The colony. Chapter 6: Morning at a military base

The next morning, Raytnov got up early. The day before, when he accompanied the arrivals to their rooms, he unnoticed from the others agreed with Gordon and Barney to see him in the hangar in the morning and discuss something. They agreed to meet at eight o'clock, but Raytnov came half an hour before the appointed time. In order not to waste time in vain, he began to repair the rover, where he and the doctor came here.

Raytnov loved to work in the morning. For him, it was the same time when any work brought the greatest benefits - whether it be the work of the head or hands. He connected a lot of sensors to the engine, started the rover and began to look for problems, carefully looking at the graphics. At first glance, everything looked good, but he decided to let the engine run some more. Ten minutes later, the energy began to run out, and the rover switched to fuel supply.

“But this is already a mess,” said Raytnov, connecting the exhaust hose.

The battery should be stable enough for several hours of driving, and when the energy was running out, the rover switched to fuel. Then the generator came into play - it converted the mechanical energy from the movement of the rover into electricity. In less than an hour, the battery again had to accumulate enough energy so that the rover could not use fuel for a few more hours.

“So it’s all about you,” said Raytnov, peering into the generator’s schedule. Indeed, the values ​​deviated somewhat from the norm.

He drowned out the rover, disconnected all the sensors and put them on the appropriate shelf of the rack with the tools. Then he began to unscrew the bolts that hold the engine to the body. Hearing the hissing of the door, he looked up and saw Gordon enter.

- Good morning! I thought you and Barney would come along, ”said Raytnov, glancing at his watch. It was five minutes to eight.
- It always comes exactly at the time. Not a minute later and not a minute earlier, - Gordon smiled and extended his hand.
- This is a good quality. But you came very timely - I just need a little help.

Raytnov walked up to the lift stand and pressed the down arrow button. From the winch, four cables with attachment hooks began to creep out smoothly from above. He carefully fixed each of them to the engine and said:

- Come on, lift.

Gordon pressed another button, and the winch began to slowly take back its cables, while raising the engine. Raytnov slightly held his hands so that he rose vertically and never caught.

- Enough!

Now the whole engine was visible, and, most importantly, access to the generator appeared. Raytnov walked over to the shelving and took the wrench.

“Not that one,” he heard Gordon’s voice and turned inquiringly.

Gordon took another key, a smaller one.

“You didn't take that key.” Here you need this - a small rover, and with that key you will not be able to crawl to the mount.

He went to the engine and began to unscrew the securing bolts with a key of the desired size. They were hard to reach, but Gordon easily took them off one by one and put them on the stand next to them.

“That's good,” he said, when only two bolts were left, “and now we need to maintain it so that it does not fall.”

Raytnov wrapped his arms around the generator.

- Do you absolutely remember all this? - he has taken an interest, - what and what key is unscrewed?
“Of course,” Gordon replied, “I'm a pilot.” How many rovers we have already moved from Barney - do not count. We had a lot of them on the Delta, so we often had to maintain. There was not much to fight with anyone, so we sat for days in the hangar and in the hall.

Gordon was distracted for a second and looked at his watch.

- By the way, he should be right now. Without a couple of seconds, eight.

At these words, the door hissed again, and Barney stepped inside, causing an explosion of laughter from the rover.

- Laughing at my punctuality again? - he deliberately declared in a serious voice from the doorway, addressing Gordon - I remember that you also laughed at the fact that I was carrying a gun to the dining room. How did it end, please remind?
“Okay, okay,” he replied, still laughing, “I already learned that.”

Gordon continued to unscrew the bolts, and soon the last of them went to the tray to the others.

“Let's go together,” he said, and stood beside Raytnov.

Together, they slightly raised the generator and removed it from the mounts. It was a rather hard thing, but the two of them were too uncomfortable to carry, so they froze for a couple of seconds trying to figure out how to turn around. Barney smiled, seeing the confusion of his comrades, and asked:

- Do you need help?

Without waiting for an answer, he came up and took the generator out of their hands, and then with ease, as if it were some kind of toy, carried it to the desktop next to the shelf.

“Impressive,” Raytnov approved, “but let's postpone the repair now and discuss what I gathered you here for an hour before breakfast.”

All three went to the corner of the hangar, where there was a small seating area, and settled there in the chairs.

“As you understand, I don’t really trust Angus,” Raytnov began his speech.
“If everything is exactly as you say,” Barney said, “then this whole story with him is really too strange.”
“And from the very beginning it seemed strange to me his early awakening from hibernation,” Raytnov continued, “but he told me that it was only an organizational moment.
“I found on my tablet that the multilevel sounding of Demetrion made it possible to detect absolutely all more or less large life forms inhabiting here,” added Gordon, “and for some reason it seems to me that the titans are still quite a large form.

Raytnov looked out the window, while stroking his beard with his right hand. It was rather windy outside - a long-promised storm began. After a few seconds of deliberation, he continued:

- I propose to consider two versions.

Gordon and Barney looked at him in anticipation.

“First, the doctor is telling the truth, and I really couldn't find it in the bunker.” In this case, we are in the same boat with him.
“And the second one,” said Barney, “we are simply being fed with false information.” They want us to believe that someone needs from above.
“Exactly,” Raytnov nodded, “and I suggest we stick to the second option.”

