by S. J. Bryant
Nova nodded. Maya wouldn't be the first Hunter to enter the trade to save a loved one.
"I tried to break him out once, a few years ago. The security they have in those houses is better than anything the Confederacy has. I barely got out without being sold myself. I haven't seen him since."
"I hope you find the money," Nova said.
She counted it almost as a blessing that she had no family to speak of. At least she didn't have to worry about saving them. It was just her, Cal, and Crusader. And occasionally her friends, she thought, as she glanced down at Aart's sleeping face.
"Yeah me too," Maya said, staring at her hands.
Nova bit her lip. "What say we wake these lazy sods up? I don't know about you, but I could definitely use a sleep."
"Count me in."
Maya leaned over and gently shook Tommy's shoulder. He grumbled but was awake in seconds. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, nodding once at Nova.
Nova was far less gentle. She tapped Aart's leg with her foot and he leapt to his feet, knife drawn. He glared down at her when he saw there was no danger and sat back down.
"You're it," Nova said. "And I swear if you fall asleep I'll carve my name into your cheek."
"Yes sir," Aart said, slotting his knife back into his belt.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nova awoke hours later feeling rested and ready to face whatever the tunnels had to throw at her. She ate half a nutribar and checked over her weapons. The other Hunters did the same.
"Keep your eyes open for any sign of trouble," Maya warned. "We might be all chummy, but I'm sure some of the other Hunters won't be nearly as friendly."
"I'll take the rear," Nova said.
Maya stared at her for a few moments and then nodded once, taking a place at the front of their group. They headed off down the dark tunnel through inky blackness.
The rough walls and floor didn't change. They were all made of the same sandstone and covered with tiny grains of sand. Their feet scraped along the blocks, sending sand skittering in all directions.
The air at least was slightly fresher up on this level of the tunnels, unlike the dank staleness from below. Nova could almost imagine she felt a breeze on her skin, if she closed her eyes and concentrated very hard. Perhaps there was an exit nearby, leading out into the sun.
"Ahead," Maya whispered.
The other three Hunters stopped and arrayed themselves behind her, their weapons drawn. They stared into the darkness of the tunnel ahead, their eyes straining to see anything through the gloom.
Nova frowned as she stared. There was nothing but black ahead. What had Maya seen? Or thought she'd seen? But there was something different in the distance. Instead of inky blackness fading into nothing, the air was different. Grey. The darkness wasn't so dark.
"There's a light," Nova whispered. The other Hunters nodded.
It had to be a bright light for it to reach all the way down to this part of the tunnel but it didn't look like sunlight. It was too dim to be the sun, and it was the wrong colour, green almost.
"We have to check it out," Aart said.
"Be ready," Maya warned.
They advanced with cautious steps but the sandy floor made it impossible to sneak. Their feet scraped through the sand and tapped on hard stone, while their measured breaths bounced off the hard walls. Each of their weapons gave off a faint coloured glow that became less pronounced as they approached the real source of light.
They rounded a corner and the light surrounded them. The green glow was blinding compared to the dimness of their glowballs. Nova shielded her eyes against the artificial glare, squinting out at the new room.
The enlarged chamber was many times bigger than the tunnels, and green lights shone from the roof. They looked like soft mossy clumps that glowed with a natural coloured light, almost like sunlight through green leaves.
Plants filled the chamber. Their leaves dangled down from the walls and vines scurried over the floor. Ferns dripped tantalising sparkles of water to the sandy floor.
"That does look good," Aart said, leaning close to the drops.
"I'd stick to the bottled stuff," Nova said, scanning the room.
Aart sighed. "Yeah. Knowing this place, it's probably got nanobots that'll eat you from the inside."
"Over here," said Tommy.
They hurried to where he knelt on the floor in a dark corner of the chamber where even the green light from above was mostly blocked. A woman's body lay curled up against a stone wall.
Nova glanced around for any sign of danger. She couldn't see anything obvious, but that didn't mean it wasn't there. The body looked… fresh… for want of a better word. Her tattered clothing and small gun suggested she was another bounty hunter.
Aart took the gun from her holster. "I guess she won't be needing this."
Nova snatched his arm. "Aart!"
"Like you haven't taken a weapon from a fallen body before. We don't know what else is down here, we need to be ready."
Nova pursed her lips and looked away.
"Poison," Tommy said, pointing to a small spot of blood on her neck. "Some kind of dart I'd say."
"Like this one?" Aart said, picking a tiny metal needle up off the floor.
"Exactly."
Nova turned in a slow circle, staring intently at the walls and plants. After everything she'd seen, she would never trust another plant for as long as she lived. At least these weren't moving, for the moment. There were no holes in the walls that she could see, but for a needle so small it wouldn't have to be a large gap.
"There's something behind her," Maya said.
With all the respect they could muster they pulled the stranger's body away from the wall. Carved into the stones on the floor under the body were symbols. They extended back into the dark corner and some distance away towards the centre of the room.
Aart frowned. "What sort of script is that?"
"I've never seen it," Maya replied.
"My chip doesn't recognise it," Nova said.
