Earth-Net

by David J. Garrett

  Ray felt anxiety start to interrupt her reveries once again as her brain started to revert to less pleasant subjects. She lifted her head up and gazed around the lake enjoying what felt like a last look at the sunlight playing across the lake bed. So peaceful. She estimated she had less than an hour to pick up her gear and report to her new crew. Mostly packed already, all she needed to do was shower and check on Bones. She effortlessly lifted herself off the lake bed and walked lazily to the shore.

  Freshly showered an hour later, she dropped in briefly at Bones’ house. Nettle and Sparks were there as always. Neither having been assigned to a work detail just yet. Bones had improved again over the last couple of days. She was sitting up and eating but she hadn’t tried to talk or get up yet. CDSE hadn’t made any move to take her back to the Medbay. Ray guessed that without access to scanners or surgical equipment there was very little that could be done about the implants in Bones’ head as far as either removing them or proving they were there. Still she felt scared for her. And for Sparks and Nettle. She gave them both a long hug.

  “Keep in touch every day,” Nettle instructed. Ray nodded, tears in the corners of her eyes. Sparks tapped the Walkie Talkie that Jonah had provided. “Be careful,” he signed.

  “If it’s too dangerous don’t do it. It’s not worth dying over this map. And don’t get sidetracked trying to go any deeper into the Darklands than you have to.”

  Ray nodded and swapped her hug over to Sparks. She broke the hug reluctantly, wiping tears from her eyes, and headed out the door picking up her pack where it rested on the stoop. Nettle and Sparks filed out onto the porch to watch her walk away. Ray turned for a last look as she rounded the bend of the first barracks.

  Nettle held Sparks’ hand, her hip leaning slightly in towards him. Sparks’ head inclined slightly towards her. Ray imagined they were old and hoped she would live to see that one day. Out of sight, she adjusted her pack strap, straightened her back, and strode out towards the military compound where the CDSE vehicles were waiting.

  Jonah smiled and waved as she came into view. He was wearing jungle camo and had an assault rifle slung casually over one shoulder. The CDSE team were milling around loading gear into two black six wheeled all terrain transports.

  To Ray’s surprise, Aymes was supervising the loading of one of the vehicles. Ray nodded towards Aymes while she wasn’t looking. Jonah lifted his hands indicating he was as surprised as Ray that Aymes had decided to come along.

  Feeling redundant Ray watched as the crew fussed about packing and repacking what Ray felt was a ridiculous quantity of tools and supplies. In the old days, she would have survived for two weeks and carried sufficient tools with just her pack and her two feet.

  Eventually everybody seemed relatively satisfied and they assembled in a loose gaggle, their backs towards Ray for the most part. Ray sidled closer to Jonah feeling lost and apprehensive. Six CDSE engineers, Jonah, Aymes, and her. Ray knew there were supposed to be ten, so someone was yet to arrive.

  To her left Ray heard Jonah whisper “Oh Shit!” under his breath. Ray followed his eye-line to watch the last of the CDSE crew striding out from the compound gates. Her stomach dropped. “Fucking Pritchard!” She heard Jonah whisper. “How the fuck did he get this unit. Pritchard looked up directly at Ray as he approached. Ray saw the hatred and the challenge in his frank stare and felt that she knew why. He’d requested it, there was no doubt in her mind. Aymes didn’t even look up as Pritchard approached. She was tying down the tents onto the roof with professional looking knots. Pritchard’s gaze slid past Ray and he moved into the group of CDSE men, smiling now and joking. Handshakes and hellos all around.

  Pritchard backed off a few paces and turned to face the small collective. “Good morning everybody,” he drawled clasping his hands in front. “I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all over the next few days. I suggest we do introductions in person, en route. Engineers if you would like to take the front car and security and support you can ride in the back.” Pritchard looked pointedly at Ray and indicated the front car. Feeling ill, Ray moved towards the first vehicle, her limbs made of jelly. The back hatch was open, and Ray was clearly meant to sit up front near the drivers. Ray suspected the driver would be Pritchard. She ducked her head under the back bar and made to clamber in. The pack, that she had forgotten to take off, snagged on the roof halting her forward progress completely. Mortified, she backed out and unslung her pack. A snicker from behind her stopped her mid movement and suddenly she just felt extremely pissed off. A shit assignment on top of a shit week with shit crew of rude idiots lead by a useless prick with an anger issue. Ray strode forward towards the jester trying to hide his idiot grin. Stopping just short, she chest passed her pack directly at him, making him catch it, the force knocking him back a step.

