Survivor (7 page)

"Maybe not, but it's too early. We're not
ready."

"So what? How many more times do you think
we're going to be able to get away? This might be our last chance
and we have to make it count."

"What if whatever they uncover does our job
for us?"

"We can't count on that. Besides, you saw it
'you will have the power to control the universe'. We can't let the
Confederacy get that."

"That's a bunch of crap carved above an
ancient tomb. It wouldn't be the first time idiots have fallen for
that kind of rubbish."

Nova didn't have to hear more to know who
she'd found. The fugitives were planning their next attack and from
the sounds of things, it could happen at any moment. She frowned.
She could use her gun and take them both out but then what would
she do? Cart two bodies out of the excavation site?

She could threaten them and order them to
walk out. Somehow she didn't think they'd come without a fight.
They were on edge and that made them unpredictable. Unpredictable
was dangerous.

She glanced at the yellow wall. There was
more writing carved here. The letters were much smaller, the script
spreading out over the wall and interspersed with tiny
pictures.

"You rose up and grasped your hands around
the universe. You held it in your grip and it was good," Nova
repeated the words. There was something wrong about them; the beat
of the sentences didn't feel right.

"Cal, how sure are you of this patch? It
doesn't feel right," she said.

"I'm not sure at all of the patch. It's only
been recently created and is largely based on dead languages, so
it's impossible to confirm. Rest assured, I am collecting
information based on what you see, and the patch will probably
undergo multiple upgrades."

"Something's not right," Nova said. "It's
like it's telling the reader their own history, but that doesn't
make any sense."

"Perhaps it's a spiritual text?" Cal said.
"The sentences in such documents are often aimed directly at the
reader."

"Maybe," she said.

She continued to read the passage; it still
wasn't right. She rested her hand against the wall. She didn't have
time to stand there and read ancient alien carvings when there were
two fugitives planning to blow the whole place to pieces.

She forced her eyes away from the wall and
turned back towards the voices. There was only one thing for it.
Even if she did have to carry two bodies out, she was sure that
Codon would forgive her, in time. After all, she was saving his
damned project.

She reached into her holster and pulled out
her gun. She checked it over. The blue tube on the top glowed with
pent-up energy. She strained her ears for their voices. It was easy
to tell exactly where they were standing based on their raised
words. She took a deep breath and stepped around the corner.

An older man with a thick moustache looked
at her and his eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "What the-"

The other man also sported a thick moustache
and a chunk of his left ear was missing. He followed his fellow's
gaze and fell silent. They both stared at Nova with open eyes and
mouths. Their fingers twitched, no doubt readying to dive for the
guns at their belts.

"I will give you one chance," Nova said in a
firm voice. "Come out of here with me now and you'll be able to
live. Try anything and I'll be forced to do what I have to do."

"And who the hell are you?" one of the men
said. He glanced sideways at his partner; their faces were
emotionless masks.

"There's a pretty penny on both of your
heads. Dead or alive."

"Well," the first man said and held his
hands up high near his head. "We'd hate to cause you problems."

"I'm sure," she said.

"But we're not going to spend our lives
wasting away in some jail cell when the Confederacy is blundering
around like it does."

"Then you'll escape, like last time, and
I'll find you and collect another reward," she said.

"Sorry," the second man said and his hand
whipped down to his gun. He flicked it out of its holster and
levelled it at Nova.

Nova held out her own gun, set her sights,
and squeezed the trigger. Her arm flicked with the force of the
kickback but she barely felt it amongst the hard vibrations going
on all around.

The man's gun flashed white and sailed out
of his hand and into the air. It clattered to the floor of the
tunnel metres away. He let out a cry of surprise and grabbed his
right hand to his chest, nursing it with his left. He looked at
Nova with wide-eyes, his mouth working.

The other man wasn't so shocked. He had his
gun out before his companion's hit the ground and fired once.

Nova stepped to her right, well out of the
way of the shot. She squeezed her own trigger and a flash of blue
light screamed through the air between them. The man's gun exploded
with light and was also sent sailing through the air.

"Two for two," Nova said.

"I'll admit you're a good shot," said the
first man.

"Damn right," the man with the missing ear
said. "But we aren't coming with you."

"Too bad," she said with a shrug and fired
two more shots. They slammed into the men's chests and they
collapsed backwards. They crumpled down onto their backs and their
heads lolled onto the sand, eyes still open.

Unseen by the fugitives, she had adjusted
the setting on her gun. They would be unconscious for some time,
but they would survive. She sighed; it looked like she would be
carrying two bodies out of the tunnels.

She looked around the corridor and down the
other fork. There had to be some kind of carting device for
carrying the sand and dirt of the excavation back up out of the
tunnel. She walked away from the men and down the other fork,
towards the sound of digging.

She wasn't worried about the fugitives
waking up and walking away. They would be incapacitated for some
time to come.

The tunnels were darker in this area. The
metal plating and strange lights dimmed, turning from a yellowy-red
to blue. The floor was sandier and covered in newly churned dirt
but there was no sign of a cart.

At the next turn there was more writing.
Nova frowned at it. Her curiosity had gotten her into mountains of
trouble in the past but it had also saved her life, and it was more
reliable than her luck, however unlikely that was.

She'd always been fascinated by ancient
civilisations. The thought that somehow ancient Earth languages had
reached this tiny, far-away planet sent her imagination
soaring.

They were so far away from Old-Earth, both
in time and distance. It seemed impossible that any travel could
have happened so long ago. But it was equally impossible to think
that the same languages evolved independently. Her mind also turned
with the why of it all; why was there no life recorded on this
planet when there obviously had been.

"You are great. You are powerful. You should
fear you," she whispered more of the text. "What? That doesn't make
sense."

