After a morning spent painstakingly cleaning and sorting partly decayed items which had been dug out of a muddy pit, few of which I recognised, the four of us were more than ready for a break. Pico had already half-excavated the site on a previous mission. It had once been part of something called a shopping centre. It had yielded up enough of its secrets to keep Pico happy and now he was keen to move on to a new site along the coast.

‘I’ll drive you back,’ Lana Leoni called over her shoulder as she led the way to one of the amphibicals. ‘I have to pick some equipment up from Base. Let’s go via a more scenic route this time, shall we?’

Lana was the other archaeologist and as one of the younger astronauts, she’d been happy enough to join in with our clowning around on the Byd. This was her first visit to Earth. She had a pin-sharp mind and I was shocked to learn that in all her time at Pioneer School she hadn’t once been picked for an Earth mission.

There was nothing very scenic about the site: a sterilised white brick temporary lab on anonymous rubbly marshland. The air was warm, sticky and thick with droning flies. You could almost imagine that these insects were curious to see what was going on, so intent were they upon plaguing us. Fortunately, if an insect did find its way into our suits, the skin-seal we sprayed all over ourselves each morning would stop any bites and diseases.

Low clouds had been blanketing the skies all morning but I was still amazed to have all that open sky above me. Yet I couldn’t stand staring at it for long while there was work to be done. There’d been four major dragomansk alerts that morning but no attacks and we’d witnessed another metamansk formation, really close-up this time, over twenty individual creatures. It was hugely impressive to see them flying in synch with one another, flitting up and down, backwards and forwards, like one gargantuan insect. Impressive and terrifying. We’d seen what a single dragomansk could do; it was horrific to imagine what damage a host of them might inflict. We watched and waited inside the lab until the metamansk broke up, the individuals peeling away from the main group and heading off in different directions. Pico told us this was typical. No one knew why they gathered together but some sort of information sharing was suspected. I remembered the way our first dragomansk had seemed to look at us so intelligently when we’d taken cover beneath the trees.

‘Come on, let’s have a turn at driving. We’ve all had lessons,’ said Halley.

‘Don’t forget who’s senior,’ Lana laughed. ‘You’re only allowed to drive the class ones and this is a class three. Get in.’

Reluctantly, I climbed in beside Robeen in the rear while Nisien and Halley sat next to Lana. She waved her hand and the roof closed over our heads.

‘That drago – drago – what’s its name again? Those big things we’ve seen fluttering about all morning.’ This was Halley being funny.

‘Drago-mansk,’ Lana sighed. ‘You’d better remember its name. Or at least remember what to do if you spot one.’

Halley laughed.

‘We know what to do,’ said Nisien in a sing-song voice.

‘Oh yes, drago-mansk,’ said Halley, ignoring him. ‘Only one thing worse, right? When they all gang up together. By the way, that one that dropped on the roof yesterday, do you know when they’re going to dissect it?’

‘I don’t know and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.’

Lana rotated her finger expertly in the steering zone, the amphibical turned one hundred and eighty degrees and we started off through the marsh although it wasn’t long before we were back up on the service road.

‘What’s the point in dissecting it?’ said Robeen. ‘We’re not going to find out how to kill the dragomansk by dissecting one; its genetic code is corrupted now, isn’t it?’

‘We’ve tried all sorts of ways to get rid of them,’ said Lana. ‘I guess we just have to keep trying. They’re such a menace. Whoever finds a solution will be an international hero, that’s for sure.’

‘A galactic hero, surely?’ corrected Nisien. ‘How about it, Halley? Halley would really like to take a look…’ From where I was sitting I couldn’t see exactly what Halley did to Nisien, but he immediately stopped speaking.

‘I’d like to take a look at Cardiff,’ Halley cut in. ‘I think we all would, right?’

He leaned over and raised his eyebrows at Robeen and me. Robeen said nothing but I muttered, ‘Absolutely, yes.’

Halley went on, ‘We arrived yesterday in the dark and today we were straight out into the field. The very wet, boggy field. We haven’t exactly seen much of the place yet.’

‘Remember, that is why we’re here,’ Nisien said. ‘To assist with the archaeology.’

Halley muttered something under his breath.

‘Well, you’ll get your chance to look around this afternoon,’ said Lana. ‘You’re lucky, you’re getting some free time with the class ones.’ These were the two-seater amphibicals.

‘Great,’ said Halley.

‘Keep your sauroters ready at all times,’ said Lana. ‘Seriously, this is no joke. I know you’ve been told time and time again, but you can’t be told enough: as long as you stay in the amphibical you’re usually fine, it’s humanoid shapes they’re programmed to attack, but don’t take any chances. If even one flies over your vehicle, just park, undercover if possible, and wait till it’s gone. They never stay anywhere long. Be careful. Look, we’re at the Castle.’

