Chapter Thirty-Seven
The Joy of Discovery
“Let me go first,” Cheape said tactfully. “Who knows how stable this place is after all these years.”
“If you insist,” TRV-4 said, gesturing for her to continue on ahead.
Now that Cheape saw it up close, the hill was very obviously not a natural formation. The prominent tower structure had been hidden by the piled-up dirt, and what she guessed was the remains of a second tower that had lost its battle with time.
From here, she could see it looked a lot like a modern residential block, although the details were obviously hidden by the pants growing around the place. What had appeared to be a cave further up looked a lot more like a broken window now. A big window, certainly, but still a window.
From the readings she was getting on her Boost Suit, this place would take up about the same size as an average city block. How and why this building survived, and all the others around it had not left even a bump in the landscape was anyone’s guess.
Placing her left gauntlet against the mound of dirt and stone, Cheape sent out a pulse of sound and followed it with a magnetic one. Between the two readings, she was able to identify some clear spaces within. More than that, she was able to get density readings on the various substances. It let her know, for example, that the walls holding the place up were incredibly dense, were intact, and several floors of the same metal were merged with the walls closely enough that they might as well have been a single piece of… whatever they were.
“Structure looks stable,” Cheape confirmed. “At least, the bones of it are. We can trust it not to come down around our ears.”
“You considered that likely?” TRV-4 asked. “We have many buildings of a similar age back home, and they are supremely safe.”
“Are they maintained?” Cheape asked.
“Of course,” TRV-4 replied. “Ah, I see your point.”
“A good rule to live by: Always check any structure BEFORE you walk inside it.” Cheape smiled to herself.
“Noted.”
Cheape stepped back and pulled the large shovel from the back of her suit. She had made it specifically for this trip, and with the power of the Boost Suit behind it, the reinforced tool made short work of hundreds of years of accumulated mess.
“How frustrating,” TRV-4 said mildly an hour later, as the massive metal door remained steadfastly closed. The mechanism to move it was hopelessly gummed up; it would take a solid week of work to get it moving again.
“Don’t worry, Cheape beamed inside her suit. “I brought a key.”
“It’s not locked, just stuck,” Tee turned as Cheape pulled her favorite thing from the other slot on the back of her suit. “Blessed binary! What is that?”
“This, Tee, is the Boost Suit Armored Chainsaw with a nanite-bladed chain,” Cheape stroked it as she fitted it to her left hand and steadied it with her right. “Stand aside, and I’ll peel this can open.”
“That looks dangerous,” TRV-4 warned. “Do you have experience with it?”
“Tons,” Cheape said, setting her feet in front of the door and firing the locking pins from each boot deep into the stone. “My job as Logistics Officer was stressful. I used to hop in my Boost Suit and head out to where the captured ships were being cut up as a way to let off some steam.”
“Was that effective?” Tee asked curiously.
“Oh, absolutely. Seeing this thing carve through reinforced hulls is a true joy to witness.” Cheape said happily. “Allow me to demonstrate.”
“This is an extremely dense alloy,” Tee warned.
“Not dense enough for a nanite-bladed chain,” Cheape chuckled and squeezed the trigger.
The soft blue glow from the blurring chain was matched with a low bass rumble from the motor. Cheape engaged the safeties in the Boost Suit’s arms to prevent any sudden catch against the blade from jerking it back toward her and pushed the tip against the door.
Sparks flew in twin arcs as she moved it slowly and smoothly through the door, carving three lines into the metal. One above her, one to the left, and one down at ground level. They crossed, creating the shape of a door. For the hinges, she cut a fourth line, leaving a small amount of metal at the top and bottom. Finally, she carved a wedge at each remaining contact point and released the trigger. Once the chain stopped, Cheap punched the new door, and the thinned connections became the hinge that let the carved section open inwards.
Withdrawing the stabilizers at her feet, Cheape kicked the door until it was wide open, light pouring into the dust-covered space within.
