“I have a heavy energy reading bearing zero six zero range seventy yards. It’s right below us.” Yili spoke evenly and quietly into the commlink pickup. Zony nodded. The two officers kept themselves pinned against the cool metal surface of the subterranean bulkhead. They were on the third sub-level of what they both guessed was the station’s easternmost wing.

So far they hadn’t seen any other personnel, which was disturbing on a number of levels. Why was the location they had just visited guarded by two people while the rest of the station seemed to be deserted?

Zony was listening intently for any unusual noises, but even her rather sensitive hearing wasn’t able to detect anything except a pleasant hum that seemed to emanate from the very structure itself. Yili suspected this was coming from the station’s power source. She also suspected the reason nobody had come to greet them so far was because they were waiting until the optimal moment to take them prisoner instead of risking one or both of them. Having the Argent’s chief engineer and signals officer in custody would make things that much more difficult for Captain Hunter and his battle group. It’s the kind of thing Yili would have encouraged Hunter to do if the tables were turned.

Just then Zony heard the unmistakable sound of a human voice. By now, they had reached sub-level five and were able to move laterally far enough out to the edge of the gantry to see clearly down into the underground chamber. The cold stark glow of electrical lighting washed out all the colors, but Yili’s guess as to the purpose of the facility was confirmed when she saw the upper edge of a capacitor shell. A shadow moved past one of the lights.

“Set your weapons on stun. If possible I want one of these guys conscious so I can get some information about this system.” Yili said quietly.

A moment later, a man dressed in service overalls and wearing a hard cover emerged from a doorway just across from where Yili and Zony were concealed. He looked up and froze just long enough for Yili to finish making the modifications to her weapon. His shout was cut off by an ozone-scented flash of light. His handheld clattered to the metal deck and his relatively heavy body followed. Lieutenant Curtiss moved forward and rolled him over. The burnt rip in his technician’s clothes was still sizzling. Finding nothing of value, Yili retrieved his handheld and moved across the level five platform towards the next flight of steps down. Before descending, she stopped to examine the unit.

“This guy was taking ambient energy readings,” she said quietly. “Looking for stray anti-matter particles. They’ve got a conversion reactor down here somewhere.”

“That’s more advanced than our ships!” Zony whispered urgently.

“Yup, and it makes a neat little power source for that gun. That capacitor housing seals the deal. This thing should be fully operational unless they broke something or aren’t done activating the power systems yet.”

“We need to find out how many people are manning this station,” Zony said. “If there’s only a skeleton crew, maybe we can do exactly what you said and get the skipper his trump card.”

“Agreed. If this station is built the way I suspect, the control mechanisms are going to be relatively high up in the structure. That way they always have the option to seal off the entire reactor mechanism from above and do it with minimum power requirements. Always better to let gravity do your work for you.”

“The natural gravity rating here is only zero point two one.”

“Must have built this place the old fashioned way then.”

“How’s that?”

“Weld five doors together instead of using one.” Yili grinned and Zony almost laughed. “You know, that gives me an idea. If we can find the control systems to seal off the lower sub-levels, we might be able to trap most of their manpower below and save ourselves the trouble of shooting them all.”

“Can’t they just turn off our power?”

“Not unless they want to suffocate and freeze to death down there. If I can get twenty minutes with their main junction lines, I can cut off their ability to override the security systems and put us in control of the gun without firing a shot.”

“Are you trying to be silly?” Zony asked.

Yili raised an eyebrow. “Never, why?”

“Just how many sub-levels does this place have?” Zony asked as she peered over the edge of the gantry platform. A moment later, all the lights shifted red and a high-energy alert klaxon began to sound.

The two Argent officers looked at each other for a soundless moment and then they bolted back to where they had stunned the unfortunate technician. From below, they heard shouts and footsteps banging on the metal stairs.

“Did we set off an alarm or something?” Zony shouted. Nobody was going to hear her beyond a range of about ten yards over the klaxon, so she figured it was past the time to try and be sneaky.

“Whatever is going on, it wasn’t us!” Yili shouted back. She grabbed the unconscious man’s heels and lifted them up. Zony snagged the shoulder straps of his overalls. Together they dragged him into the small heat exchange terminal he had originally emerged from. Yili barred the hatch and locked it from the inside. She produced a universal leverage tool from one of the pockets on her own electrician’s vest and rapidly disabled the outer indicator console.

Everything went dark except the backlight for the environmental controls next to the hatch. The stunned technician started to wake up. Yili cocked one of her blasters and pointed it at his face. By the time his eyes opened, footsteps were clattering by outside. He saw the business end of the Argent engineer’s pistol and his eyes went wide.

Yili put her finger to her lips and winked. The clattering outside faded.

“Who the hell are you people?” he whispered angrily. “This is a Skywatch military operation!”

“Oh?” Yili replied sarcastically. “What’s Skywatch?”

The man hesitated, his eyes bulging. It seemed like he had a lot to say initially but had suddenly decided he might have already said too much.

“Is Skywatch in the habit of building planet-sized gun installations out in the middle of nowhere these days?” Zony asked.

“We had to protect–”

“Protect what?”

“Humanity!” The man looked back and forth between the two officers. “Just whose side are you two on?”