If she looked closely, she could see the join. On one side it was human\u2013\u200cmade steel, and on the other a rough, fine\u2013\u200cstructured material they still had trouble making a dent in. Whoever had made it\u2014and the rest of the huge structure discovered in the core of Pluto\u2014was not human. That much they knew. What Lea wanted to know was how anyone had ever thought to drill down through hundreds of meters of Pluto\u2019s ice to find the cave and the rest of the structure the cave connected to.<\/p>\n
Vagrant gleams of light reflected off the dark ice of the tunnel. The shuttle was coming, and it was carrying the one object they had successfully removed from the alien base. That fact, and its location in a niche in the big foyer\u2013\u200clike area connected to the cave, meant it had to be important. For what, she didn\u2019t know\u2014\u200cbut since the whole mission was focused on figuring out the alien base, Lea had persuaded the mission director that she should be allowed to study the object in its original setting. And so, the Gizmo, her name for the thing, was being taken from Kepler,<\/em> the ship that had brought them from Luna Base to Pluto so she could do so. She wondered how long they would let her keep it.<\/p>\n The expedition leaders had waited until Kepler<\/em> was nearly halfway out from Luna Base to tell them what they were really going to investigate. All Lea had been told on Earth, under heavy security restrictions, was that they had found alien wreckage on Pluto. Which was not exactly true, but not completely false either. Pluto, under a coating of ice and rock, was an alien construction. Nobody was sure if it was wrecked or abandoned or what. No alien skeletons or equivalent had been found. At least that\u2019s what they\u2019d said.<\/p>\n The shuttle slowly rotated and settled to the floor of the cave, and Lea fidgeted impatiently waiting for the docking collar to connect. Some military types in uniforms were first off the shuttle, but Lea paid no attention to them. Her focus was on Dr. Vasili Adi, who was carrying a bulky metal case.<\/p>\n She reached for the case, but Dr. Adi frowned. \u201cI open when we get there. You want to break only one we have?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to break it! Come on, let\u2019s get it plugged in.\u201d Lea sped ahead along the rough\u2013\u200cwalled corridor, turned, stood a few seconds, and ran back to the slower man. \u201cAre you getting paid by the hour or what?\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Adi gave a long\u2013\u200csuffering sigh. \u201cYoung Santorina, it has waited for us many years. You can wait a few minutes for an old man, yes? What do you miss in this time?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow would I know? That\u2019s what I want to find out!\u201d She bounced up and down. \u201cCome on!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n They knew the alien base was huge, and also that parts of it were inaccessible, closed off behind doors they couldn\u2019t find or that wouldn\u2019t open. Lea suspected the Gizmo was a key of some kind. Of course you would leave the key by the door, where you could find it when you came home after visiting the Andromeda Galaxy, right?<\/p>\n This must have been what it was like for the archaeologists who dug up Tutankhamen\u2019s tomb. As soon as it was opened up it would take years<\/em> of unpacking and exploring and figuring out the alien technology. And she got to be a part of it. She could spend the rest of her life here in a happy, geeky haze.<\/p>\n Finally Dr. Adi and the case reached the niche in the wall. All of the corridors and spaces they could reach had the same rough\u2013\u200ctextured surface, uniformly pale gold in color. Light glowed from the ceiling, but not from a separate fixture. At regular intervals the wall had a recessed section framed in a thicker border, looking like a shallow doorway, but it appeared to be merely decorative. The recessed area wasn\u2019t more than a few inches deep. The floor was darker and not as rough\u2014\u200cit had a resilient feel. The air was dry and cold, with no scent.<\/p>\n Lea\u2019s diagnostic gear was spread out around the niche, ready to go. Dr. Adi propped the case on a wheeled equipment cart and unfastened the latches.<\/p>\n \u201cYou should be using gloves,\u201d he said with disapproval, but Lea had already grabbed the Gizmo.<\/p>\n It was dark but slightly translucent, asymmetrical, and obviously alien. She\u2019d studied the photographs during the months\u2013\u200clong trip out and knew every millimeter of its surface. It felt solid and smooth under her fingers, still a bit warm. Had they been keeping it in a heated environment for some reason? She\u2019d have to ask.<\/p>\n Shifting it so it looked just like it had in the original photos, Lea carefully placed the Gizmo back in the niche. \u201cJust like tha\u2014\u201d She stopped, looking around in puzzlement. \u201cDid you hear that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI hear nothing,\u201d Dr. Adi said.