Some days she questioned why she had got into Archaeology in the first place. It had been something she had been interested in and with nothing else going to do on her home world of Rowlatt apart from farming it seemed like a logical step to escape. Get paid to do what she enjoyed and rarely have to leave a library or choose her assignments, or so she thought. At least at Dremerdius she had her own quarters, a subaltern to assist her with moving some of her papers from one desk to the other and a senior officer who didn’t care what she did as long as their was a report every month about surveys or on her work on Dremerdius IV and even then she had doctored a few of the results. She still remembered remonstrating with him when the order from above came down but he just shrugged and told her it was out of his hands. Small minded office busy body just wasn’t interested as long as it didn’t affect him.
She climbed out of the lift and froze at the sight of the
Forward observation post’s access door. Her stomach rolled as she worried what
was about to be unfolded. Last time she had been summoned to a meeting she
found herself out here. Then again what was the worst that could happen? She
took a deep breath and opened the door to a large glazed room that overlooked
the main prow, in the middle of the room Commander Devonshire was hopping
excitedly from one foot to the other in front of a beaming Captain Kinnock. She
recognised the head of xeno-biology, some of the geologists and Captain Wilson
the head of the security detail. This couldn’t be good.
“Ah! Jane.” Commander Devonshire turned around with a huge
beaming smile. “How was the equipment? Never mind, we’re going to be working
with it soon!”
It caught her somewhat by surprise. All this time she had got
used to the idea of cruising around the black void of utter nothingness and
resigned to finding nothing. Then again, it was only a matter of time before they
bumped into something out here in the void. Her scientific inquisitiveness
quickly peaked and almost against her will she started thinking about what
could be found, would there be alien life? Would there be some lost
civilisation buried or abandoned on the plains? Despite the nagging feeling
that this would be a pointless empty world that may not even have a breathable
atmosphere.
“Really sir?” She tried to sound enthusiastic “What’s or
ETA?”
“Next week.” Devonshire grinned broadly. “Probably by Tuesday.”
“We’ve labelled it G-490.” Captain Kinnock beamed. “Long
range scans show it to have a tolerable atmosphere and weather.”
“You’re going to be one the first onto this world. I’m really
envious of your opportunity Jane.” Devonshire was still chattering on
oblivious.
First on the world. It sounded like it should be a really
exciting prospect, to trail blaze onto a new world, to see what no one else had
seen before and in a way it did but at the same time she couldn’t help but
think this was incredibly dangerous being on the first barge on the planet.
Surely she could still trail blaze from the second shuttle? Let Security go
forward and secure the landing zone or whatever they did and then send in the
archaeologists and geologists. How useful would an archaeologist be in an
emergency or battle situation that didn’t involve digging? She couldn’t
remember the last time she fired her sidearm, possibly time to dig it out from
the box under her bed and practice. She didn’t want to be caught out armed with
nothing but a trowel by an alien ambush.
“Nothing to worry about Lieutenant we’ll keep you safe. My
troops will be right by you all the way.” Captain Wilson approached, his face
completely deadpan. He was one of those professional looking soldiers, one who
fought his way through three wars single handed armed with nothing but a fruit
knife and if anyone would keep the survey teams safe it would definitely be
him, even if he was on his own. Many archaeologists or non-combatant
specialists often became annoyed by soldiers getting involved and clogging up
their dig sites but for this mission she felt somewhat relieved that an armed
presence would be securing the area and keeping watch and Wilson was the sort
of level headed veteran who would keep them out of trouble.
Devonshire was beaming at her again, it was a facial
expression that seemed alien to his usual serious demeanour, she had never
thought he could be giddy about anything, not even as a teenager. She had
always presumed that he had been in his mid forties since he was a child.
“Isn’t this exciting?” he enthused.
“Indeed sir.” She smiled. His excitement was infectious and
there was a flame within her that was starting to burn brighter as she thought
about the prospect and raised herself out of the rut she feared she lived in
and the dark dank boredom this voyage had brought. She could spend the four
month journey home reconsidering her next move in life and what she wanted, now
she should just make the most of this opportunity to break up any monotony.
“I think the best thing we can do now is prepare for the dig.
Jane, you should go and make sure the equipment is ready for deployment and
working properly.”
The flame snuffed out but she managed a resigned nod and half
smile. “Of course sir.”
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