Tyre - A Space Opera Colonization Adventure (Aeon 14: Building New Canaan Book 2)

by M. D. Cooper

  “Huh. Well, I could feel the frostiness from outside,” he said. “I guess you laid it on the line.”

  “I just told them the truth,” Isa said. “Nothing wrong with that. Samuel had the cheek to lay a hand on my arm.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  Martin had left the luggage at the base of the stairs and now carried it to the pinnace waiting on the nearby pad. Once it was stowed, they climbed inside.

  “Core, those three are strange,” Martin remarked as Isa closed the doors and started up the engine. “When you think about it, who goes to the trouble they have in playing the host to a visitor to their planet? They seemed okay, but that attitude is almost fanatical.”

  “Yeah, now that you put it in that light, they sure were enthusiastic to give me a lot of their free time,” Isa said. “At least since that time in the restaurant after I first met them, I was never entirely comfortable with them. Still, that’s the last we’ll see of Samuel and his crew. Unless they plan on stalking us, that is.”

  “Stars, don’t go there,” Martin said. “So, where are we going today?”

  “Somewhere special, but I don’t want to tell you too much or it’ll spoil the effect. What I can say is that we’re wing-gliding today, so I’m going to fly up to the summit of Mount Athos first to collect some suits.”

  “Fantastic,” said Martin.

  When they reached the summit, the conditions at Mount Athos were perfect for wing-gliding: zero cloud cover, and a steady wind blowing up the mountain slopes. Isa almost changed her mind and proposed that they wing-glide down the mountain, but from what Tony had told her, her initial plan was even more spectacular.

  An automatic dispenser doled out the wing-gliding suits to the thrill-seekers who braved the death-zone conditions at the caldera’s edge. The suits came equipped with face masks and oxygen tanks so the gliders could breathe until they reached the lower atmosphere. Where Isa and Martin were going, they could dispense with the face masks, so she only took two suits from the dispenser. She crammed the large suits into the back of the pinnace, and set the destination coordinates for their next stop.

  Their vessel followed the opposite route than the day they went to the fjords, instead turning south and skirting the edge of the central sea for a time before they moved inland over another region of vales and fjords.

  “I wonder if there are any hidden waterfalls down there,” Martin said longingly.

  “We can go back to the other spot another day if you like,” Isa said. “But I have all the recordings of that place that I need. Today’s trip will be just as great, I promise.”

  “Those fjords are a tough act to follow,” said Martin.

  “You’ll see.”

  The subtropical rainforest began to thin out; the trees shrank down to scrub, and patches of open, rocky ground appeared.

  “Just another few minutes,” said Isa, checking the pinnace’s ETA.

  Boulders replaced the rocks, and the vegetation dwindled away. Soon, the Central Range was far behind them, but new ridges and elevations appeared in the landscape. These were more regular than mountains. As they drew closer, Isa could make out tall pillars of rock in a range of thicknesses and heights.

  “Don’t tell me we have to hop between those,” Martin said.

  “Don’t be silly,” Isa replied. “Look.”

  Coming into view up ahead, the granddaddies of all the pillars were rising majestically into the sky. They were flying over the smaller versions, and Isa saw that they indeed had hollow centers, as Tony had explained. The effect he’d described probably wouldn’t be apparent until she and Martin exited the pinnace.

  “There are no lots here where I can set us down,” Isa said. “We’ll have to leave the pinnace on top of one of the pillars, then summon it after we reach the bottom. I have Link connectivity, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “So we’re wing-gliding down into the valley here?” asked Martin, sounding disappointed.

  Isa knew why. On the face of it, the prospect didn’t look as exciting as the same activity on Mount Athos, but Martin didn’t know everything yet.

  The pillars, sand-colored columns, continued to increase in size against the brilliant blue sky. Finally, they reached the center of the formation, where the tallest pillars rose kilometers into the air. These were as hollow as the others.

  “What’s that?” Martin asked, listening intently.

