Target 10 S2.7 The Circle
What he really wanted was beyond that, out in the Haven night.
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Jemy set the shuttle down ten meters from the edge of the energy shield. Grinning, he popped out of the pilot's seat and clapped his hands. "Let's go!"
"Hold on," RJ said, still strapped in his chair.
Jemy gave him an irritated look and stomped his way to the door of the cockpit. "We're here. Let's go!"
"I said hold on! Geez." RJ shook his head. "Reby, did you get your reaction?"
Jemy sighed and waited for her answer. He'd forgotten she was going to watch them land.
Silence.
"Reby?" RJ asked.
Silence.
"Aida," Jemy said, his chest suddenly tight. "Why isn't Reby answering?"
"She has broken contact."
Jemy locked eyes with RJ, who had rotated his chair towards him. "Why did she break contact?"
"I'm not sure. The system she is using for communication disconnected from me. I don't have enough data to assess the reason."
"We have to go back," RJ said.
Jemy focused on the diamond pattern on the floor near RJ's feet, then past RJ toward the ship's front window. A reflection of the inside of the cockpit, RJ's silhouette and himself staring back at him were all he could see. What he really wanted was beyond that, out in the Haven night. She's probably just caught up in some more adventuring in the chair.
"Jemy, something must be wrong."
Looking back at RJ he could see, feel, the fear coming off his friend. It consumed him, like a physical contagion, then combined with the guilt of leaving Reby there alone. The second site will wait. He nodded at RJ and rushed back to his seat.
"I see you've landed," Reby said just as Jemy's butt hit the seat.
Jemy exhaled, realizing he'd been holding his breath.
"Reby! What the hell happened? You don't sound good." RJ shouted before Jemy could say anything. "We're on our way back."
"No!" Reby's voice sounded shrill.
This isn't like her. "What happened?" Relief at her voice shifted into an uneasy feeling at the base of his neck, like he was being watched.
"I'm fine! Just a little... rattled by the chair. It kicked me out of the second site and I, I lost focus."
"Kicked you out? Did it hurt you?" RJ asked.
"No, it didn't hurt. Surprised me. I, it's hard to explain." She paused. "But, I'm fine really. I just can't help you. The chair won't let me do anything except access Aida's systems."
Jemy stared at his reflection again, then switched on the exterior lights. A faint dome-shaped shimmer, almost like a thin fog, appeared in front of them. The outline of a large circle in the ground beneath it was barely visible. "Why wouldn't it let you back in? It told us to go here." The pressure on the base of his neck grew. Things just don't add up.
"I don't understand it either, Jem. Maybe, your being there triggered something? I don't know." She paused again. "But you should see what you can do there. If you can find a way in."
"No, we're coming back for you." RJ leaned forward against the straps.
"Don't you dare. We agreed two hours. So take two hours. Then we'll connect again and... go from there."
Her voice is still shaky. I wonder what really happened. "It's a short flight, Reb. We can do a quick run back, then come out again once you're feeling better." The site will wait.
"No. I'll be fine with a two-hour rest. I swear if you come back before that or without waiting for me to connect again—"
"Fine." Jemy gave up, exasperated. "I get it. Have a good rest."
"Wait. No—" RJ stopped when he saw Jemy raise his hand.
"She says she's ok and wants us to use our two hours."
"But—" RJ objected.
"No buts, RJ." Reby's voice took on her firm and commanding tone before softening. "I'm fine. Help Jemy do his thing. We'll talk when you get back. I'm off." Reby's voice drifted away, like she was already out of the chair.
"I don't like this," RJ said.
"You trust her, don't you?" Jemy unsealed his straps, then rubbed his hands together. It took all his strength not to run out into the Haven night. But he needed RJ, and right now, RJ needed to talk.
RJ pressed his fingers to his forehead, then ran his hands through his hair. "Of course I do. But we're on a planet where she's connected to fucking alien technology that's messing around with her—with us. We really don't have any idea what we're doing."
"I take exception to that." Why are we arguing when we could be working? "We've been exploring for years together on many planets much nastier than this one. And done it well."
"We've never run into alien tech, or weirdo residents that wanted Reby."
