Echoes of Starlight by Eric Michael Craig

Author:Eric Michael Craig [Craig, Eric Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rivenstone Press
Published: 2019-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen:

Inside the doorway, a large space opened onto a reception area. Several desk consoles, each with an attached diagnostic archway, lined an entire wall of the room. It was dark and lifeless with only a sliver of orange light slicing across the floor from the broken door to provide illumination.

“This was obviously a medevac receiving area,” Preston said as he walked toward one of the desks. He clicked on a handbeam and scanned the area behind and under the workstation.

“Why do you say that?” Billy asked.

“No signs,” he said, flashing his light around the room. “That tells me that anyone coming through the door here would know where they’re headed, and what they’re looking at. Public areas always have signs directing traffic to the reception desk and waiting areas.”

“Good catch,” Ethan said. “So this would be familiar territory for Kaycee?”

“Not necessarily,” Marti said as it turned on a set of high-power lights that illuminated the entire room. “Dr. Caldwell is a Medical Research Doctor and may have no triage specialty background.”

“While she was treating me for my sunstroke, she told me she’d done time as an intern in an emergent care hospital,” Preston said. “But she also said there were three hospital facilities in Starlight.”

“Would they all have the same floor plan?”

“Who knows,” he said.

“Standardized design modules would mean similar functional elements, but there could be substantial variation to address specialized services,” Marti said.

“So we know that gives them an edge, but we don’t know how big an edge it is,” Billy said.

“Now that we’re inside, can you scan anything else?” the captain asked, walking over to the automech and grabbing bags of water from its carrying rack. He tossed each of them one and they all hosed themselves down again. It didn’t help as much this time since the water was warmer than fresh urine, but evaporation would eventually kick in and cool them off a little. Hopefully.

“At this point I can tell that there are at least four sub floors beneath us,” it said, shining a beam toward an open doorway.

Kaycee said there were emergency shelters under the hospitals and municipal buildings,” he said. “Is that what you’re seeing?”

“The air appears to be several degrees cooler deeper inside the building,” it said. “It would be logical to assume that the shelters would be built far enough underground to maintain temperature. If they are seeking survivors, this would be where they would look. The environment is certainly more conducive to this possibility.”

“The tracks head in this direction,” Angel said. “But the dust gets thinner further from the door. If they don’t step in something to make a mess, it’s going to get harder to track them from footprints.”

“Are you picking up any carrier signals from commlinks?” Ethan said.

“Negative,” Marti said.

“Chances are they went this way. Since we don’t know what they’re looking for, other than cool air and survivors, this seems like the only path that makes sense,” Angel said.

“I believe proceeding deeper into the building is a sound decision,” the AA said.

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