“Ben’s trail,” Siobhan murmured. She looked at Evelyn, her mind grappling for the right words, but none would come.
For a moment, silence filled the cabin as they all looked outside, their eyes roaming over the landscape. In front of the rover, a strip of lowland sloped away between two sheer walls of rock, the almost vertical cliffs on either side rising rapidly higher to form a huge canyon. But between the opposing cliff faces, the terrain was so flat that Siobhan could see along it for miles, the sheer scale of the place taking her breath away. And through the valley’s center, a stream snaked from side to side, its surface rippling with reflected light.
Cate turned in her seat. “It’s unreal. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I have,” Tessa put in. “It’s a rift valley.”
“Yes.” Siobhan leaned forward. “That’s right. I remember—there’s one in Africa.” She stopped speaking, embarrassed. Her childhood memories of geography lessons on The Pharaon were suddenly irrelevant, foolish even. Nothing could have prepared her for this place: no pictures, no facts and figures, no charts and diagrams. This was nature, raw and unleashed. A power great enough to tear the planet’s crust apart had carved this gorge from solid rock, punching the entire valley floor downward with one mighty blow. And the place was untouched, undiscovered, unexplored. We’re the first humans to see this, she thought. Not even Lyndsey has been here. And she allowed herself a smile. Because here, no matter where she looked, there was no sign of the blue-green grunge. Not a trace. But the stream was bordered with banks of what looked like ferns, and in the distance, the soft hazy shapes softening the outline of the cliffs, seemed to be plant life, creepers perhaps, dangling from the crags, or groundweed clinging to niches in the sheer stone. There could be life here, couldn’t there? After all, if there was no symbiont to destroy it… Siobhan took a steadying breath. Don’t get ahead of yourself. We don’t know anything for sure. She glanced at Evelyn. “It’s incredible, isn’t it?”
The older woman nodded. “It certainly is.”
“There’s only one question in my mind,” Cate said. “Do we go in?”
They all looked at Evelyn, but her expression gave nothing away. “What are your sensors telling you, Siobhan?”
“Wait a second.” Siobhan returned to her workstation. All the sensors were registering wild fluctuations in the magnetic field, but the strongest patterns were undoubtedly coming from the valley ahead of them. “I think this is it. This is where the field is coming from. And it looks like Ben was right.” She hesitated. “There’s…there’s no symbiont down there.”
“We’d need to check that out,” Cate said quickly. “We can’t jump to conclusions.”
“It’s got to be worth a look though,” Tessa put in. “This is what we came for, right?”
“Cate, is the terrain okay for the rover?” Evelyn asked.
Cate raised her eyebrows. “Sure. No problem at all. If anything, it’s smoother than out here. It might get boggy over by the water, but we can deal with it. Come to that, we can cross a stream if it isn’t too powerful.”
“Very well, let’s forge ahead,” Evelyn said. “But we’d better keep track of the time. We should head back while we have daylight.”
“Definitely.” Cate turned back to the controls. “Buckle up, Siobhan. We’re going in.”
CHAPTER 9
Truck One
“Take it slowly,” Lyndsey said from between clenched teeth. “We’re not trying to crash through the damned thing. This isn’t a movie.”
Sitting next to her in the cockpit, Kyrksen scowled, but he didn’t answer back. All his concentration was on the control panel as he nudged the truck closer to the base’s perimeter fence.
Lyndsey stared ahead through the windshield, looking beyond the tall stretch of unbroken chain-link fencing, her gaze focused on a strange, streamlined object that sat upright within the compound. The object was perhaps twenty-five feet high and ovoid, its smooth walls scorched and pitted, but it seemed intact. Wherever it came from, it had surely delivered the mysterious intruders. “What do you make of it? I can’t see any markings, but it has to be from Earth. Do you think it’s from the company?”
“A supply vessel of some kind?” Kyrksen offered, but even as he spoke, he shook his head. “No. A supply drop would be unmanned. But whatever it is, it can’t have come far.” He cast her a look. “The ship that crashed. Maybe…”
Lyndsey’s hand flew to her mouth. “An escape pod?”
