Earth Star

35

The next day, things were unnaturally silent at Zulu Dig Site. The inevitable morning rain had delayed us starting work, but now we’d finally reached our target point. The alien sphere was in geostationary orbit far above us, and precisely below it a framework held a laser drill in place. A blinding light pulsated as it cut down into the earth a carefully calculated distance, and a fine plume of dust hung around it. The drill would soon be removed, and a sensor probe lowered in its place.

The probe would find nothing. I already knew that from the initial sensor sled readings, so would everyone else here. They’d all either sneaked a look with their sensors or asked their friends. Back at Zulu base, the Military would know it too, because they were receiving continuous telemetry from our sensors here.

It wasn’t just that we couldn’t detect any alien artefact. It was possible one would be like a stasis box, invisible to sensors, but there were no gaps in the packed earth, rocks and tree roots. Deeper down, it was clear the rock hadn’t ever been dug or disturbed. No one had actually said the words, and the vast audience watching via the Earth Rolling News probably hadn’t realized it yet, but soon they would. We’d been hunting shadows. We were drilling down and doing a last, hopeless, deep sensor check to make absolutely certain, but it would find nothing because there was nothing to find.

A vid bee was hovering, watching the laser drill being packed away. Another vid bee was watching me. It couldn’t see my face inside my suit, but I turned away from it anyway, and stared blankly at the nearby trees. I saw three patches of blue up in one of them. Some of the Danae lizards were watching the intruders causing havoc in their forest. No, I corrected myself, this wasn’t lizards. It was blue, but not the right sort of blue for lizards, those were the flowers of Tuan creepers. Even at this moment of crisis, I was startled by that. Three Tuan creepers in the same tree? Amaz!

I stared around at the other trees. There were other patches of the turquoise blue that would always remind me of Joth, all singles, but even so … I counted. Fifteen. That was totally nardle. I activated my hover belt and glided into the trees.

‘Jarra!’

Fian’s shout wasn’t coming over my suit comms, so he must be following me. I stopped and waited for him to catch up. I was relieved I wasn’t being followed by a vid bee as well. Dalmora, Krath, and Amalie had obviously taken pity on me.

‘Jarra,’ Fian said, ‘it won’t be that bad. Leveque’s been constantly quoting percentages, pointing out we may not be in the right place, so people …’

‘I’m not running away into the rainforest, I just noticed something strange.’

‘What?’ Fian seemed to be peering down at the ground.

‘It’s probably nothing, but …’ I moved on further, studying the trees overhead. There were definitely less of the Tuan creepers here. Currently, I could only see six, but even seeing one was unusual.

‘This is Dig Site Command,’ said a voice on broadcast channel. ‘Major Tell Morrath and Captain Eklund, your suit locations are dangerously beyond safety distance into the rainforest. Do you need directions back?’

I set my comms to reply on broadcast. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. We’re out here taking some readings. Can you record our current position, and make a note of level six for me. We’ll head back to the target point now, before going into the trees again. Warn us if we start wandering in circles. Griffith hybrids all look the same.’

Fian and I turned and found our way back to where the sensor probe was being lowered down the newly drilled hole. The impact-suited figure guiding it had to be Rono, because he was the only person with a suit painted lurid purple and silver. I didn’t bother to stop and watch, just moved straight ahead into the trees opposite.

‘What are we looking for?’ asked Fian.

‘Turquoise flowers,’ I said.

‘What?’

‘I know it’s nardle but …’

I hovered my way on through the trees, watching blue patches grow more frequent, until I hit a barricade created by two fallen trees. I’d gone far enough anyway. I counted, and set the comms to speak briefly on broadcast channel.

‘This is Major Tell Morrath. Mark our position and record as twenty-three. I’m going to try and move anti-clockwise now.’

My comms hummed the different note of a private channel. ‘This is Pereth. Major, the sensor probe is showing us nothing but bedrock. Are we off target? What sort of sensor readings are you taking?’

I paused to reply to him. ‘Pereth, it’s a little hard to explain at the moment. We were definitely looking in the right location, but there’s something odd around here. Please get everyone to take a rest break, while I work out if this is significant or not.’

As one hum on the comms channel ended, another one started. ‘Jarra, this is Colonel Torrek. We’re listening in to broadcast channel of course, and wondering if this is a bluff or …’

I’d been staring upwards and counting. I spoke on broadcast channel. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. Mark position and record as thirteen. We’re trying to head back clockwise past our last position now.’

