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Elliot stared through the aircar window at the approaching base, first curious and then worried at the amount of activity there. People were hustling everywhere. Not running like there was frenzy afoot, but hurrying. When the hangar door came into view and the aircar was waved away toward the secondary hangar, Elliot saw why.
A large shuttle sat in the center of the room. Unlike the generic gray-and-white model that the TV crew had arrived in, this one was sunset orange, and reeked of money.
Elliot craned his neck as the aircar moved around the side of the building on its calm hover engine. He caught a glimpse of people in suits, surrounded by a mob of lesser peons. A glance forward showed Owen in urgent conversation over the radio.
Owen ended the call and swivelled to address the rest of the car. “Heads up! The overlords have arrived. Everything is up in the air now. I’m hoping against hope that we can get back to the colortalkers before everything gets taken away from us. The bosses aren’t settled in yet.” The car came to rest in the secondary hangar with a bump. “Let’s have a bare skeleton crew to hand off our patients now. Everybody else stay onboard. Xian, you too.”
Elliot saw the medic look surprised, then nod. There would be enough medical people on the ground.
The door slid open to show several of those medical people waiting. Owen snapped out instructions. The workers who he named moved quickly to get the unconscious humans onto gurneys, while Owen himself dragged the dead alien out from the back of the car. Elliot pulled his feet aside as the limp white form passed by, tail sliding along the floor. He realized that he was holding his breath. He didn’t breathe again until the body was outside the car.
“It’s probably not contagious,” Hubcap told him as Elliot tried to be cool about letting out the air he’d been holding. “Probably.”
“Thanks,” Elliot said. He breathed deeply. The air smelled like fuel and cleaning chemicals.
Owen popped his head back into the car. “Everybody sit tight! I’ll be right back.” He ducked out and jogged away. The gurneys were already wheeling toward the medical wing.
Elliot wondered if anyone there would have objections to the probably-not-contagious alien body, but things were likely too busy for anyone to care. Workers of all stripes ran past the aircar without so much as looking up at the windows.
The pilot shut off the engines. Quiet settled inside the car while chaos circled outside. Vic moved up to talk with the pilot, but everyone else stayed in their seats.
Elliot glanced at Hubcap. “Do you think he told the base about the underwater city?”
Hubcap flicked his eyebrows in a shrug. “Depends. If he found out that the overlords are here before he said something, he might have kept quiet.”
“I’ll bet they have their own cameras and biology experts,” Elliot said. “Maybe even diplomats. I hope he held his tongue.”
Hubcap used the belt harness to floss dirt out of a wrist seam. “If they don’t have a translator that actually works, it won’t do them much good.”
They waited in silence while the local workers rushed past on a multitude of errands. Elliot thought he recognized Anrik in the distance, driving a cart of packaged jetpods, but it was too far and too crowded to be sure. Even the secondary hanger was jammed with people; some were ferrying objects around while others simply ran, and a few appeared to be cleaning. It didn’t bode well for the new bosses’ attitudes.
“Is that guy seriously washing the trash truck?” Hubcap asked. “Of all the vehicles in here, he picked that one?”
“Well, it is the dirtiest,” Elliot said.
“The overlords must be neat freaks. What a horrible idea for them to come here.” The robot shook his head, then craned his neck over the seat at the camera crew. “The first person to record one of the overlords getting filthy wins a prize. I don’t know what yet; I’ll think of something.”
“Money?” Dale asked with a grin.
The robot made a static noise. “This gig doesn’t pay well enough to be throwing that around. I was thinking more something like making pancakes for you.”
“Somehow I doubt anyone here would want to eat anything you cook,” Elliot said. “The lack of taste buds, and practice...”
“Nonsense, I’ve had plenty of practice!”
“...And regard for our intestinal health.”
“Well, you may have a point there,” Hubcap admitted. “It would be good fun to test out these ‘laxatives’ I keep hearing about.”
“Like I said,” Elliot told him. “Keep trying.”
The conversation wandered in circles while the rest of the compound was a beehive of activity. Elliot was starting to think that Owen wouldn’t come back when a door banged open and he came striding into the hangar, accompanied by a severe-looking woman and a handful of new crewmembers.
“Let’s have introductions in the air,” he said as he entered the car, ushering people aboard. The workers hurried to their seats, followed by the silent woman, who carried a mysterious gadget slung over her shoulder.
Owen muttered something to Vic, who hustled to her own seat while the click of many buckles filled the air. The pilot started the flight engines, not bothering to hover outside first out of courtesy. Workers skittered aside as the aircar backed out of the hangar. No one stopped it. Elliot waited for pursuit, but there was none. The car turned and shot into the sky.
Vic leaned forward. “Their camera crew is still getting set up,” she said over the engines. “Let’s make this trip count.”
Owen called for attention. “Everybody, this is Ms. Acosta,” he shouted. “She’ll be spearheading the field operations from this point on.” He named each of the TV crew to her, and she responded in a businesslike manner.
Well, she does seem more prepared than Dr. Rhodes, Elliot decided. The woman wore sturdy clothes that looked like they could take some dirt, her black hair was tied back in a short braid, and she had a no-nonsense posture.
Once the introductions were done with, she asked to review the footage of the underwater city. Vic passed over a small camera and Owen watched it with Ms. Acosta, pointing things out. She didn’t betray any amazement at the groundbreaking discovery. When she was done, the rest of the ride passed in silence.
Once the aircar had crossed the mountain range and flown out over the flooded woods, this new leader directed the landing while listening to Owen’s advice. The car aimed for a clearing to the south of the river, a short walk from the breeding grounds.
