Smith and Arthur had spent the last two hours in the hangar. Arthur was currently wrist deep in the innards of one of the crafts. Amy had turned on the main lights.
"So they taught you to fix these but didn't let you fly them?!" Smith was dubious.
"No time," Arthur replied without stopping. "There're so many ships and vehicles types, I didn't have time to do anything else."
"What made you become a mechanic?" Smith asked, making conversation to mostly pass the time and distract from the worries on his mind.
"I was good at it from a young age and I enjoyed it. Still do," Arthur replied. "I need to concentrate on this. Please."
Smith got the hint. He moved off toward the little office cubicle. "Just yell if you need me."
He didn't expect Arthur to actually need him seeing as he had no clue about vehicle repair. He hadn't even recognised any of the tools Arthur had asked for by name other than the most basic ones also used for maintaining his own equipment. He'd just slow Arthur down.
Sitting at the empty desk, he radioed in to report to Heather.
"He says it's gonna take a while. At least a whole day, including fixing the comms."
Heather listened. They were all back in the operations room, going through the system together to try to piece together a plan and see what they could find out about this place.
Kra'tak and Tol'din had taken to keeping a watch outside, preferring that to the confined indoors. They'd brought in their fallen clan mate and placed him in cold storage at Heathers suggestion. Kra'tak had taken a look at Specimen 2218 and asked Heather if he was a friend, to which she'd truthfully answered that she had no idea.
"Can he do it though?" Heather asked for confirmation.
Smith replied, "He believes he can. Between the three ships and the stuff in the storage rooms he says he should get at least one of them working."
Heather turned to the group. "We're going to be here at least another night."
The others acknowledged and resigned themselves to a longer stay.
"We might as well take another look around," Heather said to her team. "We could do with seeing if there's any hidden passages to get to the rest of this place."
"At least there's no vents here," Hale added, leaving the room.
"Not ones that we've found," Gustav remarked, following Hale out.
Adams, who'd slept for the last hour, nodded to Heather and moved up to sit with Amy. She continued tapping away at keys, trying to access more of the system. After the initial ease, she'd found further access becoming increasingly more secure and difficult to break through.
"What do you think this place is?" Adams asked.
"An experimental laboratory going by that Specimen 2218," she replied, rubbing tired eyes.
Adams watched her. "Get some sleep, I'll watch over this for a little while."
She did so.
As dawn broke Adams, Smith, Heather and Hale were almost done cutting open the door leading to the roof with the communications array. Arthur waited with equipment nearby.
"Done," Heather confirmed, pushing on the door.
As it fell forward, both Heather and Adams tried and failed to catch it before it hit the ground. Watching it fall, they cringed in anticipation of the loud clang it would make but to their surprise it stopped halfway through its fall. They saw Kra'taks alien hands grasp both sides and gently set it on the ground. Kra'tak and Tol'din had climbed to the roof from the outside.
Arthur moved to the array and began inspecting it. The others looked out across the complex and into the surrounding forest. The bright clear blue sky and the sounds of animals they'd heard before greeted them.
A while later Arthur finished his inspection. "I can replace the damaged parts. However, some of these circuits are fried and it looks like the same will happen to the new ones. That means they'll probably burn out quickly. We won't have long to talk."
"How long?" Heather asked.
"Less than a minute?" Arthur replied.
"You sure?" Heather questioned.
"Yes."
"Damn. Adams, Hale you stay up here. Smith, come with me. We'll wait in operations to contact home," Heather ordered.
"The display should tell you when the comms are back up," Arthur informed her.
It was two hours of waiting before the display started flashing green at points. In response Amy attempted to contact home. On her third try the signal seemed to get through.
Arthur radioed down, "You got about a minute!"
Raul was playing cards with Matsu when his console beeped loudly and Amy's voice came through the speaker.
"This is Amy. Base do you copy?"
Raul jumped out of his current seat and went to his desk.
"Raul here. Reading you loud and clear," he replied. "About time! Did you make it there?"
"We're all ok. Just listen, comms will go down quickly," Amy said.
Heather took over, speaking quickly. "Raul, we made it last night. No signs of bugs and we haven't seen any life apart from a man in stasis. We found three ships. Arthur thinks he can get one working but it'll take another day. We won't be coming back until at least tomorrow. Let everyone know we're all ok."
"Understood," Raul replied.
Smith spoke next, "Put me through to Patia, please."
"One moment."
"Smith?! Oh thank god. Are you all ok?!" Patia asked.
"We're fine. We'll be...tomor...kshkk..chrkk," the signal went dead.
"That's it, it's dead." Arthur said on the radio.
The display flashed and pointed at first one then three damaged areas of the array once again.
"Can you fix it again?" Heather asked.
"No. Don't have any more replacement circuits," Arthur replied.
"Alright, least we got something through. Get on with the ship repairs, check the ship up there." Heather ordered. "Adams, can you seal the door back up?"
"No. It won't fit now. I'll leave our second turret here. Kra'tak and Tol'din will stay on watch out here. They don't like being inside. I gave Kra'tak a radio and I've shown him how to use it."
"Good," Heather turned to Amy. "See what else you can find out about this place."
"I'm coming up against a lot of security now. It'll be slow progress from here." Amy replied.
"Great!" Heather said sarcastically. "The rest of us will just twiddle our useless thumbs for a while."
