by S. H. Jucha
Aurelia grinned at her friend and pointed a finger. Tully kicked the rover in gear, tossing aggregate behind the wheels, and he squinted apologetically at Belinda.
“Trade places with me, Rules,” Belinda said, climbing into the aisle and stepping rearward of Aurelia’s seat.
“Is this a promotion?” Aurelia asked, plopping into the front seat.
“Let’s hope this isn’t the end of our contracts,” Belinda grumped.
“Who has a contract?” Aurelia quipped.
Aurelia’s comment produced a round of chuckles, and Belinda stared at the rover’s ceiling. “For the love of Pyre,” she whispered.
Tully navigated the rover based on Aurelia’s feelings of the signal’s direction. He chose to weave the vehicle on a long, slow S-curve. That allowed Aurelia to judge whether the buzzing, as she called it, was increasing or decreasing in strength. Many times, there were detours and backtracks to avoid crevices and uplifts.
At one point, Hamoi commented, “For a moon composed of common aggregate, there seems to be a great deal of surface deflection.”
“I was thinking the same thing, Hamoi,” Tully said. “This surface is reminiscent of a planet’s topology, which was shaped over time by geological forces.”
“If that were the case, why haven’t we found the types of mineral deposits that would give rise to such mechanisms?” Hamoi asked.
“The logical answer,” Tully replied, “is that we’re making false assumptions because we possess too little data.”
“If I’m following this discussion,” Belinda interrupted, “you two think these surface formations are irregular for this type of moon. Even more confusing, nothing we’ve found in our sampling is offering us a credible, alternative explanation.”
“That’s about it,” Tully replied.
“Wonderful,” Belinda sulked. “Which makes us treating Rules like some sort of signal detector we’re supposed to be following even more bizarre.”
“I’m good with bizarre,” Aurelia added from the front seat, holding up a hand for Tully and indicating he should bear a little left.
“You would be, newbie,” Belinda replied acerbically, but she moderated its sting with a pat on Aurelia’s shoulder.
At the end of the day, Belinda reported to Darrin that nothing extraordinary had been found. They had taken a few samples when the rover was stopped a couple of times so that they could stretch their muscles. She didn’t tell him that other than those two stops they had been driving continuously, searching for a mysterious signal, which only Rules could detect.
After a few hours of rest, some packaged meals, hot drinks, and facilities visits, they were underway again. The light of Crimsa was available to them for another few hundred kilometers, but they were losing comm signal strength with the Annie. They lost line of sight with the shelter a day ago, and calls were routed through the ship after that.
“Tully, stop on that upcoming ridge,” Belinda ordered. “I want Rules and you to plant a comm repeater and pull a few samples before we travel any farther.”
After suiting up and exiting the rover, Aurelia tapped Tully on the shoulder and held three fingers up, and he switched to a discreet comm channel.
“What do you think, Tully, about chasing this signal?”
“Are you asking me whether I think it really exists, or if I think you’re nuts and I’m trying to placate you so that you don’t turn our brains to mush?”
Aurelia giggled. “Yeah, I guess that’s what I mean.”
“You believe you hear it, don’t you?”
“It’s not so much hearing, as it is sensing it, like I do people’s emotions.”
“Here,” Tully said, indicating where Aurelia should plant the comm device. The shaft fired its charge into the ground to anchor the device, and she activated it per Tully’s directions. Then she followed him to a small outcrop he wanted to sample.
“Rules, I think if this was all inside your head … sorry, you know what I mean … if you were imagining it, I don’t think that you could direct us toward it. I’ve been tracking our overall route. We’ve had to make numerous detours, and I’ve been weaving like I closed the cantina after a long night of drinking. Do you know you’ve unerringly kept us on the original direction we first headed before I started weaving?”
“No.”
“Of course, you wouldn’t. My point is that if you were imagining what you believe you sense, it wouldn’t have directionality. I don’t know where we’re going, but it’s something real to you that I can tell you.”
