Broken Halo (Wayfarers) by Debenham Kindal

Author:Debenham, Kindal [Debenham, Kindal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

Susan straightened as the engineer’s words sank in. “You’re telling me you have no idea what this place is, Chief?”

Chief Kowalski managed to look both chagrined and frustrated at the same time. “That’s right, Admiral.” He rapped his knuckles against the door behind him. “I’m afraid I’ve never seen anything like this room before, not on any ship I’ve served on or in any technical manual I’ve had access to. Whatever purpose this room is meant to serve, it must have been something special, though. They obviously spared no expense on security.”

Susan nodded. The chief engineer’s statement seemed to be a bit of an understatement. She’d walked past nearly five different Merr-Sid turrets—all carefully powered down and deactivated, of course—which suggested a level of paranoia and caution that defied her expectations. The highest level of security she had ever encountered before had been as a visiting ensign on a fleet flagship. There, a single Merr-Sid had been installed outside the access hallway for the flag deck, and that had been all. Further, that turret had only been there because the ship was an obsolete wreck.

Which begged the obvious question: What had someone been so careful to protect with five such turrets, in addition to whatever other booby traps her engineers had deactivated? Susan looked at the door carefully. “Has the room already been opened?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Chief Kowalski looked momentarily abashed. “The security boys were insistent on checking things out before we brought you down, and we weren’t sure if there was another trap at the entryway, so …”

Susan waved off the excuses. “Don’t worry yourself, Chief Kowalski.” She stepped forward. “Let’s see what all this has been about then, shall we?”

Chief Kowalski obediently stepped to the controls and began to crank the manual access interface. In case of a loss of power, each door on the Concord had been provided with a way to generate a low-level amount of electricity to shift aside a doorway. Judging by the chief’s efforts, the door to this room required quite a bit of power to move, but eventually it slid open. The work lights, set on stands to illuminate the winding access corridor, barely penetrated the unlit interior.

A flood of musty air came out of the opening, and Susan shifted her hand light to probe the darkness within. The light played across a circular room broad enough to be a small conference chamber or recreational center. Susan’s lips quirked as she thought of wasting so much effort just to find some bureaucrat’s long-lost meeting place, or perhaps an admiral’s favorite card-playing spot. Then she stilled her expression and took a step forward.

No dust rose at her steps, and Susan felt a flicker of surprise. The outside corridor had been so obviously abandoned and unused that the dust had been thick. Here there was nothing, save that which her feet brought in. She turned a questioning eye to Kowalski, and he shrugged. “The floor is some kind of mesh or grating, Admiral, and they’ve rigged the place to self-sterilize each time the door is closed.

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