Wayfarer: AV494

by Matthew S. Cox

  She raised her e-pad, tapped the screen to start a cataloging app, and held steady as thin green lines appeared around the artifact. It calculated its height at eighteen inches, fourteen inches wide, fourteen inches deep at the widest portions. Mass and density came back as unknown.

  Rapid footsteps scuffed to a halt near the door she’d opened.

  “Kerys? Marco? Where are you?” asked Don.

  “Inside,” whispered Kerys. She walked around it, recording video to capture it from every angle.

  Don and Paula squeezed into the chamber. Marco and Gina moved aside to let them pass, but gathered around the floating thing with them.

  “This room seems like a shrine.” Don stared upward.

  Paula leaned close to the artifact. “How is it just floating?”

  “Could be magnetic,” said Kerys.

  “Could it be biological?” Marco tilted his head. “Those membranes and tubes look like circulatory passages. Whoa. If this is a heart, those Atlanteans would have to be huge.”

  Paula grumbled. “Please stop calling them that.”

  Kerys stuck her hand in the space between the object and the pedestal, making Don cry out. “Well, it’s definitely floating. I don’t think it’s a heart. If it was, whatever creature it came from wouldn’t have been able to fit in here.”

  “That thing’s pretty badass looking.” Gina relaxed her rifle.

  “Not reading any magnetic fields,” muttered Marco.

  Kerys stopped on the far side of the pedestal. She peered over the object at Don, Paula, and the hallway that led out of the hidden room. She opened her mouth to speak, but the air caught in her throat when she noticed two pairs of divots on the side facing her, each holding a rounded black oval. “It’s… wow. Those look like eyes. I think this is a head.”

  “What?” Don rushed around to stand beside her. “I… can’t even tell where the mouth would be, but those do look like eyes.”

  “Pareidolia,” said Paula. “The human mind is programmed to recognize faces. You could be reading human features into something that isn’t even close. These aliens could have had ten limbs, or none at all. Maybe they were serpents or floating gas-filled balloons. We don’t even know if they had eyes. They might sense electromagnetism or heat.”

  “Possible.” Don leaned closer, putting his helmet nose to… something with the floating object. “Those depressions, the symmetry there, do seem like eyes. Given the feeling of this room, this could be a statue of an individual they revered.”

  “Maybe it’s like a cult of personality thing? Their boss?” asked Marco.

  “Or a tomb,” said Kerys. “This could be a memorial for whoever’s buried here.”

  “We’ll need to get the DPMRI units in here and see what’s inside the walls.” Don raised his arm as if to look at a watch, but dropped it with a chuckle. “Darn suits. Oh, there it is. It’s almost time for lunch.”

  Kerys reached out and touched a finger to the front of the ‘head.’ She tapped it twice. “Feels like stone.”

  The faint light between the head and the base flickered and went out. The head dropped a few inches, striking the pedestal with a heavy thud. Before anyone could do more than shout in surprise, it careened over to the side and crashed to the floor, landing on Marco’s left foot.

  He hit the ground, howling a stream of obscenities over the comm.

  “Shit!” yelled Kerys. She dropped to one knee and grabbed the top of the head in both hands, straining to pull it backward off Marco’s leg.

  Gina swung her rifle on a strap over her shoulder and squatted next to her, also grabbing the ‘head’ to help. Between the two of them, they shifted it enough to for Don and Paula to grasp the screaming Marco by the arms and drag him clear.

  “Damn that hurts.” Marco hissed and gasped for a few seconds. “I felt a crack. Think my shin broke.”

  Kerys cringed with guilt. “I’m sorry… I had no idea it would do that.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Marco grunted as Gina and Don helped him upright to balance on his right leg. “Worst part is I’ll be stuck inside for a couple days now.”

  “Heh. Give Doc something to do beside play that video game of his.” Gina pulled Marco’s arm across her shoulder to support him. “I got ya.”

  Kerys stared down at the artifact as Gina helped Marco off down the tunnel.

  Don squatted over the head, testing the weight by tugging at it.

