"Captain," Megan called over the coms, "can you come to Engineering please?"
"On my way."
There had been something in her voice that made him anxious. It had been a note of either panic or excitement, but he couldn't tell which. Either way, he needed to get down there.
"Miss Bines, Jacks greeted her with significantly more aplomb that he felt.
"Captain," she reciprocated, "if you would accompany me please?"
She had a hint of a smile and a glimmer in her eyes that told him it was good news that she had for him. That made him relax considerably as he followed her into the server room.
"Captain," Jackson shot to his feet and saluted.
"Jackson," he returned the gesture crisply, "what have you got for me?"
"I found it, Captain," he said, practically vibrating with excitement, "I found where the virus code came from."
"Tell me," he commanded.
Jackson pointed to a screen filled with what the captain assumed was programming code, though he had no real idea. "It was implanted by a flash drive during pre-flight maintenance."
"By whom?"
"Well, I can't tell you that precisely."
"Why not?" Jacks snapped irritably.
"Uh, w-well c-captain," he stuttered, "it w-was at... at c-command, n-not on the sh-ship."
"Calm down Jackson," the captain put a hand on his shoulder and toned down his own voice, "you did a superlative job."
"Thank-thank you s-sir."
"At least we know it wasn't anyone on the ship," Megan said.
"Probably," he corrected, "it still might have been, though the odds are low."
"Yes sir. We've put several bots in play just in case."
"Bots?"
"Uh, yes. They're programs that are meant to monitor a network and search for specific activities."
"Guard dogs for the computer?"
"Exactly sir. If anyone attempts to upload any code similar to the virus, it will rabbithole the code and notify me."
"Excellent work, both of you."
"Thank you, Captain."
It was nighttime on 'Old Dusty", and the planet had no moon. The stars were bright and crisp like glitter on a child's drawing. There were also few plants and no animals that were native to the planet, so the night was as silent as the space around it.
"Why do you think there's no animals here?" Andy asked, his Scottish accent resting on the rolling r's in his words.
Alex shrugged without saying a word.
"Not much for small talk, are ye?"
"Not really."
"Doesn't this place interest you? It's so amazing and wondrous here."
"What interests me are these things here," he pointed to a spot on the landing pad with the flashlight on the barrel of his rifle.
"What are ye talking about?"
"These hexagonal plates. They almost look like large buttons."
"Huh," Andy grunted, "yer right about that. We should mark it for the scientists."
Alex silently continued studying the buttons, four identical hexes a foot across, inlaid into the surface so as to be perfectly level with it. They were near to the entrance to the tower, yet out of what would be the main line of traffic.
"What are ye doing?" Andy yelled as Alex stepped on one of the hexes.
With a hiss of escaping atmosphere, a large portion of the pad dropped down several inches, then halted for a second before continuing moving downward, leaving only a few feet of the landing pad around the edges in place.
"What on the name of Zeus's balls is that?" Andy gasped.
"Looks like an elevator to me."
"We need to repost this," Andy said, keying his mic.
Alex just jumped the few feet down onto the lowering surface, then knelt down to get a view of what might be underneath.
"What are ye doing?" Andy demanded in a panic.
"Exploring," was all he said.
"Dammit!"
"You can stay up there or come with me. Your choice."
"Fine." The jump was more than ten feet by that time, but the lower gravity made it feel more like a small hop.
"Chief, this is Redburn, over."
"Marks here," the radio crackled, "go ahead."
"Sir, we've found an elevator on pad C, sir. We're investigating now."
"Found an elevator? How did you find an elevator? It's a flat sur..." then static.
"Sir, you're breaking up. Repeat, over."
"I... how... vator... flat... back..."
"Well so much for that," Andy said as they continued descending.
After about fifty feet, the sides of the shaft dropped away to expose an open area. The light was too dim to see very far. A few feet later the lights began flickering to life, revealing an enormous area at least a hundred feet across.
"Holy haggis," Andy swore in surprise.
The 'elevator' settled to a halt once it was flush with the floor of the chamber. The area was littered with consoles, ceiling cranes, cabinets, and unidentified technological equipment.
"Do you think we have room on board for that?" Alex asked.
"My gods that's beautiful."
The item to which Alex pointed was a large metal sideways teardrop shape, nearly fifty feet long, that rested on six extendable landing pads. It had an outer layer that was pierced by flowing shapes that made it look like white lace over a solid surface. Two gracefully curved wings extended from the sides giving the entire thing an elegant look more appropriate to a piece of art than technology.
"Why didn't we know this was here?" Doctor Slivinski asked pointedly.
"We've barely had time to explore this structure," Max said, waving his bandaged hands towards the tower above, "so how could we know what was underneath it?"
"And it was security that discovered it?"
"Yes sir. They were on a standard patrol and accidentally stepped on the controls."
"It wasn't an accident," Andy said defensively, "Officer Wolfe saw the controls and decided to investigate."
"And you are...?" Slivinski asked.
"Officer Redburn, sir."
"Well Officer Redburn," Max said snidely, "why don't you let Officer Wolfe speak for himself."
"Tell 'em, Alex."
"Yes sir. It happened like Andy said," Alex finally said.
"It did, did it?" the lead scientist asked, "and what made you think that was a good idea?"
"We were assessing possible dangers from a previously unknown position. That's out job, sir."
