day’s heat radiates out to space. I’m glad to have the extra layer. Niall’s right—the jumpsuit is warm.
My shift extends into an eternity. By the time Elese relieves me, I’m an old lady. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but six hours of nothing but my thoughts is torture.
“Any problems?” she asks while yawning and stretching her long arms.
“No. Nothing. Zero problems. Am I a bad person if I spent some of my time tonight wishing for some excitement?”
“Not a bad person. But you know the old adage, be careful what you wish for.”
“Yeah, yeah. Enjoy the boredom.” I wave and trudge to my tent, ’cause it’s been a very long day.
It’s warm inside my tent. The material resists wind, sand, and is waterproof. I debate if I should take off my jumpsuit and let it air out. But if there’s an incident, then I’d need to rush to the rescue. Best to leave it on. I slide under the blankets and squirm into a comfortable position.
Sand is a pain in the ass except in one situation—when you’re sleeping on it. Then it’s soft and molds to your body. Ahhh…
I’m the first to go into the pits in the morning. Pausing at the bottom of the ladder, I test the air for signs of shadow-blobs—nothing—then I head straight to the center. The fake eggs and toast I ate for breakfast churns in my stomach. I’ve drawn my pulse gun without any conscious decision to do so. Sand crunches loudly under my boots. Too loud. I slow, easing to the edge of the gap. No new footprints. My relief is so strong, I almost stagger.
Looping around the pit to ensure there’s no shadow-blobs hiding, I return to the ladder to call the all clear. My parents and the techs descend. Mom shouts orders and the techs begin scanning the Warriors with the 3D digitizers. They’ve been told to avoid the middle.
I stay out of the way and keep watch. But I don’t remain in the gap or I’d go insane with boredom. Instead, I patrol between stretches in the center. Well, I don’t stand right in the middle, just in case the magician pops up. I hover at the edges.
There are twelve Warriors around the gap. Alien symbols and Chinese calligraphy decorate their armor. At first glance, the two kinds of marks appear to be similar, but once you know the differences they no longer look alike. The alien symbols were etched on an octagonal terracotta box that I reconstructed before I left Xinji and, in time, Lan was able to use that box to translate them.
Niall was right. The Warriors around the gap have the special alien glyphs. If the looters broke into this pit, would they save these and destroy the rest? My inner guardian lion growls at the thought of these Warriors being harmed.
Beau brings me lunch and offers to stand watch while I eat—nice of him. When I finish, I ask him to stay a few more minutes so I can make the etchings for Niall. I only need to do eight Warriors, since the four in the corners don’t have any of the alien symbols, which makes sense since it’s a combination of eight glyphs that represent another Warrior planet. The order isn’t important because only those ones together equal that planet.
It’s easy to do an etching, just hold the paper over the symbol and rub lightly with the side of the chalk. Niall gave me the black chalk so there’s a nice contrast against the white rice paper. I’m careful not to touch the Warriors as my mother has ingrained in me that the oils on my hands could damage the terracotta. The techs wear gloves. However, when I’m on the fifth one, the paper rips and my knuckles brush the surface.
Three things happen at once.
A zap of extreme cold shoots up my right arm.
I scrape my knuckles bloody.
And the alien symbol fills with a bright green light.
Twelve
2522:215
I stare at the glowing glyph in shock. Green light fills the grooves. Impossible except…there it is. Hugging my right arm to my chest, I rub it, trying to ease the bone-deep ache from the cold.
“Is that supposed to happen?” Beau asks.
I startle at the sound of his voice. My brain registers that, no, the world as I know it hasn’t ended, it just flipped upside down, and, yes, there are other people here. I turn to him. “Get my parents, please.” My voice is weak and shaky.
“Are you all