I swapped to speaking on the private channel to the Colonel. ‘I’m not entirely sure, sir. Can you patch me and Fian into Military command channel, please?’

There was a brief pause before he replied. ‘Major Tell Morrath and Captain Eklund should now be hearing me on command channel.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ I said.

Leveque’s voice spoke, sounding amused. ‘I’ve committed myself to an 83 per cent probability you aren’t bluffing, Major Tell Morrath. My reputation is on the line here.’

I laughed. ‘Sir, I’m not bluffing, but I’m probably still chasing shadows. I noticed something odd. It may be absolutely nothing.’

‘If there’s something odd, directly beneath the position of the alien sphere, then it may well be absolutely something,’ said Leveque. ‘Details please.’

I hesitated. ‘This will sound really stupid. There’s a plant they genetically engineered to reclaim deserts. The Tuan creeper.’

‘The one you mentioned in your site tour, Jarra?’ said the Colonel’s voice.

‘Yes, sir. You can find them in the rainforest, but they’re very rare. Well, there are more than there should be around here. Far more. It probably means nothing, but …’

Leveque cut in. ‘Those plants must have grown long before the sphere arrived. It’s because of something unusual, probably a higher concentration of minerals or nutrients they need.’

Dig Site Command were talking on broadcast channel, telling us we were off course. I let Fian listen to them and guide me, while I concentrated on the conversation on command.

‘My team will research the plants,’ continued Leveque. ‘I gather you’re already trying to find where they’re most numerous.’

‘I doubt you’ll find much about the plants,’ I said. ‘No one’s been interested in desert reclamation for hundreds of years.’

‘This is Captain Eklund,’ said Fian’s voice on broadcast channel. ‘Mark our position and record thirty-one. Continuing to move clockwise.’

I left my command channel link set to listen only, and looked upwards. There were definitely a chaos lot of flowers.

I glanced across at Fian. ‘Do you think I’m just being nardle or …?’

‘I think you’re right,’ said Fian. ‘This is weird, and it has to mean something.’

His voice suddenly spoke on Military command channel. ‘Sirs, the Tuan creepers are growing high up in trees, getting their nutrients from the air. If there was digging in this area, a long time ago, with something like laser drills, it could have created a lot of very fine dust that still gets into the air when disturbed. That would explain why there are so many of the plants.’

‘It would,’ said Leveque. ‘We’ll set up a couple of hand sensors for you to check for dust in the air.’

I spoke on command myself. ‘I checked all the records on this area before we started work here. There’s no mention of any drilling or mining.’ I paused and added the nardle-sounding words. ‘By humans, that is.’

Fian and I headed on through the rainforest, calling in two more positions on our way. I stopped after that, and used my Military lookup to project an image of the site. It was only a fraction of the size of normal dig site mosaics, since only the immediate area had been surveyed. Dig Site Command had added numbered dots to mark the positions we’d been at, and the numbers we’d given them, and those were well into the black area of no data.

‘The number of flowers is dropping now,’ I said, ‘and over the far side from us there were far less. Thirty-one was the high point. Let’s head back towards the portals. The survey plane is still parked back there.’

I did more switching of comms settings and spoke on broadcast channel. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. It’s clear nothing has been buried at our target point, but there’s something unusual in the direction of 192 degrees. I’m planning to take up our survey plane and extend our dig site mosaic across that area to map the terrain, before doing some more checks on foot.’

‘This is Site Leader,’ said Pereth’s voice. ‘We’ll make a start clearing a route through the trees in that direction. Any idea why the aliens would park their sphere off target? It seems to make no sense.’

‘This is Commander Tell Dramis,’ said an unexpected voice. ‘As a fighter pilot, I’ve been through alien warfare training. Aliens won’t think like us. We may be completely unable to understand their logic. Their technology won’t just be more or less advanced than ours, but different. They may have discovered things we’ve no idea could even exist, while missing an area we consider basic, such as electricity.’

He paused. ‘Incidentally, Jarra, if you need a plane flying, I’d be happy to do that for you.’

I was feeling ridiculously more cheerful now. This was probably a false dawn, but at least there was renewed hope of finding something here. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. That’s a very kind offer, Drago, but I want to take a look from the air myself. You carry on talking to Earth Rolling News.’

‘This is Commander Tell Dramis, who is running out of things to say to Earth Rolling News.’

‘This is Captain Eklund, who finds that hard to believe.’

