Tunnelling to the New World (2)

-- Gatix --

“Request to use force if needed?''

“Granted.'' Boss finished his own salute. “But don't blow up the other world on a whim. We're not Americans, after all.''

“Gotcha.'' I looked back to the table with my helmet and weapon. “I take it you have some new toys for me as well?''

“I'll let Dax do the explanations.''

“Follow me if you will.'' Dax walked towards the table, Boss and myself two steps behind. For not the first time, I wondered why Dax had a slight limp in his left leg. Born deformity, perhaps? Injured in the field?

“Agent.'' Dax's voice shook me out of my thoughts. “Where would you like to start?''

“You know I like surprises.''

Dax scoffed. “A lie, if there ever was one.'' Seems like he decided to go from top to bottom. “Your helmet, including your custom specifications. We upgraded the firmware on your auditory systems to the latest version, so the crackle you heard when people yelled more than twenty-five meters away should be fixed.'' I nodded in acknowledgement. “Other than that, we installed a trisortium scanner. When activated, Nev will detect any trisortium clusters larger than fifty grams. This should help you during your collection.''

“Wow, you actually made something useful.''

Boss could only shake his head as Dax cleared his throat. “Secondly, we installed a prototype translator in your helmet. Nev should be able to access it. We don't know what languages you'll face in the new world, but it's extremely unlikely it will be one we know of. It will take some time for Nev's linguistic algorithms to pick out the patterns, around ten minutes if I had to guess, but you should be able to converse normally after that.''

“So what am I supposed to do for the first ten minutes?'' I took the helmet when Dax held it over.

“Make grunting noises to simulate conversation?'' Dax shrugged. “Nothing you don't already do.''

“Feels like I'm being insulted here.'' I grinned in return. “What's next?''

“Your suit itself. We've upgraded the armour plating since you are going to an unknown world with unknown dangers. However, we made one modification that bears significant consequences if misused.''

“Sounds ominous.''

“Yes. Since you'll be going to a place from which regular evacuation is impossible, we've installed both a cross-world tracking beacon in your suit, along with a fail-safe tunnel generator. You will need to stay within five meters of the spot where you activated the beacon to return to our world. The locator beacons on our side will take about ten minutes to lock onto your position, from where a stable bridge will activate, and you can return to our world. The fail-safe bridge activates instantly, regardless of whether you are conscious, or not. Nev will use input from your threat detector and determine whether you are in a life-threatening position from which you cannot recover. However, its usage may have severe side effects. Survival cannot be guaranteed in this situation.''

“A Hail Mary, then.''

“A `Hail Me', in the literal sense. Your suit is not powerful enough to power a full cross-world bridge, but we do recognize there may be situations outside your control. I emphasize, there may be unknown side effects of repeated use. It is not guaranteed you will survive the trip back to our world. It is for this reason that it's only, and I repeat only, to be used as a last resort.''

“Don't teleport back to our world if you have a bad night.'' I slid the helmet over my head, hearing the familiar clicks as the locks snapped into place. Everything sounded normal - good.

“Satisfied, agent?''

“Just a sec.'' I held up a finger, but I didn't see it. The display was dark except for a loading bar at the bottom. “Just waiting for Nev to boot u-''

“Greetings, agent!'' His voice filled my ears as the display came to life.

“Hey there, buddy! Had a good nap?''

“I am indeed working at optimum condition. All the upgrades have been successfully installed, and I have not detected any abnormalities in my system.''

“Good to know Dax hasn't let his skill gone to waste just yet.'' Dax's protests came in especially loud, which meant the auditory systems were also working - good. The next noise was of him grunting as he picked up my favourite weapon, Scythe. Not that I blame him, Scythe was designed to be wielded when fully armed, where a whole exoskeleton is available to help support both its weight and firepower. Dax, being in a hazmat suit, had none of that. “Give it here, you're going to drop it.''

“I am perfectly f-'' I didn't wait for him to finish before I took the weapon from his trembling hands. “Thrill me, Dax. What did you do to my piece?''

