Chapter 13: Broken Silence

Lena finished copying the files to her wrist computer, having first compressed and encrypted all of the data that she had obtained on the Brokers and their history with the Krell. The photographs of the murals and of the underwater base, the recordings of the holograms that she had taken and the testimony from the scholar, the map and the damning calculations that she had done. It was all there, backed up both on the workstation and on her wrist computer’s memory banks. No matter how advanced the Broker computers were, they would not be able to decrypt the files in any reasonable amount of time. There was enough evidence here to drag the Brokers through the proverbial mud as soon as she got back to UNN space.

But what to do until then? Asking to leave early would arouse suspicion, and she still had a big job to do here. The best option was perhaps to continue on as normal, as if nothing had happened, resuming her scientific research and steering clear of Broker-related mysteries. Regardless of what other secrets they might be hiding on this planet, she had all that she needed.

Sleethe raised his head from the floor, turning his snout towards the entrance to the temple as if he could hear something that Lena couldn’t.

“What is it Sleethe? Is something wrong?”

After a moment she heard it too, a distant rumbling noise. Was it some kind of Krell call? No, it was different. There was a loud crack like thunder, and Lena rose to her feet, moving to the door and pushing through the bead curtain. Other Krell were emerging from their residences too, staring at the sky, and soon Sleethe followed behind her.

She shielded her eyes from the suns with one hand as she looked at the clouds, but they were thick and almost opaque. Whatever the noise was, it was coming from above them. Suddenly the clouds lit up, something bright was descending from above them like a meteorite. The yellow glow grew brighter and brighter until the object penetrated the smog. It looked like a ball of fire, trailing smoke as it descended. It was a ship, shedding the heat of reentry, the crack that she had heard had been the vessel breaking the sound barrier.

Lena was used to seeing shuttles bank and circle around to shed velocity, but this one dropped straight to the ground alarmingly fast, disappearing from view somewhere behind the village. It must have been a Broker ship, only they could move like that.

“Let’s go Sleethe, I get the feeling we have an uninvited guest.”

They descended the ramps and bridges that led to the ground, then circled around behind the village, the Broker vessel soon coming into view. It was another of the silver cigars, and Lena knew it to be a drone ship. It was no coincidence that this vessel had arrived shortly after her discovery, they must have been watching her this whole time. She was a little afraid, but Sleethe was with her, and her indignation at what she had uncovered was almost strong enough to overpower it. The vessel had set down in a clearing on a mud flat behind the village, floating just off the ground, with no landing gear visible. As Lena approached, a hole split open in its hull and a landing ramp emerged like a silver tongue, extending to plant itself in the dirt.

She watched with bated breath as an angular shape emerged from within. It was immediately recognizable, she had seen representations of them on the murals in the Krell temple.

It was a Broker.

The creature looked like a squat refrigerator on legs. It was clearly robotic, with a bulky, square hull in their usual shade of matte white. It was featureless save for a litany of sensors and lenses that protruded from it, as if it had a dozen cameras and scopes of varying sizes glued to its front. It was supported on two skeletal legs that looked like they were made up of silver rods and pistons, surprisingly dexterous despite their spartan appearance. Finally it had four segmented, silver arms, like tentacles or thick cables. They were agile and flexible, each one tipped with some kind of grasping claw or attachment.

Lena had learned enough to guess at the purpose of this machine. She had seen the small net hammocks that the aliens had used in their base, and she knew that they were aquatic in nature. Either these robots were decoys designed to confuse and intimidate, their operators controlling them from range, or they were environment suits that contained one of the fragile aliens within.

It walked slowly down the ramp, Lena standing with her hands on her bare hips, modesty being the least of her worries. She could hear more Krell approaching from behind, the noise and spectacle seemed to be drawing the whole village, the reptiles rising from the lake and descending from their huts to gawk.

The Broker seemed worried about stepping into the mud, perhaps fearing that it would sink, and so it stopped at the end of the ramp. Its four arms seemed to hang in the air rather than resting at its sides, which led Lena to imagine that they were entirely robotic, rather than serving as sleeves for a creature within.

It spoke, a somewhat tinny and robotic reproduction of the English language emanating from a hidden speaker.

“Doctor Lena Webber, we have urgent business that must be discussed.”

