The final increment slowly winked out, and gradually the collider came to a standstill, now all he had to do was lock it down, and the shutdown process was complete. He realised he was sweating, not because he was hot, though it was warm in here, more from an intense, nervous concentration.
The weight of responsibility he had felt throughout this process had been huge, akin to the time when he had first took up his chief engineer responsibilities on the Liberty. There was so much at stake, the entire E.O.C. A was counting on him to have this place secured.
If he didn’t get this right, not only would the E.D. F lose a potentially vital new source of power; entire star systems rested on this one outcome. If the Dracos did manage to capture this facility, like they are intent on doing, and do become as powerful as they once were, not only were the Solarians at risk, but nearby E.O.C. A colony worlds as well, he was damned if the Dracos would stop here, he had to lock this out and he had to do it right.
Taking a breath, he calmed himself, and swallowing his nerves, he walked over to a third console, finding that this was the control panel for four giant magnetic interlocks that clamped onto the side of the collider in order to hold it secure, thus preventing it from being activated, even accidentally. In their haste to abandon this place, the Dracos must have skipped this step all those years ago, just one simple step that could have avoided everything that had happened here.
He punched in the four controls, and slowly four massive twenty metre diameter rectangular clamps, emerged out from the aperture wall toward the smooth circular collider itself. Each one must have weighed twenty tonnes. They were imbued with a heavy magnetic charge, and extended inexorably outward until magnetic attraction took over, and they slammed down on the collider with a resounding, dull thud.
Not one man, one single person uttered a word while Logameier worked, they simply stood watching in silent awe as he went about the process, willing him on, because they knew as much as he did, that so many lives rested upon it.
He eventually stopped and turned towards his captain, “structure is shut down, and locked securely, sir.”
Michael smiled with warm pride at his chief engineer, “good job, lieutenant.”
“Thank you, sir.” Logameier breathed a sigh of relief as he shook Michael’s hand.
“Now let’s get out of here shall we, we still have one last task to perform,” he said as he smiled in Kathryn’s direction.
“Captain, looking at these plans there is a quicker way to the surface, through the emergency hatch,” Logameier suggested.
“We tried looking for it, but couldn’t find it ourselves.” Kathryn replied.
“Can’t hurt to take another look, besides this time we are not running for our lives.”
The team slowly continued along the remainder of the floor, eventually coming to the elevator, which had quickly returned to their level after detecting their approach. They all piled in, and were automatically whisked to the floor above, where they disembarked and immediately began searching for the hatch opening.
“It has to be here somewhere, it’s noted in the plans,” Logameier cursed as he searched the place.
Kathryn tapped the bottom of her cane on the corridor walls, listening for any hint of a hollow, eventually she came across one, “over here!” she shouted to the rest of the group, all busily searching.
Their collective torchlight illuminated a large panel, certainly large enough to crawl through, slowly Nikolai and Michael unfastened the metal panel from the wall and laid it down to one side.
There were small rungs leading up to an incline all the way to the surface, Nikolai took up the rear, closing the panel shut again behind them. The group all crawled single file up these rungs toward the surface. Kathryn had to stop frequently as the constant crawling was difficult on her newly operated on leg, the pain was severe. Nevertheless, she limped onward as best she could, as she knew as well as anyone that there wasn’t enough room to carry people in this dark cramped shaft.
Michael was at the head of the line, and was first to come upon the hatch exit. His torch revealed a small two button control panel, he quickly figured that it was there simply as the means for opening the hatch, and, after pressing one of the controls, found he was correct as the hatch slid noisily open; covering him in a thin mist of dirt and the occasional piece of dead vegetation in the process. Wiping the lenses on his breathing mask in order to see properly, he stepped out onto the harsh windswept surface once again.
He helped Kathryn clamber her way up, who took a break sat upon a nearby rock, as the accumulated pain from the climb had become almost unbearable. Gradually, as she rested, the pain came back down to tolerable levels again.
Nikolai, Logameier, and the rest of the commandoes all followed soon enough, and Nikolai sealed the hatch shut behind him.
“It is a shame we had to blow the hatch open in order to get access earlier!” Nikolai shouted over the howling winds, which had picked up somewhat from when they had landed.
“Why!” Michael replied.
“Because we cannot seal the place shut a hundred percent, that’s why, not without an engineering crew down here to fabricate a new cover to go over it.”
“We could ask for a systems engineer to input an E.D. F encryption algorithm into their main computer, so even if the Dracos do try to re-take this place, they won’t be able to use it without our codes, and with the language being so vastly different it’s unlikely they’ll be able to break it anyway,” Logameier suggested.
“Good idea, I’ll add it to my mission report to submit to Admiral Montrose, when we get out of here,” Michael replied.
He turned to Kathryn, who had now recovered sufficiently to be able to walk “Let’s get back to the shuttle, so we can bury your friend like he deserves to be, shall we?”
Kathryn smiled warmly and nodded despite the pain, she walked the rest of the way, a little over three kilometres with little fuss. In-fact, other than the bitingly cold winds that constantly harangued this place, the return journey was rather a pleasant one.
The team all took some shelter in the shuttle itself, and a brief moment in which to warm up a little from the cold conditions outside. Took out some rations and began eating while this latest storm surge passed over them. Once they were sufficiently warmed up, hunger was staved off, and the storm had largely passed, they set forth to brave the elements again to bury the late Sergeant Rachthausen.
Nikolai, Michael, Logameier, and one of the commandoes bore the zipped up body of the sergeant on a stretcher at shoulder height as they would a coffin. Kathryn carried some of his more mundane personal effects with her, as she led the procession, the others like medals, and any personal items such as payment cards, would be sent to his next of kin. Kathryn wasn’t even sure he had one; he had never even mentioned it in the brief time she had known him. E.D. F command would no doubt see to that side of things, if he did have a mother or a family, she made a mental note to visit them as soon as she could.
The solemn procession slowly marched without a word, as a mark of respect to the fallen sergeant, to a spot Kathryn selected near the giant alien structure. The other commandoes all dug a shallow grave and gathered together a prodigious amount of rocks. Including a giant gleaming boulder of quartz, which would serve as a fitting headstone. The quartz itself was heavy and had to be rolled into position, its various facets glinted in the light from the twin Aurigan moons. She smiled as it reminded her of the light that Rachthausen carried within him, the goodness of his soul. Once the digging was finished and the grave prepared, Kathryn began the eulogy.