Jemy huffed and his knee bounced more than usual, tapping against the floor like an over-wound timer. "Look. We've got two hours and I plan to make the most of them. And I'll need your help, so let's get this out. Your issue is with Clay—being jealous of him—and not with the reality of our situation. It's like any other trek we've done, just more exciting with the alien stuff. And from what I saw," he leaned forward, pointing at RJ, "Reby chose you, literally, right in front of him. So you need to let it go and help me figure this second site out."
RJ didn't answer, but stared at the control panel in front of him.
I'm not going to get anything done!
"Whatever happened with the chair just now... couldn't you hear it in her voice? She's shaken. Doesn't that worry you?" RJ said, turning back toward Jemy.
"I noticed. And she says she's ok. I trust her enough to know when she's ok and when she isn't. She's resting now, that's what she needs. We can go back and what? Watch her rest? She'd be so pissed at us."
RJ snorted. "You're right. She'd kill us if we hung over her like that." He frowned. "But I don't trust Clay around her. I mean, she's the first woman he's seen in years."
"I seem to recall you saying you know she can handle herself. Just before we left, actually." Jemy's foot stopped tapping. This is exhausting. "If you need more consoling, can we do it while we work? Time is running out." He got up, pointed at his Nexo, and raised his eyebrows.
RJ gave him a weak smile. "Yeah. You're making me feel like an insecure little weenie, anyway."
"Only because you're acting like one." Jemy smacked him on the shoulder and headed down the corridor.
In the supply closet, Jemy yanked open a square storage cabinet labeled 'Survey.' He pulled out a yellow rectangular case with a thick red stripe down the middle and a recessed handle. Slapping it down on a thin shelf next to the cabinet rack, he opened it and examined the contents. Two rows of red discs with bright yellow rings around their edges rested in the cushioned foam base. Six scanners. That should be enough. He snapped the box closed and turned to leave, almost running into RJ waiting in the doorway.
"What's the plan?"
"A site survey." Jemy held up the case.
"Yeah," RJ dragged the word out. "But what do you want me to do?"
Get out of my way. "Look around. Use your engineering skills to see if there's a way in. Or controls of some kind. You know, what you usually do."
"I usually sit in engineering and analyze the data before running out into the field. But since you're running out into the field, I'm going to follow you. Then we'll examine whatever data you get." RJ gave him a half-smile.
"Whatever. Just let's get started." Jemy pushed his way past RJ.
"Wait a minute." RJ stepped into the supply closet and popped open a drawer.
"What now?" I think he's trying to make sure we run out of time!
RJ smacked his hand down on the drawer. "Do you want to get hypoxia?"
"What?"
"You really aren't yourself, and I don't like it. You're making me be the responsible one." He pulled a resper from the drawer and tossed it to Jemy.
Jemy caught the clear nose-shaped mask. Two grey oval air concentrators rested along each side of the nose bridge, feeding the air through two nasal prongs along the bottom. He squished the thin rubbery material in his hands. I hate wearing these things.
"We're at high altitude and need the masks."
"How do you know I wasn't going to just put on a full suit?" Jemy asked, feeling irritated that he hadn't thought to get the mask himself. I should have known.
"Because I know how much you hate working in a full suit. And you passed the suit storage two doors back." RJ pulled open another cabinet and grabbed two sets of thermal gloves. He waved them at Jemy. "It's also cold out there. Not freezing cold, but cold enough." Putting the gloves on the shelf, he adjusted something on the inside of his jacket, then zipped up. "Come on, you too."
Jemy shook his head. "I'm already feeling warm. The cool air will be nice."
"You sure you're up for this?" RJ gave him a concerned look.
"Stop. You're right about the mask, but I think I can dress myself." He stepped back into the hall and made for the ramp. Before he opened it, he placed the mask over his nose. It sealed itself to his skin with a sucking sound that always caused him a moment of panic. Fresh air soon flowed and he relaxed.
RJ elbowed him and waved the gloves again.
"No." Jemy hit the button to open the ramp. A cool wind rushed past him, a chill prickling at his fingers. Should've activated the airlock.
"We should've used the airlock," RJ said next to him, holding the gloves out in front of him expectantly.
Jemy snagged them out of RJ's hands and put them on. Their thermal controls kicked in and he felt warmer. The icy air still snuck through the sides of his open jacket, but he'd been delayed long enough.
