Impulse, page 10
part #12 of First Colony Series
“Just in case we get separated,” Connor answered.
Noah walked next to Sepal. “You’re a historian?”
The Ovarrow’s head bobbed as he walked. “I have multiple skills, but to answer your question directly, yes, a part of my duties is keeping and sharing knowledge of historical events and practices.”
Noah frowned and the edges of his lips quirked a little. “That’s a lot for anyone to take on.”
The Ovarrow shared a common ancestry that included reptiles, which gave them the vertical pupils that most colonists found unsettling until they got used to them. Sepal looked at Noah and his gaze grew in intensity. “Execution of my duties has always been to the level of my peers as required. My proclivity for processing information is beyond the normalcy for my kind.”
Noah looked at Connor. “I think something is getting lost in translation here.”
“Yeah, you’re almost insulting him.”
Noah’s mouth hung open a little and he glanced at Sepal. “I didn’t mean to. If I’ve offended you, please accept my sincerest apologies.”
“Give me a break,” Diaz scoffed.
Sepal looked at Diaz.
“He was just asking you a couple of questions. No need to be so uptight about it.”
Sepal cocked his head to the side.
“Wait a second,” Connor said. “The Mekaal take their assigned roles seriously.”
Diaz shrugged, unconvinced. “Well, so do we. What’s your point?”
“The point is that the Mekaal make their decisions based on the capabilities of the individual. There is no room for bruised egos when it comes to assigned tasks. Everyone’s place must be in service of all. They earn their places among their peers.”
“Well, what’s his problem then?” Diaz asked and looked at Sepal.
Sepal seemed to relax. “There is no problem here, but there seems to be an increase in an emotional response from you. Yes, there is a marked increase in temperature that suggests a hastiness for anger.”
Diaz blinked several times and Noah laughed.
“What are you laughing at?”
“I just think it’s funny that he called you emotional.”
“That’s a new one,” Connor agreed.
Diaz looked as if he was deciding whether to be offended by the Mekaal historian. Instead, he smiled wolfishly. “I’m one big bundle of joy. Now, let’s take a look around.”
They began to explore the factory. Connor thought they might have found a warehouse, but he’d been wrong.
“Emotional,” Diaz grumbled to himself. He looked at Connor. “Watch out! I’m thinking of expressing my emotions vehemently.”
Connor snorted and kept walking. Lenora came over to him. Her personal holoscreen was running an analysis program that attempted to recreate the area they were in.
“See the walls over there? Same artwork.”
“Company logo, maybe,” Connor said.
“Could be. At least we’re seeing a pattern.”
“I don’t get it. What’s so important about the logo?” Diaz asked.
“We’ve seen it at other locations. They all seem to have something to do with industrial sites,” Lenora replied.
Diaz shrugged. “It could just be a regional thing.”
“True,” Connor agreed. “We need to find their control systems.”
Noah looked around. “They were using a fair amount of automation, but I doubt anything here would work again, even if we ran power to it.”
They continued walking between long industrial lines that looked to have fallen into disrepair, and it was impossible to determine whether the factory had been in use before the ice age. It could have been shuttered before the ice age was triggered.
Lenora and the others put on smart-glasses that would allow them to see better in the dim light and also helped them identify known systems the Ovarrow used. The data was stored in their wrist computers. The Mekaal soldiers wore night-vision goggles because the glasses the colonists used wouldn’t sit right on their almost non-existent noses. Connor, Diaz, and Noah didn’t need the smart-glasses because they had higher functioning implants—built-in artificial lenses that could do much more than enable them to see in the dark. The CDF had standardized the use of basic implants for all soldiers. The wetware was proven tech that humanity had been using for a long time. Connor had tried to convince Lenora to upgrade her implants, but she’d refused, preferring to use wearable tech.
They continued to explore the factory ruins, eventually splitting up to cover more ground quicker. Sepal and the Mekaal had gone off exploring on their own, while Connor and the others went in a different direction.
They found a series of ramps that led down to the lower levels. Age had left gaping holes in some areas, exposing the substructure that held everything together. Connor went first, moving along the support walls and pausing to attach a rope for the others to hold onto. He made it past the patchwork section and gestured for the others to follow.
“It’s hard to believe there’s this much structure down here,” Diaz said.
“Technically, when we made that initial drop from the rooftop, we landed on the ground floor,” Connor said.
“The landscape has changed that much around here?” Diaz asked.
“In some places,” Lenora replied. “There’s an ongoing effort to study how the ice age changed the topography.”
Diaz frowned. “Where?”
“At the research institute.”
“No, I meant what areas are they studying?”
“Oh, everywhere. We’ve been mapping the planet’s surface since before we arrived here,” Lenora replied. Diaz pinched his lips together. “They use the data we’ve already gathered to pick sites for field research and then try to establish a baseline by region.”
“Scouting for bunkers really advanced those efforts quite a bit,” Connor said.
Noah sneezed and then coughed. “Are they still finding bunkers?”
