The Key (22 page)

When it stopped flashing, Sara stepped out, heading for the next building on her list.

The city’s computer had a map of the city, but it was more like a schematic without the details. Sara was using it as her base, then adding information to it as she found it. Someone else had done the zones and numbered the buildings.

Sometimes adding info was a no-brainer. She could tell what it was, though she didn’t always know what it did. Other times there seemed to be no way for Ruby to connect the dots for her.

Some rooms made her head ache, though not as bad as it had in the command center, as more of the yellow beads of light paid a visit to her brain-housing group.

Sara sensed that these were attempts to teach her. Unfortunately they’d picked a poor student. Smith would have lapped it up.

Today’s building had the look of a bunker about it. It was a rare, single story structure, square and unadorned, as it squatted among its much finer looking neighbors.

Sara almost felt sorry for it. The entrance, a plain, solid looking door, faced the sea and Sara spent a few minutes gazing out over the water, as white topped waves rolled gently ashore. As always, when she quieted her mind, images of people began to move around her. Some walked slowly, stopping like her to look out on the sea. Others strode quickly, importantly. They had no time for pretty views.

This time Sara didn’t try to see them or hear them, just let them move around her. Their clothes suited the scene. Bright colors in sweeping styles that made the women look graceful. The men’s clothes were sturdier and more muted, but also looked comfortable and functional.

Sara had the odd feeling that something was missing from the scene, but it took her a few minutes to figure out what it was.

No children.

How could there not by
any
children?

When guys and gals got together, children happened.

If they didn’t happen, your civilization eventually…disappeared—which is what happened to the Garradians. Only they seemed to have left en masse, which refuted the theory. It was yet another reminder that Sara wasn’t a geek.

Still, Sara had the feeling she was on the edge of understanding at least part of the mystery of the Garradians, but the edge wasn’t all the way there. It was…the edge. It didn’t clear up the mystery of Miri and her two suitors. It didn’t explain Sara’s likeness to her. It didn’t explain why Ruby thought she had the key.

Sara shifted restlessly and the people vanished into the past again, taking all their secrets with them.

With a sigh, Sara turned back to the building. As she approached the entrance, the door slid back for her. She pulled off her shades and tucked them in a pocket of her vest, then stepped inside. As always, the lights came on. The foyer was different from anything she’d encountered so far. It was as plain as the outside, with just a sort of station by another door. There wasn’t even a place to sit down. No pretty pictures. Maybe it was the local jail.

“Okay.” Sara walked up to the next door. This one didn’t open. That was interesting. She looked at the station. There was a chair and what could have been a console. Sara went behind it and sat in the chair, then hesitantly put her hands on the screen.

At first nothing happened. Sara almost broke the contact, but then the gold beads appeared, but instead of going in her, they…traced her hands, then flowed up, outlining her body. An image shot out of the front of the station.

It was her…but not her. It had to be Miri.

There was a beep, followed by a buzz and the door slid open. The image of Miri vanished.

It had to be some kind of security protocol, but not a great one, if it let her through. Sara got up and walked through the door. It closed silently behind her. Not even a hiss.

More lights came on. The hallway was narrow and Sara could see several doors evenly spaced along its length. She approached the first one. Again, the door didn’t open. But there was a small, square panel about chest height and the size of a hand.

Sara put her hand on it. It flashed and the door opened. Sara peered in, not sure she should be poking her nose into something with this level of protection.

It looked like a laboratory. There were tubes and containers and the inevitable console. On one wall was a screen with symbols at random intervals, almost like a blackboard.

Okay, not a prison.

Sara edged close to one of the containers and crouched down, peering inside, but all she saw was a yellow fluid. Sara moved around the room, pausing to look, but never to touch. She’d seen what happened to people who touched things on the Sci-Fi Channel. It wasn’t pretty.

Near the back of the room there was a large, microscope looking thing, only it had eyepieces like a pair of binoculars. Sara pulled out a wipe packet, tore it open and washed the eyepieces, then dried them her sleeve. Only then did she bend to look.