  Isa could hear it, too—or rather, feel it. Their vehicle was vibrating. She cracked a window a few centimeters. Warm wind rushed in, but more strikingly, melodious tones accompanied it. Deep basses, smooth tenors, dulcet contraltos, and piping sopranos came from all around. The breeze passing over the tops of the hollow pillars was resonating in their inner chambers, creating a natural orchestral sound.

  “Whoa.” Martin was smiling. “Now I see, I mean hear, what you mean.”

  He opened his window too, and they hovered over the central pillar for a while, just listening. As the wind ebbed and waned, the sound of the pillars shifted. Always sweetly melodic, always changing, it was truly an auditory natural wonder.

  Isa set down the pinnace on the edge of the tallest pillar. The space was wider than their ship, but not by much. They climbed out, carefully avoiding the steep vertical drops on each side. The drop on the outer edge led to a narrow gap between that pillar and the next, and the other drop vanished into darkness within the interior.

  “Was this place created by the FGT?” Martin asked, raising his voice over the fluctuating notes that echoed around them. “It seems too conveniently perfect to be entirely natural.”

  “Tony told me that these are the plugs from an ancient volcanic eruption. It was one where instead of making a single peak, a lot of low mountains were created. The mountains are all gone, but these plugs remain,” replied Isa. Then she switched to the Link to make it easier to talk.

  She pulled the wing-gliding suits out of the pinnace and handed one to Martin. The bulky suit swamped Isa when she put hers on, and she was worried it wouldn’t fit well, but then it adjusted, shrinking to match her short stature. Strong, thick, wind-resistant material stretched between her arms and legs; the suit would allow her to glide fairly effortlessly. She could adjust her position to turn, speed up, or slow down as she descended, and a small a-grav pack on the back would prevent any disasters if she got into trouble. The suits also had built-in safety helmets. Isa lifted hers over her head and slotted the visor into place.

  she asked Martin.

  He was fastening his helmet. He gave her a thumbs-up.

  Isa looked out over their descent route. The valley floor lay far in the distance, three thousand eight hundred meters below, past sets of hollow pillars decreasing in height. Above, Canaan Prime shone down, dazzling and hot, baking the wind-smoothed rock beneath her feet. All around, multitudinous notes filled the air, rising up into a cobalt sky.

  Isa grinned at Martin.

  They jumped.

  Immediately, the wind caught in the material of Isa’s suit, spreading it out and sending her soaring over the pillar tops. She swept across the natural flutes like a bird of prey scouting its territory. Wheeling around, she saw Martin on a similar ecstatic flight. She turned again, delighting in the motion, while her mind was filled by the song of the pillars.

  Martin was too far from her to hear her voice, though she could have spoken to him over the Link. She didn’t, however, and he didn’t speak to her. Words couldn’t express the sensations she was experiencing, and she guessed he felt the same. It was enough to share the moment.

  Isa banked left, taking herself in a wide swoop across the site. She couldn’t see any other wing-gliders or pinnaces in the area. As had been the usual case during her visits to these spectacular Tyrian sites, she and Martin seemed to be alone.
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  She banked again, taking her closer to Martin, and for a while, they circled each other, lifting on an updraft and then lowering a little, skirting the surfaces of the black hollows below. Isa caught the faint sound of Martin’s long, drawn out ‘Ooooo-weeee’ from afar.

  Of all her excursions on Tyre, even including Mount Athos’s chute, the golden cavern, the crystal cave, and the fjords, this was the best, Isa concluded. She’d have to persuade Erin to come with her one day. With Martin’s help, she was sure she could do it.

  Her arms and legs were beginning to ache, but she didn’t care. She was determined to make the most of the experience.

  For another half an hour, Isa wheeled and soared, maintaining her height without excessive effort. Eventually, she couldn’t ignore the tiredness of her limbs. She began to circle downward, toward the valley floor. When she finally touched down, Isa removed her helmet and unfastened her suit, ripping apart the sticky fabric strips that held it together, and leaving it hanging around her hips. The music of the pillars was just as loud at ground level.

