Infiltrated
Ava planted two more demolition charges at intersections she passed on the next floor.
She numbered them on her HUD and could activate each with a flick of her eyes if necessary.
Something she remembered Ethan explaining came back to her. It had been a supposedly ancient battle on Old Earth involving three hundred soldiers holding off an army of one hundred thousand by defending a narrow mountain pass and preventing the larger force from surrounding them.
Kane had been very interested, but Ethan admitted he wasn’t certain how the story ended. He only knew that the three hundred had eventually been defeated, though their tactic had worked for a time.
Ava had told him the three hundred must have been stupid for thinking they could hold off so many soldiers.
Ethan had laughed and agreed.
Kane had argued otherwise.
“You might find that we don’t always get to choose our battles. Sometimes they are forced upon us. What matters then is controlling what you can. Those men chose to fight somewhere the enemy’s numbers offered no advantage. They removed the enemy’s mobility and forced them into a tight kill zone that couldn’t be flanked. Controlling the enemy’s movement is actually very intelligent. Whether those men truly existed or not, it makes for a good story and a valuable lesson,” Kane had said.
Ava did not know whether the story of the three hundred was apocryphal, a fable, or based on real events.
But Kane had made her think.
She had not chosen this opponent, but she still had to fight. The only way she could possibly survive was to take advantages away from the enemy.
She needed to remove their freedom of movement.
She needed to take away their control of the battlefield.
They knew the base as it currently existed, but it would begin to look very different once each section was isolated and the connecting corridors were blasted apart.
Ava tried to remain calm, but her entire body had begun shuddering as though she were standing in soaked clothing inside the cargo bay of the
9Lives
.
Fear, she realized.
Fear and uncertainty.
She forced herself to think of her father and imagined his words calming her.
Stay calm and keep moving,
he would have said.
She took a deep breath and moved forward.
The halls were narrower on this level, and a thick bundle of cables ran beneath the low ceiling.
Ava reached up and tugged on the bundled cords.
They were rigid.
Carefully, she allowed them to support some of her body weight and realized they could easily hold her.
She released them and dropped back to the floor.
There was enough space between the cables and the ceiling for her to squeeze into if necessary.
That was good to know.
She turned her attention back toward the corridor.
There were four doors along each side and another at the far end, sectioning it off from the next hall.
Ava stepped forward, intending to peer through the oval window set into each door.
She had already cleared several rooms without encountering anyone, and her hopes had begun to rise.
Perhaps the base was operating with a skeleton crew.
But she knew there were times when the
9Lives
felt too cramped for its small crew and others when it felt like a ghost ship.
It depended on shifts and duties.
If the personnel were breaking for food or sleep, they might all be concentrated within particular sections of the base. If the base operated multiple shifts, perhaps only a third of the population would be on duty at any given time.
Her HUD showed the time as 0439. Most of the crew might be inside barracks or private quarters.
Of course, not every station or vessel followed Human Galactic Standard timekeeping except when receiving cargo or communicating with other ships and worlds.
The second door on the left hissed and began opening.
Ava startled and jumped upward to grab the bundle of cables. She planted her feet against the corridor walls and activated her mag locks.
Using them to push herself higher, she scrambled atop the bundled wires. She planted her boots against the ceiling, activated the mag locks again for stability, and gripped the cables with both hands.
“I am telling you, this thing is like nothing we have ever seen before. The materials alone make it the greatest discovery we have made, and it is still operational. Can you believe that?” said a man as he entered the hallway.
Another voice answered.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Yes, it is a significant find, but the communications we received indicate there are no known controls or control devices.”
The second voice was older and more tired. The first was filled with youthful optimism.
“We have time. We will learn everything we can. It is possible we do not possess every necessary component. Once we extract the location where it was recovered, we can send a team to assess the site. But all of that can wait. You need to see him. Perhaps you can extract some secrets from him.”
The two men walked farther away.
Ava peered around the cable bundle and watched them pass through the door at the far end of the hallway.
When it closed, she slid from the cables and dropped onto the metal floor.
She quick-stepped down the corridor, peering through the windows as she went.
The four rooms were small offices, each containing two desks and fixed data-slate terminals.
Ava reached the far door and carefully leaned toward its viewing window.
The door opened.
A single person stood directly before her, dressed in a flimsy medical suit designed only to protect the wearer from biological contaminants. A reflective mask covered the person’s entire head.
Ava did not think.
