Part 9 (1/2)

From up ahead, two yellows appeared to be walking in line. They didn't pay any attention to Chris as they marched toward the checkpoint.

I'm just a lowly blue to them, he thought as they tromped past him.

An impulse seized Chris and turned him around. He fell into place behind the two yellows. The two strode up to the checkpoint and the leader paused, most likely giving some kind of authorization with his link. Then they resumed, Chris in tow.

”Is the blue in your party?” said the turret voice through Chris's link.

s.h.i.+t.

The yellows turned around. They stared at him with their flat eye-plated helmets for what seemed like eternity. Then the leader shrugged.

”Yes. He's with us.”

Chris couldn't believe it. It seemed that maybe the second yellow didn't believe it either, because he turned to catch a glance at the leader. Then both yellows turned around and resumed their course. Chris followed. His heartbeat drummed in his chest. He'd taken a risk and it had paid off! Chris felt the thrill of progress on a long-intractable problem.

They entered a lab densely packed with equipment. His link received a list of services from the machines. Many of the services were described in highly technical jargon that he didn't recognize. He couldn't process it all at once. The yellows didn't waver, keeping on their course. They reached the far door and left the lab without looking back.

It struck Chris that they may have purposefully avoided looking back at him. Or were they just too bored with this place to look around?

Chris stopped and downloaded some test results. Testing of what, he had no idea. He drowned in unfamiliar terminology. And he didn't care too much; after all, they were bound to be doing a bunch of experiments out here away from the UNSF. Who knows what kind of stuff VG had dreamed up? Why did that yellow let me in here? Maybe it's part of the game.

He spotted another door in the corner. He almost walked straight through it, but a warning came through his link.

”Warning. Now entering maintenance dock. All personnel working in the dock should don vacuum suits.”

Chris saw red labels displayed on the wall around the door, and he knew this would be only one of half a dozen safety procedures. The computer would never open a dock to s.p.a.ce with an unprotected human inside it. He waived the safety check and manually actuated the door. He saw a wide empty floor beyond and stepped through into the dock.

”d.a.m.n.”

The open vault shocked Chris. At least fifty meters of open air sprawled in each direction, more room than he'd seen since leaving Earth. Chris's eyes immediately found a gray shape the size of a small house dominating the center. It reminded him of the engine of a bullet train. The sleek form had perhaps a dozen breaks dotted across its top surface. Banks of bright lights on long swivel arms glared down on several spots of the device.

Some kind of secret project, Chris thought. Suddenly, he doubted his theory about a challenge. Would he get in big trouble for seeing this? Chris turned his head in every direction, trying to get a full view of the bay from within his helmet. He felt like someone must be there who would discover him, but he didn't see anyone.

He searched for camera bubbles on the walls and ceiling but didn't spot any. If they existed, they had been miniaturized or camouflaged. He thought that sometimes they wanted you to see the cameras and sometimes they didn't. But he knew his link would log his movements throughout the station. Anyone who wanted to check up on him could find out he'd been here. His presence might have already flagged a security robot.

Chris overcame the irrational urge to break away and run from the room. He stepped up to the smooth construct with tentative footsteps.

What the h.e.l.l is it? It could be anything. A deep s.p.a.ce fighter craft? The outside has to be a hull. This thing operates in the vacuum of s.p.a.ce. Am I overestimating this? It could be a simple exploration drone. But aren't those much smaller unless they are destined for the deepest reaches of the solar system?

Chris walked back toward the door and paused to access the services through his link again. He downloaded several files he found here and there, trying to h.o.a.rd information for later. His link cache could hold a huge amount of information, but he concentrated on finding summaries and results rather than grabbing loads of data that wouldn't mean anything to him.

Then Chris crept to a ma.s.sive metal door at the other side of the bay. He gave in to the instinct to move quietly and quickly. Beyond the door, he saw another security checkpoint, guarding the way out of the protected zone. He held his breath and walked past the turrets. The voice didn't say anything. He knew that if they reviewed any security records that he'd be caught, but he still felt a primal urge to escape.

Chris found an atrium and sat down to contemplate what he'd found. Whatever it was, it had to be important to warrant a large empty section on a station millions of miles from Earth. He felt dread at what he'd done, going into the area, treating it like a game, but what if it wasn't? Would they fire him and undo all his years at VG?

When he returned to his quarters, Cinmei greeted him immediately.

”Welcome back,” she smiled. He half-smiled back inside his helmet, but his reaction to her was poisoned by his knowledge that it couldn't be sincere.

”Thanks,” he said. Cinmei helped him remove his helmet and the plastic cuira.s.s.

”Would you like ma.s.sage? The gear is heavy.”

”Ah, uhm, sure.”

Cinmei pointed to one side of the room. She walked ahead of him and touched an invisible panel. A white ma.s.sage cot slid out from the mirrored wall.

She has to use a touch control because she doesn't have a link. Could I live like that? No. Surely, it would just be better to die, unless there was some hope of getting a link eventually.

Chris pulled off the rest of his gear and left it where it fell. He collapsed onto the white surface and immediately Cinmei's hands began working on his back.

”How it go today?” she asked after a minute.

”Not good at first. But some good things came up later,” he said. ”Some weird things.”

”What is weird? I mean ... what things?” she said, fl.u.s.tered with her poor English.

”I found a strange place today. A place I wasn't supposed to find. Or ... maybe a place I was supposed to find, I'm not sure.”

”What place?”

”I don't really know. It's a big hangar with some kind of s.p.a.cecraft, or missile or something. You haven't heard anything?”

”No.”

”You may have been there and forgotten. I noticed that some of the people coming out of there had forgotten what they'd seen. Or pretended to anyway.”

”How is that?”

”I don't know. Could be some gas or something. A security measure, maybe.”

Cinmei remained silent.

”Well they may come for me anytime now. I wasn't supposed to be there.”

Cinmei ma.s.saged his shoulders for a few more seconds in silence.

”So you sneak around like spy? Very brave.”

”Oh, not really,” Chris said.

”You going to find out what the thing is ... the missile?”

”I hope so.”

”How you find out what it is?”