As Logan walked towards the elevator he noted the air had a slight chill. Bendraar was headed into its late Autumn, it was getting colder now. Logan hoped he could wrap this case up today in quick order. The image of Lilith half naked in his shirt drifted through his thoughts. He hoped she would still be around.
Stepping out of the elevator onto level eight, Logan headed in the direction of the mag-lev station. Shaking Lilith from his mind, he pulled up the diagrams for the tunnel and looked at them as he walked. He kept sweeping along the walls for anything that would indicate some kind of hidden door or access point, but everything looked solid.
He had looked over this area two weeks ago and quickly discounted Lilith's idea because there was no evidence, that he could see, of the walls being bored into, not to mention that it was a highly improbable idea. She was convinced that she was right after looking at the diagrams for only a few moments, had she seen something he missed?
Durasteel was incredibly resistant to stress, heat, cold, and was reasonably flexible, which made it the perfect material for starship hulls and armor. In the last 10 years they had started using a new metal called Trinium that was discovered on one of the planets in the Periphery Systems called Poe. Trinium was 3 times lighter than and almost 4 times stronger. It was fair to say it was the most important discovery for the United Colonial Government in the last 100 years.
Poe had quickly become the most heavily invested in and subsequently protected planet in the Periphery. The 3
rd
fleet was permanently stationed around Poe, Numerous industrial and defensive structures were rapidly built to support the explosive growth the system had seen in recent years.
With ship production changing to Trinium, there was a sudden need to find a new home for the large amounts of Durasteel that was initially meant to build starships. Manufacturers were scrambling to find other uses for the material.
Logan weaved through the crowded main corridor on level eight, he could hear the distant sound of a train passing at high speed.
Approaching the mag-lev station he turned and headed down a side street, heading for an access door deeper within the level. The thought of all the metal looming above him made him feel a little uneasy. It wasn't a fear of tight spaces per say, it was the sheer amount of material he was surrounded by that was off-putting. Being under a metallic mountain wasn't his idea of a good time.
He approached a solid looking door labeled Restricted Access. Bringing his Glass up to the doors control panel he accessed his Terminal and tried to override the door. There was a moment of waiting before it slid open revealing a pitch-black space.
Stepping forward into the gloom, there was a pause before lights automatically clicked on illuminating the tight maintenance corridor leading to the tunnel. He had to walk at an angle to fit.
Logan sighed and proceeded forward; it wasn't too far before it started branching off to other small passages leading off into a distant maze. Turn after turn of cramped metal buried beneath the structures above. He knew there were similar paths stretching down below and wondered how anyone could work down here.
Focusing on the task at hand he pushed onwards until he reached a bigger and more secure looking door. After a moment his terminal unlocked it, and the heavy door slid into the wall.
Before him lay the brightly lit mag-lev tunnel. There was a rush of air as another train passed by unannounced like a blur of liquid metal. A small ladder was recessed into the wall next to the door.
"At least it would be quick." He joked to himself, trying to push the thought from his mind and focus on finishing this up.
Logan cast his gaze around the space, the walls were almost perfectly smooth. It was open and modern looking, it almost looked like a museum hall rather than a train tunnel.
Pulling up the designs again, he studied them closely and looked back up at what was in front of him, not exactly sure what he was looking for. He liked to think he was at least decent at his job, but his mind just wasn't clicking on this.
Logan Tapped on the projection option, moved the size setting as high as it could go and tossed the diagrams out into the air where they were projected in 3D. The Terminal wasn't powerful enough to fill anywhere close to the whole tunnel, but it was the best it could do.
He stood there for a moment looking at the glowing outlines laid out in front of him. The moment turned into a few minutes. Logan was pretty sure Lilith was looking at the wall opposite where he was standing, on the other side of the rails. There wasn't anything over there except for a few left over construction supports.
The thought clicked.
"Why would you need supports in this tunnel?" Logan made sure there wasn't a train coming and darted across.
Four evenly spaced supports that no one questioned, why would they? No one was likely to come down here or cared enough to even look at them.
They appeared to be partially recessed into the wall, slots having been perfectly cut to their dimensions. If there was a door here, it was well hidden.
Now how would George have opened it? Pulling up the construction logs for the project Logan looked back through the reports for this area. Almost everything in the tunnel was done by construction bot. Their logs were clean and probably altered by George.
The only thing that stood out was that one construction bot was reported as damaged and scrapped. The current listing showed them all deployed to various sites in this tower, save for one that was reporting as offline.
A construction bot was about four feet wide, the space between the supports was roughly five feet. Logan arched an eyebrow and tapped on the missing bot's information. It still reported back as offline.
George probably wouldn't have made it that easy. Logan hit a few buttons and told his Terminal to force a connection despite there being no signal. A few moments passed as his Terminal tried to connect to something that it thought didn't exist.
The sound of metal on metal filled the tunnel. A section about five feet wide slid back into the wall slowly. After a few moments it stopped and pivoted slightly allowing just enough room for a person to slide in.
"Told you so." Looking down at his Terminal Logan smiled slightly. He was actually surprised that it worked.
Stepping between the large piece of metal and the rest of the tunnel, he activated the light on his glass and pointed it into the dark space beyond the block of metal.
His light revealed a small chamber just deep enough to house the missing construction bot. It appeared to be attached to the metal block and was programmed to open and close the entrance.
Other than the bot there was nothing else in the space save for a narrow three-foot-wide passage leading deeper. There were no lights anywhere other than the few blinking ones coming from the construction bot.
Logan pointed his light down the passage, it stretched on farther than the light could reach. He had a bad feeling about this.
Reaching behind him he pulled his pistol from the holster on his lower back. There was a slight hum as it charged. The Vertec J7 was an earlier model energy weapon that was reliable and rugged. It looked almost like an old revolver, however the barrel was more oval shaped ending in a vented muzzle. It was capable of stunning individuals as well as being lethal, depending on the setting.
Terrans had yet to perfect any kind of small-scale energy weapon technology. The J7 was no exception, its main drawback was the lack of stopping power against armored targets. The Colonial Navy lost interest in the project and the company went out of business.
For his needs though, the J7 was perfect. Logan took a breath and aimed the weapon down the narrow passage. The darkness at the edge of his light retreated as he started forward.
