Nerishka sent along a soft laugh as she replied to Judith. <Raining hellfire and brimstone while he did it?>
<Exactly right.> Judith’s voice was warm at the memory. <So...what’s the deal with you two anyway?>
<I’m not sure what you mean?>
<Don’t play dumb,> Judith said caustically. <I have eyes. In fact, scary as it may sound, we all have eyes, and we’ve seen the way you two behave around each other. Like one of you is a porcupine and the other a snake.>
Nerishka snorted. <Which one do I get to be?>
<Damned if I know.>
<You should ask Dresden about it. If he wanted you to know, he’d tell you.>
Judith snorted. <Dresden’s a lovely guy. Good for saving your life in a pinch, comes barreling in, guns blazing, kills the bad guys. Every time. But trying to get the man to talk about his feelings is like trying to break through a hundred-meter wall of diamond.>
<I’m guessing you tried a few times, then?>
<You can tell?> She chuckled. <Kelem and me, we’ve both tried. Thought a guy like Dresden would fall for a woman’s wiles.>
<Clearly you don’t know the man very well,> Nerishka replied drily before realizing how that would have sounded to the other woman.
But Judith didn’t seem to be bothered by Nerishka’s words. <Yeah, with being on the team this many years you’d have thought we’d learn his ways. Thought we could break him. Suckers for punishment, we were.>
<And now you want to squeeze me for information? ‘Cos your boss isn’t parting with details?>
<Nah, not really. I mean, I don’t know who it is you work for, but if it’s the same people Dresden used to, you probably don’t volunteer information easily.>
Nerishka laughed. <Guess you don’t know my weaknesses yet.>
<I do,> came Judith’s reply, her tone deeper now, fake threatening. <Pastries.>
<Dammit.>
The redhead laughed. <I guess you’re not so bad, Nerishka.> She paused and then cleared her throat. <Sorry about the whole ‘ambushing you’ thing.>
Nerishka shrugged. <Not your fault. They were orders and I admire that you stuck it out that long.> Then Nerishka gave a sigh. <Sorry about the whole’ trying to poison you with deadly truth serum thing.’>
Judith snickered. <Is this the part where we hug and then braid each other’s hair? Maybe share a chocolate bar or something?>
<Yep. This is exactly the moment. I figure toasted marshmallows over a nice roaring fire would go down well just about now.>
<I’ll put a request in with the boss. Or maybe you should. He’ll probably listen to you.>
<Why would you think that?> asked Nerishka, frowning and wondering where Judith was leading her with that question.
Judith cleared her throat, and there was a grin in her voice as she said, <In my experience, when a guy checks out a girl’s ass seven times in one day—that I’ve seen—then she usually has at least some ability to wind him around her little finger.>
Nerishka’s eyebrows rose and she was about to offer a rejoinder about how she’d been wearing armor all day, when Dresden called out on the team channel for them to halt. Nerishka hurried to catch up with him where he stood at a break in the trees.
When she got to his side, she swallowed a gasp. He stood at the edge of a cliff, looking down on a valley that should have been covered verdant green forest. But the color had begun to shift to a greyish hue with splotches of brown throughout. The further along they looked, the worse the condition of the forest became, and Nerishka heard Kelem’s whistle over the team Link.
<Now that is just not right.>
<Weren’t you the one who didn’t want to wear your filtration mask?> asked Nerishka with a chuckle.
<Yeah. Boy, am I glad you’re a real hard-ass.>
Nerishka shook her head and spoke to Dresden on a secure channel. <What do you think? Time to break out our rad counters?>
<I had wondered if there would be a possible effect on the forest. I’m not so sure anymore that we’re dealing with a communicable disease. The reports indicated that the diagnosis was some unknown pathogen, but I knew it would be stupid to assume they were being honest. It was probably just code for the real thing.>
<So whatever happened here…you think those researchers knew about it?>
Nerishka nodded. She was sure of it, but she couldn’t tell Dresden. She shifted her head to find him staring right at her through his faceplate. She shrugged, maintaining eye contact. <Who knows? Your guess is as good as mine?>
Something in Dresden’s expression changed, hardened as though he’d suddenly become angry with her.