<\/p>\n Lea wasn\u2019t sure she\u2019d heard anything herself. It was more like an echo of a sound instead of the sound itself. An echo that felt like they were in a huge, open space, and for some reason she had a strong feeling that something other than themselves was listening. She shivered. Better get to work and stop imagining things.<\/p>\n She connected probes, watched scanner screens, made notes, and pondered. Dr. Adi was seated on a large equipment crate, reading and occasionally looking over to see what she was doing. A faint vibration in the floor made her glance up, but it subsided and Lea went back to work.<\/p>\n Someone ran by, heading in the direction of the Waiting Room. One of the soldiers. I still don\u2019t know why those guys are here,<\/em> she thought, her tongue sticking out in concentration as she tried to get a large probe in a small space. This isn\u2019t a military project.<\/em> Yet another question to ask.<\/p>\n Her attention was diverted by the sound of distant voices. Distant shouting voices. Two more soldiers ran by, and a wave of cold washed over her, seeing weapons in their hands. A third followed, yelling into a radio. \u201cRepeat, what is status of shuttle?\u201d<\/p>\n And then the alarm sounded. In the first moment of panic she forgot what it meant, just knew something was badly wrong. Then she remembered. Evacuation. Assemble at the Waiting Room, instructions will follow. Dr. Adi was trying to pack the Gizmo but it wasn\u2019t coming loose from its niche.<\/p>\n \u201cCome on, it\u2019s an emergency! Leave it!\u201d She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him behind her.<\/p>\n As they got closer to the Waiting Room she could hear more. \u201cWhat do you mean, we lost the shuttle? What happened?\u201d someone shouted.<\/p>\n The shuttle was gone? How were they going to get out? Lea wedged her way through the crowd to one of the windows. No visible wreckage. Then she noticed something else missing. The dark ice of the tunnel was gone too. She could see stars at the end of the cave. That was impossible. The ice was several hundreds of meters thick. Even if they\u2019d been hit by an asteroid, wouldn\u2019t they have felt something? Wouldn\u2019t some of the ice remain?<\/p>\n The stars began to disappear again, and then she saw why. The huge bulk of Kepler<\/em> was floating into the cave, and not gracefully. One edge scraped along the floor, bits of metal breaking off as it went. Clouds of gas escaped from the holes created.<\/p>\n \u201cMove back from the windows!\u201d shouted one of the soldiers. \u201cIt\u2019s coming in fast!\u201d<\/p>\n Lea stayed where she was, feeling numb. If Kepler<\/em> crashed into them they would die anyway. No way to get back home. Only one sealing door between the Waiting Room and the rest of the alien base. Is<\/em> it under attack? What is out there more dangerous than bringing the ship in here?<\/em><\/p>\n Behind the dark shape of Kepler,<\/em> the starfield had vanished again. It had been replaced by a shifting, nacreous silver cloud completely filling\u2014and blocking\u2014the opening of the cave. They couldn\u2019t get out anymore.<\/p>\n The emergency survey team moved down the rough\u2013\u200csurfaced corridors at a jog\u2013\u200ctrot, looking for changes. Lea did her best to keep up, holding panic at bay by trying to figure out when things had gone wrong. It couldn\u2019t have been their arrival; after all, there had been at least three ships from Earth before Kepler<\/em> with lots of people coming inside, and nothing happened then. Removing the Gizmo hadn\u2019t done it.<\/p>\n But she had, just before, put the thing back in the niche where it had been found. The surface ablation of the ice layer had started shortly after. One huge chunk of ice had smashed into the shuttle, and others damaged Kepler<\/em> enough it had sought shelter in the cave\u2014\u200cnow revealed as a landing area for not an alien space station, but a spaceship. A spaceship that was now going somewhere.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my fault,\u201d she mumbled, sure of it.<\/p>\n The lead soldier, Ivars, continued his careful, quick sweep of the corridor like he hadn\u2019t heard her, weapon always pointed where he looked. \u201cIf you know that, then you know how to fix it.\u201d The other soldiers behind her didn\u2019t even pretend to pay attention to the conversation, and Dr. Adi was still slack\u2013\u200cjawed with horror and shock.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it was something I did that started it. I don\u2019t know how<\/em> I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBetter figure it out fast then.\u201d He gestured, and one of the soldiers moved forward, silent and graceful, past an opening in the wall. The man glanced inside, then shook his head. Just another niche. \u201cOur supplies are not infinite.