Doom 3™: Worlds on Fire

27

BY 7 A.M., DELTA LAB ALREADY SEETHED WITHactivity. Well before attempting an experimental transmission, every system in Delta had to be inspected, from the power management to the dataflow integration, to the physical performance of the pods themselves.

Then there were the secondary devices, machines designed to measure and record exactly what occurred during the test. Dr. Betruger liked things checked, then rechecked, and every result brought to his attention.

Dr. Jonathan Ishii sat at his desk looking at an array of screens, each chunk of linked data flowing from one screen onto another, as power and transmission strength in the teleport pods flowed from one to the other.

Everything looked absolutely fine.

Ishii looked up. Betruger stood off to the side, with three other Delta scientists standing close by. He held his hands behind him, nodding. Like some mad general commanding an armed force all dressed in white.

How many of the others knew, Ishii wondered. How many of themsuspected?

Ishii stole glances at the others, all so busy, whipping out PDAs, touching the holo-screens as they appeared in the air, or walking over to one of the workstations. Did any of them know…what really was happening here?

He saw Betruger turn and look in his direction.

Ishii reached out and touched a tab to change one of the screens to a master readout of all data being pumped into Delta’s main computer system.See, he hoped the action said,I’m busy, Dr. Betruger. Working hard on the project.

Ishii kept his eyes glued to the screen now, trying to sense when Betruger took his eyes off him.

Only hours to the test. He had to go soon—and he’d have it do it in steps. Get out of here. Then he’d have to lose his sentry bot, ditch his ID tag. And slowly, without being seen, make his way out of the Delta wing, to the underground, and out—

I could die,Ishii thought.

He’d bring his PDA, of course. With all the material he had stolen from Betruger’s personal files. The material that showed the truth about what was going on here. Teleportation. The ability to move across space instantly, with no real traveling at all. That was the hoax, the promise. Betruger’s lie that everyone—most of them—still believed.

Ishii took a breath.I’ll stop it, he thought.I can do that. And for a moment, he actually believed it.

Kane stood in an assembly room, near the marine headquarters, dressed in the standard-issue space marine fatigues—not much different from anything his division wore on Earth. A different insignia on the lapel, a belt designed to hold the PDA, key to communicating and navigating here.

Only the color of the fatigues revealed that they weren’t in Kansas, or any other place that could be called Earth. Mottled a reddish orange, as if they were going to do operations on the surface of the planet.

He noticed that some of the older Marines here wore some gun-metal colored fatigues, certainly better suited to the gray environment of the interior. Maybe you had to work your way up to them.

Sergeant Kelly looked up from his PDA. “All right, newbies, you each get a section to patrol this morning. You get a four-hour cycle, then break for a twenty-minute lunch, then report back here and we’ll see what else we got for you. Some of you may be reassigned to the regular units. But consider this the day that you all get—what the hell—’comfortable’ with Mars City. And Christ, remember that there are a lot of civilians up here, even kids.”

Kelly shook his head.

“So any of you that may have seen fighting down below, I want you to forget all that gung-ho crap. Nice steady pace, a big smile to the locals, and nothing to startle anyone. Got it?”

In unison: “Yes, Sergeant!”

“Great. And so you assholes get used to using them, I sent your teammate and assignment to your PDA. Have a great fucking morning.”

Kelly turned on his heels, and Kane took out his PDA and scrolled to the flashing “Assignment” icon.

A small map appeared showing the underground area, and then a close-up of the energy processing area. Below that, his companion for the patrol.

Private Tobias Smith.

And then Smitty was there, grinning from ear to ear. Kane looked at the scrawny private. “Did you ask Kelly—”

Smitty started to deny Kane’s accusation, but then looked down. “Yeah, I said we hung out. On the transport.”

“Great,” Kane said. And then, “Come on.”

Ishii stood up. He walked to the back of Delta, over to a wall of oversized monitors that studied every inch of the lab. All linked to various sensors monitoring temperature and power demands. Ishii made a big deal of looking up, then at the readouts, when Betruger appeared at his elbow.

“All okay, Ishii?”

“Oh—fine, Dr. Betruger Just making sure my PDA link is working…”

“Was there a problem?”

“Er, no. Not at all. But, you know, always good to check and recheck.”

For a moment Betruger didn’t say anything. “Right.” Another pause. “Ishii, you seem a bit nervous. Are you okay? Anything wrong?”

As soon as he started to answer, Ishii knew he was answering too quickly. “No, sir. I’m fine. Just, you know, a big test for us.”

“Right, very big, Ishii. Carry on—but if you notice anything wrong”—he cleared his throat—“anything at all, you will tell me?”

“Absolutely, Dr, Betruger.”

And then, like a billowing and icy fog bank, Betruger finally moved on.

“Man, that was some goddamn breakfast they gave me,” Wegner said to Maria. “You ever see what they feed volunteers?”

Maria didn’t answer, but Rodriguez did. “Enough food for three guys! Shit, were those real eggs?”

“They sure the helltasted like real eggs. They even had yolks.”

Real eggs, maybe something like real bacon, Maria thought. Exactly like the breakfast they’d give a condemned man. And this guy—Wegner—didn’t see that?Far be it from me, Maria thought,to tell him.

“Hey,” Rodriguez said, “that’s a pretty damn cool breakfast. And a nice package you get for doing this. Real nice. But aren’t you like even a little bit worried?”

Moron,Maria thought. Kelly told them specifically to not discuss anything about the experiment. And here was Rodriguez, stirring things up.

“Nah. Figure each time it gets safer. And I haven’t heard of anyone getting really hurt. Maybe they need some R and R back on Earth. But that’s it, right?”

Right. And we don’t hear anything about the subjects because that’s how they like it.

“Guess so,” Rodriguez said. “Still—”

“Rodriguez, zip it, hm? You’re making my ears hurt.”

He looked at her, getting a quick eye roll, and even the dense Rodriguez finally got the message. “Yeah, right, sure, Moraetes. You’re the boss.” The sniggering snort:as if!

That was another thing: There were marine escorts coming soon, assigned to accompany Wegner to Delta. And didn’t that tell the giddy space marine something? Escorts, guards—to make sure he got there? The whole thing was creepy.

“Come on, Rodriguez. Lucky me—we get to patrol together today.”

A few hours walking a circuit around Alpha Labs lay ahead.Life on Mars—at its most exciting…