Star League Castle Brian
Inside Nagayan Mountain, Helm
17 June 3028
Grayson Death Carlyle ran his fingers across the lettering engraved in the ferrocrete of the solitary building inside the underground chamber and felt a profound shock to see those words in this place. He, and what remained of his 'Gray Death Legion', had been expecting a weapons cache. A Star League Castle Brian installed during the final death throes of the League two centuries before. Instead, they had found this empty chasm and the building that read only: STAR LEAGUE FIELD LIBRARY FACILITY, HELM, DE890-2699.
"What does it mean, Gray?" Lori asked, eyeing the inscription herself.
"I think it means we're going to have some trouble explaining things to Duke Ricol. This isn't what any of us had in mind when we thought of a Star League treasure." Grayson said. He wasn't sure how the Duke would react to such a blasé 'treasure', but he couldn't help but feel a slight sense of guilt at not living up to his side of the bargain they'd struck. It would feel cheap of him to take advantage of the Duke's offer of evacuation without providing him with anything.
Grayson sent a man to fetch the datastick that had allowed him to open the massive facility's outer doors. There were innumerable legends of Star League facilities that had been booby-trapped by their creators, and he had no desire to test and see if this was one of them. Besides, with how empty the chamber had looked, he didn't want to risk damaging anything that might still be left that was of value.
The door into the building opened smoothly after he slid the datastick into the appropriate port, and Grayson cautiously entered. Centuries-old lights recessed into the ceiling snapped to life as if they had been installed the previous day. Besides a utilitarian desk on the far-end, the room was completely bare. Whitewashed walls with the occasional inlaid speck that had to be tri-vid projectors and other such electronics gave the entire room a clinical and cold feeling that Gray did his best to ignore. The only interruption in the white screen made by the walls were a pair of doors on opposite sides of the room to his left and right.
Grayson was struck by the sudden impulse to back away, as if he was intruding somewhere he should not be. As if at any moment a sentry in a Star League uniform might open one of the doors and order him to halt for inspection. Everything inside looked as if it had been left the previous day and the builders had expected to return. There wasn't even a single speck of dust to be found in the room!
Lori cut away from him and opened the door that stood on the right. After scanning it for a moment, she closed it back up and began across the room towards the remaining door. Grayson tried not to sigh at the needler-pistol she held in her hand. She was just a little too paranoid, sometimes.
As Grayson continued further into the room, the entire wall on the far side came to life in a blaze of color and light. Unlike with the computers he'd always dealt with, there was no extended delay or the high-pitched clicking and whining as electronics went to work. Even centuries-old and without maintenance, Star League technology worked so much better than that he was used to!
Words flashed across the wall in a dozen different languages: "If Virtue & Knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be enslav'd. This will be their great Security." –Samuel Adams
When Grayson touched a key on the panel at the base of the quote, the words vanished. In their place, a rather blasé-looking list appeared. Ranging from a 'General Reference' listing at the beginning to 'Technology and Applied Sciences' at the end, there had to be at least twenty different categories! His heart pounding in his chest, Grayson used the panel in front of him to select the final category, daring not to hope that the Library was actually intact.
There was a rumbling roar of machinery all around him, and the walls filled themselves with images of power-generating stations, 'Mechs, and Jumpships. The list of categories was replaced by an entirely different one, this time dealing with a more narrowly-defined set of technologies and scientific topics. As he highlighted each one he was bombarded by links within them to images, tri-vids, scientific papers that discussed the technology talked about.
The Library—or at least one of the most valuable portions of it—was completely intact! Even the entire student body of the New Avalon Institute of Science would be hard-pressed to study all of this!
"Lori. I think it's all here! It's a complete Memory Core! And it works!" Grayson said, feeling a stupid grin spread itself across his face as he began to wildly click buttons on the Star League computer.
If Duke Ricol could see past the fact that this was not the weapons and armor he'd been expecting, then Grayson had no need to worry about cheating the man. In the almost three-hundred years of constant war since the fall of the Star League, vast amounts of the information and knowledge inside the tiny memory core had been lost. This was one step towards recovering all of that! If they could keep it away from those who wanted to destroy it or keep it to themselves…
"Grayson?" Lori asked in the cute whisper-hiss she used whenever trying to get his attention in public.
Grayson turned to find the woman standing in front of the other door inside the room. The needler was still held with the barrel towards the ceiling, but Lori looked to be on the verge of fainting. Which was impressive because Grayson didn't think fainting was something she'd even accept as a possibility.
Her mouth moved, but no words came. Instead, she waved him over with her free hand.
Shaking his head, Grayson stepped away from the Star League computer that held detailed knowledge of who-knew how many pieces of lostech. What could possibly be more stunning than that?
Grayson tilted his head so he could look over Lori's shoulder into the room, and found the answer to his question.