I giggled. We’d been walking in what I hoped was the right direction, but we’d had to skirt a couple of fallen trees so I was getting confused. I finally gave in and asked. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. Are we going the right way to reach the portals and survey plane?’

‘This is Dig Site Command. Turn a little to your left, Major.’

A couple of minutes later, Fian and I came out of the trees, waved at the Dig Site Command sled, and went over to the Military survey plane. Once inside, I started running pre-flights, and struggled into a hover tunic.

‘Any idea what we’re looking for?’ asked Fian.

‘Absolutely none.’ Pre-flights finished and I spoke on broadcast channel. ‘This is Zulu Survey, requesting link to mosaic feed and launch clearance.’

‘This is Dig Site Command. Zulu Survey, your link to mosaic data feed is now open and you are clear to launch.’

The plane took off like a dream, responding much faster than anything I’d ever flown. It had no weapons, but was obviously built to take evasive action if necessary. I was tempted to play around with some aerobatics, but I had a job to do, so I contented myself with banking and heading for my survey start point.

‘This is Zulu Survey. We’re approaching start point and opening image transmission.’

‘This is Dig Site Command. Mosaic system is receiving your image transmissions.’

I turned to Fian and pointed at the co-pilot controls.

‘You’re joking!’ he said.

I shook my head, and spoke on broadcast channel. ‘This is Zulu Survey pilot, Major Tell Morrath, handing control to co-pilot. Captain Eklund, you have control.’

Fian groaned, unlocked his controls and took over. ‘This is Zulu Survey co-pilot, Captain Eklund. I have control.’

We both turned off broadcast channel, and Fian started flying the first survey leg.

‘I can’t believe you’re making me do this,’ he said.

I giggled. ‘I need you to do the flying, because I want to watch the mosaic building and try to make sense of things. We’ve got some peace up here, and a chance to think, but when we land …’

‘Sorry,’ said Fian. ‘I’ll fly. You do your thinking.’

I used my lookup to project the new site mosaic image in front of me. It was fascinating to watch a new strip slowly appear on one side, as our survey transmissions were integrated into the mosaic. I changed the image to remove the trees and get a better look at the basic terrain. There were few details of what was underground, only a rough indication of what was mostly soil or rocks. I brooded over the images as two further strips were added. I already knew from my exploration on foot that this area sloped downhill, but now I could see the slope got a lot steeper before levelling out. It looked like there’d been a landslide at the steepest point.

I stared at it for a few more minutes, then opened broadcast channel. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. There’s a steep downhill slope in this direction. It’s possible our target point was exactly right, but the artefact is far deeper underground than we thought. I’m thinking Chinese Tang Dynasty tombs.’

‘This is Playdon,’ said a familiar voice. ‘I’m deputizing for Pereth while he’s on rest break. You mean tunnels, Major? They didn’t dig down to bury the artefact, but dug a tunnel into the hillside?’

‘This is Major Tell Morrath,’ I said. ‘It’s a possibility. Captain Eklund and I will land now. Some special hand sensors should have arrived for us, so we’ll see if we can find a way down the slope on foot to make more checks. By the way, you’ll see on the updated site mosaic that you’ll need to curve the new access road to get around a landslide.’

I took over control from Fian and landed the survey plane. I felt a touch of regret as I took off my hover tunic and got out. Despite my worries, it had been zan flying a Military plane for the first time, and I didn’t know if I’d get the chance to do it again.

I didn’t have time to brood about that, because Playdon was coming towards us, using a hover belt to float above the tree stumps. He was carrying two small objects, which he handed to me and to Fian.

‘I thought you were deputizing for Pereth, sir.’ I looked down at the hand sensor, wondering how to use it.

‘No, Jarra!’ said Playdon. ‘Don’t call me sir around here.’

I giggled. ‘Sorry.’

‘Pereth is back in charge and busily planning our best route down the hill.’

‘In which case, perhaps you could come along with Fian and me,’ I said. ‘I don’t know how to use hand sensors.’

‘I’d love to help,’ said Playdon, ‘but what were you using to take readings earlier?’

Fian laughed. ‘We were counting flowers.’

‘We daren’t tell anyone, but at the moment we’re building an awful lot on the fact that this place is infested with Tuan creepers,’ I explained.

‘I. See.’ Playdon spoke the two words very slowly. ‘I noticed a few around, but. …’

I wished I could see Playdon’s face at that moment, but of course it was hidden by his impact suit. We followed the road through the trees to the target point, and then dodged our way past the people hard at work cutting a new route down the hill. Once we were safely out of view in the trees, I paused to examine my hand sensor. Turning it on was easy. It started making clicking noises.

