Signs from Heaven by Phaedra M. Weldon

train wreck coming a mile away.
    Vanov studied the door a few seconds more, then reached out to it and began feeling around the wood. “If it’s a vault of some sort, it should have a hidden panel about shoulder to eye level. Pressure on the door should open it.”
    â€œAnd then?”
    â€œAnd then…” His lips curled into a large smile. “Found it.” He pushed in.
    The panel receded into the wood, revealing two levers.
    â€œWait.” Bart held up his hands. “Booby traps. You mentioned those. We need to be careful.”
    â€œSurely no one ever came down here to set them. The Disruptors usually left their mark where it could be seen.” Vanov shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry.”
    â€œAll the same.” Corsi took a step forward. “I’d feel much safer if you’d let me open it.”
    â€œNonsense,” Vanov said and put his hand into the recessed panel.
    Bart waited for the boom.

    Stratos’s main engineering sprawled over three levels, tiered out much like seating in a theater, but with each descending tier triple the size of the one above it. The group entered on the uppermost tier, descended to the second, or middle, tier where three podiums faced the final tier.
    All of this projected out over an open pit in the shape of a teardrop, visible from tier one. Air moved up in a continuous stream from the pit surrounding them, but to Fabian’s surprise, it didn’t create a deafening howl.
    Three Ardanan engineers moved up and down the tiers, checking readouts on their own form of padds and bowed to the da Vinci crew as they walked down the center stairway, mouths open in shock.
    â€œI can honestly say…” Fabian said as he stepped onto the third tier and looked up…and up…at the tall cylindrical obelisk standing in front of them at the platform’s edge. “That I have no idea how to make it go.”
    Pattie asked, “So what exactly are we looking at?”
    Engineer Dreena, a tall brunette woman whose physique and height could rival Corsi’s, smiled. “This is the handiwork of the great Busk. The Engineer of Stratos. He called it Soske.”
    Of course he did . Fabian pursed his lips. So which came first — the cylinder or the kid?
    â€œWe identified the general components of the engine room,” Captain Scott said as he moved to stand in front of the monolith. “Imagine this as the warp core…”
    â€œAh,” Tev said, quickly comprehending. “Deflector station over there, graviton generators over there.”
    â€œI can detect a faint purring sound,” Pattie said as she scanned.
    The others looked at one another and shook their heads. All but Fabian. He could hear… something . A buzzing between his ears, though with a cadence. He’d heard it since they walked into the cavernous room and the pain behind his eyes had intensified.
    He put his hand to his head.
    â€œIt looks like a silo,” Pattie said.
    Fabian nodded inward. Yeah, a big, black scary silo.
    Dreena said, “We suspected the cylinder in front of you has something to do with the city’s main thrusters—moving it from place to place. It’s maintained this fixed position for some time, but it once glided on air.”
    Fabian looked around as well, his own tricorder out and running scans, though none of the information he received made sense. It was as if the tiny scanner’s probes were being bounced back to it.
    By looking up he guessed the ceiling had to be around a third of a kilometer high. The cylinder stood in the center of the room framed by a spherical wall. “If that theory holds true, then the thing’s got to have a steering wheel.”
    â€œAye,” Scotty said. “We need to find out why the RPMs needed to maintain the right flow of anti-gravitons has fallen off.”
    Tev said, “Assuming that that is the reason why the city is falling, we shall