“Begging your pardon, Lord,” Inda bowed to him as she spoke, “but there’s not enough energy emanating from that thing to power even the most basic of such a thing. If I hadn’t been specifically targeting the area it’s located in, I probably wouldn’t have found it at all. Most would have considered it a planetary anomaly.”
“Good for you that you had the peace of mind to realize otherwise.” Renz tapped the comm on his chair. “Kivda, we have some sort of ‘force’ on the planet’s surface. I need you to scramble your forces and prepare to descend on the planet. We want prisoners so do what you can to keep some alive.”
“Do you have life readings?” Porth asked. “Any at all, not just the ones we’re familiar with.”
“If there are any,” Inda said, “they must be close to the geothermal power source. That would mask their specific signatures.” She shrugged. “I will continue to look and try. Give me a moment.”
“Move to a high orbit,” Porth ordered. “Target the vessel Inda has detected. If we must, I want it destroyed quickly.” He looked back at Renz. “Is that accurate, sir?”
Renz nodded. “Yes, we may need to take it out. Let Kivda get into position. Once he’s ready, we’ll ensure our targets cannot escape the planet.”
He had a message stating his soldiers were already boarding the shuttle. They’d arrive on the surface soon. And do their own scans. Alright, intruders. Prepare yourselves to be our guests. We need to talk.
Chapter 9
Kyle sat on one of the stone benches, flipping the cube over in his hands as he examined it further. The thing genuinely seemed fine. It didn’t seem to change in the time since he’d taken it. The device itself remained heavy. He felt no temperature shift through his gloves, nothing moving around in it.
You’re the mystery that will change the way humanity looks at the universe.
“What’re you doing?” Lysa’s voice nearly made him drop the thing. “I thought we talked about this.”
Kyle blinked at her. “Uh… what?”
“No sitting on anything! Remember? It was like… a two hour conversation about how dangerous such a thing could be. Like… you could open a secret passage or set off a self-destruct of some kind! Come on! You usually started those talks!”
“Shit!” Kyle practically sprung from his seat. “I swear to God, I forgot. I was too busy admiring this thing.”
“Well quit it! We can take it back to the ship now, I think. There’s no way it’s going to blow up arbitrarily now.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t. I was being optimistic. Also, the scans are steady. It should be fine.” Lysa stopped talking abruptly. “Um… that’s not possible.”
“What’s up?” Kyle leaned to look over her shoulder. A scan showed an incoming vessel… a starship on fast approach. “Is that…”
“Not possible,” Lysa repeated. “There’s no way! Who would come here? How would they know to visit this place? Can we talk about timing? We’re two days away by warp from the nearest habitable colony!” She glared at him. “You didn’t say anything, did you? Send some message while I was busy?”
Kyle returned her stare. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I just don’t know how this could’ve happened, Kyle!”
“Me neither! I’m… sure it’s some insanely bad bit of luck!” Kyle shrugged. “Maybe we should hail them. Send a message. We… we have to claim the site. Right away, make it clear we registered a permit to excavate this planet and that they have no right to come to this particular part of the planet.”
“If they’ve got more than two people,” Lysa said, “they won’t give a shit about our claim.” She sighed, reaching out to the ship. “This is Doctor Lysa Vanden. I am an archaeologist. My partner and I have put in a prior claim to this territory. Please ensure you stay clear of our dig site. Respond.”
Kyle tapped his foot in anticipation. When they didn’t reply, he checked their signal strength. They had plenty. “What’s going on? The geothermal thingie isn’t causing any trouble. Why aren’t they replying?”
“Because they probably aren’t legit,” Lysa replied. “At this point, my guess is pirates. Goddamn it!”
“And we just gave away our position…”
“That doesn’t matter.” Lysa drew his attention to the trajectory of the incoming ship. It was on a direct course for their location. “They’ll be here in minutes. We don’t even have time to run to the ship, let alone get her started up and out of here.” She paused a moment. “We can set up on either side of the wall leading out. Bottleneck their forces.”
“You only have a sidearm,” Kyle pointed out. “You should’ve brought your rifle.”
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, Boy Scout!” Lysa complained. “How should I have… don’t you dare say be prepared. That’s not helpful right now.”
“I know. I won’t. But fighting these guys isn’t the answer either. We have to find a way to the ship and get out of here.” Kyle patted the cube. “This is the most important part of the find anyway. We’ve got scans of the rest. As long as we get out of here with this intact, we’ve succeeded.”
“I appreciate your optimism,” Lysa said. “Does succeeding involve surviving? Because as far as I’m aware, we’re kind of stuck in here.”
“There has to be another way out,” Kyle replied, “probably through the power station. I mean, they were channeling it for the shields, right? We find that, we find some kind of access tunnel or a ventilation shaft. Something to lead to the surface. While those assholes are hunting for us, we slip out then get back to the ship.”
“I’m pretty sure it won’t be