<Don’t forget I know you all too well, Nishka. Lying to me isn’t doing any good for this mission. If there is something you should be telling me, I suggest you do it. I don’t like being kept in the dark.>
Nerishka frowned. <I’m sorry, Dresden. But you know as well as I do that when it’s secure intel I can’t just reveal it to you, even if you are part of the mission. This is all attached to a sensitive mission, so until Jeriah gives me the release, I can’t divulge anything.>
<And if the situation requires you tell me?>
<Then, you know me well enough to know that I will tell you.>
Dresden paused, his expression flattening for a moment. Then he nodded. < I guess I’ll have to trust in what I do know about you. Because I thought I knew you well. Very well. But it seems I can’t entirely trust my own judgment. So, I hope you see fit to divulge this information before one of my team ends up dead.>
Nerishka lifted an eyebrow, her face warming both from his scrutiny and the truth of the words he’d thrown at her. <I’m here too, you know. If something happens, I suspect I’ll go as fast as any of you.>
Dresden didn’t reply. He shifted comms to the team Link and said, <Hazsuits on. And ready all measuring equipment. As soon as we get to the line, we’ll be grabbing air and soil samples. Then we come back here and test. I’m not risking anyone’s life down there ‘til we know more.>
A chorus of affirmatives came over the link and a flurry of activity erupted from the small team. Before long they were all dressed in hazsuits pulled over their armor, breathing tanks supplying their air.
Nerishka knew it was probably overkill—any armor worth using in combat and vacuum could protect against viruses and radiation, but they didn’t have any way to scrub it down, and no one wanted to have contaminated armor hanging around.
<Maybe only one of us should go in? Just in case?> Kelem shifted on his feet. <Wait here. I’ll grab the first samples. Be back in a tick.>
<No,> Nerishka’s response was sharp and loud and had Kelem freezing in mid-turn. He twisted his neck to stare at her, his face filled with confusion and annoyance even as she continued firmly, <I’m going in first. I won’t be risking any of you on this.>
<But—>
Nerishka lifted her hand even as the man looked beyond her shoulder for Dresden’s support. <I said no. The team waits here. If I lose comms then you can send a drone to check on me first.> With that, Nerishka stalked off away from the crew, weaving between the boulders that littered the hillside.
<Did you do that to prove a point to Dresden, or because you genuinely don’t want any of them to die on this mission?> asked Lyra, her tone curious.
Nerishka scowled as she lost her footing and slid a few meters down the incline before managing to regain her balance. <Both,> she snapped as she hurried down the hill, deciding it was best to take it at a jog than to attempt to move one step at a time. <OK, maybe I do care. Kinda don’t want to see Kelem dead from whatever is down here.>
<He does seem to be a nice person.>
<Yeah. He does.>
<And of course, losing Dresden would be painful.>
<You think?> asked Nerishka, not hiding the sarcasm in her voice.
Lyra chuckled. <I am merely attempting to
clarify where things stand. This harebrained idea of running into the poisoned forest seems a little foolhardy. Especially since I’m not sure you even thought about me.>
<You?> asked Nerishka as she reached the bottom of the hill and moved slowly to the trees that appeared to have been affected by some strange disease. Then she stiffened. <Of course, I thought about you.>
<Liar. Did you even ask me if I was OK running off alone out here?>
<Shit, Lyra. Sorry. Guess I did act out of...I dunno what it was.>
<How does ‘guilt’ sound?> said the AI, laughter in her voice.
Nerishka groaned. <Shush. I’m going to take an air sample first. I wasn’t sure Kelem even had a testing unit on him.>
<I believe he did not.>
<The idiot,> Nerishka muttered as she used a small plas tube to capture an air sample. Once the lid sealed, the screen ran the diagnostics and Nerishka sighed. Using the team Link, she said, <You guys can come down. The air here is negative for any kind of toxicity I can detect. Rad detector isn’t picking up anything, either.>
<You tested the air?> asked Kelem, his voice a little high
<You asshole,> Dresden swore. <You didn’t even have an air tester with you?>
<No. I—Aww shit. Sorry, Boss.>
GROUND ZERO
STELLAR DATE: 10.13.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Caspian Forest
REGION: Xerxes, Ayra System (Independent)
As they progressed further into the dying jungle, the air and ground continued to be clear of any contaminants—aside from a rather unpleasant fungal growth that was surviving all too well on the decay. Its spores were thick in places, and they alone made the hazsuits worth the trouble.
