-7-

John sighed exhaustedly as he watched Sam access the lab databases. Genghis and his team were making a secondary sweep of the facility.

"Any luck?"

"I don't think there's anything on this, I'm still trying the overrides they gave me. You never know what's hidden beneath the surface."

"Don't try too hard."

Sam stopped punching in numbers, and wheeled around in her chair to look at him.

"What do you mean?"

"It's like you said, you never know what's hidden beneath the surface."

Sam looked at him for a long time and nodded. She resumed her work.

He was leaning on the table behind her and for a long time he was lost in his own thoughts.

"We're lucky she thought of that, you know." Sam said, quietly.

"Yeah." John mumbled.

"I mean, something could have sneaked on upon us."

"Yeah."

"You're not going on the sweep, with the others?"

"Yeah."

There was a silence. John didn't realize that he hadn't heard a word of what Sam said.

"John," Sam said, after some time. "Is it that thing you thought you saw in the sewers?"

John didn't say anything.

"We've locked down all nano walls. It can't get through, to where we are."

"We still can't see it on any scanners – no thanks to this damn field."

"Well Genghis and his team are looking for it. They're pretty good."

John nodded absently.

"What's on your mind?"

"I'm thinking…" John sighed. He straightened up and came by her side, pulling a chair beside her. "I'm thinking that we should get out of here as fast as possible."

Sam pursed her lips as she looked at him. She sighed and leaned back in her chair stopping her work.

"That old feeling, huh?"

John shrugged. "The other arks were constructed by us…humans."

Sam nodded.

"Nevada is the only Ark facility that was here before…well…I mean, the portal was constructed by, god-knows-who to Mars, dammit! Before us – that's known civilization – some goddamn race or something discovered interstellar travel!"

"Well actually its only teleportation." Sam said.

John gave her a look and she smiled. "I get it," she said. "Some unknown civilization built and unknown device to a planet that can't be reached by man-made travel in less than a year."

John nodded.

"Your point being?" she said, looking at him expectantly.

"This is the only Ark on earth," John said, "that we cannot completely account for. We don't know anything about it."

"We know lots about it, John. We couldn't have built the other Arks without this knowledge."

"Sam, do you how that civilization used it?" John said.

She was silenced.

"The other Arks may have been based on the model of the portal in Nevada but they were built by us. But, to use this Ark we need nuclear freaking reactors to power it up, Sam. We didn't find any nuclear reactors dating that many centuries ago. How did they use it? How did they power it up? How did they direct their travel? We took fifteen years before we could get to Mars in one piece. That too, with all our seemingly advanced technology."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Do you know exactly what happened at Deimos?"

"Not the finer points."

"You do know the ark that was used by those goddamn monsters was one of the pre-existing portals on the planet."

"From Magnus, to Deimos, yes." She nodded.

"How do you think that creature knew how to use it?"

Sam shrugged. "Wasn't it an accidental teleportation?"

"I don't think it was, Sam. See – because that thing when it reached Deimos could have easily teleported to the Ark facility in Hawaii, or the one in Alaska. Both Arks were operational – the portals were open. They were both accidental teleportations waiting to happen. But they didn't. Instead, the one that was closed off - the one that was already there, was used."

"So what's your theory?"

John could see from the look on Sam's face that she didn't believe him.

"The arks at Hawaii and Alaska were made by us. They needed protocols – passwords, code structures, and heck! They even need the fucking directions!"

"John, even if there is some logic to your theories, I don't get what you're trying to say."

"Nevada was sealed off in the confidence that this Ark could not be used by any external source, because it cannot be powered up with out having to activate the reactors from this side of the Ark."

"So?"

"So – what if you don't need any goddamn rectors from that side? Or even from this side, for that matter? What if there is another way to use it? I mean, you said it yourself. Maybe the civilization built the portal to come here. They wouldn't have any goddamn power source that could generate this much energy!"

"Ah but, you see, John. There's another thing. Someone has to be there at the other end to teleport. Olduvai's in ruins. The base is exposed to the surface – it's as good as dead,"

"Someone," John nodded. "Or something."

----

"Your colour's an interesting shade."

Poet said as he configured the Ark's logs into the defragmenter. He looked towards Phoenix as she fidgeted with the core's internal circuits. They were silently working till then, with the occasional interruption from Genghis' comm report.

Poet shook his head and gave in another set of orders to the computer when she didn't respond. "I guess I sound like some stupid blind man movie saying that, huh?"

He didn't expect an answer and he didn't get one. Wiping the sweat if his brow, he pushed in another cable into the machine and said, "You're getting the creeps from this place, aren't you?"

