"Karsen ...Karsen! Wake- up. Warren is.. expecting you on- site in 30.."
I grumbled as the aching light of afternoon sun exploded into my view. I sat up. Rubbing my eyes to focus on the blurry shape etched against the searing white rays.
"For gods sakes, Manuel.. is there no decency or respect for a man's sleep?"
"Sleep- is for when .. there- is nothing else to do. Warren thinks we are- close. I know we are. You are.. needed at the site office. Now. She sent- me. It's important. And. you were.. not responding- to her calls"
"Fine, fine.. I'm up. I'll see you there."
I watched the fleeing shadow jerk away, disappearing with the same broken movement as its owner's general demeanor. Manuel was a good soul. His off-sense interpretations had a disarming knack of being insightful and right.. when it came to work, anyway.
Work… ah yes, that chestnut. I'd been on Eden Prime now for eight years. I was presently an acting research fellow to one Doctor Elisabeth Warren, Dean of Prothean Archeology at the Mars Institute… and presently heading up the project on Eden Prime. I say project.. I mean a dig. It had taken years to get any buy in from academia. The legitimacy had cost me my last crystal.. admittedly one I'd programmed myself in another time. But it had worked.
Once the fragment had been matched with the Mars archive the hint of a location speared interest of every major Human government body. Funding had poured in and presto.. a couple of years in and something was actually happening.
Then I'd met Warren. I was, at the time, a mere local 'interested party' … second generation land owner, parents passed.. studied on Earth before coming back home to take the reins sort of thing. Afterall Eden Prime was a good home. It always had been. It was a fucking godsend when the colony ships arrived in the system. I still remember that day… the end of an age, and when I'd destroyed my ship and stranded myself to avoid, uhm, difficult questions. From then on life had been simple.. a few groups of colonists had been anti-tech which had made integrating simple enought. However, generally hiding any identity in the 22nd century had been no small task. It was a small mercy that I could look thirty-ish.. which let me get away with a couple of solid academic credentials and some travel learnt smarts.
I'd gotten away with it. I was bow my own descendant of the original settlers. I had built up a little credibility, some good arable land and a decent amount of credit - all bundled in the legal estate. Things on that side mostly ran themselves.. which allowed me to keep well below the radar and more importantly: my name and face out of general record.
To everyone I was just a bored heir.. chasing intellectual pursuits and harmless endevours. A story which had worked well. Four of years research, petitioning and grunt work had got me on Doctor Warren's team. Warren had eventually bumped me up to a fellow on my own 'credible' research in analysis of plausible locations of subterrainian prothean structures.. and I had ceded the land to the project… small things.. frankly they could have just taken it. You cant really say no. But it played nice with the local government, earnt me some kudos and kept me onsite with some legitimacy and involved.
Yeah. I wanted to regret that last bit a lot more.
Then there was Manuel.. He'd been a direct assistant and care of Warren since I'd met either of them. He'd keep to himself, watching the room and seemingly lost in his own thoughts, the would burst with focus and insight that could shatter a problem, I could see why Warren like him around. The problem was whether he would see through my own ruses, illusions and white lies… so, I kept close to them both.. which meant all this crap.
I sighed as I pulled my trainers on and stuffed a field jump suit in my backpack. I needed coffee.. I'd grab along the jog to the site access checkpoint.
Most of the locals had gotten used to ignoring me - who runs in an age when there are trains, shuttles and transports? ...me. What better way to hide than to be obvious... right? Plus it gave me time to clear my head.
/ - - - /
Manuel stepped off the shuttle as I jogged to a stop a few paces from the bored sentry guard.
Manuel barely raised an eyebrow as he stepped off the craft. "Nineteen minutes, eight seconds."
"You had to go via the central hub.. running is faster."
"And smellier"
I laughed, "There is a shower-"
"For deconta-", a flicker rippled through his features for a microsecond, then he nodded and continued through the security gate. "Briefing in- ten minutes."
I watched him disappear through the portal. The sentry was still watching me.
"Sir?" He asked.. gesturing to the omni scan pad.
"Ah, yes.." I fumbled through my pack and pulled out and honest to god old fashioned key card. The security pad binking to green at its presentation. The new guard raised a quisical eyebrow.
