Chapter 10: Malfunctions?

There were words carved into the polished stone, but they were in a language that Tara didn't understand. She traced them with her finger and once more felt a surge of power rush up her arm and through her body. She also noticed a stylised carving of a man's head.

There was a shout from across the pit and Tara turned to see Sigurdson and another of the troopers waving. She hurried across to see what was up and found the navigator and the trooper standing over a pair of skeletons, the bones bleached to the purest white. They were half-in and half-out of one of the tunnels and that's why they hadn't been immediately obvious. The rest of the squad gathered and stared down at the remains.

"I wonder what happened to them?" Tara said aloud.

"Perhaps the same as what happened to all the others who must have been here," Sigurdson responded.

Tara decided there was little else to see in the pit itself and that it was time to check out some of the tunnels. They agreed to stick together as one group for this and each of them stepped carefully over the skeletons to move up the first tunnel.

As soon as the leading trooper set foot into the tunnel, lights came on overhead, illuminating their way. They could see that the first twelve feet or so were formed from the same polished black stone, but it quickly gave out and was replaced by some man-made material.

Perhaps twenty-five feet up the passage they came to a door in the left-hand wall. Tara spotted a button to the side of the door and she pushed it. The door swished open and one of the troopers put his arm out to stop her from entering, leading the way himself instead.

Inside they found a house, a house constructed to very high specifications with strange coloured metals and beautiful wood. The craftsmanship was lost on them however, as the thing that grabbed their attention was the presence of more skeletons lying around.

Some of the bones were lying on and at the foot of a sofa. Tara's eyes leaked tears, as she was the first to unravel the puzzle of what they were looking at. These bones were of a mother and her child, their skeletons mixed together somewhat as the mother had obviously been trying to comfort her child, even as they both died.

"Achar! Achar!" a voice challenged.

As one the group turned, startled by the appearance of what could only be an android. They tried to speak with the droid, but couldn't get through to it, the language barrier proving insurmountable. At least the thing seemed to be programmed to be non-violent. They quickly explored the remainder of the house, finding two other skeletons, a man and a woman by the looks of them.

Everything in the house, the lights and appliances, the droid, seemed to be in perfect working order. The only thing that wasn't as it should be was the skeletons.

It was the same story all the way down the passageway, every house contained the remains of the people who had lived here, all of them dead and the only things moving were more droids. Their investigation also uncovered what looked like a conference room, a room that could have been a transport hub of some kind and an Operations Room.

As they entered the Operations Room, screens came to life showing different views, they assumed of other locations on the planet. Others showed views of space, including one of the Dalriada. Skeletons littered this room too.

"Samford, see if you can do anything with the computers. Perhaps there's a record of what happened here, try and capture it. Someone take some small samples of the bones, perhaps we can analyse them and learn something. I also want some images of the stone in the centre of the pit and the writing on it. Maybe someone on the ship or our computers will be able to make some sense of it. For now, I think we should hurry and get back to the Dalriada as soon as we can. Someone try and bring one of the droids," Tara ordered.

As she walked back across the stone floor of the pit, she felt the power surge through her once more and she was still left with the feeling that this place was good, wholesome. She knew that was at odds with what they had found, but she just couldn't shake the feeling - it was almost like a religious experience. She walked up the stairs in the centre of the pit once more, reaching out to place her palm against the stone and the carved writing.

"AE2fp-67DCU-KlW4H-6QX9g-8Tu5F," she said out loud, her eyes glassing over.

"What was that sir? What do you mean?" asked Sigurdson behind her.

"What?" Tara shook her head as if to clear it.

"You said something, sir. A string of letters and numbers," said Sigurdson.

"Strange, I don't remember doing that. I could swear I saw the Ard Righ in my head. Anyway, come on, let's get back to the transport hub," Tara said as she turned away.

"What do you mean, we don't have the codes? We have all the codes, that's the law! Computer, override the command of those missiles and do it now!" Scott all but screamed.

"Negative, your Grace. We do not have the code sequence. You're right, this is illegal, but we do not have the codes and can't counter the missiles.

Lachlan was terrified. He glanced over at Scott and could see that he seemed to have drifted off. He was staring straight ahead, but his eyes looked glazed over.

"Your Grace, your Grace? Are you alright?" asked Lachlan.

Scott shook his head to clear it. He had a feeling that Tara was very close by, could feel a tingling sensation and suddenly a picture of the stone appeared in his head.

"AE2fp-67DCU-KlW4H-6QX9g-8Tu5F," he said out loud.

"What?" What do you mean, your Grace?" asked Admiral MacCulloch.