The pilots looked at each other and nodded approvingly. Then Gordon got up, crossed his arms over his chest, and began to stroll along beside the chairs. He was in the habit of measuring the room during meditations and did so unconsciously.

“We need a process,” he concluded, “according to which we will be able to exchange information without falling under the counter suspicions of the doctor.”
“What about Isaac and Emilia,” asked Raytnov, “can we trust them?”
- We can. These guys are proven, but ... let's not plunge them into our suspicions for now, ”suggested Gordon.

Barney, too, stood up and said:

- Yes, it will be better. We can even do a little experiment. The fact is that Emilia is very keen on psychology. Although it is not her main specialty, but it turns out she's great. If she noticed something suspicious in Angus's behavior, then your suspicions, Alex, are not unreasonable.

It was obvious that he himself liked this idea.

“Great,” agreed Raytnov and looked at his watch, “before breakfast a little over half an hour, let's go back to our rooms and go down to the dining room by nine o'clock.”

With these words, he headed for an effervescent door leading to the transition between the buildings, and Gordon and Barney followed him.

Exactly at nine in the morning, everyone except Dr. Angus was in the dining room, and five minutes later he went down. The guys were already sitting with their breakfasts at the table, and Raytnov finally ordered his standard morning cappuccino - today was one of those rare days when he did not drink his favorite drink for a full hour and a half after waking up.

“I apologize for being late, colleagues,” the doctor said in a serious tone, sitting down. “I was too carried away with my latest theory about the mysterious awakening of these creatures, which I completely forgot about the transience of time.

Angus gulped down a glass of water and then continued in a more enthusiastic and friendly voice:

- You seemed so tired yesterday, but now I can't wait to hear your story!

Gordon told him everything, omitting only the episode with the wolf. He was still a little ashamed of this moment. During the story, he briefly interrupted several times to chew another portion of breakfast, and each time the doctor looked forward to continue. Raytnov also listened with great interest, although in part the story was already familiar to him.

“Very interesting,” said Angus thoughtfully, when Gordon told about the episode with a fallen tree, “you just could not see the titan?” Apparently, he was right on the road.
“I reviewed the camera recordings several times,” Gordon replied, “can’t see anything.” By the way, we can reach the rover after breakfast, and you can also look at them.
- With great interest!

The doctor looked very excited and did not hide his enthusiasm, but quickly pulled himself together and continued:

- I apologize for such turbulent emotions. I understand what you had to do, but please understand me too. This is a matter of my life, and even in such a sad situation, I am glad of the possibility of continuing research.
“We understand you,” Emilia said softly, “you mentioned a theory — can you voice it?”
- Of course. Honestly, I have not fully worked on it. It’s worth starting with the discovery that Alex made quite recently.

The doctor began the story, and Raytnov silently put his hand in his pocket, took out a seemingly ordinary stone and put it on the table. He found this stone on a hillside five kilometers north of the Alpha base a few days before the attack. This stone did not stand out externally, but was of great interest due to its composition and structure. The next day after the find, Raytnov organized large-scale drilling of the ground in the same place, but instead of receiving new samples and answering some questions, he lost the drilling rig.

“The fact is,” said the doctor, “that this hill hid a large underground cave beneath, and we drilled a door into it.” And this cave was a closed system! Groundwater flowed into it, creating streams and even small rivers. And what surprised me most of all - these caves were rich in oxygen - real trees grew there! Brand new tree view. We still do not understand how the process of photosynthesis proceeded without exposure to sunlight - this is a mystery, which, unfortunately, we did not have time to solve.

Angus fell silent and wondered if he was trying to come up with an explanation for this riddle, completely forgetting about the people around him. Isaac continued for him:

- If I understand correctly, the theory is that the titans lived in this cave or in one of them?
- What? - the doctor shuddered, - and, yes, just like that. We did not manage to gather enough information about this cave, but I am more than sure that this system is much more than just one underground room. Perhaps this is a whole underworld.
“And having such a system,” said Isaac, “can explain why titans are so exposed to sunlight.” Like why they were not detected during the scanning of the planet.
“Exactly,” Angus agreed, and then continued in a mysterious voice, “Demetrion is full of surprises.”
“This theory does not explain only two things,” Barney, who was silent all this time, added, “why the titans suddenly decided to go outside and why we found their remains on the surface of the planet.”

The doctor thought for a moment, then adjusted his glasses and answered:

- The Boer was pretty big. When he fell inside the cave, the Titans could easily get out through the hole - this also explains the fact that Alpha was the first to be attacked. But for the second question I have no answer yet. As I have already clarified - this is just a theory.

Silence reigned in the dining room for some time, allowing everyone to assess the plausibility of the theory voiced. Gordon broke the silence, referring to the former Alpha settlers:

- You heard our story, but what about you? How did you get out?

Raytnov looked at the doctor, asking him to start. The doctor got the hint.

“That evening we celebrated the birthday of one of our colleagues, Marcus.” I don’t know how to drink and I rarely do this, so I went out on the street under the pretext of feeling bad and having to breathe. I went to the dining room to have a drink, but at the same time I decided to look for Alex, who also left the company. Then it all started.

Angus took off his glasses, put them in front of him and continued:

- I remember this evening very well. But first things first.

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