Circles and swirls formed a beautiful pattern, if you could get past the body lying just a few metres away.
"Do you think she was trying to read it?" Aart said.
Nova stepped away from the symbols and eyed the floor. "If that's the case then you should probably stop reading them."
"I don't think it's so simple," Maya said. "If you look here, there's a pile of sand. And this tile is almost completely clean. Something's been moved."
"Like what?" Aart said.
Nova stepped forward again and followed Maya's pointed finger. She was right. The sand covering the floor was scuffed up. Something heavy had been scraped along it. In fact, the sides of some of the tiles were scraped white.
She knelt next to the tile and thrust her fingers into the gap between it and the next large block. The tips of her fingers curled around the base. She strained and the tile lifted.
The weight of it stretched all of the muscles in her arm, making them quake. She grunted and forced herself to lift higher. Beneath the tile rested another hard sandstone block that rose up as she took the weight of the tile from it.
Aart whistled. "Well I'll be damned."
"Just make sure there aren't any poison darts coming in my direction," Nova said.
Aart twisted around, eyeing the walls. "I'm definitely not going to stand in their way if that's what you're thinking."
"I'll remember that," said Nova.
Tommy shambled forward. "I think it's a puzzle. The symbols look like they're cut-off, incomplete. But if you rearranged the tiles, maybe they'd make more sense."
Nova leaned the heavy tile on its side where it wobbled, the rough edge making it unbalanced. She held it upright with her right hand and wiped the left on her pants, taking away the sweat and some of the sand. Her palm stung, scraped raw from the rough tile, but she ignored the pain.
"He's right," said Maya. "The one you're holding would match up with this one."
She pointed her toe at ano
ther tile. It had a swirling line that fell off one side. A matching line rose up Nova's tile.
"So it's some kind of massive puzzle. Let's ask ourselves a couple of questions," Aart said. "First, from the evidence at hand, we can probably guess that that girl died because she did the puzzle wrong. Second, why do we want to do a weird, deadly puzzle? Third, Nova, be very careful where you put that tile because it could very well see us dead."
Nova looked at the other Hunters with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Aart was probably right. The way the block beneath the tile had lifted was just the kind of thing she'd expect from a pressure trap. And the chances were pretty good that this tile did not belong on that block.
"I know the answer to your second question," said Maya.
Aart lifted one eyebrow. "Oh?"
"There's a door here and it won't open." Maya tapped a section of wall with her foot. "My guess is, that puzzle will open it up and let us through. And seeing as it's the only other door in this room, I think we should get started."
Nova looked closely at the section of wall Maya had pointed to. She was right. There was a very faint outline, the slightest inconsistencies in the wall texture. If she squinted she could even convince herself that the door was a different colour to the rest of the wall. Of course, none of that changed the fact that if she dropped the tile they could all be dead in seconds. Somehow it made the tile feel even heavier.
"Let's get started," Nova said.
It was difficult to see the whole picture, kneeling on the ground. She could only see some of the tiles and they were warped out of perspective from her low view. She also didn't want to lose focus on balancing the tile exactly where it was. Even with it resting on the ground it weighed a huge amount. Sweat broke out on her brow and her arms shook to keep the tile upright.
From her vantage point the floor looked like a wild collection of swirls and patterns, no order to it at all. And certainly no way to tell which tiles went where.
Aart, Maya, and Tommy paced around the edge of the tiles, frowning as they examined the intricate stonework. No sign of enlightenment or discovery lit their faces, just complete and utter puzzlement.
"Let's brainstorm ideas," Aart said, throwing his hands up.
"Plants," Nova said, glancing at the green life all around them.
"Flowers," Tommy said.
"Language."
"People."
"Dancing."
The ideas kept flowing but none of them struck home.
Nova groaned. "This is ridiculous. There has to be another way."
"There's not," Aart said. "We haven't passed any forks since meeting these guys."
"Besides," said Tommy. "I have a feeling that this is the way we're supposed to go."
"In a place like this I don't think there is a right way."
"None of those things fit," Aart said, muttering to himself. "All of these orbs, and the swirls. What are they?"
"Planets!" Maya cried, looking at each of them in turn with wide eyes.
"What?" Aart said.
"They're planets and their orbits. Just look, here's the sun for this solar system, then you've got the inner planets and finally Kopet. It's all here."
"She's right," said Tommy. "If you count there are twelve orbs. It's perfect."
Aart knelt down beside Nova and lifted up the tile next to hers. "Let's get started."
"No wait!" Nova said. She was too late; Aart already had the tile in hand.
Her voice echoed around the chamber and bounced back to them, leaving silence in its wake. The four Hunters froze, scanning the walls for any sign of attack.
"What?" Aart whispered.
"Just because we know what it is, doesn't mean we know where the tiles go. It's a square grid," Nova said, nodding to the surrounding tiles.
"Oh," Aart said. A bead of sweat appeared on his forehead and dribbled down his cheek. His face glowed red and his arms shook as he gripped the tile.
"There has to be a way to work it out," Tommy said.
