Asimov's SF, April-May 2009

by Dell Magazine Authors

  Too many months on the ship, doing exercise in artificial gravity, and not enough time planetside. She hoped she didn't show it, because she didn't want to be here any longer than she needed to. Infiltration operations went best when they were quick and dirty.

  Just coming down the trail, she saw more than she'd expected. The security team's automatic tents were sophisticated and expensive. This wasn't some low-rent team, but one that obviously came highly recommended.

  That made her nervous. She had been right to worry about Verr, the head of security. He clearly had the smarts—and the wherewithal—to break through her information screens. If he had enough time. The key was to make sure he didn't have enough time.

  She took in as much information as she could. Roye had surreptitiously recorded the Spires, which were so much more impressive in person than they ever could be on any holographic representation.

  The city was remarkably well preserved. Parts still hadn't been uncovered, of course, and might not be for some time. But the way the light reflected off the cleansed buildings suggested this place had been amazing in its day.

  It was amazing now.

  And it was filled with unrecorded treasures. Things that could be sold for unbelievable prices to collectors and never get recorded as stolen.

  If Zeigler was right about the caves—that they had once been a museum for war trophies—then the number of unrecorded treasures would increase exponentially.

  The little guide, Chavo, had taken them to a small undecorated house at the edge of the city. Navi got the message. There was nothing here for them to steal. In fact, if they weren't that bright and didn't look around, they might think their house representative—that the ancient Denonites preferred unadorned houses and buildings, that the treasure would be the city itself and not the wares housed within.

  She knew better.

  The Denonites had spread their style throughout this part of the sector. When they conquered a nation, they'd kept troops onsite until the nation was completely plundered. Sometimes that took decades.

  So the Denonites made themselves at home, building houses like this one—on one floor, with one or two bedrooms, a living area, and a nice kitchen. Only every single part of the building had decoration, be it a wall painting or a small flower-decorated cornice or a statue to hide a particularly mundane corner.

  Those treasures, in those conquered cities, had been recorded long ago.

  It was the heart of the Denonite empire that hadn't been found—until Dr. Gabrielle Reese and her team of scholars stumbled upon the ancient city of Denon itself.

  Roye had already made himself at home here. He'd given them both water and some nutrient bars, then slathered oil on his skin. She needed to do the same.

  He was studying her as she moved around the house, getting her bearings. Chavo would be back soon to take them to meet Dr. Reese and discuss the job ahead.

  Navi hoped Dr. Reese would provide dinner, because the nutrient bars weren't going to hold her for long.

  “We can postpone the dive for a day or two,” Roye said. “Get our bearings and do this right.”

  “It's not about the dive,” Navi said. “We can't stay here long.”

  He continued to stare at her. “If we're too tired, we'll make mistakes.”

  She smiled at him. “The dive'll be safe enough. The suits will protect us.”

  He shook his head.

  “I programmed them with the maps,” she said. “The suits'll get us out, even if we're unconscious. Someone will find us. We'll be fine.”

  “One extra day,” he said. “That's all I'm asking.”

  She thought of that guard's face, the look he had gotten when she mentioned cave diving. Something had happened just behind his eyes, but she wasn't quite sure what it was.

  “No,” she said. “We dive and then we leave. That's all.”

  “All right,” Roye said, shaking his head. He didn't have to add that he disagreed with her. She already knew.

  * * * *

  15

  “When were you going to tell me about the caves?”

  Gabrielle jumped. She'd thought she was alone in the temple. She was testing her new system, placing items in their designated areas. Then she had gone to the back and cleaned a small elaborate vase. She was just drying off her hands when Meklos interrupted her.

  He was standing just outside her work area, hands on his hips, his shirt covered in sweat. His boots had left a mixture of white and red dust on the image of the Spires, dust that glommed together wherever his sweat dripped onto it.

  “You're making a mess,” she said.

  She continued drying her hands so that he couldn't see how they were shaking. She hadn't expected him to confront her about this. She had already told him she was hiring experts. He shouldn't have questioned them. Her word should have been enough.

  “Caves,” he said. “Tell me about the caves.”

  She shrugged. “There's not much to tell. They're caves.”

  “If they're just caves, why did you hire divers?” he asked.

  She sighed. She wanted him to feel her exasperation so that he wouldn't ask too many more questions. “Because,” she said, “the caves are full of water. I want to see if that water comes from a natural stream or if it is something that will undermine the entire city. That's somewhat important.”

  “More important than you know,” he said, “since caves have branches, and they're not always logical.”

  “So?” she asked.

  “So people can either enter or leave this city through caves. Or haven't you thought of that?”

  She didn't like his tone. And, if she were honest with herself, she would have to admit she didn't like him. Hiring the guards had been a mistake. She should have done so long after she knew exactly what kind of treasures she had. And then she should have hired some kind of escort, not someone to guard the city itself.

  “They can't get in and out,” she said slowly, as if he were a particularly stupid child. “The caves are full of water.”

  “I would like to see them,” he said.

