Food For Thought Ch. 002

As Logan walked towards the elevator he noted the air had a slight chill. Bendraar was headed into its late Autumn, it was getting colder now. Logan hoped he could wrap this case up today in quick order. The image of Lilith half naked in his shirt drifted through his thoughts. He hoped she would still be around.

Stepping out of the elevator onto level eight, Logan headed in the direction of the mag-lev station. Shaking Lilith from his mind, he pulled up the diagrams for the tunnel and looked at them as he walked. He kept sweeping along the walls for anything that would indicate some kind of hidden door or access point, but everything looked solid.

He had looked over this area two weeks ago and quickly discounted Lilith's idea because there was no evidence, that he could see, of the walls being bored into, not to mention that it was a highly improbable idea. She was convinced that she was right after looking at the diagrams for only a few moments, had she seen something he missed?

Durasteel was incredibly resistant to stress, heat, cold, and was reasonably flexible, which made it the perfect material for starship hulls and armor. In the last 10 years they had started using a new metal called Trinium that was discovered on one of the planets in the Periphery Systems called Poe. Trinium was 3 times lighter than and almost 4 times stronger. It was fair to say it was the most important discovery for the United Colonial Government in the last 100 years.

Poe had quickly become the most heavily invested in and subsequently protected planet in the Periphery. The 3^rd fleet was permanently stationed around Poe, Numerous industrial and defensive structures were rapidly built to support the explosive growth the system had seen in recent years.

With ship production changing to Trinium, there was a sudden need to find a new home for the large amounts of Durasteel that was initially meant to build starships. Manufacturers were scrambling to find other uses for the material.

Logan weaved through the crowded main corridor on level eight, he could hear the distant sound of a train passing at high speed.

Approaching the mag-lev station he turned and headed down a side street, heading for an access door deeper within the level. The thought of all the metal looming above him made him feel a little uneasy. It wasn't a fear of tight spaces per say, it was the sheer amount of material he was surrounded by that was off-putting. Being under a metallic mountain wasn't his idea of a good time.

He approached a solid looking door labeled Restricted Access. Bringing his Glass up to the doors control panel he accessed his Terminal and tried to override the door. There was a moment of waiting before it slid open revealing a pitch-black space.

Stepping forward into the gloom, there was a pause before lights automatically clicked on illuminating the tight maintenance corridor leading to the tunnel. He had to walk at an angle to fit.

Logan sighed and proceeded forward; it wasn't too far before it started branching off to other small passages leading off into a distant maze. Turn after turn of cramped metal buried beneath the structures above. He knew there were similar paths stretching down below and wondered how anyone could work down here.

Focusing on the task at hand he pushed onwards until he reached a bigger and more secure looking door. After a moment his terminal unlocked it, and the heavy door slid into the wall.

Before him lay the brightly lit mag-lev tunnel. There was a rush of air as another train passed by unannounced like a blur of liquid metal. A small ladder was recessed into the wall next to the door.

"At least it would be quick." He joked to himself, trying to push the thought from his mind and focus on finishing this up.

Logan cast his gaze around the space, the walls were almost perfectly smooth. It was open and modern looking, it almost looked like a museum hall rather than a train tunnel.

Pulling up the designs again, he studied them closely and looked back up at what was in front of him, not exactly sure what he was looking for. He liked to think he was at least decent at his job, but his mind just wasn't clicking on this.

Logan Tapped on the projection option, moved the size setting as high as it could go and tossed the diagrams out into the air where they were projected in 3D. The Terminal wasn't powerful enough to fill anywhere close to the whole tunnel, but it was the best it could do.

He stood there for a moment looking at the glowing outlines laid out in front of him. The moment turned into a few minutes. Logan was pretty sure Lilith was looking at the wall opposite where he was standing, on the other side of the rails. There wasn't anything over there except for a few left over construction supports.

The thought clicked.

"Why would you need supports in this tunnel?" Logan made sure there wasn't a train coming and darted across.

