Free The Terran Representative by Angus Monarch Page A

wall. With a grunt she drew her arm back and punched through the wall. It offered no resistance. She ended up shoulder deep in the material.
    Chare let out a small chuckle that sounded like heavy machinery rumbling. Wards glared at him and pulled her arm out, shaking the bits of material that stuck to her exosuit. The Hive didn’t appear to be phased and continued to stand in their V-formation although their antennae were all pointed at the wall. My mouth hung open. I didn’t know why she’d smashed through the wall.
    “Just wanted to check something,” Wards said. She dusted her hands off and took a step back. “There’s no machinery in the wall.”
    “So it’s a wall?” I said still not quite getting why she hadn’t scanned the wall. The first thing that came to mind was frustration. I could understand that happening.
    She nodded and tapped her visor while looking at the wall. “Everywhere else we’ve detected dimensional heavy particles have been outside a planet’s gravity well,” Wards said.
    “Indicating a ship entering and leaving,” said Chare.
    “Correct,” said Wards. She motioned to the wall. “This is like a doorway.”
    “Indicating a person entering and leaving?” I ventured.
    Wards nodded. “I thought that when we were told the most recent activity was on the planet it would be somewhere away from a city like a ship landing on the surface.”
    “That’d make sense,” said Chare. “You could have a large ship show up close to ground, destroy a city and leave through another dimensional rip without having to deal with the well.”
    “It’d be almost untraceable if you didn’t know specifically what to look for,” said Wards. “But this,” she said, motioning at the wall again. “This makes no sense. Why send people through?”
    “To escape,” said The Hive.
    We turned to look at them. “How do you know?” I said.
    “When I was beckoned it was to help find someone,” they said. “Before I lost pieces of myself I was shown a small group of Terrans who had arrived on Mars. At the time I didn’t recognize this place, but previous to their escape they’d been on SpaciEm. I was there to figure out who contacted me.”
    “Were they the group on Nasee Four?” said Wards.
    “I don’t know who those ones were,” said The Hive, “but I was overwhelmed at SpaciEm. Whoever beckoned me laid a trap. That’s why I lost myself. My connection was cut.”
    Chare shrugged. Even though he was half the size of Baron his bulk still overwhelmed the rest of us in the small room. “Doesn’t really matter why or where they escaped. We’re here to figure out the half-life of these particles and compare them to rest. Try to figure out a timeline, some kind of pattern,” he said.
    Wards nodded and said, “Right. We don’t have time to speculate on deserters.”
    “But what if they could help us?” I said as Wards began taking samples of the wall. “What if they could explain the reasoning behind what is going on?”
    “Doesn’t matter,” said Wards. She kneeled down and took a bit of dust from one of the footprints. “With minimal resources we’re already trying to chase down one group. We don’t have the time to chase down another. If nothing else pans out maybe we go after them.”
    I looked to Chare. He stared at Wards and didn’t look at me. I wasn’t going to get much help from him.
    “I can help,” said The Hive.
    “You’d go searching for them?” I said. They’d know what they looked like. The Hive had a psychic ability. Maybe there was some kind of connection forged when they were shown them.
    “No,” they said. “I can help with the reasoning of what is happening.”
    Wards stood and said, “How?”
    “While I was being summoned there were quick flashes of something else,” said The Hive. They turned to face me. “I saw cryo-chambers with sleeping humans.”
    My heart jumped and lodged in my throat. I tried to keep calm and not appear too eager but my