The shattered edge

[arvg]

An hour later things had changed, although the explorers didn't know much more than they had in the beginning.

Captain Alvarez was walking around the upper tier of the menagerie, his eyes hard as he patrolled, keeping watch for anyone or anything that was approaching. While Pasha, with the pan loaded machinegun, was bunkered down beside what appeared to be a medical console. He, like Alvarez, wasn't about to take chances.

Brooks was languishing against a cage, an assualt rifle clutched lightly in his hand, and his ball cap pushed up away from his eyes. Watching as the Doc set up some kind of contraption in the middle of the room.

XiaoBei was the Coalition's premier mind, and it was hoped that he could make some kind of sense out of the alien derelict around them.

He was sipping tea from a thermos, his long black overcoat splayed out around him as he tinkered with a human-sized drone robot, customarily used by Storm-class gunboats to perform EVA repairs. It only took the genius a half hour to adapt it to the role of artificial explorer. And with a little luck, it would tell them what had happened to the rest of the boarding parties.

Satisfied, XiaoBei stood up and directed the robot to make a preliminary exploration of the ship. But the contraption, essentially a bulbous detector.telemetry package on two legs, stopped dead in front of the hatch that had swallowed the lance-corporal, XiaoBei looked thoughtful.

The robot refused to respond to further commands, the hatch stayed open, and there was no sigh of activity below. XiaoBei's eyes narrowed as he studied the robots remote controls.

"Well that was a waste of an hour, ese," Alvarez called from above.

"We learned something," XiaoBei called back. "Our robotics can be affected by whatever is deeper in the ship. That rules out our drones, exo-bots, and BAAL..."

"Meaning what, Doctore?" Alvarez asked.

"Meaning if we want to find out what is down the hole, we're going to have to go in ourselves." XiaoBei surmised.

"Si, you wanna stick your head down there, be my guest ese, but I'm not ordering anyone down there till I know what we're dealing with."

Pasha, audibly, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Get those spotlights on," XiaoBei ordered to Jayce, "and you may chamber a round in your weapons, but leave the safeties on. If anyone fires without my direct order, I'll see that he's court-martialed and hanged."

Every single Coalition Soldier switched their weapons over to full auto, promptly ignoring the Doctor.

The lights that Brooks brought closer were powerful, but not powerful enough to reach the farthest limits of the compartment below. It resembled a complex cityscape. The alien equipment and machinery was made of glassy alloys and translucent materials, with conduit-like structures crisscrossing in midair and oddly shaped contrivances in every direction. It was wonderfully, truly and exceptionally alien.

"Okay," XiaoBei said, with a nod. "I vote Jayce goes in first."

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