Outside, he waded through a thick shin-high grass to the edge of the energy shield. The ground beyond the shield looked pretty much the same as the outside, except for a giant coppery-brown circle in the middle. Squinting, he thought it had a pattern, perhaps writing, on it. He was too far away and the exterior shuttle lights were at too low an angle.
He squatted and put the case on the ground. He activated the six scanners with practiced ease, releasing each one in turn. They flew up above, circling him while waiting for instructions. On his tablet, he pulled in the sensor data on the circle from Aida and sent the discs off into the night sky.
When he looked up, he saw RJ running back out of the shuttle, carrying the disintegration gun. "Don't shoot anything important!" He fought the urge to curl up at the thought of the gun firing again. Breathe! Nothing here big enough to eat us. He focused on the data the discs were sending back. They mapped the area in extreme detail, down to each individual blade of grass.
He swiped through the various scans, his brows furrowing more, and his lips compressing together harder as he went. This data doesn't make sense. He reset the scans to run again.
While he was waiting for them to finish, he searched for RJ. He found him, not too far away, shaking the gun at the darkness beyond the shuttle. "You're holding it wrong!"
"How else do you hold it?" RJ turned around and held it up so Jemy could see.
Jemy shook his head. He put the tablet on the box and went to help.
"When Clay carried it, he had his hand through this loop along the bottom," he said, demonstrating it. "And his other hand rested here."
"Yeah, on the big bulgie thing. I did that."
"But you didn't have your hand through the loop." Jemy lifted the gun and aimed away from the shuttle, RJ and the energy field. Shoot.
Nothing happened.
Disintegrate.
Nothing happened.
"I don't know. You try again, but put your hand through there." He pointed at the loop again.
"Thanks. But it isn't going to work."
"Why not?" Jemy walked backwards towards the scanner box.
RJ followed him. "Because he broke it. Deactivated it. Or didn't tell us how it really works. You choose which reason you like best."
"None of them makes any sense to me." He picked up the tablet. "And I can't spend time figuring it out right now." He resisted the urge to throw the tablet after reviewing the new scan data. "Ugh!"
"What is it?" RJ slung the gun over his back and peeked at the tablet. "I guess that makes sense."
"What? Why does it make sense to have zero data?" He pulled his hair back and stared up at the dark sky. Not a single star was visible through the thick clouds surrounding the mesa.
"Well, it isn't zero data." RJ grabbed the tablet. "See, you've got high res visual data." He scrubbed through some of the video the scanners took. "And you have material data. The circle seems to be of the same material as the top of this mesa—so there's no variance, but it isn't zero data." He handed it back to Jemy.
"But why does that make sense?"
"Remember the scans we got of Havenstar? Same thing. We could see it in the visible spectrum, but nothing else. The composition of the material came through too. Come to think of it, we've never confirmed that data to be accurate. I tried scanning inside the star and got zilch. You got the same thing here."
Jemy paced back and forth. His legs ached, and his enthusiasm drained. What a waste of time. He checked his Nexo. "We still have over an hour and nothing to do."
"Oh, come on. You saw that video, right? There's writing on the circle or something to look at, anyway."
Jemy held up the tablet. His eyes went wide. "I didn't see that before." He tapped and zoomed. "That's a symbol, almost identical to others I've found."
"Why don't you take that inside and check it out and I'll wander around out here. There are a few anomalies the scans found outside the circle. My guess is they're natural, but can't hurt to check."
"Hmm," Jemy mumbled and nodded as he walked back to the shuttle.
"I'll just pack up the sensors, then?" RJ yelled from behind him.
"Thanks!" Jemy didn't look back. The symbol had the same elements he believed indicated a doorway, but there was more he hadn't seen before. I need to see them side by side on the big screen.
He looked up to see he was still quite far from the ramp, though it felt like he'd been walking a long time. A wave of dizziness swept over him and he stumbled. Tiredness hung on him, like a thick, weighted blanket.
When he finally made it to the cockpit, he pulled up the video feed next to his notes from Havenstar on the holodisplay. Definitely repeated elements, two lines along the outside.
The display blurred. He squinted and leaned closer, scooting to the edge of the seat. Black splotches appeared, and the edges of his vision darkened. Reaching out he tried to grab the edge of the control panel.
He missed.
