When Ohem and Aga came to a stop in the middle of the stones and faced out beyond them, I stopped beside them and looked to where they were staring. I sucked in a breath at the sight of what appeared to be a military encampment down a shallow slope just past two tall stone columns. There were dead bodies everywhere. Laid out like they’d fled and collapsed in the rush. Bodies were hanging halfway out of the shuttle doors, piled on top of each other like they’d tried to fly away.
Tried and failed.
“What the fuck?” I whispered. I took a step to investigate, but Aga placed an arm in my path.
“Wait. We don’t know what’s going on. Better to wait for Dr. Ghix to get back to us with the results of the samples we sent,” he said, his face a mask of grim determination. He flicked his eyes to Ohem, who, despite being black as pitch, looked pale. His Izi was phasing in and out in a pattern I’d never seen before. Very slow and halting. He was swaying a little on his feet. Fear, like I’d never known, surged up to wrap its claws around my heart and squeezed. We didn’t have time to wait. These people had died quickly.
“It’s too late for that, Aga. We need to look around their camp. See if they left anything out that can explain what’s going on here. Maybe their links can tell us something,” I said, my voice was shaky.
“Jack is right. We look. Get Rema, he is adept at cracking open links. Have the others set up camp around our shuttles. We will set the dead into sealant and send them back to the ship,” Ohem said, his voice stronger than before and a small splash of relief pressed back against the might of my fear. His color was a touch better. Perhaps his nanos were pushing back at whatever illness this was?
Aga grunted. “Very well. I’ll go set the crew to their tasks but go cautiously. We don’t know if any still live. Even dying, they may still try to kill you.”
Aga gave Ohem a rough pat on the back and went to get Rema. I watched some of the crew and soldiers stumble out of the shuttles, coughing. Others were looking dazed. Rema stopped talking to a female that was crouched low to the ground to speak to Aga. He looked at us and nodded to Aga before grabbing a passing crew member and ordering them to look after the soldier.
Rema’s pretty face was bleached of color, his pearly skin dull. He was panting just from the short walk to where we stood. Sick. Like the others. Only Aga and I were the last remaining members of our party not affected. Yet.
Rema grimaced. “I think we should hurry. This is fast acting, some of the crew have already started developing rashes that will no doubt turn to the melting lesions we saw on the dead separatist. I had to sedate one of my pilots.”
“Did you hear from Dr. Ghix?” Ohem asked.
Rema shook his head no.
Ohem sighed. “I’ve contacted him several times and still nothing. We will continue on as planned. We are looking to take links and see if we can find anything about the illness or Vero. Flag any mention of the Rijitera and send the data to me.”
“Understood. I’ll start on the west side. Aga will join me in a few moments. He’s sending instructions to the Solus for quarantine,” Rema said. Ohem’s body tightened at the mention of quarantine. It was likely unprecedented for the aliens so reliant on their nanos for their health and longevity.
“Let’s get this done,” Ohem said. Rema waved to us and jogged slowly to the camp to search his portion. I didn’t think any of us should be alone. I would look quickly and then round the males up. I pressed my lips into a hard line and started walking.
I passed through the towering column, noting them in a distant part of my mind not focused on saving everybody from flesh-eating disease, that they looked like they’d been part of a towering door. Thirty feet, at least. Just beyond them, the ground sloped gradually like maybe it used to be stairs, and then we were inside Vero’s camp.
The smell was overwhelming now that we were standing right on top of it. It was cloying. I breathed only through my mouth, but then all I tasted was dead things. I crouched down next to a body and turned it over with a careful hand, trying to keep my touch only on the clothed areas. It was much the same as the others. The skin and muscle had been eaten away. All the soft tissue was dissolving into a soupy mess on the ground around the body. My gorge rose and I had to swallow hard to keep it down.
I straightened and continued on, checking each body, hoping for some identification marking one of them as Vero. Ohem trailed to my right, checking links and bodies for information. I occasionally caught him watching me, checking on me. I did the same to him and drifted between the tents to catch sight of Rema. He was fine, but slow. They both were moving like they’d aged a hundred years.
My mind was spinning. Ohem was sick. Rema and the others were too. Why wasn’t Aga and I the same? Did we not touch as many dead people as they did? I didn’t understand, and it was driving me insane.
I ripped the door off a white plastic dome tent and peaked inside to find metal containers labeled food. I checked the three next to it and found more containers and some lab equipment. I was pilfering through the lab finding absolutely nothing when Ohem’s voice spoke over the link, making me jump like a scared cat.
“Jack. I found Vero. Center of camp. Come quickly.”
I tore out of the lab and down the center of a few dozen of the white domed tents. They’d drifted away from me! I had to weave around the bodies spread throughout, trying to keep a tally of the dead. I stopped counting at one hundred. In the center of camp, was a massive dome dominating the center of Vero’s encampment. It was placed in a sunken pit about two-hundred feet wide. The very top of the dome was still twenty feet tall, even with most of it buried.
Doubled doors were open, and I passed through them to find hundreds of white tables in rows with artifacts laid on them. There were scientists looking aliens lying dead in the aisles between tables. In the center was a massive round table without a center, like a ring. Ohem, Aga, and Rema all stood in the center over a single body.
Ohem waved me over. “This is Councilor Vero.”
He gestured to the male on the floor. Vero had been a large male in life, bulky with muscle with a severe face. He had tough, dry looking tan skin that was covered in short quills, at least what was left of it. He wasn’t as bad as the others. Likely because he hadn’t come to the surface until after his men had secured the area. His face had a pig quality to it, complete with a short mushed snout that was half melted off.
Vero was lying next to an opening in the ground. Massive stone doors were laid open on their sides like a cellar. Stairs led down into the dark.
“They found the ruins,” Rema stated, staring down into the dark of the staircase.
I turned my head to take in the entire room. It was large, like a ballroom. It was filled to the brim with relics from my people’s past. Sudden territorial rage filled me over it all. No one should touch these things, least of all my enemies. Vero was a piece of shit for digging up the ruined evidence of my ancestors. I curled my lip at Vero’s rotting corpse.
“I’m sorry, Jack. We will take the utmost care of the artifacts in this room. They will stay with you on the Solus. Perhaps we can dedicate a room as a museum,” Ohem said to me softly. My heart fluttered in my chest, and I wanted to tell him to bury it all again. It belonged here.
“Thank you, Ohem. I’m gonna have to think about that, love. Let’s just worry about finding out whatever we can to get you healthy again.”