Endora Prime
After lunch time Zara, Caley and the same two children from the day before found themselves playing in the ground floor of the civilians building unsupervised once again. This time there were two soldiers guarding the only door leading outside.
Despite recent events including the deaths of Duante, Joe and Tyler, whose bodies were in cold storage in the medicentre, the adults were a feeling a lot more relaxed. In large part this was due to Tol'din no longer attacking them whilst looking for Kra'tak and the fact that they both left with the expedition group.
Zara had a downbeat mood, not expecting to be able to get to the lab to see the cages today either. Caley and the other two continued playing their own made up games.
Dena, Shen and Keitaro were keeping watch in the turret covering the gate. Rested, Keitaro had mostly recovered from his run in with Kra'taks friend. His cuts were almost healed, the stitches already beginning to dissolve. The sword on his back glistened in the bright daylight.
"It's strange," Dena thought out loud.
"What is?" Shen asked.
"Heather and the rest. They managed to contact us from all the way out there but we can't reach that far," she answered.
Keitaro, leaning on the sill of the windowless gap and looking out at the clearing and forest beyond, spoke up. "The whole things strange. Better to just wait 'til they get back and see what they found."
"It's such bullshit though," Dena went on. "I thought this place was different. We're like a family. None of that secrets bullshit and then we find out about this! From another alien species too!"
Shen spoke. "There's an old Chinese proverb 'If the wind comes from an empty cave, it's not without reason'."
"What is that supposed to mean?!" Dena snapped.
"Things don't happen for no reason, everything has a cause," Shen replied.
"And?!" Dena asked impatiently.
"Let's just wait 'til they get back. Ok?" Shen reasoned.
At this, Dena calmed herself. She sighed reluctantly. "Yeah, alright."
A few silent moments passed. Dena continued reading a book, Shen doing the same.
Dena looked at Shen, "You didn't get that quote from that book just now?" she enquired.
Shen smirked, "Actually, I did. I thought it was fitting. Sorry!"
They both laughed quietly. Suddenly, Keitaro perked up and leaned further out of the gap, placing his hands on the sill for balance.
"What the hell is THAT?!" he yelled.
The two of them got up and joined him. "What?!" they both asked simultaneously.
"Look," he pointed to a spot in the forest.
The others squinted, scanning the tree line. Then they saw it. Something big was standing further in the forest almost completely camouflaged. They watched it intently for a few minutes, unsure if they really were seeing something or if shadows were playing tricks on them.
"Who's got binocs?" Dena asked.
Shen rifled through the equipment racks and found none. "Not us."
The radio squawked, "This is Paolo in Turret 2E. We've spotted something in the forest. Looks big. It's directly in front of the gate."
Paolo sounded calm. He was in the turret on the other side of the gate to Dena and co.
Rauls voice came on. "Can you describe it?"
"Yeah, I'm using binocs. Let me see. It's got a big black body, what looks like four small legs, a mix between tree trunks and," he paused. "Claws? Are those bug claws?!"
Shen activated his own radio. "Sounds like a mix of an elephant and a xenomorph but from what I can tell it looks bigger."
"What's it doing?" Raul asked.
"Nothing. It's just standing there," Shen answered.
Finley and Hurst, in Turret 3A facing west, were listening intently.
Paolo spoke again, "What do we do?"
"Shoot it?" Raul suggested.
"Even if we hit it from this far, will we damage it?!" Dena asked doubtfully.
"What about heavy ordnance?" Paolo asked.
"Missiles?" Raul replied. "We've only got six."
"We don't have much ammo left either," Dena advised.
Hurst tapped Finley on the shoulder. Finley turned to him then followed his pointed finger out towards the forest. Hidden in the depths of the tree line was a large black shadow which Finley knew hadn't been there a short while ago.
He picked up his binocs and took a closer look at the shadow. It was similar to Paolo's description.
He radioed, "This is Finley in 3A. We've got one on our side now."
"Is it moving?" Raul asked.
"No, seems to be just standing there." Finley replied. "We should get some ordnance up here. One for us and one each for 1E and 2E."
"I'll get some runners on it," Raul replied.
The two guards at the civilian building responded to their radios and quickly moved off from their posts. Zara noticed this through the open door and waited for a couple of minutes before rounding up Caley and the other two.
"The guards have gone. Let's go," she told them.
They walked excitedly towards the exit. Making their way outside the fear of being caught caused them to move slowly, watching for adults.
Coming closer to the lab entrance they hid around a corner when two soldiers ran past carrying large metal cases. The danger gone, they made their way to the lab entrance.
Zara quickly went up to the control panel and was about to enter the code she'd overheard, when Caley pushed open the already unlocked door. None of them were bothered by this; instead the excitement spurred them on as they went inside.
The corridor in front of them was dark, with just a couple of weak lights currently illuminating it. They chose to keep the door open to let daylight in. The four of them walked slowly against one wall trying their best to be stealthy with Zara leading.
Making it halfway into the corridor a low but shrill sound in the distance momentarily froze them. They looked at each other, not with fear, but with ever growing eagerness. The cages which held real life monsters were not too far beyond.
What the children didn't know was that this lab, due to its extremely dangerous contents, should have been impossible for them to enter. There were a number of security measures and lockdowns normally active.
Something was wrong.