"New posting?", I asked conversationally as I clipped the card back on its lanyard and stuffed it away.
"System Alliance, Sir. Security bump at the Director's request...", he paused and checked the holo panel, "..your ID- Sir.. is-"
"Old school? Unusual?" I laughed and raised my forearms, "no omnitool… no tech.."
The soldier's brow furrowed.
"I work in proximity to the unknown and ancient, no chances and all that." I noted the unassuming insignia and ranking chevrons of Humanity's reach for the stars, "-Corporal?"
"Gunning, Sir.", he nodded at the holo panel and tapped the screen. "You're clear to proceed, Mr Karsen. Goodday sir."
"Karsen.. it's just Karsen."
/ - - - /
The meeting room was bland. Everything was bland about prefabs. Throw as much money as they do at high profile and rediculously well funded work and the best you get is boring and bland..
I'd tuned out of the conversation. Doctor Warren's brief on the security change had muddled my thoughts with caution. I'd known most of the local colony security detachment; most of them by name. The Systems Alliance's more overt interest was a new variable.
Manuel was currently babbling over the latest finalised subterranean scan results while I dabbled with various processing filters. "-and as you can- see. There.. are clear masses present beneath sectors C2, C9, B3 and D2, Just- as predicted.. Karsen, if you could please..."
"Ahh.. yes..", I snapped to the present and flicked an image from my pad to the central holo display. "..Site B3 subsurface depth is only some 8m down in loose pack. Local geography makes this a stand out given its general proximity to a good overlook and protections offered by natural rock outcrops. It's also the most immediately accessible following the intact structural remnants at A3 and B2, this site makes the next ideal target for near surface excavation." I turned to Doctor Warren who's short crop hair always made her look more like a junior than the project's director, "Have you received the datings on the current excavations? Those inputs would be invaluable to cross reference against the geological record."
Warren nodded. "Yes. This Morning.."
The console beeped as a file was transferred from her private restricted database. "The speculative cores dated the debris to the late epoch-", both I and Manuel sat forward. Warren waved her hand dismissively having seen the immediate interest this tidbit wrought. "I don't want to get drawn into traps of speculation; but yes.. that is why the Systems Alliance is pushing this project to top priority. You both now know. You are now the only others who do after myself and the brass at Alliance HQ. Karsen, your models estimate the overall size and spread of the site to be larger than any other find on a Human world.. Manuel, your analysis placed it post Mars. With confirmation on both counts this is looking like something big, gentlemen. You two are going to be in front of this. The excavation teams are on skeleton crews from here in. Detail is now on a need to know basis only.. you know because I know; that's how this team works from here in..."
Manuel blinked back info focus, his eyes narrow and locked on a sub display running a density map filter of the proposed B3 dig target. "Warren.. there's more than just walls down there.. look. The detail.. is that?"
Doctor Warren expanded the view to the full panel. "Fascinating.."
We stared.
"What do you think it is?", I prompted. ".. a spire?", I cocked my head and squinted with the other two.
Manuel twitched and raised an eyebrow. "More- far more than what we were.. looking for."
Warren wrung her hands in contemplation. "I need to make some calls.. You two. Get to the bottom of this.. today."
/ - - - /
It was nearly 2am by the time the penultimate excavator delicately scraped away the mound of dirt over the surface that was presumaby a floor.
I stood tools in hand before a earth caked spire that towered a few meters over our heads. Manuel had stayed too, the light of his omni tool casing a dull orange within the halo of site lamps.
This was the delicate work.. or so it was supposed to be; why else eschew the conveniences of modern technology..
"You.. know there is- comprehensively no evidence to support your- assertion of technological.. contamination."
"You've worked on several expeditions, Manuel.. you know there's nothing left to chance with potentially active sites."
"Worked, ofcourse. And found many- interesting things. Next to nothing beyond the Mars compex.. mostly trickets..frivolous curiosities- ancient detritus scattered.. in the wake.."
"You're rambling, Manuel.. Manuel?" I paused my efforts to cast a curious glance to my colleague. His omnitool was open and hand floated motionless over the keyboard; lost in some distant thought. Frankly, I was surprised he had mentioned his prior finds.. he tended not to speak of his former projects. Remaining in the present was usually the more challenging of his daily endeavours.
"You found things before?"
