New Hope: Book 1
34

Lieutenant Lassiter and Sergeant Burrows crossed the threshold of the heavy, metal door, which Ellie had opened for them remotely. They were both conjoined back to back, each with their own beam of light illuminating the space in front of them. The red emergency lighting still wasn’t turning to full power. The flickering made it difficult to see movement, and clouded the shadows, causing both soldiers to move even slower and more cautiously than the pressing situation required.

The soldiers walked in a tight formation for the next minutes, still not encountering any resistance from Elrael.

“Maybe he gave up and went somewhere else?” said the sergeant in hope.

“Doubt it. Even if... It wouldn’t be the best news for our friends upstairs,” said John. “I prefer to face the monster myself than expose anybody else. He’s mine,” said the lieutenant, still remembering clearly the face of the recently killed commando. “The stakes are high and I’m not counting on somebody else freeing me from this responsibility,” he said with determination.

“Understood, sir,” said Burrows. “You’re right. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to prove yourself in the eyes of Dr. Johnson, right?” said the sergeant jokingly, though perceptively.

“What do you mean?” asked Lassiter, pulled from deep thought.

“I can see how you look at Dr. Johnson,” said the sergeant, grinning. “We can all see it,” he added.

“Sergeant...” said Lassiter as the beam of light from his flashlight reached a door that was ajar. The Lieutenant, gesturing with his fist, ordered the commando to stop and placed his finger on his lips in a request to stay quiet.

An open door in such a place didn’t have to mean anything bad - perhaps just that somebody twelve thousand years ago was in a hurry and forgot to close it. But someone could also have hidden behind it, and moving on leaving an uncleared room behind them wouldn’t have been a good tactical decision. “Cover me,” ordered the lieutenant. He approached the door and carefully opened it with his free hand, trying not to make any noise. He held the rifle aims at the potential enemy hiding right behind the threshold.

John entered the room and both the sergeant and the remaining commando followed, turning around now and then. Despite the first problems with gravity an hour or so before, the soldiers moved confidently and almost in perfect silence. One look at the door gave the soldiers the message that they weren’t open by chance. The bolts were torn from the door, and the metal sheet of the frame was bent unnaturally.

“I think somebody was desperate to get inside this room,” whispered the sergeant.

As they looked more closely, they saw the door was bent outward, and the traces of blows on their surface were on the inside.

“I’d rather say it looks like someone couldn’t wait to get out,” replied the lieutenant quietly. “Look at the marks. Someone or something did that,” he said. “I think we know where the robot came from. It must have been in this room. I think this is the storage room Dr. Johnson mentioned,” said John. “I thought we’d find this place on the way back, but it seems luck came calling a little early and Christmas is here.” Then he saw rows of shelves filled with various strange items. He couldn’t even guess their purpose. The lighting of the room was working properly so the soldiers could turn off their flashlights and take a closer look at their surroundings.

The shelves were sagging from the weight of the equipment left on them. Some of the abandoned objects looked familiar and resembled modern human tools. Others didn’t resemble anything at all, which the soldiers were used to from working on the Moon.

“Sergeant, we have extremely little time, let’s separate. I’ll continue and deal with the transmitter, and you two rummage through this place and try finding the superluminal cores. According to Dr. Johnson’s information, this section of the complex contains only this storage room and the power room with the heat exchangers, so you can’t get lost. There’s not much time left to deactivate the hyperspace transmitter,” said Lassiter. “If you manage to find the core, you’re to get out of here as quickly as possible, head for the control center, and join Dr. Johnson and Captain Cousteau. If I don’t succeed, this complex will be blown up. You and our friends will have under 20 minutes to get out and reach a safe distance away.”

“But, sir, I can’t leave you alone!” the commando protested. “You need backup!” he added.

“That’s an order! If I don’t succeed, humanity must have the best chance we can get to succeed in a future conflict. That core will give us that. Without it, everything will be lost anyway,” said the lieutenant.

At these words, he patted the commando on the back, gave a broad smile, turned to the door, and started moving hurriedly.

“Good luck, lieutenant!” John heard behind him.

He turned around, nodded at Burrows and his subordinate, and headed toward his meeting with fate.

John knew the enemy was probably watching him - if not personally, then through the complex security systems. He knew this because if their roles were switched, he’d make sure to know every step his opponent took. It may not be human, but John had managed to see and learn that this being was controlled by strong emotions and an emphatic sense of superiority. Perhaps this knowledge could be used against it somehow? Pride and arrogance have been known to cause the fall of many.

In the meantime, John left the storage room where he left the commandos. In ordinary circumstances, separating was not a recommended move. Giving the opponent the chance to deal with the soldiers one by one was the last thing the lieutenant wanted. But John was certain the robot won’t focus on soldiers searching the shelves with strange devices but rather follow the opponent who’s making his way further into the installation, curious about what this lieutenant could know and what he wants to achieve in the depths of the ancient facility. That’s what John would do if he were in the enemy’s shoes.

Of course, it was possible John had overestimated his skills and was completely wrong in terms of the robot’s pride; but if that were the case, he couldn’t do anything about it anyway. If he were to face the enemy in an ordinary fire exchange, or even a fight, he had no doubt which side would prevail.