“Stupid vac suits,” Aurelia said.
“Problem?” Tully asked. He was worried Aurelia was experiencing a suit malfunction.
“No, not that. I wanted to give you a hug for what you’ve said.”
“Oh. Well, I’ll tell you what you do. Save it for me after we discover what we’re chasing. Okay?”
“Okay.”
When the pair climbed into the rover, they shucked their suits and charged their tanks. Tully took up the driver’s position, kicked the rover into gear, and took his cue from Aurelia.
“Well, you two must have had a good chat,” Belinda remarked.
“I’d say,” Hamoi echoed. “It’s a particularly nice glow you’re sending out, Rules.” He was holding out his hands toward her and rubbing them together, basking in the warmth.
Aurelia smiled at him and winked.
Two days later, before they rested, Belinda contacted Darrin. She gave her report of no change.
“Time to turn around, Belinda,” Darrin said.
Belinda looked at the faces of the other three in the rover. The crew had become obsessed with finding the source of Rules signal, and, today, she’d said it was close. When asked how she knew it was close, she’d said, “The direction has changed slightly.”
“In what way?” Tully had asked. “With this type of terrain, my heading hasn’t changed in the three hours ever since we skirted that crevice and you gave me the new course direction.”
Aurelia had straightened her fingers and pointed directly forward. Then she sucked her lower lip between her teeth, winced, and tilted them slightly down.
“But that’s excellent,” Hamoi had replied, smacking the back of Tully’s seat. “If it’s a significant deposit, it would be in the ground. We must be near it.”
Now, in the face of Darrin’s directive, Belinda saw her crew silently beseeching her to plead for more time, and she made a snap decision. Rules had saved her life. She’d never wanted to be anything else but a spacer, and the prospect of losing that when dementia reared its ugly head had devastated her. She owed Rules, and spacers paid their debts.
“If it’s all the same to you, Darrin, an interesting formation has been spotted that Tully and Hamoi are anxious to check out, and I have to rely on their expertise. Systems onboard the rover are functioning perfectly. I would advise letting the techie-types get their samples and satisfy their urges,” Belinda said, chuckling over her characterizations.
“Time estimate?” Darrin asked.
“Three hours rest, travel time of four hours, sampling and testing for two more hours … we should be headed back in nine hours.”
“Within nine hours, I get a call that you’re headed back, Belinda. Am I clear?”
“Aye, Darrin.”
“Good hunting, Belinda,” Darrin said, closing the comm.
“Well, you heard the man. Anyone want to get some rest?”
In response, Tully looked at Aurelia, who said, “Straight ahead.”
“My turn to make meals,” Hamoi said, heading to the rear of the rover.
“I’ll help,” Belinda added.
-23-
Discovery
“You’re going to have to call Darrin now,” Tully remarked.
The four crew members broke protocol to exit the rover together. They were poised on a small ridge looking down at a large, cleared space. Possibly centuries of accumulated space dust lay over the remains of some sort of struc
ture. The men had started to investigate it, when Belinda called a halt to their actions. She placed a call to Captain Erring, bouncing the signal through the rover and the string of comm beacons. After connecting to the Annie, Belinda requested a downlink to add Darrin.
“We’re online, Belinda,” Yohlin said.
“Well, let me say, Darrin, that we found your high-grade metal deposit. The bad news is that it looks like someone has already processed the ore for you, but don’t ask me what they made.”
Yohlin’s first thought was that Belinda’s dementia had returned and was now full-blown. “Who else is on this call, Belinda?” she requested.
“The entire rover crew, Captain,” Tully replied.
“I need a more detailed report than the cryptic one I heard,” Yohlin ordered, her voice stern.
“I’m not sure I know where to begin, Captain,” Tully replied. “But I can tell you, we’re not the first to land on Triton. Well, maybe we’re the first humans, but not the first individuals.”
