The Deep Dark Well (18 page)

That thought sent a
thrill of pleasure coursing through him.  He had so looked forward to
continuing his, entertainment, with her.  And she had the effrontery to escape,
when he had planned such an exquisite treatment for her.

“I want her found, if
you have to tear the station apart.”

“It is surmised that
she has obtained aid of some sort,” said the robot.

“Who? 
Watcher?
 
I was not told he was on the station.

“Computer,” said
Vengeance, turning back to the holo display.  “Is Watcher on the station at
this time?”

“The being known as
Watcher is not on the station at this time,” answered the computer.

“Have you been able to
locate the being known as Pandi Latham?”

“I have not been able
to locate the being known as Pandi Latham for your forces,” answered the
computer.

Vengeance puzzled for a
second on the computer’s choice of words.  His mind blanked for a second as he
tried to analyze its semantics, to discover if there was a hidden meaning. 
When the world swam back into focus he had forgotten what he had been thinking
about.

“Well, keep looking for
her,” he said, his words ending in a yawn.  “I’ll try to keep myself amused
with these new visitors.  Open a channel to those ships.”

“Transmission will take
one point six hours to arrive at vessels,” said the computer.  “Unless you
would like to open a wormhole transmission tunnel?”

“I can wait.  I don’t
want them to know all of our capabilities at this time.”

Vengeance assumed the
character he wished the aliens to see, while sending the message he hoped would
bring them into his web.

*    *    *

“You want me to step
into that thing?”

Pandi looked down the
shaft, the seemingly bottomless hole that dropped into the perspective of
infinity.  Even though she knew it couldn’t be more than fifty kilometers or
so. 
Only fifty kilometers.  I must be crazy.

“It is perfectly safe,”
said the computer.

Pandi wasn’t sure about
its pronouncement.  She was used to having something beneath her feet when she
went up or down.

“However,” said the
computer, “waiting for those who come this way is not.”

That decided her.  She
stepped into the shaft, her eyes closed.  The wind whistled around her as she
fell, as she suppressed the scream rattling in her throat.  After a few seconds
she realized she was not falling any faster than when she had first stepped
into the shaft.  She opened her eyes, and took in the tableau of the walls of
the shaft passing by, about ten meters a second.  Enough velocity to hurt her
when she struck bottom, but she would survive.

“Of course,” said the
computer, “and you will decelerate before coming to the proper level.”

Good enough
, she thought, though
she would never know what the proper level was.  She hated putting her trust in
the machine, that which also served her enemy in some capacity.  But it had
helped her out, when it could just as easily have led her right into the hands
of her enemies.

Screwing up her
courage, Pandi looked down.  That view had not changed.  It still looked like
infinity below, a sight that brought terror into her primate’s heart.

Her decent slowed
suddenly, as the walls of the shaft crawled before her eyes.  She stopped and
the opening of a doorway to another corridor stood before her. 

Pandi stepped forward,
her knees shaking with joy and contained terror as her feet hit the solidity of
a floor.  Survival instincts rose to the fore and her concentration was soon on
her surroundings.  This corridor seemed like any other.  A different color, and
she noted that her clothing had turned that shade chameleon like.  But the
dimensions were the same, with the same kind of doorways that led to rooms off
other corridors.

“Why here?”

“This corridor leads to
an open space,” answered the computer.  “You will be able to rest beneath the
foliage and refresh yourself.”

“Lead on,” she
replied.  It would be good to see something natural for a change.

*    *    *

Natural was not really
the description of the place.  At least not according to any nature she was
familiar with.  Beautiful did fit, as beautiful as anything she had ever seen.

The chamber was
enormous.  Much too large to be taken in with one scan.  It stretched for
kilometers in each direction.  How many she didn’t know, but at least for
dozens.  The ceiling of the chamber was over a kilometer above.  A bright point
of fusion fire sat in the center of that ceiling, simulating a sun, but not a
sun such as she was used to seeing.  Too much blue in the light.  An F5 if she
guessed right.

Then the foliage
grabbed her attention.  Hues of red were the shades of the leaves on the huge
trees.  Canopies, multiple levels of vegetation, stretched from the ground to a
hundred meters in the air.  Other than the colors they at first seemed to be
very much like their earthly counterparts.  But the bark also had a reddish
sheen, mixed in with golds and silvers, like the elfin trees of fantasy. 
Flowers blossomed here and there, whites and blues and purples, even a few
greens.  Creatures much like insects flitted from blossom to blossom, or hunted
the flower feeders.

A cry from above
brought her eyes and assault rifle up in one motion.  A bird was her first
thought, until she counted its wings and remembered that no earthly bird had
four leather flaps.  It looked like a miniature dragon.  Her eyes flitted back
and forth, following the motions of dozens, then hundreds of the creatures, all
sizes and shades of color.  Bird analogues then, something reptilian that
performed the same function.

Rustles in the bushes
raised the alarm again, rifle barrel swinging to follow the motion.  Pandi
stifled a laugh as the creature came into view.  A slow moving sloth like
creature with light red fur covering its scales, grabbing some low foliage to
bring into its wide, flat toothed mouth.

“There are no creatures
here which would prove a threat to you,” said the computer.  “Snake analogues
are the largest hunters, and their poison only works on the biology of the
natives in this environment.”

