Muse Maverick - Chapter 1

The second exploration team had found something. The video feed from their helmet cams revealed a cube the size of a human palm suspended in a web of slowly pulsing light.
With a detail of commandos and armed non-bios just behind him, Muse was in no mood for the lengthy safety protocols that his military companions would insist on. To date this dead mausoleum of a planet had been just that, a tomb at the edge of the galaxy. With a month’s transit time and a week of searching he needed to find something tangible before he was summoned home in shame. After all, it was he that had pushed and levied for this expedition and it would be he that faced the wrath or pleasure of the great Archaeological Ministry. Pushing ahead, he led his team down into the lower levels of the ancient pan-global city that had once been home to an estimated populous of twenty billion vibrant souls. They descended through level after level of open-plan workshops, living quarters and massive vaulted caverns that still bore the fossilised vestige of open parkland. A holo-image of Captain Corus Paine overlaid the view through his faceplate visor. 
“Commander, the object appears to have reacted to our presence and has become active.” 
Behind the Captain’s image, Muse could now see the cube spewing forth three-dimensional hieroglyphs, regularly fragmented with blocks of text into the darkness. For want of a better description, Muse likened it to a manifest or augmented list, the detail of which was as obscure as the mystery of this dead planet. 
Muse was about to reply when the holo- image pixelated, the audio punctuated by the same peculiar howl that had dogged their communications since entering the atmosphere of this dead world. In frustration he thumped the side of his Viro suit helmet and scanned the tracking device on his arm. Corus Paine and his team were ahead of him, two levels down, barely four minutes away. 
“Captain, ETA four minutes. Do not touch the object. I repeat, hold your position and do not touch the object.” 
Not stopping to examine the hordes of artifacts illuminated by the small swarm of micro drone lanterns that hung about the party like a mist on their descent, Muse and his team moved quickly towards the last position of the second team. 
As the team’s distance from the surface increased, ship-to-shore communication became impossible and the howling they’d experienced earlier virtually drowned out person-to-person audio. It was only when the team muted their headsets to gain some respite that they realised the sound wasn’t coming through their communications equipment. It was outside their suits. Coming up from below, from where the second team were located. 
In the years that followed, this same howling accompanied the relentless nightmares that haunted Muse. As among the alien sounds, he’d recognised the familiar voices of those in the second exploration team. Their screams of terror added to the horrific cacophony coming up through the floor.
Muse forced back a numbing wave of abject horror at the recognition of their voices, some of whom he’d only spoken to hours earlier. He steeled himself to investigate what horror lay below.
Signalling the rest of the team to fall back and wait for the commandos, Muse felt his stomach drop when Adrianne, the team’s assigned non-bio, appeared at his side. 
“Commander, if I may. Your course of action, although commendable, has a high risk of personal injury and low risk of success. My recommendations are that...” 
Muse wasn’t known for siding with the common view of non-bios and their treatment as sub-class citizens. In fact, he publicly supported their equality. But with the sound of his crew mate’s terror ringing in his ears, he turned on Adrianne.
“Enough. This isn’t the time for your statistical risk analysis and corrective action planning. Stand down and guard the rest of the team.”
“Sorry Commander, I cannot do that as your proposed action is in fact a higher risk. If you cannot be dissuaded, then I must accompany you.”
Straining to contain his frustration, Muse thrust his face close to Adrianne’s and stared into her unblinking violet eyes. He growled in a barely audible whisper.
“What.”
Adrianne looked at him in the cold way all non-bios did. When Human emotion crashed into their unmoving wall of evolved machine logic that had already calculated to the nth percentile the probability of success and whom amongst the team was at the greatest risk. With no time or inclination to argue, Muse grunted.
“Just keep out of my way.”
Drawing his pistol, he stepped into the stairwell leading to the level below. A small halo of drone lanterns lit the way as Adrianne paced silently behind him.
At the bottom of the stairwell, corridors cartwheeled out into another never-ending sublevel beneath the city. Luckily, he didn’t need to look far. Barely a hundred meters in front of him, blue-white flashes of light and the same cacophony of screams that he’d heard from above were escaping through a partially open bulkhead door. Sprinting forward, Adrianne glided past him, her defensive programming now in full control. Without pausing she drew her weapon and disappeared into the room beyond. 
Only a few seconds behind, Muse reached the open bulkhead and was greeted by a scene as alien as it was utterly terrifying. The team, or more correctly the remains of Corus Paine’s second exploration team, were being devoured by six lizard-like creatures with cruel serrated beaks. They walked upright on heavily taloned feet. Accompanied by flashes of intense light, the creatures appeared to phase out of existence in one location only to appear in another, making any defence or escape virtually impossible.
In the midst of all this, Adrianne’s movements were a blur as, firing volley after volley at the alien hoard, she kicked, punched, blocked and gouged at the creatures. Backed into a corner, she desperately fought to defend the two remaining team members cowering behind her. But with her concentration stretched past its machine limits, she never saw the flash as one of the creatures materialised into existence between the two crew members behind her. Quickly ripping through them in a spray of blood, the creature thrust a cruel talon through her synthetic body before simply tearing her in two with a twist of its beak.
Consumed by what appeared to be a feeding frenzy, the creatures paid little attention to Muse. Taking his opportunity, he targeted what he assumed was the leader as its size, blood red skin and cape set it apart from its smaller, grey-skinned companions. His blast hit the creature on the side of its thick torso, throwing it against the far wall of the room. It lay stunned for a moment, before fixing Muse with two sets of black hollow eyes then flashing out of existence. With absolutely no doubt what was coming, Muse found himself with his back to the corridor wall.

 

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