The Thessalonica Legacy

by Dashukta


A Voice from the Past


The Thessalonica Legacy
Chapter 15: A Voice from the Past


Despite Rarity’s best efforts, dust still clung to the storage racks and filled the dim corners of the cramped archive room. The portable spotlights colored everything an unnatural blue-grey and cast harsh shadows across the walls. There was no way to tell what time of day it was, or even how much time had passed. Their only clue came when Spike would appear bearing canteens and ration packs or a demand to take a break.

When she stopped and looked around, the room gave Twilight the creeps. She knew she was being silly; there was nothing to fear from the bare walls and deep black shadows. No ghosts haunted the corridors, only cobwebs and dust. She figured the best way to take her mind off the looming shadows was to lose herself in her research. So, she did. It wasn’t difficult to do, picking through the records of an alien civilization held a certain inescapable allure.

“So, if any one of these disks could probably hold all the information in this entire archive and then some, why didn’t they just put everything on one disk?” she asked while swapping out disks on her borrowed noteputer. The small computer beeped and she levitated a stylus across the screen to issue her commands.

“They probably did. They probably had a central memory core, but took it with them with everything else when this place was abandoned. This is just the backup archives.” Tartaglia was working from the old clerk’s desk.

“Still, why are there so many disks? It’s like they put every type of form for every week on a separate disk.”

“Exactly,” the Captain looked up, “Weekly backups of any new data from each department. By putting them on separate disks, the clerk could turn over a hardcopy of only exactly the forms requested without accidentally giving out some file he wasn’t supposed to. Besides, data crystal disks are cheap. Especially so back when this base was active.”

Twilight looked back at the noteputer screen, “These look like more shipping manifests. Uh, year 2548, 3rd month, that’s… March, right?” Tartagila nodded and Twilight moved the disk to the appropriate pile. She still couldn’t read the human language except for a handful of words. However, she had quickly learned to recognize several different types of form and could identify and read the dates printed on them.

“Why do you think they left this all behind?” Twilight looked up from her noteputer.

Tartaglia shrugged, “Maybe they forgot about it? Maybe they left it expecting to come back later? I really don’t know. I’m just glad they did.”

Working so closely with the little unicorn had given the Captain an all-new perspective on the ponies, or at least this particular pony. She was smart, and a little socially awkward, which he found endearing. He found her easy to talk to. She was curious and asked a lot of questions—particularly regarding history and society. The parallels between their cultures were amazing. More than once, Tartaglia forgot that he wasn’t talking to a fellow human. As they worked their way through the archives, he had begun treating her like he would a skilled company clerk or technical analyst.

“Damnit.” Twilight’s breath caught in her throat as soon as she heard the curse slip past her lips. Her head shot up, mortified at her gaffe.

Tartaglia just laughed, “I think you’ve been hanging around me too much, Miss Sparkle.”

Even so, her cheeks flushed pink, “This one won’t open,” she trotted over to the desk and levitated out the noteputer for the Captain to see. He took it from her and peered at the screen.

“This is a holorecording,” he said, “It needs a Tri-Vid player to run. Here, let me try something.” He ejected the disk and inserted it into his own noteputer. He moved the stylus rapidly over the screen, diving into the nuts and bolts of the system. “Almost. Good thing we still use similar architectures. There!” He set the noteputer down on the desk and tapped the screen with a finger, “I can’t run Tri-Vid on this noteputer, but I did manage to extract the audio. Let’s see what we’ve got.”

The small speaker in the noteputer sounded tinny, and the echo from the barren walls didn’t help. But, when he pressed the screen, the unmistakable sound of a woman’s voice, clearly enunciated if a little nasally, issued forth,

Personal log, Colonel Lucile Guillaume, commanding officer, New Alamo Research Facility. 27th of January, 2549 Terran Standard. It was hot today. The summers here can be pretty brutal. Reminded the patrols to pack extra water and gave a little speech about avoiding heatstroke. I thought about pulling the patrols in today, it’s not like there’s really any reason for them to be out there. Still, orders are orders, and if one of the Houses, like the Steiners or Kuritas or Davions figured out how to make the jump, they could be all over us before the alarms sounded.
Another JumpShip arrived today, Merchant class. No DropShips, just a pair of orbital shuttles. It used to be we were receiving one at least every month. Today’s marks the first arrival we’ve had since April. I don’t know. Maybe the JumpShip captains object to the jump protocol to get here, or maybe we just don’t rate high enough to the Hegemony Central Intelligence Bureau anymore. There’s grumblings among the scientists. They’re afraid the HCIB is going to pull the plug on us.
Got another one asking why the northern continent is off-limits. Air traffic controller at the spaceport this time. I gave him the standard line. It bugs me that I don’t even know why the higher-ups don’t want us up there. I know that’s where the Thessalonica originally went down. Something must have really had them spooked.
I think that’s enough for today.