All she saw was a confused blur. She leaned back and figured out how to adjust it, then applied her eyes again. After a moment, the view sharpened.

At first she couldn’t tell what she was looking at. She worked the dials some more and it got bigger.

Okay, that looked like a computer chip.

She straightened. She walked around to where the slide should be. The other end of the microscope was pretty dang big. Sara didn’t have a clue what the magnification level would be, but it had to be intense.

She bent down and found the slide and removed it, but all she could see was a yellow smear. It looked like the guck in the beakers.

She stuck it back in and took another look. The level of detail was amazing and it was definitely some kind of computer.

Could it be nanites or nanobots?

She rubbed the palm of her hand. Was that what had gone into her hand? Was that what left her when the
Doolittle
was under attack? Was that the answer to the riddle of her connection with computers? It could even explain her ability to heal. She did know the medical community had been trying to develop something like this to cure disease…and stuff.

Was this Miri’s legacy? Not DNA, but these mini computer things?

Sara went to the dark console. “That’s the key, isn’t it? The nanites can unlock the city, can’t they?”

The screen didn’t respond.

Okay, so not the whole story, but Sara had a feeling it was part of it. She sank down on the chair.

“How did I get them? I live two galaxies away. If Miri came to Earth, how did she get there?”

Either Ruby didn’t know, didn’t know how to say…or didn’t want to say. Her head started to ache, but not because of them. It was just the normal kind of headache.

Normal.
Yeah, right.

Okay, she mentally added this lab to her report, though she left out the parts about her. She headed for the door. Didn’t seem to be anything else she could learn there at the moment.

Sara did a quick check of the other labs on the floor, but couldn’t tell what they were about. It was kind of reassuring not to know. She added descriptions of what she’d seen in her report.

At the end of the hall was another security checkpoint. That was interesting. This one scanned her eyes. It shouldn’t have worked, but one didn’t look a gift scan in the mouth. Or something like that.

She stepped into their version of an elevator, and like the subway thing, there was a flash of green light signaling movement she couldn’t feel.

It seemed to have moved her down, since there was no up in the building. Sara couldn’t tell how deep…but her ears popped. That had to be pretty deep to do that.

Instead of a hallway or even an office, she was just in a room. There were consoles on both sides and straight-ahead was a simple doorway, one without a door.

As she walked forward, she described it in her report, though without mentioning that room and consoles lit up, as she drew level with them.

What went on in this room to require so much security? It was pretty creepy and Sara almost turned back. As she reached the doorway, two panels on either side lit up.

One seemed to be a map of different planets. The other one reminded her of looking through a telescope into space. As she looked at it, it rippled and changed.

Whoa, weird.

She turned back to the other map. It looked almost…familiar for some reason. Of course, it looked a bit like the map of this galaxy that Fyn had helped create. She recognized the Dusan home world and even Fyn’s lost planet. She noticed that about ten of the planets blinked, all at once, forming a figure eight that wove through the galaxy.

Fyn had called this a lost outpost. Did that mean there were other outposts? Could those be outposts?

She reached out and touched one of the blinking worlds. The map faded, but then a single planet emerged, with rows of symbols beside it.

Sara was able to pick out a few words, but not enough to be much help. It did seem like it was a summary of some sort.

She did a quick rundown of it, for the report.

Just then she heard the SO Henderson on the radio.

“Donovan?”

“Yes, sir?”

“You still in Zone Five?”

“Yes, sir, I’m surveying Building Thirty-four.”

“Thought you’d like to know the
Patton
has arrived. Both commanders will conduct an inspection at 1430, then there will be a dinner at 1800. Colonel wants you there.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, sir. I just have one room left to check out, then I’m heading back. I should be back by 1400 at the latest. Probably earlier.”

“Roger that.”