"Huh?" Scott looked at the Admiral as if he didn't understand the question.

"You spoke. A string of letters and numbers," said MacCulloch.

"I did? AI, play back what I just said please," Scott requested.

The AI played back the sequence that had just taken place.

"Your Grace, the second fleet of iLOX cruisers are preparing to jump. It seems likely that they are going to aid their colleagues. We should warn the Angus and Strathearn, your Grace," said the AI.

"Agreed, let them know and tell them to take avoiding action."

"Ten seconds until the first missile hits the Russian troops on the border, your Grace. Seven minutes until the first of the population centres will be hit," the AI informed him.

There were too many things happening at once Scott knew and he was trying to deal with all of them. He knew there was something else that he should be covering, but it was hovering at the edge of his consciousness and the constantly changing situation kept dragging his attention away from it.

"Shit! Fuck! Computer, try the sequence I just spoke. See if it controls the missiles!" Scott did in fact scream this time, the stress getting to him.

"I have command override, your Grace. All missiles have been neutralised except one. I'm afraid I wasn't quick enough to de-activate the missile targeted at the Russians. Estimates suggest no survivors from the strike on the Chinese border," the AI said calmly.

"Sweet Jesu," Scott moaned.

His guts churned and his head was swimming. Could he have realised quicker? Should he have realised immediately what the sequence was, its significance? Was he somehow to blame for all those dead Russians? He knew he had no time to dwell on that now. There were other things to deal with and there was still something else nagging away at him.

"Admiral, move the remaining drones above the drifting iLOX. If their friends are going to help them then we should prepare a welcome for them. I want the parasites deployed as soon as the smart-dust picks the new ships up. I also want full deployment of the US 2s as soon as the shields are down," Scott ordered.

"Aye, aye, your Grace," MacCulloch responded, still amazed at how Scott had plucked the missile codes out of thin air.

"Your Grace, I have both the Chinese and the Russians trying to contact you," said the AI.

"No! They both had their chance, I'm too busy now to deal with them."

"The second fleet of iLOX cruisers has been detected by the smart-dust, your Grace. Parasites are being deployed. The Angus and Strathearn are cloaked. The Atholl and the Buchan have linked computers and are preparing to jump to assist the others," the AI updated.

"That's it! The Fortrenn and the Fife - they might jump back right into the middle of all this. AI, is there any way to contact them?" Scott asked, urgently.

"None that my memory knows of, your Grace," the AI replied. "They are too far out into space on the mission you set them."

"Father, if the jump reactors can boost a jump, why can't they boost a communication? Didn't you tell me that all of them had been fitted with communications systems?" young Crinan asked.

Both David and Crinan had been so quiet that Scott had forgotten they were even in the Operations Room. Now his son had asked an interesting question. Signals could obviously be transmitted and they were using wireless technology. Was it possible to do as Crinan suggested and send communications via the booster stations? In effect, could the communication follow the path the Broadswords had laid when they launched the jump reactors?

"AI, I think my son has just had a brilliant idea. Will it work?" Scott asked.

"I'm already trying it, your Grace. I have the Captains of the Fortrenn and the Fife on line, your Grace," the AI advised.

"Captains, we have a live situation here with the iLOX, I need you both back here. The computer is sending co-ordinates to makes sure you jump into a safe area. I want you arriving weapons hot, I repeat, I am authorising you weapons hot... what the fuck!"

Scott broke off his transmission as he saw multiple blooms on the giant plasma screen.

"AI, what the hell is that? What's causing those blooms?" Scott demanded.

"Your Grace, it would appear as if a further fleet of iLOX have arrived and remained undetected by our smart-dust. The odds were in favour of that happening sooner or later. The blooms are transporters entering the Earth's atmosphere. I have counted seventeen thousand transporters making entry, all of them heading for China."

"Captains, I'm sorry, things just got a little worse for us here. Please make your jumps as quickly as you can, we need you here, now!" Scott ended.

Scott was appalled. His mental arithmetic told him that eight hundred and thirty five thousand iLOX were now heading for the planet's surface. He was also worried that he had two wives possibly in trouble. He hadn't missed the fact that the new communications approach had not managed to contact the Dalriada and he didn't know what that meant, but it couldn't be good. Helfe was still with Mac's Special Forces and she might already be dead from the Chinese missile strike. He knew the Chinese population was close on one and a half billion. Surely they would rise up and overwhelm the aliens?

He looked up at the screen and watched as the parasites did their work on the second fleet of iLOX cruisers, the lightning flashes showing they were continuing to be as effective as they had in the first assault. He knew the second set of innovations from his scientists and engineers was about to be tested.