Free Transient Echoes by J. N. Chaney Page B

Prescott. She took a seat on the table next to Travis. “How many Ortego Disks have we found so far?”
    “Thirty-two, by my count,” he answered.
    She smiled. “Fantastic.”
    “What do you think we’ll get out of them?”
    “Hard to say. It could be nothing more than personnel data. Employee history. Backlogs of email with nothing but gossip. A lot of what we’ve uncovered before now has been useless. But…” She raised a brow at him and smiled.
    “This time could be different,” he said, grinning back.
    “Exactly. There’s no telling what’s down there.”
    Travis nodded slowly, turning to the monitor. “Makes you wonder.”
    It sure does , she thought. “I need to lie down for a few minutes. Let me know if anything happens.”
    “Will do, Doc.”
    Mei stood and left, heading to the dirt cab. She opened the door and sat in the passenger’s side, stretching her legs out on the cushions. The rad suit was flexible, but not very comfortable. Still, she found lying in the vehicle to be slightly more tolerable than standing or sitting in the tent.
    A light on her visor sparked, indicating a call. She accepted it, but before she could say anything, a deep voice boomed into her helmet. “Mei, this is God. Please respond. I have to talk to you about your personal life choices.”
    She snickered. “Sorry, Mister Deity. I have work to do.”
    “Don’t make me smite you.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Are you lonely, John?”
    “Bored, maybe,” he said. “Why couldn’t you take the day shift?”
    “I will after tomorrow. I wanted to stay here until the flippies mapped the rest of the ruins, just in case.”
    “In case of what?”
    She took a few seconds. “You remember when we were here? The things we saw?”
    “Sure I do.”
    “We found other things we never expected to find. The same could be true of the lower levels. There could be something special just waiting for us.”
    “Okay, but there was also a doomsday device.”
    “I know, I know. That’s why I have to be here…to make sure whatever’s there gets handled with absolute care.”
    “I get it, believe me,” he said.
    “I know you do,” she said softly.
    There was a long pause. “On the bright side, Bart says he’s making progress.”
    “Good. I have a call to make in two days. If he doesn’t have something to present, we could be in trouble.”
    “I wouldn’t worry. Bart’s a smart guy. You got a good team, Mei.”
    She smiled. “Thanks.”
    “I’m leaving tomorrow for a bit,” he said suddenly.
    “Where to this time?” she asked, trying not to sound surprised.
    “South.”
    “The fourth leg of your mission. You’re nearly done.”
    “I told you I’m taking some leave afterwards. I’ll stick around here for another month. Central’s already cleared it.”
    “You don’t have to, but I certainly won’t object if you—”
    A red light blinked in the corner of her visor, followed by a series of long beeps. It was the emergency channel. “Hold on a sec,” said Mei quickly.
    “What did you say?” asked John. “I can’t hear you over this beeping thing on my screen—”
    John’s voice cut off, replaced with an image in the upper right corner of her screen. It was black at first, but quickly faded into a pair of gloves resting on a metal desk. They were twitching and squeezing, light moans coming from somewhere nearby. The camera, which was attached to someone else’s helmet, tilted as the person struggled to move. There was a monitor nearby, displaying one of the video feeds from the flippies. “Travis,” muttered Mei.
    She leapt out of the dirt cab, getting to the tent in time to see one of the flippies emerge from the crater, a box of artifacts in its tentacles.
    Mei stepped inside and found Travis hunched over the desk, barely able to move. She lifted him by his chest, trying to see inside his visor. Vomit covered half his screen, sloshing around as she moved him. She gagged at the sight of it.
    Grabbing his