Four evenly spaced supports that no one questioned, why would they? No one was likely to come down here or cared enough to even look at them.

They appeared to be partially recessed into the wall, slots having been perfectly cut to their dimensions. If there was a door here, it was well hidden.

Now how would George have opened it? Pulling up the construction logs for the project Logan looked back through the reports for this area. Almost everything in the tunnel was done by construction bot. Their logs were clean and probably altered by George.

The only thing that stood out was that one construction bot was reported as damaged and scrapped. The current listing showed them all deployed to various sites in this tower, save for one that was reporting as offline.

A construction bot was about four feet wide, the space between the supports was roughly five feet. Logan arched an eyebrow and tapped on the missing bot's information. It still reported back as offline.

George probably wouldn't have made it that easy. Logan hit a few buttons and told his Terminal to force a connection despite there being no signal. A few moments passed as his Terminal tried to connect to something that it thought didn't exist.

The sound of metal on metal filled the tunnel. A section about five feet wide slid back into the wall slowly. After a few moments it stopped and pivoted slightly allowing just enough room for a person to slide in.

"Told you so." Looking down at his Terminal Logan smiled slightly. He was actually surprised that it worked.

Stepping between the large piece of metal and the rest of the tunnel, he activated the light on his glass and pointed it into the dark space beyond the block of metal.

His light revealed a small chamber just deep enough to house the missing construction bot. It appeared to be attached to the metal block and was programmed to open and close the entrance.

Other than the bot there was nothing else in the space save for a narrow three-foot-wide passage leading deeper. There were no lights anywhere other than the few blinking ones coming from the construction bot.

Logan pointed his light down the passage, it stretched on farther than the light could reach. He had a bad feeling about this.

Reaching behind him he pulled his pistol from the holster on his lower back. There was a slight hum as it charged. The Vertec J7 was an earlier model energy weapon that was reliable and rugged. It looked almost like an old revolver, however the barrel was more oval shaped ending in a vented muzzle. It was capable of stunning individuals as well as being lethal, depending on the setting.

Terrans had yet to perfect any kind of small-scale energy weapon technology. The J7 was no exception, its main drawback was the lack of stopping power against armored targets. The Colonial Navy lost interest in the project and the company went out of business.

For his needs though, the J7 was perfect. Logan took a breath and aimed the weapon down the narrow passage. The darkness at the edge of his light retreated as he started forward.

The walls were smooth and pristine, the surgical precision of an industrial cutting beam ensured the metal wasn't damaged. Without doubt it must have taken months to carve this all out with a smaller construction unit.

After 30 seconds of walking, he stopped abruptly. The smoothness of the left wall suddenly gave way to a series of what looked like scratches and burns. Logan waited a moment, the darkness looking back at him. It was silent other than his breathing, his breath crystalizing in the air.

Logan stepped closer to the damaged section and ran his hand over it, it was definitely scratched by something. Claw marks, but they seemed to carve into the metal as if they were super-heated. He took a series of pictures using his Glass. Bendraar didn't have any native wildlife that could do this, not to mention there probably wasn't a creature anywhere that had superheated claws.

He steadied his breathing and moved further into the darkness. The walls became covered in more claw marks, the black burns indicating the presence of high heat. He took more pictures as he went, documenting everything. This was going to be a bizarre report.

Looking ahead, Logan could see light, he fought the urge to get there quickly.

As he got closer, he could see a small lit space, it felt warmer as well. Logan set his glass to record and approached the end of the passage. He was really hoping that whatever made those claw marks wasn't here.

Logan stepped into the room, sweeping it from left to right. It was empty. He was hesitant to lower his weapon but kept it ready.

The room he was now in measured roughly fifteen feet by ten feet. Taking in the space, there was a bed in one corner, some portable cookware, a sofa sat in the middle of the room, a smaller four legged construction bot, and piles of what looked to be emergency rations. Moving around the sofa Logan stopped.

There on the ground were two bodies. One on top of the other caught in what looked like a struggle.