  She looked up and spotted Martin still soaring amongst the heights. She watched him for as long as he remained in the air.

  He eventually came to a running touchdown some distance from her, near one of the lowest pillars that rose from the sandy valley floor. She was too encumbered by her suit to walk over to him, so she began to take it off. She pulled her legs out of the lower section, and soon the wing-glider suit lay in a wrinkled lump on the ground.

  Isa looked up again, ready to walk over to Martin, but stopped when she saw three figures leaving the shelter of a short pillar and approaching her partner. Even at that distance, she recognized Samuel, Ada, and Rahmin, and could see the tip of their pinnace poking out from behind the pillar.

  She could also see that the Tyrians were holding weapons.

  For a moment, shock froze her. What are they doing? What do they want? No answer came to her, but the mildly annoying, slightly sinister Tyrians were showing their true colors at last.

  Martin was folding up his wing-gliding suit and had his back to the three figures. He clearly had no idea they were there.

  Instinctively, Isa yelled his name, but he didn’t hear her. The music from the pillars was too loud.

 

  He didn’t reply or react, even to her call over the Link.

 

  Still no response. The Link had worked earlier; the Tyrians had to be broadcasting a dampening field.

  Isa began to run. “Martin,” she bellowed.

  Whether he heard her or her motion caught his attention, Isa didn’t know, but he finally noticed her. He straightened up and stared at her as she raced closer.

  “Behiiiiind yoooooou!”

  He turned.

  Too late.

  The Tyrians had reached him. Samuel was pushing a weapon into his stomach, and Martin was falling. Ada was putting a bag over his head.

  “Martin,” Isa screamed.

  Rahmin left Samuel and Ada to deal with their captive, and began to run toward Isa, aiming at her.

  She skidded to a halt, sliding on the dust overlaying the rocky ground. Panic struck her. What should she do? She had to help Martin, but she was unarmed. And she was one against three; she could never defeat the Tyrians by herself. If they wanted Martin, they wanted her too. She had to get out of there. She had to get help.

  Isa spun around and fled. This time, she flew without wings, adrenaline banishing the aches from her limbs. No one knew she and Martin were there, and by Onyx’s own admission, there wasn’t full planetary coverage of air traffic.

  They were not expected to return to Ushu; if they disappeared, no one would miss them for days. She had to—

  A pulse struck her back.

  The ground rose up and smacked into her face, and she knew no more.

  ARRIVALS

  STELLAR DATE: 03.22.8937 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: TSS Sark, departing High Carthage

  REGION: Carthage, New Canaan System

  The Sark had pulled away from High Carthage a day after the flight Pippa had taken to Tyre, but the TSF corvette was much faster than the civilian transport.

  Captain Dala estimated that they would arrive more than four hours ahead of the commercial vessel, which would give Erin, Usef, and the Marines he’d brought along ample time to prepare.

  Traveling to Tyre was bittersweet for Erin. Isa and Martin were there, but she wouldn’t be able to see them, so she thought it was better they didn’t know she was on the planet. She would have to remain incognito as they monitored their target.

  The plan was to watch Pippa and see what she was up to—while there was no direct evidence of the engineer being involved in the sabotage, her actions were not those of an innocent person. If the woman saw Erin, she would know she was being watched. Additionally, the Marines would be in civilian clothes and Erin had to stay out of sight as much as possible.

  As she sat at an auxiliary console on Sark’s bridge, she ran through the many possible answers to the puzzle of Pippa’s sudden departure. The woman’s decision to leave Carthage when she’d been explicitly ordered to remain meant that she was clearly up to something, and Erin had to reassess all of the engineer’s actions.

  Pippa—and Anwen, who was now in custody—had also been present on the Eos when the antimatter was stolen. Though there had been no reason to suspect her until she disappeared, the engineer had just as much opportunity to sabotage the mining operation on Irridia as Max.