The recording beeped to signal its completion. Silence once again filled the room; a silence that now seemed all the more profound. Neither of them spoke. They didn’t have to. Twilight dashed over to the shelf where she had found that data disk and began pulling several more, which she tossed over to Tartaglia. He stuffed another into his noteputer and repeated the process. Again, the woman’s nasally voice filled the room. They listened to it carefully—a short missive on water rationing and worrying about repair parts—then ejected it and stuck in another. After the fourth or fifth, they stopped listening to them all the way through. Tartaglia would extract the audio, play the recording up through the date, then move on to the next while Twilight laid the disks out on the floor in chronological order.

Once they had found every holorecording they could, they started with the earliest recording, dated the 8th of August 2546, and listened.

****************

The New Alamo Research Facility was founded by the Terran Hegemony Central Intelligence Bureau as a top-secret laboratory for the development of alternative military technologies. It was hoped that the ‘unique nature’ of the world, by which Twilight was able to discern they meant the presence of magic, plus the rather unconventional manner of traveling to the world would make it an ideal hidden location from which to pursue a plethora of secret projects. In the four years the facility was operational, teams worked on genetic engineering, terraforming, and weapons systems deemed too confidential to be undertaken anywhere else.

Scientists assigned to one of the facility’s projects would live at the site and bring their families. A small number of colonists were brought on as well to lend the base a measure of self-sustenance. The location of the facility was considered of the utmost secrecy. Even the people living there were told they were on a planet ‘in the vicinity of Carver V.’ No mail was allowed off the planet unless special permission was granted, and then only after passing under the heavy scrutiny of the censors. Only the commanding officer and a handful of scientists actively studying the Kearny-Fuchida physics behind the phenomenon that brought them here knew the truth, and they were under very strict orders to keep their mouths shut. Even the JumpShip captains were carefully screened by HCIB and operated only under the watchful eye of operatives.

Then, on September 18th, 2549 Director-General Joseph Cameron was assassinated by a rogue Marine Corps Captain and member of a cabal of soldiers dissatisfied with the Director-General’s policies. His brother, Ian Cameron took over as leader of the Terran Hegemony and put down a revolt by those same dissatisfied soldiers which had occupied the ancient city of Geneva. This was history Captain Tartaglia knew well. Ian Cameron would go on to found the Star League and be the first to hold the title First Lord.

This new Director-General either had little knowledge of the secret research facility, or deemed the expense too great, or simply felt it was superfluous. In any case, the facility was shut down in early 2550. All equipment was removed and the colonists scattered across Hegemony space. The last entry in Colonel Guillaume’s log was dated 6 June, 2550, as she looked out across a ghost town, preparing to board the last DropShip off planet.

****************

The pilot of the Felicity Klimkosky looked up as the door to the bridge slid open. He did not smile, nor really show any emotion at all, as the dark-skinned woman strode across the floor and slid into one of the empty crew stations.

“Were you spotted?” he asked quietly. They were alone, but he still felt the need to keep his voice down.

Corporal Liz Virat was more cavalier in her attitude, “Of course not. Everyone else is either off the ship or down in engineering. I know I’m not supposed to be found outside of my ‘cell’.”

“Did you find anything?”

Liz nodded, “In addition to the docking collar airlock, there’s also evidence of tampering with bulkheads five and fourteen leading to the Tech barracks and my storage locker.”

“We’re running out of time, Corporal. We’ve already been here what? Three? Four days? The expedition team could be back at any moment.”

Liz pinched the bridge of her nose, “I know, I know. But at least we know it’s one of the infantry team now.”

“Or someone is trying to frame the infantry team,” the pilot countered.

Liz cocked her head, “I don’t think so. If that were the case, we would see more tampering to other locks around the ship. Whoever this guy is, he’s a really sloppy lockpick.”

That revelation did not exactly put the pilot at ease, “Any idea who?”

