Free Deep Space Dead by Edward Chilvers Page A

himself and ended up doing himself an injury,” muttered Jak contemptuously.
    “Do you think he’s still alive?” Asked Arianna.
    “Well I hope he is,” replied Jak. “The last thing we need is to lose so many rangers in one swoop. I can’t think of a worse start to a colonisation campaign.”
    “Fratia Bel isn’t much better,” said Bratten. “She was a little too enthusiastic about being sent out on the reconnaissance, and she’s young and inexperienced. I argued against her selection. It wouldn’t surprise me if she overreached herself whilst looking to enhance her own reputation.”
    “Why would they stop here?” Asked Arianna, looking critically downwards. “It is like we are flying over a sea of poison, rocks and fire.”
    “Most likely they saw something that took their interest in the cave,” suggested Bratten. Suddenly she looked down at her holoscreen which now beeped quickly. “I’m picking up a strange signal,” she said. “It is sending my instruments haywire.”
    “What do you think it is?” Asked Jak. “Do we need to be worried?”
    “In itself it doesn’t appear to be toxic,” replied Bratten. “But I can’t explain what it is. Whatever is down there in that cave appears to be completely unknown in the annals of the Confederation, something we’ve never seen before.”
    “This is what the others were looking for,” surmised Arianna.
    “And exactly what did for them in the process,” muttered Bratten. “I know Fratia. She wouldn’t have been one to pass this up and let somebody else come in to claim the glory. Rather she’d have been in that cave like a shot and she wouldn’t have stopped until she found out what it was.”
    “But what could it be?” Asked Arianna in frustration. “It may not be toxic but it might well have caused harm to the others.”
    “I’m sure it’s nothing all that exciting,” said Bratten dismissively. “It’s perfectly common to find unusual substances on unchartered planets. My guess is it’s a new type of fungus or something, might even be some sort of primitive bacterial life form; certainly I’m not detecting any brain activity down there. If we can ever get our hands on it without killing off half our team I’ll have the science officers analyse it and if necessary we’ll send a sample back to the Confederation in a tachyon pod.”
    “No brain activity,” said Arianna after a brief period of silence. “You said you didn’t detect any brain activity down there. That means they’re dead, doesn’t it? All of them.”
    Nobody answered, everybody appearing lost in their own thoughts. “Not necessarily,” said Bratten after a while. “It is possible they may have travelled downwards so they are out of range. We should know more once we’re at ground level.”
     
    Jak turned the rover in an arcing manoeuvre and they rounded the corner of the mountain and now saw the remains of the ranger’s camp, eerily deserted and with the tent canvases flapping forlornly in the wind. The two rovers landed and the party disembarked.
    “All their kit is still here, the tents are pitched and the rovers are untouched and ready to go,” said Jak after a cursory inspection of the abandoned camp.
    Arianna looked around with distaste. This was hardly the ideal spot to camp out. The smell of sulphur permeated upwards whilst the all too close rumble of the volcanoes gave forth to an atmosphere of tension and volatility. Jak regarded it all with disgust. “The fool,” he muttered, speaking of Wal. “I can’t believe he was unaware of the dangers of a place like this. Why any number of calamities could have befallen him. I’m almost tempted to go back now and give them up for lost.”
    “Significant that their kit is still here,” mused Bratten Jorg. “It shows they didn’t plan a proper investigation of the cave. Most likely they decided they wanted to be in and out in a hurry. They planned a quick look around to see what was down there,