  “Stow that fuckwit,” She signed and stalked back jumping up and taking her seat in one movement.

  About thirty seconds later, much to Ray’s relief, Jonah slumped down in the seat opposite her.

  “Don’t worry, “He signed, “I translated for you. That last word was please right?”

  Ray grinned despite herself.

  Pritchard arrived in the driver’s seat a few seconds later immediately spying Jonah. He opened his mouth to say something, but the look Jonah leveled at him stopped him dead. The rest of the engineers piled in, eyeing Ray and Jonah cautiously. Jonah gave Ray one of his winning smiles.

  “I know it will be difficult,” he joked, “But please keep your hands to yourself. I need some sleep. And if you need to sleep, no drooling on the uniform OK? Aymes will give me hell if I have spit on my DPMs.”

  “Thank Maria for Jonah,” Ray thought to herself. This trip would have been unbearable, or perhaps even unsafe, without him. Aymes’ presence, despite how terrifying she was, somehow provided additional comfort. In particular, after the way she handled the CDSE security outside the Medbay.

  “A spot of spit won’t show on that pattern. “Ray asserted.

  “Aymes will know. Trust me.” Jonah responded smiling, promptly shutting his eyes and folding his arms.

  Ray looked around at the men she shared the transport with. Not as tall as Jonah but bigger than your average Dianian. They were uniformly clean shaven and fit looking. All were avidly avoiding any eye contact with Ray which suited her just fine. Eventually, Ray finished her evaluation and took up staring out the window. Pritchard’s co-driver vaulted up and they idled out of the compound and onto the well beaten trail leading out towards the Darklands, two days distant. Ray reminded herself of her objective and resolved to be smart and stay safe. Stick to Jonah and Aymes and don’t do anything stupid.

  The first twelve hours of travel dragged as they bumped their way along the rutted track, avoiding great tree roots and skirting around bogs and ravines. The first day’s travel was primarily through the broken forest that dominated the Dianian lowlands. In contrast to Earth, the trees grew bigger, and where they were thickest very little light trickled through to feed the undergrowth. Hence, the road they traveled wound crazily between ancient twisted trunks and huge roots that gripped the soil like the claws of giant raptors. The forest floor was mostly bare dirt with the occasional juvenile tree struggling to reach the light. Far above, the giant fan like leaves spread out harvesting the continuous sunlight.

  Though road metal and paving had arrived in the town, paving the hundreds of kilometers of maintenance tracks remained too big a task to attack in any meaningful way. The muddy trails deteriorated rapidly on Diana. Frequent storms washed out sections of the track and fallen trees occasionally blocked the trial. Progress was slow and exhausting. The six wheeled ATVs did remarkably well at providing a smoothish ride on the bumpy roads in town but on very rough trails they tended to wallow and rock sickeningly. Ray felt like she was stuck in the belly of a whale and felt nostalgic for the days when they would have traversed the trail on foot. She joked with Jonah about being eaten by whales during a period when he
was awake, and they reminisced in sign for a while. Late in the day Ray bought Jonah’s attention to a camp spot that she had used before. A grassy glade near a small, clean stream. A huge fig-like tree grew at the top end of the glade. The great fins and folds in its trunk were large enough that you could lay your bedroll out within them, cushioned by the leaf mold. The large flat leaves provided protection from light rain and the sun in fine weather. As they made camp and set about making a meal, the gray clouds that had covered the sky all day gave way to rain. Jonah looked up at the sky,

  “Tent?” he signed looking at Ray. Ray shook her head.

  “Just drizzle. This tree will keep the worst off. You’ll see.”

