The Touchstone Trilogy

by Andrea K Höst

  That produced the classic exiled-Muinan expression, and the Kolaren Setari ended up spending the rest of the morning up on my rock shelf having a discussion about Earth and Muina and how I'd ended up at Pandora and then Tare. They seemed like nice people. Less formal than Taren Setari; or more like the older squads. It was impossible to miss the deep resentment they hold toward Tarens. Tare basically showed up fifty years ago and started messing with their world. Kolar was in something like the Gaslight era while Tarens had had the interface for decades, and advanced nanotech for something like seventy years. Other than the Kolaren Setari program and the whitestone building material, Tare hasn't yet allowed Kolar anything like the full extent of their technology – only their Setari program had been allowed use of the interface. It sounds like their approach has been a little on the paternalist side, with a strong eye to profit. Almost guaranteed to cause offence.

  I'd love to know what Tsur Selkie's reasons were for leaving me to be the Kolaren Setari's introduction to this site. It didn't last too long: the arrival of the Litara had been Fourth Squad's signal to head back and Ruuel sent me one of his characteristically word-stingy messages: "Testing before lunch." He must have sent one to Shaf as well (he's the Kolaren squad's captain) since he reacted at the same time. Hopefully he got a little more explanation, but he did look kind of quizzical when he said: "Time to move, it seems."

  We went down to meet Fourth Squad, who were waiting near the finds tent, watching the construction of some really complicated machine around the door of South Mountain. As usual, Ruuel brought everyone into mission channel as soon as we were in sight of each other, and began briefing and leading us all further south, to an area which was mainly low bushes.

  "Contact with Devlin enhances and sometimes warps talents. This session is to verify the effect of Devlin on your available talent sets, then to practice movement and multiple squad enhancement rotations in combat simulation. We don't have adequate test shielding here, so push elementals to far range. Sonn."

  "Unenhanced," Sonn said, and shot a lightning bolt outward and upwards. She touched the tips of her fingers to my arm. "Enhanced."

  I guess no-one had mentioned the enhancement effects to the Kolarens. A few of them looked briefly incredulous as the ball of lightning arced and spat in the air, drifting slowly away.

  "The distortion has been consistent, and observed effects on each talent are listed in the briefing material." Ruuel gave Shaf one of his captain-nods and Fourth Squad stepped back, obviously handing over to him.

  Fourth Squad was an interesting choice to end up first to work with a bunch of Kolarens with chips on their shoulders. There's plenty of squads which might have soothed some of that resentment; certainly First Squad could put anyone at their ease. And some who wouldn't want to: it was a damn good thing that it wasn't Fifth Squad, who would have guaranteed that interplanetary relations developed an Ice Age. But Ruuel – Ruuel is always so focused on getting the job done, as quickly and painlessly as possible, and obviously doesn't see any point measuring himself or his squad against other people, or trying to prove anything at all. He behaved exactly as if the Kolarens were any squad who hadn't worked with me before, with every expectation that they would just get on with it.

  Shaf's obviously good at adapting to the unexpected, and had Nalaz start out with Wind, buying himself some time to review the briefing material they won't let me see. They tested without anything odd happening, and then there was a precise, exacting session of enhancement, whizzing about with Telekinesis, and fake combat, and I was very amused to see Katzyen trying not to look pleased because she'd earned one of Ruuel's brief, approving nods. He has that effect on people.

  He was back to being his usual focused self today, but there were dark shadows under his eyes. I don't think he slept much last night. He's asleep two pods away from me right now, and I hope he has a better night.

  The training session was winding down when I started hearing the Ddura. It says something for my chances of hiding my feelings for Ruuel that he always seems to know when I'm debating telling him something. He said, "Hold," to the squads, then looked at me. "The Ddura?"

  I nodded. "Sounds anxious."

  "Hunting?"

  "No. The confused noise." I transmitted what I was hearing into the squad channel, and watched his eyes narrow.

  He added Tsur Selkie to the channel, then said: "Either a reaction to the machine itself, or to a threat to the site's integrity."