The landing was exceptionally smooth. Elliot wondered just how worried he and the TV crew should be about staying on this new authority figure’s good side, if even the pilot seemed concerned.
Ms. Acosta ordered everyone forward with brisk efficiency. Owen silently waved for his workers to hurry. The TV crew did their best not to slow things down. Once out of the car, Elliot and Hubcap stood at attention with the biologists while Vic quietly directed the cameras to focus more on the surrounding environment than on the co-hosts. Aliens could appear at any time.
“Everyone silent,” Ms. Acosta said. “Let’s move out.” She held up her compact mystery gadget and strode forward, eyeing the viewscreen like a compass. Elliot decided it must be a new intelligence scanner.
But despite the technological guidance, the forest proved to be empty of aliens. Native birdsong echoed through the orange trees and small things scuttled about, but there was no sign of the land-based colortalkers. Hubcap spoke up, suggesting that they head back towards the river, but he was ignored — no small feat. Elliot was quiertly impressed.
“Have the natives been growing more numerous or scarce in the time you’ve been here?” Ms. Acosta asked Owen, not looking up from her screen.
Owen thought about it while they walked over more of those slippery curry leaves. “Hard to say,” he admitted. “We’ve hardly been able to do a census. And it’s possible that our appearance at the breeding grounds scared them.”
Ms. Acosta made a thoughtful noise and adjusted the direction she walked. Behind her, Hubcap made mocking gestures and imitated her posture. Vic gave him a sharp look. Elliot distracted the robot by pointing out an interesting cluster of blue corkscrew trees: the things had sprouted closely together and grown into a matted clump the size of a house. Brown thornbushes around the base were the only thing that kept Hubcap from instantly trying to climb the blue tangle; he reached and decided it was too far. Elliot could tell the robot was tempted to plow through anyway and risk a few new scratches to buff out later. Graham filmed this, stopping to hurry forward when the biologists appeared to be leaving them behind.
Elliot quick-stepped to catch up with the front of the pack. He was almost there when the group rounded a corner to the unwelcome sight of a doom bat crouched over a pile of dead aliens.
Earthlings scattered as the enormous creature spread its wings with a hissing snarl. Elliot dove for cover before he saw whether it was chasing them or not. He huddled behind an orange tree trunk and listened to his heart thump while people scrambled to hide around him. Hubcap stood in the open the longest, making sure all the humans were out of grabbing range before he dove into the thornbushes himself.
A long tense moment passed, while all that Elliot could hear was his own heartbeat, and everything smelled like spicy leaves. He was starting to hate that smell. So far he noticed it most while near ground level, worried about incoming predators.
When his heartbeat calmed slightly, he could make out the sound of wings flapping into the sky. He stayed where he was until Owen called the all-clear. Hubcap was already out of the thornbush and joining the group.
Elliot got to his feet, knees protesting, and hurried over to where Owen was explaining doom bats to Ms. Acosta. She looked more displeased than shaken. Apparently furry alien dragon things hadn’t been in the briefing.
Most of the others seemed as shaken as Elliot felt, which made him feel slightly better. He made sure the camera crew was none the worse for wear before looking for Hubcap.
He found the robot staring at the dead aliens. They were slightly gnawed-upon. Hubcap turned away as Elliot approached, and wouldn’t meet his eyes. The camera crew held back, but the biologists were soon on the scene. Elliot followed Hubcap back out of the way, and the pair stood quietly while Ms. Acosta asked Owen how this batch compared to his earlier findings.
“How many deceased natives have you discovered so far?” Ms. Acosta was asking. “Could they be dying out because of the frenzy?”
Owen admitted that it was possible. “All we’ve learned from testing is that they don’t appear to be allergic to us,” he added with a weak laugh. “We don’t have all the answers yet.”
When the biologists finished their inspection, someone asked if they would be taking the bodies back with them. Owen looked to Ms. Acosta.
“No,” she said. “We’re not here for the dead ones. We have some of those already, and we’ll be sending them to experts on Earth posthaste.” She gazed off through the trees. “The river is over there, so let’s find that beach you told me about.”
Owen opened his mouth, closed it, then led the way.
Minutes later at the water’s edge, Elliot peered through bushes at an empty shore. There were no mating pairs on the sand, and no visible swimmers in the water. Vic stood next to him with her camera, trying to spot signs of underwater civilization from a distance. No luck.
Owen frowned. “There’s no good way to get a look into the depths from here, not short of walking over and looking down,” he said with a glance at Ms. Acosta. “And given the spear incident, that would be extremely unwise.”
She nodded. “Agreed. Let’s track down some natives on land.” She pointed at the far end of the rock. “Can someone with a camera zoom in over there? Those look like footprints.”
Tarja could and did. “Looks like one set, leading away from the river’s edge,” she reported.
“That way, then.”
Elliot moved with the group, letting Mr. Acosta and Owen lead the way, but Hubcap stepped forward to take point.
“Superior robot senses,” he said at Ms. Acosta’s frown. She didn’t press the matter.
Hubcap blazed a trail along the tree line, following the wet footprints until they petered out on the grass some distance away. By then Ms. Acosta had her techno-compass up and running again. Elliot walked close enough behind her that he could see the arrows and numbers on the screen. The biggest number was counting down. When it reached single digits, something rustled up ahead.
Hubcap raised a hand. Everyone stopped walking.
A curious, beaky face peered around a tree, with blue-green patterns skimming along its scales.
The humans froze, all except for Ms. Acosta. She stepped past Hubcap, holding up the viewscreen and rotating a part on the side toward the multicolored face. Elliot could see words forming on the screen. He held his breath, not wanting to scare it off.