There, Brodin stalled, catching his breath and glimpsing behind him. He could see the silhouette of the hunter searching for him, disoriented, uncertain. He would waste his time looking through the cargo area, waiting for his target to emerge. With any luck, he may even go the opposite way into the maze. Brodin would wait for him to do so before hurrying away into the wilderness. In the meantime, he would control his breathing, taking deep breaths in, and slowly letting them out, calming himself, feeling his skipping heart beat slower, steadier.
A series of eyes opened along the tree. Several points of the bark broke as a ghastly grunt resounded. A deep stench shot into Brodin's nostrils. Before he could run, the branches reached around and grappled him. Now his desperate screams of fear overlapped the roars of the beast. They were short lived, however, as the branches pulled him in, and the crunching of his own bones against the tree's trunk were the last sounds he ever heard.
Dillon ran up in time to see the limp, seemingly boneless body drop from the beast's grasp. He groaned with disgust. “He was worth more alive!” Dillon shouted in anger.
The beast grunted in annoyance and confusion. “Fine,” Dillon sighed. “We'll get what we can with his corpse. Carry him to the ship. I'll call Nikos.”
Chapter
Seven
Ruins of the Milak Shivar
A pair of amber light beams cut through the lazy fog like water spouts through sand. They reached out into the mist feeling for their targets, and so far, they were grasping nothing. The beams only made it about 20 meters before the electromagnetic waves that made visibility possible ran out of energy and dissipated.
This was all Lancaster and Mika needed as they stepped cautiously toward the ruins of the Milak Shivar. Crumbled walls would soon join the embankments of the badlands and they would primarily need to see the nearby surfaces, and where to step.
The moisture in the air was palpable, as though the mist itself was the sea in which they were at the bottom. It flooded their nostrils with the constant smell of rain, and pounded at their clothing as though trying to get in to chill their bones.
It was partially successful with Lancaster. His usual explorer’s jacket kept out a lot of extreme temperatures; but its all purpose nature made it master of none, and he shivered when gusts of chill came through. His head was covered with one of his wide brimmed hats, and his eyes were covered with defrosting goggles Mika had given him, which warmed most of his face, though little of his neck.
Mika was wearing another pair of the same goggles, and she wore a thermal pith helmet that kept her whole head warm, including her neck. It also had several light features, including an adjustable spectrum spotlight she could swivel to look where she wanted. Its beam was beating out Lancaster’s Illuminator by a small margin. Her heat adjustable scarf and body temp jacket clung to her torso, and the rest of her clothing was equally efficient.
“You’re abso that you don’t want to borrow my other hat?” Lancaster asked.
“Yes, I’m pretty certain.”
“Your loss.”
“How far down do you register we’ve gone?” Mika asked. They had been slowly lowering along a grade ever since entering one of the miniature canyons.
“I’d guess around four or five meters. Chances it’s just the right height for the ruins.”
“My boot stepped in some water.”
“I surm it’s better than stepping in something else.”
Mika laughed. Her beam landed on a flat surface up ahead, and they both froze for a moment. Then she laughed again, this time with Lancaster as they looked at each other in excitement.
“I give it from that familiar exhale that you found something,” came the voice of Little Jack through their ear pieces.
“Views like a wall,” Lancaster explained as Mika stepped toward it. Quiet exultations were emerging from her lips.
“Ciphers,” Little Jack said blandly.
Mika straightened up and looked over at Lancaster offended. “Ciphers. What does he mean by that?” she said.
Lancaster rolled his eyes while motioning with his hands not to start anything, but he was too late. Little Jack responded, “It means can we move it along?”
“Move it along,” Mika said. “You comprend that these walls are millions of years old. They predate humanity, even many of the ages of dinosaurs. Humanity doesn’t even sav how to build structures that last this long, so forgive us if we’re a little taken aback by some of these sights.”
There was a moment of silence in the foggy darkness where Mika felt vindicated, and Lancaster tensed with enlarged eyes. Then Little Jack’s voice returned. “Sure, take your time. Enjoy the sights that took millions of years to create. Jude and I will just go take mud baths rather than covering your shafts, so when the hotel drones or other goons of either the corporate or underworld variety come blicking for you, they’ll just follow the nice little heat signatures you’re generating since you want so badly to stay warm and comfy.”
Mika’s expression had dropped. Lancaster shrugged a little. Then Mika said, “We’ll rec to pick up the pace.”
“That sounds swell,” Little Jack said.
Lancaster pressed a button on his jacket and said, “We might have to use our mute buttons.”
“Which only work if you both use them,” Little Jack’s voice added. Lancaster closed his eyes in frustration.
“We’re going,” Mika said, and they headed past the wall.
Lancaster pulled out of his pocket a handheld Geograph and turned it on. A hologram of a map appeared above it. The map was a combination of what Mika had shown him at the university and an overlay he had added to it from pictures taken of the ruins from the balcony.
He tapped another button and a route he had planned out snaked its way through the holographic ruins. This path led to the most likely location Teo had gone, but it took a circuitous route that Lancaster explained to Little Jack was because of obstacles within the ruins. This was partially true. There were a few points where the badlands blocked the way. But it was mostly so Mika could see a couple untouched Milak Shivar buildings, and so they could stop by a mineral deposit to dig out some payment for Jude.
