Archangelsk, Russia

An area found in Russia, Also the name of a town and, in this book of a Base.

BC 03/3, 4, 5 Konrad's hidden base, that no one could find. Really an NVG Research Base, developed and supported by Konrad. Had taken him maybe years to find the site. Cave formation, with open lands in front of it, excellent for base. Forests close. Could not be detected by any means - not satellite, sonar, radar, heat-detecting instruments, or Etheric energy detectors. Only legend allowed them to pinpoint even an approximate location, then an injured soldier spouted out the GPS numbers, and they had found it. Had accomodated between 400 - 800 people when it was operating at full capacity, as anyone who had come onto the base, stayed. It was THAT secret Zakhar was the Commander in chief of the base, taking orders from Konrad. He had not heard from Konrad in months, and had not broken silence, as he knew it would be worth his life to do so.

The cave system near the base was inhabited by a creature Michael had imprisoned there. One of the digits in the forepaws was sticking out at right angles compared to the other four. It looked like, whatever the creature was, it was returning to the cave every two to three days. When the humans began to come into the cave, the creature began eating them, leading to great unease by Zakhar. By the time Boris and Janna had found the base, the Beast had frightened off or killed most of them, so that there were only perhaps 30 - 50 people still there. Boris, Janna and Paul captured the Beast, and set the base to rest.

But the base needed protection and defense. With Bethany Anne’s assistance, they had moved more than a hundred of the former mercenaries from Boris’ town, and a group of about thirty trusted ex-mercs who wanted in on whatever TQB was doing that had contacted Boris through back channels. Boris welcomed the new blood from outside. They would have skills and techniques he was less well versed in. They would also be an enormous asset to improving the effectiveness of his small force. The site was simply too dangerous and valuable to treat with any laxity in security. Several of the trusted mercs were taking some of the strain of leadership off of Boris’ shoulders.

When they investigated the cave system, "we hear something like the whispering of some sort in our heads. Could there be a Kurtherian still alive in the caves that is trying to contact outside?" After they spent a week mapping the cave system, Alecta noticed that there was one interesting feature. A straight arrow hole that seemed to have been bored through from the entrance to deep within the system. t was agreed to try and explore the tunnel as far as possible. At the end of the tunnel they found the wreckage of what looked to be some form of space craft. What looked like a campsite in the large cavern had been set up for a being smaller than most humans, and the whispering grew louder. With what Boris knew, he was sure it was a Kurtherian spaceship that had been wrecked here. With the family warnings and the odd beast that had been guarding it, he was feeling sure this was the one responsible for the nanites inside his mother and himself. Bethany Anne complimented him on finding the third Kurtherian landing site. The only reason the cave hadn’t been detected decades ago was that it held significant iron deposits according to Alecta, making it a reasonably effective Faraday cage.

One item had been identified by TOM from the pictures, combined with the emissions that the ship gave off inside the cave. It was evident that the damaged vessel had a crude, somewhat inefficient, and very dangerously modified Etheric energy converter. This was probably the reason the computer in the cave still seemed to be fully functional and active. No one had yet come up with an answer as to why this ship was here, or how it had crashed. ADAM was still running an analysis of the wreck and debris to try and piece together the ship’s original design.The analysis of the alloy scrapings had confirmed that the ship was more than two and a half thousand years old. No Kurtherian would have built a ship with such comparatively fragile alloys when the alloys that had been used to make, for example, TOM’s own ship were cheaper and tougher. They had decided to delay the analysis of what seemed to be the ship’s computer until Shen arrived. It wasn't its size that would identify the era which it came from for Tom, but rather its design and processing power. As with humans, the design could define a period of history that such an artifact could be placed in.

Boris had asked Shen to come, to try to analyze the situation with the computer. TOM had already warned Shen not to attempt to take apart the suspected computers in the cave as they could be early model organic computers and any attempt to take them apart, especially considering their age, could destroy them. Shen decided it would be best to build a Faraday cage around it, to discourage any escape potential. It already seems to have a limited means of communication. (whispering). Alecta was of great assistance to him in setting up the Faraday cage and was a competent assistant in setting up the push button arrangement for the object TOM had described as a keyboard equivalent. He was still working on a means to simulate an organic fingertip for each of the hundred- plus “Plungers” he had designed to press the keys.

His device was a perfect example of the KISS principle in many ways. It was run on compressed air and had a piston aligned to each key. The keyboard was bulkier than modern human ones, the keys larger. TOM had given no explanation of why. It was an itch he couldn’t scratch to Shen, but he was willing to put up with it to be the first human to do the equivalent of a Kurtherian Historical Records search.

He had even convinced TOM, after much discussion, to teach him the Kurtherian language, so there was more than one person to interpret the data.

In order to disguise the true identity of this base, Boris decided to build a town, New Romanovka, for the people who chose to remain on Earth rather than follow Bethany Anne into space. He would move their current base of operations to this new location. Spreading the town away from the cave mouth and then digging a tunnel into the cave was the best option. And she had the waste material from the asteroid mining being converted into prefabricated housing. It was being sent straight to the proposed town. Since it was actually slag turned into walls, there wouldn’t be much for them to pull out of it, so Boris had permission to trade samples of it for favors as needed. Who knew, maybe they’d ask if they could buy some for military housing or something. There was insulation between the slag outer and inner walls, so they would be cheaper than most buildings to heat or cool.They would also have to tunnel and create hidden bunkers on the edge of the forest. Bethany Anne was not enamored of pissing the Russian government off simply for the sake of it. If they weren't going to piss in her backyard, she would do her best to avoid pissing in theirs.

Boris wanted more and better weapons to defend the town, :just in case". There were already plans to place a puck defense system, similar to the one she was leaving in Japan, in the valley and covering the mountain. Boris was already planning on making contact with nearby farms for supplies of fresh produce, and several Black Eagles under ADAM’s control were far overhead in case the Russian government decided to play hardball. Once the Pucks were in, Boris and a handful of people he designated would be put in control of them. Boris still wanted a MotherPucker, just in case he had a large target to take out, like, say the entire Russian Government and senior military structure. For the time being Bethany Anne was saying ‘no’ still. The Russians are quiet, they are one of the few countries actually supporting the effective embargo on alien tech I’ve put up in the UN. They haven’t even commented on the fact that I obviously have at least an allied force that is more effective at rooting out their own problems internally than they are.If you go after the government with a MotherPucker, the number of civilian deaths could be more than would be good for either of our consciences. But I will throw you a bone. I’ll send down a bunch of armor penetrating tranquilizer darts so you don’t have to kill any small force the Russians might send to investigate. Then you can send them back, gift wrapped, as a cute little reminder that the government had better not think about fucking with the agreement between them and us.”