\u201d<\/p>\n No, they wouldn\u2019t be. Kepler<\/em> had brought a year\u2019s supply for the research station but didn\u2019t have a year\u2019s supply for their crew on board\u2014\u200cjust enough for the return trip to Earth.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll know something\u2019s wrong, won\u2019t they? Back home?\u201d<\/p>\n He looked at her finally, his scarred face hard and pale eyes registering a trace of impatience. \u201cAnd what can they do about it? Tell the Voyager<\/em> probe to intercept us? We probably passed it seconds after this thing woke up. The only way we\u2019re getting home again is by turning it around.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFaster than light,\u201d Dr. Adi whispered. It was the first time he\u2019d spoken since it happened. \u201cAlways I wonder if I live to see.\u201d He laughed, a brief, hysterical burst.\u201cSo, maybe I not live.\u201d<\/p>\n Lea fell back a little to walk beside him. \u201cWe should at least wait a bit to go back, don\u2019t you think, Dr. Adi? Give \u2019em time to calm down? They are probably pretty mad at us now for stealing an entire planet. Planetoid. Whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n He shook his head, trying to smile and failing. \u201cEvery time we decide what it is, it changes. Now what is it becoming?\u201d<\/p>\n She could ask the same thing about the mission. She\u2019d noticed earlier, in addition to the scientists and other technical people, the significant military presence on Kepler.<\/em> Now that she was spending more time with the soldiers it was clear they weren\u2019t here just to move crates\u2014\u200cin action, they all had an air of quiet, watchful competence that didn\u2019t match the cheerful bravado of her Army cousins. They didn\u2019t seem like rent\u2013\u200ca\u2013\u200ccops either, which was all she could think the expedition would possibly need. If the alien base\/ship really was empty.<\/p>\n Lea quickened her pace to stay closer to Ivars. \u201cAnything?\u201d he asked abruptly.<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d she whispered, feeling her face heat. She hadn\u2019t even been paying attention to the handheld displaying the mapped part of the alien ship. She quickly reviewed and heaved a quiet sigh of relief. The map and her memory matched, so far. She hadn\u2019t screwed up. Yet. The pounding headache she\u2019d developed wasn\u2019t helping her focus.<\/p>\n The corridor\u2014\u200cwalls, floor, and ceiling\u2014\u200cwas made of the same not\u2013\u200cquite\u2013metal, not\u2013\u200cquite\u2013ceramic the rest of the ship was made of. It reminded her of unglazed brick. That<\/em> material, they now knew, didn\u2019t change. The kind that did\u2014\u200cwell, now that the ship was underway, it had reconfigured itself. Which was why everybody not manning the scanners on Kepler<\/em> was running around in teams, trying to map out what the ship looked like now.<\/em> And, hopefully, find the bridge or control section or whatever the aliens had used for steering.<\/p>\n Lea slowed, frowning. The wall on her left showed as a wall on the handheld, but it wasn\u2019t made of the static material. \u201cThis is morph,\u201d she said, using the term they\u2019d come up with. \u201cBut it hasn\u2019t changed. The map shows it right here.\u201d<\/p>\n Ivars dropped one hand from his weapon, letting it dangle from the harness, and examined the wall more closely. \u201cAnd we don\u2019t know if it was morph before, right?\u201d<\/p>\n She shook her head and stepped away as if to look at a different section of wall but really to get away from Ivars. There was nothing she could point to that made her uncomfortable; he\u2019d been curtly polite to her and the other technical people. She\u2019d never even heard him swear. It was just that close up, the part of her brain that had warned her ancestors about saber\u2013\u200ctoothed tigers woke up and started yammering.<\/p>\n He\u2019s just a soldier, you idiot.<\/em> Lea took off her glove and touched part of the morph that looked different, even more blocky than the rest. It felt tingly, like it had a slight electric charge. More interestingly, it wasn\u2019t cold like the rest of the ship. \u201cHey, Dr. Adi. Does this feel different to you?\u201d<\/p>\n Adi took off his own glove reluctantly and only rested the tips of his fingers on the surface for a brief moment. \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot warmer?\u201d<\/p>\n He touched the static wall, then the morph again. \u201cIt feels same to me. For you, not?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. Not,\u201d Lea said slowly. Her headache twinged, and she winced.<\/p>\n \u201cMark it and move.\u201d Ivars gestured, and the soldiers took up their positions around Lea and Dr. Adi.