  Erin pondered the implications of the incident at Excelsior Spaceport. What had the fight between Max and Pippa been about? The woman had run out of the waiting room just in time to prevent the guard from shooting Max. Had that been by design? And both of them had gone missing in the warehouse for a long time. Had they both arranged the diversion that had allowed Max to escape?

  And what about Anwen? The fact that Pippa had left her sister behind seemed to show that Anwen wasn’t involved. She’d been distraught and apparently clueless about what her sister was doing. Nevertheless, Erin wasn’t dismissing the other twin yet. She’d been fooled once; it wasn’t going to happen again.

  Tanis was right. Though she hated the idea of it, Erin had to stop thinking that all of her fellow colonists always had the best of intentions.

  Were Pippa and Max in love, and some weird twin thing was going on that meant Pippa was hiding it from her sister?

  She posed the possibility to Walter, who snorted in response.

 

  Walter said.

  “Oh!” Erin clutched her hand to her mouth, fighting the urge to laugh. Usef had walked onto the bridge wearing a suit, but it was far too small. The pant legs ended several centimeters above his ankles, and the shirt was barely holding itself together over his wide, muscled chest. Gaps yawned between the buttons, revealing copious amounts of skin. The jacket wouldn’t have closed at the front if he’d lost twenty-five kilos.

  “You’d better not sit down in that,” Erin said, pitying the major. There had been a sizing mistake in the order for the Marine’s civilian clothing, and though the clothing was autofit, it still wasn’t able to handle the mountain of a man that was Usef. The mistake hadn’t been discovered until after the Sark was underway, and there had been no time to go back.

  Usef looked ruefully over his shoulder at his pants’ seat. “I was thinking that too, ma’am. I might have a wardrobe crisis on my hands. This was all that was available in the stores. I wanted to ask your opinion: do you think I’ll stand out if I wear this? It’s important that we blend in.”

  “Honestly? I think you might.” A guffaw burst from her lips, and she doubled over in tears of laughter.

  The captain’s shoulders were shaking, and the other flight officers weren’t even trying to control their snickers.
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  Usef heaved a sigh and turned around. As he exited the bridge, she could hear Marines laughing from one of the rear cabins.

  When Erin was finally able to block the image of Usef in his too-tight suit from her mind, she returned to trying to understand what Pippa and Max might be up to. Then something else interrupted her thoughts.

  said Walter.

  Erin opened it and read the short message from Tanis.

  ‘Erin,

  Angela and I have checked over all of Pippa’s movements ever since she came out of stasis three years ago. This isn’t the first time she’s been to Tyre, it’s the fourth. The third was right after the briefing on the Eos, just before the mining operation began. According to the passenger transport’s logs, each time she went there, she was alone, leaving her sister behind. We also checked Max Rasner’s movements, but he’s never been to Tyre, unless he managed it under another name. He’s stayed on Carthage, only leaving to work, and we didn’t find anything else about his behavior that you might call irregular. I think it’s safe to assume that Pippa has secreted the antimatter somewhere on Tyre. Securing that is your top priority. Good luck. With Major Usef with you, you’re in good hands.’

  The mention of the major reminded Erin of her recent sight of him, and she began to chuckle. Everyone else on the bridge knew what she was laughing at, and they started up again. Erin struggled to stop, but the bridge crew kept triggering her, and she them.

  Her stomach was hurting, and the pilot was begging for everyone to quit, when Usef reappeared at the open bridge door. When he saw them all giggling, he hesitated. He was about to walk away, when Erin said, “I’m sorry, Usef. I mean Major. Please come in.”

  Usef strode onto the bridge. He’d changed his clothes; now he was wearing long, flowing robes bearing a floral pattern. The look was so very much at odds with his sizeable, square-jawed face and close-cut hair, that, though the robes fit him much better than the suit, the effect probably wasn’t what he was hoping for.