She didn’t look happy, but she nodded. And she pulled her weapon, moving around the station so that the door was in clear sight.
Inside the hatch, he found lift controls. Again, not in any language he could understand. So, he pushed something. The hatch closed between he and Riina and the lift began to lower. When it stopped and the door opened again, lights came on revealing a large cavern. It had to reach up almost to the surface, he decided.
There were more of the cages lining the walls and another control station. But these cages, he realized, weren’t empty. He jacked into the control station again, and somehow managed to turn on the lights inside the cages.
Humans, animals, and one very large avian blinked at him.
He had a feeling that the avian was the Timmy in the well.
22
Riina shifted uneasily, checking the time once again. Tim had only been gone a couple of minutes. It felt like an hour. She tried comms.
“Tim?”
“Yes?”
The relief almost buckled her knees.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“I’m not sure how to answer that question,” Tim said. “I have found a prisoner cell block. I am unsure how to proceed.”
“You can’t let them go?”
“I am one. They are many, including another large avian.”
“Timmy,” she said.
“Yes.”
Tim had left the console unlocked, but the language and coding was unfamilair.
She tried comms again, this time to the shuttle.
“Veirn, if I send you a video, could you help me out with this control station?”
“I could try,” Veirn’s fragment said cautiously.
She turned on her video feed.
“I am receiving,” the AI said. A pause. “It is similar to the systems I am currently attempting to access here at what we believe is the central command center. Please wait.”
Riina heard the scramble of claws on the metal ceiling and then a shadow darkened the doorway. After a few seconds, the bird’s head—or the part of it with an eye—filled the doorway.
“We’re working on it,” she said. She looked, without touching. There had to be some kind of larger hatch entry for them to get the avian inside. That had to mean the ceiling could be raised and the floor in the center of the room must also have some kind of opening. It was the only thing that made sense.
She studied it. Yes, she was certain it had to be a large hatch, too. If only she could find the matching control. Her comms crackled, then Veirn spoke.
“I believe I have translated the controls correctly, but the only way to know for sure…” the AI stopped.
“…is to try. Let me see them,” she said. The data packet arrived, and she downloaded it to her suit’s systems. Then activated it and suddenly the controls made sense.
If Veirn were correct.
Her hand hovered over the upper hatch control. Then she looked at the bird.
“I’m going to open it.” She pointed up. There was a pause, then the bird’s head vanished. Its shadow passed over the space outside. So, it had lifted off the roof. That was good. She pushed the control.