“Exactly. When your friends’ ship went down, they might well have launched pods. It probably locked onto the base’s beacon. Lucky for them. If they’d touched down anywhere else, they’d almost certainly have been killed as soon as they stepped outside. As it is, they may be dead by now anyhow.”
“They made it inside the base, so maybe they survived.” She paused. “It’s odd. They must’ve sent a distress call, but we never picked it up.”
Kyrksen shrugged. “Their comms might’ve been knocked out on re-entry. I’ve known it to happen before. And they wouldn’t have been able to use our gear in the base. We disabled it all before we left. As far as they’re concerned, they’ve been alone on this planet for the last five years.”
“All this time,” Lyndsey murmured. “If only we’d known—”
“What difference would it have made?” Kyrksen interrupted. “Are you saying you’d have jeopardized the mission to play host?” His lips curled in a sneer. “You’ve spent too much time talking with your pal, Connor. He’s clouded your judgment.”
Lyndsey turned on her him. “When the time comes, my judgment will not be found wanting. Yours, on the other hand, is a different matter. What happens to you will depend on whether I speak up in your favor. One word from me, and the company will hang you out to dry.”
Kyrksen stared at her. “Save your threats, Doctor, they mean nothing here. Do you really expect we’ll see Earth again? Are you really so naïve that you think we can get out of this alive?” He slammed the control panel with his hand. “Do you seriously expect me to believe that?”
Lyndsey pursed her lips, letting the silence hang in the air. “Under my leadership, we will survive. We have supplies. We have shelter. We have comms. We can wait it out, and goddammit, we will make it back home. Understand?”
Kyrksen looked away, his jaw clenched. He ran his hands over the control panel as if deeply occupied on some unnamed task. “Fine. If that’s the way you want to play it. I’ll take us around to the main gate. You might want to call the rest of the fleet forward to join us.”
“Wait!” Lyndsey leaned toward Kyrksen, grabbing him by the shoulder. “Say it! Say you understand the situation here.”
“Let go of me.”
Kyrksen tried to shrug free, but Lyndsey tightened her grip. “Listen. Kyrksen. I’m in command here, and you’ll damned well do as I say, or I’ll have you locked up for the duration.”
“All right!” Kyrksen took a breath, flaring his nostrils as he glared at her. “You’re in command. Consider it understood.”
“I should damned well think so.” Lyndsey let go of Kyrksen and sat back, gathering her thoughts and preparing to address the fleet; she needed to handle this situation carefully. No more mistakes, she told herself as she opened a comms channel to the fleet. “All trucks, this is Doctor Teare. Be advised that the base has been compromised. We’ve found an escape pod, and it’s possible that survivors from the crashed GRC ship have taken shelter somewhere inside the landing modules. We don’t know how many intruders might be inside, but I’d estimate that the pod could’ve held six people at most. It’s nothing we can’t handle. These people are unlikely to be hostile, but we have to allow for the fact that they might get a little jumpy when we roll up. It’s also possible that they have accessed a weapons locker, so we’ll need to proceed with caution. We have no idea what we’ll find, so we’ll have to be ready for anything, and that includes the possibility that these folks are in need of medical attention. Que
stions?”
“I can organize a team to go in,” Alec said. “If I pull together the security details from across the fleet, we can go in fast and clear the modules one at a time.”
Lyndsey hesitated. “Alec, go ahead and assemble a team, but I only want you to take four people with you. And make sure they’re level-headed. I don’t want a firefight breaking out inside the base. I don’t need to remind you what happened the last time we went in mob-handed.”
“Understood.” Alec paused. “I’ll take two from Blaney’s crew, and there are two more in Jackson’s team who can handle themselves. I know who I want, and we’ll be careful. No problem.”
“Right,” Lyndsey said. “Everyone else, we’ll take the trucks into the compound, but we’ll be staying inside our vehicles until Alec’s team have cleared the base. Truck two will dock with the hub once Alec has his team ready. Every other vehicle will maintain a safe distance.” She waited for confirmation from the other pilots then closed the channel and turned to Kyrksen. “Take us around to the gate, I’ll have the key ready.”