“Not in our region, but there’s still much of the planet left to explore. The problem is that there isn’t a record of the bunker sites or where they’re located,” Connor said.
“The Mekaal have good ground transportation available, so they can extend their search area,” Noah said.
Diaz sneered. “Not if the Konus have anything to say about it. They’ve been around a lot longer.” He paused and looked at Connor.
“Forty years before we found them. Getting closer to fifty years now.”
Diaz nodded.
Lenora called out for Connor. She’d gone ahead and was peering at a closed door.
Connor caught up to her. “Did you find the control panel?” he asked.
Lenora frowned and shook her head. “It’s not where I expected it to be.” She ran her fingers along the wall left of the door.
Connor looked around the door, searching for a control panel, but the walls were smooth and featureless. He frowned and glanced at the floor. There were several floor panels that he could just about make out. He put down his tool kit and rummaged through the contents, pulling out a pry bar and a small plasma torch.
“Did you find something?” Lenora asked.
“Maybe,” he replied and gestured toward the floor panels.
Lenora backed away from the door and peered at the ground.
He knelt down and pushed the edge of the pry bar into the edge of the panel, working the hardened edge in under the lip by moving it side to side.
“Come on, put your back into it,” Diaz said and grinned.
Connor pulled the pry bar up and then pushed the end farther inside. As he worked it in, the floor panel began to come apart. Hundreds of years had fused the tightly fitting panels.
Diaz came to his side and shoved his own pry bar into the opening. Together, they forced the opening wider and then heaved. The floor panel popped up with a metallic groan and a clang. Underneath was more subflooring, but those came out with minimal effort.
“Noah, pass me the portable power generator,” Connor said.
Noah handed Connor a small rectangular box with a few power cables wrapped around it and then knelt down, looking at the cables in the floor. “That one right there?” he asked, pointing to an old power line.
“Go for it,” Connor said.
Noah connected the generator and turned it on. Then, Connor raised his wrist computer and scanned for the door control interface. He quickly found it, and multiple sections of the door pulled away in swirling pieces faster than he could count.
“Keep it connected,” Connor said. He’d prefer to avoid being trapped on the other side once they went through.
Connor peered inside the control center, and the light from his wrist computer reflected off multiple computer stations. Ovarrow consoles had a circular base that came up from the floor and widened at the top. Typically, the computer interface was projected onto a mesh screen, but as expected, the mesh display screen had long since deteriorated.
Lenora walked to the nearest console and connected a portable holographic interface. A few moments later, an amber holoscreen appeared, and an Ovarrow translator outputted the data in a format the colonists could read.
They went to the other consoles and connected a data exfiltration device. They’d found that it was easier to extract all the data they could from local storage and do their own analysis with the vastly superior computers they’d brought with them.
“This one only has local storage,” Noah said.
“I’ve got one that connects to a backup system. Shouldn’t take long to retrieve what’s there,” Connor said.
A comlink notification appeared on his HUD.
“General Gates, do you copy?” Sergeant Tui asked.
“I read you.”
“We’re not alone at this site, General. There is a Konus scout force making its way into the city southwest of our camp. They’ve got at least forty soldiers with them.”
The others looked at Connor. “Understood, Sergeant. Task a recon drone to keep an eye on them.”
“Yes, General,” Sergeant Tui replied, and the comlink disconnected.
“Son of a… Konus?” Diaz groused.
“How far are we from their city?” Noah asked.
“About seven hundred kilometers,” Connor replied.
“Do they normally venture out this far?”
“They can, but none of our reports have shown them in any of the areas we’re planning to visit,” Connor said.
Lenora stowed their data storage devices in her pack.
“Should we contact them?” Noah asked.
“Are you kidding me?” Diaz said.
“No, I’m not kidding. We’re here and so are they.”
They both looked at Connor.
He’d rather avoid contact with them if he could. Communication with the Konus wasn’t cordial in any sense of the word. The CDF had fought the Konus when they’d tried to invade Shetrian and absorb the Mekaal into their numbers. The conflict had cost a lot of lives, and in the years since, there had been few efforts at establishing diplomatic relations with the Konus. Connor wasn’t involved in any of that.
The Konus were rigid in their approach to survival. Their methods were based on practices that had existed before the ice age. The differences between the Konus and Mekaal had become more prevalent over the years. The Mekaal had chosen to ally with the colony and adapt their civilization to embrace human values. According to their histories, there’d been a time before the Krake when the Ovarrow civilization had embraced many similarities to the nations of Old Earth. The Mekaal were more militaristic than the colony, but the Konus were quick to go to extremes. They viewed ‘survival at all costs’ as a societal norm. And now they were here.
“We’ll talk about what to do about the Konus back at camp,” Connor said.
“I’m finished here. I need some time to review the data we’ve gathered,” Lenora said.
“I’d like to take a look at it, too,” Noah said.
Lenora smiled. “Of course you will.”
“Don’t you want to keep searching here?” Diaz asked.
“There are a few more places to check, but I think this room had the real payload we were searching for,” Connor replied.
