ourselves.’
Fian changed into his own suit, which gave me a couple more minutes to calm down. I was still very aware of the impact suit fabric enclosing me, but hopefully that would gradually fade. I went to sit by the controls and peered out of the window. I couldn’t see the working teams, but they’d left a path lined with piled-up logs behind them.
‘We might as well drive the sled closer to the action,’ I said, and started it moving. ‘How near are they to the target area?’
Fian came and sat next to me. ‘Close, but they won’t make it tonight. Progress is slow dealing with trees this size, and they keep stopping to do sensor scans. Pereth knows we aren’t sure of the exact location of the artefact, and he doesn’t want to either break it, or trigger some alien technology that could injure people. Colonel Torrek made a statement a couple of hours ago, saying we have to take our time and do this right.’
‘The alien artefact probably doesn’t even exist,’ I muttered. ‘I’m feeling like the biggest fake ever.’ The path through the trees was as wide as a dig site clearway, but bumpy to drive along because of frequent tree stumps. ‘They’re cutting the trees down, rather than pulling them up?’
‘Yes,’ said Fian. ‘Pulling them up was hard with trees this size and left a huge mess of soil and rocks.’
We reached an area of frantic activity, I parked the sled at the side of the path, and we put on hover belts and went outside. I listened to the purposeful chatter on the dig site broadcast channel, and gradually made sense of what was happening.
One group of heavy lift sleds were towing huge fallen trees towards us, and abandoning them in the middle of the path. As each new tree arrived, people moved forward with lasers to cut it up. A second group of heavy lifts were following them down the path, clearing up the mass of logs they left behind by stacking them out of the way at the sides of the path. Two more heavy lifts brought up the rear, running drag nets to remove the remaining debris of branches and twigs and leave the path clear behind them.
Fian and I hovered our way past the path sweepers, the log stackers, and the people wielding lasers. Everyone saw our Military impact suits, and stopped work to watch us go by. I felt self-conscious, and horribly aware I was probably just wasting the time of all these people. I was grateful my face was safely hidden inside my impact suit.
Ahead of us, we could now see where the trees were being felled to extend the path towards our target area. The tree-towing group of heavy lift sleds drove past us, taking the latest batch of fallen trees to be cut up. Once they were out of the way, half a dozen tag leaders moved in to fire tags at the next batch of trees.
I watched the tag leaders enviously for a moment, wishing I could trade places with one of them, then forced myself to turn away. Pereth’s red Site Leader sled was close by, I’d left the poor man to cope alone for hour after hour, and it was time I went to talk to him. I had to try to sound knowledgeable and confident of success, though I felt neither.
34
Two hours before sunset, sheets of rain started pouring down on us. Impact suits would keep us dry, but they wouldn’t stop people slipping in the mud, and I was well aware how dangerous that could be when using lasers. I called Colonel Torrek to ask if we should abandon work for the day.
‘Definitely,’ he said. ‘If there’s an alien device here, it can wait until tomorrow. If there isn’t, we get extra time to prepare our next move.’
‘What
‘We’re considering several options.’
That sounded worryingly evasive. I was sure Colonel Torrek would have told me if they had a brilliant idea. ‘One other thing, sir. Everyone else can portal home for the night, but I’d like Fian and I to stay here in the Field Command sled.’
‘I’ve no objection. If you get bored, you can just drive out through a freight portal.’
Colonel Torrek ended the call, and I made my announcement over the broadcast channel. ‘We’ve made great progress today, but the rain is making conditions hazardous now, so we’ll abandon work until tomorrow. Everyone head for the portals, and remember to check out with Dig Site Command as you go. Captain Eklund and I will be staying on site overnight.’
It took a while for everyone to leave. Earth Rolling News were especially reluctant to go, but once Dalmora shut down the vid bees they admitted defeat and portalled back to Ark. Playdon called in at the Field Command sled to say goodnight.
‘You’re quite sure you want to stay here? I’m not too happy about two of my students being alone in the rainforest.’
‘We’ve cleared it with Colonel Torrek,’ I said, gently reminding Playdon that Fian and I were currently Military officers rather than pre-history students. ‘We’ve got everything we need in the sled, and it’s perfectly safe. The armour plating will stand up to anything from landslides to a charging herd of Asgard bison.’
‘I suppose so,’ said Playdon. ‘Goodnight then.’
Playdon went outside, joined Dalmora, Amalie and Krath, and led them off through the nearest portal. The nearby Dig Site Command sled drove off after them, and Fian and I were alone at Zulu Dig Site.
‘Are we staying here for any special reason?’ Fian asked.
I gazed out through the window at the rain for a moment before I replied. ‘I didn’t want to go back to our Eden Dig Site dome with the others. They’d be chatting away, with Krath babbling nardle questions the way he always does. They believe we’ll really find something out there. I can’t cope with that tonight.’
Fian joined me at the window. ‘You’ve lost faith in your idea? It’s a good theory, Jarra. It explains so much. Why the sphere showed up when it did. Why it isn’t talking.’
‘It’s probably wrong though. What happens if we find nothing tomorrow?’
‘The Colonel will have something planned.’
‘Colonel Torrek can’t create answers out of thin air,’ I said. ‘My friends are in Ark. Issette is terrified, scared to stay in Ark because it’s creepy, scared to come out because of the sphere.’
I pulled a face. ‘And it isn’t just my friends. It’s the whole population of Earth. The Military are portalling more supplies to Ark so people can stay in there, and the norm kids can stay at their integration schools on the Alpha sector worlds, but imagine what it will be like for everyone if this situation continues for months.’
‘It isn’t your fault, Jarra.’
I turned towards him. ‘It’s my responsibility. I wear the uniform, I’m running this pointless excavation, and when we find nothing …’ I paused and made myself say it. ‘Fian, we have to talk.’
He was silent for a moment before replying. ‘I thought the possibility of war with aliens was frightening, but hearing my Jarra suggest we talk … Is the universe ending?’
Normally, I’d have laughed at that, but not now. ‘You keep telling me I need to share problems with you, and you’re right. Let’s sit down.’
We sat down, turned our chairs to face each other, and I tried to find the right words to say this. ‘Tomorrow, the whole of humanity will be watching as we fail to find an alien artefact. When that happens, I have to personally take the blame, and look the biggest idiot in all of history and pre-history put together.’
Fian frowned. ‘That isn’t fair. You just suggested a possible answer. It was the Military who arranged to have the whole of humanity watching and built up their hopes.’
‘The Military had no choice. When Gaius Devon went public, they had to claim they had a real answer. If they hadn’t, they’d have been forced into attacking the sphere, and then … well, humanity might have just lost an incredible source of knowledge, or it might have started a war. You remember when Drago’s fighter was hit?’
‘Of course.’
‘When I got the message on my lookup that we’d gone to war status … It was a false alarm, but I’ll never, ever forget how I felt while I was on my way back to the base. Humanity was at war. Earth would be the first planet to be attacked. If we lost Earth, then everyone I knew and cared about would die, all the Handicapped would die, and every Handicapped baby born in the future would …’
I broke off for a second to get my voice back under control. ‘Well, Drago kept his head, we didn’t attack the
