Chapter 6
They crawled into the hole feet first, Luc entering before Kristin. Their only illumination was a faint green glow from a tiny watch on Kristin's wrist, but after a few moments of getting used to the dim light it provided more than enough for their vision to work optimally. Neither of them commented on it, but they were both aware that normal human beings would probably not be able to see in such a dark environment. There was no longer any doubt in either of their minds that this was an enhanced ability that they both shared.
They were in some kind of air shaft, and they quickly reached a horizontal tunnel, but it was so low that they ended up crawling through the passageway. After about half an hour Kristin's knees ached fiercely, and another twenty minutes after that the heels of her hands went numb. But they kept moving onward, using the map on Kristin's computer pad to guide them.
After they had been crawling for about an hour, they came to the first of the force fields Professor Tremblay had warned them about. They had been carefully designed to let oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules through, but nothing larger than that; the fields were effectively acting as a membrane over the ventilation shaft. The first field was bypassed quickly and easily by transmitting the access code the Professor had given them. The field turned off for five seconds, which was more than enough time for Kristin and Luc to pass through. A few minutes later they entered into a large chamber that housed the air filtration and circulation equipment for the Mont Blanc Tunnel. They did not linger, but moved on through the room and back into the ventilation passageways.
Beyond this area, the shaft widened, and they were able to stand up and walk in single file. Kristin rose up gratefully, glad for the chance to rest her knees and hands. They continued in this fashion for another hour, bypassing three more force fields of increasing complexity. Each one was located shortly after a seemingly innocuous turnoff that was not marked on the official blueprints of the Mont Blanc Tunnel Ventilation System, but which Professor Tremblay had indicated on the altered map she had provided for their use.
Kristin could tell by their directional angle that they were descending slowly. Occasionally, there would be a straight drop, and she and Luc would have to lower themselves down, hanging by their fingers from the edge and then falling the rest of the way. Kristin wasn't looking forward to the return journey, when they would have to use a rope and grappler to ascend these vertical shafts.
Eventually, they entered a tunnel that was clearly not part of the Tunnel System ventilation ducts, and the size of the shaft decreased, forcing them to crawl once more. They passed through two more force fields, and after some time came out into a maintenance room, full of fans and air filters.
"I think we made it." Luc grinned.
"Only one more door." Kristin said, holding her breath. This was the last of the force fields: the one that Professor Tremblay had told her about.
Luc and Kristin carefully made their way around the still-operating equipment, coming to a door on the other side of the room. A handprint identification pad was set into the wall near the door.
"Try it, Luc." Kristin suggested.
"Are you sure?" he asked uncertainly. "What if it doesn't accept my handprint, and sets off an alarm, or something?"
"Marie didn't think that would happen." Kristin revealed. "But she wanted you to try."
"Me?" Luc was confused. "Why me?" Why not you? Why…?" his voice trailed off as an expression of hopefulness emerged on his handsome features.
"She knows who I am, doesn't she?" he asked excitedly. "She knows that the system will recognize me!"
"Not quite." Kristin replied. "She thinks that she might know, but she's not certain. She said that if this door grants you access, then she is right."
"Who does she think I am?" Luc questioned her. "Why didn't you tell me about this before?"
"She won't tell me." Kristin answered dejectedly. "I pleaded with her to do so, quite a few times, but all she would say was that she didn't want you to know until she was certain she was right, because she didn't want to scare you."
"Scare me?" Luc was taken aback by this statement. "What would scare me? Surely, if I worked for the Federation, at a high enough level to have access to this facility, and be imprisoned by the Snakeheads in their high security Penal Complex, then I shouldn't be scared."
Luc stared at the handprint reader for a moment, but the look on his face clearly stated that his mind was somewhere else. After a couple of minutes, he spoke again.
"I guess there's only one way to find out."
Cautiously, Luc stepped forward, stretching out his right hand and gingerly placing it into the imprint in the wall panel. The device glowed a soft blue color, humming as the access system came to life.
