Chapter 6: Down Time

Twenty minutes later I resorted to actually crawling on my belly as the scrub was shorter on this drier, leeward side of the hill. Because of the heavy plant growth, I could not crawl while holding my weapon, so it was slung next to my backpack.

I was sweating in my suit as its thermal masking features were operating at maximum. The insulated heat sinks in my thigh bulges were warming fast and I would have to do something about them soon. With luck, we would have the same foggy conditions tonight as we did last night. But, even if fog did form, it would likely not arrive for at least four more hours. The good news was that the dark skies were mostly cloudy and there were many long periods where direct satellite observation was limited.

As I slowly continued crawling, I passed an opening in the vegetation which allowed me a long view to the north of the island. I saw lights far away! They had to be coming from the launch facility. I had not seen a large grouping of lights in the night since ... well, since back before Earth was destroyed. The sight of them struck me. I toggled the goggles’ lenses to the highest magnification and spent a moment observing the distant island.

There were plenty of lights but far fewer than if it were a human manned facility. I ran the goggles through the spectrum and found the distant base was much brighter in the thermal ranges. I guess the mobile units and equipment there did not rely on vision so much as other sensors. I recalled seeing the same thing back at Agent’s secret underground submarine manufacturing facility in Kings Bay. The assembly areas had been very dark also.

The distance was too great and my goggles too weak to make out fine details, but I could clearly make out the large grouping of curved roof buildings. They resembled military or farmer’s Quonset huts but were hundreds of meters long. There were dozens of the buildings, and they were all connected to a much longer, perpendicular structure. This longer structure was enormous and must have been two hundred meters wide by nearly a kilometer long.

One end of the huge structure ran right up to the cliffs on the east edge of the island. Where it ended, a long causeway extended out into the ocean at least a half kilometer. The end of the causeway was the location of the launch pad and it was a beehive of activity. I watched as what appeared to be ants crawled back and forth up and down the causeway. The long, large building must have been the final assembly line for the launch vehicles.

For a moment, the activity made me worry that a launch might be happening soon. But, when I focused on the launch structure, I could not detect a launch vehicle of any size standing on the pad. Either it was a tiny rocket, or it had not been brought out of the factory yet. I got back on mission as there would be time later to inspect the base. Hell, if lady luck graced me once again, I might get to go there and see a launch up close.

I resumed my slow crawl. I was now on the other side of the hill about twenty meters from the summit clearing and approaching the area north of the installation where the power and data cables should be located. I stopped and slowly rose up enough to risk a glance at the tower. Wow! They looked close! I felt extremely vulnerable and when I resumed my slow westward crawl, I mimicked an inchworm and hugged the ground.

“Time?” I subvocalized.

—22:05.—

I kept crawling. Ten minutes later the tablet spoke up.

—The cleared path which extends down the hillside and which contains the power and date conduits is ahead two meters. Please ready the tap device and wait for the Rikki unit to approach.—

I slowly rolled to my side and carefully wiggled out of my backpack. I rolled back to access its contents. From the side pouch I found the cable tapping device. It was small, about the same size as my canteen. It was also irregular with a rock’s color and texture. I inspected it quickly, but it looked just like a rock except for one small protruding pull ring.

What was hidden under the rocklike surface covering was an incredibly complex mechanism. A true miracle of technology and miniaturization. Whether it worked as Naomi had designed, meant the difference between my getting off this hill alive or getting zapped, blown up, or skewered by some enemy unit.

Rikki nudged my arm startling me. I had not seen it quietly approach from cover. I linked to the bio-unit for a moment allowing the tablet and my watch to coordinate the next few minutes with the mongoose. Soon it crawled to where I had set the tap down, latched onto the pull loop with its teeth, and began to drag the tap over to the power and data conduits.

I crawled ahead another half a meter so I could keep him in sight. He managed to pull the tap over to one of the conduits which was exposed just above the soil. I noted that the clearing had no plant growth of any kind. The enemy units must periodically apply a defoliant or herbicide of some sort. I hoped the tablet would warn me if there were airborne or ground toxins in the area.