Snakes,
she thought with a
shrug.  Snakes had never really scared her, growing up near the southern pines
of her home state.  As a girl she had caught snakes along with the young boys
who were her friends and companions.  She had loved putting the creatures where
other, less courageous girls, could find them, chuckling over their screams of
fear as they ran from the harmless creatures.

“So this forest, or
jungle, was never filled with large predators?”

“The natural habitat,
from the home world of the Maurids, contained a number of large predators.  Much
larger and fiercer than those on your Earth.  But this chamber was stocked as a
parkland, for the enjoyment of all who wished to visit.”

“And nothing has
evolved in the thousands of years to take the large predator slot?”

“The robotic custodians
would not allow it,” said the computer.

Pandi tensed at this
last statement.  Her experiences with robots had not gone well in general.  She
made sure the selector on her rifle was set to burst fire, shape charge ammo.

“There is nothing to
fear,” said the computer.  “The custodial robots are harmless.”

Pandi wasn’t sure, but
she had to relax sometime, and fatigue was eating at her.  She walked carefully
into the forest, not content to sleep on the edge, where anything entering the
chamber would be sure to find her.

    After she had hiked
a couple of kilometers through the thick canopy she found what she was looking
for.  A small clearing with good overhead cover.  A pool of spring water
occupied the center of the clearing.  The temperature was cool, in contrast to
the rest of the hot and steamy jungle, probably mitigated by the effect of the
spring.

“I need to get some
sleep,” she said, looking at the soft, moss covered ground.  “Make sure to wake
me if anything dangerous approaches.”

“Of course.”

Pandi lay on the
ground, leaving her helmet on to use the padding as a pillow.  She glanced
around her, still a little nervous about trusting herself to anything having to
do with this station.  But within seconds nervousness left her, as the cool
surroundings of the glade calmed her, and sleep took her into its grasp.

*    *    *

Gerasi stared at the
face of the creature revealed in the transmission from the station.  It looked
mostly human, but different in some ways.  Disproportioned.  The head was too
big, the bald dome too smooth.  A hand gestured, a hand with too many fingers.

“Genetic engineering,”
he spat, the rest of the bridge crew looking up with fearful eyes.  Genetic
engineering was against the dictates of the God who had made the human race
perfect as it was.  Genenging was the work of the Satan, and all creatures of
Satan were to be destroyed.

“Please, help me,” said
the creature in perfect Galactic Standard.  “Please, I have been alone so
long.”

The eyes of the
creature shone with pure fear, the voice quivered with anxiety.  Either the
creature really was terrified, or it was one hell of an actor.  And of course
everyone knew the minions of the devil were actors extraordinaire. 

“The systems of the
station are breaking down,” continued the voice of the creature.  “Barbarians
are at the gate.  It is so good to see some civilized creatures again.”

“Is he assuming we mean
him no harm because of our technology level?” asked the captain.

“If he assumes we mean
no harm,” answered the admiral.  “If it isn’t a trick.”

“Please, hurry,”
continued the being.  “I need assistance with the station systems.”

The creature continued
with its transmission, while Gerasi sat his chair.  If it was telling the truth
the station was open before them.  It would be simple to take it and begin to
unravel its secrets.  If it was lying, then he might be leading his squadron
into a trap.

“Contact
Dolphin
and
Tiger Shark
,” he ordered.  “Get them moving toward the station.  And
tell them to be on the watch for treachery.”

Chapter 11

We have found the
remains of a thousand civilizations out among the stars.  Civilizations that
grew from the minds of sentient creatures no longer extant.  Civilizations rise
and fall, but the cycles of any sentient species seem to have a built in
limit.  All we know is that no sentient species has so far proven eternal, and
most last less than a million years.

Report of the Galactic
Archeological Survey

Two huge shapes pulled
away from the squadron, heading toward the
Donut
at one gee
acceleration.  Vengeance watched them through the wormhole viewer he had
opened.  Real time viewing through the small aperture, only the edge distorted
by the gravitational lensing. 

“Damn,” he cursed.  He
had hoped that all of them would have come forward into his trap.  He wouldn’t
have destroyed them all, only a quarter of them.  The others he would have
allowed to run back to the safety of the perimeter, to quiver in their suits at
the close call they had escaped, not knowing he could destroy them all.  But
only when they had gotten within two billion kilometers, the optimal range of
the graviton beam for the purpose he proposed.

Vengeance could pull
them into range, using the attractive power of the beam, but he could only pull
four at a time, as that was all the large projectors he had powered up and in
alignment at this time.  The rest would back out of range of the attractor
beam, gaining enough velocity to escape.

So he would wait.  Wait
for the ships to come closer, and possibly the others to follow.

*    *    *

Admiral Miklas Gerasi
kept a close watch on the two warships he had sent ahead.  They were on the
center of the tactical display.  Screens throughout the bridge were linked into
the views sent back by the ships.  Data constantly streamed back to the
flagship’s computers.  Communications personnel were in constant touch with all
departments of the scouting ships.

They should be able to
take care of themselves.
  All of the ships of the squadron were of the same
design.  The only difference between the flag and the rest were the extra
communications and computer resources needed to command a complete squadron. 
As far as he knew his squadron was as powerful as the combined fleets of all
the powers within the system.

They should be able to
take care of themselves.  And if he were sure of that he wouldn’t have sent
them ahead as scouts.  He didn’t know what defenses the station contained. 
Possibly none.  Possibly enough to defeat the combined resources of the
Nation
of Humanity
and all of its enemies.