Beyond Light

The Beehive.

Before following those lilac-lighted robots, John requested a convoy of two V99m’s and a Tortoise tank to company them. If there was something out of the usual inside, he didn’t want them to be caught unprotected and lacking firepower. He also requested the assistance of Medbay Chief Heinrich Winslow. He had learned in a bad way in the past that having a competent paramedic on your team could make the difference between life and death.

They followed inside the trio of machines. The hexagonal tunnel was not too different from the one on Vita Nova, having tiny lights around its edges, and the complicated, geometric characters making rows on the ceiling. Maintenance mini-drones floated by, and spheres moved through the walls from one conduit to another, without bothering to attack or at least inspect their human visitors. They all shined in purple instead of red.

“Eh, Cap, how is this supposed to make sense?” asked Doctor Winslow, strolling next to John. Everyone marched behind the heavy tank.

“What do you mean?” replied John. “These things not attacking us? I know it’s strange. But they don’t glow in red.”

“You know what does glow in red? Goliath. Bastard’s got something to do with this. Look around at these happy-go-lucky machines. They aren’t even bothered by us. The ones on Vita Nova attacked us as soon as they saw us, and we discovered they were keeping those zombified crewmen.”

“What are you implying?” Yuri broke off into the conversation.

Derek responded to his question. “What the doctor is trying to say is that maybe these machines don’t belong to Goliath. And maybe neither do the Vitanovans. Maybe that giant bastard or its insect dwellers or whoever controls the big piece of scrap is manipulating that place somehow."

"Yeah," nodded Heinrich. "Think about it. We, Goliath and his insects, the purple robots here, the red robots back there, and those ships that attacked the Eternity of Return. There might be more sides than we are aware of..."

John nodded at the words of both men; they put it in better words than he could. The theory of those robotic units not being the property of Goliath explained their unmatching colors and desire for them to follow. But what were they leading them into?

The ramp finalized into a 15 meters wide and 10 meters tall tunnel, transversed by more hexagonal bays on both of its walls. Bipeds flew in their drone forms from one side to another, and crab squadrons marched forth and back.

A dinosaur unit crossed from left to right, its eye on its head shining in deep purple. It only gave them a look without stopping. John felt a little anxious; he had already witnessed their destructive power.

“Commander?” Xi connected to the channel. “Where are you? your connection is weakening.”

“We’re deeper into the station,” responded John, everybody advancing through the purplish dark tunnel. "We might lose connection again, so don’t worry until we don’t come out in some hours. How are repairs going?”

“Nothing we can’t repair, but it’s going to be tedious and long for the team. Hull’s sectors 11 and 13 are totally gone, and 10 and 14 are so fried we’re gonna have to replace them in their totality. The support beams and electronics behind them are charred too. Those are going to need to most work,” Xi made a small pause. “...We’ve collected the bodies. We could only recover 19. The other 20 must have evaporated or thrown into outer space.”

“...We’ll make sure to give them a proper funeral,” John bit his own teeth. “Keep up. I’ll connect with you back in short when we’re done here.”

“Understood, Commander. Good luck,” Xi disconnected from the weakened com. channel.

They continued. Team Foxtrot and John’s squadmates could not stop whispering and chatting to each other about the morbid yet eccentric place they were in, just like children visiting the museum dedicated to human space colonization on New Abuja, Earth.

The place looked like a high-tech secret base worthy of a sci-fi or a spy movie, but it was as real as themselves or the Beyond Light that took them to that system. It was not only a surreal thing. It was the creation of an advanced species of 100% alien origin.

Who could have built them? Only robots inhabited them. He felt goosebumps to see a real, biological alien for the first time —as long as it weren't those insects that boarded the Eternity of Return.

“Look over there. It must be an elevator,” signaled Yuri. The tunnel met its end 200 meters ahead, and a gate at the end, spread like a flower bud, revealing a hexagonal platform just like the lifts they used at the structures of Vita Nova. The three robotic units marched towards it and stood in the middle, waiting for their guests to follow behind.

“What if it’s a trap and they trap us below there?” said Derek. “We might be wrong about what we believe.”

"What, are you scared, big guy?" mocked Heinrich, raising one eyebrow.

“Then we unleash hell and make our way out with guns,” responded John, moving to the elevator. He felt too inquisitive to go back. They were out of clues or steps to follow besides that place, and he felt the hunch that they were going to find something interesting.

The vehicles and the soldiers crossed inside, and once everyone was at the hexagonal platform, the elevator began to descend through the vertical tunnel, where fog blended up and down with the tiny lights around to discern what was at the top or the bottom if one looked through the edges.

More tunnels and hexagonal doors were revealed as they went down, showing different machinery, more robotic units, or other technologies based on the condensing gas that could make solid surfaces.

Everyone surrounded the biped, the crab, and the sphere, looking at them with childish curiosity and even touching them. The machines just moved their lighted eyes as they blinked them but didn’t seem to care or understand.

“Look like these ones would make good robomaids,” said Heinrich. “Sad thing is they look like anything but hot.”

“Aren’t you attracted to the curves of this babe?” Yuri mocked sarcastically, putting his hand on the sphere unit.

“You feddies and your weird kinks. Take it with ya, maybe Cap lets you be its girlfriend. That before the guys at the lab abuse it.”

“C’mon. We have actual hot women in the PFSR,” responded Yuri. “We need no robots unlike you. Trust me.”

John and Derek traded looks. Both men were getting along, speaking about their personalities and backgrounds. Supervisor Katiya Ivanovich kicked in John's mind at the words of the Russian soldier. Why did he have to think about her in a moment like that?”

The platform hissed as it stopped, shooting steam away. It spun on itself to face a smaller hexagonal tunnel no more than 20 meters long. A maintenance tunnel? John could swear they had descended at least a kilometer. Did those machines need help with repairing their artifacts or something?

The three robotic units walked towards it, crossing it, and expecting everyone to do the same. “Vehicles, stay here and cover us up. Everyone else, with us.” John went ahead, his troops doing the same.

They reached the other side of the tunnel, and the biped manipulated the holographic panel shining in lilac next to the hexagonal door. The door began to open in a swirl and revealed nothing but white at its interiors. The machines crossed inside and moved in a straight line.

John frowned and followed behind, entering the luminous white room. It was white on the literal and metaphorical expression; there was no sense of floor, walls, or ceiling, just white color extending to the infinite, as if everything was removed from space and its black color swapped for white.

John almost fell as if he was going to fall with each cautious step he took, his troops doing the same, taking swift steps as if they didn’t want to step on innocent ducklings crossing the nonexistent floor.

The silverish-lilac robots stopped 10 meters ahead, and a conduit of some 30cms in diameter spread from the floor. A small platform in white rose from it, shooting holographic lilac light on its tip, and holding a small device suspended at its top.

“Do they want us to pick that thing up?” asked Derek. “Go ahead, sonny. We cover you up.”

John sauntered, reaching the thin device at the level of his waist. It was a thick disk in a purplish silver tone, with a small lilac light on its center. What could it be? He extended his contrasting black gauntlet and took it from the gravity-suspending hologram.

“What’s that?” Yuri asked. “Did they really make us come here just for that small thing?”

“Some storage device?” asked Derek. “Maybe Doctor Weiber can help you to play its content.”

“Oh yeah, play it,” mocked Heinrich. “Must be some music player and they want us to try their newest album.”

How strange. John saved the device on the isolated compartments on his legs. The three machines looked at him and did what looked like a nod. Their first communication gesture? He wondered if they learned it from the humans they just met, or they were well aware of what was going on.

“Alright,” he said. “I think our friends are done. Let's get outta here and return to the Beyond Light."