"Just things. Warren dismissed them. Ornaments, prothean art.."
I watched him, trying to judge his half meanings. Something scratched at my thoughts., "..What wake?" I tapped at a split in the mud and earth shell, keeping one eye on my haunted colleague.
"The.. darkness- that sweeps the stars.. silencing the void in an unstoppable wave. Nothing left behind. Judgement that sweeps clean with fire and death rained from above and within."
You could have heard a pin drop in the still night. The silence broken with the scattering run of some shifting sand.
I shook my head and blinked. "Manuel, that was disturbingly coherent. Look it's 2am.. we're the only souls out here on an unexplored dig site that is possibly one of the last outposts of a galactic spanning race who vanished fifty thousand years ago.. I don't think this is the time for angsty boogyman stories." I pulled myself back up the caked outcrop. "Let's crack this and call it a night.. Warren can take point tomorrow.. and by we I mean me.. you stay right there with your omni-"
"I'm..I'm just.. saying-"
The rumble and slither of cascading dirt cut short the sentence. A coughing fit later I waved myself through the dust cloud. Emerging covered head to toe in the reddish grey of the earthy dust. "Well, that did it.."
Manuel was gibbering excitedly to himself, completely ignoring me to what was looming behind.
Manuel snapped to focus. "It's a beacon! An actual intact Prothean beacon!" His eyes seemed to squirm in their sockets before again locking on me with his head cocked. "You. You're.. not- surprised-"
I glared at him, "I'm too tired for that sort of thing, Manuel.."
I turned to the old polished metallic-stone like construct. Dark lines etched through its surface in patterns unseen under the sky for tens of thousands of years. I ran a hand up the smooth side, brushing away a few errant particles that had clung.
A hand grabbed my shoulder and flung me around.
"You knew?", the barked accusation flinging splittle in my face.
I stared into the madness of the man's eyes and shook my head. "No my friend. I did-"
My back hit against the cool ancient stone as the shove made me stagger. He was stronger than I would have thought.
An accusitory finger waved infront of me.
"Lies.. all- lies.. I see you lead on..", the quickening hoarseness in his voice growing shrill as I was pushed once again against the pillar.
"Manuel, calm down.", raising my palms in an attempt
at supplication, "It's late and you need to rest.. and take your medication"
"Rest.. bah.. you always know- know more than you should.. I know.. I have seen. The dead speak to me in my dreams-"
"You're taking rubbish, Manuel. Listen-", I didn't get to finsh the sentence before an inexpert fist swiped at my head.. or would have. Instinct pulled me to the right, letting the would be blow land with a wincing thud on the beacon.
"No-!", Manuel continued between clenched teeth, "No listening, just hearing."
He stumbled back, clenching his arms over his ears. His face crawled with countless expressions before pulling into the pained distant gaze of what counted as normal "The voices.. the voices.. they're here.. They're Here!"
A tingle ran up my spine as the crackle of static crawled over the once slumbering beacon. I glanced up from the crazy eyes to catch the crawl of lights up the ancient Prothean device. My distraction was taken full advantage of. The wiry scientist's arm dug sharply into my neck.
"Manuel!", I shouted as the air before me thickened with energy. "This isn't you.. back.. off.."
"No!", he said. "You can't have- it.. I should have found- it.. I-"
The world flashed.
"Manuel!"
A pulse of green energy ripped through the air. My back already against the beacon had left only my head to be slammed into the pillar with a shuddering crack. Dazed, I half watched a struggling Manuel levitate in the beacon's grip as my own world dipped to momentary black.
The beacon had slipped back into its inert slumber. Infront of it the unconscious Manuel was slumped awkwardly on the ground.
Silence returned to the otherwise abandoned dig site. Only broken only with the hum of the work lights.
"Damnit."
I pushed myself up. Cursing half thoughts and suspicions as I dragged the limp form up the hill.
The field site office's smattering of prefabs thankfully had a medical station.
I pulled out my keycard, swiping it over the entry console to stir open the lazy glide of the door. I really hated these constructs, merely being near them was enough to annoy me. Give me a half arsed building or a vehicle station over a fit nothing box. Why hell did it even need a pot plant.
The rickety bed come gurney creaked as the uncooperative form fell on it.
