“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” I asked.
Chiraine nodded. “Someone blocked the Well of Forever.”
“Yeah, that’s not good.”
“The map is seventeen hundred years old. A lot could have happened since then.”
“Right, like someone erecting a building where this Well used to be.”
“I doubt that. It was a religious site.”
All of a sudden the display turned completely white for a second. My heart jumped. What was going on?
Then the cameras adjusted and the image returned to more or less to normal, but it looked like Xooth was using a plasma cutting torch at the blocked exit.
They had to position the sled so it wouldn’t get hit by the falling debris, but after several minutes they had been able to create an opening large enough for the sled.
I watched, fascinated, as the team emerged into the twilight of a ruined plaza.
“That’s Tarkoja,” Chiraine said.
I wasn’t prepared for how destroyed the place looked. Especially since Roan Andessa was supposed to be inhabited. Buildings had collapsed and were covered by thick vines and blankets of moss. There were tumbled statues and towers everywhere. Huge broken pillars looked like fallen tree trunks.
Then I got my first glimpse of the Obaswoon. It was tough to see them clearly in the gloom, but they appeared to be pale-skinned humanoids, dressed in loose-fitting handmade garments. They had some sort of weapons that looked like impulse rifles but obviously were not.
There weren’t that many Obaswoon on the plaza. The few that I could see were pushing handcarts or driving animals down the street. I caught a few glimpses of ramshackle stalls where people were selling stuff. The Obaswoon looked curiously at the sled, as it rose up above their heads, but didn’t appear to be alarmed by the presence of our team. Maybe the Obaswoon thought that Ana-Zhi and the team were Rhya wardens.
Yates finally seemed to get a fix on the destination and the sled wove its way through the stone temples and collapsed buildings.
“It’s remarkable to see Roan Andessa for real,” Chiraine said. “Everything I know about it was from centuries-old records.”
“Is it what you expected?”
“I’m not sure what I expected.”
We watched as the sled continued through the ruined city, hovering over a section that looked even more destroyed. Maybe from an earthquake.
“That’s it!” Chiraine said. “They’re at the location of A782.”
The camera panned around, showing a partially-destroyed tower that once was a work of art. It had all sorts of carvings and ornamentation. Almost like an Incan temple from Earth.
The sled landed near the temple and we watched as Yates deployed the Raker, a small, stocky robot with various appendages that allowed it to climb into position. The Raker propelled itself up the side of the tower and then froze in place. Hopefully it had fixed on its target and was now pulling in the data image.
I turned to Chiraine. “So you really think that once you get the data for this node, you can reconstruct the Ambit?”
Chiraine made a face. “Not the entire Ambit, obviously. But, based on my research, I do believe that A782 will lead us to the location of the Kryrk. In fact, the—”
She suddenly gasped. “Oh my god!”
I turned back to the display. Galish was on the ground, clutching at his arm.
“What happened?”
“I think he was shot!”
On the display we saw Ana-Zhi race over to Galish, while Xooth fired his shard slinger into the shadows.
This was definitely worth breaking radio silence for. I punched at the transmission button on the comm unit and yelled into the microphone. “Team, report!”
There was a slight delay, but then Ana-Zhi responded.
“Man hit! Don’t get your panties in a bunch. Armor absorbed most of it. Prep the MedBed anyway, just to be sure there’s not a fracture.”
I saw them load Hap Galish on the sled and then it lurched and set off at maximum speed—which was probably not much more than 30 KPH. Was Galish freaking dead?
“Keep an eye on this!” I barked to Chiraine, then ran towards the bridge, calling for Obarral. He met me in the corridor, having heard Ana-Zhi Agrada’s message.
“This way!” He led me towards the infirmary, where he cleared off and powered up the ancient MedBed. Then the two of us moved the gurney down the corridor to the launch bay.
“Do stay here until they come through that airlock,” Obarral said. “They’re going to come in hot!”
Hap Galish had been shot in the arm, but he was fine. We got him on the MedBed and it did its thing. Even though it was old technology, it managed to clean, disinfect, and seal the wound without any issues.
“He’s lucky that it just grazed him,” Ana-Zhi said.
She had reported that an Obaswoon came out of nowhere and shot at them with a primitive projectile rifle. Thankfully, the Obaswoon was either a poor shot or the weapon wasn’t very accurate. Xooth had returned fire and disabled the attacker. Then they had made their escape.
Back at her workstation Chiraine was hard at work integrating the data that Yates had brought back. She said it might take her a few hours, so we decided to find a place to set down for the night—someplace safer than the bottom of a swamp inhabited by megafauna.
According to Ana-Zhi, there was a relatively quiet mesa that they had used as a camping spot during the last mission. She checked her logs and found the coordinates and then we flew up through the mist and headed towards it. Thankfully there were no cthulians or K’Lortai Dragons waiting for us.
Ana-Zhi took over pilot’s duties while Galish recovered in his cabin. I sat down beside her and stared out into the darkness.
“At least the Rhya didn’t blast us out of the sky,” I said.
“Not their style.”
There was an awkward silence for a while, that I was determined to break.
“So you knew my father?”
“Yeah, of course. Everyone did. What, he never mentioned me to you?”
“Should he have?” I asked.
“I’m just messing
