Nightfall_at_Algemron

Shaking her head in quiet exasperation, Dareyev started to turn away. Gabriel was about to scream at her again when the dark silhouette behind her stepped forward into the light.
"A moment, Captain." It was Aleen Delonghi. Elinke stopped and faced Gabriel again, but she stepped no closer.
"What are you doing here?" Gabriel asked.
"Haven't we already been over this?" Delonghi replied. "For the time being, Captain Dareyev and I are working together. Now you can answer my questions, or we can both leave and you can await your permanent cell."
Still furious but left with no other choice, Gabriel sat down again. "What were you doing on Ohmel?" "I already answered that when you came in."
"Indeed," she smiled. He could tell she was enjoying this, and it only made him more furious. "You said that you were 'led' there by your little rock. This 'Pattern' creature—"
"Patterner," he corrected her.
"'Patterner," she emphasized with a gracious nod, "told you that a similar facility exists somewhere in the Algemron system, and only you can activate it. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"That's absurd."
Gabriel clenched his jaw. He had hoped to be able to convince Elinke. As stubborn and narrow-minded as she could be, she was still no fool, but Delonghi was prolonging this just for the sheer joy of it. I should
have shot her on Danwell when I had the chance, Gabriel thought bitterly. Kharls would have probably even thanked me.
"However," Delonghi broke his reverie, "we still have a good many hours until our drives are charged, and if there is indeed a newly-discovered Precursor site on Ohmel, we would do well to have a look before the Ngongwes swarm into it."
"You're suggesting that we actually go see this site?"
Dareyev said. She seemed as genuinely stunned as Gabriel was. "You actually believe him?"
"I believe that there may indeed be a Glassmaker site down there," Delonghi said. "Whether or not the rest of his tale is true remains to be seen, but it wouldn't hurt to find out. Would it, Captain Dareyev? It would give us the proof we need—or lack thereof. If by some chance what he says is true, we would be fools to ignore it."
There was a long, painful silence as the two women faced each other.
"Very well." Dareyev finally conceded. "I'll have the site secured. It shouldn't take long."
She turned to go, but Delonghi stopped her. "Captain, I suggest that you go and that you take Connor with you. If what he says is true, you will certainly need him to access the facility and escort you safely through. I would go myself, but with this VoidCorp business so recently settled, I have other duties which I must attend to immediately."
"As you wish." Dareyev nodded. She seemed resigned but was still obviously unhappy about the whole thing.
Delonghi walked away, leaving Gabriel's field of vision. When she was out of earshot, the captain approached his cell again.
"I'm doing this in the slim chance that you might be right, Connor, but don't think for a moment that you can use this as a chance to escape. We're going down with Marines who won't hesitate to decorate that site with your insides, and I'll see to it that Schmetterling keeps a close eye on things, so watch your step."
Before he could think of a reply, Elinke Dareyev turned and was gone.
Even though no other incoming ships were showing on their starfall/starrise indicators, Darwin, Schmetterlings sister-ship, stayed on watch a few million kilometers beyond Ohmel. Meanwhile, Schmetterling dropped into a low orbit above Ohmel so that they could keep a close eye on the goings-on below and be ready to offer any assistance. A scarce half-hour after the VoidCorp ship departed the system, Schmetterling's bay doors opened and disgorged a large troop transport. The bulky gray craft quickly burned through the atmosphere and landed with great delicacy some half-kilometer from a large canyon, where it was now early evening. A few minutes later, Gabriel, Captain Dareyev, and an assortment of armed guards were standing outside the glasslike surface of the canyon wall. Gabriel held back, watching the Marines and Elinke touch it, walk up and down it, and peer through it. It lay before them flat, shining, and unmoving in the darkness.
Gabriel walked up to it with the stone in his hand. He didn't even have to do anything. The wall drew open for him, and he led them inside.
"Don't shoot at anything," he warned the guards. "The arachnons in here may not all be controlled."
The armored soldiers looked at each other. Elinke nodded to them then went after Gabriel down the shining corridor.
They saw no one else until they came into the second cavern, the great one, the museum of pillars and slabs of crystal. Gabriel was seeing this place rather differently now, as a kind of imaging facility, a room full of windows. Right now, to him, the windows were all clear. He had seen what he needed to see for the moment.
At the place where the cavern narrowed before heading into the main computing facility, the arachnons were waiting for them. They stood there, all those oblique, cool eyes trained on the Marines, their mandibles working thoughtfully. The Marines fingered their weapons and were thoughtful right back.
"Don't," Gabriel said. "Really. I don't know if I could stop them." He headed toward the arachnons, and they made way for him to pass.
Carefully Elinke came behind him, glancing around the passageway. The Marines came after, looking as uneasy as their captain was refusing to.
The inner cavern was full of light, glittering and streaking along the lines of the vast webwork. "Patterner?" Gabriel said softly. His voice fell strangely silent into the chamber. No echoes. Elinke unholstered her weapon. "Don't," Gabriel said. " Please, Captain."
Already, after his last brush with the Patterner in mind, he was getting a clearer sense of what this place could do. It was not primarily a weapons facility, but there were things here that could be put to terrible uses if the right (or wrong) people got their hands on them. Because of this, the Patterner was prepared to do everything it could in order to prevent that.
"They know I'm friendly to them." Gabriel grinned. "They don't know about you."
"You seem to be friendly with all kinds of people," Elinke said, glancing around her. "Amazing you haven't got more of them killed."
Gabriel breathed out in guilt and annoyance.
The webwork shivered a little, and the Patterner stepped out through the glimmer and sheen of it. Elinke's pistol snapped up, training on it.
"Why are you still here?" the Patterner said, looking from Gabriel to Elinke. "The danger is great. I have explained this to you."
"This lady," Gabriel said to the Patterner, "will be taking me back to the other facility, but first she wanted to be convinced of why she should do it."
"Utmost necessity," said the Patterner, and silently it added, The program implementation continues smoothly?
Gabriel wasn't sure if "smooth" was the word he would have chosen. I am suffering no ill effects, he said. So far.
"I am under no obligation to make explanations to you," the Patterner told Elinke, who had slowly lowered her sidearm. "This being has been expected for some time." Elinke looked at Gabriel very strangely. "His presence is necessary for the implementation of the main facility."
"That's at Algemron," Gabriel said.
"The Externals, whom I see you know, have been alerted to his status and will attempt to obtain him and use him to access that facility," said the Patterner. "This must be prevented."
At the mention of the Externals, Gabriel saw Elinke's eyes widen slightly.
"Delonghi mentioned them, did she?" Gabriel said. "Or maybe Kharls? Well, it took long enough." "What do you mean he had been 'expected for some time'?" Elinke asked.