  "Continue the relay, Devlin," was all Selkie said to us, but he obviously said a whole lot on other channels since there was a sudden exodus of people out of the central circle toward the edge of the lake.

  The tone of the Ddura's call changed almost immediately. "Now partly question noise, but mainly unhappy noise," I said helpfully over the interface, then asked Shaf aloud: "Kolar has dogs, right?"

  He wasn't surprised by my hearing the Ddura, so I guessed he'd gotten through my 'briefing material', and just nodded in answer to my question.

  "Ddura acts like very big dog." I looked back at Ruuel. "This sounds like one not know Muinans back. Ddura at Pandora stopped making this cry."

  "Security identification has been reapplied," Tsur Selkie said. "Stand by."

  The Ddura paused mid-moan, making the confused sound again, then the question noise. But then it switched back to being mournful.

  "Security identification had been placed on the power unit," Selkie said, sounding satisfied. "Evidently that isn't sufficient to cover a machine using that power unit. The device looks as if it will be successful, however."

  He left the channel, and Ruuel said: "Keep lunch brief. If the site is opened, both squads will go in as point team."

  I'm guessing he had a private channel open to Shaf, since they walked off together. I dropped out of mission channel as well, and glanced at two squads of Setari who were going to go on being super-correct at each other, but at least didn't seem to be openly hostile. I've no doubt Fourth Squad knew that Katzyen had started out spoiling for a fight, but they would follow Ruuel's lead. Ruuel's lead wasn't exactly chatty, though, and everyone was silent as we started walking back to the mess tent.

  "Are Kolaren squads numbered as well?" I asked Taranza, who looked to be around my age rather than the couple of years older the other Kolarens seemed to be. She had short, streaky blonde hair and less of a tan than the others, and a way of looking around with wide-eyed appreciation which I liked. "Like this is Fourth Squad, and the other squad here is Ninth Squad?"

  "We're First Squad," Taranza said, with a faintly apologetic glance at the Taren Setari. "That is going to cause some confusion."

  Both squads ended up talking that over during lunch, even Sonn making one or two suggestions. The Ninth Squad captain, whose watch was about to start and who was eating breakfast when we reached the mess tent, ended up deciding that we could use a variation which was the equivalent of 'Squad One' and it would still mean the same thing and the Kolarens seemed okay with that, though I expect they'll keeping calling themselves 'First Squad' in their own dialect.

  Islen Tezart explained that the machine his team had been building created a counter field of aether to hold the site's own aether field back from the doorway around South Mountain. Then they used the same sort of nanotech which they create their buildings with to eat the seal – and only the seal – away. The counter field machine formed an ugly frame about the opening, but it was done.

  Going in as 'point team' was delayed by what was on the far side of the seal. Ruuel's initial reaction had prepared me a little and I'd expected there would be the skeletons of the people who'd been trapped inside, but no-one had guessed at the sheer number. Dozens, maybe hundreds, packed into a short entry corridor and hexagonal room beyond. How many were crushed by the panicked press trying to escape? The seal had preserved them well, too: leathery skin stretched over grey bone, cloth still whole, although so fragile a touch would probably destroy it. They were almost all lying facing outward, wither
ed hands stretched forward or covering their heads. I guess it was the Ddura which they were running from. Something which caught and killed them all together.

  Imaging from scans had already shown us the general outline of the underground rooms: five ring-like levels, each smaller than the previous one until finally there was what seemed to be a single room, sitting at the centre point between the three mountains. Once I'd seen how huge the place was I wasn't surprised the Tarens had thrown a big portion of their resources at this place. The site commander wanted the Setari to sweep the rooms of this part of this level for anything which sparked their Combat Sight – monsters, traps, invisible lurking death – and if possible locate the communication platform and maybe whatever was generating the aether field. Islen Duffen wasn't very pleased with the Setari going in first, even though they were under orders to levitate as much as possible to avoid disturbing anything. But since the massive battle she seems more inclined to listen to what the Setari have to say, at least where safety is concerned. She wants me to tell her more about Earth history when she has time, but since we found this site she's worked non-stop and looks ready to drop, so I don't know when that will happen.

