About the dangers of digging

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***

Peggy Carter couldn't be happy about the new possibilities. And the presence of Bersie - such a useful ISKN could do a lot of things. It could easily monitor bank accounts, penetrate mobile phone networks and closed Internet systems. And easily extracted any kind of information. And after the launch of observation satellites - could replace the entire staff of intelligence. He could find anyone. Otherwise, people themselves gave Bersi such power - every step of a person is stored in computers. CCTV cameras, bank card usage, surfing the internet and using phones without even thinking about the fact that you can discreetly look through their camera and listen through their microphone even if the phone is switched off. Or search for data on the phone. However, understandably, people always found a way to encrypt themselves. They were also kept an eye on - with the help of satellites with cameras. For obvious reasons, satellites were constantly flying over the planet, sniffing out interesting data.

What did the creation of Aegis mean to Peggy? First and foremost, an old job with a clean slate. In a new environment. Constant monitoring of information and monitoring almost all social networks for information of interest to Aegis. People themselves will write everything the service needs to know. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, VK, smaller social networks.....

And it was all done by a separate Ares. It mined all the information about threats, selecting the most valuable from it and filtering out the slag. Of course, Peggy was also involved. The ISKIN, however advanced, could only track a person's electronic footprints posted on the Internet or a closed part of the network, but it needed a person to work in the field. The huge technological staff that Shield was so proud of wasn't needed, it was replaced by a single person who already possessed all the technology needed. Plus he knew things about the Earth that the Shield wouldn't even know - about Asgard, about aliens... The Shield could at most detect their traces or physical evidence, but, as Hyarty had said, digging through alien rubbish was not part of Aegis' goals. For everything else, there was the Internet. Galactic - a bottomless database of knowledge about the entire galaxy. And Hyarty did not hurry to close it from Peggy - thanks to him Peggy just read a lot of interesting information in encyclopaedias. But even that was a speck - its total volume was beyond any reasonable limits. Only an ISKIN could analyse such information, but even that would take at least a month. But she had learnt about Hyarty's fame as the galaxy's main saboteur. She even learnt about the monument, which made her respect it.

At the same time, Peggy visited Earth shops, buying whatever she wanted - her funds were not limited. Steve thought it was wrong, but did not cross his girlfriend.

Early in the morning, on the ninth of January, two thousand sixth year, Peggy woke up in Steve's bed and decided it was time to sort of start work. Too many strange reports and situations had piled up. Somewhere in Australia they had found something underground and there was no one to send it to but Steve. And Peggy could have flown out herself.

- Steve, get up," she nudged Steve, "are you tired or something?

Rogers quickly got out from under the blanket and, stretching, asked:

- And you?

- We still have work to do," Peggy smiled, "we're going to Australia today. I'll check out this suit....

Rogers took a deep breath:

- All right, all right. When do we leave?

- We'll have breakfast and then we're off. Get ready.

* * *

A Tau-type light landing shuttle was waiting for them in the hangar. The droids were there, too. Rogers and Carter entered the hangar, wearing suits that were almost identical, except for the proportions.

Ares stepped into the conversation. In his husky bass he announced:

- You'll be flying droids with you.

- Why do we need them? - Peggy wondered.

- The nature of the threat is uncertain. We need support.

- All right," Peggy sighed, "just don't let them get in the way.

- I've covered the discovery on the Internet, but the people at Shield will know soon enough. We have to act fast.

Peggy looked at the dozen commando droids with firearms in their hands. For conspiracy purposes, they used standard weapons that could be thrown on the battlefield without fear of losing their secret designs. The droids resembled humans in dummy armour. The landing shuttle, converted from a cargo orbital shuttle, had an armoured durasteel hull, a lantern, a powerful searchlight and firearms - a minigun machine gun on a rack to cover the landing party, and in the turret a 14.5mm six-barrel machine gun, a larger calibre analogue of the same minigun, and a dozen missiles. In general, Peggy was not afraid to fly under the cover of such a serious machine - only she had more than three thousand shells for the big guns, and they weighed half a tonne.

The droids were compactly placed in the desatellite compartment, not preventing Peggy and Steve to sit on the most trump card seats - pilot and assistant pilot.

Steve asked:

- So what's up with that?

- An archaeological expedition discovered some larger, clearly man-made structure underground, at the depth of a six thousand year old layer. It's hard to say exactly now.

- It's not that important. We'll see for ourselves. What does Ares say?

- He'll destroy it as soon as he's given the order. In the meantime, I thought I'd fly out on my own, see what's out there. Who knows?

Steve thought it was the right thing to do - better to look first, then shoot. The shuttle was heading for land and before you knew it, it was entering the atmosphere. It entered the atmosphere nose-first - Steve still couldn't get used to it, and he was a little shaky - after all, falling downwards - it was a pleasure. Even if you're sitting in a chair, the sensation is extreme.

They were falling into the centre of Australia. The continent was fast approaching and finally the surface became visible. Both Steve and Peggy clung to their seats, but the shuttlecraft assumed a horizontal position and being completely invisible, gently slid through the air towards the target. Both exhaled. They looked at each other and laughed.

It was hot at the excavation. It was evening - everyone had already left their workplaces, only the archaeologists and guards remained. The poisonous fauna of the continent was dangerous in itself. Snakes, spiders, lizards and dingo dogs... The excavations were enclosed by a solid fence and barbed wire. Dogs and snakes couldn't climb over it.

But the shuttle flew over and came down smoothly. This time they unearthed a flat slab of stone, with many hieroglyphs in an unknown language. Apparently, it was the roof of something - under the slab ultrasonic scanners saw a void.

