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As the gates closed, the Raiders, guns ready, stood alert but scorpions didn’t regain their equilibrium. They crawled endlessly in every direction. After the dreary wetness and fog I suddenly realized this chamber was bright and sunny. I turned around and saw Kansas in the summer.
Flat land. Endless flat land. Some grasses and some type of crop that looked remarkably like corn. Green stalks, but I didn’t see any buds yet. About five feet high. Perfectly aligned in rows. Two Raiders eased me down again. I leaned against a tree as the Raiders prepared to make camp. I saw two others had been wounded. Clint nursed a nasty gash in his side. The Cajun had a long tear on her thigh.
Rab walked up and saluted. “Shall we make camp here, major?”
“Yes. It doesn’t look like we’ll need any guard but let’s put some out, just in case. Run some scans on the chamber. It doesn’t look dangerous, but looks can be deceiving.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We’re not breaking camp early tomorrow either. We’ll going to take a day or two off before we head for the next chamber.”
Cricket sat down in the dirt beside me, pulled out her medical scanner and passed it over my leg again.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’ve had better days,” I said. “But I’ve had a few worse too.”
“Where’s the pain now?” she said.
“About midway between the knee and ankle. It seems to be going down and is decreasing. It’s not as bad as it was a few minutes ago.”
“That’s positive and I’m getting good readings from the scanners. You are going to pull through, sir.”
It was Astrid who answered. She had walked up behind. “That’s good to know. I tend to worry about the major once in a while.”
“It’s appreciated.”
I leaned back until my head hit the tree. I stayed put until Geneva brought me a bowl of what looked to be beef stew.
“You might want to eat something, sir. It will help you feel better. This news might help you feel better too.” She looked toward the ersatz green stalks. “Our scanners say this chamber is as peaceful as it looks. No life forms. Nothing on the ground, nothing in the air, nothing under the ground. Some plants are growing here, but that’s about it. It reminds me of Nebraska.”
“I was thinking Kansas.”
“Pretty much the same thing. My grandparents had a farm in Nebraska when I was growing up. We went out there every summer. I enjoyed it, but the visit did get a bit dull the last couple of days. This looks very much like it.”
I took a spoonful of the beef. It was much better than I expected. “I hope this place is as dull as that long away Nebraska farm. I can use a little dullness.”
I quickly finished the meal and handed the bowl back to her. “Give my compliments to the chef.”
I became drowsy, probably because of all the medicine Cricket had injected into time. But before I dozed off, Rab made one last trip back and gave me the OK sign.
“All is quiet, major. This is stillness valley. I walked out and inspected the corn stalks, or whatever they are. Didn’t even see any bugs. No little critters on the green stalks and none on the ground that I can see. This is not only still; it’s probably sterile.”
“Hope you’re right, but let’s not take any chances.”
“We won’t. I have a defensive perimeter set up. If anything tried to get near it, it will wind up dead and alarms will blare out. I’ll have two guards while others sleep. I’ll take the first watch. Although it may be difficult sleeping since it’s so bright.”
“I don’t know about the rest of the squad but I can certainly drop off,” I said.
Five minutes later I did just that.
Eight hours later, when I woke up and put weight on my leg, I found it was fine. A minor twinge at the knee but that was all. I told the squad we were taking a day off so they could roam as they pleased. Although there wasn’t much to see in this chamber. Long rows of corn stalks and then even more long rows of corn stalks. Astrid and I walked down one path between the long rows.
“Two chambers down and two to go,” she said. “But this one looks easy. All we have to do is walk through it. No aliens, no green crocs, no black creepy-crawly.”
“I hope it stays that way. We won’t have anything coming up from the ground at us, will we?”
She shook her head. “No, I sent down probes. No tunnels, no pathway. Just good, old-fashioned dirt for five miles down.”
“Good. There’s something to be said for good, old-fashioned dirt.”
“Captain Markey called us and we told him everything was proceeding. There had been some resistance, but it was overcome. He said it was very peaceful outside the sphere. The ship remained on yellow alert, but he wasn’t expecting any trouble.”
“Good, we’ll take a day or so to take our bearings and move on.”
We crossed another path in the field. The stalks looked identical. The only difference being one patch looked slightly higher than another. Never had I felt so good to see agriculture.
“You’re walking well. The leg is healed?”
“Yes. Feels great. By the end of the day I’ll be ready for action. As you said, just two more chambers. If this one stays peaceful, just one more. Next time we talk to Wade, tell him we need a titanic vessel sent out here.”
Astrid gave me a sly glance. “You have a plan?”
“I sure do. I think I have a very good plan but we need him to put it into action.”
That night around our artificial campfire we sang five choruses of ‘Gary Owen’ . We were feeling good and laughed like kids on a camping trip with a real fire.
We had brought some whiskey and bourbon along for the trip and, since we didn’t expect any combat, we indulged.