"Fuck." Logan said, holstering his weapon and pointing his Glass at the bodies.

The bodies were surrounded by the same claw marks that were in the tunnel. For all Logan could tell though, it seemed like the person on top had been attacking the other, yet they were both dead. No signs of whatever made the burned claw marks.

There was also a fair amount of dried blood as well as some other strange looking fluids surrounding the pair on the ground.

After taking a few pictures he pulled his terminal and stood in the middle of the room. Tapping a few commands into the floating window he then held it above his head.

There was a slight buzz as it lit up the space with a series of bright flashes as it created a 3D scan of the room.

He slotted his Terminal back into his glass and brought up the communication window. He initiated the call to his Colonial Audit Service handler.

"Logan, how can I help you?" Mera said with an arched eyebrow. "Still having trouble?"

Logan frowned and pointed the Glass at the bodies on the floor.

"Oh shit..." Mera gasped.

"Yea. Not what I was expecting either. I need Local authorities to my location to secure the scene unless you want to send me a few marines." Logan said not really looking at Mera, his eyes were focused past her on the grizzly scene in front of him.

"Sure, I can do that. Did you find anything else?" Mera asked as she began to type rapidly.

"Not yet. I only just got here, I took some images and made a 3D scan of the room to preserve it before I started going through things." Logan typed a few things into his terminal's window and sent the images and scan to the C.A.S database.

There was a distant ping somewhere behind Mera as the files were received.

"What the hell happened?" She continued typing, likely trying to get people to Logan's location as quickly as possible.

"I honestly have no idea, but whatever it was it wasn't normal" He said as he pointed to the claw marks and odd colored fluids "Should probably have a forensic team down here as well, This room doesn't make any sense."

"Alright, people are on their way. Local police are not terribly happy at being involved so I also requisitioned a marine liaison to make sure things go smoothly. They should be there within 30 minutes. I have another call coming in. Good luck!" Mera said quickly, giving him a brief smile before ending the call.

"Hey-" Logan didn't have a chance to say much else before the communications window closed and Mera's face disappeared.

He sighed.

"All right then, I should probably get to work." He said out loud to the empty room.

Logan spent ten minutes combing through items, there wasn't much in here beyond the boxes full of rations. There was a box under the bed that contained a few pieces of clothing but nothing else. The sofa didn't hide any secrets either.

Having avoided it, Logan approached the bodies. This was a crime scene now and very much fell out of his scope as an Auditor. His job was to find people or errors and fix problems. Dead bodies in secret bunkers carved out of solid metal did not fall anywhere close to that.

Reaching towards the bodies Logan stopped.

"Gloves... I should probably have gloves..." Fishing around his jacket pockets yielded a single glove. "better than nothing..."

He put the glove on and reached for the lower bodies arm, it's Glass still sitting on the badly burned and desiccated wrist. It was damaged but Logan hoped it worked enough for him to establish a connection.

Pulling it free and trying to turn it on yielded only flickering and jagged images. He set it on the sofa and opened his Terminal. Logan typed a few commands in and requested remote access to a private device. The Terminal kicked back an error prompting him for more information.

Most of the C.A.S database and mainframe was run by specialized VIs that could seamlessly handle requests for information, as well as follow laws regarding access to local systems and even private devices if the need arose without deviation.

The age-old question about who watched the watchers was answered when they uploaded strict laws and parameters to VIs managing the system. Unless you could justify the need to invade someone's privacy to a high degree the VIs wouldn't budge or cooperate. Any attempt to reprogram or alter the VIs responsible for managing the system would set off alarms in different agencies. In theory at least, since it doesn't seem like anyone has ever tried. Or been caught.

Logan referenced the data he had just uploaded and indicated to the VI that the owner was dead. Access was needed to confirm identity and close the current case he was on.

There was a brief pause as the VI processed the case information Logan had provided. 'Permission Granted' appeared on his screen before being replaced by a remote access window to the damaged Glass.