Jude was presently earning that payment. Striding through the main hall of the casino, she was in her element. Dressed to the nines with an oceanic style dress that matched her rippling blue and violet hair, and lavish, pale makeup that accentuated emerald eyelids and bright red lipstick, she had every eye on her at some point during the evening. Though she was working undercover, this was part of the plan. She wanted the casino and hotel’s security looking inward. Every little thing she could do would help.
Her glistening earrings helped nail the look as well, but they served a more technical purpose. Her right ear was listening in on every transmission both official and from among the guests. She scanned through the wavelengths, hearing at once a guard shifting position, then a pit boss reporting a suspected thief, then a guest registering a drink order, then another guest telling his wife he’ll be late while flirting with another guest, then the kitchen ordering more ingredients. The switching of the channels was keyed to expressions she would make at a casino, such as curiosity, suspense, biting her lip, and sidelong glances so she could switch around with ease.
Her left ear remained dedicated only to the headquarters, waiting for any sign that they may be watching the ruins closely, or launching any drones. So far, they were not. As she suspected, their attention was pointed inward toward their most busy rooms. She was also glad to hear that she was catching several eyes. Jude made sure to maneuver in front of the cameras and guards that saw her and kept their attention.
Then her left ear grabbed her full attention. One of the corporate managers ordered a drone to be flown out to check the grounds. Jude switched her other earring to listen in as well, catching every part of the conversation. It wasn’t much of an alert. They had not spotted anyone or anything to cause suspicion, but they were behind on their routine checks of
the grounds, so they were sending one to do a fly-over of the ruins.
“You hear that, Little Jack?” she asked as she placed her lips into a martini glass.
“Wilco,” he responded, pulling his eyes away from his Vizros. He pressed a couple buttons on the side of his glasses, and soon found the hack Jude had made for him into the drones. He picked the one that took off flying and he followed its progress. It was making a wide arc around the grounds and wouldn’t even arrive at the quadrant where Lancaster and Mika were for a while, so he kept his eyes on it. He then contacted Lancaster, saying, “There’s a bogie out there.”
“Is it near?” Mika asked, freezing still.
“Gonna be a few ticks. I got it covered, but don’t dally.”
A few steps ahead, Lancaster offered a hand to help Mika over a boulder. She took it and launched over. “Such a warm friend he’s always been to you,” she said. They had both placed their comms on mute except when speaking to their eyes in the sky.
“He doesn’t beat around the nebula,” Lancaster said as they continued on further into the ruins. The two of them were now surrounded by crumbled walls of the Milak Shivar. They were rough hewn, not only from the millennia of neglect, but from their original structure of a type of hardened coral. What had once been the outer walls to smooth out the look of the structures was long-gone, and all that remained were pieces of the skeletal structure that once held them together separated by an ever-present mist that seemed to drift by like a crowd of never ending tourists cycling through the ancient streets.
The two historians were trying to keep themselves moving; but they couldn’t help but slow as they gawked at some of the amazing sights. Mika captured some images in both 2d and holographic formats that she could send to archaeological organizations for confirmation of theories.
Rounding the corner of a butte, they found themselves faced with a building whose roof was still hanging over most of its interior. Stuck into a cliff wall, it appeared that it had practically become a part of the natural surroundings. Lancaster hesitated.
“Don’t you want to go inside?” Mika asked.
“I was more concerned about you,” he answered. “Old roofs can collapse.”
“Yeah, well. This is the type of thing Teo would explore,” she said. “And since we’re searching for him, we should follow any trail he might have taken.”
Mika walked inside, ducking under the ceiling even though there was plenty of room. Lancaster used one of his tools to analyze the framework of the ceiling and make sure it was solid. Structurally, it had conformed to its surroundings, and was as solid as any rock formation, so he went in.
Lancaster had placed this location along the route because it was one of the spots he knew Mika would be excited to see. From the hologram and the view from the balcony, this appeared to be an education center, the Milak Shivar equivalent of Mika’s own profession.
Lancaster’s spotlight at first found nothing, not even the floor, and a momentary panic gripped his heart. But then he heard movement below, and he remembered their method of teaching in a city like this. These ruins had once been underwater. The teacher stood in a pit, its lesson plans appearing above it in the swirling waves; the students surrounding it sitting in tiered seating. Mika now stood at the bottom where her Milak Shivar colleagues would have stood. She turned slowly, her face up toward where the students once sat. When her eyes turned toward Lancaster, he could see them watering. He waited, letting her take it all in.
Mika stepped toward the side. She lifted a palm and with it touched one of the lowest benches. “How many students learned here?” she said.
“And what did they aprend?” Lancaster answered, sitting down on one of the top tiers, a large grin on his face. “From their point of view. A long, long time ago from a perspective far away from Earth.”
“Some of the first species in the galaxy,” Mika added.
“As far as we sav,” Lancaster said.
“Yes,” she answered, her face practically glowing.
