‘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.’
36
