Chapter 77

Chapter Seventy-Seven
The next morning broke gray and overcast. Although that cut back on the burning heat, the air grew unbearably thick until midday, when a light rain fell.
For Connor, the rain was a welcome respite, if a smelly one. With the storm over them, the rotting smell returned. Even with a stiff shoulder and lingering wooziness, he felt well enough to wander among the team, checking in and offering praise for their performance.
Conversation made the eerie silence of the woods tolerable.
Most people talked about the bugs, questioning why they hadn’t followed this time and wondering where the lizard things had gone to.
“We kicked their butts.” That was all Connor could offer, and it worked.
With Vicente, things were different. The big man didn’t seem bothered by the cases mounted to the wheeled litter. He angled his head back as Connor approached and caught raindrops, but his familiar humor was gone.
He shook the water away. “Hey, Boss. Look, I want you to know, I wasn’t cool—”
Connor realized then what was bothering the heavy weapons expert. “Don’t.”
“What?”
“Don’t let it get to you. What Selen did…it was the right call.”
“I dunno.” Vicente rubbed his big hand along Mamacita’s barrel. “It didn’t feel right.”
“That’s why people in charge have a hard time sleeping.”
“Guess so.” The big man nodded toward Elise. In the daylight, she was a strange sight: unkempt, greasy blond hair; grime-covered chubby face; scraped and bruised arms poking out of a torn jumpsuit that might have been an olive green once. “What’s her story? Bug prisoner?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet.”
“She’s no mercenary.”
“I doubt it.”
“Selen don’t care for her.”
Connor sighed. “She doesn’t. Look, don’t beat yourself up, okay?”
Vicente tapped his chest with a mighty fist. “Solid.”
That wrapped Connor’s circuit among the team.
He drifted over to Elise, taking his time so that he didn’t frighten her.
She saw him approaching and waved. “Hey.”
“You holding up okay?”
“One of those guys with the fiery hair gave me a protein packet and some water.”
“The Moon twins. Tim and Tom. Tom’s the taller one.”
Elise glanced at the two men. “But…they’re twins?”
“It’s a long story.”
She relaxed, her shoulders sagging. “You’re mercenaries?”
“And you’re not.”
“No. I’m an archaeologist. I was with the Chong expedition. Dr. Harry Chong.”
“On this planet?”
“Yes. We came here…” She opened a sealed flap on a leg pouch and pulled a pocket computer out. “Nearly a month ago.”
“Archaeologists? On this planet?”
“I know. Trust me—we had no idea.”
Trust me… Had she really said that? “We found a big ship parked next to a couple older ships—”
“That’s us! I mean, well, me.”
“We salvaged from it.”
Elise shrugged. “It’s abandoned, right? That’s how it goes? I’m the only survivor now. I wasn’t going to be flying it off this planet.”
“You could let the computer do most of the work.”
“I guess. But the last time we tried to get back aboard, we nearly lost everyone.”
“Big bugs?”
“Technically, Walter—Dr. Kang—said they’re not really bugs.”
“One of your team?”
“He was.” Her lips quivered. “A…friend.”
“Well, the bugs didn’t show up when we did salvage.”
“Were you trying to leave? Because they…they seem to mostly be concerned with when you try to leave.”
“Did Walter explain that?”
“No. But he believed it. Before the end.”
Connor thought he could see tears mixing with the rain on her face. “How did this expedition come about? This planet’s contested, isn’t it?”
“Well, it’s tricky. We had someone with money, though, and in the Talon Sector, that’s what matters.”
“You’re from the Talon Sector?”
“Northstar University. You might not have heard of it. It’s, um, it’s for wealthy kids who haven’t made the cut for the bigger universities. But we’re good. It’s just that we don’t care about prestige.” When she smiled, Connor realized they also must not have dental coverage.
“Was Dr. Chong the wealthy one?”
Elise laughed—a pleasant sound. “Oh, no. He was just the one who interacted with the benefactor. All of us at the university came up the hard way. You know, paying our way to get our education.”
Connor nodded toward Mosiah. “Our client there has a lot of money.”
“Um. He seems…” She wrapped her arms around herself. “Scary, I guess.”
Surrounded by mercenaries, and she thought Mosiah was scary. That was interesting. “Scary like these monsters?”
She shuddered. “Nothing’s like these monsters.”
“Did your benefactor warn you about them?”
“No.” There was heat in her voice. “We set up a forward camp and everything. No one expected trouble. Then they hit the ship. Then the camp. Walter, Dr. Chong, Jo—Dr. Virtanen—and me were the only survivors. And now it’s just me.”
“That’s impressive. How long have you been on your own?”
“Walter and Jo died about a week ago.”
“I’m sorry. So you don’t have any idea who this benefactor was?”
“I don’t think Dr. Chong knew. It was all done via computer. And…”
“And?”
“And I had the sense it wasn’t all legal. Our ship might have been purchased off the black market. That’s what Walter said. He talked to one of the security team, who said we were running on an illegal transponder.”
Pirates. Archaeologists. How much crazier could this mission get? “You said you’ve been here nearly a month?”
“Very close to.”
“That’s right around the time Mosiah hired us.”
“Really? That’s a strange coincidence, I guess. Then again, our expedition took months to come together. Probably four months, I think.”
“Four months ago. Things started going bad for us around the same time.”
“Oh?”
“Money problems. Bad decisions.” Like the Dr. Litvinenko mission.
“Maybe there’s something to cosmic karma.”
Selen would love to hear that. “What were you hired to do here?”
“Oh.” She looked over her shoulder. “Those ruins. You know? Figure out the story of this planet. Who built those ruins.”
“You knew about the ruins?”
“Sure. We were shown images. And video. And there were some artifacts.”
Connor scraped to a stop. “Artifacts?”
“Well, that’s what Dr. Chong said. I didn’t see them myself. I mean, not officially. I…” She bit her bottom lip. “I managed the computer systems, so I sort of had access to everything.”
“Computers?” Connor’s heart raced. “How good are you with them?”
“Pretty good. I did systems work on long haul merchant ships to pay for university.”
“I think I’ve got some work for you.”