by Gary Gibson
He made a face when he swallowed, and he heard a few chuckles from around the campfire. ‘So get on with it,’ he said, tearing off more and waving at Kevin. ‘Don’t keep us in suspense.’
Kevin stood and brushed his hands on the legs of his jumpsuit. ‘Okay,’ he said, looking around. ‘While we were running search patterns last night, the drone ended up collecting a lot of footage from up high above the forest canopy.’
‘It’s a whole separate biome up there,’ said Kim with undisguised enthusiasm. ‘There may be animals living up there that almost never come down to the ground.’
‘Like the bungee-bug,’ said Irish, and Kim nodded.
‘Well, I went over the footage this morning,’ Kevin continued, ‘and found what looks like a building about thirty kilometres north-west of us.’
The announcement was met with a cacophony of shouted questions and a few cries of delight. Kevin raised his hands to quiet them and grinned when DeWitt let out a loud whoop.
‘You’re sure about this?’ asked Sam, staring up at him.
‘Everyone hold your horses, okay? There’s no way we can get a closer look or double-check anything because we lost our drone last night.’
‘Its camera was also very low resolution,’ added Amit, ‘not to mention the light was already starting to fade when we collected the footage.’
‘The point,’ said Kevin, ‘is we saw something, and it doesn’t appear at all natural.’
‘Could we build a second drone to take a look?’ asked Jess.
Kevin’s expression became pained. ‘I’m sorry, but we don’t have the resources left. Unless we get lucky digging through the damaged bays, the drone was a one-off.’
‘I was right in the first place,’ said Traynor, triumph edging his voice. ‘Either somebody got here before we did, or there’s a lot more going on here than we know.’
‘I want to see that footage,’ said Sam with undisguised fervour.
‘Finish eating first,’ said Kevin, fixing Sam with a look that seemed burgeoned with unspoken significance. ‘Then you can come up to the command deck after everyone else has taken a look and see what you think.’
He held Sam’s gaze for a moment longer, then looked around. ‘So if the rest of you want to see what we’ve got, you can head up there now—but only three at a time, okay? Otherwise it’s going to get awfully crowded, awfully quickly.’
* * *
A short while later, as he attempted to ascend the narrow shaft linking the lander’s decks despite an injured shoulder, Sam was reminded that the craft had not been designed with human comfort in mind. Not that he particularly cared at that moment: the pain and discomfort were a small price, compared to the possibility they might be on the verge of getting some real answers.
Even so, as soon as he reached the command deck, he collapsed into a chair, gripped by an unpleasant cold sweat. Amit looked up from where he had been hands-deep inside the internal wiring of a wall panel and nodded to him.
Kevin stepped towards Sam and clapped a hand on his uninjured shoulder. ‘Bearing up?’
Sam looked around, seeing chaos. Wall panels had been removed, wiring spilling out everywhere. ‘Just about,’ he said, thumbing sweat from above one eye. ‘I had the feeling back there you wanted to talk to me alone.’
Kevin glanced at Amit, then back at Sam. ‘Me and Amit,’ he said, lowering his voice. ‘It’s why I wanted you to come up last, so we can talk away from the others.’
Sam shifted in his chair. ‘Is it to do with the building?’
‘No.’ Kevin hesitated. ‘But I’d say it’s as important. Possibly even more so.’
Sam regarded him with surprise. ‘All right then,’ he said. ‘How about you show me the building, and then we can talk about whatever it is you have for me?’
Kevin adjusted a gimbal-mounted screen near where Sam was sitting, then tapped at a keyboard mounted below it. The screen flickered into life, showing a still of Aranyani’s forest canopy as seen from above.
Sam shifted forward until he could see it more clearly. Trees spread out, unbroken, towards a far horizon.
Kevin tweaked a control, and the video suddenly jerked forward twice. ‘This was taken a few kilometres from here,’ Kevin explained. ‘It’s been run through a filter, which is why it looks like it was taken during the day. You can see how dense the canopy is in most places.’ Kevin tapped at the keyboard again. ‘Now take a look at this.’
The image froze again, and more taps at the keyboard caused the view to enlarge in incremental steps, becoming grainier with each enlargement.