  The walls inside the site glowed: the same sort of glow made in Pandora during moonfall, but with no free-flowing aether. It meant we didn't have to worry about lights, at least. Fourth and 'Squad One' split into their respective teams, and worked their way along a main central passage, moving apart to follow side-corridors and enter rooms, and then joining up again. One thing they found out almost immediately was that the ramps down were sealed like the entrances, and when we met a longer connecting passageway on this level, it was also sealed. So we've only gained access to one third of the top level.

  It was a town, not a tomb. I've no idea why any of the old Muinans would want to live underground – the issue of ventilation alone would be enough to make it less than ideal – but every room we looked in seemed to be living quarters, except for occasional ones which were water sources or gathering areas. Nothing leapt out at us and there were no traps. The communication platform was in the room at the end of the long 'spoke' passage and after a tedious amount of back and forth discussion they had Sonn try to use the platform to deactivate the seals. Didn't work, did produce an ecstatic Ddura, but fortunately going back outside was next on our schedule.

  The technology group spent the afternoon constructing another machine around the entrance to North Mountain, while the archaeologists broke into two teams: one painstakingly untangling the human wreckage just within the entrance, and the other working on the nearest of the rooms. The archaeologists are so tremendously excited. It's not that everything was perfectly preserved or anything, but there had been very few places at Pandora and Nurioth which hadn't been exposed to wind and rain and been pulled about by animals. And, of course, it's working old Lantaren technology. I don't know if this is the big break we need to fix the spaces, but it's the first major find since Tare gained 'security clearance'.

  My Ddura-headache wasn't too bad, but I was feeling tired as well, so I was glad when Ruuel sent us back to the Diodel. Squad One is sleeping on the Litara, which is staying for the night. Most of the expedition is sleeping in the tent city, but while the Taren Setari are more accustomed to being outside because they're trained to go into the spaces, the Sight talents especially find it difficult to sleep without the shielding on our pods or their rooms back on Tare. Combat Sight reacts to people coming near them, for a start.

  Ruuel was absent, as he often is during meals, and I had a feeling Fourth Squad would probably talk about Squad One if I wasn't there, so I headed for a shower and bed straight after dinner.

  I was sitting sideways on my pod seat braiding my hair when Ruuel showed up from wherever he'd been. "Devlin. Have you seen the cat Ionoth since the infirmary?"

  This wasn't a question I wanted to answer. But it also seemed weird for him to suddenly bring it up. I blinked, then guessed why he was asking. "You've been warning Kolaren captain about silly things I might do that he has to watch out for?"

  "Yes." Very straightforward, very typical. "You've sighted it, I take it? Report it next time."

  If there's ever a time I really do need to lie to Ruuel, I'm going to have no chance at all. And I didn't think I could just pretend I was going to do what he said, either. "I do most things told to because either make sense to me, or don't see any choice. Ghost I handed over once, so tests could be run, but not going to do again."

  Other than a couple of fits of temper I've had with the medics, I think that was the first time I've refused to do what I was told since I was rescued – and Ruuel is really the last person I want to say no to. I felt pretty nervous about his reaction, but he just looked steadily at me a moment, then said: "And if it proves less innocuous than you believe? You will not be able to undo any damage it causes."

  "Just because she not turn into evil, people-eating kitten in the past not mean she won't one day? May as well lock me back up in case I decide run around stab people."

  "The cat has a better chance of landing a blow," he said, totally straight-faced, and shook his head, apparently deciding it wasn't worth pressing the point. "Get some rest."

  I felt like telling him to practice what he preached, since the shadows under his eyes were worse than ever, but I was too disconcerted by more evidence of a sense of humour (or, just possibly, proof that he is totally bereft of one and is saying these things without a shred of irony). Besides, he was already walking away.