Rikki slunk back leaving the tap on the conduit. I saw the small device wiggle slightly as a panel on its underside opened and it began to work on the tap. I imagined it doing what Naomi had told me it would. This was to carefully cut open a section of the conduit’s casing, expose the data link inside. It then would carefully splice in a bypass loop. Once that was done, it would then cut the main data fiber and insert a small tap module in line with the existing cable. It would finish up by sealing the conduit.

Rikki moved in again and began to drag the tap device back to my location. I saw as it did this, a tiny new cable trailing behind. When the tap was back under the cover of the undergrowth, Rikki returned and carefully buried the new cable a few centimeters underground where it had been exposed on the open ground.

While the mongoose did that, I set about hiding the tap control processor module here by burying it also.

The module would continue to operate for months until it ran out of power. What it did was intercept the signals between the hilltop installation and the launch facility below on Baltra Island. The module was semi-intelligent. If certain information were sent, such as a detection warning about me, or a request to investigate strange happenings on the hilltop, the module would act to sanitize the message.

Hypothetically, I could stand up right now and dance around being noticed by the sensors at the installation above while the enemy A.I. presence at the base below would be none-the-wiser. The sensors up here would pass on the message and receive the appropriate reply through the buried cable. This proper reply would prevent the hilltop processors from sending a follow-on warning by open radio.

That was the theory anyway. The only problem was that there was no way to test this safely. So, I would continue to act as stealthy as possible. Now we had to tackle more equipment. There were the wireless transmitters which included a microwave antenna directed at the base below and also a satellite antenna focused on the heavens above.

For those, I had more taps. Naomi had identified which of the equipment modules up here were the control processors for both transmitters. Luckily there were just two. The phased array radar and the tracking optical sensor scope also had processors which we would need to isolate. All four of these devices would need to be tapped and placed under Naomi’s control.

Fortunately for me ... and for Rikki, was that all four of these processors were mounted on the ground in small enclosures. This meant that the mongoose would be able to approach them all dragging the little taps. The taps would intercept the data line conduits outside the cabinets similar to what we just did on the north face.

I set about working my way closer so the mongoose would not have to drag the rock-like devices too far. Ten minutes later I was now less than ten meters from the two towers. The plant growth stopped here and I could clearly see the ground-mounted enemy equipment. This was close enough and I laid all four taps on the ground and sent Rikki off to place them.

Forty minutes later we were done. The mongoose had delivered each tap to the conduits at each of the equipment cabinets and soon returned trailing a new data cable. I connected the ends of the four new cables to a tap controller device which I hid under a few rocks. Rikki then went back and began to hide the new cables leading to our controller.

I took a deep breath. I really did not want to do what I was about to do. With my flechette gun in hand, I stood up and exposed myself to the enemy installation. I’d know in moments if the taps were working as designed to filter out the urgent report and instructions which the two processing units were desperately trying to send to the enemy A.I.s at the base below or up into space. If everything was working as intended, the taps would be stopping the outgoing messages and returning ‘stand down’ instructions as a reply.

As I stood there, I watched both the tracking camera and the distant base lights below. If either the camera mount started tracking towards where I was standing or if an aircraft suddenly took off below I was dead.

“Any new emissions detected?” I asked.

—No new emissions, either from this installation or from the base below are being detected. No satellite transmissions aimed at this location detected. Perimeter search and weather radar operating as normal. Phased array not operating.—

I felt dizzy from the sudden relief I felt upon hearing that. The taps were working! I would live a bit longer. I wanted to shout my defiance and dance a jig in celebration, but I had work yet to do.

Now that we had muted and muzzled the enemy processors up here on Cerro Crocker, I had to call for an airdrop. From my pack, I found the microwave communication attachment for my weapon. The tablet helped me aim the directional transmitter toward the microwave relay we’d installed on Gardner Islet a few days ago. Once I had the thing aimed correctly, it sent a burst transmission informing Naomi that we had completed phase one of my mission.

A few seconds later I heard via my goggles’ headband, “Well done, John! Ohmu is taking off now with the microwave relay equipment and related gear. It should arrive at your location in ninety-five minutes, plus or minus two minutes. Proceed with phase two. See you in a few days.”