‘This is close to maximum resolution,’ Kevin warned. He reached out and placed a finger against the screen. ‘Can you see?’
Grainy as it was, Sam could about make out what might indeed be the roof of some large, artificial structure level with the surrounding treetops. Although, in truth, it could have been almost anything.
‘Is there any way to make it clearer?’ Sam asked.
‘Nope.’ Kevin shook his head. ‘I tried running it through some anti-aliasing filters as well, but there’s not enough information in the image. Anyway, grainy or not, it doesn’t look like any kind of natural formation to me.’
Sam nodded. ‘Yeah, I guess. The only way we’ll know for sure is if we go look.’ He thought for a moment. ‘And if it does turn out to be some kind of building, then who built it? People like us?’
‘Don’t rule out the possibility the Howlers or something very like them constructed it,’ said Amit, still working on the other side of the command deck.
Kevin snorted. ‘Come on. They’re clearly far too primitive to build anything on that scale.’
Amit glared at him. ‘But they are intelligent, that can’t be denied. You’re making the mistake of assuming their species is at the same level of technological and cultural development throughout the entirety of Aranyani. There were primitive tribes still living in the jungles of Brazil in 2050, as Sam would surely tell you. If you were an alien visiting Earth, would you take a bunch of tribes in the Amazon as your sole proof of planetary development?’
‘Did the drone see anything else?’ Sam asked.
‘Actually, there’s one other thing of immediate interest.’ Kevin made another adjustment, and the view changed to show what looked like a mountain, except that its upper half appeared to have been neatly sliced away. Steep-sided cliffs rose up to a flat plateau thick with forest, high above the surrounding terrain.
Sam peered at the image. ‘What am I looking at?’
‘A mesa,’ said Kevin. ‘I showed this to Irish as well, since she’s the only geologist around. The river plain where you saw the buttheads is directly north of it, and she says water action over millions of years likely wore the softer rock of the surrounding terrain down, leaving the mesa.’
He glanced at Sam. ‘But the point, as Kim would tell you, is that it could be defensible. Now, Irish thinks the top of this mesa may be as much as a hundred metres above the surrounding forest. That’s a lot of security for a small, future colony. We’d be safe from Howlers and all manner of carnivorous beasties.’
‘Assuming,’ said Sam, ‘Howlers can’t climb.’
Kevin rolled his eyes. ‘Okay, sure. So that’s a possibility we have to consider. It’s another thing we don’t know, like whether we can even find a way up there ourselves.’ He gestured at the screen. ‘But the top of that mesa’s got to be at least four or five square kilometres across. That’s more than enough room to keep us safe for a good long time.’
‘Not to mention,’ added Amit, ‘that it would vastly reduce any impact we might have on the Howler’s development.’
‘But for the moment,’ said Kevin, ‘our immediate priority is that building.’
Sam nodded. ‘You’ve got no arguments from me.’
‘Speaking of which,’ said Amit, ‘Vic’s volunteered himself to go and investigate it.’
Sam frowned. ‘How far is it?’
Amit thought for a
moment. ‘About thirty kilometres north-west of us.’
‘And the mesa?’ Sam asked. ‘How far is that?’
‘A little closer,’ said Amit. ‘About twenty-five kilometres to the east.’
‘The truck looks finished,’ said Sam. ‘Perhaps we could drive it out to that building, or whatever it is?’
Kevin shook his head. ‘Not to there, no—judging by the footage we’ve got, the terrain’s much too rough out that way for a wheeled vehicle. You either fly there or go by foot—and since the helicopter is out of action, that means walking.’
‘The helicopter would have been perfect,’ said Amit glumly.
‘We can almost certainly drive to the mesa, however,’ said Kevin, as if trying to reassure him. ‘The terrain out that way is much more smooth and flat. It’s possible someone could take the truck the whole way there.’
‘If the only way to that building is on foot,’ said Sam, thinking out loud, ‘Vic’s looking at a sixty-kilometre round trip. Even if he had the stamina to make it there in one day, I’m far from sure he’d make it back here before nightfall. And even then, he’s taking a hell of a risk with those beasts roaming the forest all around us.’