  “Well, so would I,” she said, “but I'm not qualified to dive them. Are you?”

  He glared at her. “Your experts have thin resumes.”

  He didn't exactly answer her, which she did not appreciate.

  “And your resume is a little too thick,” she said. “We really don't need this level of security.”

  He stared at her for a moment. He looked as exasperated as she felt.

  “All right,” he said finally. “Hire someone else—someone who'll stand where you tell them to and march where you want them to and look the other way when you ask them to. When that group arrives, we'll leave. Okay?”

  It was what she wanted. It was what she needed. If she could figure out how, she'd ask him and his team to leave immediately. But she was the one who had conjured up the threat. She was the one who would have to live with this horribly overexperienced security team until someone better arrived.

  “Yes,” she said. “I think that would be for the best.”

  * * * *

  16

  The cavern was unbelievably cold. Navi had noticed that the night before, and thought it simply the contrast between her overheated body and the natural chill any underground area had. But this chill was deeper than that.

  It made her relieved she had a space-equipped suit, one that could handle extreme cold with ease. Still, it was the thought of going into the cold, especially when she was so tired from the heat, that made her nervous.

  The cavern looked the same as it had the night before. Gabrielle Reese and her assistant had put lights everywhere, making passage down easy. As Navi walked with her equipment, she noted niches in the wall, but she didn't have time to look at them closely.

  Neither did Roye. Nor could they show a lot of interest in the niches. Because they were here to see what was in the water, whether there were more caverns and maybe an underground river or, Gabrielle Reese h
ad said disingenuously, “a settlement.” She hadn't mentioned a museum or artifacts.

  But it seemed to Navi, just from the niches alone, that Zeigler's idea of a museum was a good one. If the niches were manmade—and she guessed from their positions that they were—then they had once held items.

  She couldn't get close enough to see if the items were recently removed. There would be markings in the dirt if they were. She and Roye hadn't discussed this much the night before, in case they were overheard. But they did confirm the plan with a sort of shorthand. If they found nothing in the water except more caverns or the source of the water itself, then they would surface in the cavern and report directly to Gabrielle Reese as they (supposedly) were being paid to do. If they found artifacts or evidence of another city, they would go out the passageways and return to the camouflaged ship.

  It sounded simple. But the dive happened between those two choices. Now she wished she hadn't been quite so impetuous. Now she wished she had hired someone else to go into the murky deep.

  * * * *

  17

  The caverns were empty and there were more of them than Meklos realized. Dr. Reese had told him that there were only a few caves—not these vast cathedral like spaces that could house hundreds, maybe thousands, of people.

  She wasn't happy that he had come with the divers. But he'd wanted to watch them suit up. He also didn't like the half-empty packs, the way that they glanced at each other, as if confirming some pre-arranged signal.

  He hadn't had his team bring diving equipment on this mission, so he couldn't send someone with the divers. He wouldn't be able to monitor them, since the scanning requirements near the Spires were so restrictive.

  He was glad he had sent the weekly update from the Command Center. When the Scholars saw that in conjunction with the news that Dr. Reese had let the team go, they would understand why. And maybe they would send someone to supervise Dr. Reese.

  It took three crumbling flights of stairs—maybe as old as the Spires—to get to the cavern with the water. The water was a chalky mess of dust and some kind of oil. He wouldn't want to go into it, although he gathered, from Dr. Reese's conversation with the divers, that she had waded into it more than once. He couldn't imagine why. She wouldn't know where to put her feet or what she was stepping on. She also couldn't know if there was a current. Because if this was part of a river, there could be a very strong current, one that might take divers and force them away from the caverns altogether.

  He mentioned this to the woman, Salvino. She had nodded, looking a little distracted. The man, Bruget, was the one who answered. “The suits are state of the art. They can keep us alive in adverse conditions for days. By then, we should figure out where we are and how to get out.”

  “Unless there is only one way out,” Meklos said.

  “Even then,” Bruget said. “A lead, a line...”

  “Or a small explosive,” Salvino said.

  “...would get us out.”

  An explosive. As if Dr. Reese would allow one to go off below the city. Still, Meklos had made his protest—both to them and to Dr. Reese. He had done what he could. They were professionals. Theoretically, they knew what they were getting into.

  The water started as a small trickle at the edge of this cavern. If Dr. Reese was right, the water level had been rising for centuries. But, she'd added, no one knew that for certain. For all they knew, the caverns had gotten flooded five hundred years ago and the water was evaporating. The divers were to find the source, if they could. If they couldn't, they were to go all the way to the bottom of the caverns.

  Salvino warned that the dives might take days. She promised that they wouldn't stay under more than five hours each, and she recommended someone stay in the cavern at all times.

  Dr. Reese's assistant, Yusef Kimber, would wait down here during this first dive. Apparently Dr. Reese didn't want the non-permanent members of her team to even know the caverns were here—people like Chavo or the other students.

  That alone made Meklos suspicious.

  Normally, watching over a dive was the kind of crappy mindless job given to someone with no status whatsoever.