  “Doctor Bouchard?” asked Captain Chen over the comm. “I’m being told your team made a discovery in there? And had an injury?”

  “Yes. We found some kind of statue, I think. It was levitating via unknown means above a pedestal. Something caused the energy field to deactivate, and the relic fell on Mr. Trem’s foot. I believe the man has a broken leg. He’s on his way back.”

  “What sort of object did you locate?”

  “It appears to be an alien head. At least, on casual observation, it bears similarities to such.” Don looked up at Paula and Kerys, his expression pained.

  “Bring it back with you for study. There is a quarantine access area attached to Lab Pod 1. All unknown items must undergo a thorough scan before being allowed in. Miss Vickers and Mr. Deering already know the drill.”

  “Marco just got hurt and she’s worried about the head?” whispered Kerys.

  Paula shrugged. “He’s already injured and leaving this here won’t help him. We’re going to have to catalog it anyway.”

  She stared down at the object. An unsettling sense of malice radiated from it, as though it glared at her for daring to disturb it. “Uhh.” If I say this thing feels awake, they’re going to think I’ve cracked. “Is that wise?”

  “That’s why they have the quarantine.” Don groaned as he stood from his squat. “I’ll send Foster in here to help carry it. Bit too much for these old bones, and those exo suits won’t fit down this hallway.”

  The more she tried to peel her gaze away from the alien head, the more fearful she became of what it might do if she broke eye contact. “Right…” She swallowed the saliva gathering under her tongue. I’m being superstitious. A few quick breaths let her enthusiasm return. Nowhere before had humanity ever found the slightest clue what these ‘Atlanteans,’ or whatever they called themselves, looked like. She’d found what could be the first record of their appearance. That alone made the trip worth it.

  Kerys looked up at Gina and patted the head. “Let’s get it back then.”

  5

  Mess

  The quarantine module consisted of a tiny pod adjacent to the east-facing wall of Lab 1, connected by a short section of semi-flexible corridor. The specimen hatch made it look like an enormous version of a toy oven. Inside, an array of sensors, filters, and scanning equipment would detect substances potentially dangerous to humans. Before Captain Chen would allow anything found outside into the atmosphere of Wayfarer Outpost, it had to pass a gauntlet of tests and yea/nay votes from the senior science staff.

  Kerys sat on her quad about a hundred meters north of it, watching Ellen trudge back up the hill from the excavation site carrying the head, Lars at her side. Marco had ridden back in the Warthog, with Paula learning how to drive a quad for the return trip. Her first attempt had shot the four-wheeler out from under her, dumping her on her back. Kerys didn’t feel quite so foolish at her uncoordinated scramble down the hill earlier that day; at least she’d stayed on the vehicle. Everyone else had already gone inside via the garage.

  The view to the south offered nothing but endless black sand, glinting here and there like thousands of miles of tiny black diamonds. No sign of plant life or any other mountains broke the monotony of the endless dunes. It seemed silly to think, but Kerys pictured Earth as being somewhere far away on the other side of the desert. The isolation would’ve been almost welcome if not for Will being here. Damn him. Why did he have to be such an ass? Why did he have to be here of all places?

  Ellen reached the quarantine pod and opened the specimen po
rt. She set the head inside, shut the flap, and started the long walk to the garage.

  I’m being an idiot. What’s she going to do? Steal the thing and run back to Earth to get all the credit? Chuckling to herself, Kerys twisted the handlebars around and drove the quad the last two or three hundred meters to the garage opening. Getting used to the handling came easier than she’d expected, and she guided the four-wheeler into the open space among the other quads. After connecting the charging cable, she headed to the airlock… and waited.

  Ten minutes later, Ellen and Lars tromped in the garage door.

  “Thanks for waiting,” said Ellen.

  “Yeah.” Kerys smiled. “I figured working the console would be a pain in those suits.”

  Lars held up his hand, making the metal fingers open and close. “Not so much designed for precision.”