It belonged to George Kraz. Each Glass device was linked to someone's biometrics when they bought it. It's a hard thing to fake.

Logan thumbed through the files briefly looking for anything that stood out. The most recent thing on here was a video.

He played it.

****

George hurried into the passage; the narrow space was cold but that was the last thing on his mind.

"It found me; I knew it was out there watching me. The creature I saw below block fiftyfive is real! You'll all see. I'm not crazy!" George spoke hurriedly and breathlessly.

The darkness pressed around him as he pushed forward. There was a sudden screech from behind him causing him to stop dead in his tracks.

His face was barely illuminated by the glow from his Glass as he tapped at it quickly.

"No no no no..." he said with a panicked look on his face. "Stupid bot didn't close"

George started down the passage faster now his breathing becoming harder and more ragged.

There was another screech from behind him. Closer and louder than the first followed by the sounds of metal being scraped against.

"I was working on a ventilation project below block fiftyfive. Down there in the darkness I saw a creature, some kind of mutated human or something. No one else saw it but I did." George looked terrified.

"I reported it and they all said I was tired a.. a.. and seeing things! But I wasn't. I know what I saw. It's a conspiracy of the Colonial Government to create super soldiers or.. something" George's face appeared blank for a moment as if searching for an answer that fit.

"Ever since then I've heard it following me, watching me. It's always been there in my shadow" It got brighter; George had entered the small room.

It looked like he was hurriedly doing something to the wall in front of the sofa.

George looked behind him, his face going pale. He was thrown off his feet by something, screamed in pain and began to struggle with whatever was attacking him.

After a few moments of this the video cut out.

***********

Blinking a few times, he quickly flagged the video as evidence for a high priority review and uploaded it to the C.A.S database.

Looking back down at the bodies Logan shivered. The body on-top had to have been the thing that attacked him. After watching the video you would think it was some kind of monster. It was a very humanoid looking corpse. A very grim looking corpse that was mostly bone and bits of rotted flesh but it was humanoid.

He averted his gaze away and focused on the wall across from the sofa. George had done something over there before he died.

It was smooth and untouched. Looking at the remote access into George's Glass, he typed in a command that made it send out an open signal to any devices it had access to.

There was a click and part of the wall In front of Logan slid open revealing a small storage space. Inside was a pile of credit sticks as well as another Glass. It was uncommon for people to have more than one, but not unusual.

Logan ignored it and instead reached for the pile of credit sticks. These are what he needed. Misappropriated government funds were absolutely in his scope.

He walked over to the bed and put them down, spreading them all out. Logan quickly took images of them and scanned each one using his Terminal to officially log them as recovered.

In total he was standing in front of roughly 1.5 million credits which was not a bad haul. Logan quickly added a few notes to the case and marked it as complete pending final review. He smiled to himself.

That just left one thing left to do on Bendraar. He was excited to get back to her.

There was a distant sound of people talking and shuffling. Logan turned and looked at the narrow entrance waiting for them to finally make it to him.

Three people emerged one after another from the darkened passage. Two were regular police and the third was dressed in a Marine uniform and he spoke first.

"That was certainly new" The man said as he adjusted his uniform and looked around the room. Seeing Logan, he held out his hand.

"First Lieutenant Meford, Marine liaison" smiling politely he kept his eyes locked on Logan.

"Logan Firth, Auditor. Glad you guys could make it, I've already processed everything on my end and logged it all." Logan shook his hand then gestured to the credit chips on the bed.

Meford nodded looking around the room again.

"Weird place you've found here" His eyes stopped on the two bodies.

"Thankfully my job is done, and I can pass this wonderfully weird mess onto more qualified individuals" Logan said following his gaze. "All of my data will be made available to you if it can be any help in figuring this all out."

The two regular officers were standing around the bodies not really sure what to make of what they were seeing.

Meford opened his own glass and tapped a few commands in.

"Transferring crime scene and acknowledging receipt of 1.5 million credits into the chain of custody." He said robotically, clearly not enthused about the investigation to come.