Free Twilight Earth by Ben Winston Page B

and saw the remnants of a building falling out of the ice and into the ocean. Taking a great risk, the young prospector landed her skipper in the rough water, and took a few sonograms of the bottom.
    At first, she thought she had only found a small village that the glacier hadn't wiped away, but then she started getting larger and larger readings from structures still in the ice! She moved a mile to the east then a mile to the west, just so she could get an idea of how large this find actually was.
    The elders would pay greatly for the salvage if she could just lay claim to it before anyone else found it. Of course, then there was the problem of getting to it. The Northern Barrier was an unforgiving sea. It was notorious for blowing up freakish storms, or becoming suddenly, eerily calm. The latter being far more unnerving to her than the storms. Then there were the giants that lived here.
    Huge black and white demons that lived in the water. Addson had heard of a major find to the west that was supposedly protected by the great menaces. There were also the pack hunters. Easily half the size of the skipper she flew, the intelligent denizens only had fear for the bigger killers. No, the waters on this planet were no place for young scavengers like Addson. However, a person had to make a living doing something, and getting killed in space didn't appeal to her.
    She spent the rest of the day mapping the parts of the underwater city she had found, before heading back to the Aerie. She set her course, and followed the same track as she did on her way out this morning. Even though she was low to the surface of the water, she missed the surfacing of a small buoy.
    The sensor pod, however, didn't miss her. Had she been equipped with the instrumentation to detect it, she would have been frightened being scanned this far away from the Aerie. However, she flew on, blissfully unaware that she had been observed.
    As she flew south through the mountain range called the Wall, she tried to contact her home base.
    “Great Falls Aerie, this is prospector three-nine-four, over.”
    The name Great Falls was adopted from a piece of heavily corroded metal that was found near the base of the Aerie. The 'story files tell of a city that once stood very close to where the Aerie was placed a thousand years ago. The city ruins had been one of the ancients, so it was even older still.
    Addson had once heard that someone discovered ruins on the Aramic Plateau that were older than even the ancients’ ruins. She was one of the few that agreed with the archaeologists that had flocked to the Aramic site; the human race had begun on this world. However, no matter the amount of proof recovered, it still hadn't been enough to press a claim with the Consortium.
    “Great Falls Aerie, this is prospector three-nine-four, over.” Addson repeated. This time she got an answer.
    “Three-nine-four, this is Great Falls, What can we do for you, Addson?” a male voice replied.
    “Great Falls, I'm approaching from the north, and request landing clearance.”
    “You're still an hour away, Addson. Why are you calling in this soon? Did ya find something?”
    “What I find or don't find is none of your business, Billy! I'm calling in this early because control wants all returning prospector flights to call in as soon as they can establish contact because of the pirate raids,” Addson replied.
    “I bet you found something. You never come back this early unless you think you have something,” Billy replied.
    “Look, can I land when I get there or not?” Addson asked, clearly getting irritated with the young man.
    “Where else can you go? If I tell you can't land, you're just gonna have to sit out there and wait. Now, tell me what you found, and I'll think about letting you land,” Billy replied.
    “Billy, there are four other Aeries on Usa (she pronounced it Oosa) Major that I can reach, I can also make it to StarDock down on Usa Minor. So, unless you want to