  Jonah nodded, looking upwards still with his hands on his hips.

  A distance away from the meal prep area, Aymes sat stripping her assault rifle onto a well-used piece of tan towel. A second weapon sat to her left, propped up against the fallen log she sat on.

  “Two guns?” Ray signed at Jonah.

  Jonah nodded and frowned toward Aymes. “I’ve seen her do that a couple of times before. Aymes is creepy. She seems to have a sort of instinct for danger. I’ve been with her a long time and she always seems to know when shit is about to go down. The two guns thing is different though. She only does that when she feels that there is constant danger or that she could be attacked at any time. That way she always has a weapon ready even when she’s stripping and cleaning the other. I saw her do that in the Congo once. Really brutal jungle with lots of really big dangerous animals.”

  Aymes seemed to feel Ray staring at her. She looked up, casually meeting Ray’s eye and continued to reassemble her weapon without looking. Ray slid her eyes to the right and pretended she had been watching the trees swaying in the breeze behind Aymes.

  “Does she sleep?” Ray asked.

  “Not much. A few hours per night when we are out on a mission. I don’t know if she sleeps normally like you or I though. She can look like she’s completely out for the count and one strange noise and she’s up and into the bush before you even see her move. Her and I are going to be taking watches during this trip so not much sleep for me either I suspect. At least watches on the light side will be pretty easy. Night watches on Earth play with your mind something awful. You have to use your peripheral vision or else your eyes start to make up stuff. Every shadow looks like a sniper sneaking up on you. It’ll make a nice change to be able to see clearly. Until we get into the dark anyway.”

  “We aren’t going into the Darklands proper. Just a distance into the Sunset Ring. The Sunset Ring goes for about one hundred K’s. It gets darker and darker the further you go in. You’ll notice the change tomorrow if we go as far as we did today. According to my briefing pack, we have two towers tomorrow and then three inside the ring. Two software updates and one tower about seventy K’s in that is unresponsive. More often than not, it’s a lightning strike or some sort of water damage. We could be there for a couple of days if it’s bad. “

  Jonah nodded and stood seeing that dinner, prepared by a couple of the CDSE crew, was ready. “Nothing like reconstituted mush after a long day’s travel,” he said out loud. Ray stood and moved with Jonah, using him as a shield against the surly glances the CDSE men shot her way when they thought she wasn’t looking. Thus far there had certainly been no effort from any of them to make her feel welcome. Considering that one of their colleagues had been the victim of a shocker to the neck outside the Medbay, partly because of her, Ray wasn’t altogether surprised. Ray suddenly felt exhausted and a little sad. Under different circumstances a trip like this could have been fun.

  Bowls full, Ray and Jonah moved to sit with Aymes. She and Jonah exchanged a nod as they sat on one of the radiating tree roots, near the tree trunk where the rain cover was best. They ate in silence. Ray’s bowl emptied, she commented to Jonah how amazingly good awful food could taste when out camping. They washed plates, packed up, and settled down to relax for a while before sleep.

  The conversation between Jonah and Ray meandered for a while, the two of them slipping effortlessly into the easy repartee they’d shared years ago. After a while Jonah turned the conversation to the incident at the Medbay.

  “How are you doing?” he asked, “That was a pretty decent piece of nastiness. Have you been having nightmares or getting the shakes?”

  Ray shrugged and shook her head. “Not about that,” Ray signed. She paused for a while picking at a loose thread that was protruding from the seam of her trousers. “More often I dream about the time in the forest with Pritchard all those years ago. Every time I stop and have nothing else to think about I end up right back there. It’s not so much what happened, but the look on Pritchard’s face when he saw me. It’s like he knew me from somewhere. He really doesn’t like me, and I don’t know why.”

  The pair sat watching the camp settle for a while before Ray continued. She knew it was a huge risk but she badly needed Jonah to know. If this was ever going to work, then she needed to trust somebody and getting Jonah’s help would be much easier if he was on her side. Jonah noticed the change in Ray’s expression and his brow creased.

  “What?” he asked, concerned.