Phoenix sighed and stood up. Poet heard her unzipping her jacket. It was actually a spare jacket they had found on the base, and it was too big for her lean frame. She and Reaper had to change after getting doused in sewage water. He heard the sound of the jacket dropping to the ground.

"Kinda stuffy?" He said, looking at her. Her colours changed to an interesting shade. It seemed as if the heat around her body was dissipating. He took that to be a yes.

"Don't let Hobbit, see you that way. He's still under the impression you're flat tyre."

She was far from flat. Phoenix was wearing a black in-shirt, with its sleeves just barely covering her shoulder. Poet sometimes couldn't help staring at her figure. The girl though seemingly careless about her looks, on the contrary dressed herself to hide. When completely dressed in her uniform she just looked like your everyday G.I. Jane. The Rangers learned otherwise when Sandman's wife asked her to be a bridesmaid for their wedding. Poet still chuckled when he thought of the hanging jaws of the men when the girl came out in that peach dress.

If she was flat – it was only in the right places.

Phoenix had been a reluctant bridesmaid that day – more so because the men couldn't stop ogling at her. Of course, none of them saw her embarrassment. Her face was as pale and seemingly nonchalant as ever – but Poet saw her colours turn to unique shades of pink. She had been furiously blushing inside.

"You ever wonder what would happen if one of us asked you out, Phoenix?" Poet said, glancing at her, reaching for a spanner to open the motherboard of the Ark's computer.

Phoenix shrugged.

"I guess you'd punch 'em in the face, huh?" He stopped tweaking the unit and looked at her.

She didn't answer, but the corners of her mouth twitched.

"So, what do you think of that Reaper guy?"

Poet didn't need to hear an answer this time. Many a times looking at Pheonix was like looking at a pair of twins superimposed on each other. The external twin gave a non-committing, disinterested response in the form of silence or a shrug; and the one inside – would be acutely alarmed. Phoenix's colour had turned to a bright shade of amber. His suspicion grew tenfold. Even the mere mention of Reaper got her internal alarms to set off.

"You know," he said, still testing her reaction further. "They say, he used to be an archaeologist. Like his sister. Didn't get as far as she did, though."

She looked at him and raised her eyebrows as if to say. 'Oh?' Her colour was still amber.

"Wonder why he joined the marines," Poet said, shrugging.

Poet saw something he didn't expect. Phoenix gave him a facial shrug as if to say 'beats me!' before she bent down and detached the white circular panels surrounding the core; but her colour changed to a light blue. He knew that colour very well on humans – it was the colour people showed whenever they pitied him and his blindness. It was a colour he saw less often on Phoenix.

It was almost as if Phoenix knew why.

"You know," he said. "There's really little you can hide from me."

Phoenix's head snapped up, her colour changed to amber. Poet sighed and decided to change the subject. He didn't want to make it harder on her than it already seemed to be. "You should get out more often, Quinn. A solitary life is not meant for the young."

He only called her Quinn whenever he was dead serious. It was the only tone of voice he could use to get her to open her mouth.

"It's not as though you have a raging love life, Poet." She said.

"Well I'm not a twenty-four year old red head, with my whole life ahead of me, either. Don't let that scar get in the way of your life, Phoenix. You're more than what that thing has done to your face."

"I didn't join the marines to have a life."

"You didn't join the marines to get rid of your life either, Phoenix."

Phoenix sighed and Poet noticed that she had paused her work. She had been in the process of checking the wires.

She looked at him with those steely grey eyes and shrugged. "No, I guess I didn't."

Poet noticed her colour had changed to a lonely shade of grey.

"Poet, what kind of technology can create such an electromagnetic field?" Hobbit's voice was heard through the comm.

"I guess it probably would operate on the principle of the nano walls." Poet said, getting his mind back on track.

"Yeah but, wouldn't you need like projectors frames or something – something to hold the field? Like the wall frame of the nano walls? "

"Yeah," said Poet, "but you'd really need something big."

"We don't have that kind of technology, right?"

Poet suddenly frowned.

"Poet? Answer me! "

"Hobbit shut up!" Poet said. "Phoenix? Did you turn on core power?"

"No." He heard her say as he stood up and looked at the panels. The lights had come on. Words were blinking on the console.

Core power at 10 percent.

"Gryffin! Hobbit! Reaper! Anybody! Who turned on core power?"

"Negative"

"No, sir."

"Poet, what's going on?"

The door opened suddenly and Genghis came through. "What's going on?"

"I don't know. "

Core power at 12 percent.

"Reaper!" Genghis shouted. "Dr. Grimm. Get up here."