“It’s my fault, Captain,” Aurelia said. “I picked up on some sort of signal, and we tracked it here. Tully thought it might be lodestone.”
“Back up, Rules,” Darrin said, jumping in. “A signal? Something the rover could detect?”
“Negative, Darrin,” Belinda interjected. “We detected nothing on the rover’s instrumentation. This was something only Rules could sense. It was Tully’s interpretation that perhaps it was a weak magnetic field, which would have represented a tremendous, high-grade, ore discovery.”
“Captain, I’m uploading a visual to the Annie,” Hamoi said. “I apologize that it’s a single image. Our repeaters won’t handle continuous vid on top of our comm link.”
“We have it,” Yohlin replied. She was staring at her bridge monitor with a couple of other crew members and had ordered the image sent to Darrin.
“The light’s not great, people,” Darrin commented.
“The structure’s in the shadow of this ridge we’re standing on,” Belinda replied. “Do you see the faint ridge in the foreground?”
“Affirmative,” Darrin replied, and highlighted his image, which was relayed to the Annie’s bridge display.
“That appears to be the base of the structure. It extends in a complete circle that’s perhaps one hundred meters across,” Belinda said.
“You keep saying structure, Belinda. We don’t see a structure in your image,” Yohlin said.
“Captain, look at the center of the shot and to its left,” Hamoi replied.
“Looks like rock formations,” Darrin said.
“I can tell you positively, Darrin, that they’re not natural,” Tully said. “I know the image is small and poorly lit, but, from our vantage point, I would say the center item is a platform and the structure to the left of it is control equipment.”
“Control equipment in a vacuum? That doesn’t make much sense, no matter who put it there,” Yohlin commented.
“Captain, there’s the possibility that this location was originally protected from vacuum,” Belinda replied.
“Do you see any indications of dome material near you?” Yohlin asked.
“Negative, Captain,” Belinda replied. “But what if they didn’t use our traditional building methods?”
“You’re suggesting that advanced individuals … skip that … I’ll use the word that no one is saying. You’re suggesting this edifice is the remains of advanced aliens.”
“Yeah, Captain, pretty much,” Tully replied.
“Pack it up, Belinda,” Yohlin ordered. “I don’t want anyone to touch this thing. Get in your rover and get your butts back to base camp.”
Tully and Hamoi looked at each other. In the shadows, they could see the other’s chagrin clearly through the helmet’s faceplate.
“Uh, Captain, about not touching the alien thing,” Tully started.
“I did it, Captain,” Hamoi admitted. “I didn’t ask permission either.”
“You did what, crewman?” Yohlin demanded.
“I wanted to sample the base that circles this place. Test it for the substances that were used to make it, you know.”
Darrin, who was surrounded by his survey crew in the shelter, stood quickly from his small comm station, and the crew paused to listen to the exchange. “What did you find, Hamoi, specifically?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Hamoi replied.
“What our eloquent tech is trying to say is that he was unable to take a sample of the ring,” Tully explained. “He brushed away the layer of dust and found pristine metal underneath. The base has a slender groove along the top that appears to run right around the circle.”
“Surely, you ran a mass spectrometer test on the surface,” Darrin said impatiently.
“That he did, Nose,” Tully added. “The analysis said the metal was an unknown substance.”
“Guess the notion that this is an advanced alien construction is pretty much dead on,” Belinda said drily.
“In the rover now, Belinda, and get back to the shelter. Am I clear?” Yohlin ordered, her voice rising
Before Belinda could respond, Darrin jumped in. “Captain, I’ve some questions before they leave the site, if I may?”
“Fine, Darrin, but I don’t want you asking for anything that requires them to approach or test it,” Yohlin replied.
“Understood, Captain. Rules, you said you could sense this edifice, right?”
“No, sir, I felt something like a buzzing or high-pitched frequency, and we chose to follow it. It led us here.”
