The Drift by Diana Dru Botsford

Author:Diana Dru Botsford [Botsford, Diana Dru]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Suspense
ISBN: 9781905586608
Google: 10AxmQEACAAJ
Publisher: Fandemonium Limited
Published: 2012-08-15T06:21:27+00:00

“Rats in a maze, Daniel.”

“Jack, I don’t think that’s what this is all about.” Topsoil spilled from Daniel’s fingers. So far, he’d recovered a few marble shards, several large splinters of polished wood, and a three-foot wide granite pedestal — the same stone that had held the obelisk.

If they were inside some kind of holographic projection, someone was going to a lot of trouble to spare no detail.

“You’re right about one thing,” Daniel said. “Rubble pretty much describes what we have here.” Without any tools, he had to dig with his hands. It was slow, tedious work. He used his fingertips as a brush, sweeping back one area, and then the next. Sure, he could just plunge in and hope for the best, but if he broke something — a bit of stone, or something that could be a clue — he’d regret it.

“I’d kill for a pair of sunglasses,” Jack muttered, standing a few feet away.

“You could help me sift through this.”

“You’re the archaeologist, not me.”

Daniel lifted his head, the relentless sunlight near blinding him. “Do you want to find a way out of here or not?”

“Someone needs to stand guard.”

“Against what? Another earthquake?” Daniel jabbed a finger toward another small mound of dirt, bits of marble, and granite. “Tell me the big bad general isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.”

“Big bad, my ass.” Jack sank down beside the other mound and grabbed a handful of dirt.

“Careful,” Daniel warned. “Go slowly. We don’t want to miss anything.” He demonstrated how to sift through the dirt.

“Hey, if it gets us out of here, I’ll pick this apart speck by speck.” Jack got the hang of it pretty quick — which should have surprised Daniel, but it didn’t. When motivated, Jack had a knack for picking up skills if the need arose.

After watching him excavate for a few moments, Daniel returned to his own efforts. Eventually, the loose dirt he’d brushed aside gave way to more firmly packed soil.

And a definite chunk of granite.

“Found something.” He carefully swept away the soil packed around a three-inch wide, foot-long vertical piece of smooth granite. “This looks like a piece of the obelisk!”

Flipping it over, he noticed blocky indentations along the back. He brushed away the embedded dirt and there they were, the letters P and E. The first two Ancient letters for the word Pedion.

“That’s good, right?” Jack took the granite chunk from his hands.

“Maybe. I’m not sure what we can do with it, though. We already know the planet’s name. We need the rest of the obelisk if we’re going to make any sense out of this.”

“If you found that, we’ll find the rest and you’ll figure it out,” Jack muttered. He returned to his work with the topsoil.

Something had been eating at Jack earlier. That much was clear to Daniel. Feigning nonchalance, he cleared away more dirt from the immediate area. “So, what’s going on with you, anyway?”

“Digging like a kid in a sandbox. Wanting to ring the neck of whoever decided to treat us like lab rats.”

“We’re not rats.

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