<\/p>\n They continued on for nearly an hour with nothing else differing from the map. Ivars called a halt and let them rest for far too short a time, mostly because Dr. Adi was having a hard time keeping up.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t long after they started walking again that Lea noticed a wall coming up on the handheld, a wall that wasn\u2019t visible ahead in the corridor. The side corridor was, but not the wall. \u201cThat section is new,\u201d she said, pointing.<\/p>\n Ivars came up and glanced at the handheld for a moment, then stared down the unexplored section. He gave a small shrug. \u201cLet\u2019s check it out.\u201d<\/p>\n As an unexplored section of an alien ship went, it was disappointing. The section of corridor stretched ahead as far as Lea could see, with the occasional empty niche, and looked exactly like all the rest. Not even dust or an alien candy wrapper to alleviate the boredom.<\/p>\n Somehow I thought this would be a little more interesting<\/em>.<\/p>\n The soldier in front raised a hand. The others froze, and Lea and Dr. Adi had to stop with them. \u201cI\u2019m seeing darkness up ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that was definitely different. Lea remembered the initial this\u2013\u200cis\u2013\u200cwhat\u2013\u200cwe\u2013\u200cknow lecture, and one thing that had intrigued her was the ambient light. It had not been on when the first robot explorer was sent in, and if only a mechanical device was present it would not stay on. If a human was present, the lights were on. Depending on how fast the human was traveling\u2014\u200cand they\u2019d brought carts and even bicycles\u2014\u200cthe lights turned on ahead in anticipation so darkness was never seen.<\/p>\n \u201cLong train,\u201d said Ivars. \u201cYou two, stay in the back,\u201d pointing to Lea and Dr. Adi. They proceeded cautiously, staggered down the corridor. The soldier in front flipped down his adaptive optics.<\/p>\n \u201cEmpty. Corridor like the rest, but it looks damaged. Wait, it\u2019s blocked.\u201d<\/p>\n When Ivars finally let them approach, Lea could see for herself. The corridor came to an abrupt and jarringly asymmetrical halt. The lighting was dead here, and the edges of the wall that blocked their path met corridor surfaces that had cracks and buckling.<\/p>\n \u201cAtmosphere?\u201d Ivars barked.<\/p>\n Human\u2013\u200cbreathable air had been there from the beginning too, and now would be a bad time for that to change along with the interior architecture. Dr. Adi started, then fumbled at one of the pockets of his vest for the sensor. \u201cAll is normal,\u201d he said. \u201cPressure and atmospheric mix.\u201d<\/p>\n Lea drifted forward, her curiosity overcoming her fear of getting snapped at by Ivars. The material of the ship was hard to damage, yet here it was cracked and worn. Something had blown up or smashed into the wall\u2014\u200cbut the wall had been patched up afterward. By whom? When?<\/p>\n Two deep cracks darted jaggedly near the edge of the repair boundary and met. A small chunk of the regular wall surface stood out in the junction just enough for her fingers to get a grip, and she pulled. The chunk came loose in her hand, maybe two inches long. She could hear Ivars draw in breath to yell at her, but it never happened. She was feeling rather speechless herself.<\/p>\n The repair material had flowed into the hole as if it had always been there.<\/p>\n Ivars wove his way through the supplies and sleeping bodies, hoping no further emergencies would erupt requiring clear passageways. After the change it had been agreed by the mission command that letting personnel sleep in the alien structure itself was not a good idea until they had a better understanding of what was happening and why. Plus, nobody wanted to. However, adding the three hundred or so surviving people already in place to the full ship\u2019s complement made Kepler<\/em> more cramped than before and it had never been precisely roomy.<\/p>\n Colonel Gonafrio was in the briefing room as expected. So was the civilian head of the project, Merrilee Macrae. Given how busy both of them were, Ivars started wondering if his exploration had been more meaningful than he realized.<\/p>\n \u201cThe wall sample,\u201d he said, taking the sealed plastic bag from a vest pocket. Yeah, that was probably unusual enough for both of them to be interested. The little chunk of alien building material didn\u2019t look that remarkable, but it was the first sample anyone had gotten.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you, Sergeant,\u201d said Macrae, picking up the sample. It made sense, she was in charge of the scientists as well as the project as a whole. \u201cAny speculation on how that wall got that way?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt looks like a pretty big hit of some kind. It would have to be to crack that stuff.