“Certainly,” Kyrksen replied, and he swung the truck around, sending it skimming alongside the fence.
Lyndsey swiped her hand across the nav panel, pulling up the menu. She entered her passcode and retrieved the digital key she’d need to unlock the compound’s security gate.
“Here we go,” Kyrksen said. “This should be near enough.”
Lyndsey felt the truck slow to a halt, and when she glanced up, the gate loomed through the windshield. “Unlocking now.” She pressed the transmit icon to start the identification process, her finger hovering over the screen. In a second, she should receive a message asking her to confirm her identity with a fingerprint scan. But instead, a warning flashed onto her screen:
UNLOCK REQUEST REJECTED - ACCESS DENIED
“Damn.” She tried sending the key again, but the same warning message appeared. “It isn’t working.”
“Perhaps our visitors have tampered with the system,” Kyrksen said.
“Is that possible?”
Kyrksen waggled his hand in the air. “It’s not easy, but once you’re inside the base, if you know what you’re doing, there are ways of resetting the lock codes.” He looked Lyndsey in the eye. “I think you’d better assume that our unexpected guests are intelligent and well-prepared.”
Lyndsey nodded slowly. “All right. So how do we get in? Can we override it from here?”
“Well now, let me see,” Kyrksen drew the words out as if enjoying the moment, drumming his fingers on the control panel in an irregular beat. “I do have certain software tools at my disposal, but they’re over in truck two. Perhaps if I could be allowed to return to my vehicle, and perhaps if I were to take the pilot’s seat while Alec is storming the battlements, we might have some progress.”
“Seriously? You want to go outside?” Lyndsey folded her arms and fixed Kyrksen with an icy stare. “I don’t have time for this. You know damned well that you can access all your files from any workstation, and so do I. You’re staying here, Kyrksen, so just get on with it. Unlock the gate, and maybe things will go easier for you, but in the meantime, you’ve nothing to gain by antagonizing me. Nothing to gain and everything to lose. Is that clear?”
Kyrksen unfastened his safety harness and stood, a scowl twisting his lips. “I’ll go and see if your workstations are up to the task. Give me ten minutes, and I might have the gate unlocked.” His cheek twitched and a malicious glint lit his eyes. “There might be another problem though—one I can’t fix.”
“What?”
“Well, put it like this. If they’ve gone to the trouble of tampering with the gate, there’s a good chance that we won’t be able to activate the docking system from outside.”
Lyndsey froze. “Seriously?”
“Yes. I’m afraid so. After all, it’s relatively easy to disable the docking system, and once the controls have been compromised, attempting to dock would be risky at best. One crack in the seal and an entire crew could be contaminated, not to mention the base itself.”
“Oh hell!” Lyndsey said. “We’ll have to go on foot?”
Kyrksen nodded. “At first, anyhow. Alec and his team will have no other reasonable option. Once they’re inside, they can reset the docking system from the hub. After that, it should be fine.”
“I guess that’s some consolation. All right, you’d better go and get busy with the gate. Let me know as soon as we can go in.”
“Of course.”
Lyndsey watched Kyrksen stalk from the cockpit, his shoulders hunched, and his scowl sour enough to strip paint. That man! I can’t stand being cooped up with him much longer.
She sighed then called up the other trucks. “Stand by, everyone. We have a slight delay while we get the gates open. Alec, have your people ready. We estimate ten minutes. But listen, we think we might not be able to dock the trucks. You’ll have to go in from the ground. That means you’ll need to run through the decontamination cycle before you can get into the hub. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Alec said, and Lyndsey caught an edge of apprehension in his voice. “I’ll handle it. We’ll be ready.”
***
Alec stepped down from his truck, being careful of his EVA suit, then he marched over to truck three to meet the two people he’d chosen from Blaney’s crew. The trucks had touched down just inside the compound and sat in a V-formation with truck one in the lead. Alec cast his eye over the bleak compound, scanning the squat landing modules for any sign of movement. He didn’t detect anything suspicious, but even so, he was vulnerable and exposed. The others had better not keep him waiting.
