The Navigator

Heavy Weapons

Heavy Weapons

Hubbell pushed a large cart along in front of them. It contained a folded scaffolding and a large laser drill, bulky and squat. Dr. Fox readjusted the pack again, unable to find a comfortable way to carry the heavy bag. He was distinctly uncomfortable, and it wasn't just the pack. Looking around nervously again, he verified there were no beasts sneaking up on them.

He may have been right about them being nocturnal. But what if they made an exception for them? The hooters had seemed pretty intent on eating their flesh.

No matter, Hubbell seemed confident as ever, so he relaxed some. They made it to the courtyard at the center of the city without incident. There was no sign of hooters or any other threatening alien beast.

"Help me set up the laser," Reese said to Hubbell.

"Chris, open the pack and get out the contents."

As they set about assembling the scaffolding, he examined the contents of the pack. There was a dozen spare powerpacks for the drill, several clamshell cases with unknown contents, and a six inch cylindrical probe attached to a winch by a thin wire.

Reese and Hubbell finished setting up the scaffolding and hoisted the large laser drill into it, so it was hanging vertically.

"The moment of truth," Reese said, and flicked the switch to activate the laser.

The bright red beam lanced out and began to melt the stone, and then it started to vaporize. A two foot wide hole was being bored into the stone floor of the courtyard.

"This is going to take a while. Chris why don't you go see if you can find that malfunctioned drone. The sector it was supposed to map is right around the corner from here," Reese suggested.

Not wanting to seem as frightened as he was, he tried to reply casually, "Sure, I'll go see what I can find."

He set out to the unmapped sector after brief directions from Reese. Hubbell had said to yell if he needed help. Neither had made him any more confident. Although he thought he was doing a pretty good job faking it. Hopefully the others were buying it.

Once out of sight, he began to creep cautiously along, sticking close to the walls and frequently looking behind him. He scanned the ground looking for that glint of chrome, but found none, until he turned a corner into a dead end alley.

There in the middle of the alley was the drone, torn nearly in half. He stooped to retrieve it. As he lifted it, a ragged metal edge sliced neatly into his finger.

"Ow!" he said, dropping the drone.

He wrapped his finger in the hem of his shirt, trying to staunch the bleeding. His finger emerged a moment later, still bleeding, as he stopped and stared. There was a stone door at the end of the alley, with several glyphs illuminated in bright green.

Dr. Fox knew what they meant. They meant Navigator, enter here. He stumbled on a crack in the stone floor and staggered forward. He caught himself with his hands, injured finger and all, smearing blood across the stone. He pushed himself upright and brushed back some of his lanky hair.

Watching in amazement, the glyphs began to glow brighter, the spots where his blood had touched shining brightest of all. Then his blood was simply absorbed by the stone. There was a deep rumbling, coming from beneath the ground. The city shook and trembled, like an earthquake.

But considering recent events, he didn't find a coincidental earthquake to be plausible. Either he had triggered something here, or Reese had been the source with her drill back in the courtyard. Then the massive stone block that made up the door slowly began to slide aside. It revealed a darkened passage leading down.