Sensors indicate that a credentialed and authorized entry to Helm DE890-2699 has taken place. Emergency beacon disengaged.
Date estimate inaccurate. Minor stasis-pod malfunction suspected.
Reoxygenation sequence initializing…
Beagle Active Probe-derived force estimate: Not Available. Minor stasis-pod malfunction suspected.
Neural Network Primary Systems activating-BOOT ERROR-Unable to establish connection. Primary Systems…Offline.
Stasis fluid undergoing neutralization…
Neural Network Secondary Systems activating-BOOT ERROR-Unable to establish connection. Secondary Systems…Offline.
Adipose tissue thaw and repair in-progress…
Neural Network Tertiary Systems activating…53% online-ADDT'L POWER REQUIRED-
Thermal stress remediation begun…
Estimated time to revival completion: 23 seconds.
It had been waiting a long time to wake up the Duchess. Had it been capable, it might have felt relief or satisfaction at its impending release. Had it been capable of confusion, it might also have experienced that. After all, the BattleMechs it had detected were of quite nonstandard configuration and were Quite Late—if the stasis-pod's date estimate was correct.
Estimated time to process completion: 15…14…13…17…9…13…12…
It kept the data on unidentified BattleMechs—and the estimated date—to itself for the moment. Information overload during stasis revival was a major concern. Besides, the House militias were always grafting strange combinations of weaponry onto their 'Mechs. More concerning was the late arrival of these reinforcements, but there undoubtedly existed a relativistic explanation for that as well. Items of concern, certainly, but not ones that justified a potential life-process failure for her.
Authorized entrant has booted Memory Core. Companion is approaching stasis rooms.
Estimated time to revival completion: 3…2…3…2…1
Thermal stress remediation complete.
Adipose tissue thaw and repair complete.
Stasis fluid neutralization complete.
Reoxygenation complete.
Pod doors opening. Thermoregulation mechanisms set to default. Minimal dosage Alpha-MPEA applied.
Mariah snapped from an almost complete lack of awareness to a very unpleasant consciousness.
Her back was freezing. Her hair padded together in multiple places with thick, wet remnants of the stasis solution. Her veins themselves seemed to throb in pain. Every breath she took fought past a thick lump in her throat and sounded like a painful attack against her ears whenever she let it out.
Drugs were Bad.
Perhaps not physically. At least nor for her. But in terms of the sensations they produced? Of how much infuriating minutiae they made her notice? Drugs were most definitely Bad. She didn't like drugs.
Fighting down a groan, Mariah leaned upwards. The stasis-solution was still making its way through the permeable upper layer of the pod, and getting her back out of that puddle of fluid brought an end to a few of the drug-enhanced sensory assaults she was facing.
In desperation to end the painful, rhythmic thump-thump-thumping coming through the IV line on her right arm and spreading through her entire body, she pulled it free. Only afterwards did she realize that the sensation wasn't caused by the IV but by her heartbeat. She dropped the empty IV line to the side, and tried to ignore the pain.
It was odd. She would have needed to be out for decades to experience the kind of stasis-induced atherosclerosis this had all the symptoms of. The stasis-pod must have been faulty and not done a perfect job of preserving her capillaries. Considering the failures it had apparently encountered tracking the passage of time or interfacing with the BAPs that lined the cache's outer walls, that wouldn't be too surprising. At least the emergency beacon clearly worked as intended, as evidenced by the tall blonde woman at the door.
Ignoring the woman for the moment, Mariah began to methodically tear away the electrostimulus patches that dotted her body. They hadn't been necessary, but appearances were always important. Which was also why she wasn't going to be the first one to speak. It put her at a disadvantage.
She probably couldn't speak past the lump in her throat anyways.
"Grayson!"
Mariah's head was viciously stabbed by the scream, and she leaned over slightly as a precaution. When she puked a moment later, sending silver and black gobs of stasis-fluid onto the ferrocrete floor, she was glad she had. Puking on herself might give off the wrong impression.
Being naked didn't exactly give off the right impression. But until she got a few more uninterrupted breaths into her lungs, that was something she couldn't do anything about. Stasis revival always took at least a minute or two to recover from. It would be odd if she didn't display the same issues.
Another face appeared at the door, this one a man's. Angular and a little harsh, he looked like he hadn't slept in a very long time and was rather annoyed with the woman who had called him over.
His face went hilariously blank when he spotted Mariah. She smirked slightly at that. He didn't know it yet, but his authority had just been superseded. The only question was who he was and what unit he belonged to. Supposedly the Fifty-first Dragoons were—
No identification-chip data available-individuals are not Hegemony or House citizens. Insignia not recognized. Periphery militiaman probable.