I sighed. Nothing actually useful filled the small drawer that counted as the EMT store. Medigel fixed body, not the mind. People had really gotten lazy with the advent of the stuff.
I stared at the bed half chewing a lip. The idiot really had lost his marbles back there. He knew far more than he should.. or rather.. said more than he could understand. I'd not known he'd worked on other sites. That was worrying.. what had he found?
I needed to be certain, or at the worst: safely cautious. I tugged at the keycard that was safely clipped on the lanyard around my neck, thoughtlessly playing with it. Screw it. No one else was here.. there was no electronic monitoring in the active site and the guards were way out at the perimeter... and this bloke was out for the count.
I crushed the card in my right hand. Watching as the white plastic looking rectangle first crinkled and cracked; then suddenly crumbled and melted into a white and silver liquid that quickly flowed over my palm and fingers to envelop my hand just past the wrist.
The faint glow dissipated, leaving my hand in a lightly plated white and silver gauntlet with darkgrey underlay and grip. I flex my hand and suppressed a smile.. Damn I had completely forgotten how natural this felt. I held the palm over the incumbent, closing my eyes to concentrate..
War….ning: Ex...trem…ly low po..wer …-
The message scrawled character by character, almost incomprehensibly, over my inner thoughts.
Shu….t…down i...n 7..9…
It'd be enough… shit.. I hope… No power for a physical interface.. fine. I balled my fist before flexing again to expose a dull orange glow beneath my palm. An interface flickered in my mind, broken and stuttering at first before stilling as I mentally fought to get control over the wayward scanner.
The world outside grew faint and distant as I poured every ounce of concentration into the task. Images started flickering through.. the Beacon's message curled rampant and unanchored through the broken mind below me. That I could purge… without it the idiot could at least function. He'd never really remember it. A blink and the chaos settled a little.. but not enough. I frowned as something slowly came into focus... below… deep.. red tendrils.. spidering through what should have been the uniform substrate of the conscious and subconscious. Fuck.
Where had he been exposed to that. When had he been exposed?
… Sh.. ut.. down i..n 44… s
I clenched my palm closed.. blinking in the dull glow of the room once more. The gauntlet shrinking back to the card that I clipped back around my neck and slumped against the wall.
Bloody hell. That explained a lot. He's been exposed, not much- but enough. For a long while.. damn that explains so much. But where and by what. I didn't know of any artifacts that had survived. I rubbed my eyes. Holy crap. What if.. fuck.. what if this was it..
Was I prepared.. oh gods.. No.
It was supposed to have happened already.. wasn't it?.. If they were going to come.. Or was the reprieve only a delay.. damnit.
The sinking feeling of bad choices tugged at my stomach. I suddenly had to entertain the prospect that I wasted the last hundred years.
Perhaps being around my own had made me complacent.
A few hours had passed. The distant pre-dawn murmurings of Eden Prime's fawna drifted through the night air of the open door. The figure on the bed groaned.
I'd bandaged him up.. thankfully the few cuts and scrapes had warranted dressings. A blow to the head was a good enough explanation, if there could be any.
I just had to hope that between Manuel's own chaos and the mental bruising of the beacon that he'd have forgotten most of the evening's.. digression.
"How you feeling there matey? Took a bit of a blow to the head.. glad you've come round."
"I.. ffine. I.. think.", Manuel groaned as he picked at the bandages.
".. let the medigel do its thing.", I pulled myself off the floor, "I've pinged Warren.. I'm sure she'll be down soon with your meds. Stay put. Rest. Morphine button is to your- right. Ah- O.K. then."
I secured the door before wandering back down to the dig. The guy just zoned himself for a good few hours.. Better safe I guess. Warren was really going to love this.
/ - - - /
"By the maker.. It's.. real.." Doctor Elizabeth Warren was frozen half step at the rise to the exposed platform. The inert Prothean Beacon basking spectacularly in the morning rays.
I looked at the honourable Project Director and crinkled my brow. "Of course.", I had to reply - without any sarcasm at all. I gestured toward the device. "This way please. I've not detected any active power signatures, however the device does appear to have an intact and functional power core. There are no external signs of damage to speak of either. The full report along with Manuel's scans is in the attachment to the message I sent you this morning-"
"I knew you two were on to something big.. but this? Is it still functional? Can we get a data link to it? Has Manuel tried yet? The design is certainly later than the others on extranet record… Unbelievable! You've no idea what political leverage the existence of this alone is going to give us! Funding to pull up this entire site!" The Doctor circled the device more times than I bothered to count; all the while framing more words than spoken besides the occasional exclamation.
