Beyond the Reach of Earth: Book Two of the Lightspeed Trilogy by Ken MacLeod

Author:Ken MacLeod [MacLeod, Ken]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780356514819
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2023-03-20T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Ancients of New Mu

New Mu, Apis, Tuesday 11 November 2070 to Wednesday 12 November 2070

From just inside the belt of trees, beyond the scree slopes that Patel had pointed out, the thin line of smoke rose – straight up at first, then caught by the breeze and dissipated.

Owen ostentatiously sniffed the air. ‘Burning wood.’ Another sniff. ‘Roasting animal tissue.’

‘You’re having a laugh,’ said Jenkins.

‘My nose is rather more sensitive than yours, my friend. And given the amount of rain that has fallen recently, I very much doubt that any wood over there is naturally dried. We may have found the makers of the stone arrows.’

‘Or of the high-tech arrows, huh?’ said Muranov, with a sidelong glance at Myles.

‘Maybe,’ Myles said. ‘But I doubt it, for all the reasons you gave. If these arrows came from the Fermi we’ll find out soon enough.’

‘And if what we felt when we crossed that rockfall came from them,’ Muranov went on, ‘we’ve had our second warning.’

‘Do you want us to stop now?’ Owen demanded.

Muranov shrugged. ‘No, just . . . proceed with caution.’

Myles snorted. ‘That’s what we’re doing anyway! Everyone OK with going on?’

Everyone was. Myles reported the situation to Knight, who concurred: ‘It’s what you came for,’ he said. ‘Good luck.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Keep me in the loop.’

‘Understood, Lieutenant.’

They re-formed the single file, and Myles led them on, along the riverbank. Boids vanished into the treetops and the wind freshened. Hamilton Rise became a faint glow behind darkening clouds, then faded altogether. Rain fell, heavy and hard. It blurred their glasses within seconds, and buffeted the drone, making its view jerky as well as blurry. Myles pulled up his peaked hood, and slipped his glasses inside his overall to wipe them dry on his shirt. By the time he put them back on and peered through the rain the smoke had gone, the fire presumably doused by the downpour.

‘Stay alert, everyone!’

‘All clear behind,’ Marie replied.

‘And around,’ Jenkins added.

The rain passed. The air remained chill, the ground soggy. They reached the scree slope, a great spill of small, rough rocks that partly dammed the river, spreading out into a fan of debris through which narrow, deep torrents forced their way to the main flow farther down. The scree rose less than half a metre at its highest, and more than twenty metres across. Beyond lay many scattered boulders, on the bank and in the river.

Myles stopped.

‘Should I go first?’ Owen asked.

‘No. That wouldn’t prove anything.’ Myles turned to face the others. ‘Any volunteers?’

Patel stepped forward. ‘I’ll go. I wanted to look in the river for Fermi stones anyway.’

Myles motioned her on. ‘Good on you, Cindy. If you feel anything like you felt before, Marcus can carry you back.’

Rather gingerly, Patel set off. She walked forward and to the right, towards the nearest stream. Along the way she stooped and hefted a stone.

‘Same rock as before,’ she said, turning it around in her hands. ‘Definitely off the mountain.’ She waited a moment, then laughed. ‘No queasy feelings.’

She went over to the edge of the stream, and looked up and down, then backed away, shaking her head.

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