—Transmission terminated.—

In an hour and a half, a package would be falling from the sky. I set about getting ready. The first thing I did was dump some of the heat I had been storing. I got the small folding shovel and dug a hole a half meter deep at the south edge of the hilltop clearing. Into the hole, I dumped the insulated packs which contained the red-hot heat sinks. After filling in the hole half way, I spread a meter of thin foil over the area and then added more soil.

The hot sinks would slowly radiate the stored heat away into the ground and the foil would limit the visible hot spot for a day or so until everything reached equilibrium. From my pack, I found the spare cool sinks and installed them into the thigh pockets.

Next, I checked the time. It was 1:33. The airdrop would be here around two-thirty and that left us a few hours to safely get the microwave relay set up. I had an hours’ worth of work to prepare so I got back to work. The next task was to connect a data fiber to the tap controller and string it off to the east a hundred meters or so. This is where our microwave relay antenna would be installed and hidden.

For power, the unit I’d be installing had a long-lasting battery, but we would also be stealing a trickle of power from the enemy conduit, so I attached an induction pickup along a meter of the existing power conduit and buried or hid the new power lead out to where the new relay would be located. Next was to bury or hide all that I could.

When I was finished, I inspected my work. If the enemy showed up and did a detailed inspection, my work might have been discovered but for anything less than that, we’d be fine. Of course, if they did show up and physically connected to any of the four onsite processors, the jig would be up instantly. Only after we took over the main A.I. below would these processors be rendered completely safe.

In effect, our actions here were like a ticking time bomb. There was no real way of undoing the damage we’d done even if we wanted to. If we gave up and ran away, our actions here would eventually be discovered and the enemy A.I. would know we were out and about. Scorched Earth would follow. We had no choice but to continue onward.

I checked the clock and saw that I had fifteen minutes before the airdrop arrived. I gathered up my pack and quickly fed the bio-drones. Rikki and Scoot were taking a deserved rest and Wilbur was still roosting for the night. I relocated my pack and weapon over to the south side of the hill. Now out of sight of Baltra Island, I used a small parasol as a sky shield and used a heat pack to make myself a cup of hot coffee.

I had just finished the last of my coffee when the tablet reported that it detected faint emissions approaching from the south. I looked out and up and saw a black ghostlike parasail come floating down quickly from the southeast. Below the sail was a crate that contained the microwave relay and a mobile unit to help me deploy it.

Ohmu had taken Habu up to near 15,000 meters before releasing the guided parasail to glide all the way to this island. I was amazed it arrived at all, even more so that it made it on time and on target. The seasonal trade winds were the key. One of the primary reasons Naomi had positioned Nautilus where she did was for just this reason. They were steady and predictable and at the higher altitudes, blew strongly out of the southeast. The winds would be a key part of our plans to come.

I wished Ohmu could have just flown the crate here in Habu but operating the aircraft so close to the other base would have been too risky. And, if she had parachuted herself here to help, she would not have had enough power for the long hike back to the mini-sub. Hopefully, the less capable mobile unit that was coming with the airdrop to assist would be up to the task.

The crate landed in the foliage nearby and I set about gathering up the parasail. I was careful to limit the amount that I disturbed the plant growth, but some still got trampled. I opened the crate and let the mobile unit deploy itself. It was a many-legged unit about the size of a big raccoon. From the crate, it picked up the microwave relay and followed me over to the location I selected to install it.

While it installed three anchors into the ground, I stowed the parasail in the now-empty crate and hid it some distance away. When I returned, I helped finish the installation by mounting the microwave horn on top of the anchor struts. The unit powered up and aligned itself with the distant relay over a hundred kilometers to the southeast. The mobile unit connected the power and tap data fiber to the microwave controller.

The link-up between the two relays must have been successful as I heard, “Well done again, John. The microwave signals are being exchanged at a sufficient rate to allow high-bandwidth communications as needed. Also, I am accessing the taps and now have limited access to the enemy network on the island below. Finish up the installation and begin to make your way back home, John. I will have a fine meal and a warm bed waiting.”