And if I can ever afford a Singularity Drive, his records say he takes those transitions pretty well.
Well, right now, that was little more than a dream. She picked up the conversation where it had left off. 'That has happened on Class One digs and even Class Two, but usually somebody realizes the report hasn't been made after a while when you're dealing with a big dig. Besides, logging reports constitutes publication, and grad students need all the publication they can get. Still, if they just uncovered the equivalent of Tutankhamen's tomb, they might all be so excited, and busy documenting finds and putting them into safe storage, that they've forgotten the rest of the universe exists.'
He swallowed hard, controlling his nausea. It generally seemed to take his stomach a couple of minutes to settle down. Maybe the reason it doesn't hit me is because there's no sensory nerves to my stomach anymore.
But that only brought back unpleasant memories; she ruthlessly shunted the thought aside.
'So.' he said finally, as his color began to return. 'Tell me why you aren't in a panic because they haven't answered.'
'Artifact thieves would probably have been spotted, there aren't any natives to revolt, and disease usually takes long enough to set in that somebody would have called for help,' she said. 'And that's why CS wasn't particularly worried, and why they kept countermanding the Institute's orders. But either this expedition has been out of touch for so long that even they think there's something wrong, or they've got some information they didn't give us. So we're going in.'
'And we find out when we get there,' Alex finished; and there wasn't a trace of a smile anywhere on his face.
Tia brought them out of hyper with a deft touch that rattled Alex's insides as little as possible. Once in orbit, she sent down a signal that should activate the team's transmitter if there was anything there to activate. As she had told Alex several days ago, com systems broke. She was fully expecting to get no echo back.
Instead, -
You are linked to Excavation Team Que-Zee-Five-Five-Seven. The beacon's automatic response came instantly, in electronic mode. Then came the open carrier wave.
'Alex, I think we have a problem,' she said, carefully.
'Echo?' He tensed.
'Full echo.' She sent the recognition signal that would turn on landing assistance beacons and alert the AI that there was someone Upstairs, the AI was supposed to open the voice-channel in the absence of humans capable of handling the com. The AI came online immediately, transmitting a ready to receive instructions signal.
'Worse, they've got full com. I just got the AI go-signal.'
She blipped a compressed several megabytes of instructions to give her control of all external and internal recording devices, override any programs installed since the base was established, and give her control of all sensory devices still working.
'Get the AI to give me some pictures,' he said, all business. 'If it can.'
'Coming up, ah, external cam three, this is right outside the mess hall and, oh, shells and back!'
'I'll second that,' Alex replied, just as grimly.
The camera showed them, somewhat fuzzily, a scene that was anything but a pretty sight.
There were bodies lying in plain view of the camera; from the lack of movement they could not be live bodies. They seemed to be lying where they fell, and there was no sign of violence on them. Tia switched to the next camera the AI offered; a view inside the mess hall. Here, if anything, things were worse. Equipment and furniture lay toppled. More bodies were strewn about the room.
A chill that had nothing to do with the temperature in her shell held her in thrall. Fear, horror, helplessness. Her own private nightmares.
Tia exerted control over her internal chemistry with an effort; told herself that this could not be the disease that had struck her. These people were taken down right where they stood or sat.
She started to switch to another view, when Alex leaned forward suddenly.
'Tia, wait a minute.'