“Regular maintenance, for starters.'' Dax blew out a louder breath. Hey, Scythe isn't that heavy, you know?  “But other than that, we put in larger heat sinks and reapplied all thermal gels, enabling better sustained firing before it needs to vent.''

“How much better?''

“Preliminary tests show you should be able to fire three consecutive blasts at full power before locking for heat ventilation.''

“Better than the two - good. Next?''

“No other upgrades.''

“What? Nothing else? No death laser, land mine launcher?''

“No.''

“Killing me over here, Dax.''

“Such upgrades were not deemed necessary for this mission. Your regular rail cannon should be sufficient.''

“I'll let you know once a cluster of angry spiders start chasing me.'' I clipped the weapon into place on my back. “Anything else?''

“The decision of armaments for your hand and feet.''

“Think I'll go for the usual.''

“Which are?''

“Short-range electroshock for the left glove, grip strength for the right and impact absorbers on my feet. Never met anybody that Scythe couldn't handle, so should be good there.''

Boss chuckled behind me. “That really is the usual.''

“Why change what works?'' I turned my attention back to Dax. “You got anything else to me?''

“Nothing.'' Dax put down the tablet he had been typing on. “I have confirmed the necessary armaments are loaded in your system, so you should be ready for your mission.''

“Nev?''

“Confirmed,'' the AI answered in its cheery tone. “You are mission ready.''

“Nev's happy, so I'm happy. But Boss, before I head out, anything I should know of about the other world? You've been skimming on the information so far.''

“That's because we don't really know anything about it, hence the need for a specialist such as yourself. It should be habitable, and we have detected living organisms. Looks like trees, wildlife and such.''

“Humanoids?''

“Doubtful find humans on an alien world.''

“Then I don't have to worry about a horde of women wanting a piece of this,''

“Thought that would have been your fantasy there, Gatix?''

“But in reality, one that always end in tears. Whether it's mine or theirs is up for debate.''

“You're an odd one, Gatix.''

I crackled my knuckles in anticipation of the mission. “So, we doing this thing?''

“Dax?'' The grey armour turned to the other occupant in the room.

“Right this way, Agent.'' Dax gestured to a spot right in front of the `X' shaped device, walking to a nearby console as I moved in the correct direction. Nothing happened for a few seconds, but it was not long before I picked up on a vague hum. Dax didn't seem too worried as he continued typing away at the console, so I decided not to let it worry me as well.

“Progress, Dax?'' Was that Boss being slightly anxious as well?

“Forty percent complete. Coordinates and time-frame locked in, establishing handshake.'' Several lights flickered as a small white dot appeared about a meter above the device. Almost made me think of a star. I registered the humming getting slightly louder, but nothing was flying towards me with lethal intent just yet.

“Handshake established. Opening the bridge.'' The star grew into a circle about two meters in diameter without touching the ground. The inside was still pitch black, but the white edges vibrated fiercely.

“This supposed to be black, Dax?'' I didn't take my eyes off the circle.

“What did you expect, a mirrored vision of the opposite site?''

“Thought that was par for the course.''

“This isn't sci-fi, agent. Bridge opened. Stabilising.'' I could see the edge's vibration becoming smoother with each second, taking about half a minute before it resembled a white halo hovering in the middle of the room. “Finished.'' Dax straightened himself behind the console. “Commander, the bridge is stable and ready for passage. Agent Gatix has bout fifteen seconds before the bridge collapses. The mission is ready for initialisation.''

“Thank you, Dax. Gatix, are the mission parameters clear?''

“Get some trisortium, don't blow up the planet.''

“Then good luck, agent! We look forward to your success.''

“See you around, Boss!'' I unclipped the weapon from my back. If anything were going to ask for a piece of me as I stepped out at the other side, it would meet a very nasty end.

Here we go...

Taking a deeper breath than usual, I leaned forward and started running. It took two steps before I touched the back circle, and everything vanished from view.