CH22

A soft hum could be heard as the hatch blocking our path slid open revealing another corridor and the little drone returned to its place. Draco was walking at the front with his gun, ready to greet our hosts when they arrive. I, on the other hand, served as nothing more than a walking platform for the robo-spider that glued itself to my arm. To boot I really felt like a total Cute Robot's Amazing Platform after the jump. Not that I was complaining of course, free falling on the surface of an alien planet with zero control over your own body is not the best possible warm up for a fight. The “smooth landing” Eclipse promised has also given us a few bruises. Super advanced artificial intelligence my ass.

“This place… Looks familiar, doesn’t it?” I heard my brother’s whisper inside my helmet. Even though the atmosphere here was breathable we stayed in the vacuum suits. The protection they offered against any real weapons was probably minuscule but still better than nothing.

“That it does. It feels like we are still on the ship,” I looked around the corridor. The same bare grey walls, barely illuminated by the eye-hurting glow. “At least we can guess whose party we’re gonna wreck. And why the fuck do they need all those domes, never heard about ceilings?”

“You can say it’s a cultural issue,” I could still hear a rebellious tune in Ilmine’s voice. “Although Sa’der can live and function on a planet’s surface they are a subterranean species. From what I know, their cities are made in the exact same way. Dome-like structures deep in the ground connected by long tunnels that are connected with bigger domes that are connected to other tunnels and so on. A real underground maze.”

“And a nightmare for any invader,” I said imagining fighting an all-out war in such a place. Did they even know such concept? In practical terms? Well, I had nothing against familiarizing them with it.

“So what, they’re like ants?” Draco asked curiously.

“No, Sa’der are not like ants.” I could almost see Ilmine face-palm. “They are a highly advanced race with complicated social and economic structures. As one of the oldest society-”

“Not ants, got it.” Seeing how Ilmine was about to enter her teacher-mode I had to cut her off. Another time maybe. “By the way Eclipse, are you completely sure it is safe to carry this little guy like that? You told me there will be another AI lurking down here.”

The drone I carried was almost weightless and it was quite easy to ignore its existence if not for the fact that it had the capabilities to literally torn off my arm. And that could be bothersome.

“I am positive, sir. The device is fairly simple, crude even. Apart from the hardware appearance it has a little in common with the larger repair drones you had met on board. The only way to hack it would require someone to be on the ship or me to terminate the signal. Neither of these options is possible.”

Who was I to argue?

We walked for good two minutes only to find another hatch blocking our path. Left with no choice, I activated our little friend once again and watched as it was climbing the smooth surface only to stop over a small black rectangle in the middle of the hatch. Probably a control panel of some sort.

“Captain, it appears the AI has initiated the lockdown procedure for this facility,” Eclipse reported.

“What does it mean? Are we trapped?” Draco and I exchanged glances.

“Not at all. But it may take some time to override it. Approximately 7.435 minutes.”

Great, another delay, just what we needed. At least we did not have to worry about running out of oxygen.

“Hey, Eclipse, if it’s so easy than why did those ugly shitheads couldn’t touch us when we were locked on the bridge?” Draco suddenly asked. “Thought they were pretty crafty with all the technical bullshit at their disposal.”

Hmm, good question. Actually, I never thought of that. There must have been some tiny robots they could use, right? Than why not?

“The situation back then was very different, sir. This facility was built so that virtually any AI could operate it without fulfilling any special requirements. Even without the help of an AI this place could function properly, thou that would most likely inconvenience and slow down any research projects that are being conducted here. In case of a ship, especially one as highly advanced as myself, the AI has to be present and it must be designed from scratch. It has to be fully compatible with the vessel. That is why me and the ship are one. When I am offline the ship becomes nothing more than a wreck. Beautiful and graceful, if I may add, but still a wreck.”

“Hmm, and this AI here… You think it might get pissed if we start blowing things up?”

“Highly doubtful. I may not be the most knowledgeable Artificial Intelligence in the Galaxy in my current state, but the rules biding me are – as far as I know – universal. If I were to conclude anything from the available information, sir, I would say that the AI residing in this facility is more of a lab assistant than a mighty overseer.”

In fact, that was mostly in line with the little bit of data we had regarding AIs. From what I could remember Eclipse was not terribly upset when he found out what had happened to his previous crew.

“It is done. Should I open the hatch, captain?”

Well? I turned my head to see Draco nodding. Not that we could do much on this side.

“Do it.”

The hatch split in a star-like pattern and retracted into the walls. We entered carefully, our bodies tensed. And inside…

“Wow.”

Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

Just behind the now opened entrance there was a square platform. Standing on it we had a perfect view on a huge hall. We were at least 70 meters above the floor level and there was still some distance to the highest point of the dome. The floor itself had to have no less than 50 meters in diameter.

“What the hell is that?”

Right in the middle of the hall stood… something. I would call it a giant statue for the lack of a better word. Roughly humanoid, the thing was clearly incomplete. I could not spot any eye-catching details before it simply blinked out of existence.

“A hologram.” But of what?

No time to think. Just as we were distracted by the moloch, the platform started sliding down.