Earth hours. It has enough of a tilt that right now the sun is up for thirteen hours and down for sixteen. Inside the base, the difference between Yulin and Earth isn’t noticeable, but out here, it’s…strange. Good thing we don’t start right when the sun rises, or else it’d be a very long day down in that pit.
Niall is waiting for me when I exit. We stay until Dad seals the hatch before heading to the mess tent.
After a couple minutes of silence, Niall says rather gruffly, “I can’t believe Beau authorized that test. What the hell was he thinking?”
“I suspect he wasn’t,” I say.
“What do you mean?”
“Excitement is contagious. We all got a case of gold fever.”
“Gold fever?” Niall lifts an eyebrow.
“It happened on Earth a long time ago. They discovered gold and everyone went crazy trying to mine it. The moral of the story is they made bad decisions.”
“Over gold?”
“Yes. And that’s what happened today. We were blinded by the light. Except you—the sensible one.”
Niall grunts.
“You gotta admit it was super exciting.” I do a little skip.
“It was super dangerous. My father is going to explode.”
My good mood sours. We reach the mess tent, fill our plates with…what appears to be the exact same menu as last night—lovely—and find an empty spot to sit. We eat in silence. Halfway through the meal I remember the etchings and pull them from my pocket.
Spreading them out on the table, I say, “At least we can figure out what planet these symbols represent.”
Niall studies them. “I wish I’d brought my sketchbook. Guess we’ll have to wait until we get back to determine which one.”
“My mom should have the files on her portable.”
“But there’s no terminal for the Q-net.”
“We don’t need it. Remember the colored-octagon project?”
“The one we never finished.”
“Details, details.” I wave a hand. “My point is we kept the data from that project on Mom’s portable and didn’t send it to DES because we suspected Jarren was monitoring our files.” Little did we know he was also blocking them.
“Your mom has to report to my father about today. What are the chances of your mother letting us borrow her portable?”
“Are you going to counter everything I say?”
“I am the sensible one.”
“No, you’re being Mr. Negative. We’ll get nothing if we don’t ask. Besides, we only need the portable for a minute or two.”
We finish dinner and head to the command center. As soon as I enter, I get the parental once-over. Yes, I’m fine. No, the arm doesn’t hurt.
When they’re satisfied, my mother says, “I’m glad you’re here. I need you to clarify a few things for me about the…incident this afternoon.”
Niall gives me a smug look.
“I’m happy to help, Mom. In fact, if you let me borrow your portable for a couple minutes, I can tell you what planet those symbols represent.” Now it’s my turn to give Niall a smug smile.
“You can do that?” Not waiting for an answer, she hands me her portable.
“Yes.” I bypass her files and access the ones Niall and I made for each pit on Planets Xi’an and Anqing. We didn’t have time to finish the others. Once I reach the colored octagon files, I realize it’s going to take me longer than I thought. I need to look at every single pit until I find the one that matches.
I bring up the first pit and glance at the etchings, comparing the two. Nope. On to pit two. Nope. Pit three. No. Four. Nada. Five. I wish I could access my Q-cluster. It would have this done in— The portable’s screen blurs and is replaced by the Q-net’s vast landscape as if I’d just inserted my entanglers. I didn’t. In fact, they’re in my pack, in my tent. And the closest terminal is over twenty kilometers away. My Q-cluster pulls in the file I’d just been looking at. I swallow as it takes over comparing the symbols.
How I reached the Q-net from the middle of the desert is…I’ve no words. I swallow again. The cluster matches the symbols in seconds. It’s Planet Dongguan—one of the closed Warrior planets, which means no one is living in the research base, therefore, no one should be in the pits.
A strange spinning sensation causes my stomach to flutter as I’m disconnected from the Q-cluster. My vision once again focuses on the portable’s screen. Its edges dig into my palm.
“Ara? Something wrong?” Mom asks.
Oh yes, lots of things. Like the fact your daughter has massive brain damage.