“An update, please, Riina,” he said.
“We’re still collecting data before we penetrate under the entity,” she said. “We’re getting some interesting—and frankly confusing—data points. I’ll shoot you what we’ve got in case we lose comms.”
“Then you are going underneath it?” Nevv sounded worried.
“It’s the only way to locate Dr. Walker,” she pointed out, even though she knew Nevv already knew this. She glanced at Tim. “We’re going in as soon as we have a solid flight path.”
“I’m pulling up your transmit now,” Nevv said. There was a long pause and then, “That doesn’t look promising, Riina.”
“Tim can handle it,” she said. There was a touch of bravado in the words, but she also felt the truth of them. Tim could handle it and a lot more.
Tim did a mental countdown. He wasn’t sure why. He activated thrusters and adjusted course. In atmosphere, the course adjustment happened faster.
The shuttle began to angle toward the darkness with its flaring lights.
He had a mental map, in addition to the screen tracking their course. The mental map had the impact pattern overlaying the map of the terrain they’d taken from the data Dr. Walker had sent.
He wondered how much it had changed since the arrival of the entity. Trac was also sending him data he’d parsed, separate from what the ship was delivering. It did look as if the entity was extracting something, even as it also fired down on the planet. Or after firing? That was also possible.
The shuttle’s lights came on as they left natural light behind. He’d considered going in dark, but it seemed like a bad idea. Of course, so did going in lit.
“There’s new seismic beginning to show up. I’ve sent the heading to your screen,” Lt. Dish said.
Tim watched a weapon’s track suddenly head toward the new location. Was the entity attacking the seismic locations?
Tim considered what they’d learned from Dr. Walker’s findings. There had been increased seismic at that location, too. Was there a correlation?
“Why is the thing firing on the seismic locations?” Lt. Dish asked. “The impacts don’t seem to be reducing the activity. If anything it is increasing it.”
“Could they be trying to destabilize the planet?” Riina said. “It’s already a very challenging planet to inhabit.”
“It wouldn’t be hard to destabilize it,” Veirn’s fragment said.
Tim let his agreement with this statement pass through his thoughts which were mostly focused on avoiding flying into the path of the weapons’ fire.
“Any new data on what kind of energy they are deploying?” Tim asked.
Data popped up, courtesy of Trac. He’d always been on point that way. Tim had a sense that Veirn’s fragment might be annoyed by Trac’s speed.
“That’s some serious fire power,” Lt. Dish commented.
Had Trac sent the data to her, too? Well, obviously he had, but why? Tim still wasn’t quite sure what her function was on the team. It seemed to be a moving target.
“It appears to be designed for deep planetary penetration,” Trac said.
“Heads up,” Lt. Dish said suddenly. “New seismic directly ahead.”
Tim banked the shuttle. Felt it rock as the energy bean passed close to them. Too close? The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up, and the air seemed to crackle with expended power. He sensed Veirn’s fragment enhancing his ability to respond. It was both odd and almost familiar, harkening back to his time as a cyborg.
“How far to Dr. Walker’s last known location?” Lt. Dish asked.
“If we don’t have to detour too much, we should be there in under an hour,” Tim said.
“There’s…”
Tim banked the shuttle sharply, not waiting for Lt. Dish to finish her new warning. This time he banked the other direction. The shuttle rocked more forcefully this time and a warning light popped up on the console.
“That one singed us,” Riina said, her voice remarkably calm.
