crunch through the piles, excited to be the first person to see these Warriors in over two thousand years. It almost makes me want to be an archeologist. Almost!
When I go to pick up another floodlight, Beau is waiting at the base of the ladder. Dangling high above us is the next tripod.
“Anything?” he asks me.
“No. It’s…nice.”
“Nice?”
How to explain? “I haven’t felt this comfortable in a Warrior pit since Jarren attacked. And to see them all…whole. It reminds me of when I was younger and…” Safer.
“And what, Mouse?” Niall steps from one of the rows and joins us.
“And when I used to hide behind them, avoiding my mother and the long list of tasks she wanted me to do.” I put my hands on my hips. “Sound familiar, Toad? Hiding in the Warriors?” He’d done the same thing to avoid me when we first arrived on Yulin.
“Ah… Look, here’s the next light. Love to chat, but I gotta work.” He grabs it and heads deeper into the pit.
“Chicken,” I call.
Beau laughs, but then sobers as he studies the statues. “The way they stare straight ahead is kind of creepy. I can’t imagine growing up surrounded by Warriors.”
“Strange, I can’t imagine my life without them. My brother and I used to play around them—hide and seek, tag…” A sudden pang of grief hits me.
“Brother?”
“Yeah, Phoenix, he’s in a time jump to Earth.” And here’s another quirk of living with the time dilation. No one asks you about your family for fear of upsetting you. Instead they wait until you mention someone and then ask, figuring since you brought the subject up, it should be safe.
“That’s rough. Why did he leave?”
“He wants to be an archeologist like my parents.”
“Why couldn’t he stay and learn from them? Aren’t they the best?”
“They think so.” My smile fades. “But anyone who wishes to be more than a tech has to study at the site on Earth.” My parents were thrilled and devastated at the same time. Sad days, indeed.
“You can always catch up to him.”
True, but that means leaving lots of other people far in the past.
The next light arrives and Beau snags it before me. I stick my tongue out at him.
“Brat,” he says.
While I’m waiting, I scan the shadows. Still just normal shadows.
“How’s it going?” Mom calls.
I glance up into the brightness. A dark silhouette peers down at me.
“Good so far.”
“Wonderful. This next light needs to be installed in the center of the pit. It’s multidirectional and should work well there.”
“Okay.”
She disappears and the light makes its slow descent. Nothing moves fast in archeology. Unlike navigating the stars, but that’s unlike anything else I’ve done. And, if I survive Jarren and whatever he has planned, I can become a navigator. But is it worth never seeing my family again? The next Interstellar Class space ship doesn’t arrive for another three and a half E-years, so I’ve plenty of time to decide on my future.
Once the light settles on the sand, I unhook it and pick it up. Ugh. It’s heavier than the others. I head toward the center of the pit. There’s a gap there. It’s another mystery. At the very core of the rows and columns of Warriors is an open space. It’s octagonal and about two meters wide. No one has figured out why it’s there. Just like no one knows why the Warriors are standing in an octagonal-shaped formation, or why there are about a dozen other differences between the alien sites and the one on Earth.
I pause. Or why they have hearts. Unless Lan’s theory is correct, then we do know why, but not how it works. It seems the more we learn about the Warriors, the more questions pop up. It’s frustrating, which is why archeology isn’t high on my future career list. At least we can check to see if these Warriors have hearts. Actually…I glance around, I know they do have hearts. I’ve no idea why I’m so certain, but these Warriors are…not alive, ’cause that would be beyond crazy, but…ready.
When I reach the edge of the gap, I slow. The statues around the gap might have special symbols on them and I don’t want to disturb anything. Not that I can knock a Warrior off its feet—they weigh about 295 kilograms. But after a lifetime of being careful, it’s a hard habit to break.
I’m looking at the ground so I don’t trip over a drift of sand when I spot them. I freeze. Astounded is