10
The Command System: Batholith
“It’s called a batholith: a granitic intrusion which rose up like a molten bubble into the sedimentary and metamorphic rocks
already here a
hundred million years ago.
“Eleven thousand years ago the locals built the Command System in it, hoping to use the rock cover as protection from fusion
warheads.
“They built nine stations and eight trains. The idea was that the politicos and military chiefs sat in one train, their seconds-in-command
and
deputies in another, and during a war all eight trains would be shuffled around the tunnels, halting in a station to be
linked via hardened
communication channels to the transceiver sites on the immediate surface and throughout the state, so
they could run the war. The enemy
would have a hard time cracking the granite that deep anyway, but hitting something as relatively
small as a station would be even more
difficult, and they never could be sure there would be a train in it, or that it would
be manned, and on top of that they had to knock out the back-
up train as well as the main one.
“Germ warfare killed them all off, and some time between then and ten thousand years ago the Dra’Azon moved in, pumping the
air out of
the tunnels and replacing it with inert gas. Seven thousand years ago a new ice age started, and about four thousand
years after that the place
got so cold Mr. Adequate pumped the argon out and let the planet’s own atmosphere back in; it’s
so desiccated, nothing’s rusted in the tunnels
for three millennia.
“About three and a half thousand years ago the Dra’Azon came to an agreement with most of the rival Galactic Federations which
allowed
ships in distress to cross the Quiet Barriers. Politically neutral, relatively powerless species were permitted to
set up small bases on most of
the Planets of the Dead to provide help for those in distress and—I suppose—to provide a sop
to the people who had always wanted to know
what the planets were like; certainly on Schar’s World, Mr. Adequate let us take
a good look at the System every year, and turned a blind eye
when we went down unofficially. However, nobody’s ever taken
unscrambled recordings of any sort out of the tunnels.
“The entrance we’re at is here: at the base of the peninsula, above station four, one of the three main stations—the others
are one and
seven—where repair and maintenance facilities exist. There are no trains parked in four, three or five. There
are two trains in station one, two in
seven, one train each in the rest. At least that’s where they ought to be; the Idirans
may have moved them, though I doubt it.
“The stations are twenty-five to thirty-five kilometers apart, linked by twin sets of tunnels which only join up at each of
the stations. The whole
System is buried about five kilometers down.
“We’ll take lasers… and a neural stunner, plus chaff grenades for protection—nothing heavier. Neisin can take his projectile
rifle; the bullets
he has are only light explosive…. But no plasma cannons or micronukes. They’d be dangerous enough in the
tunnels anyway, God knows, but
they might also bring down Mr. Adequate’s wrath, and we
don’t
want that.
“Wubslin’s rigged up our ship mass anomaly sensor into a portable set, so we can spot the Mind. In addition, I’ve got a mass
sensor in my
suit, so we shouldn’t have any problem actually finding what we’re after, even if it’s hidden itself.
“Assuming the Idirans don’t have their own communicators, they’ll be using the Changers’. Our transceivers cover their frequencies
and
more, so we can listen in on them, but they can’t hear us.
“So those are the tunnels. That Mind is in there somewhere, and so, presumably, are some Idirans and medjel."
Horza stood in the mess room at the head of the table, under the screen. On the screen a diagram of the tunnels was superimposed
over a
map of the peninsula. The others looked at him. The empty semi-suit of the medjel he had found lay in the center of
the table.
“You want to take us
all
in." the drone Unaha-Closp said.
“Yes."
“What about the ship." Neisin said.
“It can take care of itself. I’ll program its automatics so that it’ll recognize us and defend itself against anybody else."
“And you’re going to take her." Yalson asked, nodding at Balveda, who was sitting opposite her.
Horza looked at the Culture woman. “I’d prefer to have Balveda where I can see her," he said. “I wouldn’t feel safe leaving
her here with any
of you."
“I still don’t see why
I
have to go," Unaha-Closp said.
“Because," Horza told it, “I don’t trust you on board here, either. Besides, I want you to carry stuff."
“What." The drone sounded angry.
“I don’t know that you’re being completely honest here, Horza," Aviger said, shaking his head ruefully. “You say that the
Idirans and medjel…
well, that you’re on their side. But here they are, and they’ve killed four of your own people already,
and you think that they’re somewhere inside
these tunnels, wandering about…. And they’re supposed to be about the best ground-troops
in the galaxy. You want to send
us
up against
them."
“First of all," Horza sighed, “I am on their side. We’re after the same thing. Secondly, it looks to me as though they don’t
have many
weapons of their own, otherwise that medjel would certainly have been armed. All they probably have here are the
Changers’ weapons. Also it
looks, from this medjel suit we’ve got"—he gestured at the webbed apparatus in the middle of the
table, which he and Wubslin had been
studying since they had brought it on board—“like a lot of their equipment is blown.
Only the lights and the heaters on this thing were working.
Everything else had fused. My guess is all that happened when
they came through the Quiet Barrier. They were all zapped
inside
the chuy-hirtsi,
and their battle gear was fucked up. If the same thing happened to their weapons as happened to their suits,
they’re virtually unarmed, and with