  The divers set down their packs on a flat area not too far from the water's edge. They opened the packs in unison, and removed their suits.

  Meklos had watched divers before. Generally they stripped before suiting up, but these two did not. They slid their suits over their clothing, then with a nod to each other, over their faces. Hands went up, adjusting, twisting, making certain. At one point, both divers stopped and stared at each other. They didn't have helmets. The suits themselves covered their faces, leaving only their eyes visible. As they stared at each other, he realized they were checking their communications equipment.

  He wondered if Dr. Reese realized that, and if she did, if she objected to the use of the equipment. He didn't know how far its reach was, but it had to cover a good distance, in case the divers got separated.

  He glanced at Dr. Reese. She watched intently, her fingers threaded together. As the divers continued to check their equipment, she twisted her fingers, keeping them locked, but trying to pull them apart at the same time. She was nervous, almost frightened.

  Finally, the divers finished. They turned to Meklos and Dr. Reese. The divers were distinguishable now only by height and body shape. The suits themselves matched. The suits looked like a thin silver coating that someone had applied over every centimeter of the divers. They moved easily with the divers.

  After a moment, the divers gave Dr. Reese a tiny salute. Then Salvino walked into the water, followed closely by Bruget. It took them only a few steps to disappear.

  “Do you have some kind of communicator to stay in touch with them?” Meklos asked.

  Dr. Reese shook her head. “We can't use equipment that powerful here,” she said. “Although we did compromise and let them bring their emergency beacons. If they get in trouble, we'll know, and we'll know where to find them.”

  “Then what?” Meklos asked. “We don't have another diver.”

  “We'll figure it out if it happens,” she said. “I doubt that it will.”

  He shivered, a movement that had nothing to do with the cold. He loathed her callousness, and her blithe assumption that everything would be fine. No one knew what was down there. No one knew what they would encounter. And whenever anyone was in a situation where no one knew what could go wrong, something inevitably did.

  “I hope you're insured if something goes wrong here,” he said.

  She glanced at him.

  “I have no idea,” she said. Then she smiled. “But I do know that they are.”

  * * * *

  18

  The water was cold. Navi couldn't feel it through her suit, but she knew it anyway, and that made her shiver. The whole dive was making her nervous, in a way that she didn't entirely understand.

  The final equipment check had worked. The comm was on. She walked down into the submerged cavern, the water rising until it covered her head. The water was chalky, murky, dark, like a lake after someone had disturbed the sediment below. She turned on the suit's dim lights—which Roye called fog lights—and could see a bit better. Then she turned on all of her cameras. She wanted this dive recorded, so she wouldn't have to repeat it. If they found something, she wanted to be able to identify it clearly.

  You back there? she asked Roye through the comm.

  Right behind you, he said.

  His voice sounded small and mechanical through the suit. She fought the urge to turn toward him.

  Deploy map, she said.

  She hadn't dared give that order above in case they were monitoring the communication. But she doubted they would monitor through the water.

  Gabrielle Reese didn't even seem to care about communications. She seemed detached, almost withdrawn. When Roye had brought up the idea of a malfunction, she had shrugged. She really didn't seem to care if they survived or not.

  That was one way to run a dig. It
didn't matter how many people died, just so long as the artifacts got out. But Navi had checked before she'd even arrived on Amnthra. Gabrielle Reese's digs suffered no more deaths than other digs. No more, but no less, either. She always seemed to stay within the average, even though her earlier digs were on worlds much more hostile than this one. The only anomaly in any of the information was that Gabrielle Reese's digs often had deaths later rather than earlier.

  Navi could find no reason for that little statistical blip. Although now, as she walked along the bottom of this cavern in the murky darkness, she wondered if it wasn't because Dr. Reese ceased using precautions later in her projects—precautions that were in place early on. Navi turned on her map. It rose in front of her left eye. The map itself was a series of thin outlines, clear so that she could see through them. Except for the red dot that marked where she was standing, she saw no color at all.

  There's a lot of cave to go, she said.

  But not a lot of cavern, Roye said. We explore this area here, and that's about it. If we're going to find anything, it'll be here.

  She turned on the lights above her helmet and in her fingertips. She directed the beams toward the walls. More little niches, but they appeared empty.

  She would have to get closer to make sure.

  Sediment flowed around her, like snow in a harsh breeze. The water was hard to walk through, but she didn't want to swim. She wasn't sure it would be easier—the water seemed more viscous here than it had on the surface.

  What the hell is this stuff? she asked.

  Taking a sample now, he said. It's got some chemical composition that wasn't present above, but if we want a better reading we're going to need the ship's equipment.

  Just great, she said, but she kept walking.

  Finally, she reached the wall. Niches stacked on top of each other like cubbyholes. Gingerly she eased her left hand inside, and found nothing. The edges of the niche were waterworn, and the walls themselves seemed furry.

  Mold maybe, or some kind of algae. She took a sample of that and placed it in her own kit. Whatever that stuff was, it meant that this part of the cavern had been underwater for a very long time.