Mech shot a quick glance towards Gavin. < On Three. >
He nodded his affirmation.
< One … Two … Three. >
Both of them ripped opened the doors of the storage container at the same time.
Gavin held his weapon tightly, the wrist beacon flooding the darkness with bright white light and revealing nothing.
Mech had already secured her Glock.
The container was as empty as the previous eleven had been.
“Now what?” asked Gavin, disappointed by having come up empty handed again. They had easily managed to enter Grayson’s compound “ maybe a bit too easily “ and found a number of spacious warehouses. But whatever had been stored here had recently been moved. The twelve large and empty containers littered across the huge warehouse were the only evidence that something had been kept here at all.
Mech had found something else of interest. She had discovered a computer terminal at the other side of the warehouse and headed out to cross the wide open floor. “See what else you can find, I’m going to try to get access to the local network.”
Gavin holstered his weapon “ a bit hesitantly, this place made him feel squeamish “ and walked into the cargo container.
Like the other ones it was quite large, big enough to have been designed to carry industrial equipment or starship components. It was completely unmarked however. A label, identifying its cargo, its point of origin and its owner would have been too easy, Gavin mused with a silent chuckle.
He meticulously scanned every square meter of the container, looking for something that might give any indication of what might have been kept here. There was nothing.
He had one more ace up his sleeve, literally. He pulled up his right shirt sleeve to reveal a small bendable computer panel wrapped around his lower arm. It was a basic field tricorder with rudimentary scanning abilities. A much lighter, smaller and less powerful version of the ones Starfleet used, it could detect a number of substances and also life signs over short distances.
He tapped the panels and waited for the sensors to pick up any trace of what might have been transported in the container. After a few moments of analysis the tricorder produced its findings. Nothing but oxygen and nitrogen. Air.
Gavin turned and headed out of the container. When he reached the doors he looked back one more time, sweeping the interior of the container with the light of his beacon. He noticed something on the floor that startled him. There appeared to be markings there that hadn’t been there before. It took him a moment to realize that they weren’t markings at all.
“Footprints,” he said quietly and then recoiled slightly at hearing his own voice echoing in the hollow container.
For there to be footprints, there had to be something to make them in. He knelt down and wiped the floor with a finger. And true enough he picked up a thin layer of dust.
Gavin activated his tricorder again. This time it yielded results.
A cold shudder ran up his spine when he realized what it was he had discovered.
Mech had gained access to the computer terminal with little difficulties. The protective firewalls were sophisticated but not enough to keep her locked out.
What she found on the local net was something she had not expected.
That huge data knot shimmering in green and white light was immediately familiar. She had seen it before and last time she had tried to gain access to it she had almost paid for it with her life.
Gateway 668.
Was it possible that the firmware for it was right here in this compound? It certainly would explain the massive FedNet activity she had encountered a few days ago and which had appeared to be concentrated in this area. But to what purpose? What was it for and what was it hiding?
There was only one way to find out.
Mech dove into it.
Her cybernetic enhancers still contained the exact routines she had used the last time when trying to hack the massive data knot and access took a lot less effort this time. The first four protective layers were quickly circumnavigated. The level ten firewall protecting the gateway was not nearly as aggressive as it had been when Mech had tried to hack into it before. The reason seemed obvious. The firewalls were in place to protect the information from outside access. They had not been designed to keep somebody out who had access to the local net.
It was still no child’s play and a reckless mistake could still have caused Mech to get spiked badly, possibly blowing out a few relays of her enhancers or worse get her brain fried. That would have been bad. Mech quite treasured her brain.
When she finally got passed all the safeties and firewalls and she was rewarded with the much thought after access-granted sign, she felt the euphoria of a person who had just reached the peak of K-2 with no artificial help, except that for Mech, climbing the infamous mountain peak would have probably been less of a challenge then hacking into Gateway 668.
She allowed herself a playful smirk, imagining Trigger’s face when she told him that she had managed to crack the most notorious program in all of FedNet in under five minutes.
The smile dropped off her face when she discovered what 668 had been hiding.
A flood of information washed over her. It was too much. Way too much, even for her sophisticated cybernetically enhanced mind. A never-ending stream of data engulfed her like water engulfing a person dropped into the middle of an ocean, and it was dragging her down, threatening to drown her.