‘What’s the clicking?’ I asked.

Playdon took a look at it. ‘It’s already been set to test for something.’

Fian turned on his own sensor. ‘Dust levels in the air.’

‘If we just …’ Playdon tapped at my sensor, and a faint, cone-shaped light appeared. ‘You should be able to use this to examine what’s underground, but it’s much smaller than any sensors I’ve used and I can’t see a display.’

‘Perhaps if I …’ I held the sensor above my forearm lookup, both chimed, and a fuzzy image appeared on the lookup. I pointed the hand sensor at the ground ahead of me, and the lookup image became sharper.

‘You check the ground, Jarra, I’ll check the air,’ said Fian.

We headed downhill through the trees, managing to get over a fallen one by setting our hover belts to their maximum height. The clicking on Fian’s hand sensor was getting steadily faster.

‘I see what you mean about the Tuan creepers,’ said Playdon.

I’d been concentrating on finding my way between the trees and making the odd sensor check of the ground, but now I looked up. ‘I’m not even going to try and count that lot.’

‘There’s over sixty,’ said Fian, happily.

The trees thinned, and we found ourselves at the top of the landslide. I stopped and looked warily down the steep slope that ended in a jumble of fallen trees and rocks far below.

‘We’ll have to go around that,’ said Playdon.

I stared at it a moment longer. ‘You two go around. I’ll go straight down and meet you at the bottom. If there’s anything for us to find, I’m betting it’ll be in the middle of that. You’d cut a tunnel into the steepest point of the hillside, just before it starts levelling out, wouldn’t you?’

‘You can’t possibly climb down that, Jarra,’ said Playdon. ‘It’s a mass of loose stones and soil, so you’d slide down out of control.’

‘Once we’ve got a tag support sled here, I could use the beam to lower Jarra down there,’ said Fian.

I shook my head. ‘If there’s anything under there, I don’t want any beams, even tag support ones, near it.’

‘I know aliens wouldn’t think like us,’ said Fian, ‘but it’s silly to dig a tunnel into a landslide.’

‘There might not have been a landslide back then,’ I objected. ‘It looks like a whole section of hillside recently collapsed.’

‘Wait a few minutes, Jarra,’ said Playdon. ‘I’ll go back and get a rope.’

Fian laughed. ‘Now that’s a really old fashioned lifeline. Will they have any on the site?’

‘Yes,’ said Playdon. ‘Not genuine ancient rope of course. The research teams use ones made of plas fibre compounds, virtually unbreakable, resistant to being cut, and fire proof. They’re useful in really awkward or high places.’

It seemed a long wait before Playdon returned with a length of thin rope, a harness, and some other mysterious items. He was followed by Krath and a hovering vid bee. I tried to forget we were being shown live across all the sectors of humanity, and concentrated on putting on the harness while Playdon and Fian picked a tree and set up some sort of framework around it to allow them to let the rope out slowly. When they were ready, I clipped my end of the rope to my harness, checked I was firmly attached, and started backing down the slope.

Progress down was slow. I had my hover belt turned off, because it would just send me skidding wildly downwards. Even on foot, small stones constantly slid away from beneath me, and I’d have followed them downwards if it wasn’t for the rope bracing me. More worrying was when a sudden shower of debris fell on me from above, and a large boulder came bouncing downwards and narrowly missed me.

At intervals I stopped and tried to ignore my hazardous position, while checking dust levels and taking sensor images of the ground beneath me. I’d set my lookup to relay everything to Fian, so he and Playdon were watching them too, and talking to me on a safely private channel where Krath and his audience of billions couldn’t eavesdrop.

‘There’s an awful lot of dust here,’ said Fian.

‘Could just be because of the landslide,’ I said. ‘I’m reaching the steepest section now, so I’ll try and move from side to side to cover most of the slope.’

I worked from the left side across to the right, slid down further, then moved from right to left. I couldn’t see anything on the sensor other than a mess of earth, rocks and roots. I might have missed something, but I was sure Playdon wouldn’t. I was nearly at the bottom of the slope, and giving way to despair, when I saw something flicker on the sensor image. I paused, blinked the stinging sweat out of my eyes, and looked again. It would be so easy to imagine it was showing what I desperately wanted to find.

‘Are you seeing what I’m seeing?’ I asked shakily.