“Well, we know it wasn’t the Leftenant. That leaves Quigley, Ackermann, Harris, and Nao. Quigley’s an idiot, but I can’t see him pulling something like this. Ackermann’s usually really friendly, though he’s been in a really bad mood recently. He’s really outspoken anti-Capellan. I don’t know that much about his personal life, though. Nao was decorated for valor for his service during the civil war, if that means anything. And Harris is my best friend. She’s no Liao sympathizer.”

“And all four of them have each other plus you as alibis…”

“Not really. How else do you think the Leftenant and Captain made my ‘arrest’ plausible?” she wiggled her fingers to indicate quotation marks, “None of them have a rock-solid alibi for the time in question.”

“And so they’re all suspects. And all of them are out with the Captain at the site.” Liz responded to his statements with a grim nod. “This is bad,” Liz nodded again, “Do you think Ling’s little ruse of appearing to fall for the frame-job will work?”

Liz stood and moved for the door, “I don’t know. But, somehow, I doubt it.”

****************

“So, was the Thessalonica ever actually here?” Ramirez was doing his best to absorb Tartaglia and Twilight’s rapid-fire lecture. He stood between Ling and Dr. Langley, with Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash at their feet. Spike sat on the old clerk’s desk, and Twilight and Tartaglia stood across from them. They had been unable to convince Fluttershy to venture beyond the hangar, so she had stayed behind with the rest of the infantry team and Pinkie Pie to keep her company.

Twilight answered for the two of them, “Here at this site, probably not. As far as the commanding officer’s logs let on, the Thessalonica left Equestria directly. It was a second ship, the Jeremy Sanborn, that followed up on their report and sited this colony.”

“A secret research facility,” Ling shook his head in disbelief, “It’s too bad they didn’t leave any of their research behind.”

Rarity changed the topic, “But if the Thessalonica left and other ships came later—a lot of other ships by the sound of it—then that means the Silvertongue can leave, too.”

“Indeed it does,” Captain Tartaglia confirmed, “Unfortunately, it’s a little more complicated than a simple jump, and we’ve been unable to find a written version of the protocol.”

“But it can be done?” asked Applejack.

“Yes,” Twilight replied, “Fortunately, we managed to piece together enough of the protocol that the Captain thinks they might be able to make a go of it. It’s still a bit of a longshot, though.”

“That’s actually why I asked you down here,” Tartaglia addressed the three other humans, “I want my officers, and NCO, to know the details, just in case.” He turned to the unicorn, “Twilight, care to do the honors?”

Twilight stepped up to the desk and cleared her throat, “Now, I’m not totally clear on some of the terminology or how your K-F drive works, but I can explain what you need to do. You see, the Thessalonica was brought here originally by a ‘misjump’ on its JumpShip, the Due Diligence. This misjump coincided with an explosion in the engineering section.”

“Sounds familiar,” grumbled Ling.

Twilight ignored him, “On an off-chance, the chief engineer of the Due Diligence set off a second explosion when they attempted to jump away from Equestria. Apparently, it worked because within a year, the Hegemony Central Intelligence Bureau managed to duplicate the Due Diligence’s jump by setting off a small explosion in the engineering section.”

“So, all we have to do to get home is set another bomb?” Ramirez asked, “Seems simple enough. What’s the catch?”

“The bomb has to be small so as not to actually cause any damage and it has to go off at exactly the right time to induce a…variance, I think they called it, in the jump initiator. The timing has to be perfect to the microsecond, and even then eight out of ten times the jump is either aborted or goes along without a misjump.”

“But when it does work, it always goes between Equestria and Valexa?” Ling was following easily.

“Not Valexa necessarily. They mention jumps mostly from Ningpo, Kansu, and New Hessen.”

“Those are all within two jumps of Valexa. Just a little coreward and antispinward of us,” Dr. Langley chimed in. Twilight didn’t know exactly what she meant by those terms, but she could guess.

“Any idea how this whole things works?” Ling raised a questioning finger.

Tartaglia answered, “I don’t think even the crack brains the Hegemony had working on it even figured it out. Right now, I don’t really care how it works, just that it does. And we’ve got it right here.” He pulled a small data disk from his pocket, “All we have to do now is get this disk to the Silvertongue. This, plus a little of that C8 we found, and we just might get back home. I’m telling you this so that from this point on out, any one of us can complete this objective.”

“That’s all very interesting,” a new voice called from the doorway. They turned to see the stocky frame of Private Ackermann blocking the doorway. He brandished a large pistol in one hand and extended the other toward the group, “I’ll be taking that data disk now.”

“I was wondering when you’d make your move, you coward.” Tartaglia growled, “I was half-expecting you to just kill outright.”

