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Lili Marquette took off the dark sunglasses that hide her eyes from view as she stepped outside the tiny airport. The sunlight was entirely too bright here for what she was accustomed to thinking of as mid-winter and she quickly replaced the glasses.
"Its strange to think its summer here." Lili commented to her traveling companion.
"Its even weirder that they still keep this old airport open." Augur exclaimed, picking a stray piece of lint from his shirt. "I got the keys for the rent-a-wreck, it should be over that away."
It was not until they were in the jeep that the conversation picked up again.
"I can see Jonathan's hand in this place still being open." Lili said.
"Me too. Makes sense he'd want a way for folks to come and go without the Taelons knowing who. They track the DNA of everyone who goes through the portals these days and some who come here would definitely raise red flags."
"Like us."
"I wonder what would happen if we did use the portal without hacking into the system and removing our files from the list of Resistance members." Augur mused. "Its a big pain and they always undo all my hard work in less than twenty four hours."
Lili made a face, "we'd end up at the Mothership or the moonbase with about half a dozen Volunteers forming the welcome committee."
"Sounds like a party."
"I don't want an invitation to that get together. Now that the Resistance has developed our own shuttle things will be much easier." Lili commented, putting her foot on the break to allow a young man to scurry across the road.
"Yeah, you can't track a shuttle through ID space. Now we can plan missions without having to take over a portal station for a couple of hours without anyone knowing. Plus Taelons or Sandoval can always still watchers on an airport, shuttles don't need an airport to land."
"What I want to know," Lili said, "is where they got the know how. From what Jonathan told me they reverse engineered the shuttle, but from what?"
"I thought it was from the one Chandler took."
Lili shook her head. "They kept that one in reserve. No one took it apart 'cause we were not sure we could put it back together."
Augur considered this for a moment. "Maybe they got another shuttle we don't know about. I really don't see what that would matter, hey Lili ease up a bit we have plenty of time to get there!"
"Stop side seat driving."
"Somebody seems a bit eager to get there." Augur mumbled.
"We are going to be late. If we are not on time our guide will leave and then were will we be? Jonathan ordered us not to call him and he's the only one who knows where this facility is. I am one of the only Resistance members with experience flying a shuttle and they need me to help fine tune the controls and develop a training program. They need you to write the software so it can be distributed to the various cells."
"And I thought it was because you missed your big blue bug."
"Augur...don't insult my shuttle."
The cyber whiz could not resist the obvious reply. "But its not your shuttle anymore, now is it?"
Lili just glared at him.
* * *
"Well this is it." Lili said as she put the jeep in park.
"Do you remember the password?" Augur ventured after clearing his throat several times.
"Do you want to walk?"
"I'll take that as a yes."
"You're a smart man, Augur."
They sat in the jeep, in silence, for several minutes before a young man came up and knocked on Lili's window. She lowered the window with her left hand even as her right hand moved to ease her side arm out for easier use just in case this man was not their contact, or even if he was and something went awry.
"Could you give me a lift into the next town?" The man asked conversationally. Augur noted the man had his hand on a weapon as well. Something in his level of alertness betrayed his military training.
"Where you from?" Augur asked in a casual sounding tone.
"Oceanside, California. I live on the water. How about you too?"
"Woodbridge, Virginia. Right by the capital." Lili said. "Hop in and remember to buckle up."
"Thank you, Captain."
* * *
Now that the passwords had been exchanged, both sides felt remotely more comfortable with each other. It was not until they were a few miles down the road that their passenger addressed them.
"Captain Marquette, make a right on that road."
Lili did as she was instructed. "This road is a mess!" She exclaimed a minute later. "The tree branches are scratching the jeep!"
Their guide shrugged. "Few come in or out of the facility. Most of our supplies are brought to us in the middle of the night from the rain forest and physically carried in."
Augur jumped ahead of the man. "You allow this road to become overgrown."
"It discourages trespassers."
* * *
Their guide directed them to stop my what appeared to be an abandoned brick shed with a view of the ocean. A view, Lili considered to be ruined by the oil platform in the distance. She was a bit surprised that such things still existed, them reminded herself that not everyone had traded in their gas consuming car for one of the clean running Taelon designed ones.
"That can't be it." Augur whispered to her. "You couldn't design a better paper clip much less a shuttle with ID drives in there."
"Come on," the guide said with a 'follow me' gesture.
Lili shrugged and unfastened her seatbelt. Augur did the same.
"I guess we are about to find out." Lili said.