‘Looks like part of a tunnel to me.’ Playdon’s voice sounded a bit odd too. ‘I’ve no idea what that bright white line is. Can you rotate image?’

I rotated the image and the line became an equally bright rectangle. I stared at it for a second, then came to my senses and turned the hand sensor off.

‘Lost image,’ said Playdon.

‘I’ve turned it off. There’s something down there, so we have to be very, very careful now.’ I swapped to broadcast channel and took a deep breath. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. There’s a tunnel at my current location, with the entrance blocked by a landslide. My sensors show something inside, probably a door, but they aren’t recognizing the material. I’ve cut sensors for now. We must keep active sensor scans of the tunnel to a minimum, and absolutely no sleds or lift beams go near it without my direct order. We’ve no idea how our technology may interact with this.’

I paused. ‘Pereth, we’ll have to work from below to clear the entrance to the tunnel. I’ll want to keep the sleds as far away as possible from any alien technology.’

There’d been dead silence on broadcast channel, but now there seemed a babble of excited voices. I had a weirdly giddy moment, and then realized Playdon was talking on the private channel.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘I said we’d better get you out of there, Jarra. Should we pull you up?’

‘If you can.’

It was a long struggle back up the landslide, with my arms and legs aching. Fian met me, pulling me back over the edge to safe ground. I instantly sat down and flopped backwards, heaving a sigh of utter relief.

‘Jarra, are you all right?’ Fian asked.

‘Just tired.’ A vid bee flew above me, and I waved my arm, making a swatting gesture at it. ‘Krath, keep your vid bee out of my way or I’ll kill it.’

‘Sorry, Jarra,’ said Krath’s voice. ‘We’re live on Earth Rolling News and everyone’s a bit excited.’

I groaned.

‘This is Colonel Riak Torrek.’

I sat up, startled to hear the Colonel speaking on broadcast channel.

‘I wish to thank all the civilian archaeologists for their continuing assistance,’ he said. ‘Major Tell Morrath and Captain Eklund are now taking a rest break until the access road is completed.’

‘We are?’ I said, fortunately not on any channels, though the vid bee was probably picking it up.

‘You heard him,’ said Playdon. ‘That was a thinly disguised order.’

Fian suddenly laughed. ‘I’ve got the Colonel on private channel, telling me to get Jarra back to our Field Command sled and make her rest.’

I couldn’t argue with the vid bee watching, so I turned on my hover belt and Fian and I headed back up through the trees. Fian still seemed to be having some sort of furtive conversation with the Colonel. I didn’t dare ask what it was about, but after a few minutes the Colonel opened a private channel to me.

‘Jarra, this is Riak.’

I was disconcerted by his use of his first name. ‘Uh, yes, sir.’

‘Jarra, you’re speaking to me as Riak, a fellow member of the Military family, and I hope a friend. This conversation is outside the chain of command.’

‘Uh, yes, … Riak.’

‘Jarra, I shouldn’t need to tell you how well you’ve done. You have to rest now, because we’ll need you to direct the excavation of the tunnel entrance.’

I made a noise of understanding and agreement, rather than struggle with calling him Riak again.

‘After that, Jarra, someone needs to go into the tunnel, and we don’t know how dangerous it will be. I’m dreadfully aware you and Fian didn’t enlist voluntarily. I drafted you into the Military, and you must not feel under any obligation to take any risks, but I can’t deny it’s your right to enter that tunnel if you wish.’

My head blurred, and I stopped moving before I hovered my way straight into a tree trunk. ‘Sir, I’d love to, but are you sure? Don’t you need someone with previous experience?’

I heard him laugh. ‘Jarra, how could there be anyone with previous experience of this job?’

I finally got my brain working. ‘Sir, I wish to volunteer to enter the tunnel.’

‘Major, you have that right, and most of humanity is expecting you to be the person who does it. I don’t have a lot of choice here, but please be careful. I’m going to blame myself if anything happens to you.’ He paused. ‘Captain Eklund has already expressed his wish to accompany you.’

My head had another spinning moment. We’d be going into the unknown. We could hit something as bad as that magnetic spike at Eden Dig Site, and if Fian got hurt again … I was hit by the memory of him in the regrowth tank, his long blond hair drifting around his face, and his side looking like an anatomy vid. I wanted him to stay out of this, to stay safe, but we were in this together, win or lose.

‘Sir,’ I said, ‘Captain Eklund has that right.’