Lana slowed the vehicle and turned it to face the famous, ruined tower. Although our training should have prepared us, I wasn’t ready for the shock of seeing my beloved Castle in such a sorry state. I could have cried. It was ridiculous to imagine it might ever be rebuilt: who would bother when the whole Earth was being stripped back to nothing and abandoned?

‘We can get out briefly because I’m covering us but remember, you mustn’t do this on your own, not this afternoon or ever! Not unless one of us is with you. If I raise the alarm it’s straight back to the class three, right?’

We all agreed. Lana reminded us to prime our sauroters and we activated the dragomansk alert on our tiles. Climbing from the vehicle, we began to pick our way through the soggy marsh, taking care not to stray too far from the amphibical. It was slow going because the water came up to our knees and I was still adjusting to feeling so much heavier on Earth. I did manage to scramble up a rubble mound and near the top I noticed what looked like an eye peering out of a shadowy gap between the stones. Intrigued, I started removing the stones and brushing the dust and grit away from the flowing-haired figure before I realised exactly what it was. Only the upper half was visible and its left hand held the top of what looked like a round shield carved with spiky patterns, but of course, it wasn’t a shield, it was the sun. I shuddered. Here was Sol, one of the statues I had gazed at so many times on our own Castle tower back home, except that while ours was richly painted, this one was bare stone with crispy, silver grey lichen spreading across it like some disfiguring disease. Sol’s features were worn and softened but his face still wore the same cool and remote expression, his heavy-lidded eyes gazing past my shoulder, lost in thought. Without really thinking what I was doing, I pulled off my gloves, reached out and traced around the statue’s nose and lips with the tip of my finger.

‘Don’t do that.’ A sharp voice behind me broke the spell.

I turned. Robeen looked at me as though she’d forgotten to clean the toilet plumbing of her spacesuit.

‘You’re contaminating a cultural artefact.’

‘I’m brushing off the dust,’ I replied. ‘That’s hardly going to damage it.’

‘You are actually contaminating it,’ Robeen gave a very condescending sigh. ‘Remember our lessons at the SSO, Bree? You’re not even wearing gloves.’

I stood up, furious with Robeen but more so with myself. I knew she was right but I wasn’t about to admit it and the worst thing was, I had handed her a perfect excuse to criticise me. Contamination of artefacts was lesson one in the preschool guide to archaeology.

‘Rubbish,’ I said. ‘We’re traipsing all over this stuff. You could be doing damage right now treading on those stones, have you thought of that?’

‘I’m not deliberately rubbing my hands over precious artefacts. Acids from my skin aren’t contaminating them, Bree.’

‘Oh shut up!’ I said. ‘Go away and practise your cello.’

Robeen’s eyes narrowed and her voice dropped. The others were nearby, after all. ‘That comment’s about all I’d expect from you,’ she sneered. ‘How you ever got chosen for this mission is anyone’s guess.’

‘And you,’ I said out loud, ‘do you know why you got chosen, Robeen? Core Panel thought they’d do the whole school a favour and get your miserable face out of the way for a bit. Everyone’s sick to death of you thinking you’re so much better that anyone else.’

‘I don’t think I’m better than everyone else.’

‘Oh, and what could you mean by that, I wonder?’

‘Hey,’ Lana called over. ‘What’s going on?’

‘It’s Bree,’ Robeen said calmly. ‘She was touching that statue with her bare hands and contaminating it. I advised her to stop and she started yelling at me.’

‘I wasn’t yelling, I was only…’

‘Bree, you’re still raising your voice,’ warned Lana. She stumbled over to us.

‘But did you hear what she said to me?’ I protested.

‘No, but I heard what you said to her and that was enough. I’m going to have to report this matter when we get back to Base. You’d better make friends, right? Or at least keep out of each other’s way till you’ve calmed down. Bree, you know as well as I do why we have to get along on expeditions. If we all fell out, the work wouldn’t get done and the mission would fall apart! You need to think about that. Anyway, Robeen’s right, you shouldn’t be touching anything without gloves on. Put them back on, that’s an order.’

Halley and Nisien were staring at us and a disdainful smile tweaked the corners of Robeen’s mouth. I cursed myself for taking the bait. As Lana said, arguments amongst an expeditionary team were really frowned upon, even more so than at school, and now I’d gone and landed myself in trouble in the most pathetic way possible. I guessed I’d be losing my free time that afternoon at the very least. If anyone thought Bree Aurora didn’t deserve a place on the mission, she’d just gone and proved them right.

