Part 27 (1/2)
Shadows loomed menacingly as the lamp floated along above their heads. Carrion finally stopped before a row of lockers, and looked at each of them thoughtfully. Silence looked at them disbelievingly. They were barely a foot and a half wide and six feet high, not even big enough to make a decent coffin. What could have frightened the esper so badly that she'd been driven to hide in such a cramped place? Carrion stopped before one locker, and tried the door. It was locked. He focused his power, and the door burst open, shattering the lock. Inside the locker, Diana Vertue was half-standing and half-crouching, her arms wrapped around her, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. The posture would have been painful to hold for a few minutes; after all this time it should have been agonising, but she made no move to leave the locker.
She showed no sign of even knowing they were there. Carrion reached out and gently touched her shoulder.
”She's gone deep inside herself,” said the outlaw softly. ”Something happened here, something so bad she shut down her whole mind rather than think about it.”
”We need to know what happened,” said Silence. ”And where the marines are. Bring her out of it, Carrion.”
”There's nothing I can do, Captain. If I try and force her mind open, I could shatter it completely.”
”Then I'll have to do it,” said Silence. He knelt down beside the comatose esper and laid a surprisingly gentle hand on her arm. ”Diana, this is Captain Silence. Please, wake up and talk to me. I need you to talk to me, Diana. Talk to your father.”
The esper stirred slowly. Carrion and Frost exchanged a quick glance of surprise, and then looked back at the esper as she slowly opened her eyes. She saw Silence kneeling beside her, and threw herself into his arms, sobbing loudly. He held her tightly and rocked back and forth, murmuring comforting words into her hair. He looked up, and shrugged when he saw Frost and Carrion studying him.
”They took her away from me when she was six. When her esp first started to manifest. I kept in touch as best I could, and when she graduated from the Academy, I got her transferred to my s.h.i.+p, where I could keep an eye on her. I thought she'd be safe with me.”
Diana finally got herself back under control and stopped crying, sniffing back the last few tears. Silence let go of her and helped her to her feet. She stretched awkwardly, wincing as cramped muscles protested.
”What happened, Diana?” Silence asked. ”Why were you hiding? Did the Guardians take Ripper and Stasiak away?”
”I don't know,” said Diana, with a troubled look, ”I can't remember. But it couldn't have been the Guardians. We beat them. Carrion showed me how. It was easy. And then . . . something happened, but I can't remember what.”
”Don't force it,” said Carrion. ”It'll come back to you.”
”There's only one place Ripper and Stasiak could have been taken,” said Frost. ”Down to Level Three.
We're going to have to go down after them.”
”Yes,” said Silence. ”I think we are. Lead the way, Investigator. Diana, stay close.”
Frost glanced at him briefly, and then set off into the gloom with the esper close behind her. Silence and Carrion followed, hanging back a little.
”The esper really shouldn't be here,” Carrion murmured. ”Whatever she saw, it frightened her so much she shut down her mind completely, rather than admit it happened. Her current mental state is precarious, to say the least. If she's forced to once again confront the circ.u.mstances that caused her breakdown, her mind could shatter completely. She could retreat so far into herself that not even the best esper shrink could bring her out again. Just making her stay here could be putting her under an impossible strain. Send her back to the pinnace, John. We don't need her here. You have me. My esp is more than strong enough to deal with whatever we find.”
”I need to know what she saw,” said Silence. ”Keeping her here will bring those memories back to the surface.”
”She's your daughter, John!”
”I'm Captain of theDarkwind . I know my duty.”
”Yes,” said Carrion. ”You always did. You haven't changed at all, John.”
He increased his pace to catch up with the two women. Silence looked at the three backs turned to him, and made no move to join them.
The stairwell leading down to Level Three seemed open and inviting. No insects crawled on the metal steps, and the walls were free of slime. There were still strange alien growths erupting from the walls and ceiling, and tattered webbing hung in thick grey streamers, but the stairway itself seemed untouched.
Carrion gestured for Frost to lead the way, and she started slowly down into the gloom, step by step, gun in hand. Carrion moved down after her, with Diana at his side. The esper's hands were trembling visibly, but her back was straight and she held her head high. Silence brought up the rear. He would have liked to be proud of his daughter's courage, but he couldn't afford to think of her that way. She was his s.h.i.+p's esper, and that had to come first.