Movement at the periphery of my vision wiped the smile from my face.
A soldier stopped at the edge of the excavation, eyeing the sunken trench that was the previous day's work. "Dr. Elizabeth Warren?", the uncertainty ringing in the foreign voice. "Corporal Bates… Systems Alliance 232 Marine unit."
"Corporal?", the distracted Doctor stared at the newcomer for a moment longer than comfortable before switching effortlessly back to her Director voice. "I only sent the message to the 232 five minutes ago.. how did-"
"Don't know about that Ma'am.. Sarge sent me down to find you. Priority request from brass at HQ.. your immediate presence is requested on secure Holocom."
"Your unit has my Omni address, Corporal-"
"Sorry.. Ma'am." Corporal Bates tapped his comm and turned away from us.
"What's this about?" I asked, leaning over in soto voice to a slightly flustered Warren.
'I don't know, but I'm beginning to suspect that our communications are not as secure as I believed."
The Alliance soldier turned back to us and motioned up the hill toward the more distant unit base on the site. "They're waiting for you Ma'am, this way please."
Warren nodded for me to step close to her has she made to follow the overly serious corporal, The intimation immediately drawing a frown from him as soon as he saw my accompanyment.
"Just you Ma'am"
I scowled. Warren turned away from the soldier and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Karsen..", Warren half whispered, confident that she was out of earshot. "I've got this. Stay here… or near. Director's orders."
With that, she and the corporal disappeared up the ramp.
I fumbled with my lanyard. Military types grated when they got all serious and ordery.. playing at soldiers. Suddenly decorum and normalcy became irrelevant if it wasn't in their playbook. I took a moment to refind a little calm and back track my thoughts.. they weren't all that bad. Just had to get to know them. Half of them would probably be down at one of the capital's bars anyway. Throw in couple of rounds and honest tales and might make a friend or two. Couldn't hurt. Well… I stared up at the bluing sky and slowly down at the beacon before my mind wandered back to Manuel... If there was time.
/ - - - /
I shoo'd off a few of the site workers who had made it past the sentries. Clearly those in the know of the recent finds hadn't quite gotten new orders all the way down. By the time they had a few groups of solders were herding the curious and wide eye'd off the site grounds.
No small effort was directed at trying to get me away. Being number three let me my ground with words and credentials. It was by the time I was in full bown argument with three grunts that things threatened to turn nasty as hands slipped to holsters.
"I'm under direct report to the Director herself, and not going to leave until she says so."
"Orders are orders, sir..step this way or we will be forced to remove you."
"Irrelevant, this is a civilian and foremost academic operation..your orders have no sway to me."
"System's Alliance, Sir.. leave this location immediately or we will have to remand you in custody-"
"On what grounds?"
"We have our order, sir"
""I have mine."
I caught the edge of a comms phrase in the open helmet of the private who was lingering to my left, not at all obviously. "... take him."
The edge of instinct pulled me to duck right and down as an armoured fist snapped through the air where my head would have been. I sprang up, pulling the arm and shoving my elbow deep into the exposed midriff. Pushing the winded soldier over to fold on to his knees.
The click and draw of weaponry from his other two squad members sounded unnaturally loud in the burdgeoning rush of adrenaline.
"STAND DOWN.", A female voice cut through the hyperfocus. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING.. Sargent get your idiots away from MY personnel. This INSTANT."
Dr Elisabeth Warren flew into view, dragging what looked like unnerved, but more senior, non-coms in her wake.
"Karsen.. what the hell are you doing?" She barrelled into me and pushed away from the deflating soldiers. Finally stopping a few steps from the beacon's platform. Behind a barked conversation was going on.. someone.. Gunny? barking orders on patrol duty for the week. I watched them over Warren's shoulder, trying to let the fight or flight boil off.
Warren faced me, back to the others.. eyes half close at first as she gathered herself. The anger was eventually gone leaving only guarded concern behind her eyes.