\u201d He hesitated, wondering if it was even worth mentioning. \u201cSantorin didn\u2019t think that bit would be very useful. Too damaged to tell us much about the rest of it in the ship. She seems to think it might all be connected and able to fix itself, and the fact that this couldn\u2019t means it\u2019s broken.\u201d He shrugged. The scientists would be sending in their own reports, so it would get covered\u2014\u200cbut if Santorin had gone to the effort of talking about it, it might be important.<\/p>\n \u201cThat goop moving in to seal the gap would support that theory, don\u2019t you think?\u201d Gonafrio asked dryly. \u201cYour group managed to uncover a lot of interesting clues, and support for theories that up till now we\u2019ve been making up out of whole cloth and guesswork. If the self\u2013\u200crepair on this tub is still working after thousands of years\u2014\u200cand the drive\u2014\u200cwe can\u2019t make any assumptions about systems not working. I find it hard to believe the original owners didn\u2019t have any kind of alarm for intruders.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid your scientists say anything that would indicate they suspect the age of this ship?\u201d interrupted Macrae.<\/p>\n Ivars shook his head. They had more data than they had revealed to the new scientific team, in particular stored images of a glaciated Earth, from over a hundred thousand years ago. No more recent images had been found: another mystery.<\/p>\n \u201cThe location of the damaged wall matches\u2014\u200cor matched\u2014\u200ca dark ice feature on the original surface. A fairly large, symmetrical feature but not a crater, not in the ice. It happened before the ice showed up. We suspect something damaged the alien ship right around the time the last image was stored, and it has been dormant ever since.\u201d Gonafrio opened up his comp, held it up to retina\u2013\u200cverify, then plugged in a holo\u2013\u200cpad. He tapped in some commands, and a model of the alien ship shimmered into view. Ivars had seen it before, with the few decks they could access highlighted in green. The core was apparently completely inaccessible. Now, however, there was a large red valley scooped out of one side. \u201cThat\u2019s our best guess, based on your location and the size of the crater.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs that why it was empty? Too damaged, and the aliens abandoned it?\u201d Ivars asked.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t too damaged to take off,\u201d Macrae pointed out. \u201cBut who knows? Maybe the aliens didn\u2019t have dent\u2013\u200cand\u2013\u200cding insurance.\u201d She grinned at Gonafrio\u2019s sigh. \u201cWe\u2019re thinking we might be able to get at the core that way. See how deep that hole is?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, but how are we going to get to it?\u201d asked Ivars, doubtfully considering a long march in a spacesuit on the exterior of an alien ship that, as Gonafrio had hinted, might just have working defenses.<\/p>\n \u201cWe might be able to put an airlock in that repair wall. If the goop moves in where the wall has a gap, maybe it will move away<\/em> if that material or something like it moves in,<\/em>\u201d Macrae said, waving the plastic bag. \u201cUntil we stop messing around in hyperdrive or the twelfth dimension or whatever this thing is doing we can\u2019t get out to go on the hull anyway, so that\u2019s something else to try.\u201d She glanced at Gonafrio. \u201cWe want you to keep looking for more information. I wish I could tell you what to look for, but that\u2019s why Lea Santorin is on your team.\u201d<\/p>\n Ivars frowned. \u201cWhat about Dr. Adi?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe will be more useful analyzing the data coming in from the sensors we got rigged up at the landing tunnel mouth. Maybe we can understand the drive that way. His specialty is high\u2013\u200cenergy physics, and reading atmosphere sensors wasn\u2019t giving him nearly enough to do. The trouble with intelligent people is they can\u2019t turn their brains off. If you don\u2019t keep them fully occupied in a situation like this they will start thinking about how much trouble we\u2019re in and panic. That\u2019s another reason to keep him on the ship. His stress levels were making him almost catatonic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOK, but why Santorin? She seems a bit\u2026\u200cflaky.\u201d<\/p>\n Macrae grinned ruefully. \u201cWelcome to my world, Sergeant. I try to think of the science types as \u2018highly focused\u2019 myself. We sent her out for a reason. When we were recruiting for this mission we had a few computer science specialists play with some of the widgets we\u2019d already found and tested. Santorin was on the list because she\u2019d worked on nonbinary nanotube computation. She figured out more in three days than the original researchers had in the previous month. She doesn\u2019t always think in a straight line, but she gets there, and she doesn\u2019t let preconceived notions restrict her approach. Good attitude to have on an alien ship, wouldn\u2019t you say? Besides, you have another mission.