"Greetings, Commander." stated a computerized voice. "Codes rerouted. Entrance granted."
Luc and Kristin stared in awe as the formidable metal door in front of them slid open, revealing a brightly lit corridor beyond. But it wasn't the entrance to the facility that had astounded Luc the most.
"It called me, 'Commander'." he whispered, looking curiously at the panel as they passed through the entrance to the base. The door shut behind them with a soft hiss.
"We already knew that was your title." Kristin pointed out. "Clearly, you were granted access here because of your Federation rank."
"Of course." Luc nodded. "I just wish I knew…"
Luc didn't get to finish his sentence, because his mouth was otherwise occupied as his jaw dropped to the floor. He and Kristin had entered what looked like a massive aircraft hangar. It had to be the size of at least ten American football fields. In the very center of the chamber was parked a sleek silver jet.
"Wow…" was all Luc could manage to get out as he approached the aircraft. It was apparently incomplete, as various outer panels we missing, and engine parts were strewn all over the floor. Still, the UN logo on the sides could clearly be seen.
Tools were scattered all over the floor, and it looked as if whomever had been working here had left in a great hurry. However there was also an abandoned air to the scene, suggesting that no one was going to return anytime soon.
"This is a supersonic jet." Luc breathed, walking underneath the plane and running his hands reverently over the exterior. "I didn't know that they were making these for the UN! This has to be a prototype…"
"Well Marie did say that this was a research lab." Kristin grinned. She was amused by Luc's reaction to the aircraft. They had suspected that he had been a pilot, and now she was certain of it.
"Too bad we can't fly it out of here." she joked, and Luc turned to look at her sheepishly.
"Should I admit that I had already seriously considered that possibility?" he laughed. "But you're right, of course."
Kristin gave Luc a few more moments to examine the jet, then firmly encouraged him to move on. They had to find the Data Center.
But the laboratory proved to be too fascinating for them to resist. Once they had bypassed the living quarters of the facility's personnel and found the main corridor in the research area, they came across room after room of fascinating objects: body armor, hand weapons, vehicle parts, computer systems… all seemingly cutting edge and under development.
In one room, Kristin spotted the calibration device that Professor Tremblay had requested. She picked it up quickly and put it into one of her many jacket pockets. Fortunately, it was quite small: literally just an expansion chip for a computer pad and an accompanying scanning nodule approximately three centimeters long.
"It seems like such a shame to destroy all of these things." Kristin commented regretfully. "They could be of so much help to us… to Mattieu… and to the Federation…"
"That's why we need to download all of the data we can, and bring it back to the Federation." Luc said confidently. "Perhaps, with this research information, their scientists can build a fighting force to take back control of the Earth."
But Kristin barely heard a word Luc had said. She was standing in the doorway of another laboratory, staring at something.
"What is it?" Luc asked, but Kristin didn't answer. She stepped slowly into the room, reaching out and tentatively picking up an item from a workstation table.
A myriad of emotions passed through her: shock… fear… nervousness… joy… familiarity…
Slowly, Luc approached Kristin, gently pulling her hand away from her body and lifting her fingers so that he could see what she was grasping so possessively.
The item was a bright red disc, with a thin yellow triangle… no, more like an arrow… on its surface. Luc examined the object closely while Kristin held it in her hand, feeling a surprising closeness to this strange device.
"It's…" Luc attempted to describe the object, "a throwing disc?" He appeared bewildered.
"No." Kristin said, her mind in a strange fog. She felt as if she were on the verge of discovering things she had never known, or even suspected, about herself, and she was fighting to grab ahold of the distant images.
"It's a yo-yo." she said woodenly.
"A yo-yo?" Luc was clearly surprised. "Why would the scientists here be working on a yo-yo? Were there children present…?"
"It's a weapon." Kristin replied, her mind still functioning separately from her major mental functions. It was as if her hidden self was doing the talking, while her conscious self was searching within her thoughts for insubstantial clues to the source of her true memories.