The lieutenant tried to move as fast as he could, not wasting time, but also careful not to make too much noise. He wanted the opponent to follow him, but he didn’t want to make it too easy and obvious for the robot. He couldn’t let the opponent know that he’s been led to a certain location purposefully. But what for?

The lieutenant himself didn’t know completely. He planned all his steps hoping his trained mind and subconscious would team up and see something that would help neutralize the enemy before he finishes him. John wasn’t a fan of gambling, he was never excited by guessing what the near future would bring, and he especially hated conditioning his future fate on the results of a lottery ticket draw. However, here he was painfully aware there was no other way, and perhaps his fate, and that of several other people he cared about, may depend on the result of a roll of the dice.

John carefully moved along the dimmed corridor, not trying to see anything alarming as much as hear any signs of movement. The installation had been inactive for thousands of years, so many of its elements after that much time could now make strange sounds. John was counting on his fine-tuned senses, hoping they would detect sounds to alarm him of another presence.

When he got to the door closing the spacious corridor, he looked around again and when he didn’t see anything disturbing, he reached for the radio.

“Sergeant Burrows, come in.”

“Lieutenant, I’m glad to hear your voice,” said the sergeant. A characteristic sign of relief could be heard in his voice. “We’re still in the storage area but I have good news. I found something that looks like the superluminal core you described. It’s not labeled in any way, but I found it hidden in a hiding place in the wall, which leads me to believe I found something valuable. You won’t believe it... There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these cores here! We won’t be able to carry all of it but we’ll try taking as many of them as we can, sir!” Sergeant Burrows was very pleased with himself.

“Excellent work, sergeant!” replied the lieutenant equally satisfied. “Get yourselves out of there soon. I’m standing at the door to the section where my target should be, so if I don’t manage to neutralize it, you and the other commandos will need to evacuate Dr. Johnson and Captain Cousteau. They’re the most important here! I’m counting on you!” He disconnected and decided to contact Ellie one more time and pass on the news, as well as prepare her and Captain Cousteau that they might need to quickly abandon the complex if the worst happens.

“Ellie, it’s John,” he said. “I don’t know if you are getting this from this distance. I’m quite deep in the basements of the complex, so contact may be difficult. I hope you can hear me.”

When there was no response, John’s head dropped but he continued.

“I’m about to enter the rooms with the heat exchangers and the power supply of the transmitter. I don’t know exactly what’s waiting for me on the other side of this door but since Elrael didn’t appear anywhere on the way, I assume he might be in this last section... Time will tell,” he added, realizing at this stage that this could be his last transmission. “Anyway, good news. I sent Sergeant Burrows up to you, who found the cores in the storage room. He and the other soldier should be with you shortly. As soon as he appears, you have to get out, don’t wait for me. We can’t risk anything happening to you, Ellie. Worst case, I’ll try to slow down that psycho robot so it doesn’t follow you. I’ll distract it so you have time to escape...” The lieutenant stopped for a moment, though he was fully aware that time was ticking relentlessly. “Ellie, I want you to know that I think you are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. I’m happy our paths crossed. I don’t want this to sound like a farewell because I fully intend to get out of here, but just in case I don’t...” he paused, “I’m really glad it was you who crashed on the Moon,” he concluded, not wanting to say anything more on the radio. If he manages to get out alive, it won’t be important anyway so it’s best to stay alive and talk to Dr. Johnson personally when everything is over.

John took a deep breath, took a look around the nearest surroundings, trying to light up every corner with the flashlight on his rifle, but also to hear the tiniest rustle that would suggest the opponent’s presence. Nothing. Peace and quiet.

When the lieutenant touched the plate next to the entrance, the door to the engineering section of the Protagonists’ complex opened before him. John slowly and meticulously crossed the threshold and entered with caution. That’s when the door shut behind him with a thud.

John spun around toward the closed passage but, to his surprise, they didn’t react by opening again; they stopped reacting to his presence entirely. Knowing that this might not have been accidental, the lieutenant exerted his sight and hearing even more, trying to find the aim of his expedition - a separate power source for the hyperspace transmitter, which should be somewhere nearby.

He barely made a few steps deeper into the dimmed corridor when he heard a rustle behind him of some heavy object being moved along the floor. John turned around immediately aiming the weapon in the direction from whence the noise came, but before he managed to complete the action, he felt a strong blow to his stomach, and then his feet left the floor. His entire body went soaring upwards. After traveling several long feet in the air, he landed painfully hitting his arm on the way on some pipe. The pain that tore through him was indescribable. He screamed and then caught hold of his injured limb with his healthy one, almost immediately coming across some sharp object that seemed to be protruding from the soldier’s shoulder. John looked down quickly at the arm, which had started bleeding in the spot where the sharp fragment of some machine had stabbed his skin and muscle, causing a sharp and piercing pain whenever he tried to move it.

When John tried to get up, despite his suffering, he realized that something had obscured the entire view of the room. Only a moment later, he knew. The thing that had cut off his access to light and the escape route, was the corpus of the shiny, metal robot, who stood directly above his motionless body as soon as John had landed on the floor.

“Hello, Lieutenant Lassiter. I’ve been waiting for you. I must say, I can’t wait for our talk,” said Elrael with an evil smile. Then, he kicked the lieutenant in the head, which sent the soldier to the Land of Nod.

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