“So anyway we were on Atonos, Logan and me, with an eight-feet space between our mountain and the next one,” Cajun said. “He whips out his hook rope, grabs me around the waist and says, ‘Hang on.’ He hooks a ledge on the other mountain and before I can say anything we are zipping through the air and drop on the second mountain ledge. I appreciate the gesture, but down about a mile is a wooden bridge. I point to it and tell Logan, ‘We could have just walked’. And he says, ‘I know, but I always wanted to do that.’”
All the Raiders roared with laughter. The artificial fire crackled.
Carli drank some whiskey and patted Lamour on the back. “Clint here did something similar although there was no bridge in sight. I got busted up on Landimire. Ribs, legs. We did our best to avoid the natives because they were savage creatures. But we had a couple of rivers to cross. Rushing, fast-flowing rivers. So he just hauled me over his shoulder. Still remember that cold, incredibly cold water hitting my face.”
“That’s what you get for being so tall,” Clint said. “For two miles I had to balance her on her shoulder, shifting her from one to the other.”
“And a fish bit my nose!” Carli said, poking it with her finger. “Right on the tip. By the time I recuperated from the other injuries I still had a huge red spot on my nose. Thought I would need cosmetic surgery.”
“Red noses have a famous history. A good history. Think of Randolph,” I said.
“Randolph? You mean the general.”
“No, the reindeer.”
Carli laughed so hard she spilled some of her drink. As did a few other Raiders.
“Carli, the red-nosed Raider,” Murdock yelled.
“I told them to leave me behind. I didn’t think they could make it out carrying me. But they refused.”
“We never leave anyone behind. Never,” I said. “That’s another rule of the Raiders and every other military unit.”
“Darn right. We were going to get her out no matter what,” Lamour said.
Carli smiled and lifted her finger. “And I will claim that Clint has never regretted saving my life back then... well maybe once or twice.”
“Astrid, tell us about when you zapped Major Altamonte. I hear if you two are walking down the same path he gives you a wide berth. About a mile or two.”
Astrid chuckled. “Nothing to tell. He had roaming hands and they roamed into the electric shock zone. Boy, did he get a surprise.”
“Did he know you had the electro-implants when he grabbed you?”
“I don’t know. But he did after he grabbed me.” She chuckled again. “I gave him a full blast. Knocked him off his feet, flat on his back. So I walk up, grab him south of the border and tell him if he ever tries that again, this is the place I will zap him. He was sweating a river when I let him go.”
“Glad you zapped him,” Geneva said. “It’s tough not liking Ed. He does have charisma. What he doesn’t have is a romantic bone in his body.”
“He was lucky to have any bones after Astrid fried him,” Rab said. “I never date women with electro-implants. What happens if they have a bad temper?”
“You just better be extra nice to them,” Geneva said. “Women have needed those things for a thousand years. Hey, finding mates when you are expert in dozens of weapons is not easy. How would you like to be a guy married to a woman who can kill you in any number of ways?”
“I highly recommend it,” I said, prompting more laughter from the Raiders. “And I’m still alive.”
Carli shook her head. “If you’re in the military you can’t marry a civilian. They just don’t understand. You particularly can’t marry a civilian if you’re one of the Ryvenbark’s Raiders. How many civilians could understand what we do?” She swallowed the rest of her drink. “The love you have for your comrades is something very difficult for civilians to understand.” She offered her glass in a toast. “You are my brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and dearest, dearest friends. Without you, there would be a gigantic hole in my heart.”
“Hear, hear,” Rab said. He clinked his glass on hers. We all did.
After we emptied our liquor bottles, we sang songs of war and songs of love.
There was no night in this chamber, but the sky grew dimmer as the gray of what would be an Earth evening spread across the empty fields. We ended on a note of joyous melancholy.
We broke up and roamed around the camp. Usually I can sense when people are near, but I was so relaxed I didn’t notice Geneva at my elbow.
“Sir, may I talk to you a moment?”
“Of course. What can I do for you?”
“Major, you sense or feel anything or any presence besides the Raiders here?”
I shook my head. “No. Not at all.”
She sighed and crossed her arms. “I’m slightly empathic. The trait isn’t nearly as strong in me as our official empaths, but I have a degree of it. The feeling I have is vague, but I have a sense we’re being watched. That someone or something is keeping an eye on us.”
“Are you sure? How could an alien be around without us seeing him?”
“I don’t know sir, and no, I’m not sure. My empathic sense is not strong. I could be wrong, but I wanted to bring this to your attention.”
“Thank you, Geneva. You did the right thing.” I paused. “You say there is someone watching us. Can you tell anything about this alien or just that he’s close by?”
“I don’t sense any hatred from him or anything hostile. I feel a... curiosity and a puzzlement. And... this is strange... a...”
“A what?”
“Some type of poignancy. But I don’t know what that means.”
“Neither do I, Geneva. I guess the only thing we do is wait and watch. But you felt no hostility, no animosity toward us?”
“No sir. None at all.”
“Keep me informed. Let me know if that empathetic sense gets stronger or weaker.”
“Yes, sir.”
I shook my head. An alleged alien being who likes off-key singing. The sphere continued to have mysteries galore.