Earth Flight (34 page)

I pictured what would have happened if the Military had set up the field base on a world infested with chimera, and felt sick.

‘Finding the other worlds is virtually impossible,’ continued Leveque. ‘Alien ships may have travelled in any direction, stopping at an unknown number of planets, and could have reached anywhere in a volume of space as large as twenty sectors by now. Our only real hope is to find records on Fortuna that tell us the courses of the ships they sent out. We could then find and stop the ships, and check the star systems directly on their routes.’

‘I hope we’re just chasing shadows here,’ said the General Marshal, ‘but I have to treat any possibility of the chimera still surviving with the utmost seriousness. Any Planet First team landing on a new planet could be walking into a death trap. We could even have the same problems as on Thetis, with chimera breaching portal quarantine to reach existing inhabited worlds. I’ll order Planet First to abandon Zeta sector and …’

He frowned for a second. ‘Would Sigma sector be the furthest of the unsettled frontier sectors from the danger zone?’

‘Yes, sir,’ said Leveque.

‘Then Planet First will move their efforts to find new colony worlds to Sigma sector. When people learn we’ve discovered the alien home world in Zeta, they’ll assume that’s the reason for the change.’

The General Marshal ran his fingers through his hair in the first visible sign of stress I’d seen. ‘For the time being, information about this theory is to be kept strictly to the people in this room. The merest whisper of the chimera potentially surviving would cause public panic.’

He glanced at the other person who’d just learned about this theory. Drago was looking understandably dazed. I could imagine what he was feeling right now. We’d all grown up watching horror vids, shuddering at the nightmare chimera and deeply grateful that they were extinct. The thought that they might not be was scaring the chaos out of me, and Drago … Drago had volunteered to make the landing on Fortuna’s moon.

The General Marshal asked the question that must be torturing Drago. ‘How high is the risk of finding living chimera on Fortuna’s moon?’

‘Fortuna’s moon has minimal atmosphere,’ said Leveque. ‘Even chimera, with their incredible adaptability, couldn’t survive thousands of years in near total vacuum. The only place on Fortuna’s moon where there may still be living chimera is actually inside the sculpture. Our sensors show that’s definitely hollow, but something is blocking them from giving us details of the interior.’

He paused for a second. ‘I’d estimate the risk at not more than 10 per cent.’

The expression on Drago’s face flickered for a second as he heard that. There was a one in ten risk that he was going to be the first human being in a quarter of a millennium to face a chimera.

‘In the days of Thetis, the chimera infiltrated our worlds before we had any clue what we were dealing with,’ continued Leveque. ‘We have chimera detectors in ships, and bio filters on portals now. We have to be prepared to deal with the situation if an alarm goes off, and remember the lessons of Thetis. The chimera constantly adapt in the face of danger.’

‘Please wait outside while I discuss this with Commander Tell Dramis,’ said the General Marshal.

The rest of us stood up and went out into the huge, echoing emptiness of the Alien Contact Operations Centre. The General Marshal’s bodyguards glanced at us, saw the expression on Colonel Stone’s face, and hastily adopted the rigid posture of impersonal, incurious guards.

Stone and Leveque went to the command desk and started working, probably looking up details on the chimera. I couldn’t face that right now, so I went over to stand by the far wall. Fian and Raven followed me, and Fian gave a wary look at the General Marshal’s bodyguards before speaking in a low voice.

‘Why is the General Marshal talking to Drago alone?’

‘He’s giving Drago the chance to change his mind about volunteering,’ I said.

‘No one could blame Drago if he does change his mind,’ said Fian. ‘Do you think he will?’

I gave an angry shake of my head. ‘Drago can’t. He knows if the clan of Tellon Blaze are too scared to face this, then no one else will.’

Fian pulled a face. ‘That’s a chaos lot of pressure. Can he tell his wife?’

‘No. Marlise is his deputy, she’ll know he’s going to Fortuna’s moon, but …’ I grimaced. ‘It’s probably better that way. Would you want to know if …?’

‘Yes!’ Fian’s voice was savage. ‘Yes, I would! Drago will obviously be wearing an impact suit, but …’

He let the words trail off, but my mind finished the sentence for him. There was a limit to the protection given by an impact suit, and chimera had needle sharp teeth and claws.

