Industrial Caves III

Keira led John back to the main passage after showing him around something that was kind of her secret room at the moment. Looking at each other, they could see both their F-suits had quite a bit of dust gathered on their outer layers. Even with self-cleaning system, not everything could have been easily removed.

- I guess I will have to walk around a bit dirty for now - Marlow concluded after the system turned off and he could still see traces of dust - I think I won't appear as odd one the way I am right now - he added, looking at miss Evergate's uniform.

- Please, don't look at me like that, you make me blush - she said that as if she misunderstood his gaze - I don't know what should I think after you declined in the past...

It seemed that John unintentionally triggered her going into a topic he wanted to avoid for now. Not wanting to go that way further, he went on to explain himself.

- Ok, I will let you go off hook for now - Keira told him in the end, though it still felt she was thinking of something - I get you may be careful about women, but remember I've never let you down, so think about it.

Afterwards, both of them went their way - miss Evergate returned to her work, while Marlow proceeded deeper underground, reviewing some of the materials he got from her and thinking about all the findings of their crew so far.

In normal circumstances, John would have likely encouraged Keira to officially communicate her discovery openly to the rest of researchers in this area, but remembering some of problematic and dangerous events, especially the recent one, all he could do for now was to support her as much as possible in this investigation.

Personally, he was also curious about what could be possibly hidden among all these texts stored inside the room she showed him, specifically any entries related to the technology these aliens were using as most of the systems they came in contact with so far were all high end and using energy of origins unknown to participants of this expedition.

Having much to think of, Marlow reached the big hall by the entrance to the underground facility his group used when looking for Jackie. Previously, the huge doors were closed and they spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to open the path properly, but right now, the corridor was open and set in a way the stairs were now leading deeper below to the system of numerous chambers, ultimately reaching to a vast area with moveable walls, where he heard this suspicious voice that showed him the way and basically saved his whole group from potential dangers.

The place was giving a completely different vibe now, having additional sources of light added in various spots and keeping a layout selected from the interface found a level above. What surprised John was that no one paid any attention to him as he was going through the door and downstairs - only once he got to the first chamber the stairs led to, a voice called to him.

- Don't you have time off right now, major Marlow? - it was none other than doctor Cunningham who asked that question - You just arrived here recently and already walking around instead of taking some rest? I see you even managed to dirty your F-suit doing some field work - he pointed at John's uniform.

- I could say the same to you - he replied to Connor's remarks - You barely left your previous camp and now already up for work here, in a place you are still getting familiar with? Compared to you, I actually know my way around here.

Cunningham smiled and nodded.

- Here you are absolutely right, but hey, how could I just sit idly knowing there is so many interesting things to learn about in here? This place is the most stable location I see since reaching this planet - there is pretty much no electromagnetic interference here and we have access to interfacess controling the whole area. I can think about so many things to try out, a completely different volume in comparison to what I could do at First Haven. If I didn't decide to come here, I would regret it for sure. Imagine, having no interference which is typical pretty much everywhere we went so far changes everything - we can finally investigate not only full layout of an alien installation, but also reach deeper undergound to check the geologic structure in this location. Heck, we may be even able to get to the root of energy source powering this whole structure once we use the information our group gathered back in First Haven.

Honestly speaking, John himself was really interested in whatever the energy source powered the alien installations around the planet, but it was only a part of what they had to learn about. After all, they were aware of aliens applying some unknown technology for megacity to be self-sufficient for a long time without a living soul around doing any maintenance and figuring it out was one of this expedition's goals.

However, for Marlow personally, there was now yet another mystery to solve - this voice that he could hear in his head while exploring the underground, the one that he stopped hearing out of a sudden after they finally managed to regain control of the facility. Since he was getting clear instructions, it felt as if being in contact with another human being, but there was absolutely no trace of implants being used in the process, so it was a communication that did not apply any technology he was aware of.

Either way, this voice was a matter major considered to be personal and something to not be disclosed just to anyone, especially people who could question his sanity and strip him off his permissions, making it impossible to continue investigation.

- I'm happy to see you being that excited, Connor - he told his colleague after a short pause cause by his internal dialogue - Having someone of your caliber helping out here was the mission I was given and now it's obvious getting you here was a great idea. Of course, I and everyone around here will be helping out in the process, but since I have other duties, I cannot spend as much time here as I would like.