"On our way."

"Sarge," Gryffin was heard. "I'm trying to shut it down but it's automatically rerouting."

"How can that damn thing come on? Every body's here."

Core power at 15 percent.

As Reaper and Samantha came in to the chamber, every light in the Ark chamber came on and the whole place was flooded with brightness.

"Er, sarge – I don't know what's going on, because I think I we just established a signal from the satellite." Smith said.

"What the fuck-?" Genghis cocked his weapon. Phoenix scooted to where her chain gun lay and readied it.

Poet frowned and pulled out his black box and plugged into the Ark computer. A series of equations flashed at lightning speed; so much that even Poet couldn't register it. The men powered their weapons and backed away from the core.

"Sam!" Reaper said. "Get to the Hub."

"But-" she protested.

"NOW!"

Phoenix avoided colliding into Sam as she rushed to the main system console on the opposite console and tried to override it. The exit doors opened again and Hobbit, Bazooka and Gamgee came in.

"Gryffin!" She called. "Try overriding the system!"

"It's not working! I'm locked out!"

"Reboot it!"

"Tried that!"

This time the message came from a robotized voice. "Core power at 25 percent."

"Fuck! The computers voice interface just got activated!"

Within seconds the voice came again. "Core power at 50 percent."

"That was fast!" Genghis muttered.

"It's exponentially doubling!" Sam screamed from the hub.

"Core power at one hundred percent. Initiating core sequence."

Phoenix stopped playing with the system console and stood besides Reaper.

"Core matter at 10 percent fluidity."

Poet stared at the equations of his defragmenter and screamed. "FUCK!"

"What?"

Smith answered for him. "Some other access point is trying to gain entry!"

"Smith, I don't speak computer bullshit! English dammit!" Genghis hollered.

Poet jumped away from control unit and grabbed his chain gun and punched in a magazine. "Some other program is accessing the ark!"

"FUCKING HOW?

"I don't know…something might be signaling it."

"What? From fucking where?"

"Wait!" Poet ran back to the control unit. "The field must be down! That's we have a link with the satellite!"

"Core matter at 50 percent fluidity."

"Why's the ark taking so much time to get activated?" Poet said. "Smith, that signal must be coming from somewhere else!"

"LOCATE IT!" Genghis roared.

"Core matter at 75 percent fluidity."

"Okay, Sarge – we have another problem." Smith spoke after two seconds.

"What?"

"I don't know what's accessing the system. I can't locate any goddamn source."

"How the fuck can that be?"

"BECAUSE! I CAN'T FIND ANY GODDAMN SIGNAL!"

"There is no incoming transmission!" Sam cried. It must be someone hacking in through some external network."

"Like what? A hacker!" Reaper shouted.

"A hacker cannot activate the Ark, John."

"Core matter at 100 percent fluidity. Ark is ready for activation."

Poet's eyes met with Phoenix and his fingers froze.

Before they could get a chance to react the voice spoke again. "All personnel standby for ark activation."

"HOW THE FUCK CAN THAT ARK GET ACTIVATED ON ITS OWN? GRYFFIN SHUT THE DAMN THING DOWN"

"CONTROLS ARE REFRACTORY, SIR! THE SYSTEM IS FROZEN"

"All right, men," Genghis shouldered his gun. "Let's get tough for some action! Everyone take cover."

"Ark activate, standby for incoming."

John ducked behind one of the control consoles, everyone did the same.

"POET! The Hub! NOW!"

John did not miss Poet shoot a dirty glare at Phoenix. He also did not miss the fierce blazing in Phoenix's grey eyes, just as he did not miss the authority of her voice. It took him by surprise – even in this moment of tension. "Are you giving orders on my turf, soldier?" Genghis barked sternly at Phoenix.

"His goddamn eyes, sir!"

Poets optimers would fry if he was around when the teleportation bubble would form.

"Dammit, I forgot! Poet you heard her!"

"But sir –"

"You have your fucking orders, soldier. I will not have my second in command invalidated because of a stupid condition! Now! Inside the Hub! Smith! Take his place. Gryffin! Sandman! "

Poet muttered angrily and jogged towards the Hub entrance, just as Gryffin, Sandman and Smith slipped out to join them. Genghis shook his head. John heard him mutter. "I'd be grateful to have someone spare me this task! The stubborn dick!"

Then he shouted. "Whatever comes through does not leave this chamber alive, AM I CLEAR? Shut down ALL the exits!"

"YES SIR!" They all chimed.

Before them a steel grey orb began to form and elongate into an oblong shape.

Whatever was on the other side was coming through.