“How far were you out from the shelter before you detected it?”
“Darrin, we discovered that Rules picked up on this thing while she was at the shelter,” Belinda interjected. “She didn’t mention it because she thought everyone heard it.”
“Darrin, she directed us unerringly to this place,” Tully added. “We drove around crevices, across ridges, and around outcrops, but she always put us back on course.”
“Okay, here’s what’s not making sense,” Darrin replied. “I get that Rules has been your direction finder and led you to this place. And, I get that you found some kind of evidence of an ancient alien civilization. But what you’re not explaining is the source of the signal that Rules followed if this place is defunct.”
“That’s just it, Darrin,” Belinda replied. “We didn’t say this place was dead.”
“What?” Yohlin said, leaping from her bridge chair. “What’re you saying, Belinda?”
“Captain, Rules is still picking up the humming, buzzing, or whatever it is,” Belinda replied.
“From where?” Darrin blurted.
“Under the circle, sir,” Aurelia replied. “It’s strong and soothing, in a strange way.”
“That’s it. No more questions; no more discussions. About face it, people, and march … now!” Yohlin ordered. There was no mistaking the urgency and commanding tone in the captain’s voice.
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Belinda replied. “Move it, people, into the rover. We’re out of here, Captain.”
* * *
“This will make a great call to Jessie,” Yohlin lamented to Darrin after the link to the rover crew was cut.
“Not great news,” Darrin agreed, and he launched into his imitation of her call. “Well, Captain Cinders, it’s like this. Our trip isn’t an entire bust. No, Captain, we haven’t found any high-quality ore strikes or quantities of slush, but we did discover an alien structure, and, according to the team, our empath is sensing that it might still be active.”
“Not bad, Darrin. I think I’ll have you make the call.”
“I’d rather pop a helmet out here on Triton’s surface before I volunteered for that.”
“Who said anything about volunteering?”
“With respect, Captain, I believe you carry the stripes of ultimate responsibility.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“What do you want us to do, Captain?”
“Hold where you are, Darrin. You can tak
e samples, but you’re not to move the shelter. The rover will take a few days to return. When it arrives, I want you to run analysis on every centimeter of the rover, the equipment, and our people, before anyone exposes themselves to the vehicle or its contents.”
“They were in vac suits, Captain, and Triton is an airless environment.”
“Suddenly, you’re an expert on aliens?”
“That’s kind of my point, Captain. I’m definitely not even a newbie on the subject, which means I wouldn’t know what to look for on the rover. Based on what Hamoi said, our equipment will probably be useless, which means something could be there and we wouldn’t detect it.”
“Do it anyway, Darrin. Make your captain happy.”
Yohlin closed the downlink, and Darrin mumbled, “I aim to please, Captain.”
Yohlin sat in her command chair. A crew member replaced her cold drink with a fresh, hot one, and that one went cold. In the end, she admitted that the entire issue was over her head, and she hadn’t a single, intelligent suggestion for Jessie. She cleared the bridge. It wasn’t to isolate the discovery of the alien place. She could bet that the entire crew of the Annie, topside and downside, already knew everything there was to know about it. What she wanted to keep private was her conversation with Jessie.
“Spryte, this is Captain Erring requesting a private comm call with Captain Cinders,” Yohlin sent.
“One moment, Captain, connecting you,” Nate, the second mate, replied.
“Hello, Yohlin,” Jessie replied. He finished drying his hair, wrapped the towel around his waist, and sought a chair in his cabin to take the call.
“Hello, Jessie, what’s your position?”
“I’m two days out from Emperion, why?”
“I think you should divert to Triton.”
“Care to give me a reason, Yohlin? After all, I am the company’s owner,” Jessie said, enjoying teasing Yohlin. She could be as serious, if not more so, than even him, which is why he liked her style.
“We’ve found an alien artifact, Jessie.”
“Interesting. What did you do with it?”
