Fian let the sentence trail off, clearly needing a few moments to recover. I took his hand and looked down at the Twoing ring on his finger. I knew now why Fian worried about long-term commitment, and why it meant so much to him that I’d chosen rings for us with no end-date markings. He’d seen what his mother had gone through, and he didn’t want a relationship with someone who’d already decided to walk away at some point in the future. If I’d ever looked closely at his parents’ wedding rings, I might have worked it out months ago, because I was sure his father had insisted those rings had end-dates deeply engraved on them.
Fian finally started speaking again in a brisker voice. ‘Well, that’s why conversations with them have been very tense lately. My mother will want me to stay with you whatever happens. My father will just have to learn to accept the situation. I’m Military and I’m Twoing with you. When it gets to midnight, we’ll renew our Twoing contract.’
He paused and gave me a sudden teasing look. ‘Unless you want us to call Colonel Torrek and arrange to get married instead. We can use Military regulations now.’
I gave a startled giggle. ‘No, you were right about that. I was in a blind panic because Joth was dead, you’d nearly died, and I thought the alien sphere might nuke us to pieces during the next solar storm. I was trying to grab on to things before it was too late. The alien sphere isn’t shooting at us, so there’s no need to rush things now. Besides, I’ve realized that getting married right now could be very dangerous.’
‘Dangerous?’
‘Imagine Maeth’s reaction if we got married before her and Ross.’
Fian laughed. ‘If we aren’t getting married, then I want a full year Twoing contract. If things go badly, it’ll take longer than three months for the newzies to get bored of ridiculing us, and you’ve a bad habit of deciding to leave me for my own good.’
‘You’re quite sure about this?’
He grinned. ‘Perfectly sure. We can argue about it all night if you insist, but I intend to be extremely stubborn.’
I didn’t bother arguing. I’d lost my chance of a family for the second time, but I’d still have Fian.
We spent the next few hours listening to a recording of Rono and the Replays playing a concert, so I could test the music’s shocking effect on an innocent Deltan boy, and at midnight we called Registry.
We signed up for our first Twoing contract during a solar super storm, and I’d thought that nothing could possibly be that zan. We signed up for our second Twoing contract in the middle of the African rainforest, with rock and roll music playing and an alien sphere hovering in orbit directly above us. It was even better.
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 C
aptain 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 Ta
ng 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. …’