  I'm finding I like waking up a lot earlier than everyone else, not least because it gives me a chance to write up the day in this diary without anyone looking at me curiously, but today I wish I'd stayed in the dream I was having. I was lying curled up with Ruuel, not talking or doing anything, just curled up in a dark, quiet place listening to him breathe, to his heart beating. It was an uneventful but intense dream, and incredibly real. When I woke up I felt so content, so happy, I wanted to go straight back to sleep.

  Must find cure for besotted goopiness.

  Sweat

  Each of the main entrances are open now, and each third was very much the same inside. Corpses just inside the seal, and then living quarters beyond. We haven't found anything which was obviously controlling the seal, and won't be opening any more levels until more machine parts arrive. The technicians weren't expecting to have to build dozens of the things. The Litara's gone off to fetch that and other construction-related items, as they've begun the first stages of building the settlement, which is going to be called Arenrhon after some Taren historical figure.

  Ruuel decided his squad was getting out of shape and started them on an evil training regimen. Being in good physical condition lessens the strain of using their talents, and these constantly 'on-mission' days without their usual training facilities means Fourth haven't had much opportunity for strength training. So they did lots of jogging and chin lifts and things like that. And since I'm assigned to Fourth, I got to do it as well, except – thankfully – only about a quarter of what Ruuel put everyone else through. That still nearly killed me.

  It was bearable, though. Things I could obviously not do – like chin lifts – he didn't make me stick at, and had me do milder versions instead. I didn't enjoy the day, but I got through it, and Fourth Squad were good at not making me feel embarrassed about being comparatively pathetic.

  Friday, April 11

  It's all a question of angles

  Today I taught a handful of greensuits and greysuits and three Setari squads how to skip stones. I was waiting around for Fourth to come back from their longer-than-mine training run, and since it was a very still day and this lakeshore is even pebblier than Pandora's, I entertained myself by collecting a bunch of stones and seeing if I could best my record (seven skips).

  My arms were tired from push-ups, though, and the best I could manage was four skips, and was looking around for more stones when I realised I had a small audience: two greensuits and a greysuit looking im
mensely puzzled. Their question – "But, how?" – says something about how different their planets are from Earth. Kolar isn't entirely desert, but it's a dry world and most of its water is in underground Springs, while Tare is all massively violent oceans. By the time Fourth got back I had most of Squad One and two from Ninth lined up in a row.

  Ruuel let Fourth have a break to play around, but didn't try himself, going off to be captainly. Glade easily beat my own record, and asked what the maximum was people could do on Earth, but I didn't know. I think when he taught me Dad said something about people doing over thirty skips, but that always seemed a bit much to be right. Par Auron took the record today – eight skips. At least half the Setari could skip better than me on their second or third try. They're just good at physical tasks, not to mention strong.

  Then it was more exercise: stretches and lifting big water containers Ruuel had borrowed from the greensuits. Fortunately we're doing all this training in a clearing a little north of the tents, so I didn't have to deal with an audience. I think every muscle I have is sore.

  Saturday, April 12

  Museum exhibit

  Uneventful day. You'd think exploring lost alien underground cities would be more dramatic, but going through the second level of the installation, which required another three machines to hold open the entrances, was very much a repetition of the first level. More living quarters, larger ones. Fewer bodies. Wood well-preserved, metal tarnished, cloth fragile. Not much writing. The Lantaren caste of the Muinans did use a written language, but non-Lantarens apparently weren't literate. Other than a couple of inscriptions on pots and statues (possibly the names of people – the alphabet has mutated a fair deal and I can only half read it), I didn't spot anything written down. Definitely no library, or manual of instructions, or super-secret plans. No field projector we could turn off, either.

  One thing all this has made clear to me is I would not have made a good archaeologist. I don't have nearly the patience for it. I concentrated on my school work during the waiting about, and watched a handful of greensuits who seem to have fallen in love with stone skipping. And tried not to look at the smooth white scar of the new settlement. I don't like to think too much about the impact I've had on this world.