‘He may be an asshole,’ said Kevin, ‘but he’s got cojones, no doubt about that. He’s willing to take the chance, he says. And so are Joshua and DeWitt.’
Sam looked at him in surprise. ‘Joshua’s going?’
‘He insisted. Said he used to run lots of marathons when he was young and once ran over fifty kilometres in four hours. He seems sure he can keep up with the other two just fine.’
‘I suspect Joshua’s real reason for going,’ said Amit, ‘is to keep an eye on both Vic and DeWitt.’
‘A man after my own heart,’ Sam grunted. ‘Vic make any objections?’
‘None that I’ve heard,’ said Kevin. ‘But what could he possibly say?’
‘According to Joshua,’ said Amit, ‘if they leave at first light tomorrow they can make it there and back before nightfall, with up to a couple of hours in the middle for exploring.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Sam, feeling less than convinced. ‘You’d need to be at the absolute peak of physical fitness to even contemplate something like that.’
‘A couple of days ago,’ said Kevin, ‘you told us about hunting in the Brazilian jungle. Plus, in case you forgot, we all have brand new bodies.’ He gestured at his own face, that of a man in his late teens or early twenties. ‘All of us are in peak physical condition. I feel stronger than I ever did. Surely given all that, you can see how they might do it?’
Sam still had his doubts. ‘Running a marathon’s one thing, but they need someone experienced in dealing with hostile wildlife.’
‘Don’t,’ said Kevin, a warning in his voice.
Sam blinked at him. ‘Don’t what?’
‘You’re not going with them, not in your state,’ said Kevin, pointing a finger at Sam. ‘You couldn’t run half a kilometre, let alone sixty.’
‘I didn’t say anything!’ Sam protested.
‘No,’ Kevin agreed, ‘but you were going to.’
‘Really,’ said Amit, his tone aggrieved, ‘Kim should be the one going with them.’
Kevin shook his head wearily. ‘Not again, Amit, please.’
Amit turned to Sam with an imploring look. ‘There’s a real chance that building could be the product of alien minds, which makes it a true first contact situation unprecedented in all of human history if its occupants are technological beings like ourselves. As an expert in exobiology, Kim is the only one amongst us with any applicable expertise in such matters. That he should be out-ruled from accompanying them to the site of that building is outrageous!’
‘Exo-what?’ asked Sam.
‘Exobiology,’ Kevin explained. ‘The study of alien life-forms. Which would make sense, given we’re apparently meant to be some kind of landing party.’ He looked over at Amit. ‘We already talked about this,’ he said. ‘Even Kim would tell you he wasn’t exactly physically active back home. Being physically fit is one thing, but mental stamina is another. They think he’d slow them down, and they’re right.’
Amit’s expression grew only more strained. ‘What concerns me almost as much,’ he said, ‘is that you are all willing to allow a man like Vic Traynor to lead any kind of expedition!’
‘At least it’ll keep him out of our hair for a couple of hours,’ Sam pointed out. ‘And Joshua will be there to keep an eye on both him and DeWitt. Now, how about you tell me whatever else it is you wanted me up here for?’
The two men exchanged a glance. ‘What we’re about to tell you,’ said Kevin, ‘nobody knows except us.’
Amit came over and slid into a chair opposite Sam. ‘I found something, Mr Newman. Something that looks very much like a crew manifest, buried deep in the lander’s computer systems.’
‘And according to which,’ said Kevin, ‘you’re in charge of the whole expedition.’
Sam blinked at him. ‘I’m what?’
‘As it turns out,’ said Amit, ‘we all have designated roles. Ethan, unsurprisingly, is our medical officer. Kevin’s our chief engineer. Your title is “Advance Mission Commander”, and I,’ he added with pride, ‘am the science and communications officer.’
Kevin tapped at the keyboard beneath the gimbal-mounted screen and the mesa disappeared, replaced by text and images scrolling rapidly down the screen. Another tap froze the screen on a picture of Sam—except he appeared to be far older than he remembered being by quite some number of years. There were deep lines cut into this other Sam’s forehead, his hair grey and cut close to his scalp.
