dark slot. Internal working parts behind the wall smoothly swallowed the token with a quiet electric whine.

After pressing each button, all lights changed, and the token ejected. Three dull mechanical thuds came from behind the wall and the generator in the center of the room whirred.

A holographic keyboard blinked alive on the control panel. A single black screen flashed to life above it and white data streamed across it.

Fluorescent lights flickered on overhead, bathing the generator room and tunnel in artificial yellow light.
 

“How’s it looking up there?” Mach asked.
 

“Sufficient for our requirements. Make sure you grab the token. I’ll need it in the command center.”

Mach pulled it from the slot and slipped it back in his pocket. Relief washed over him as he made his way around the humming generator. The first part of OreCorp’s request could be executed, which guaranteed half of their payment, but it was the easy half. At some stage, he knew he’d have to tell the crew the real story.
 

Sparks crackled and fizzed across a gloomy section of the tunnel. Mach quickened his pace, glanced across at an exposed length of split cable, and hoped it wouldn’t cause any issues above ground. He reached the bottom of the staircase and wasted no time clambering up the covering of debris to the top.
 

The warehouse lights were out around the damaged ceiling, but the front half, leading to the command center, shone down over the dusty machines and mining tools.
 

Adira and Sanchez stood chatting to Babcock and Squid Two.
 

Mach eased out of the gap, dusted himself down, and struggled back into his shell.
 

Sanchez looked over his shoulder and smiled. “I hear you were nearly taken out by a bug?”

“Takes more than a pest to kill me,” Mach replied.

Sanchez turned away. Mach fished the token out of his pocket and placed it against Babcock’s chest. “Time to do your thing. Let’s destroy that data and get the hell out of here.”

***

Mach followed Babcock through the opaque glass door into the command center. The place had a safer feel with bright circular ceiling lights glaring down at regular intervals and the rest of the facility cleared. All five wall-screens were on standby mode and lights on the console winked. Sanchez sat back on a central workstation chair and rested his boots on the desk. Adira joined Mach below the screens.
 

“Find any clues to what happened here?” Mach asked.
 

“Pools of frozen blood next to the transport door but nothing else. Besides the three men, it’s deserted.”
 

Babcock placed the security token into a round indent on the console. A touchpad slid out and an orange holographic screen appeared above it. He keyed in commands and strings that Mach didn’t recognize.
 

Thousands of digits, letters and symbols flowed along the screen. Squid Two hovered closer, paused for a moment, and beeped twice. Babcock nodded.

“Found what we need?” Mach said.
 

“There’s a hidden directory. Squid Two’s capturing the contents before I delete it.”

“Are you sure that’s the data we’ve been asked to destroy?”

“Unless they’re worried about their operations logs, video feeds or resource management information getting out, I’d say so. I’ll purge everything just to be sure, including the backup data. Provided there’s no physical copies, it’ll do the job.”

“Will that leave this place screwed?” Adira said.
 

Mach shrugged. “Who cares? OreCorp can come back and reconfigure if they want to use it again. It does leave one question, though. Whoever attacked this place… did they take a copy?”

Babcock fiddled with the pad. “The directory hasn’t been accessed since it was placed here. I think it’s safe to assume they didn’t.”

“Probably a rogue attack,” Sanchez said. “Easy target for marauders outside the Sphere. What’s in this directory, anyway?”

“Sensitive company information,” Mach said, trying to be as vague as possible. “You know how corporations like to bury dirty secrets.”

“Don’t I ever. I’ve been one of those secrets more than a few times.”

Adira narrowed her emerald eyes and glared at Mach. He suspected she might see straight through his high-level baloney. Being naïve wasn’t a normal character trait for a lethal assassin.

“I’ll analyze the information later,” Babcock said. “We’re nearly done.”

“We don’t need a copy,” Mach said.

“Don’t worry. OreCorp’s secrets are safe with Squid Two and me.”

At some stage the reason would have to come out. Mach wondered if letting Babcock break the news might be a good way to do it. He could feign surprise and the crew would already be committed.
 

“What about the security feeds?” Adira said, gazing up at the blank screens. “Can you find one for outside the transport door? See if we can see who or what caused those pools of blood?”

“One job at a time,” Babcock said.
 

Data stopped streaming across the holographic display. Squid Two descended back to the height of Babcock’s shoulder and its silver tentacles drooped. Mach raised his eyebrows at the speed the older man continued to tap the pad.
 

Babcock input a long command, spun in his chair, and extravagantly raised his index finger. “Just say the word and the deed is done.”

“Do it,” Mach said. “Start a planet-wide scan next. See if we can locate
Voyager
.”

A 3D image of the planet flashed up and slowly rotated. Markers lit up around the sphere, joined by lines to form a grid system.
 

“It might take thirty minutes,” Babcock said. “I’ve input parameters to search for anything that’s appeared in the last two months.”

Mach raised his smart-screen. “Lassea, Tulula, you can bring the drone in. We’ve started a search from here.”

“Roger that,” Lassea instantly replied.
 

“What about the security feeds?” Adira said.
 

“Coming right up,” Babcock said.
 

The five screens on the wall blinked to life. One displayed the
Intrepid
’s vague outline on the dark strip of land in front of the facility. Three showed locations inside the facility. The final one focused on a murky area.
 

“There’s thirty cameras and they last recorded two weeks ago,” Babcock said. “I’ll load the last few minutes of the footage outside the transport door.”

The first screen switched from the
Intrepid.
A running clock in the top right corner displayed local date and time from two weeks ago. The open transport door threw out a shaft of artificial light. Two figures dressed in bulky atmosphere suits stood at the edge of the shot, looking skyward.
 

Mach stepped closer and pointed at them. “Is that where you saw the blood?”