11
They returned to camp and began reviewing the data they’d been able to retrieve. Connor left Lenora, Noah, and Kara to work on it.
He accessed the recon drone video feeds. They’d been monitoring the Konus as they began to explore the city, likely searching for a place to camp. There were only a few more hours of daylight left, and Connor had to decide what to do about the situation. Betting on avoiding them wasn’t a reliable option. All the Konus had to do was explore the city and do a proper survey to detect that they weren’t alone there either. The Konus always traveled armed with weapons, and the colonists did the same. Most of the continent would be considered wild frontier except for established population centers. Traveling without some kind of protection was a quick way to an early grave.
Connor closed the video feed and walked to the rover. He opened the storage compartment in the back and transmitted his credentials to the weapons locker, which chimed an acknowledgement and opened. He’d only been carrying a CDF predator pistol, but with the Konus so close by, he needed something with more stopping power. He reached into the locker and pulled out one of the AR-74 assault rifles, standard issue for CDF soldiers because of its versatility and toughness. Loaded with nanorobotic ammunition, the AR-74 could fire different types of projectiles with both explosive and nonexplosive rounds. The default was set for controlled bursts firing three rounds each but could easily fire at full auto. It was just a good all-around weapon that was easy to train with and yet flexible enough to adapt to the capabilities of a real marksman. Connor was an excellent shot, among the best in the colony. There were a few soldiers who could compete with him, but none were with him here.
He heard someone walking toward him and looked up to see Diaz coming around the corner of the rover. His gaze flicked toward the assault rifle, and he smiled and nodded his approval.
Connor gestured toward the weapons locker. “Want one?”
“I’ve already got mine, thanks to you,” Diaz said, gesturing with his thumb toward the tri-barreled shotgun that was attached to his backpack.
“We can’t afford to get caught off guard.”
Diaz looked at the other assault rifles in the weapons locker. “You’ve brought enough, but how many people know how to use them?”
Connor scratched the skin above one of his eyebrows. “Lenora knows her way around one. I don’t think Noah and Kara have practiced all that much recently, but if push came to shove, I believe they could step up if needed. The students definitely have never used one. They’ll stick with the civilian rifles they’re cleared to use. Urret and the rest of his squad are familiar with them, but I expect they’ll prefer to use their own weapons. Are you sure you don’t want one?”
Diaz shook his head. “I’m fine with this.” He pulled out the shotgun. “This baby will get the job done if it comes down to it. What do you intend to do?”
Connor closed the locker and then the storage compartment. “Come on.”
Connor walked to where the CDF squad was waiting for them. Urret and the other Mekaal soldiers were also there.
Sergeant Tui stood up and the other soldiers did the same.
“General Gates, the Konus scouting force is heading in our direction,” Sergeant Tui said.
Diaz shook his head.
“That simplifies things,” Connor said.
“So, we’re going to pack up camp and head to the next waypoint?” Diaz asked.
“Negative,” Connor said and looked at Sergeant Tui. “Who’s your tech specialist?”
“Specialist Cora Weps, General,” Tui replied and gestured toward a female soldier standing nearby.
When Connor looked at her, Specialist Weps stood up straight but not quite at attention.
“Do you have a comms drone in your kit, Specialist?”
“Negative, General. They’re back aboard the ship. I can go retrieve one.”
Connor shook his head. “Not necessary. We’ll use the recon drone. I want you to fly it toward the Konus. Slow and steady. Let them see it coming.”
“Yes, General,” Specialist Weps replied.
Connor watched as she dropped the stealth protocol and engaged the indicator lights so the drone would be easy to spot.
“What are you going to do?” Diaz asked.
“I’m going to tell them we’re here.”
“What for?”
“They’re heading in our direction. I’d much rather they know we’re aware of them than give them the impression that they’ve snuck up on us. Specialist, I’ll take it from here,” Connor said.
“Passing control to you, General Gates,” Weps said.
A data comlink came to prominence on Connor’s wrist computer. The recon drone hovered nearly seven meters in the air. Twenty Konus soldiers were walking toward it. They must have sent a smaller group to scout in a different direction. They were searching the city on foot, but they must have reached the area somehow.
Connor engaged the drone’s holo-projector and a holographic image of him appeared on the ground in front of the approaching Konus.
Ovarrow skin tones favored their reptilian ancestry in various tones of browns and tans, but there were also paler skin complexions, as if they’d covered themselves with gray-colored ash.
Several of the soldiers gestured toward Connor’s holographic image. A few raised their weapons a little but didn’t aim them at the drone.
“Hello,” Connor said. “I’m part of a colonial survey team that’s scouting the city. I just wanted to let you know we’re here. Our camp is a few kilometers away.”
One of the Konus stepped forward. “Have you been following us?”
“No, I assure you that we’re just as surprised to find you here as you are, no doubt, that we’re here.”
The Konus’s eyes flicked up and down. “I recognize you. You’re the CDF General Connor Gates.”
Connor heard Diaz mutter something, but he ignored him. “That’s right. Who are you?”