***
Reby pressed her thumb into her palm, moving it around in a circle. The burning inside her hand and up her wrist didn't change. Still sitting in the chair, she swallowed, realizing the burn spread throughout her body, though less intense than her hands.
"Can I help you down?" Clay appeared at the front of the chair, arms outstretched to catch her.
She shook her head, surprised to find the movement didn't hurt as much as she thought it would. Maybe I can just rest here for two hours.
Clay waited a moment before speaking. "You need to eat and drink to restore your energy. Perhaps you should take a nap too. Isn't RJ always telling you to take a nap after the chair?"
RJ. I wish you were here. "Just give me a minute." She closed her eyes and leaned back into the oversized chair. It left her at an awkward angle, with her head and shoulders resting low on the back of the seat.
She knew now the alien chair wasn't helping them. It had some purpose in showing her the things it did, but what that was, she didn't know. When it pushed her out of the darkened room at site two, it felt like a frustrated parent putting a child back into their playpen. She had been forceful and final, but not aggressive. Her surprise had broken her concentration, and the chair had pushed her out. When she went back in, she dropped into Aida's systems. If she tried to venture to site two, nothing happened. It was like Aida became an inescapable fortress.
"Reby." Clay put his hand on her knee. "Let me help you to the lounge to rest properly." He caressed her lower thigh.
She sprung up and immediately regretted it. The motion carried her forward, and she slid off the chair.
Clay caught her. "I've got you," he said, his voice soft, tender.
She wanted to pull away, but the room needed to stop spinning first. His arms, holding her upright, seemed comforting and safe. His warm breath brushed past her ear, sending a shiver down her body. She pushed herself away. "I'm fine," she said, even though the room still wobbled. "Let's go to the lounge."
He looked at her, an expression she couldn't place crossed his face. His eyes, though, filled with a mix of longing and sadness she understood too well. She took another step back, the room finally settling down, and walked to the lift.
After an awkward walk in silence, she sat at the table in the lounge. Resting her head in her hands, she closed her eyes. Starting at the top of her head, she went down her body, mentally noting the parts that seemed off. She sighed. Everything's off. Her hands still burned from the inside, though the pain was fading. The rest of her buzzed as she expected, but it was more intense, more uncomfortable, than usual. Flares of pain, like the ones in her hands, twitched in her shoulders and the back of her legs. She felt stretched, thin, like a light touch would break her apart.
Her mind ran through what had made this time in the chair different. Take-off. There was some kind of feedback when the system activated. She ran her fingers through her hair and lifted her head. Clay was slicing up a long purple fruit, one that she'd taken a liking to when they'd first arrived. A pang for a binena, a sweet, orange-red fruit that grew in bunches on the trees surrounding her home on Azu, hit her hard. She'd taken to calling the purple fruit Clay had a pinena, since it tasted so similar to her childhood favorite.
He glanced back and smiled when he saw her watching him. "Do you want anything else?" He held up the plate.
"No. I'm not sure I can eat that much."
"This will make it go down easier." He opened the milip box.
"No. No milip." She sat up straight.
"It'll make you feel better." He dipped the knife into the box.
"No."
He paused, his hand still in the box.
"Please don't. I stay away from stimulants. Well, except for Boli. But that's predictable." She dropped her hands onto the table and spread her fingers out, the cool surface easing the fire inside.
He closed the box and carried the plate to the table. "I'm sorry," he said, pushing the fruit across the table to her. "I just want to help you feel better." He brushed his hand across the table. "Forgive me for asking. What happened?"
She picked up a stick of the fruit and stared at it. Her stomach turned, and her mouth stuck together, like she'd eaten a handful of dry crackers. After taking a long sip from her water, she glanced up at Clay, very aware he'd been staring at her since he asked the question. "I think I was too close, or too open. I don't know how to explain it, when the docking systems kicked in. It shocked me. It'll pass."
"I meant, what happened that made you suspicious of food that will make you feel better?"
"Oh." She put the stick back down on the plate. "Well, you saw what it did to Jemy. He was way too energetic. More like he was on Mez than after a Boli."
"Mez?"
She raised her eyebrows at him. "Where did you come from again? I thought Mez was the drug of choice in the CR, no matter where you went."
He frowned. "Not where I was."
