else here. They’d all either sneaked a look with their sensors or asked their friends. Back at Zulu base, the Military would know it too, because they were receiving continuous telemetry from our sensors here.
It wasn’t just that we couldn’t detect any alien artefact. It was possible one would be like a stasis box, invisible to sensors, but there were no gaps in the packed earth, rocks and tree roots. Deeper down, it was clear the rock hadn’t ever been dug or disturbed. No one had actually said the words, and the vast audience watching via the Earth Rolling News probably hadn’t realized it yet, but soon they would. We’d been hunting shadows. We were drilling down and doing a last, hopeless, deep sensor check to make absolutely certain, but it would find nothing because there was nothing to find.
A vid bee was hovering, watching the laser drill being packed away. Another vid bee was watching me. It couldn’t see my face inside my suit, but I turned away from it anyway, and stared blankly at the nearby trees. I saw three patches of blue up in one of them. Some of the Danae lizards were watching the intruders causing havoc in their forest. No, I corrected myself, this wasn’t lizards. It was blue, but not the right sort of blue for lizards, those were the flowers of Tuan creepers. Even at this moment of crisis, I was startled by that. Three Tuan creepers in the same tree? Amaz!
I stared around at the other trees. There were other patches of the turquoise blue that would always remind me of Joth, all singles, but even so … I counted. Fifteen. That was totally nardle. I activated my hover belt and glided into the trees.
‘Jarra!’
Fian’s shout wasn’t coming over my suit comms, so he must be following me. I stopped and waited for him to catch up. I was relieved I wasn’t being followed by a vid bee as well. Dalmora, Krath, and Amalie had obviously taken pity on me.
‘Jarra,’ Fian said, ‘it won’t be that bad. Leveque’s been constantly quoting percentages, pointing out we may not be in the right place, so people …’
‘I’m not running away into the rainforest, I just noticed something strange.’
‘What?’ Fian seemed to be peering down at the ground.
‘It’s probably nothing, but …’ I moved on further, studying the trees overhead. There were definitely less of the Tuan creepers here. Currently, I could only see six, but even seeing one was unusual.
‘This is Dig Site Command,’ said a voice on broadcast channel. ‘Major Tell Morrath and Captain Eklund, your suit locations are dangerously beyond safety distance into the rainforest. Do you need directions back?’
I set my comms to reply on broadcast. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. We’re out here taking some readings. Can you record our current position, and make a note of level six for me. We’ll head back to the target point now, before going into the trees again. Warn us if we start wandering in circles. Griffith hybrids all look the same.’
Fian and I turned and found our way back to where the sensor probe was being lowered down the newly drilled hole. The impact-suited figure guiding it had to be Rono, because he was the only person with a suit painted lurid purple and silver. I didn’t bother to stop and watch, just moved straight ahead into the trees opposite.
‘What are we looking for?’ asked Fian.
‘Turquoise flowers,’ I said.
‘What?’
‘I know it’s nardle but …’
I hovered my way on through the trees, watching blue patches grow more frequent, until I hit a barricade created by two fallen trees. I’d gone far enough anyway. I counted, and set the comms to speak briefly on broadcast channel.
‘This is Major Tell Morrath. Mark our position and record as twenty-three. I’m going to try and move anti- clockwise now.’
My comms hummed the different note of a private channel. ‘This is Pereth. Major, the sensor probe is showing us nothing but bedrock. Are we off target? What sort of sensor readings are you taking?’
I paused to reply to him. ‘Pereth, it’s a little hard to explain at the moment. We were definitely looking in the right location, but there’s something odd around here. Please get everyone to take a rest break, while I work out if this is significant or not.’
As one hum on the comms channel ended, another one started. ‘Jarra, this is Colonel Torrek. We’re listening in to broadcast channel of course, and wondering if this is a bluff or …’
I’d been staring upwards and counting. I spoke on broadcast channel. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. Mark position and record as thirteen. We’re trying to head back clockwise past our last position now.’
I swapped to speaking on the private channel to the Colonel. ‘I’m not entirely sure, sir. Can you patch me and Fian into Military command channel, please?’
There was a brief pause before he replied. ‘Major Tell Morrath and Captain Eklund should now be hearing me on command channel.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ I said.
Leveque’s voice spoke, sounding amused. ‘I’ve committed myself to an 83 per cent probability you aren’t bluffing, Major Tell Morrath. My reputation is on the line here.’
I laughed. ‘Sir, I’m not bluffing, but I’m probably still chasing shadows. I noticed something odd. It may be absolutely nothing.’
‘If there’s something odd, directly beneath the position of the alien sphere, then it may well be absolutely something,’ said Leveque. ‘Details please.’
I hesitated. ‘This will sound really stupid. There’s a plant they genetically engineered to reclaim deserts. The Tuan creeper.’
‘The one you mentioned in your site tour, Jarra?’ said the Colonel’s voice.
‘Yes, sir. You can find them in the rainforest, but they’re very rare. Well, there are more than there should be around here. Far more. It probably means nothing, but …’
Leveque cut in. ‘Those plants must have grown long before the sphere arrived. It’s because of something unusual, probably a higher concentration of minerals or nutrients they need.’
Dig Site Command were talking on broadcast channel, telling us we were off course. I let Fian listen to them and guide me, while I concentrated on the conversation on command.
‘My team will research the plants,’ continued Leveque. ‘I gather you’re already trying to find where they’re most numerous.’
‘I doubt you’ll find much about the plants,’ I said. ‘No one’s been interested in desert reclamation for hundreds of years.’
‘This is Captain Eklund,’ said Fian’s voice on broadcast channel. ‘Mark our position and record thirty-one. Continuing to move clockwise.’
I left my command channel link set to listen only, and looked upwards. There were definitely a chaos lot of flowers.
I glanced across at Fian. ‘Do you think I’m just being nardle or …?’
‘I think you’re right,’ said Fian. ‘This is weird, and it has to mean something.’
His voice suddenly spoke on Military command channel. ‘Sirs, the Tuan creepers are growing high up in trees, getting their nutrients from the air. If there was digging in this area, a long time ago, with something like laser drills, it could have created a lot of very fine dust that still gets into the air when disturbed. That would explain why there are so many of the plants.’
‘It would,’ said Leveque. ‘We’ll set up a couple of hand sensors for you to check for dust in the air.’
I spoke on command myself. ‘I checked all the records on this area before we started work here. There’s no mention of any drilling or mining.’ I paused and added the nardle-sounding words. ‘By humans, that is.’
Fian and I headed on through the rainforest, calling in two more positions on our way. I stopped after that, and used my Military lookup to project an image of the site. It was only a fraction of the size of normal dig site mosaics, since only the immediate area had been surveyed. Dig Site Command had added numbered dots to mark the positions we’d been at, and the numbers we’d given them, and those were well into the black area of no data.
‘The number of flowers is dropping now,’ I said, ‘and over the far side from us there were far less. Thirty- one was the high point. Let’s head back towards the portals. The survey plane is still parked back there.’
I did more switching of comms settings and spoke on broadcast channel. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. It’s