"There will be a reference point," Nova said. "Something stationary that will orient the rest of the galaxy."
"The only way to orient this kind of schematic would be to have neighbouring solar systems," said Maya.
"Even then, with the planets always moving, how would you know which side is which?" Nova said.
"We can work it out from the orbits," said Tommy. "Look, the tile with the sun has part of an orbit on it, from that we should be able to work out the rest. If we assume that the sun goes at the very centre."
"Can we make that assumption?" Maya asked.
Tommy shrugged. "It's all we've got."
"Then do it," Nova said. "But I'd suggest you get ready to dive."
Maya strode to the centre and pulled up the tile. They waited with baited breaths, but nothing happened.
She strained, tendons springing out on her neck as she lifted the tile and lumbered it away from the carved area, lowering it to the floor some distance away.
"Alright, wish me luck," said Tommy.
Aart grinned. "Good luck."
Tommy heaved up the tile with the sun carved into it, tendons straining. He dropped it into the central space.
They waited in silence.
The hairs at the back of Nova's neck stood on end, poised for the sound of a dart piercing the air. Her knees and legs ached from kneeling for so long under the weight of the tile but she daren't move.
"One down, eight to go," said Tommy.
Nova studied her tile. "I think mine attaches to the sun's orbit."
Tommy nodded. "Give it a go."
Nova strained, hauling the tile off the floor. Pain burned through her abdomen but she bit her lip and staggered to the centre where she dropped her tile into place. The curved line matched and the air remained dart-free.
She let out a long breath.
Together the Hunters pieced together the orbits and planets until only one space remained.
"Last one, Maya," Tommy said.
Maya glanced down at the tile in her hands. "What if it waits until the last tile before shooting the darts?"
"Then I just did a hell of a lot of work for nothing."
"And it wouldn't explain what happened to her," Aart said, nodding at the dead Hunter.
"Everyone keep low to the ground," Nova said. "If the darts are aiming at neck level they should hopefully go straight over our heads."
The others nodded and Maya carried the tile to the edge of the square. She squatted down and lowered it into place. A click echoed around the plant-filled chamber.
Instead of poison darts, the air filled with a grating, grinding noise.
Nova glanced up in time to see the section of wall sliding back to reveal a tunnel leading away into darkness. A breath of fresh air wafted out of the new tunnel and brushed over them. It smelled sweet, but with an undercurrent of something else, something far less inviting.
CHAPTER NINE
Nova stepped forward. Her arms and legs ached from holding the massive tiles, but she forced herself to walk upright, with her gun in hand. The glowball at her waist cast its light out over the new doorway and into the room beyond.
"What the hell?" Nova said, stepping forward.
Behind the door lay another corridor, but bland concrete bricks replaced the sandstone.
Nova glanced between the yellow blocks on the outside and the concrete on the inside of the corridor. Her mouth went dry. The modern bricks didn't belong here. Not on this planet and certainly not in this ancient tomb.
"How did that get here?" Tommy asked.
The four of them crowded around the entrance, eyes straining against the darkness. They tried to see further, to make sense of the misplaced tunnel. Even the air wafting out of it was different. It was fresher but also smelled of modern things, plastic and smog, not the sandy staleness of the rest of the tomb.
"I guess there's only one way forward," Aart said, stepping to the front.
Nova followed close behind
and they crept into the unknown. A tingle ran up her spine as the cool wind brushed over her cheeks and lifted loose wisps of hair about her ears. For the hundredth time she wished she'd never arrived on the planet and vowed to punish whoever was responsible.
The tunnel rumbled, and Nova's legs wobbled. Loose pieces of rock fell to the ground. She fell against the nearest wall, shoulder grazing against the cement.
"The door!" Aart yelled.
Nova turned.
The sandstone door scraped across the floor, hiding the glowing circle of green light.
Nova pushed off the wall and scrambled back down the tunnel. The shaking floor knocked her from side-to-side, slamming her against the bricks. She ignored it and kept running. Her heart hammered in her chest as the circle of light got smaller.
The others scrambled behind her, Aart's curses following her up the tunnel.
She dived at the door just as it snapped closed, killing the last thin sliver of light. She slammed her palms against it. "Dammit!"
The other Hunters got to her side, breathing hard. Their glowballs created a dim circle of light that cast flickering shadows across their faces.
Tommy ran his hand along the rough stone. "Bloody hell. I can't see a way to open it from this side."
Aart kicked the nearest wall. "Another damn trap. The sooner we get out of this hell-hole, the better."
Nova gritted her teeth and turned away from the door. "Let's go." Loose pieces of cement skittered under her boots and smacked against the hard walls.
The others followed, their feet scraping against the floor.
Nova clutched her gun tight, expecting creatures to leap out at her from the shadows. She imagined rabid scorpions scurrying beyond her circle of light, their pincers clicking.
The tunnel seemed to stretch on for hours. The same dull bricks went on in the darkness, without a turn or doorway. The Hunters strode in silence, only their footsteps breaking the oppressive darkness of the passageway.
An eternity later, Aart stumbled to a stop at the front of the group. "Whoa."