"Well, it's not like we use it. Not willingly, at least." She stared out the open end of the lounge, the memory of the moment she realized what she'd taken, been given, still fresh. Her employer on Igni Prime, Gaine, had hit the floor hard when she'd finally recovered. His goons retaliated, slamming her even harder. He'd made her pay for that moment over and over, and made sure they were never alone together again. I don't want to talk about this. "You've never talked much about how you got here, before the crash that is. How'd you end up on a ship out here all alone?"
Clay shifted uncomfortably on his stool before gazing at her with the biggest, saddest eyes she'd ever seen.
"I'm sorry, you don't need to answer that."
He reached across the table and put his hand over hers. "No. I don't mind sharing with you."
His touch made her forget the fire still in her hands and ignited a simmering desire she'd been denying. She caught her breath, then pulled her hand away slowly. "I'm listening."
He took a deep breath in, then sighed. "Ten of us had run off in Meson's dad's yeagship. We skipped our last week of school, knowing we'd graduate no matter what. On the ship, my girlfriend left me for Meson. My best friend. They didn't even try to be subtle about it. By the time we landed, I'd had enough." He spread his arms out on the table, then clasped his hands together. "I took off. I didn't even know where we were. I always trusted Meson to take care of those details and I'd just follow him." He swallowed and looked down.
Reby's heart broke. Betrayed by his best friend.
"I ran into some... trouble on my own, so I went back to the ship. No one was there. No one had tried to reach me after I left. There was no message for me on the ship. I didn't matter to any of them. So I stole the ship."
Reby sat back. "That's some payback."
"It felt like it. It felt deserved. Meson's family would have been quite upset about it. But he would have panicked." A half-smirk appeared on his face, then disappeared. "I had every intention of going back. Eventually." He stopped his story, gazing at Reby.
"So what happened?" Haven is so far out. You don't get here by accident.
"At the time, I felt no one cared if I lived or died. So neither did I. I set some coordinates far away from populated space. Then did it again, and again by picking planets that had interesting bio signatures. Eventually, I stumbled on one with an immense structure on it. The scientist in me couldn't resist." He motioned to the plants in the lounge.
"Why didn't they find you, though? Surely they could trace the ship."
Clay shook his head. "Meson disabled the tracker and added a false engine signature. He didn't want his dad finding us before we'd had our fun." He snickered. "So no finding me and no hope of rescue."
"I can't imagine..."
"You really can't."
I have no idea what to say. In the silence that followed, she checked her Nexo. Over an hour left.
Clay sat up straight and gave her a big smile. "Do you want to see it? My crash, that is."
"Ah... is it far?" She didn't feel up to a long walk and didn't want to miss the two-hour window.
"No. You can see it from here. Or over there, actually." He pointed to the short, spikey plants that lined the edge of the lounge.
"Oh, ok. Sure." She stood up, noticing the pains and burning had subsided during their conversation.
He offered his left elbow, in the same way he had when he'd guided her out of the blinding docking bay. This time, she hesitated. The pull he had on her was still there, leaving her uncertain about his intentions. Or her reactions. But then she slid her arm through his. Just in case I get dizzy near the edge.
"It's over to the left," Clay said as they walked the short distance. When they got close, he stopped and pointed with his right hand. "Down there at the base. Do you see the dip in the canopy?" His left arm slid across her back, coming to rest on her hip.
She swallowed, trying to focus on the spot a thousand meters down and even farther away. He pulled her snug, holding her tight to his hip, and her heart raced. I shouldn't let this go farther. She turned into him, trying to find the words to explain why she was rejecting him, especially after hearing his story of heartbreak.
His lips touched hers before any words were said, his need for her resonating through her being. She let go of all she'd been holding back, uncontrollable desire overtaking any thoughts. Any memories. Anything other than her need for him.
***
At the edge of the shuttle's ramp, RJ put the E-blaster back into his pocket and checked off the last of the anomalies detected by the scanners. All natural. Jemy won't be happy. He admitted feeling a little disappointed, too. Engineering-wise there was a lot to learn from the aliens, but like Jemy, he hadn't been able to learn much despite living inside their creation. Now site two was a bust.
His Nexo buzzed. Thirty minutes left. We'll be there soon, Reby. He put the case of sensors down next to the ramp and pulled up Aida's data on the tablet. Though not as detailed as what Jemy had gathered, scans from the Demption covered more area. Maybe there's something else to see.
