Chapter 7. Old Voices
18 Sep 2020Black Llama
August 24, 3306Siemens Horizons, Lodere system
The Rogue Star entered the docking bay - I let the flight computer handle the procedure. Moments later, the Only Temporary landed just a couple of pads away. "We'll meet tomorrow morning in the pilot's lounge" I transmitted, "for now, let's all just get a good night's sleep."
I rose from the pilot's chair, and with a few gestures transferred the signal data stored in the ship's and SRV's logs to the terminal in my cabin. I locked myself in, sat on the tiny desk, opened a virtual whiteboard and started arranging all the pieces of information on it, trying to find... what?
We had visited two abandoned INRA sites during the day. First, after considering information I gathered during my visit to Lave and some advice we got from pilots in Jameson Memorial, we traveled to the HIP 15329 system. Just as we were told, we found the abandoned facility Stuart Retreat on moon A 3 C, near coordinates (-62.6208, -44.3169) on a plateau close to the edge of a rift valley. The place is still abandoned, there aren't even automated sentries to prevent access. A couple of data points are still operational, though, and can be accessed to reveal some hidden logs, recorded by a whistleblower who apparently worked on the same bioweapon which Jameson deployed against the Thargoids. There are plenty of storage containers scattered around the base, which seem to be leaking an orange-brown fluid - the Mycoid itself? Just in case, we kept our distance from all those structures. Perhaps fear of Mycoid poisoning is enough to keep most intruders away; just in case, I asked Skinner to carefully scan the SRV using the external camera drone before letting us back in.
We didn't find anything there other than clues to two other INRA sites: one a weapons weapons testing site in Alnath A 2 A A, where apparently the whistleblower's research was weaponized. The other was an agricultural research base in the Hermitage system. Perhaps Maggie's father, a bioengineer, was assigned there? The Hermitage system was 202 ly away, Alnath is closer (100.89 ly) so we set course to investigate Alnath first.
After arrival at Alnath we detected the facility and landed nearby, at coordinates (4.0025, 133.5569) on the surface of A 2 A A. According to the info we collected in Jameson Memorial, this was known as Klatt Enterprises. It lies at the foot of a tall mountain. There's a data point which can be scanned - I found some data patterns which I had never come across before, and several data logs. The logs confirm that tests of the weaponized Mycoid were conducted here, using live specimens no less. Apparently, final production of the bioweapon was done in HIP 59382 1 B. Again, nothing that other commanders hadn't found before.
We had decided to rest before continuing, so we set course to the Lodere system. The next stop, on the following day, would be the site in Hermitage 4 A. Would we find anything? Or were we just making a historical tour of INRA sites? Pondering the few things I knew, I fell asleep staring at the screen.
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August 25, 3306
On the surface of Hermitage 4 A
"I'm going in."
"Wait. What?" I turned the SRV around and saw Maggie coming out of the Only Temporary's airlock. "Get back inside! Are you insane? There are traces of Mycoid everywhere!"
She waved at me and started walking towards the abandoned facility. "Relax, this is a miner's suit. Even if that stuff's corrosive, it should take it a while to eat through the armor. I'll be fine."
I moved the SRV to try and block her path: "Don't be a fool, you don't know-" But she reached the door of one of the hab blocks before I could do anything.
We had found the agricultural research base, Hollis Gateway, approximately at (-53.7445, 157.5555) on Hermitage 4 A. This site was smaller than the previous two, and again there was an active data link which I had been in the process of scanning when Maggie started her EVA. I turned the SRV around and went back to complete the scan. "I really hope you're right, I would like to stay healthy, for a while." She laughed, proceeded to shoot the door's locking mechanism with a pistol of some sort, then went inside.
On the outside commlinks I found some more data logs, created by one Bexley Prince, apparently the facility's director at some point. These provided additional info on the history of bioweapons' development, further confirming the information from Stuart Retreat's whistleblower. But all that had already been exposed. One thing that we didn't know, and which bothered me, was when had all those facilities been abandoned. Maggie's parents had joined INRA in the late 3240's, so they were among the very last of INRA's active personnel (officially, at least). But the Mycoid bioweapon, if it was the same as that delivered against the Thargoids by Jameson, must have been developed about a century earlier. How long after that did these facilities continue to operate?
I drove back to where Maggie was, and switched the SRV's lights to full beam to catch her attention. Through the windows, I could see her hunched over a terminal of some sort. I could not see the screen from where I was outside but its glow, reflected on the suit's faceplate, suddenly changed from mellow orange to a deep red. She pulled something out of the console, then walked out.
"All useless - nothing in there works anymore! Maybe we're looking in all the wrong places. Let's just go. Care to give me a lift?" she said, as she hopped onto the SRV's side footrest. It was her usual cheerful attitude, but something in her tone of voice seemed amiss.