"It's mine." she said, clutching the yo-yo to her chest like a child obsessing over her favorite toy. "I need it."
"How do you know it's yours?" asked Luc curiously, studying Kristin intently. It was clear that he didn't understand what was going on, and his face wore an expression of concern.
"That one is yours." Kristin said suddenly, not even aware of where the words had originated.
"What?" Luc's head swiveled back and forth.
"That one." Kristin repeated, pointing her hand toward a different laboratory workstation.
Cautiously, Luc stepped forward, examining the toy that lay upon the table. It was in the shape of a metallic bird, the wings coming down to razor sharp edges and deadly points. Luc hesitated before gingerly picking it up.
"Are you certain?" he asked. "It doesn't seem familiar to me…"
"It's yours." Kristin confirmed. "It goes in your pocket, along your leg."
Luc looked down, confused. He was wearing cargo pants, and indeed, there was a pocket on the outside of each thigh. He reached down, opening the pouch on his right leg, automatically retracting the bird's wings and sliding it inside.
"What are these things?" he asked incredulously, looking around the room. There were five laboratory workstations, one of which was bigger than the other four. Moving to this large table, Kristin looked down at the objects being developed there. Two black guns were lying side by side. One was slightly bigger than the other, and had a strange crescent-shaped blade on one end, but otherwise they appeared to be similar. Kristin touched the weapons briefly, but they didn't feel right to her, and so she moved on.
The next workstation held what looked like two blue and white balls attached by a long string. She picked them up curiously, letting the cord dangle between her fingers, the balls swinging like small pendulums as a flash of memory came to her.
"Those are called bolas." Luc said. "They're a South American weapon, used by the Patagonian Peoples."
"These were my brother's." Kristin said, a tear slipping down her face before she reverently placed the bolas back down onto the worktable and stepped away. She stared at the weapon in silence for a moment before finally moving on.
The last laboratory workstation held what looked like a pile of white feathers.
"What are these doing here?" Luc asked suspiciously, reaching out to touch the quills.
"Careful, the tips are poisoned." Kristin warned him. Luc nodded, picking one feather up by the fluffy end.
"I used these occasionally." Kristin said. "You did too."
"Do you want to take some?" Luc asked. Kristin contemplated her answer for a moment.
"Yes." she finally nodded. "You should too, Commander."
Luc's already astonished face whitened in shock, but he did as she asked, placing the strange darts in his left thigh pocket.
"Kristin," he said slowly, "who am I?"
"You're the Commander, of course." she laughed, as if nothing could be more obvious. ""You're my Commander."
"Your Commander?" Luc repeated. "Did… Kristin… did we know each other… before?"
"I…"
Images of Luc whirled through Kristin's mind; too many to interpret in the rush of thoughts. She nearly screamed in frustration as she clutched at her head with the agony of it, but after a moment, she found that she was able to deal with the flood of sensation. She glanced down, catching sight of the yo-yo in her hand, and the memories suddenly cleared.
She was in a practice room, shooting her yo-yo out at a holographic Snakehead, sending an electric charge down the wire and felling him easily.
"That's my girl."
She turned to see a young boy with bright blue eyes grinning at her. He couldn't have been more than ten years old, but she recognized him instantly…
"Yes," Kristin breathed, "we did. I remember, now."
She gasped, and suddenly she was back in the laboratory, Luc staring at her, amazed.
"I remember…" she repeated, "not everything, but a few things…" Kristin began to laugh softly.
"No wonder I trusted you instinctively!"
"Kristin, if you remember me, then please tell me who I am!" Luc asked of her, clearly desperate for answers. But she had to hang her head in response.
"I'm sorry, Luc." she whispered. "I don't know. You were my Commander. I was on your Team. That's all I remember…"
Luc growled in frustration, slamming his hand onto the wall.
"It's something." he said at last. "We knew each other, before. I guess that explains why we can do some of the same things, and why both of us have problems remembering. But why can't I recall anything, like you just did?"