We waited in silence for a few more minutes, then Stone’s lookup chimed and everyone went back inside the meeting room and sat down. Drago was giving an amaz impersonation of someone who was completely relaxed; only the clenched fingers of his right hand showed what he was really feeling.

‘We’ll proceed as planned with investigating the beacon on Fortuna’s moon,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Commander Tell Dramis will carry both weapons and flares.’

I frowned. Using flares to flood an area with glaring light would leave chimera partially blinded and with no shadows to hide in, but it would also make everyone watching guess exactly what was going on. Or maybe not. Given everyone believed the chimera had been extinct for over a quarter of a millennium …

‘I want the command feed running with a five minute delay during this investigation,’ continued the General Marshal. ‘Should chimera be detected, the command feed must be cut while the situation is assessed. I don’t want hundreds of civilians in the Research area seeing live chimera and going screaming in panic to the newzies.’

‘I’ll route the command feed through my own work station, sir,’ said Leveque.

After a few more minutes of discussion, Stone, Leveque and Drago headed off to portal back to Zeta sector. The General Marshal and his bodyguards went with them. I didn’t know if they were going to Zeta sector as well, or returning to Academy, and I didn’t care. I was fully occupied with drowning in guilt.

We headed back to our apartment. Fian and I sat on the couch, while Raven set the wall vid to show the command feed. The image of Fortuna’s moon appeared, and my feelings exploded in four bitter words.

‘It should be me.’

‘What?’ asked Fian.

‘I was the one who thought of the chimera. I belong to the Tell clan. It should be me going to that moon, but Drago has to do my job for me because I’m Handicapped.’

‘That isn’t true, Jarra,’ said Raven. ‘Even if you didn’t suffer from Novak-Nadal syndrome, Colonel Stone would still send Drago to do this. He’s not just a far more experienced officer, he’s been through alien warfare training, and that includes holo simulations of combats with chimera.’

I shook my head. ‘The worst thing is I know I couldn’t do it. The mere thought of going to that moon, knowing any shadow could hide a chimera, makes me freeze with terror. I’m a horrible person, because part of me is worried sick about Drago, but another part is gibbering to itself in gratitude that I can’t go myself.’

‘It’s only human to feel that way, Jarra,’ said Fian.

It was a surprisingly short period of time before Drago’s ship was ready to drop portal from Gateway to Fortuna’s moon. He was flying one of the survey craft used by Planet First teams on new worlds. They carried whole battalions of sensors, and were designed to crash land safely in extreme conditions and protect their occupants from any and all hazards until rescue arrived. Even a chimera would have a tough time ripping its way through a survey ship hull.

Two probes were in position near Fortuna’s moon. The command feed showed their images of the drop portal dust ring appearing, and Drago’s ship coming through. After that, it swapped to show the view from the ship itself, as it circled slowly above the beacon and the massive sculpture.

‘Sensors show no life on the surface of the moon,’ said Colonel Leveque’s voice. ‘We’re still getting little detail on the interior of the sculpture.’

‘I want a few more circuits before we try a landing,’ said Colonel Stone.

She kept Drago flying circuits for another ten or fifteen minutes, while Leveque tried different sensor settings in an attempt to get more information on what was inside the sculpture. Finally, Stone sighed.

‘We obviously won’t learn anything more until we try a landing. I’m tempted to go out there and make the landing myself.’

It might have been my imagination, but Leveque’s voice sounded a bit sharper than usual as he replied. ‘Your command position precludes you from such a course of action, sir.’

‘I’m perfectly aware of that!’ Stone snapped back. ‘All right,’ she continued in a more normal voice. ‘Commander Tell Dramis, you may proceed with the landing in your own time. Please take all possible precautions.’

‘Yes, sir,’ said Drago.

The survey craft instantly dived straight at the ground and landed next to the giant sculpture. I thought I heard a groan from Colonel Stone, but I was on Drago’s side. Why stretch out the suspense when he’d already flown circuits until he was giddy?

‘Kindly allow us time to check the ground level sensor readings before you go outside, Commander,’ said Leveque.

‘Yes, sir.’ Drago’s tense impatience was obvious in his voice, so there was a ripple of background laughter from the Command staff, who had no idea what was really going on here.