  Kerys edged left, leaning against the wall by the airlock control as the two exo suits stepped past her. She hit the button to seal the outside door. A few seconds after it closed, the center button marked ‘repressurize airlock’ changed from red to green. Touching it filled the chamber with hissing, and soon the red ‘no atmosphere’ warning dot disappeared from her HUD. Another tap at the touchscreen opened the inner doors.

  Gina, already out of her e-suit, waited in the changing area. “Hey. Getting out of those suits alone is a pain in the ass unless you’re a gymnast.”

  “Heh. Closest I got to that was some jiu-jitsu classes when I was in college.” Kerys shuffled over to her locker and hit the helmet release. The seal broke with a hiss and a puff of pressurized air. Not until she’d taken a few breaths of inside atmosphere did it occur to her how much like rubber the suit’s re-filtered air tasted.

  “Creep issues?” Gina opened the clasps on Kerys’s back, freeing her from the e-suit.

  Hah. Just a little. “Yeah, major creep issues, but he’s not why. I spent so much time studying or sleeping. Needed some activity, and I didn’t have the time to get involved with any organized sports. I did yoga too, but kept falling asleep in the middle of the classes.”

  “Oh.” Gina looked down.

  Kerys stowed the helmet in the locker before letting the suit drop around her legs. “Sorry. I forgot.”

  “Naw, it’s all good.” Gina raised her head, flashing a weak smile. “I shouldn’t assume you had an easy ride. You probably busted your ass to afford that fancy college.”

  “Nah. My mom paid for it.” Kerys stepped out of the e-suit boots and hit the button to close them. “I think I’d rather have had to work my ass off. Didn’t get along with her at all. I didn’t really have a mother, I had a boss.”

  “Harsh. Least you had one. Sure she loved you in some way or ’nother.”

  Kerys stuffed the suit into the locker, closed the door a little harder than she intended, and shrugged. “If she did, she didn’t show it much.”

  “Sorry.” Gina bit her lip. “So, hungry?”

  She exhaled. “Hey, it’s not your fault. Suppose I might as well eat something.”

  They walked down the single ‘hamster tube’ connecting the garage pod to the central dome, accompanied by the repetitive thunk of boots and the clatter of tiny stones pelting the outside. Small portal windows passing on her right offered a view of the empty landing pad to the north where the shuttle had set down a few days before. Black dust skittered over the giant steel hexagon, lofted into spinning whorls before disappearing once more into the ground.

  It’s only been a few days… feels like I’ve been here for years.

  She looked away and walked faster, as if her getting to the cafeteria four seconds sooner would somehow hasten the quarantine process. “We should check on Marco first.”

  “They’re not going to keep him in the infirmary that long. He’ll probably be out before we finish eating.” Gina reached forward and hit the button to open the door where the tube connected to the dome. “Cutting edge medical tech and all that.”

  “Right.”

  “Hey don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have known just touching it would make it drop.”

  Kerys followed an orange stripe on the wall bearing the word ‘cafeteria.’ “I shouldn’t have touched anything until we’d scanned it first. I pulled an amateur move ’cause I got too excited.”

  “Don’t dwell on it. Holdin’ on to guilt for somethin’ like that’ll drive you nuts.”

  “I suppose.”

  The din of voices in the cafeteria reached her ears a few steps away from the door. A fair amount of people packed the place, filling in rows of shiny silver tables. Don’s wispy white hair caught her eye near an open spot as she headed for the row of automats. The first bore the label ‘General Tso.’ Oh hell no. I don’t even want to think about their version of Chinese food. She opted for the grilled chicken, and waited the forty seconds for the machine to warm and dispense it.

  She headed back to where she’d seen Don, but Corporal Guillen had taken part of the two-space opening. Kerys climbed over the bench and settled in between him and a thirty-something man in a green jumpsuit with light brown hair so neat it looked like he wasted an hour every morning in front of the mirror. He chatted with Don about the excavation site, a British accent evident in his voice.

  Gina paused behind her, emitting a resigned sigh before slipping in at Corporal Guillen’s right.

