“Please board and store your bags.” the captain barked, looking irked as we studied his vessel.
“There is a special quality of researchers that no one else seems to have. We know that time is an important element in significant happenings.” Dr. Wu was a slender woman with pure white hair who also had double PhDs. She was always busy with multiple projects at a time, so I was lucky to have been able to get her on this mission.
Wanting to keep the captain and Dr. Wu from arguing, I quickly said, “All right everyone, let’s get started on this exciting journey.”
We traveled up the ramp and boarded. After we secured our gear and strapped ourselves in, excitement warmed my chest. It would take a week to get there, even with the full engine core engaged, sending us hurtling through space, so I pulled out a notebook and carefully went over my plans for our time there.
Chapter 3
Wondrous. That was the only word that could describe what I was seeing as I stepped out of the ship. Like any tropical rainforest the foliage was lush, but the colors varied from Earth’s, some a hue I couldn’t quite name, the shade somewhere between colors I was familiar with. Cliffs rose above us for what must have been a quarter mile, higher than the tallest skyscraper. Violet vines interlaced with some type of greenery draped the length of some cliffs while others were left untouched, raw, towering golden rock.
“Wow.” Tatiana breathed next to me. “Is the bark of those leafless trees over there purple?”
Jaron came up next to us. “I’m not sure about purple, almost like an iridescent gray-purple.”
“Let’s go.” I hefted my pack onto my shoulder and nodded at the shrines and massive stones that had my attention. These were what we had come here to study. A part of the vorpyr civilization that had once been on this planet.
Dr. Wu was already walking that way, down the middle of the canyon, and we fell in behind her. It would take us a few minutes to get there from where the spaceship was parked. To my right, large birds with reptilian features and blue-green scalesandfeathers hopped from a cliff ledge and frolicked with one another in the air.
I turned my attention to one of the military officers that had his laser rifle held in front of him, carefully watching our surroundings. “Are there any known animals that we need to be worried about?” They hadn’t been keen to speak to us during the trip, preferring to stay in their cabins or in what I found out only a day ago was a community room just for them in the belly of the ship, with workout equipment, a kitchenette, and some gaming tables. No wonder they’d managed to avoid every one of my researchers and our questions for the entire week in space.
He didn’t even spare me a glance. “It’s a vorpyr planet. Of course everything’s dangerous.”
Well, ok then. That was reassuring. I frowned and shook my head. Was there an arrogant asshole requirement to get into the Consortium Military?
My frustration was quickly forgotten as we came to the shrines. Massive stones shot up from the ground and had areas etched in the vorpyr language, which was a unique blend of swirling letters and hard slashes. A clear stream, narrow enough to be hopped over, ran through the grouping of stones and shrines, and the monuments themselves were huge and elaborate, with arches and pillars guarding the solid stone slabs that sealed the shrine closed.
I wrote my initial observations and thoughts, preferring the old-fashioned way of documentation with a pen and paper clutched in my hands, and got to work on the language. Time flew by as I focused on my research.
“Dr. Monroe.” The voice sounded irritated, as though this wasn’t the first or even second time my name was called.
I blinked and peered up at whoever was pestering me. “Yes?”
Dr. Rasmussen looked as exasperated as he sounded. “Can you please tell those clodhoppers not to walk near this area? They’re stomping around on all this beautiful flora and one even broke a precious, vase-looking thing that was possibly an offering. Who knows how old it might have been? Wildlife in the vicinity erupted and ran away at the noise. They’re disrupting everything.”
I had been afraid this would happen. The dance with the Consortium Military was a delicate one. For one, they were providing the ship and protection, an astronomical cost. Second, they had weapons and surly attitudes. Not that that had ever stopped me before.
“I’ll go speak to the captain.”
I got to my feet, dusting off the soft blue silt and tiny blue and lavender flowers clinging to my hiking shorts, and made my way toward the captain who was speaking to an officer outside a white canvas tent they’d set up in our research area. I glanced at Dr. Wu as I passed. She wore soft, five-toed shoes and seemed to leave almost no damage in her wake. Maybe I should suggest those to the Consortium tagalongs.
When I got to the captain the other man glanced at me and left. Keeping all judgment from my voice, I let him know what had happened and asked him to have his group move back so the site could be preserved.
“I will remind you that you and your little posse of researchers are under our command and should be grateful to have us here.Do you want to know how much getting that ship off the ground costs, let alone a week’s worth of travel?” He looked entirely too smug and self-assured.
“And I will remind you,” I said patiently, ignoring the angry heat building in my chest, “that this mission was extended to me. Your people are getting something they want out of this, too. And for all of us to get the thing that has us unified,” I waved a hand to encompass the significant site behind me, “we need to have our processes and the space we’re working in respected.” I held his gaze as his expression dipped into a scowl.
“Move back from the research area.” he barked so loud I jumped. He gave me a satisfied look before marching away.
“Petty man.” I muttered, going back to my work.
Before making it back to the etched words I was studying, a particular shrine caught my eye. I changed course and stopped at the base, gazing at the details that had caught my eye. Delicate petals of some type of flower with white blending out to yellow on the edges were threaded together with what looked like silver gossamer in a complicated weave. It clung along the stone arch and simply stopped at the base, not growing out of anything.
Turning, I looked carefully at the other shrines. A few had something similar, with variations in the braid work and colors of the petals. One even had colored stones instead of petals entwined in the gossamer thread.
“Marcy?” I called to Dr. Vergara, who was unsurprisingly crouched near a patch of green and taupeish grass with a massive microscope set up on a portable table right behind her.
She jerked her head up and blinked owlish eyes. “Hmm?”