He signed off. Sara looked at the last doorway, but she was thinking about the Old Man coming to the city. Maybe Fyn would be with him. Maybe they’d return her to flight status.

She slipped off her pack, pulled out her lunch and unwrapped the sandwich, absently taking a bite as she stared at the doorway. Ruby lit up some lights in front of it, flashing repeatedly. Did that mean go or not go? She really needed to get a better way of communicating with her.

Sara wanted to leave, but it was just one room. At least, she figured it was. It was completely dark inside. She set down the sandwich and crouched down, feeling inside. Yes, there was a floor. It was kind of weird that no light from this room penetrated into that one, but weird was the new normal.

She stood up and put one foot in. The solid surface held. She reached out with her hands, but any walls were just out of reach. She shifted her weight to the front foot and brought the other in, and found the back wall—

Then she couldn’t feel it. It just faded away. Lights flashed, but not green, these were gold and they looked…pulled, stretched out. She had the odd feeling she was being pulled, too, first one direction, and then the other. It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel good either.

It stopped as abruptly as it had started. Sara felt a little dizzy and a bit nauseated. A moment to settle her stomach, then she turned around to pitch dark. She pulled her flashlight and shone it around.

It wasn’t a huge shock to be looking into a completely different room.

It did suck.

At least now she knew flashing meant no.

* * * *

Fyn found out that Carey was going to the island and decided to see if they’d let him tag along.

It had been another long week, standing alerts with the wing and no sight, no sound and no news…from the island. He’d hoped it would help give him…distance to be away from Sara, help him clear his thinking and figure out what to do with this…chance…but so far it wasn’t working.

With each day that went by without any sign from Kalian, he felt more hope that he wouldn’t. This was a quiet corner of the galaxy. Uninhabited. No one to tell Sara’s people about Kalian and the Ojemba.

No one said anything, but what they didn’t say, told him more than anything. They talked about this or that he’d see when they returned to earth. The list of things he needed to see was almost as long as the list of movies they kept promising to show him.

Maybe they’d be gone before Kalian found out about them, about him. If hope could bloom on Kikk, well, here it thrived. These people inhaled and exhaled optimism. Impossible didn’t seem to be in their vocabulary—unless they put “nothing is” in front of it.

In the transport bay he found Carey already prepping for their flight to the island city. If forced to, he’d put his thumb out.

But Carey looked up with a quick smile. “Park it here,
Chewie
. We’ll be taking off soon as the two Old Men and their escort get here.”

Carey was always cheerful, but since the arrival of the
Patton
, everyone was walking with a lighter step. Fyn hadn’t met the
Patton’s
commander or anyone from the other ship. He was sure he would. They all seemed to want to meet an alien.

There was a stir outside and then Halliwell came aboard, followed by an officer who was clearly his
Patton
counterpart and the inevitable jarhead escort. To his relief, Halliwell seemed unperturbed by his presence.

“Colonel Emerson, this is Fyn. Fyn, Colonel Emerson of the
Patton.
”

Fyn shook hands with Emerson and exchanged brief greetings. He got a piercing look from Emerson, but he was used to that.

The men chatted for a few more minutes, while Fyn wondered if they’d ever take off. Suddenly, it was as if an alert sounded. They all moved into action. Carey swung around and started the engine. There was a move to get seated. They were cleared to take off, and in a few they’d lifted off. Outside the bay, their fighter escort closed in for the ride to the planet.

* * * *

The room was similar to the one Sara had just left. It had the two consoles, but this one didn’t light up for her when she stepped out of the…whatever it was she’d stepped into. She shone her light on the wall beside the doorway. There was no map on either side this time. She wasn’t sure what that meant.

If that ride was like the subway thing, then she was just in another part of the city. She should be able to get back in, and either go on to the next stop, or back to her previous one.

She wasn’t eager for the carnival ride, but she’d left her stuff back there. She was glad she hadn’t eaten all her sandwich, though. The one bite was riding uneasily in her gut.