Read Return to Dark Earth Online

Authors: Anna Hackett

Return to Dark Earth (9 page)

BOOK: Return to Dark Earth
8.21Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

In perfect condition.

“God, it’s beautiful.” He touched the metal,
his fingers bumping hers. “A flute, I think.”

They checked the next few shops, most of
which were disappointingly bare. Nik found a few general items—a
cup, the twisted remains of a precursor to the Sync communicator,
and a shoe—but nothing that would get Avril excited.

They walked out onto the street. Nera
consulted the mini-Sync attached to her wrist. “Only twenty more
minutes of exposure time left. We need to start heading back.”

He nodded, eyeing a lump of twisted metal on
the street.

She followed his gaze. “A transport?”

He nodded. “I think so. A car.”

They moved closer.

“Terran cars are worth a lot of money…but
this is barely recognizable as a car. It wouldn’t be worth moving
it.”

“Yeah.” He knew a few rusted chassis of old
Earth cars had gone for millions of e-creds. No one had ever found
a Terran car in pristine condition. If they did, it would be worth
a small fortune.

He noticed Nera tense. She was looking down
the street, past the remains of the buildings.

“What is it?” He searched where she was
looking, didn’t see anything.

“I thought I saw movement.”

He frowned and checked his Sync. “The other
teams are nowhere near us.”

“It was…furtive movement. Like someone was
hiding. And watching us.”

“Nothing on scans, although once you get
over seven meters out, the radiation makes them unreliable. No one
could have survived here. Seeing shadows?”

Her mouth flattened. “No. I saw
something.”

If she did, he believed her. “Okay. What
could it be then? No wildlife survived in this part of the planet.
The jungles to the south contain…things.” Mutated things. He
figured they really didn’t want to run into whatever had managed to
survive Earth’s destruction.

Finally, Nera shook her head. “Let’s check
out the last part of this sector and get back to the ship.”

They walked to the end of the street and the
final structure. Nik frowned. Here, the black sand looked like it
had been subjected to intense heat. It formed a solid sheet of what
looked like black glass.

Nera tapped it with her boot. Parts of it
broke off. “It’s gone brittle.”

“It could be covering something.” Nik looked
back at the other buildings. “Probably another shop.”

“Wonder what caused this?”

“Some sort of localized blast, maybe? Who
knows?” And they’d never know. It was the frustration of his
passion for the past. For every one of history’s secrets he
revealed, he uncovered several more that would always be a mystery.
It took him a long time, but he’d learned to celebrate what he
could and not let the rest drive him crazy.

He pulled his multi-tool off his belt and
dialed up the hammer. He hit the black glass and it chipped
away.

He worked for a bit, just to see how thick
the layer was.

Suddenly, a portion the size of a dinner
plate gave way, leaving a gaping hole.

Nera crouched and flicked on her ion light.
She shone it into the hole, but all they could see was impenetrable
darkness.

“It appears there’s a space under there,”
she said. “Want to take a look around?”

“We should maybe send a probe in first. And
we don’t have much time left—”

She stood and kicked the edge of the hole
with her boot.

A huge slab broke off, leaving a hole large
enough for a person to crawl through.

“Nera…”

She shone the light again. This time, it
gleamed off…something.

Nik’s pulse tripped. Damn, now he wanted to
know what the hell was in there.

“Come, Dr. Phoenix. Live a little.” Nera
leapt into the hole.

“Nera!”
Dammit to hell
, they had
fifteen minutes left.

Grinding his teeth, he followed her in.

The drop was only a few meters, and his feet
hit concrete. Smooth, well-preserved concrete.

Nera appeared out of the darkness and shone
her light in his face. “Come take a look.” She swung the light away
from him.

It illuminated a… He took a deep breath, his
eyes widening. “Oh my God.”

It was a perfectly preserved car.

Its body was long and stylish, and glossy
red. There was only room for two people to sit. It was long in the
hood, and short at the back.

God, it was beautiful. A work of art.

Nera touched the still-shiny metal. “It
seems…far less modern than I imagined Terran transports to be.”

“It’s not a model that was manufactured at
the time of Earth’s demise. It’s a classic car.”

She frowned. “It was already old.”