“What makes you think I’m not going to?” Ackermann waved his pistol. “Believe me, I’d love to just finish you off, but I’d much rather make it back to the Inner Sphere, and the ability to return here to this world would prove most beneficial to my masters. So I’ll be taking the disk now.”

“The Capellans paying you well for this, Ackermann?” Ling’s hand drifted towards his sidearm.

“Leave those hands where I can see them,” Ackermann leveled the gun at Ling. He sniffed, “As if House Liao knew anything about any of this. I’m not with the Capellans, you short-sited dolt. We’re much more powerful than those fools, than any of the so-called great houses. But none of that will matter to any of you very shortly.”

“And just how do you plan on covering this up?” Ling crossed his arms and scowled.

Ackermann just smiled, “Oh, don’t you worry about that. These old buildings are so unstable. Prone to collapse at the most inopportune times.” He added sarcastically, “Oh, poor Captain Tartaglia. Buried in a freak cave-in with the others. How tragic. Good thing I managed to recover the protocol to get away from this Blake-forsaken rock. And then my masters can return here, bring those obstinate ponies to heel, and bring forth a new and glorious dawn for humanity.”

“Masters? New dawn for humanity?” Dr. Langley cocked her head, “You’re with the Word of Blake, aren’t you?”

Ackermann mimed a slow clap, “Congratulations, give the lady a prize. But, like I said, it won’t matter to you very shortly. Now if you’ll just give me the data disk, I’ll make this quick then be on my way with the ponies.”

“Excuse me?” Rarity thrust an indignant nose in the air, “We will not be going anywhere with you, you ruffian.”

“Fair enough. I only really need one of you.” He pointed the pistol squarely at the incensed unicorn who stood her ground defiantly, staring directly into his eyes.

Movement in the corner of his eye caught Ackermann’s attention. Ramirez had managed to slip around to the side and launch a surprise attack. He lunged, smacking Ackermann’s gun hand to the side and driving a knee into his stomach. As he struck, Ackermann’s finger tightened and the gun discharged with a loud bang and flash of light. Winded and doubled over by the attack, the Private tried to strike back, but Applejack leapt forward and planted her back hooves squarely into his chest, sending him sprawling across the cold floor. Ramirez seized the initiative and grabbed Ackermann’s collar, heaving him up before driving an angry fist into his face. Enraged, the MechWarrior raised his arm to strike again.

“Stop!” Twilight’s clear voice rang out. Her ears still rang from the sound of the gunshot. She was disoriented, but she planted her hooves as solidly as she could, “Do not hurt him! Take him prisoner, but don’t hurt him!”

Ramirez stared at her for a moment then released his grip on the sputtering Blakist and stood up, “Ok,” he nodded, “Anyone have some handcuffs or… Oh, shit, Doc!” Dr. Langley was clutching her arm where the bullet had passed just below the shoulder. Blood soaked through her fingers as she slumped weakly to her knees.

He shouldn’t have let go. In a flash, Ackermann was to his feet. In one quick move, he snatched a cylinder from his vest and tossed it into the room as he bolted down the corridor.

“Grenade!” shouted Ling as he flung himself to the ground behind the heavy desk. As he dove, he grabbed hold of Rainbow and Applejack and smothered them to the floor. Tartaglia grabbed Dr. Langey while Twilight looked on confused. Rarity followed suit and dove to the floor, but as she did so her horn sparked and she sent the offending object skittering out through the doorway and down the hall. It exploded harmlessly, spraying shrapnel into the ferrocrete walls. If the gunshot was loud, this was deafening.

Twilight couldn’t hear anything for several long seconds. She stood in a daze as a heavy dust wafted in to the small room from the doorway. Around her, her friends and the humans picked themselves up and checked themselves and each other over. Twilight found herself looking into the face of Ramirez. His lips moved, but she couldn’t hear him. Eventually, she made out as if from far away that he was asking if she was all right. She could tell from the rushing ringing in her ears her hearing was returning.

Rainbow Dash shook the dust from her mane, “I knew he was no good! Let’s get him!” She took off at a shot but found herself stopped short by Applejack who grabbed her multicolored tail in her mouth.

“Hold on there, partner,” Applejack said through a mouthful of hair, “Langley’s hurt. We gotta help her first.”

Dr. Langley propped herself up against the desk, “I’ll be fine, you go.”

“You sure, Doc?” Tartaglia looked her in the eyes as he placed a reassuring hand on her good shoulder.