She punched the person in the throat, grabbed the front of the suit, and dragged them into the corridor and back toward the nearest office—the same one the two men had recently exited.
The body was heavy, but the enhanced strength of Ava’s suit allowed her to move quickly.
She shut the door behind her, absently striking the control panel, then turned toward her captive.
The person was still moving, kicking from the floor and clutching at their throat.
Their hands managed to release the seal on the mask and pull it free.
What Ava saw shocked her.
A young man, no older than she was.
His face was clean-shaven, and his hair was cut short. His blue eyes were wide and searching, struggling to comprehend what was happening.
Ava felt a lump form in her throat as she saw the ruin of his neck.
The punch had collapsed his windpipe, and he was struggling to draw breath.
He was dying.
Slowly suffocating.
Terrified.
Ava almost ran into the corridor and called for help.
These people appeared to be scientists and doctors. Surely one of them could save him.
She remembered a section of survival training that had covered field surgery.
An emergency tracheotomy.
Cut into the neck below the obstruction or damaged area and insert a tube to create an open airway.
Ava had her knife. Her pocket torch, used for precise mineral cutting, could be disassembled, and one component might serve as a temporary airway.
Ava did not move.
She watched the young man claw at his throat as tears formed in her eyes.
She could not save him.
She would not alert anyone else to her presence.
They had started this.
But he stared at her with wild, bulging eyes and mouthed something.
No intelligible sound emerged, but the meaning was obvious.
Please help me.
He screamed it silently.
Ava nearly turned away.
Instead, she knelt beside him and clasped both hands around his head.
He feebly grabbed at her arms, pleading.
She closed her eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks and twisted his head sharply until she heard a snap.
The body went limp in her hands.
His grasping fingers fell away.
Ava remained kneeling there, crying over the dead man and wondering who he had been and what had brought him to this place.
Had he been the young man speaking in the hallway moments earlier, standing on the verge of some great discovery?
He had died before learning what it might mean for him, his career, or his research.
Ava forced herself to stand.
She looked away from the body and moved toward the door.
If the older man returned, she would have to add another corpse to the floor.
She had been lucky. She had reacted quickly.
She was in a softer section of the base. The people she encountered here were more dangerous if they raised an alarm than if they attempted to fight her.
Ava wanted to collapse in that moment. She could still see the young man’s face even as she refused to glance in his direction.
The seconds continued passing.
She realized she was stalling.
Standing still gave her mind time to wander and torment her with what she was being forced to do.
Ava activated the door and stepped back into the hallway, sealing it behind her.
She returned to the far door and peered through its oval window.
The room beyond was large compared with every other room she had encountered except the vehicle bay.
The ceiling offered perhaps thirty feet of clearance. The room was about forty feet wide and fifty feet long.
All manner of machines and instruments filled the space—exactly the sort of equipment Ava imagined a high-tech laboratory would contain. Several workstations were scattered throughout, seemingly pushed toward the edges.
At the far end, the artifact dominated the room.
It looked different.
Wider.
Shorter, perhaps.
Ava remembered that the holo projection had shown its dimensions changing, but this was more substantial.
It was now wider than it was tall, standing only seven feet high and perhaps ten feet across.
At first, she thought they had laid it on its side, but the upper edges angled inward into the familiar band of facets she knew too well.
It had changed shape.
Ava’s heart sank as she examined the room.
She had been wondering where or when she would encounter a large group of people.
The answer was here.
And now.
Six scientists in white biological suits milled around near the artifact, fully absorbed in their work.
Eight others wore the same dark-red suits as those who had attacked her team.
One more wore assault armor.
They all stood at an easy state of readiness, though most were focused either on the artifact or on unloading crates near the larger door. Ava assumed it led toward a freight elevator or another cargo transport system.
The room was brightly illuminated by directional lights above the work areas, while the rest remained dim.
Ava had been lucky to react so quickly when she encountered the young man at the door. Everyone present appeared primarily focused on their new acquisition or assigned duties.
Ava pulled away from the window as the person in assault armor turned to look in her direction.
She was confident she had not been seen, but she had not managed to take in the entire room.
Ava thought quickly about what she was going to do.
Or, more accurately, whether she was truly about to do what she believed she needed to do.
She ran down the hall and through the doorway leading into the next corridor.
She planted her final demo charges, one on either side of the passageway, hiding them near the ceiling.
Then she returned to the previous corridor and used her mag locks to climb above the cable bundle.
She triggered the explosives.