“How are we doing, Blaney? Is your detail ready?”
“Should be stepping out right about now,” Blaney replied.
“All right.” Alec fought down his impatience, and a moment later, the truck door opened and two people jumped down, their heads turning from side to side and their rifles ready.
Doug and Jane were young and kept themselves fit, and while both had been through the company’s security training, Jane had experience in the GRC’s military division. Alec hadn’t even had to think twice about choosing them for this task.
“Reporting for duty,” Jane said over the intercom
Alec looked her up and down. She was almost standing to attention, her back straight and shoulders square, and he couldn’t help but smile. “Excellent. Everything okay?”
“Sure,” Doug said. “One hundred percent. Are the others ready?”
“Any second,” Alec replied, pointing over to truck four where the door was swinging open. Two figures stepped to the ground, glancing around before setting off to join him, running at a steady pace. Like Jane, Andy had served with the GRC’s military, and Heidi had aspirations in that direction. Alec knew that some crew members were only on this planet because they’d seen the completion of this long mission as a valuable stepping stone toward acceptance into the GRC’s officer training program, and the thought made him stiffen his spine. I’ve got to get these people home. I owe them that much.
“Reporting fit and ready,” Andy said, jogging to a halt beside Jane.
Heidi joined them. “I’m good to go.”
“Okay,” Alec began, “here’s the plan. We’ll take the hub first, and when that’s secure, we’ll move through the link corridors, securing the landing modules one by one. You’ll move in teams of two, so stick with your buddy from your truck. I’ll coordinate from the hub. Any questions?”
“When we go in, can we override the decontamination cycle?” Heidi asked. “Otherwise, we’ll be trapped while it runs, and they’ll know for sure that we’re on our way.”
“No, we can’t,” Alec said. “We don’t know whether the base is clear of symbiont, but if it is, we’d be foolish to risk bringing contaminants in from outside. I know the situation isn’t ideal, but those are our orders. We have to think of this base as our home for the long term and that means protecting its envi
ronment as much as we possibly can.”
“How come we don’t know whether the base is safe?” asked Jane. “We can monitor it from the trucks, can’t we?”
“In theory, we can,” Alec said. “But Doctor Teare’s team say the system link refused to play ball. They don’t know if the link has been disabled or if it just broke down, but it’s out of action. It’s unfortunate, but we’re going in blind. All the more reason to stay sharp. Now, I hope that covers everything because we need to get moving.”
Andy raised his hand. “Quick question. How come the compound is clear? The symbiont is thick outside, so how come it hasn’t spread past the fence?”
Alec hesitated. “I have no idea. Maybe the people inside are keeping it clear somehow, but whatever the reason, there must be spores in the air, so we’ll maintain the usual protocols until we’ve ensured the base is clear.”
“Can we take off our helmets once we get inside?” Heidi asked.
“Not until I give the word,” Alec said. “Time to move. Switch your rifles to live, but do not open fire unless you come under fire yourselves. Even then, try a warning shot first. Let them know we’re friendly. These people are from Earth just like us. They might be frightened or defensive, but either way, we need to keep them alive. If they’ve survived this long, they might have valuable information that’ll help us.” He stepped back, checking his plasma rifle and switching its mode from safe to single shot. “I’ll take point. Let’s go.”
Alec set off, jogging toward the hub’s entrance. The central hub was the only direct connection between the other twelve landing modules. Each pair of modules was linked by a narrow enclosed walkway to the hub, and each walkway could be sealed off by security doors so that sections the base could be isolated in the event of a breach. And that might be a problem. If the intruders had locked the inner doors to seal themselves in, it would seriously hamper Alec’s mission. He had access to the key codes, but after the problems with the gate, he couldn’t guarantee he’d be able to break into every part of the base. We can’t do anything that might damage the doors, he reminded himself. We have to keep the structure intact.
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