“Yes. A collectors’ item. I have some
records on ancient automobiles. I think this is one of the cars
listed. A 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang.”

“Priceless,” she murmured.

“Yes.” It would fetch a fortune on the open
market. And would look very nice in a museum where the galaxy’s
children could marvel at a piece of their ancestry.

Nera moved through the darkness. “There’s
another one.”

“God, a 1965 Shelby Cobra.” Also in pristine
condition, as though the apocalypse had never happened. “The glass
covering outside seems to have preserved everything in here.”

“I like this one.” It had a sportier look to
it. It was a royal blue, with two white stripes down the
center.

There were three cars in total. A 1966 Dodge
Charger rounded out the small collection. Avril was going to go
into convulsions.

“Look at this.” Nera called out.

He moved to join her. Saw she was looking
through what had been an office. There was a late-model Terran comp
on the table.

“This must have been some sort of car
showroom,” he mused. “Collect what you can. I’ll contact Avril.
She’ll need to organize a team to retrieve these.” He tried the
comm, but all he got was static. “We’ll need to go topside.” He
checked his Sync, his pulse jumping. “We have seven minutes to get
back to the ship before the radiation starts to affect us.”

Nera carefully placed the comp in a net bag
she’d opened. “Roger that. Let’s go.”

As they headed back past the cars, Nik was
already planning. “Avril said the
Drake
is equipped with a
cargo lift. We’ll need to widen the opening, and then bring it down
and use an exosuit to get the cars onto the lift.”

He looked up at the place where they’d
climbed in. “What the hell?”

The opening was closed. Covered over by
rocks.

Nera pulled out her laser pistol. “Stand
back.”

She shot at the opening and rocks rained
down. She’d opened a small hole, but it wasn’t big enough for them
to fit through.

“Lift me up,” she said.

Nik gripped her waist and hefted her up. In
a lithe move, she leapt up and settled on his shoulders.

As she pulled rocks out of the opening, Nik
clamped his hands on her slim, muscular thighs to steady her. He
tried to stay focused on getting out alive, and not the fact that
Nera’s legs were wrapped around his head.

“There.” She threw a large rock down.
“That’s enough.” She gripped the edge of the hole and pulled
herself out. She looked back down. “Come on.”

Nik backed up a little, then ran and jumped.
He grabbed the edge and with a grunt, pulled himself out.

An alarm on his Sync chimed. A warning
flashed on the screen and a modulated computer voice said, “You
have reached maximum radiation exposure limit.” He looked up and
met nebula-colored eyes. “Run.”

They took off, arms pumping. They sprinted
past the buildings, scrambled up the dune. As they crested the
mountain of black sand, Nik felt his chest tightening, his
breathing becoming labored. He glanced back behind them.

Everything was still, but now he got the
feeling that someone was watching them.

“Faster, Phoenix,” Nera yelled.

He focused back on running. Nausea hit him
and he gritted his teeth.

The ship loomed ahead.

He heard a tinny, frantic sound. A voice in
his ear. “Dr. Phoenix! Darc! Please respond.”

Nik touched his nano-earpiece. “We’re
coming.”

An expulsion of breath. “You’re over the
exposure limit. Hurry.”

The ship got closer, but Nik was starting to
feel dizzy, and his head was pounding. He stumbled.

“Keep going.” Nera gripped his arm. “We’re
almost there.”

“If…I fall, you keep going,” he said between
gritted teeth.

She raised a brow at him. The rest of the
galaxy would translate that to be “you bet your ass I’m leaving you
and saving myself” but he knew it wasn’t true. If he fell, she
wouldn’t leave him.

He pushed harder.

Finally, they reached the ship, its shadow
covering them as it hovered above.

Nera clipped a line onto his belt and
pressed the retraction device. He whizzed up, his vision becoming
blurry.

Hands were grasping at his body armor as
people pulled him onto the ship. He lay sprawled on the floor,
dizzy and confused. Lights were shone in his eyes, and someone was
tugging at his trousers. He felt a pressure injector pushed against
his butt cheek. “Nera?” He couldn’t see her. “Where is she?”

“Here.” She shouldered past a med tech and
pressed a hand to his shoulder. A second med tech hovered beside
her, holding a pressure injector. He looked too afraid to inject
her. Finally, she snatched the device from him, shoved her trousers
down over one hip and injected herself.