She frowned and re-read the writing. That's
what it said. 'You should fear you.' She stared at the writing.
What was that supposed to mean?

"Cal run some variance analysis on this bit
of text," she said. "It doesn't add up."

"Confirmed," Cal said.

A few seconds later, Cal's voice returned to
her head. "Variance analysis reveals only one possible solution
based on syntax and word order."

"Well, what is it?" she said.

"We."

"What?"

"The translation patch has mistakenly
translated 'We' to 'You'," Cal repeated.

Nova said the passage again with the new
translation. "We are great. We are powerful. You should fear
us."

"Cal, update my chip," she said. The words
rearranged themselves in front of her. There was something about
the passage that she wasn't seeing. What did the translation error
mean? Her memory ran over the words she'd seen so far.

The blood drained from Nova's face.

Open and we will have the power to control
the universe.

It was the text above the entrance, the
words that Codon was so excited about. She knew exactly what it
meant. It changed everything.

CHAPTER SEVEN

She turned on her heel and sprinted from the sound of
digging. Her feet slapped against the sandy floor, carrying her
through tunnels and darkly lit passages. Her mind raced with what
she'd seen, only barely aware of her direction, her
movement.

She ran straight past the tunnel with the
two unconscious fugitives. She barely acknowledged them. She was
gone. Onwards and upwards. Her heart beat erratically in her chest;
not from exertion, but from fear. Adrenalin pumped through her
veins, making her muscles move faster.

Her legs sprung forward. It wasn't long
before she passed workers making their ponderous trips into the
tunnel. They watched her with their mouths wide open as she barged
past and continued up the corridor.

She breathed hard, her lungs refusing to
hold the air she needed. Painful gasps filled her chest, but it was
never enough. Heat broke out on her forehead and sweat dripped down
in icy trickles. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach. It
clenched tightly along with her shoulders and neck.

She couldn't get the ancient words out of
her head. How could the confederacy be so stupid? Didn't they
realise what they were about to unleash?

She made it out of the tunnels and into the
night air. She was hit with a blast of cool wind, but it wasn't
enough to calm her nerves. She burst past a collection of workers
and continued to run. She brushed past the trees and bushes of the
oasis and exploded into the open desert scattered with Confederacy
ships.

Shouts erupted around her as she sprinted
out of the trees but she paid them no attention. She had to do
something. There was only one thing she could do; get to Codon.

She pushed on, running from the trees and
past the smaller ships. Confederacy soldiers closed in on her. They
were right on her heels, calling for her to stop. She strained her
ears to hear them. So far they hadn't pulled a gun. Good; she'd
keep running.

It was hard to sprint through the soft sand
of the desert. Her feet kept sinking. Each step she had to pull
them free to push forward for the next step. The grit and grime of
the desert flicked up into her eyes and nose. The calm serenity
which she'd found so relaxing earlier had become the sinister
silence of a graveyard.

Nova sprinted with every ounce of strength
she had. Codon's ship was in sight when a large weight slammed into
her back. The force of it sent her flying forward. She crashed into
the sand and a flurry of grains poured into her open mouth.

Someone had hold of her legs and another
held her arms. She was flipped over and a bright light shone down
into her face.

"It's the damned hunter from earlier," a
rough voice said.

"Why the hell was she down in the tomb?"
another asked.

"She was forbidden by Codon himself. I heard
it all."

"What did you expect? Probably trying to
steal herself a tidy profit."

Nova spit the sand out and coughed as grains
slid their rough way down her throat.

"I wasn't stealing anything and even if I
had it wouldn't be any worse than what you're doing," she said. She
glared at whoever was pointing the bright light into her eyes; she
couldn't see a damned thing.

Her entire vision was taken up with the
torch and the ring of darkness which surrounded it. Her arms and
legs were pinned and the only thing she could move was her
head.

"Let me go," she said. "I need to talk to
Codon."

"Where are your manners, hunter?" Alaina's
voice was unmistakeable. A sharp pain erupted up Nova's side, the
result of someone's boot.

She spluttered. The blow knocked the air out
of her lungs and it took her some time to get her breath back.
Moments which she didn't have to waste.

"Let me go," she said. "I need to talk to
him right away or I can promise you, you'll regret it."

"Go easy on the threats there," Alaina said.
"I don't think you're in any position to be making them."

"And I don't-"

"He wants to see her," someone said, cutting
Nova's hot reply short.

"Why would he want to see her?" Alaina
said.

"I have no idea. Maybe he thinks she made
some wondrous discovery."

"That damned man! He has no respect for how
things should be done. Why the general left a scientist in charge
beats the hell out of me," Alaina said.

"They're the orders," the other voice
said.

A new voice spoke, "What do you think we
could pin her for?"

"I reckon we could get ten years on the Zeta
Asteroid for her."

Alaina's sharp words cut through the night
air. "Blast the Zeta Asteroid. She should be shot. She's an insult
to the Confederacy."

"Well the kick you gave her might just kill
her."

"I wish," Alaina said. "Bloody hunters."

"Orders are orders."

"Fine," Alaina said. "But she won't leave
this planet. She's a danger to the Confederacy and a fucking
nuisance."

"You know I'll look the other way."

"Copy that," the third voice said.

Rough hands grabbed hold of Nova's arms and
pulled her to her feet. She was pushed onwards through the sand,
away from the muttering soldiers. A gun muzzle rested firmly
against her spine. She would have bet a hundred credits it was
Alaina's.

They shoved her forwards, knocking her from
side to side every few paces, until they got to the monstrosity
which was the main Confederacy vessel. They climbed the steps away
from the sandy desert floor. The lights inside the ship were
blinding, compared to the desert, and Nova had to squint to
see.