About a hundred meters away, he found three circular anomalies in a line. Their near-perfect shape meant they might be artificial. He thought he could barely make out the shapes, just at the edge of where the exterior lights reached.
He pulled out a thermal sensor from his pocket, attached and synced it with the tablet. Sweeping it across the area, three hot mounds stood out against the cooler grassland. A quick spectral analysis showed they were made from the same stuff as the surrounding landscape. He hesitated. Normally he'd assume it was natural based on the data, but the aliens seemed to like to use local materials to build. He shrugged. Better than twiddling my thumbs for the next thirty minutes.
A light breeze ruffled the grass, swirling around the base of the ramp. In the distance he heard whistling, something akin to the loo-loo birds of Azu. There's nothing big. There's nothing big. Still, he pulled the E-blaster back out of his pocket.
Holding up the tablet with the thermal sensor, he headed for the mounds. His shadow stretched out in front of him, growing smaller with each step away from the shuttle. Waving the tablet back and forth, he found a few other hot objects, small and close to the ground. Residual heat. Rocks. Ignoring them, he got closer to the mounds.
He switched on the tablet's light when the shuttle's lights became too faint. He got closer until he saw them clearly with the light and the thermal image. He was still twenty meters away but saw they came up about a half-meter from the ground. They appeared to be rings of tightly packed soil, mostly smooth around the edges.
Another few steps though, and the irregularities were obvious. They weren't as circular or perfect as the data suggested. And one thing they knew about the Obexpl was that they were precise in their geometry. Natural, again. Burrows maybe.
As he turned back toward the shuttle, he saw movement on the ground to his right. He stopped and swung the thermal sensor over the area. One rock ahead of him had a smaller, but warmer heat signature on top. It wobbled back and forth.
Then he heard a soft shoo-shoo sound, like a whimper or cooing. It continued to wobble as he got closer and the whimpering sound increased in tempo. He stopped about two meters away. A black furball blinked at him with eyes proportionally too large for its small body. So small. And cute!
He knelt down, leaning the tablet up against another small rock so it illuminated the creature. Huge yellow, almost copper, eyes split by a vertical pupil, stared back at him. The body was ball-shaped, with four legs, though it held up the front two as if they were arms and patted the paws together. Behind it, a thin tail waved back and forth. The end of it had what he thought looked like a boney webbed hand, nearly as wide as the creature's body. Below the eyes was a long, dark oval membrane that curved over what he could only think of as lips. Lips pursed as if it waited for a kiss. He chuckled and picked up the tablet to take some pictures to show Reby.
When he stood up, the creature jumped off the rock and rolled to his feet. It rubbed its paws over his boots and kissed them over and over before falling backwards onto the grass.
"Yeah. These boots probably taste pretty bad." He put his E-blaster back in his pocket as he walked toward the ship. A few steps later, something pulled tight around his ankle.
He looked down and found the creature had wrapped its tail around his ankle, and was grasping his calf with its front legs. Enormous eyes looked up at him.
Shoo-shoo. Shoo.
The last whimper went up in tone and he couldn't help but think it was asking a question. Don't be ridiculous. "Cute as you are, you can't come with me." A rush of images flooded over him. So many memories of his mother ordering him to return whatever creature he'd found back where he'd got it. Even on Azu, she refused to let him have pets. "Parkans live in harmony with their fellow creatures. They don't own them," she would say. This little fuzzball apparently didn't understand that.
His Nexo buzzed again. There were twenty minutes left. "You can't come." He reached down and scratched the creature on top of its head, or body, as they seemed like one and the same. It released his ankle and grabbed his hand with its front paws and tail. He lifted it up. In his hand, it looked even smaller than it had before. It nestled into his palm, its tail dangling loose. Then it moved its pursed mouth all over his hand, the motion looking more like sniffing than kissing. A mouth for a nose. I guess I've seen weirder.
It settled down again, seeming to take an interest in something at the base of his thumb. Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. Shi-ooo. As it made the sounds, its pursed lips opened wide.
RJ rotated his hand to see the creature's face and what it was doing. He noticed the double rows of tiny, razor like black teeth too late. It latched onto the webbing between his thumb and finger, easily slicing through the thermal glove.