“And what business is that?” She shot back, crossing her arms and staring the alien down. She wasn’t about to be intimidated by a refrigerator on legs, not after all that she had seen during her expedition.

“You have obtained information of the utmost sensitivity. I must request on behalf of my government that it be returned immediately.”

“Oh yes, I have a lot of sensitive information, that’s for sure. I know all about your experiments on the Krell, and I know about what happened at Betelgeuse. What makes you think that you can convince me to hand it over?”

The creature seemed to pause, as still as a statue, the only movement coming from its many lenses as they zoomed and focused like an antique camera. It was impossible to tell what it might be thinking, a robot had no body language, no expression that could be read. It was quite the Poker face.

“The information that you have uncovered could lead to an embarrassing political incident for my government, and it could erode the bonds of trust and cooperation that bind the Coalition. If you share what you have learned here, it might destroy the alliance. That would not serve us, that would not serve the Krell, and it would not serve you. There is no profit in releasing the files.”

“There’s profit in it for me. Exposing the truth and showing everyone what you really are is a reward in itself.”

Her reply seemed to fluster the creature, she could see its mechanical claws grasping at the air, the whirring and fidgeting of its cameras growing more intense.

“You would put the security of billions in jeopardy for your own satisfaction?”

“I assume that you’re about to try to sell me an alternative, so out with it,” she snapped.

“Very well, my proposition is as follows. If you turn over all of the sensitive information that relates to my species, and destroy any backups or copies that you have on file, I will provide you with a comprehensive codex of Krell. This is information collected over hundreds of years by Broker scientists and surveyors, with a catalog of every living thing that inhabits the planet. The data covers every discipline, from biology and archaeology, to seismology and geology. Your mission here is a scientific one, and I can help you accomplish that mission. You will have a complete record of the planet’s natural history spanning eons.”

“Tempting,” Lena said, pretending to consider as she scratched her chin conspicuously. “It doesn’t really make up for the lives of forty thousand people though, does it?”

“You must consider the political ramifications of what you are doing,” the Broker said hurriedly, its arms twitching nervously. “You hold in your hands the power to destroy all that we have built! What of the outlying Broker systems that depend on UNN fleets to protect them? What of the Krell? We would be forced to abandon them, leaving their planet helpless.”

“Let’s say that I accepted your offer,” Lena posited, “what then? More people will come here, you can’t keep this planet locked down forever. The UAS put enough pressure on you that you had to let me visit, and what next? Do you think that one expedition will be enough? That once their curiosity is satisfied, the UAS won’t send more researchers? The more you try to hide this planet, the more curious people will get. As you have no doubt seen, having curious humans running amok can be a very dangerous prospect for aliens with a guilty conscience.”

“We could wipe out all evidence,” the Broker suggested, “erase all Broker structures and remove any trace that we were ever here. The researchers that your UAS sends would be free to explore without any danger of them uncovering any classified information.”

“That’s what you thought about me,” Lena replied with a smirk. “You underestimated me. You assumed that I wouldn’t be able to develop a Krell translator, you assumed that I wouldn’t be able to read the murals in the temple. You assumed that I wouldn’t be able to reach the sunken base, much less succeed in deciphering any of the data contained in its computers. You were wrong on all counts. What would a hundred people like me discover, a thousand? Unless you burn down every temple and every record of Krell history, unless you destroy every Broker facility that remains and kill every scholar, you can’t possibly ensure that nobody will follow in my footsteps.”

“That ... is not for you to decide,” the Broker replied. “If the terms are not suitable, I can offer more. Money for research grants, a large sum transferred to an untraceable account in your name. I could make you rich beyond your wildest dreams with the press of a button.”

“Money doesn’t interest me,” she laughed.

“Then what is your price? What if I were to construct a permanent research base for humans on the planet’s surface, where a UAS research team could live and work? I could make the whole planet available to your scientists. You could live here with your ... mate.”

“And what if I refuse?”

“You must understand,” the Broker said after a moment of hesitation, “that I cannot allow you to leave this planet with the information that you have gathered.”

Sleethe seemed to pick up on the Broker’s menacing tone, a low rumble emanating from deep in his throat. It sounded like the growling of a giant dog, like the monstrous wolf of Norse mythology was about to swallow up the sun. The other villagers picked up on it, and soon the sound spread, until the cacophony was enough to shake the ground. Now it was Lena who had a Krell army at her back, her kin, the circle to which she now belonged.