“You’re both very lucky. Ms. Darc was
showing fewer signs of radiation poisoning, but you, Dr. Phoenix…a
few minutes more out there, and you would have been confined to the
medbay for the next few days.” The tech fumbled around in his med
kit. “You’ll feel a little groggy for a bit, but you’ll be
fine.”

“What happened?” Avril pushed forward,
looking extremely pissed off. “I was trying to contact you.”

Nik smiled at Nera. “We found
something.”

Avril went still. “What?”

“Three classic cars. In pristine
condition.”

Avril gasped and yanked out her Sync. “Give
me the coordinates. We need to bring them aboard.”

As Avril started chattering at crew members
and planning their retrieval strategy, Nik just smiled at Nera.
“We’re not a bad team.”

Her lips lifted at the corners. Nik let his
heavy eyelids close. Smile number two. It appeared he was on a
roll.

Chapter Seven

Nera watched the cars being lifted up into
the hold of the
Drake
. The Institute team were treating them
as though they were made of glass. A few other archeologists and
crew members hovered around, snapping images, taking measurements,
and scribbling furiously on their Syncs. Avril was extra perky,
which made Nera feel a little ill.

“They are something,” Niklas said.

She glanced at him. He looked fine now, the
pale pallor of the radiation poisoning replaced by his usual tan
skin. She’d hated seeing him ill and flat on his back.

Her jaw tightened, and she looked back at
the cars. Someone…or something…had tried to trap them down in that
hole.

And that made her mad.

“What do you think of them?”

She focused on what Niklas was saying.
“Well, they aren’t gold, but they are shiny.” She studied the lines
of the cars. “I appreciate their design. There’s something stylish
about them. I imagine driving them fast would have been a
pleasure.”

“Yeah, I can see you driving the Cobra. It’d
suit you.”

His blue eyes caught her, pulled her in.

Avril rushed over. “Well done, Nik. They are
fabulous
.”

Nik looked over his shoulder at the
archeologist. “Nera deserves half the credit. Maybe more, because
without her, we would have died out there.”

Avril’s smile slipped. “Yes, it was a close
call. Well…good work, both of you.”

Yeah, Nera was really feeling the love from
Luma-Symthe.

“This is exactly the kind of find we’re
after,” Avril continued. “My team will decontaminate them shortly.
It’s standard procedure for all artifacts we bring aboard. We clear
the cargo area and let off a decon light bomb to reduce the
radiation to safe levels and kill any stowaway bugs.”

“Someone trapped us in that car showroom.”
Nera knew the hard edge in her voice was obvious.

Avril blinked. “But no one was near you. The
other teams were already back at the ship.”

“Something was near us,” Nera insisted.

Avril lifted her Sync, her brow furrowed.
“I’ll have the science team on the
Magellan
run more
detailed scans. Perhaps some wildlife has survived in this area?
However, most of the mutated animals are difficult to spot on the
scans. They are so irradiated, they blend into the background.”

“When can we head back out?” Niklas
asked.

Nera straightened. She was eager to get back
out there, too…with Niklas. Like he’d said, they made a
surprisingly good team. She appreciated his steadier approach, the
way he evaluated and assessed everything.

“The med techs have given everyone the
all-clear.”

“Excellent.” He looked at Nera. “Ready?”

She nodded. “Ready.”

They didn’t waste any time. After suiting up
again, they headed down to the surface and were soon wandering
through a new part of the ruins. Steel framework protruded from the
sand, spearing into the air.

Nera touched the metal, wondering at the
people who’d made it, built the structure, and called it home.

“Makes you wonder what life was like here,
doesn’t it?” Niklas was staring down the dune. More of the
structure was visible above the sand. It formed a giant metal
framework.

“Whatever it was like, they destroyed it.”
Nera climbed up a steel truss. “I might get a better view from up
here.”

“You climb like a Zamorian leopard. It’s
extremely sexy to watch.”

BOOK: Return to Dark Earth
8.21Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Imposter by William W. Johnstone
Asimov's SF, October-November 2011 by Dell Magazine Authors
Love Finds a Home by Kathryn Springer
Summer Son by Anna Martin
OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu
Crazy in Love by Cynthia Blair