  The grilled chicken didn’t taste bad, but Kerys couldn’t find much interest in it. Between wanting to go back out to the site, excitement about the discovery, and guilt over Marco’s injury, her brain didn’t have the extra space to accommodate the conversations flying around her. She pushed rice around with her fork while staring at the slab of chicken flecked in tiny green bits over ‘grill marks’ that looked too perfect to be real. Again and again in her mind, she thought about the head falling, and wondered if she could’ve stopped it or shoved Marco away rather than standing there like an idiot.

  “Buck up, lass,” said the man to her left. “Though, I completely understand. The food here’s seven shades of awful.”

  “Says the Brit.” Corporal Guillen raised a steel cup in toast and took a gulp of water.

  “Kerys, this is Chris Mardling… he’s with the botanical group.”

  Still staring at her food, she nodded. “Yeah, I got that from the green suit.”

  “Chemist actually.” Chris offered a hand. “Pleasure to meet you. You’re the one from Copernicus, right?”

  “Yeah.” She accepted his handshake but scrunched her eyebrows at him. “How do you know that?”

  “Oh, Braxton’s been running his mouth for months about them finding someone who’d worked on that project. As if you being here was his idea.”

  Kerys dropped her fork as her stomach did a backflip.

  “Aye, the chicken’s a right bit of awful, innit?”

  Corporal Guillen chuckled. “You’re from the UK, Chris. You’re not permitted to complain about shitty food.”

  “Oh, is that so?” He put on a playful scowl. “Our food is just fine, thank you very much.”

  “I’ve been there,” said Guillen. “You’ve got a strange definition of ‘fine.’”

  Kerys shrank in on herself as the men got into a playful argument back and forth in front of her about the intricacies of British cuisine.

  “I don’t know what manner of buffalo turns things orange, but it’s an abject disaster,” said Chris.

  “What’s up with that ‘blood pudding’ anyway? That’s an abomination.” Corporal Guillen impaled a golf ball sized orange nugget on his fork and ate it. “And this isn’t buffalo chicken, it’s Chinese.”

  Maybe I should’ve gotten the General Tso’s… that actually doesn’t smell too bad.

  “Now wait just a minute…” Chris pointed at him.

  “Your problem is that if food has flavor, you can’t handle it. Everything over there is boiled to mush.”

  Chris laughed. “You’re thinking of Irish food, mate.” He peered at Kerys. “So, yeah, we’re glad to have
you.”

  Will seemed annoyed when he saw me. “Braxton didn’t know it was me on the way?”

  “Don’t think so.” Chris chased a scattering of rice grains around his mostly-empty tray. “Just knew Avasar had hired someone with experience from that project. None of us thought they’d put that kind of budget to it.”

  She let off a sarcastic chuckle. “They didn’t need to.”

  “Oh. That’s too bad.” Chris pursed his lips. “Wonder if that’s what’s got him out of sorts.”

  Kerys glanced at him. “What do you mean?”

  “Right after your team landed, he came storming into the lab looking like Chen just told him he had to go home. Somewhere between shocked and angry.”

  She prodded at the chicken slab. “How many things did he break?”

  “Just a cabinet door.” Chris chuckled. “You know him?”

  “Unfortunately.”

  A grating whirr came from the vents for a few seconds, chugged to a stop, then sputtered up to a soft buzzing.

  “Hey Scotty, what’s going on down there in engineering?” yelled a man.

  “Oi, bastard,” shouted a muscular red-haired man with a heavy accent in a grey jumpsuit. He leaned up out of his chair to whip a steel cup at another man a few seats down. “You lot think ’et funny eh? Git stuffed.”

  Kerys covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.

  Corporal Guillen leaned close to her and whispered, “That’s MacLeod. He’s the head of the maintenance team. Has a bit of a tendency to throw small metal objects at anyone who makes a ‘Scotty’ remark.”

  Grinding came from the vents for a few seconds before a muted clunk, and the abnormal sounds faded once more to the silent processing of air.

  MacLeod stared up at the vent in the ceiling and cocked his jaw to the side.

  “I’m going to go check on Marco.” Kerys shifted her weight in preparation to stand, but Don put a hand on hers before she could get her rear end off the bench.