After five minutes or so, we hit our target elevation. Ana-Zhi moored the sled to a rock outcropping and double-checked the z-field drive.
“Is this going to last eight hours?” I asked. If the z-field failed, the sled would plummet a half a kilometer down into the cave and we’d be pretty screwed.
“Yes, it’s rated for twenty. Let’s get a move on.”
Our climbing gear included special boots and gloves fitted with electrostatic setae pads, which allowed us to scamper up the non-ferrous stone surface without much of an issue. We set pitons and used ropes as a back-up, and had our jetpacks turned on as a secondary back-up and to help get around the steep outcroppings. But it was mostly a matter of moving patiently, identifying handholds and footholds, and not doing anything stupid.
“Going down will be easier,” Ana-Zhi huffed, breathing hard.
I was concerned about her. She was a hefty woman—probably all muscle, but still. And she wasn’t young, either. However, what she lacked in physical prowess, she made up for with sheer determination.
It took us close to two hours, but we eventually found the place where Xooth had cut through a blockage in the shaft. The scoring from the plasma cutting torch was still fresh.
“Almost there,” Ana-Zhi said.
We both had to use our jetpacks to make it through the cut window in the shaft. Up on the other side we rested on a kind of natural stone platform. Two meters above our head we could see the stonework edge of the Well.
“Keep your eyes open,” Ana-Zhi said. “Remember what happened to Galish.”
I did remember what had happened to Hap Galish. He had been shot by an Obaswoon villager just after the team had recovered Ambit data from site A782. Fortunately Galish had been wearing his armored exosuit and hadn’t been seriously injured. But it was a stark reminder that even though the Obaswoon were not as technologically advanced as we were, they were far from being harmless.
The electronics of my original Welkin combat exosuit had been messed up during the skirmish with Qualt’s crew, so I had to make do with one of the crimson-colored exosuits taken from one of Qualt’s men. It worked just the same way as my original suit; it was just not quite as state-of-the-art. Still, it had functional body-armor, magtouch repulsors, and a mid-range haptic pulse. Nothing to sneeze at.
The jetpacks and climbing boots would be way too unwieldy to hike around in, so we stowed them on the stone platform and made the last two-meter climb unassisted.
As I pulled myself up over the edge of the Well, I got my first real-life glimpse of Tarkoja Plaza. I had seen it on the video feed, of course, but I was still surprised by how destroyed and old everything looked in real life. Most of the stone buildings surrounding the plaza were in ruins and enveloped by thick vegetation. When I flipped my visor up to get a better look, I caught a whiff of the heavy and humid air. It smelled odd—like rotten vegetables mixed with the tang of cooking fires.
The plaza was sparsely populated by Obaswoon—barely a dozen in all. They were tall, lanky humanoids, dressed in flowing robes. Their most distinguishing feature was a curved snout, like an anteater’s, that protruded from a triangular head with thick ridges of bone under each eye socket. Thankfully, none of them appeared to be armed.
More importantly there was so sign of any Mayir legionnaires.
Ana-Zhi scanned the area with her mubi-scope. “All clear.”
A few of the Obaswoon had taken notice of us, but they didn’t seem hostile. Just curious.
“Ignore them,” Ana-Zhi said, as she led us through the plaza and down one of the narrow alleys between toppled buildings. As far as I could tell, a series of circular roads spiraled out from the central Well. These roads were intersected by a web of lanes and alleys. It was like some immense spider’s web.
There was still no sign of any ships, Mayir or Rhya.
“Is this the way you went before?” I asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“I thought I remembered seeing something on the video feed. A temple or something.”
“This city is filled with temples. We just have to find one that hasn’t been completely looted.”
“Chiraine said we don’t need much raw material. A quarter of a kilogram should be plenty.”
“That’s probably equivalent to the tip of an ancient god’s penis. Statue-wise, I mean.”
“Charming.”
Ana-Zhi cackled and waved me forward. I felt my heart pound as we made our way through the ruined plaza. This was my first actual mission in an ancient archaeological site. Technically, Bandala was an archaeological site as well, but Tarkoja looked and felt more ancient with the maze of heaped ruins, toppled arches, broken doorways, and plant-choked columns.
“There’s something,” Ana-Zhi said. She peered through her mubi-scope at a tall narrow alley that reminded me of a slot canyon back on Anglad.
As we made our way into the shadowy alley, lizard-like creatures the size of house cats scurried away into stone crevices and up the side of shattered buildings. I felt dumb that I hadn’t asked Chiraine for more detail about the indigenous flora and fauna. Maybe there was something here that we should steer clear of.
Ana-Zhi stooped down and brushed at a lichen-covered mound, revealing what looked like an oversized humanoid arm from a toppled statue. It was mostly buried by rubble and covered by vegetation, but you could clearly make out a multi-fingered hand.
“Help me with this,” Ana-Zhi said.
Together we managed to pull the arm clear of the rubble. It was a good meter long and was made of a pinkish gray stone.
“Probably a good idea to test it before we start hacking off pieces,” Ana-Zhi said.
I withdrew the test kit Chiraine had given me and crouched down next to the statue. Apparently testing for mimonite was a very straightforward process. There was a small vial with an eyedropper filled with some sort of liquid reactant. I was supposed to wipe the