“My best raise is if we look close we can find the holes to the gas jets that created the illustrative bubbles.”
Mika shrugged and said, “We should chances be on our way.”
Lancaster stepped down a couple tiers and offered his hand. She grabbed it and pulled herself up. Milak Shivar anatomy was very vertical, and their seated position was steep.
“Where do we go from here?” she asked.
“Out that way, then around,” Lancaster explained.
“It would have been faster to cut straight through,” she observed.
“Mmm.”
“Oh, there were mesas in the way?”
“Not really.”
“You didn’t… You didn’t come around this way for me, did you?”
Lancaster shrugged. “It views like an education district, so I ciphered there would be something around here that would interest you.”
Mika was at a loss; not sure whether she should criticize him or thank him for the decision. Little Jack interrupted, “You have cover nearby?”
“Yes, we’re under a roof,” Lancaster said.
There was a slight pause, then Little Jack said more urgently, “Lancaster. Are you near cover?”
Mika pointed at his communicator. “On mute,” she reminded him before suppressing a laugh.
“Oh,” Lancaster said, and he took it off mute. “Yes, we’re under a roof.”
“Good. Stay put.” Within his glasses, Little Jack had an overhead layout of the badlands with blips showing where Lancaster was and where the drone was. The drone was drawing close; and even though it wouldn’t see Lancaster now, it might detect him on another pass.
So he logged into the drone using Jude’s hack, and placed its visuals into his glasses. He didn’t want to make too big of a change. That would get the control room’s full attention. He just wanted to make it seem like the drone was malfunctioning. Create enough of a headache that they bring it in for the night. This was already being accomplished by the sheer fact that he had rested control from the main operator. But then he had it drop slightly.
Little Jack let go of the control, then retook control long enough to jilt it to the right, then let it go again, then took it back again and had it speed up and slow down. He repeated the process in uneven intervals, threatening its safety in the sky.
Jude had to suppress a laugh when she heard the managers in the control room grow confused over what was going on with their drone. They had never seen one malfunction like this before. They would need to bring it in and check it out.
Then they told one of the floor bosses to take a look out the balcony to see if he had a visual. Jude looked around quickly to find who it was that was responding, and found one of the uniformed employees with his finger on his ear heading toward the balcony.
She hurried over to him and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. “Excuse me,” she said in a voice that was just slurred enough to sound like she was inebriated. She then went about hemming and hawing and speaking slow enough to try his patience. Just as he was about to push by her, she said, “Oh, I remember!” She laughed a moment, then said, “I’ve been having a weird glitch with the Graphslot Superseven over, uh… over…”
“Supereight?” the boss asked.
“Super… what?” Jude asked.
“Supereight? The Graphslot Supereight?”
“Yeah. What did I say?”
“Superseven.”
Jude laughed hysterically. “Okay, whatever. Anywho. Graphslot… Super… Eight… It’s having a glitching problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“It’s… There’s a… You ever seen when a… I tried hitting it, but…”
“Ma’am, don’t hit the machines.”
“I know, but it wouldn’t work. Maybe I should just show you.”
The floor boss looked at the balcony, torn. But the customer always came first, so he called to the control room, “I’ve got to help somebody, then I�
��ll go for a visual.”
“Wilco,” they responded, and the man followed Jude toward the computerized machines.
Mika and Lancaster were studying the perimeter of their room on separate levels. Both were crouched down so they could see the floors better, and so their gaits were like those of crabs.
Mika noticed the comical way it made Lancaster appear, and she stopped; partly because she knew she looked like that, and partly just to watch him. He was relentless in his intensity to find what he was looking for, and she could hear tiny gasps escaping his lips from his passionate excitement. Most people would see only stone, but he saw the formations and noticed every tiny detail. Most of all, he appreciated every nuance. He probably didn’t even realize how giddy he appeared from an outside perspective.
His energy caused her to look around the room one more time, and to appreciate its importance. She was grateful that Lancaster had taken them on this detour. Then she wondered if Teo had gone through it as well.
Little Jack’s voice rang in their communicators suddenly, telling them that the sky was clear for the moment, and advising them to stay as deeply in the mist as possible to avoid prying eyes. “And you might want to find what you came for sooner rather than later.”
“No more detours,” Mika promised, eyeing Lancaster with an appreciative smile.
Lancaster made sure Mika’s comm was on mute before saying, “We need to take one more small detour.”
“You heard your partner…” Mika started.
Lancaster interrupted, “It’s how I’m paying Jude. I need to find a couple valuable artifacts we don’t want, or some valuable minerals that are being mined here, or both, preferably.”
Mika took in an impatient breath, but she understood what he was saying, so she nodded, and they headed out.
As they weaved through the deep trenches in the dark, the murky vapor begrudgingly gave way to ancient architecture half molded into the rocky cliff-faces of the badlands. The hands of both explorers grasped the old, slanted walls on the pretext of lifting their bodies over the obstructions, though the structures were not in their way. The real reason was so they could touch the surfaces with their own hands.
Relic Worlds - Lancaster James & the Salient Seed of the Galaxy, Part 2 Page 2