"I don't know." Kristin replied helplessly, hating the familiarity of those three words. "But I promise, I'm going to do my best to remember more, including who you are."
"That's all I can ask." he said quietly, embracing her in the abandoned laboratory. They clung to each other for a long moment, knowing that they were all each other had in a world that was far from how it was supposed to be.
But they had both vowed to do whatever was necessary to make it right again. And in that moment, their promise weighed more heavily upon them than it ever had.
"Let's go download that data." Kristin suggested finally. "The sooner we're done, the sooner we can get back to Marie for some answers."
"I like the sound of that." Luc agreed.
They forced themselves not to look in any more rooms as they made their way down the corridor. They had already been delayed for far too long, and Professor Tremblay was waiting for them back in Chamonix. There was also the risk that the Snakeheads might discover the facility at any moment. Now that they understood the massive scale upon which this research base had been built, it was easy to see how a piece of it could easily be accidentally uncovered during the Snakehead mining operations under the same mountain range. Neither they nor Professor Tremblay knew exactly how far the Spectran search for uranium deposits had progressed underneath Mont Blanc.
Once they were ignoring the distractions of the research laboratories along the corridors. they found the Data Center in less than five minutes. As soon as they arrived, Kristin walked over to the main control panel, using the passcodes that Professor Tremblay had given them to access the files.
"I see the last backup of the data system." she reported. "It looks like it was done the night before the Snakehead Invasion."
"How long will it take to copy all of it?" Luc asked.
"It's been compressed, so it should only be about ten minutes." Kristin told him. "I think I can even fit it all on one of these high capacity data discs." Luc nodded, then began looking over the command systems, searching for the self-destruct function that Professor Tremblay had assured them was there.
A few minutes later, Kristin's copy procedure was well underway and she moved over to glance at what Luc was doing. He had located the self-destruct function, but the codes they had been given were apparently not working, and Luc was unable to initiate the sequence. His brow furrowed and Kristin could see that Luc was extremely frustrated by his lack of progress.
"Why won't it work?" he asked angrily, running his hands through his hair in an irritated fashion.
"Those are the correct codes." Kristin said slowly, analyzing the problem in her mind. "You're doing exactly what Marie told us to do." She looked thoughtfully at the error messages that had been displayed during Luc's many attempts to activate the self-destruct sequence.
"It says that these codes have been overridden." Kristin reported. "Apparently, a higher authority took control of the facility, and the codes were automatically disabled."
"What?" Luc asked anxiously. "Do you think the Snakeheads somehow…?"
"No!" Kristin was astonished by what she had just discovered. "Luc, it's you!" She turned, staring at him in amazement.
"Look," she pointed at the relevant data on the screen, "it says that forty-five minutes ago, control of the facility was transferred to a new Commander, who initiated emergency procedures while entering the Laboratory Complex."
"You mean, by using that stupid handprint panel, instead of just transmitting the final access code, we changed all of the control procedures for the entire facility?" Luc was both shocked and annoyed.
"Well, the high-level procedures, anyhow." Kristin confirmed. "And initiation of the self-destruct is definitely a high-level procedure."
"So, what do we do now?" Luc asked. "Can you bypass this new command structure?"
"Well…" Kristin chewed absent-mindedly on a fingernail as she pondered their options.
"I don't think subverting the system would be very easy to do." she said finally. "But maybe we can work within the system. Let's try this." She pointed at another handprint panel set into the control desk.
"Let the computer recognize who you are, and then give it the appropriate commands." she suggested.
"It's worth a shot." Luc agreed. He reluctantly placed his hand on the panel.
"Activating…" hummed the computer. After a moment, it spoke again.
"Commander authorized."
"Uh…" Luc hesitated briefly, before speaking more authoritatively. "Initiate self-destruct sequence."
"Voice command recognized. State delay for self-destruct."
"Four hours." Luc ordered.
"Initiating."
"I guess it worked." Luc shrugging and removing his hand, just as the computer spoke again.