The temperature rose sharply as they made their way down into the darkness, from bitter cold to almost suffocatingly humid heat. They turned off the heating elements in their uniforms, and pressed on in growing discomfort. The lamp still hung above them, buoyed up by Carrion's esp, but its light didn't travel far. They hadn't been able to find Diana's lamp, and she was unable to tell them what had happened to it.
She didn't speak much at all, but did as she was directed. She was an esper, and espers obeyed orders.
They reached the bottom of the stairwell without incident, and stopped a moment to get their breath. The heat was almost overpowering, and sweat dripped from their faces. All around them, the walls were cracked and pitted, and spotted with jagged outgrowths whose regular shapes suggested purpose, if not meaning. Stalact.i.tes of distorted metal hung down from the ceiling, dripping moisture that collected in pools on the uneven floor. The air was heavy with the stench of rotting flowers.
”What the h.e.l.l is this?” said Silence. He reached out and touched the nearest stalact.i.te, and then s.n.a.t.c.hed his hand away. The metal was painfully hot, the moisture almost boiling.
”This is something different,” said Frost. ”On Level Two the alien growths seemed wilder, almost out of control. This seems more pervasive, more planned. There's the same mixture of living and non-living materials, but the mix here seems more comfortable, almost organic.”
”But where did it all come from?” said Carrion, frowning. ”The aliens must have brought some of it from the s.h.i.+p, but there hasn't been enough time to bring about such extensive changes in the Base's structure.
Besides, this doesn't look as though it was constructed; it looks more like it was grown this way.”
”Just like the alien s.h.i.+p,” said Frost, nodding. ”Whatever this stuff is, it isn't parasitic. There's a definite sense of purpose to it, of function. Symbiosis. Different systems working together, to reach the same end.
This is an entire ecology, taking over and supplanting the original one. The aliens' technology must be centuries ahead of ours, to have achieved so much so quickly. We have to get back to the pinnace, Captain. The Empire must be warned. Whatever's taken root here must be destroyed, down to the last fragment. If this should spread . . .”
Silence nodded. ”Odin, are you still in contact?”
”For the moment, Captain.” The AI's voice was low, but still clear. ”Audio contact remains firm. I am still unable to regain visual contact, and I have no contact at all with the missing marines. Something significant must have happened, either to the marines or their comm implants. I am maintaining a running log on this mission. In the event of my losing contact with you entirely, I will send a General Distress signal, and put this planet under full Quarantine.”
”Thank you,” said Silence dryly. ”Next time, you might wait for me to give the order. I am still in charge of this mission.”
”Of course, Captain. However, in order to present a complete log on this mission, I must have further data on the structural changes in Base Thirteen. To achieve this, it will be necessary for you to proceed further into the Base.”
”When this is all over, computer,” said Silence, ”you and I are going to have a long chat about which one of us is in charge, and you aren't going to enjoy it at all.” He looked at the others and tried not to scowl.
”Unfortunately, the AI is right. We do need more information, and the only way to get it is to press on.”
He stopped and looked at Diana, who was trembling violently. All the color had drained from her face, and her eyes were very large. She realised he was watching, and made an attempt to stand straighter.
She hugged herself tightly, and managed a shaky smile.
”I'm all right, Captain. Really. I've been trying to scan the area, but something down here is preventing me. I can't tell yet whether that's deliberate or not. I can't locate Ripper or Stasiak, but there are definite life signs all over the place. This whole level feels like a jungle, but I can't focus enough to identify anything. The one thing I am sure of is that we're not alone down here. Something's watching us.”
”Can you be more specific?” said Silence, careful to keep his voice cool and unconcerned. He didn't want the esper any more upset than she already was.
Diana bit her lip and shook her head. ”Something's down here, Captain. I don't know what or where it is. But it knows we're here.”
She stopped suddenly, as though she'd been about to add something and then changed her mind. Silence waited a moment, but it was clear the esper had said all she was going to. She still looked scared, but she was back under control again. For the moment.
”All right,” he said briskly. ”We're going in. If anything moves, kill it. We don't have any friends down here.”
”What about the marines?” said Carrion.
”The odds are they're dead,” said Silence flatly. ”Otherwise Diana or the AI would be able to locate them. We'll search for them as we go, but they can't be our main objective. We're looking for the aliens.
Anything else has to come second.”