- How do we proceed? - Steve asked.

- You're in charge of operations ...

- I completed the last one seventy years ago," Steve reminded her.

- You were trained by Hjarti himself," Peggy quipped.

- Why 'Himself'," Stephen said, suddenly grasping the word, "do you already idolise our chief?

- Just so you know, they put a monument to him as a saboteur. In his lifetime. You won't find a guy as agile as him in the whole galaxy, though there are plenty of agile guys out there, some as good as you.

Steve didn't say anything. Peggy changed the subject: "We'll go in invisible. No one will notice. After that, we'll look at the hieroglyphics and try to get inside.....

- Isn't that dangerous?

- We're wearing airtight suits that can withstand a nuclear blast. Of course it's not dangerous. After that, we'll take a look around and then we'll take it from there.

- How do we get in?

- We'll have to get the droid to shoot a hole with his rifle, and we'll use it to get in.

That's what we did. Peggy was the commander - they both jumped out of the shuttle and, controlling the flight, moved towards the slab. They descended, took a closer look.

- Ares, search the galactic database. Whose symbols are these?

- One second. I'm looking.

Peggy landed softly on the slab and kept looking at the symbols.

- We got one match.

- Oh, who is it?

- Segerra. One of the worlds of the Asgard Empire.

- So... - Peggy looked over to Steve, - and what could they be doing on the planet?

- Just a second. There's not a lot of information. However, given that earth is also part of the Asgardian Empire - it's quite possible that they came to earth earlier. Millennia ago.

- That's something we've already realised...

Peggy was pensive. Should she go down or not? She decided to go down. She called up the droid and asked him for his rifle.

- Maybe I should do it. Steven asked.

- You don't think I know how to shoot? No offence, Steve, but I was a shield operative for years..." Peggy slipped the Widow's power cable into the suit's slot and, when the weapon reported ready, placed it against the slab. She fired - almost silently. The projectile, which flew at a terrible speed, most likely destroyed somewhere deep in the lithosphere of the planet, or even reached the core. The velocity is such that you can't use this penetrator otherwise - you could accidentally punch through a dozen buildings in the nearest town. Peggy handed the rifle to a nearby droid and was the first to shrink to the size of a gnat. Stephen followed behind her. Two bright lights, the mark of the repulsors, flew into the hole she had made. Peggy ordered the droids:

- Guard upstairs, under invisibility. Don't do anything, better yet, go back to the shuttle, stay close by just in case.

- Acknowledged, ma'am," the main droid replied and led the others away.

* * *

It was dark inside. But there was plenty of room. Peggy activated the thermal imaging mode without turning on the spotlight yet. Stephen didn't bother with that, but turned on the spotlight, two brightly shining strips on his shoulders that illuminated everything for dozens of metres ahead. They were in the middle of a large corridor, the walls of which were scrawled with unknown hieroglyphics. Peggy took in her normal size, as did Steve. She took a closer look at the hieroglyphics:

- Ares, are you taking notes?

- Ares: Yes, I am.

- What does it say?

- It's hard to decipher right now. A lot of the words I don't know, they could be names, terms...

Peggy shook her head:

- Keep the picture for now.

Steve walked along with interest - he'd never been to a place like this before. The suits and spotlights gave at least a rough sense of security. Peggy walked on, asking Steve to stay close to her.

Further down the corridor was an exit into a small hall, filled with strange objects that were hardly recognisable as military equipment. Helmets, armour, swords... they were relatively well preserved. Steve even picked up one sword, twirling it in his hand. Not his size, he discarded it.

The corridor was clearly concrete, solid concrete.

Peggy assumed it was a military building - why else would there be so much stuff here?

- Maybe there had been corpses here, but they had decayed over the millennia. - Steve reasoned, "It's been a long time.

- Well... then there would have been something other than armour.

- Was there much metal in the clothes? I doubt it.

Peggy shrugged:

- There were corpses then. I doubt there was anything dangerous left here....

The fascinating archaeology continued.

Peggy and Steve came out into a large hall, which had some sort of large pedestal, scribbled with drawings. Peggy walked over to it. On the pedestal was carved a large drawing of a maze.....

- I've seen this somewhere before," Peggy muttered.

- It's a coincidence," confirmed the Iskin, "there's a similar drawing of a labyrinth on the floor of the cathedral in Chartres. One thousand two hundred and thirty-five years old.

- Ancient stuff... how does this cathedral relate to an obviously older alien building? - Steve asked.

- 'Unknown,' the seeker replied immediately.

Peggy looked round the walls - the hall was completely circular. Above the maze was some kind of stalactite on the ceiling.

- What's that icicle? - Steve asked, shining his light on the stalactite.

- Apparently there was a hole through which sunlight was shining on the drawing... - Peggy rose above the floor and flew up to the stalactite, shining a not too bright torch in her helmet.

She lowered herself down disappointedly, standing with her feet directly on the maze. At that instant, the drawing came to life - the hall filled with blue colour, a wave of air travelled along the walls. Steve caught his breath and sped toward Peggy. The drawing glowed brighter and brighter - it was only half a second before Peggy had time to react. Stephen hit Peggy, and at that moment the device gained full force - they disappeared with a bright flash. There was a hole in the ceiling...

* * *

Four hours later, Ares' droids took control of the excavation area. All the archaeologists were stunned and the excavation site itself was carefully camouflaged. Ares reported to Bersie the impossible - there was no communication with Steve and Peggy's quantum transmitters...