"T minus two hundred forty minutes before self-destruct is initiated. Two hundred thirty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight, fifty-seven, fifty-six…"
"Silence audio countdown." Luc said quickly, placing his hand back on the panel once more. The computerized voice immediately ceased.
Kristin's backup procedure dinged softly to announce its completion. She retrieved the data disc, testing it in another terminal to confirm that their copy had been successful.
"Time to go." she grinned, placing the disc in her jacket pocket, next to the calibration device. She paused, then quickly checked the main pocket on the other side of her jacket, assuring herself that the yo-yo was still there.
"We should have enough time to make it to the surface." Luc said as they walked out of the room. "I don't want to be anywhere near this place when it blows."
"Well, it's about a three hour climb, so I guess we had better hustle." Kristin suggested.
They made their way back though the facility, and despite Luc gazing longingly at the supersonic jet as they passed by, they did not stop or slow their pace until they had arrived again at the door through which they had entered the Research Base. Luc and Kristin exited through the door that led to the ventilation system chamber, and Luc used the handprint pad one final time to give a voice command to lock the door behind them. Then they went back the way they had come.
When they approached the first vertical shaft on their return journey, Luc stopped and began opening their pack, looking for the rope and grappling device that they would need to climb up, but Kristin placed a hand on his arm.
"Wait…"
Luc looked at her curiously, but did as she had asked.
Kristin wasn't entirely sure why she had stopped Luc. They certainly didn't have any time to waste getting back to the surface. But something in the back of her mind was telling her that there was a better way.
She put her hand into her pocket, and the cool, satin-smooth metal of her yo-yo caressed her palm. Kristin drew the weapon out, examining it closely.
Nothing.
She closed her eyes, running her fingers lightly over the yo-yo, marveling at the way it felt so strange, and yet at the same time, so familiar. She let her conscious mind relax, and without warning, her arm shot out, throwing the weapon straight up into the air, while her finger held onto the end.
Through the cord, she felt a sharp tug, and she knew without a doubt that the yo-yo had attached itself to a wall at the top of the shaft.
"Hold me." she instructed Luc, her eyes still closed. It was easier this way.
She felt Luc's arms encircling her, and when she was certain that his grip was sufficiently firm, she pulled lightly on the cord, not surprised at all to find it retracting upward, lifting the two of them into the air.
She heard a sharp intake of breath from Luc, but he didn't say a word as they rose up the shaft. Kristin smiled to herself, then laughed softly, enjoying the sense of freedom this maneuver gave her, and she felt Luc's body relax slightly, next to hers.
She sensed when they were close to the end and she opened her eyes, swinging slightly and stepping lightly onto the floor at top of the shaft. Luc let go and stared at her in amazement.
"I told you this was mine." she winked, pulling on the cord and snapping the yo-yo back into her hand.
"I guess so." Luc nodded. "Makes me wonder what mine can do…"
"It's a boomerang." Kristin said, a vision of the metallic bird swooping around the room flashing across her mind. "You throw it out, and it comes back to you."
"I think I'll practice, before trying it out for real." Luc grinned. "But in the meantime, I like the ascension method you've discovered. It's faster, and certainly has other benefits." He squeezed her hand for emphasis.
"That's the best part." Kristin flirted, as they began moving again towards the exit.
Kristin found herself looking forward to the vertical shafts as they moved on, and with each ascension she became more and more confident using her yo-yo. On her third attempt she was able to keep her eyes open during the entire procedure. Thanks to her discovery, they made excellent time, and in thirty minutes they had returned to the main ventilation chamber for the Mont Blanc Tunnel.
As it had been only a few hours before, the room was dark, but Kristin and Luc made their way across, quickly approaching the exit on the opposite side of the chamber. Suddenly, Luc put his arm out, halting Kristin's progress.
"What…?"
A flash of someone dressed in green edged at the corner of her vision, and suddenly, a blast of pain erupted over Kristin's back, and she found herself falling to the floor.