Into the Black

(Gap Science Enrichment Center, Underneath Black Star Marine Training Base, Star’s Reach)

I sighed as I looked over the wreckage of what had once been a testing facility. At least this wreck wasn’t my fault. Or even one of my people’s fault. Tesla_coil might be a loose cannon when it comes to the science side of things, but even he knew better than to do some of the things this testing track had done before it was destroyed. And if he didn’t, the marines he had guarding him most certainly did, and wouldn’t let him get out of hand.

Shaking my head, I looked over to Raven, and said, “So, what happened, and how far back does this push us?”

The android sighed, and said, “First, we’re fortunate that the area was uninhabited at the time, or we definitely would have lost people. Unfortunately, that makes knowing exactly what happened difficult, as the facility’s computers are still down until we figure out how to isolate the AI, and any automated sensors would be suspect. We’re having to approach this like a forensic crash analysis, like they do when a spaceship explodes unexpectedly.”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Shaking my head, I said, “I was afraid of that. What do we know so far, then?”

“Not much, I’m afraid. Right now, the working theory is that there was a cascade reaction from something happening far below us. Seismographs detected what we believe to be the first of the explosions approximately fifteen hours ago, at a depth of three kilometers.”

“Following that event, a series of subsequent explosions occurred, traveling up the damaged maintenance shaft that was exposed in one of the printing bays. The explosions ruptured pipes carrying natural gas, which added to the explosive forces, breaking through two floors to one of the AI’s primary testing tracks, specifically the ‘oven’ track that it tried to use to cook us.”

I nodded slowly. “All right. Do we have any ideas as to what caused this? I’d really rather avoid having my Marines training over the top of some kind of volcano that is ready to blow at any moment. If we need to move the base and abandon the facility, I need to know it ahead of time, so we can erase any sign of its existence, rather than just leaving it for someone to find.”

“Why erase it, if we’re not going to make use of it?”

“Because what we’ve already found here, even with the AI being offline, is beyond belief. The ramifications for scientific advancement is off the charts. However, there are so many potential problems if someone managed to weaponize some of the technology on display, it boggles the mind. And they don’t even need to be doing it on purpose. We both know that the only difference between an atomic bomb and a nuclear reactor achieving critical mass is that only one of them was done on purpose.”

“Fair enough.” The android looked back out over the still-smoldering pit. “So, what are you going to do with this?”

“I haven’t decided yet. Do we have any idea of what experiments were being worked on in the area, besides the AI trying to kill people? The testing area must have had some purpose, originally. I seriously doubt that the race that built all this designed it with homicidal AIs in mind.”

“Oddly enough, the explosions have helped a little in that regard. We were able to access some secure storage devices that had been out of reach before due to there being large slabs of metal between us and them. The explosions dislodged some of them, and we were able recover several storage drives.”

I looked over to Raven when she fell silent, only to see her grinning at me. She’d been getting more and more human, the longer she had that body. With a roll of my eyes, I motioned for her to continue.

“This area was apparently originally designated for ‘dimensional travel research’. The drives we recovered contain a section of the scientific data that the AI, CaROLINE, was keeping back from us, in favor of trying to kill anyone that took part in her ‘tests’. We have schematics for the portal gun, which will decrease the time needed to replicate something like that significantly. But that’s not all. Apparently, whateve species was working here, they were testing multiple means of faster than light travel, beyond the Alcubierre-style drives, or the Gateways.”

“Are you saying that we’ve found a key to Lost Tech FTL drives?”

“Exactly, sir. With the information we have now, we can build some of these, though at the same time we’ll need to check to see which devices are best. An initial read of the logs suggests that there are several pros and cons to these alternative drive systems.”

“Hmm. Well, it isn’t like there aren’t disadvantages to the systems that are currently in use. Can you give me an initial overview of the different systems? Might be able to prioritize which ones warrant more development time first.”

Raven smiled and motioned with her hand. “Of course. I am sending the information to your HUD now.”

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