Empire of Light

Nancy merely watched at first as Dakota started pulling the disc-shaped field devices out of their slots, dropping them to the ground for the spiders to collect. Then she started to help, pulling the discs loose and placing them where the spiders could get to them easily. Trader meanwhile simply hovered in his bubble; in truth there wasn't much he could do but watch them.

‹Here's something else I've been wondering,› said Nancy after they'd been working away for a few minutes. ‹You said you detected some more of those… drones here, right? Like the ones you turned on those corvettes back home?›

What about them?

‹How many of them are there?›

A couple of dozen, Dakota sent back. Why?

‹I saw the playbacks of what those other things you found did to those corvettes. Don't you think its kind of weird the Meridians would leave weapons that powerful lying around here? Doesn't it make more sense if they left them here for a reason?›

Why are you so suddenly keen on giving me your opinion?

Nancy stopped working and stared over at Dakota. ‹I'm just saying there was obviously some kind of a fight here, right?›

A long time ago, Nancy.

‹Yes but, even so, why were they just left here? Are they guarding something? Just waiting for something? What?›

Dakota directed an angry glance towards her. They were at war. Shit happens.

‹I'm just not crazy about the idea of just walking in here without carrying out a thorough reco

Dakota picked up one of the field-generators and studied it for several moments, thinking.

Trader, when I met you on that other world, were the drones you gave me… guarding anything?

‹I have no idea, Dakota. Perhaps they were once but, if so, whatever that might have been is long gone.›

You said you didn't hear back from some of the probes you sent down into the cache. Any idea why?

As Trader floated in his bubble, his manipulators remained immobile for at least half a minute. ‹Perhaps I should investigate further,› he replied.

The discs were a lot heavier than they looked, and Dakota's implants had picked up faint queries coming from them, which were interpretable thanks to the Meridian command structures Trader had given her. Once she had built up an idea of their internal structure, she transmitted this data back to Lamoureaux on the Mjollnir.

Ted, take a look at this. What do you make of it?

His reply came barely a moment later. ‹Like I'm an expert in shaped-field tech? The real question is how hard or easy it's going to be to integrate something like this into our existing defences. Is it even possible?›

According to Trader, it is. And the interface seems to be straightforward enough, so it shouldn't be a huge problem setting up an interface with the Mjollnir's defence stacks.

‹Okay, I'll talk to Ray about them. Leo would have been your man, but now he's gone the next-best expert is probably Nancy, I'm afraid. Have you asked her yet?›

Hang on, I'm going to try activating one myself first.

Dakota lugged the device over to a clear spot between two rows of racks, and triggered it by depressing a button on one side. The shaped field that surrounded her a moment later sparked and crackled with light.

The effect was so startling that Dakota almost dropped the device; the field was far brighter – and therefore more powerful – than anything she had so far encountered. It had started out as a sphere about four metres across, centred on herself, but then it began to shrink, slowly at first but with increasing speed. She quickly deactivated it before it could shrink any further and crush her to death.

‹Be careful,› Trader warned her, from where he hovered near the dome's entrance. ‹These are much more powerful than the field-generators you're used to.›

‹What happened?› Lamoureaux asked.

Two aisles over, Dakota could just make out an expression of shock on Nancy's face through her faceplate.

I think it's safe to say they work just fine, she sent back.

Chapter Thirty

They had to abandon a number of the field-generators after they proved to be broken on closer inspection, their outer shells cracked and brittle. But at least fifty appeared to be undamaged.

After a couple of hours' work, the last of these were secured on top of some of the spiders, and sent back over the hills to Trader's yacht. Dakota took one last look around the interior of the dome, wondering what it must have been like in those last hours before the colony was obliterated, and if the creatures who had built it had realized what was coming. Then she stepped back outside to join Trader and Nancy, who were waiting for her amongst the ruins.

Dakota watched as the machinery-laden spiders followed one another up the slope of the nearest hill. Maybe it's time to activate those drones I detected, see if they wake up.

Trader's manipulators wriggled underneath his belly. ‹As you wish.›

The Meridian drones had either burned or dug their way deep beneath the surface long ago. As the three of them now started moving towards the foot of the nearest hill, Dakota sent out a command-level activation signal that she hoped would override whatever instructions the drones had been left with.

Less than a minute passed before she was rewarded with a faint tremor that rippled the dust beneath her feet. Dakota stopped and turned in time to see rock and gravel fountaining upwards from all around the cache-mouth, as drone after drone punched its way back out of its hiding place. They rose quickly, spi

‹Shit!› Nancy exclaimed, her voice full of terror. ‹What the fuck is that?›

Dakota realized she had forgotten to warn Nancy what she was intending to do.

Sorry, I should have warned you. Those are the drones I detected on our way here. I've ordered them to head for the frigate, but they had to dig their way out of the ground first.

‹How fucking stupid can you be?› Nancy raged. ‹I thought we were under attack!›

Hey, I said I was sorry.

‹From now on, you even think about doing something, you clear it with me first. Do you hear me?›

Yes, Nancy, I hear you.

Dakota did her best to ignore the flash of resentment she felt at Nancy's tone, as she headed for the nearest slope. The spiders had already scaled the summit and were well on their way back to Trader's yacht.

Trader himself kept abreast of her as she ascended the hill, Nancy not so far behind them this time. Dakota glanced back and saw that debris was still slowly raining down on the ancient ruins. The drones were by now out of sight.

Dakota turned away and pinged the drones, finding they were functioning at peak capacity, and all accelerating hard towards the frigate. She fired a warning to Lamoureaux to make sure the others understood they were not being attacked.

‹All right, for what it's worth, that was some pretty spectacular shit,› Nancy sent, her tone almost bordering on respect.

Just doing my job, Dakota sent. Once we've got these field-generators back on board, I want to take the ship down inside the cache. We should take a good look at it while we've got the chance. Do you have any objections to that?

‹None. That was the plan anyway, wasn't it? And, by the way… those explosions around the cache. That was the drones?›

Yes, why?

‹So what's causing that glow coming from inside the cache?›

Dakota stopped to look back at Nancy, who was standing just a little further downhill, with one foot up on a boulder. Beyond her, the interior of the cache had indeed become brighter, emitting light that flickered as if derived from a hundred different sources, each one moving constantly in relation to the rest. It was as if a horde of giant fireflies was flying up the mouth of the cache from somewhere deep inside.