\u201d<\/p>\n Ivars glanced at Gonafrio. He was looking serious, almost grim. \u201cYou are not to communicate this to anyone outside your team, or to Santorin: in addition to your continued search, you will protect Lea Santorin. This has equal priority with discovering anything that can help us get back home. Is that clear?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes sir. Can I ask why?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJudging from the way she figured out the alien tech we brought back to Earth, and by finding this,\u201d Macrae nudged the chunk of wall, \u201cshe\u2019s probably our best hope of making the ship work for us. But if she knows that, there\u2019s a good chance she\u2019ll freeze up. Just when we need her the most.\u201d<\/p>\n Lea jerked awake with a gasp, disoriented and thrashing to get away from whatever had grabbed her ankle. Then she saw it was Ramirez, there to wake her up. M.O., the ship\u2019s cat, opened a baleful eye to see who had disturbed his slumber.<\/p>\n \u201cTen minutes. Same gear as last time,\u201d he said, and trotted off without waiting for her reply. Just like last time.<\/p>\n She wasn\u2019t sure how many days this had gone on. There may have been a shower at one point, but that could have been a dream. Food was eaten on the run, dry and compressed and nasty. There was never enough time to sleep, even if she\u2019d had a real bed to sleep on. There weren\u2019t enough bunks now, and there had never been much privacy, so she had found a raised metal housing that wasn\u2019t near anything crucial and used that with a pad and a blanket. The housing was right next to some kind of control cabinet. What it controlled wasn\u2019t clear but it generated enough heat to require a fan, so it was warm and had its own built\u2013\u200cin white noise generator. M.O. liked it too, so she also got some cat \u200ctime now and then.<\/p>\n Maybe the location wasn\u2019t such a good idea. Her headache had gotten worse, feeling like her brain was in a pressure cooker. The progressively higher\u2013\u200coctane analgesics the medic had given her hadn\u2019t made a dent. The only thing that helped was sleep, and even then she would have strange dreams. This time she had relived replacing the alien device in its niche, and she had felt again the strange, sub\u200caural click, knowing something was not right. Ivars had brushed her confession aside, but even then she had known a change had occurred. It felt like the entire universe was listening\u2026<\/em>\u200c<\/em><\/p>\n Lea rolled up the pad and blanket, which were promptly reclaimed by M.O., grabbed her pack, and made a quick visit to the facilities. Someday she would have time to brush her teeth, which were feeling a bit furry. Then the corridor outside the general mess for some more insta\u2013\u200cmeals, stacked in boxes for the \u201coutside\u201d teams. She hadn\u2019t eaten in the mess since the incident.<\/p>\n Scrambling to put what she privately called \u201csoldier chow\u201d in her pack on the run, she still was late. She could tell by the way they were all standing and looking at her. Nobody said anything as they moved out, or as they passed through the main airlock or the sealed tunnel that now connected Kepler<\/em> to the Waiting Room.<\/p>\n The soldiers weren\u2019t just names to her now, not after all this time, but she still didn\u2019t feel like she knew them. Ramirez, who usually came to wake her, was dark, stocky and the most obviously muscular of the group. Lea liked him best because he seemed to disapprove of her the least. Olsen had white\u2013\u200cblond hair and eyebrows so pale they were almost invisible. Even though he was rangy and thin and didn\u2019t look that strong, he carried the largest weapon of the group. North was darker than Ramirez, had an artificial foot, and despite\u2014\u200cor because\u2014\u200cof that, moved with complete and graceful silence. If there were black ninjas, North was one.<\/p>\n Then there was Ivars. He was in command but didn\u2019t seem to need to say much; the soldiers all understood what to do instinctively no matter what happened. Tall, lean, and wiry, Ivars had sandy hair that might have been red if he let it grow out more than buzz\u2013\u200ccut length, and pale eyes that seemed to look through and beyond her. There were several large scars on one side of his face, near his temple, and one eyelid didn\u2019t seem to want to close completely. A polite description of his looks would be \u201crugged\u201d; a more truthful one would be \u201cbeat up.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Adi hadn\u2019t come out with them after the first time. When she asked, Ivars just shrugged and said, with even less interest than usual, something about him being reassigned. Now she had no one to talk to. They only went back to Kepler<\/em> to sleep, so she hadn\u2019t talked to anyone there except to report what they\u2019d found. Lea had never felt so alone.