Rain began falling from the sky, real rain.

We all looked up and watched the cool, gentle rain patter on our visors. Halley spread his arms wide, even though there was no chance of him actually feeling the rain on his skin. The lumps of stone we’d clambered over began to stain a darker grey. There were plenty of gasps and ‘Wow-wows!’ all around, even from Lana.

There weren’t any from me. It was the second time Robeen had managed to ruin what should have been an incredible moment. Even Sol was crying.

Back at Base, the argument was reported to Doc Carter, or at least he was the one who came to our quarters to investigate it. Yet, reclining in a chair with his feet bare and a drink dangling in one hand, he seemed surprisingly relaxed about the whole matter.

‘So, I’ve heard all about it and all I’m going to say is it shouldn’t have happened and it better not happen again, right? You don’t really need me to go into the reasons why we don’t fight and argue on these missions, do you?’

He looked at each of us in turn and we shook our heads. Outside, the rain fell steadily, striping the windows and obscuring the view. It hadn’t stopped since we’d left the Castle.

‘Bree, is that all right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Fine. Investigation over.’

He rose to leave. I couldn’t believe that he wasn’t going to say any more. I’d escaped a punishment but I wasn’t really satisfied. Why was he treating the matter so casually? Would it have been the same story if one of the others had got in trouble? Robeen looked shocked and something else too: as though I disgusted her. Well, I decided to show her I didn’t expect or want special treatment.

‘Um, can I say something?’ I said.

The Doc stopped and pinned me with a quizzical smile. ‘Of course.’

‘I was expecting you to at least ask me to apologise to Robeen.’

‘I don’t think that’s necessary.’ He wrinkled his nose. ‘From what I hear, things were said on both sides. Just don’t let it happen again.’

‘I’d sooner apologise properly.’ I turned to Robeen, looking her squarely in the face. ‘Robeen, you were right, I shouldn’t have taken off my gloves. I only did so because I … well, I just wanted to touch the statue, I found it so beautiful. I did it but I shouldn’t have.’

‘That’s all I was saying,’ Robeen said warily, like I’d caught her off-guard.

‘I know and I’m sorry.’

‘That’s very, very good of you, Bree. Commendable, I would say. ’ Doc Carter rested his hand on my shoulder like a proud uncle, then gave it a little squeeze. I froze. It felt awful to be so patronised by him and in front of the others. Why was he being like this?

Another smile and he turned to leave a second time.

‘I don’t think it is “good” of me,’ I said. ‘It’s just what I ought to do.’

This time he paused in the doorway. ‘Well, that’s wonderful. There’s poetry in your soul, Bree. You know, I even understand why you took your gloves off. I might well have done so myself. Just … not again, okay?’

Damn!

‘Now…’ Doc Carter held up his finger as though he’d remembered something. ‘What are your plans for this afternoon?’

‘A bit of a wander, maybe?’ Nisien chirped up. Robeen said nothing.

‘Okay, just no wandering outside the specified range and stay in your pairs, yes? Nisien and Robeen, Bree and Halley. The class ones are outside ready for you. So where are you going?’

‘Oh, here and there,’ said Nisien. ‘I was hoping to take a closer look at the amphibicals. I’ve an idea how I might construct a device to deal better with objects that block our way, like the fallen trees that held us up when we arrived. I’d like to do it for my project.’

‘Sounds great.’ I noticed the way Doc Carter ignored Robeen completely. ‘And how about you, Bree and Halley?’

Halley let me go first. ‘Well, Halley says he’s happy to come to the Museum with me,’ I said. ‘If that’s all right still?’ I looked at him for confirmation.

‘Sure,’ said Halley.

‘Wonderful.’ Doc Carter raised his eyebrows at Halley.

‘Oh, but before we go,’ said Halley. ‘My project’s going to be about insects and I was wondering if Bree and I could take another look at the dead dragomansk down in the lab? We’re both interested in seeing it again, aren’t we?’

It was my turn to nod.

Doc Carter smacked his lips. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘We performed the dissection this morning and it’s gone.’

‘Gone?’ Halley frowned.

‘The body’s been discarded. It didn’t tell us anything. We didn’t really expect it to. We’re more interested in pursuing other methods of countering the dragomansk threat at the moment.’

‘Where was it discarded? We could still see it, couldn’t we?’

‘Couldn’t we?’ I echoed.

‘No. No means no.’ Doc Carter seemed a little irritated. ‘It’s unsafe. It’s been taken away. You don’t think we’re going to take chances with you, do you? We couldn’t let you near that thing, so forget it. Instead, just go and enjoy the Museum this afternoon.’ Turning my way, he switched back to automatic smile mode before leaving the room.