She winced, “Yeah. I can patch myself up. I don’t think it’s bad. You go get that bastard.”

Rainbow Dash was already halfway out the door, “Let’s go, let’s go!” Rarity and Twilight leapt up after her, followed by Ramirez, Ling, and, after one last look at Langley, Tartaglia.

Applejack stayed behind, “I’m gonna stay and help the Doc. Spike, ya’ think ya’ could lend me a hoof, or erm, claw?”

Spike looked between the others running off in pursuit of the man who just tried to kill them and the wounded doctor. “Ok,” he said, running to Applejack’s side, “What do you need?”

Dr. Langley motioned with her head to her bag, “First cut the fabric so I can get a look. There’s scissors in my bag, side pocket.” Applejack fetched the bag and Spike dug out the scissors and carefully cut the sleeve away from Langley’s arm.

“Oh, that’s a lot of blood,” the dragon was feeling woozy.

Dr. Langley peered down at the wound, “Looks like it wasn’t deep. Just went through he muscle. That’s good. You’ll need to keep me from going into shock. There’s medipatches and stimpatches in the main pocket right on top.” Applejack pulled the foil-wrapped patches from the bag and gave them to Spike who ripped the packages open and stuck the adhesive to Dr. Langley’s skin. She sighed as the medication took effect, easing her pain.

“Alright, what’s next?” asked Applejack.

****************

The sound of the explosion filtering up from below told the three Militia Privates that something wasn’t right. Grabbing their rifles, Harris and Nao dashed into the interior of the heavy ferrocrete structure with a worried Pinkie Pie close at their heels. Slower off the mark, Quigley decided to hang back and cover the entrance until he received orders. Fluttershy managed to make it as far as the door leading from the dusty hangar into the headquarters before her nerves got the better of her.

“P-Pinkie Pie?” she called out in a quavering voice after her friend who had already disappeared into the gloom. She sat herself down in the doorway and listened. Frantic shouts met her ears, making her even more nervous.

Harris, Nao, and Pinkie had made it to the top of the stairwell when they were met by a dark form barreling towards them up the stairs.

“Hey, Ackermann! What’s going on? What was that…” Private Nao was in the lead when Ackermann reached them. He heard a faint hum as the stocky man slashed a vibroblade at him as he passed. Shocked, Nao leapt back as he felt a warm sting across his collarbone and chin. Not quite comprehending, he slumped against the wall and stared at the splash of red blood on the grey wall.

Ackermann swept past the stricken infantryman and lashed out towards Harris with his humming blade. Harris was surprised, of course, but managed to spot the danger coming. She yelled in surprised as she raised her rifle to block the blow. The vibroblade cut deep into the plastic and composites. She wrenched the rifle to the side, twisting the blade out of her assailant’s grasp. The weapon clattered to the floor as Ackermann scurried away down the corridor. Harris was about to give chase when a groan from Nao drew her attention.

“Ow. What the hell is his problem?” the wounded man said, touching gingerly at his face.

Harris cursed and knelt down by her comrade. She peeled the torn and blood-soaked fabric away from his collar to inspect the wound, “You alright?” she asked.

Nao winced and shakily rose to his feet, “I think so. Yeah.” Only the tip of the vibroblade had nicked him, laying open the skin over his collarbone and up his cheek but nothing else. He would be alright, but right now the wound was bleeding profusely.

Pinkie Pie was rooted to the spot. The sudden violence scared her, and for once she didn’t know what to do. She found all she could do was stare at the bright red blood staining Nao’s face and uniform.

Harris turned to face the little pony as she extracted a medipatch and bandage from a pocket, “Hey, pink one. What was your name? Pink Cake? Pink Pie? You can understand me right?” Pinkie Pie snapped out of her daze and nodded, “Good. Go get the doc…” she was interrupted by a cacophony from the stairs as Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Rarity tumbled up the stairs followed closely by the Captain, Leftenant and Sargent.

Ling stooped to check on Nao’s wounds, “Doc’s downstairs. Go help her out.” Nao looked quizzical at his choice of words, but gave a weak salute and moved off down the stairs.

Harris grabbed Ling’s arm, “Sir? What’s going on?”

Before he could answer, Quigley appeared around the corner, “What in Blake’s name is going on? Ackermann just grabbed that yellow pony and ran off in a jeep!”

Twilight stopped cold. He’d taken Fluttershy? She felt hot rage boiling up inside her at the same time the blood drained from her face.