  “I’m going to tell you something about that day at the Medbay. It will help explain what happened.”

  Ray proceeded to recount the day’s events, omitting only the plan to recover the Netmap and seal off Diana. She described the way Bones had fallen and the violence of the seizure and discovering what they suspected was a memory block implant. She speculated on the hasty arrival of the CDSE medical team and how she felt they were kicked out. Ray told Jonah how they suspected that CDSE were going to remove or even kill Bones to cover it up. That was why they had all gathered in front of the Medbay. To stop CDSE taking her.

  “Why would you think they would kill her?” Jonah asked. “Isn’t that a little overly dramatic?”

  Ray froze realizing that if any of this was going to make sense she would have to tell Jonah everything. She had been hanging onto the fear and tension following the incident at the lake for so long now that she struggled to let it go.”

  Finally, she started to describe the boat and the men who had dumped something into the lake; the bad feeling that she had gotten from Pritchard and the certainty that she did not want to be discovered watching. She also recounted the strange reaction she had gotten from Pfeffer and Jager in the briefing meeting.

  “Pfeffer knew who I was… Definitely. The way she reacted in that meeting, it couldn’t have been anything else. I’ve been looking over my shoulder ever since and the Medbay incident has only made it worse. I don’t know for sure what they know, but I’m certain they at least suspect something.” Ray could feel the panic rising in her chest. She shut her eyes tight and lay back against the tree trunk, forcing her face to relax and letting her heart rate gradually slow. She was thankful that she was still permitted to carry Haemo-Tabs, the extra oxygen carrying capacity also helping with the emotional stress.

  Ray suddenly regretted giving away so much information to Jonah. She looked up at him, fearful of his reaction. He stared straight ahead as if thinking.

  “Shit,” he finally said out loud and then switched back to signing. “You have been busy…I’ve heard of memory implants being used illegally around the world a few times. The UN usually leans on organizations that employ those types of tactics pretty heavily. They’re rare though. Usually if bad people don’t want someone to remember something, they just bury them. Why go to the trouble of a memory block? Could it be anything else?”

  “Nothing that we can think of and the damage to the brain occurred when Mum was about to tell me something. She started talking about the time she got lost working near the Sunset Ring. I thought she was only gone for a few days but, just before she fell she said it was much longer than that. Weeks or maybe months. I don’t know. That’s all she said. I think something happened to her out there. If they managed to do surgery on her then they have some sort of facility o
n the Darklands and it has been there for years.”

  Jonah glanced over at the CDSE crew dispersed around the campsite resting or chatting. Pritchard sat with them but facing Jonah and Ray. Several times Ray had caught him staring at her, unable to hide his contempt.

  “Pretty quick enquiry wasn’t it,” Jonah commented wryly, “seems like Pfeffer is satisfied already that everything Pritchard did outside the Medbay was legal and above board. I think I’m starting to see why Aymes is so edgy. Maybe we should tell her some of this stuff. In fact, I’m kind of obliged to. If I don’t tell her about something like this. Something that could affect our security, I’ll be up on charges.”

  “Are you sure you can trust her. How do you know she doesn’t work with Pfeffer?”

  Jonah thought for a minute. “I doubt it. Aymes has always worked with Captain Spiranos. It was him that insisted she come on this mission. I don’t think she has seen him much since he moved out into that retirement villa though. I’ve not seen her even meet with Pfeffer until the other day with you.”

  “Jager seems pretty close with Pfeffer though,” Ray commented.

  “That’s his job really. He’s as much a politician as a military man. His brief is to provide independent oversight in support of CDSE and uphold UN law. I don’t think Aymes likes him that much but he outranks her and she’s a stickler for chain of command, so she has to do what he says.”

  Ray hesitated, “what if we tell her and she reports directly to Jager? I don’t want him knowing about all of this just yet. Not until we know what’s in the lake.”

  “Maybe you should tell her,” Jonah suggested. “It’ll be more convincing coming from you.”

  Ray still felt exhausted, “how about tomorrow?”

  “How about now? If this changes our security situation we should deal with it now.”