She turned to back Tee. “I call her Belle,” Cheape offered. “I’m not sure why, but it just fit.”
Once Belle was safely stowed on her back once more, Cheape rolled a scanner orb into the empty space within. Nothing worrying came back, so she stood aside. “All clear, Tee. You can go first.”
“I’m honored,” Tee grinned and darted forward, coming to a stop and taking a reverent step inside with a deep sigh of contentment. “And so, I step into history.”
A few seconds later, Tee called again. “History is much darker than I had expected.”
Laughing, Cheape stepped up behind him, flicking on the lights on her suit. Bright lamps shone from each shoulder while a band of light beamed out from above the helmet’s visor.
Immediately, Cheape could tell this was not a residential building. Instead of the lobby she had expected, there was some kind of a checkpoint. Reinforced alcoves on each side of the door flanked a long, heavy bar that could be raised or lowered. Above the checkpoint was a sign in the same script the locals used amongst themselves. To Cheape, it looked more like glyphs than anything, but she had not learned very much of it yet. There just hadn’t been time.
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“Watchpost Fifteen.” Tee translated, apparently effortlessly. “How curious.”
“Let’s keep going,” Cheape nodded. “Want me to get the bar?”
“No, no,” TRV-4 said, “It’s fine.”
He reached out, raising the heavy metal with ease. Tee raised it until it touched the roof and then pushed hard. The tip jammed into the roof and stuck fast. Delicate, pale moss had grown down the walls beyond, the occasional root or vine twisting through some small opening somewhere. Cheape ignored it, but Tee seemed fascinated, tracing the source of each plant or patch of moss.
“Interesting, they seem to have been advanced enough to have had conduits in the walls.”
Cheape left Tee to his examinations, finding that the majority of the ground floor seemed to have been a single, large, open area with a smaller room behind. There were the remains of a hatch-like opening in the wall between the two rooms. The floor was scattered with a thick layer of dust and some kind of nails.
It finally clicked when Cheape looked through the hatch to see long stone counters and the remains of metals on the other side.
“A cafeteria or something similar. Maybe a restaurant?” Cheape said to herself.
“Quite possibly,” Tee said, wandering over. “There are definitely power conduits in the walls. Maybe other types of cabling as well.”
“The structure suggested that they were advanced,” Cheape shrugged. “So not exactly a surprise.”
“True, and yet it tells us much, don’t you think?” TRV-4 said, “They were advanced enough to use energy to power machinery or other such things but had yet to make the jump to wireless energy.”
“Wireless energy?” Cheape asked.
“Harmless energy fields that can be harnessed without the need for cables.” Tee nodded. “Or rotating magnetic fields to turn generators in the tech itself. Simple enough if you know how.”
“Uh-huh,” Cheape said, making a note to remind her to look into both those ideas the minute they got back.
“Shall we continue up to the next floor?”
The first floor was divided into a series of smaller rooms, with one larger room at the far end. The corridors reminded Cheape of nothing so much as a hotel. The simple, empty corridors with ornamental details every few feet and numbers next to each room were just too familiar to question what she was seeing.
“Is it wrong I expected something more different?” Cheape asked. “Something more alien?”
“I wish more of the furniture had survived,” Tee admitted. “But still, its mundanity tells me a lot. This was a society enough like your own to be instantly recognizable, and yet some of the details are off.”
“Like what?” Cheape asked.
“The rooms have no doors, so any sign of there ever being doors. That suggests both a more trusting society and one not concerned with displays of nudity or sexual congress.” Tee tapped the smooth arches that opened onto the hall.
“Maybe they just didn’t have sex here, or there were drapes?” Cheape offered, blushing a little beneath the helmet.
“No sign of a place to hang a drape, and everyone has sex when they can. I doubt this was some kind of sex-free zone.” Tee said with a smile that Cheape was almost certain was a little flirty. “No, I believe that they simply did not have a cultural taboo against such things.”