The Broker took a step back, alarmed and afraid by this sudden display of aggression and solidarity. Lena put up a hand to stay Sleeth, and the growling gradually subsided.

“You don’t know what I did with it,” Lena realized. “You know that I have it, but you don’t know where I hid it, and now you’re doubting what my actual capabilities are.”

“My satellite network has detected no outgoing communications,” it replied, as if trying to reassure itself. “I am certain that you have the data on your person.”

“You can’t kill me, that would draw too much scrutiny. How would I suffer an accident or an animal attack with my Krell bodyguard at my side? How would a Broker vessel malfunction or otherwise fail and crash? Nobody would buy it. The UAS has a lot riding on this expedition, they’d come to investigate. The way I see it, I hold all the cards.”

“Then what do you ask?” The Broker demanded, its tone of voice becoming strained, almost as if it was in physical pain.

“Here are my terms,” Lena said, the alien’s many robotic eyes focusing on her. “You will build a permanent research base on Krell, and you will provide funding for a UAS team to live there indefinitely. You will also provide me with the codex that you described. In exchange, I will destroy the information that I have gathered, and all of the copies. But I will only do so on the day that I leave the planet, otherwise you might be tempted to try to harm me in the interim. Rest assured that you can’t access or otherwise destroy that information without my help. Even if you physically destroyed all of my computers, you wouldn’t find all of the backups.”

It was a bluff of course. If the Broker killed her and destroyed her computers, it was very unlikely that the truth would ever come to light. But her exploits had made this creature doubt itself, doubt its ability to predict her actions, and she could use that doubt as leverage. It was like a cornered animal now, out of options and unsure of what to do next. Whether it really believed her or not, it had to entertain the possibility that she was telling the truth. Too much was at stake.

“I will of course promise my silence,” she continued, “but if I find out that you’ve destroyed any temples or killed any scholars I’ll spill the whole story to the press. Material evidence or no, the rumors will start an inquiry.”

“But ... you believe that others will find out the truth eventually. You said as much yourself,” the Broker complained, its metallic claws clicking with exasperation. “If I agree to your demands, we will be exposed all the same.”

“You can’t keep this a secret any longer,” Lena said as the creature’s many eyes tracked her. “The renewed interest in the planet makes that an impossibility. I’m not offering you secrecy, what I’m offering you is time. Time to do damage control, time to offer the information up willingly, to make yourselves look better. For all intents and purposes you’re already exposed, but if you agree to my terms then that exposure won’t come from me. It might buy you years, or maybe only a few weeks or months, but you’ll have time to come clean and make amends.”

The Broker paused, frozen in place for what must have been a minute or longer as it deliberated. Was it perhaps convening with others of its kind? Eventually it whirred back to life, the lenses focusing on Lena once more as its robotic voice echoed through its speakers.

“I will accept your terms. I have no other choice.”

“Then we have a deal,” Lena said with a satisfied expression on her face. “Humans usually shake on it, but I’d rather not if it’s all the same to you.”

The Broker turned and began to walk up the ramp, its metal feet clanging against the material.

“Oh, and one more thing,” she called after it. “Give me my damned weather drone back, I know you took it.”

“Very well...”

She watched as the creature vanished into the darkness of the ship, the ramp shrinking back into the silver hull and the round hole sealing like a wound. It rose into the air silently, accelerating at a speed that should rightfully have killed its occupant, then vanished into the cloud layer.

Once it was out of view, Lena let slip a long sigh of relief. She had won. She couldn’t be entirely sure that the Broker would keep its end of the bargain, but the looming threat of a dead man’s switch in the form of hidden backups should keep it in line.

Sleethe planted a large hand on her shoulder, and she gave it a reassuring pat. She didn’t know how much of the conversation he had understood, but her stress must have been apparent to him.

“It’s alright big guy, I think we’re safe for now. Thanks for backing me up back there...”

More than simply succeeding in diffusing the situation with the Broker, her relief was twofold. Now she could explore the planet without the looming threat of retribution hovering over her head, she could do the work that she had been sent here to do without having to play the role of a secret agent. Now that the truth had been uncovered and she had come to an agreement with the Brokers, her real visit could now begin.