- Well, looking through the documents created in Industrial Caves, I can see how much effort you put into gathering information about this installation. It's too bad about this Alina Boskovitch disappearing out of a sudden, though. Even if she was a saboteur installed in the crew by some third party, there is a chance she had knowledge of something that was not shared with us. Not that I expect anyone like that to tell us anything easily out of kindness, but it would have been worth a try. Especially since we were not told lots of things by our higher-ups due to information control. Of course, it was done precisely to look out for information leaks to third parties like this, yet with what happened recently, I think we deserve to know more, don't you agree?

If John were to be honest, he would have just agreed with his colleague here, but since he was bound by military code of conduct and also had trust issues following the last event with Glitter, he simply shrugged in reaction to Cunningham's words before replying anything:

- Honestly, I cannot say what would have been the best course of action here. Besides, I don't even know how high level of access control specific people have in the entire crew. Needless to say, we may not even have a person with such knowledge in our current group.

Connor looked around and asked John to open a secure channel for them to talk. Marlow hesitated for a moment, because of how sudden this request was, but ultimately agreed to the request.

- You mean you weren't curious about how much data is being kept hidden from us? - doctor Cunningham continued to ask - I know that you are among the top tech guy, so I expect it wouldn't be a hard task for you to dig through secured data if needed.

Major sighed - of course, Connor was not mistaken about his level of skill, but despite knowing this and that, John had his honor and pride which did not allow him to perform actions against his employer, even if he was indeed curious.

- Seriously, Connor. Having the skill doesn't mean I should go around doing illegal stuff just to learn things.

- So you didn't feel any urge to do that at any point?

- It's not about wanting to know or not. I just don't go around breaking data protection laws left and right. Also, even if there was the data not shared with us, how do we even know where it is stored? For any crucial data, I doubt any high ranking individual would just openly carry it in his PEC. If anything, if I were to hide something of the sort, it would not be in my PEC, but rather on a separate data carrier, out of any network that could be easily hacked through PEC-to-PEC connection.

- But you are not denying something like that could have been done? As in, more detailed data being on physical storage?

Marlow sighed.

- This would have been the most reasonable thing to do, from my perspective at least. Anyone who wants his data to be secure has ways like that to lock it away from third parties and having it offline is the easiest way to keep it hidden. Well, until someone gets their hands on it physically. Even then though, physical one would still be protected and cracking it, depending on the level of security...

- Long story short, there is nothing you could share? I'm not even talking about this higher level information, just anything you learned aside from what was shared with us.

- Honestly, Connor, even if I did have anything out of the common data everyone got access to, there are still procedures and you know that breaching in our current circumstances would result in imprisonment at least. Everything that we learned here, on the planet, and I was present when this was recorded, was already shared.

Actually, John did not share all details even with colonel Ryan McRae, keeping some specifics to himself and only a portion was something he confessed to some of his closest colleagues. Additionally, there was a message Sveta left him that made Marlow even more cautious about the topics he is discussing with people closest to him and, while he held doctor Cunningham in high esteem, it was not like they were that well acquainted.

This time, it was Connor who sighed after getting this kind of reply from John.

- Let's leave it at this for now, then - it seemed like he temporarily gave up on pushing the topic further - However, I would like to request your support in investigating this place whenever possible, if that is alright with you.

- Well, I'm not the one making decisions here, so I cannot promise anything, but Ryan wanted me to help out with the matters within the camp, while he focuses on looking for other survivors, so I should be able to spend some time also doing some research work.

- That would be much appreciated, John. I'm seriously surprised they are wasting your time on some administrative duties, when we need brains like yours helping out with more important matters.

- It might not occur to you, because you are so passionate about your work, but many jobs come with stuff you may not necessarily like. I may be a science type of guy, yet I was hired by military and agreed to it out of my own volition, so I cannot complain if my duties are not exactly what I would like to do.

- Indeed, you do have a point here.

Both of them laughed lightly after disconnecting secure channel they were using for discussing through their PECs.

- Are you planning to go deeper today, John? - Connor asked him as the two reached the corridor leading to the subsequent chambers.

- Actually, yes, I wanted to see how the things are looking right now - Marlow confirmed - As you know, I have a bit of history with this place due to what happened here before. I couldn't possibly sleep well until I made sure it is indeed safe to work in here now.

- Oh, so you still have concerns about this place? I thought the place was open for excavation and investigation after additional checks were done.

Major nodded.

- Indeed, all was done as per procedures, though I didn't have a chance to have a proper look on my own, because of this duties we spoke about. You may say I'm not fully trusting people here, but can you blame me after what you went through back in First Haven?

The face doctor Cunningham made was enough of a confirmation. Afterwards, Marlow entered the corridor leading deeper into the alien facility's underground.