She fought to stay on the surface, to discern the massive amount of data, to make sense of it and to sort it in a logical way that would allow her to process it. But it was monumental struggle and one she had not been prepared for.
She saw Whren and Grayson and Black, a whole army of Blacks, marching in the streets. She saw Nyuchiba, the massive metropolis she had once called her home, and she saw a skyscraper adorned by a blue emblem, she saw detailed floor plans, she saw Starfleet starships and Marines, she saw Asuka III and a name: Helcon. Over and over again. Helcon. Who was Helcon? Was he behind all of this? There was just too much information, streaming at a pace too frantically to attempt to retain much of anything. But maybe if she could hang on for a moment longer, maybe she could make sense of it all, maybe she could find out who was behind all of this and why they wanted her dead.
Then she heard the faint noise, originating somewhere in the back off her head.
< ... If you can hear me. I think the containers were packed with tri-cobalt, that’s a powerful explosive and judging from the quantities I found, probably enough to turn half a city to dust. >
Gavin stood next to Mech, realizing that she was interfaced with the computer terminal. He knew that she was a good enough hacker to access computer networks and interact with the outside world at the same time but whatever she was doing now was consuming her entire attention, her eyes were out of focus and she had not reacted to his approach or his report.
There was nothing else for him to do but wait until she had completed whatever had captured her seemingly undivided attention.
A gentle humming sound startled him and he turned to find its source. He couldn’t locate it but the sound was increasing which concerned him enough to reach for his Seburo.
Something was coming.
“Mech,” he said quietly, hoping she could hear him. “I think we’ve got company.”
And then he saw it and he wasn’t sure what to make of it at first.
A dark green bulbous vehicle had emerged from in between the cargo containers and approached slowly. It hovered about five inches from the floor and was about three meters in diameter. On top of the lower body sat another bubble shaped apparatus. It seemed to have sensor modules attached to it and a short tube-like device protruded from it.
Realization dawned. That was no mere tube. It was a barrel. A gun barrel.
He whipped around. “Mech! LT!”
When she still didn’t react, he reached for her shoulder, trying to shake her out of her daze, while throwing nervous glances over his own shoulder. The vehicle continued to approach, the barrel now beginning to adjust, taking aim.
“LT, we have to move!” he shouted and tried to pull her away from the computer. It was like trying to pull a freight train, she simply didn’t budge. < LT! >
Mech came around and for a moment she looked perplexed as if she had not expected to disconnect to the network. Her eyes found Gavin’s and she looked all but ready to tear him in two for distracting her.
Gavin couldn’t suppressed a gulp. He had little doubt that she could if she tired. Then he indicated towards the inbound vehicle. “I don’t know what that thing is but something tells me it’s not part of the welcoming committee.”
“AI tank,” she said, recognizing the design immediately.
Gavin did not like the sound of that and if he had hoped for Mech to come up with an ingenious plan to evade the intimating machine he was in for a major disappointment.
“Run.”
To his credit the young operative didn’t think twice. He fell into a fast dash almost instantly, heading towards the exit. A few of the containers would provide cover before he reached it but first he and Mech would have to cover a long stretch of wide open floor which would make them an easy target.
While he ran he noticed two things. One, Mech was not following him and two, the AI tank had come to a halt and the barrel on top was adjusting to take him into his sights. His heartbeat quickened but he didn’t stop, even when he became sickly aware that if that things was half as smart as the name indicated, it would have had no difficulties to hit him with whatever nasty weapon it possessed, long before he could reach the now seemingly enormously distant cover.
Then he heard Mech’s Glock firing “ the sound was quite distinctive “ the duranium-laced bullets penetrated the tank but didn’t appear to do much to stop it.
No, Gavin realized, they did have the desired effect. The tank was readjusting again, this time to take aim at Mech who still stood where she had before, fully exposed.
Gavin reached his cover and slid behind it.
Mech had began to move towards him but even utilizing her incredible speed, she was still too slow. The AI tank fired a blue energy bolt which exploded right in her path, the shockwave of the impact catapulting her high into the air. Gavin watched helplessly as she crashed back onto the hard floor with such force that it would have killed most humans instantly.
She remained there motionless.
The tank approached her to finish the job.
Hidden behind the container, Gavin could do nothing but watch.