* * *
Inside the shed was the start of a long tunnel that Lili would never have suspected of existing given the external appearance of the building. After a while it dawned on her that to go in the direction they were traveling in, they had to be under the ocean. Just as she was about to question their guide, they ended up in a large chamber lit with the pale blue light that Lili had always associated with Taelon ships and buildings. Above their heads was a beautiful dome and Lili could see that her theory of being under the ocean was true.
"You are now two hundred feet under the Pacific Ocean." A new voice said from off to the left. Augur and Lili turned to see an impeccably groomed blond woman. She seemed familiar, but it took a moment for Lili to recall when and where she had seen her, then it clicked. She had been the Volunteer who got her off the Taelon Mothership.
"You look different without your uniform." Lili commented, much to Augur's confusion.
The blond smiled, "I'm glad you remember me Captain Marquette."
"Its rather hard to forget. You have me at a disadvantage: you know my name, but I still don't know yours."
The woman laughed. "A situation easily remedied. I am Renee Palmer."
"Okay now that the introductions are out of the way, can we get down to business?" Augur asked. "What is this place?"
"It looks Taelon." Lili commented as she craned her neck to study the curve of the ceiling.
"It is." Renee said with a slight smile that verged on a smirk.
"I would love to hear the explanation." Lili said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Jonathan told me that it was you and the late Commander Boone who discovered the tomb of the ancient Taelon Ma'el." Renee began. "I wonder though, if you ever considered just how Ma'el came to Earth from the Taelon homeworld."
Lili's eyes widened. "You found his ship."
Renee nodded. Jonathan had told her that these two were quick on the uptake and she was not disappointed.
"Where?" Augur asked. "I mean he was buried in Ireland and the Taelons went over the place with a fine tooth comb."
The blond woman laughed. "Ma'el was smarter than that. He may have been buried in Ireland, but he left his carefully hidden ship in Peru. Actually, Augur, you are standing on Ma'el's ship at this very moment."
* * *
Renee led them down a ramp into what looked to Lili like a cave rather than the interior of a Taelon vessel, but at the same time she could make out the occasional bit of Taelon writing. Some of the panels were also familiar to her based on the time she had spent on board the Mothership. From these signs, Lili made an educated guess that they were now in a cargo hold of some sort, probably used to store the equipment Ma'el brought with him to Earth. Ma'el may have been a Taelon but he was also a scientist and Lili had not met the scientist yet who did not carry every bit of equipment they could no matter the odds against its use in the foreseeable future, just in case.
"We were told that a shuttle had been developed." Lili said hoping to draw out further information from Renee.
"Yes. Information on Taelon shuttles from the scans preformed on the one Chandler appropriated, Ma'el's ship, and from a tech who joined us after her brother was implanted was used to develop a Resistance version of the shuttle. Since it was designed with humans in mind we've made a few improvements, but the Taelon system for the controls appears to be the best configuration. You are one of the few people with practical long-term experience flying these things - and how the Taelons train their servants to use them. Augur has had experience with Taelon systems, so it seemed logical to use the two of you to fine tune the controls and create a training program."
* * *
Lili carefully refrained from trying to strangle the scientist who had configured the controls to what he felt was the optimal position. While Lili was not adverse to alterations, the layout was awkward and would cost valuable time in combat. She sighed and waved away the controls, thankful that at least the basic mechanism was the same as the one in her Taelon shuttle.
Lili bit her lip to keep from laughing. Augur had called it right, she did miss her 'big blue bug', but not that she would ever admit it to him. The cyber-wizard had enough ego already.
* * *
Ronald Sandoval exited the shuttle and surveyed the scene with a practiced gaze and instantly summed up the situation. He immediately steered himself toward the two Volunteers questioning a man in a business suit.
"Are you the one who reported seeing Captain Marquette?" Sandoval demanded.
"Yes." The man said in careful English. "I remember her face from the news."
"You have sharp eyes." Sandoval commented.
"I always remember pretty women." The man said with a smile. "Especially when they travel with a man like that. I did some business with him once, he is hard to forget."
"Do you remember his name?"
"He called himself Augur."
Suddenly Sandoval had a memory intrusion. Augur, that was what that escapee from Project Earth Defense had been called. During the round up of Resistance members to use as sleepers to strengthen the Commonality until the drain could be isolated and ceased, Marquette had seemed unusually concerned about the man. Augur had later been involved in the sabotage of the Forge Project facility. Considering the depth of her Resistance involvement, something Sandoval had previously believed was merely sympathy, it was hardly surprising that they knew each other. Augur was rumored to be based in Washington so it was feasible for them to have met any number of times.
"Thank you." Sandoval said as he walked a few meters away and pulled out his global. Zo'or would have to be informed of this development.