“Do your people?” Cheape couldn’t believe she was even asking that, but, well… she wanted to know if all those comments….
“Have the taboo, or like sex?” TRV-4 asked. “In either case, the answer is yes. While some of us enjoy the idea of watching or being watched, the general consensus is that it is an activity best enjoyed in private. An intimate act, or sharing of self, is best when two or more people care for each other and show that in private. You can be so much more free and honest that way, can’t you?” Tee looked right at Cheape then, his smile broad and eyes twinkling, “And I personally enjoy it very much, but only when I really care for someone.”
TRV-4 clapped his hands suddenly, making Cheape jump. “Let’s see what is in that last area, shall we?”
Fully a third of the floor was a single large room. The roof had fallen in from above in the left rear corner of the structure, and plants had grown thickly around that area, swallowing a decent chunk of the contents.
A faded mural on the back wall emerged from the greenery, and neither Tee nor Cheape spoke for a long moment as they took it in.
“Well, that certainly begs a few questions,” Cheape said.
What remained of the mural showed something large and clearly mechanical. It stood before a large, ornate gateway, with a city showing through the gaps around it. Instead of a gun or anything of the sort, the mechanical whatever was guarding the gap with a large shield and something like a sword. The thing looked like it had more in common with Cheape’s chainsaw than it did with a normal sword.
Something was clearly attacking the city, but that part of the mural had been eaten by the plant life. They tried to pull it away carefully, but everything underneath had been destroyed in the long years since it was painted.
“They had some very advanced technology,” Cheape said, examining the guardian machine in detail. “Or, could they have been very advanced technology?”
“Another form of robotic life?” TRV-4 looked pleased. “I believe not, but thank you for thinking of that possibility.”
“If the silicates exist, then surely…”
“You would think,” TRV-4 shrugged. “And yet, in thousands of years, tens of thousands, and hundreds of universes searched, we have never found another living machine species.”
Cheape pulled aside a large clump of moss and dirt and gasped. “Tee!”
TRV-4 hurried over and whistled. “Is it solid enough to be moved?”
Cheape reached down, wrapping her hand around the large handle, and pulled. The blade pulled free, not only solid but still sharp. Nearly seven feet in height, the sword was a complex creation. One half of the blade was segmented and clearly intended to move, much like the chain of a chainsaw. The other side half was almost like a guard, but Cheape could tell there was more to it.
“It has a friend,” Tee dug through the plants, dragging a large, round shield out as well.
The third floor was a complete wreck, but they managed to find one more artifact of the old society on Haven. It was a small round symbol about the size of a large biscuit. The emblem itself seemed nonsensical, but TRV-4 looked delighted with it anyway. There was no tech aspect to it. It was just a relic of a forgotten civilization. A trinket, but it made him incredibly happy.
Cheape happily agreed he should keep it.
As they made their way out of the building, they stopped and collected the sword and shield. A proper analysis would have to wait until they got back to the capital, but Cheape and Tee both planned to spend the rest of the trip doing their best with the tools they had brought with them.
Back on the path to their destination a few hours later, TRV-4 stepped into the sleeping compartments, his new find mounted on his jacket, and asked what she thought.
It was a little off-axis, and Cheape couldn’t resist telling him. Tee thanked her, slipped off his jacket, and started to adjust it. Underneath the coat, the silicate man was wearing nothing but a vest. While he worked on the fine adjustments, Cheape found herself fascinated by his muscles moving gently underneath impossibly smooth skin. There was a small scar on his shoulder. He had gotten it when a loose stone fell from one of the buildings they were tearing down in the earliest days of the capital. It would have crushed an ordinary man but had barely torn open his skin. She knew he could heal away the scar but had left it as a memento of the work.
What had she been doing again?
Cheape shook herself and focused back on the shield, which was taking up most of the space in the spare room.
There was something there… she just needed to get this one panel open.