Sam stared at the image of his other self and dry-swallowed. ‘I…don’t suppose you know when this picture was taken?’
Kevin regarded him with sympathy. ‘I’m afraid not. How does it compare to how you remember looking?’
‘I’d say that looks at least a couple of decades older than I remember being.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Perhaps even more.’
Kevin nodded. ‘Same with mine.’
‘And me,’ said Amit. ‘All us civilians appear much older than we remember being.’
‘But that’s not the really big surprise,’ said Kevin, reaching towards the keyboard once again. ‘Now take a peek at this.’
A picture of a middle-aged Asian woman appeared next, her expression calm and serene: Sun. Next came Amit himself, wizened and grey, and then someone he didn’t recognise: a man in his fifties, broad-faced and jowly, with sharp blue eyes. The text under his picture read MINSKY, OTTO. SECURITY.
‘Who the hell is Otto Minsky?’
‘Good question,’ said Kevin.
Next to appear was another middle-aged Asian woman. The text under her image read: YU, MEGAN. 2nd MEDICAL OFFICER. The next was male, middle-aged, and white. SANCRISTAN, THOMAS. VIROLOGIST.
‘How many of these are there altogether?’ asked Sam, something hollow in his gut.
‘Seven,’ Kevin replied. ‘Seven people who should, if this manifest is anything to go by, be here on Aranyani with us.’
Sam shook his head, befuddled. ‘So…where are they?’
‘All we can be certain of,’ said Amit, ‘is that instead of these people we got Vic Traynor, Jess Underwood, Wardell Brooks, Angel Hickson, DeWitt Thomas, Karl Gabarro, and Piper Rubin.’
‘None of whom,’ said Kevin, ‘are listed anywhere in the manifest.’
‘So you’re saying that Traynor and the rest of them somehow—’ Sam waved a hand at the image on the screen ‘—replaced these other people?’
‘My opinion,’ said Amit, ‘is that Vic and the rest were never supposed to be here in the first place.’
Sam stared at the screen, struggling to process so much new information. He glanced towards the entrance of the bay as if someone might be hiding there, listening in on the three of them.
Sam remembered something and caught Amit’s eye. ‘A couple of days back,’ he said, ‘Kim mentioned you thought the computers mi
ght have been sabotaged.’
‘There are large sectors of the memory I can’t gain access to,’ said Amit, ‘root privileges or not. The only explanation I can find is that someone deliberately made them inaccessible to us.’
Sam let out a shaky breath and wondered if any of this was ever going to make some kind of sense. ‘And it’s just the three of us who know about this?’
‘For now,’ said Kevin.
Sam nodded in relief. ‘You were right to keep it quiet.’ He didn’t even want to speculate what might happen were Traynor or Jess or any of the grunts to learn about any of this.
‘First,’ said Kevin, ‘let’s get ourselves to that building or whatever the hell it is and see what we can find out.’
18
THE SIEGE
Sam caught a couple of hour’s sleep in a burned-out bay that had been cleared out by Ethan and a few of the others. When he awoke in the early evening of their fifth day on Aranyani, he found most everyone gathered outside by the ramp. Misty rain had turned the sky grey, and the not-grass beyond the lander glistened with moisture. The campfire flickered from beneath a rough shelter made of interwoven branches and twigs Jess had propped over it.
Sam got a few nods when he made his way down the ramp. He moved carefully, still favouring his wounded shoulder, although it wasn’t as bad as he’d expected: perhaps the painkillers were doing their job.
Joshua turned from where he had been talking to Traynor and DeWitt. ‘Feeling better?’ he asked.
Sam found he couldn’t meet Traynor’s gaze. You’re not supposed to be here, he thought, remembering all the unfamiliar faces and names Kevin and Amit had shown him.
‘I hear you’re going to head for that building on foot,’ Sam said to Joshua. ‘That’s one heck of an undertaking.’
Traynor shrugged from beside Joshua. ‘I don’t doubt we can make it.’
Somehow, it was easier to meet DeWitt’s eye, even though he hadn’t been on the manifest either. ‘Done much running?’ Sam asked him.