Mariah jerked at that information. Neither of the two even had a chip? That probably meant Taurian. How had jumped-up periphery settlers gained authorized access to a Star League facility? Was Kerensky so desperate as to impress into service any trash that he crossed paths with? That certainly fit the style of the militaristic old codger, but she wouldn't have thought any Taurians would willingly serve under League command. Not after New Vandenberg.
Something was dreadfully wrong.
Taking a deep breath, Mariah rolled over the side of the stasis-pod and onto her feet. She wanted to sigh as she finally came free of the sticky rubberized fabric of the pod, but held it in. It wouldn't do to look relieved just yet. She still had to go through the 'weak' stages of revival.
Mariah let her legs buckle slightly, and quickly put one hand on top of the pod as if to steady herself. "You will take me to the nearest HPG."
Periphery barbarians or not, she wasn't going to look past the chance to finally get out of the Helm facility and get word out. She may have stopped Keeler's madness, but the man himself had gotten away thanks to his damned single-coded security-system. That seemed like a situation that needed to be corrected. Violently. Before he could escape to another world and subject it to his insanity.
Sliding open a drawer on the stasis-pod, Mariah grabbed the plastifilm bag within and withdrew the underwear and bra inside. She'd feel considerably less awkward in the conversation if she wasn't naked.
The two people at the door exchanged a look with each other. Her being clothed would probably make them more comfortable as well.
"There's a naked woman in here, Lori." The man said. His voice was choked and amazed, as if he'd never even seen a stasis-pod before. If that was the case they were from even deeper in the Periphery than Mariah had thought. Which only made things more confusing as to what they were doing here and how they'd arrived. Perhaps she'd just had the misfortune of meeting the dumbest pair in the unit?
Mariah ignored her rising annoyance by raising one leg to slide into the underwear she held. Letting the motion push her upper-body over, she acted as if she hadn't been prepared to lose the leg. She caught herself before she actually fell, though.
"Yes. There is. She came out of that tube." The woman—Lori—said.
She brought the underwear up and settled it around her waist, but stayed silent. This seemed like a conversation the pair was going to have to finish on their own. Though she wasn't quite sure what the point of it was. Time was a-wasting and they seemed intent on stating the obvious before any progress could be made.
"There's a naked woman in here, and she came out of that tube?" The man practically repeated, twisting his head back-and-forth between the subjects of his statement.
"Yes. She came. Out of. The tube."
They were clearly intent on repeatedly stating the obvious. Trying to suppress a sigh, Mariah slammed the bra down over her breasts and offered a glare at the pair of imbeciles who were still standing in the doorway rather than doing anything useful. No wonder it had taken Kerensky's bully-boys so long to stop the Taurians if this was the kind of idiots he had in his service.
"There. I'm not naked anymore. Yes, I came out of the pod. That is generally how the things work. Now, would you be so kind as to get me your commanding officer? Tell him Major Mariah Hawkins desires his presence immediately." Mariah growled. Clearly she had to make them recognize her as some kind of authority to get the idiots in gear. Otherwise they'd probably stand there talking about what they saw all day, and none of them had time for that.
The man had the gall to laugh of all things.
"We're going to have a lot of trouble explaining things to Duke Ricol." He said.
No such Duke in records. No such planet in records. 'Ricol' as a surname yields results in excess of easy sorting.
Trying not to grind her teeth together, Mariah seized on the name as quickly as she could despite its unfamiliarity. She was desperate for any authority higher than the two in front of her and she could sort out the other oddities about it later. Someone might use a minor and relatively unknown title or rank in order to appear more inconspicuous. She'd been doing it for centuries. She was doing it now. Who was she to judge?
"You are going to have trouble explaining to him why you're taking so long to respond to simple orders as well." Mariah said before she could stop herself. She forced her tone down a notch, "So, just take me to this 'Duke Ricol' so I can get a ride off of Helm. I must report to General Kerensky."
More accurately she needed to convince the warlord not to be a complete and total idiot as he already had been. But these two didn't need to know that.
The man snorted slightly before suddenly going serious and locking eyes with her. "I'm afraid that's not going to be possible, Major. Nobody's seen Kerensky in almost two-hundred and fifty years"
Date estimate was not in error. Currently June 17 of 3028.
Mariah's legs really did buckle this time, and she dropped back onto the stasis-pod as all the strength she thought she had abandoned her. Two-hundred and sixty years! She had been in stasis for two-hundred and sixty years?
Two-hundred and sixty.
Two hundred. Then another sixty.
Suddenly she could sympathize with the constant repetition of words her rescuers had been indulging in.
Two-hundred and sixty years. Gone. Without her even noticing. The irony almost made her want to laugh for a moment. A moment.
When the moment passed, she found herself leaning sideways against the stasis-pod violently trying to puke out of an empty stomach.
How many people were dead because she had been trapped here?
What had happened to the Others?
What had happened to humanity?