<\/p>\n Now they were in the round foyer, with three corridors radiating out. All the same pale gold color; nothing to distinguish them from any other area in the alien ship. Ivars glanced at her. \u201cWhich way?\u201d<\/p>\n As if she knew. The survey of changes was complete, so now they were looking for anything strange. A stabbing pain in her head made her stagger, and she put a hand against the wall for balance.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to check the Tank first,\u201d she mumbled. If she didn\u2019t talk to an ordinary human being soon, she would die. Besides, they might have new information.<\/p>\n As she\u2019d expected, Ivars and the rest of the team said nothing but headed out in the direction of the Tank, straight ahead. The corridor opened into another round space, this one three \u201clevels\u201d high. The corridor was on the middle level. Below was the only piece of alien technology they had gotten to work, a huge cylindrical display. It went up the full three levels, with a wide black base that looked like a stack of gradually smaller disks that had then been covered in a flood of tar. Symmetrical, but slightly lumpy and worn.<\/p>\n Tables and equipment racks with overhead cable trays surrounded the display, along with a dedicated team of researchers. From what she understood, they\u2019d been working on the Tank since the first Earth ship arrived two years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cTen bucks says it\u2019s just the mall directory,\u201d joked Ramirez. North allowed himself a small grin; Olsen just sighed. Ivars had no reaction but kept scanning the area. The alien mall was a running gag among the soldiers.<\/p>\n The aliens must have had some way to get to the lower level, but the humans hadn\u2019t found it. They made do by constructing metal stairs that went over the railing and then down.<\/p>\n Lea spotted one of the researchers she knew and felt her mood lighten. \u201cJenny!\u201d Jen Chai turned and smiled. \u201cAnything new?\u201d Jenny was a friend she\u2019d made on the trip out, where they had whiled away the boredom with Jenny teaching her some Chinese and Lea trying to explain American slang. Lea hadn\u2019t seen her since the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cNi hao,<\/em> Li\u2013\u200canh! Some indicators are changing, yes. New since the ship leaving.\u201d She shrugged. \u201cStill no understanding what they are. Also the display is changing by itself. What we set it to, it shows and then a few minutes later it goes back to this.\u201d She waved her hand. \u201cIt changes faster now.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tank display didn\u2019t look like much. Clouds of glowing dust, threads of denser areas running through them. One cloud looked more symmetrical than the others, and it was near the center of the tank.<\/p>\n Interesting, but nothing she could use to dig up a control system. Lea checked in with a few other researchers, who had similar odd but unconnected findings to report. She sighed. There was no help for it, she was going to have to go back out to Corridor\u2013\u200cLand and keep looking.<\/p>\n She trudged toward the stairs. The soldiers looked relieved to be moving again, or maybe they didn\u2019t like the wide\u2013open spaces of the Tank area.<\/p>\n Halfway up the stairs, one of the researchers below shouted in surprise. Lea glanced over her shoulder and felt her eyes widen. The Tank display was pulsing,<\/em> brightly. Oh, I hope we didn\u2019t push the self\u2013<\/em>\u200c<\/em>destruct button by mistake.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s go,\u201d snapped Ivars.<\/p>\n Lea started running up the stairs, when a sudden crashing wave of pain made her cry out and stumble. Before she could fall strong hands grabbed her arms and swung her upright, carrying her the rest of the way up and over the railing. Lea clutched her head, trying to understand what was going on. Her headache had vanished. She wasn\u2019t in pain anymore. And down below, the Tank was tranquilly displaying what looked like a long, white spiny spindle with dark hollows. It was getting larger. Or we\u2019re getting closer.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI think we aren\u2019t in drive anymore,\u201d Lea whispered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chapter 1 \u00a0Lea Santorin stood in the spartan, sterile structure known as the Waiting Room and tried not to grin like an idiot. She still wasn\u2019t sure why she\u2019d been picked for this expedition, but she wasn\u2019t complaining. Even … Continue reading ![\"Untitled-2\"](\"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Untitled-2.gif\")
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