"Thank the maker you're alright."
"What's going on, Warren? They were more than ready to go all out. Give a man a stick and he thinks he's the law..what right do they-"
"-The System's Alliance is pushing for a full military take over of the site, Karsen. As far as those soldiers know, they're right." She rubbed her brow, "Some political windfall this turned out to be.. and its only 8am. This is a nightmare..."
She locked her eyes on me. "They had me knotted up in red tape, Karsen. They're in their rights whether we agree r not. THIS is bigger than us. THIS thing.. is about Humanity... Arguing against the politcal clout of the Alliance is frivious at best. This has gone nuclear, its out of our control. There's not a chance that the project is going to stay academic now… Honestly, it was only when your refusal to leave the site filtered up to the command post that I got enough leverage on grounds of goodwill to keep the core team onboard. From now on this is a 'collaborative engagement', we play nice and share their rule book. Got it?."
I glared at her.
Warren matched me. "I'm running with it. Its all I'm going to get and that lot over there reports to me." She looked around. "Frankly, I'm glad I got out when I did."
"I could've handled it."
"They have actual guns you dimwit."
"They'd have to point them first.", I mumbled with a little more focus and earnest than I should have let on.
Warren stalled, "What the hell did you take for extra credit in your post-doc?"
I grinned innocently. "Depends who you ask. I won't tell."
Warren's face returned to serious mode. "They're going to move the beacon to a more secure location for.. study." This clearly frustrated her, more so because she didn't want to show it. "We're not onboard yet.. but I will work on it."
"But here is secure isn't it?", I pondered out loud, trying to play back the reasoning. "We're already in the heart of Systems Alliance space and with the Terminus systems a few jumps away there couldn't really be more guns guarding here than anywhere.. else- oh", the thought clicked, "It's the safer hand's play isn't it."
Warren nodded. I outwardly sighed.
"There's the potential of so much more here..." I said, "I'm not sure I'd want to leave if it came to it."
"We may not have a choice on that regard, Karsen"
We fell into a contemplative silence, just staring at the object of so much divisive interest.
I tried to change topic. "Did you check on Manuel?"
Warren nodded. "I gave him an extra shot of his meds. He's okay. I'd hazard event a little more coherent..."
"Perhaps a bump on the head did some good."
"Don't even think of suggesting anything about having tried something like that sooner..", Warren smiled.
"Who? Me?"
/ - - - /
The floor rammed into my side. Dispelling the hollow dream state of the last few short hours of sleep. The floor kept moving, rolling. Suddenly the foor changed direction and I landed on what should have been a window. Then the ceiling.. wall.. floor.. wall.
I groaned as I kicked away the whipping blanket and ducked to dodge a flying plant pot that was barrelling along the present inclined floor toward me.
The site prefab that had served as home for the last two days was definitely living up to my expectations. We'd not left the site since the find.. Warren argued that presence was paramount. I had the evening shift which got me a solid afternoon's sleep.. or was supposed to. Clearly something had gone horribly wrong.
I grabbed my backpack that was hanging downward from the bunk and kicked at the non responsive door.
No Power. The smell of burning electronics hinted at a fire that was going to become a problem very quickly.
I grabbed the chair.. the only thing that counted as a viable blunt object.. and rammed it into the already cracked window. A few blows and dulled sounds stared to filter through the widening holes. Engines.. big ones.. gun fire.. shouting. What the hell was going on.
I scrambled through the smallest human sized gap that I could smash through the damnable reinforced safety glass -bloody prefabs- and rolled out into the daylight. Losing my grip as the angled prefab offered no purchase, to land on the hard rock and pile of gravel that it had settled against. Blackned scorch marks and deep gouges now decorated the exterior.
The sun dimmed, spinning me around to a harrowing vista of billowing black columns of smoke rising from almost every structure.
The ground rumbled and I dived into cover. The shadow of a bastardised mechanical and organic shelled craft zoomed over me.
The afternoon clouds billowed and churned. Crackling with an unnatural lightning that arched around emerging fingers that descended from the the sky, The giant purpled hue of the hull catching the reddening afternoon sunlight in hues of black and blood.
"Fuck. They are here..."
-== To be continued... ==-
/*
A/N
Rev. 1.1 - various fixes and corrections
*/