I turned to watch Fian working on his forearm lookup. Several blocks of incomprehensible symbols and images appeared in midair.

‘It seems fine to me, but I’m no expert.’ Fian tapped his lookup and the floating images vanished.

‘Drago’s going outside!’ said Raven.

The image on the wall vid had changed to show the view from one of the vid bees hovering in midair inside the survey ship. I watched Drago open the door, step outside, and activate a hover belt that kept him floating just above the ground. The vid bees chased after him, giving us a view of a landscape of scattered reddish rocks and dust. The giant sculpture ahead of Drago had a reddish hint as well.

Drago had an equipment net on his back, which held flares and some other things I didn’t recognize. His left hand held a small sensor, that I knew would be checking for the distinctive body chemistry of a chimera. His right hand held something large with a shape that screamed it was a weapon. He headed towards the sculpture, slowly at first with constant checks of the sensor in his hand, then suddenly picking up speed. I guessed he was talking to Leveque and Stone on a private comms channel.

Now we could see the beacon of light was being transmitted from the top of a large black cube, positioned pointedly next to an arched opening in the side of the rock sculpture. Drago turned off his hover belt and walked into the opening.

There was an almost inaudible murmur from Raven. ‘I swear I’ll never watch another horror vid.’

The vid image swung wildly for a moment, as the vid bees jostled for position and followed Drago into a tunnel. He had a light strapped to his left arm, and the vid bees seemed to have their own lights as well. I was watching nervously for flickering, almost invisible movements in the shadows, but could see nothing.

‘Curious,’ said Leveque. ‘Sensors show no doors or barriers ahead.’

I frowned. I’d been too busy worrying about the chimera to think about doors, but there should surely be some in this tunnel.

Drago walked on, and his pool of light suddenly widened as he entered the hollow centre of the sculpture. He stopped, checked the sensor he was carrying, took a flare from the net on his back and tossed it into the darkness ahead.

Light blazed, blinding the vid bees. Before they could adjust to it, the image on the wall vid abruptly cut out. I jumped to my feet, staring pointlessly at the blank screen. ‘Oh nuke, nuke, nuke!’

‘There can’t be chimera. There can’t possibly be chimera.’ Fian was talking rapidly to himself. ‘There were no doors in the tunnel, there’s no atmosphere in there, the chimera couldn’t have survived.’

‘They adapt their bodies to their environment,’ said Raven. ‘Could they somehow …?’

He broke off as the image on the wall vid cut in again. I saw Drago standing in a large cavern, totally featureless apart from a black pedestal at the centre. There were no dark shapes frozen by the light, no creatures of nightmare. I heard a soft sob of relief, and realized it had come from me.

‘You were right about the chimera then, Jarra,’ said Raven in a harsh voice.

I turned to look at him in bewilderment. ‘What? There aren’t any chimera there. Leveque must have cut the command feed by mistake.’

‘Leveque doesn’t make mistakes,’ said Raven. ‘He cut the command feed because there were the remains of a long dead chimera. Drago’s standing on it. You see the scattering of grey fragments on the rock floor?’

I took a step closer to the wall vid. ‘That’s …?’

‘Yes,’ said Raven. ‘Drago’s shot at it, blown it to tiny pieces, but that’s the remains of a chimera.’

I went back to the couch, sat down, and Fian put his arm round me. If there was a dead chimera on Fortuna’s moon, it meant there’d be living ones on at least one world, perhaps several.

The image on the wall vid showed Drago walking up to the pedestal. A glowing circle appeared on its side, showing it still had power.

‘I just have to put my hand on the circle then?’ said Drago. ‘I was expecting doors, tests, something. It doesn’t make sense to create a huge planetary defence system, and then allow anyone to walk in and shut it down.’

‘Alien logic may not match our own, but this is definitely a curious approach,’ said Leveque’s voice.

‘Shall I try it, sir?’ asked Drago.

‘Go ahead, Commander,’ said Stone.

The wall vid was showing two images now, one of Drago placing his hand on the circle, and the other an image of Fortuna from a probe out in space. Nothing happened for a few minutes, then part of the circle glowed brighter, but there was no change to the glittering lines of the defence shield around Fortuna.