<We’re only a kilometer away from those coordinates you gave us,> Dresden’s voice came over the Link. <I’m still confused as to why we aren’t getting any readings on the scans. No toxins, no radiation, ground water’s been clear, it’s weird.>
<Could be an element that dissipates fast? Even so, we have little idea of how long ago this happened.>
Lyra spoke up on the shared link. <That other team came in two weeks ago. Maybe they were the cleanup crew and by now any remaining contaminants have dissipated.> Then she paused and replied to Nerishka privately. <Shoot, Nerishka. I didn’t even think that you may not have wanted to tell him that.>
<Cleanup crew?> asked Dresden as he held a giant frond aside for Nerishka. <Is this more of what you decided not to tell me?> Though he kept his tone light, he didn’t sound happy about her omission.
<Lyra’s pulled data from the local networks suggesting an excursion came out here two weeks ago. It wouldn’t have been prudent to throw a mere suspicion at you until we knew something for certain.>
Dresden grunted as he came to a halt. Nerishka slowed her pace to come to stand beside him. The density of the vegetation had begun to lessen and with that, the effects of whatever toxin had attacked the plant-life further away had become more pronounced.
Across the next hundred meters, plants and trees had suffered devastating effects, everything—even the persistent fungus—was dead.
<Shit, is that a rat?> asked Kelem, pointing off to his left.
Judith shifted out of the line and crouched beside it. <Looks like something close to a rat. It’s very dead.>
Nerishka hurried over. <We need a blood sample and photographs.>
<On it,> said Kelem as he bobbed his head.
He worked quickly, taking a vid recording and then drawing blood and tissue samples from the dead animal. While he worked, Nerishka and the rest of the team studied the area, taking measurements of air quality as well as testing the plants.
<I’m getting mild readings, and I don’t think you’re going to like it.> Judith’s tone was hard as she turned and hurried over to Nerishka.
Dresden walked over too, making it clear that the woman had come to Nerishka and not to her boss. Would that have been considered a breach of protocol? And would Dresden take issue with it? Nerishka didn’t need to have to deal with discord within the team, but she was the lead on this mission.
Judith gestured to Nerishka and showed her the screen on the rad counter. <Definite radiation. Looks like…damn, two types. Iridium-192—that’s some serious shit—and Gold 198. The gold’s halved a lot, barely noticeable anymore. >
Lyra had already accessed the data and had thrown it up on Nerishka’s HUD. Speaking to both Dresden and Nerishka on their private Link, Lyra said, <You’d be dead if you didn’t have your hazsuits on. I’m reading terabecquerels of radiation on Judith’s instruments.>
Judith was walking across the dead zone and stopped, then slowly began to back up.
<There’s a chunk of metal down here, looks like it cracked. The rads are pouring out of it.>
<I wonder how your cleanup crew missed that?> Dresden asked.
<Maybe it wasn’t emitting much when they came through,> Lyra suggested. <Could have split from heating and cooling after it fell. I logged visuals from Judith, though. No need to go closer.>
Nerishka sent her AI an affirmative thought and glanced over at Dresden. <Do you still want to proceed?> she asked, knowing she needed his confirmation at this point. <There’s no turning back after this.>
A wind stirred the trees, startling the team, and revealing a nearby rooftop rising above the dying foliage.
<Looks like we found where the people came from.>
Dresden gave a low grunt, then spoke over the team Link. <Now that we’ve confirmed the presence of radiation, any further progress could prove to be dangerous. I’m not going to force anyone to keep going if you have doubts about exposure.>
<Do we know what symptoms we should be looking for?> asked Kelem, his tone faintly edged with concern, though not enough that Nerishka would be worried that he’d pull out.
She cleared her throat. <With our hazsuits and armor, you’ll be fine. But if you weren’t, you’d experience hematopoietic syndrome. Standard radiation sickness; nausea, vomiting, followed by the destruction of bone marrow, and death.>
<Oh,> came Kelem’s low response.
There was a moment of silence in which the crew considered their next move.
<So, you think it’s about time for you to tell me what this is all about?> asked Dresden.
Nerishka glanced over at him. <If I knew, I’d tell you. I’m following my nose here. Something is very wrong and what happened to this settlement is the key to it. The symptoms were isolated to this singular population, but it was severe enough that whoever put together the data I found ended his assessment by suggesting termination of ‘the project’, but from what my contact said, things still seemed to be progressing. That tells me someone is knowingly responsible for whatever happened that caused those symptoms, and they are willing to brush it under the carpet.>
<And naturally you need to find out what it is?> asked Dresden, his baritone a low hum in her ear. Then he let out a soft, and decidedly resigned, chuckle. <You never change, do you Nishka? Let me guess…you’re completely off book on this one? There’s no need for a release from Jeriah. She has no idea about this.>
She glanced at him and held his gaze for a moment, aware that the crew was already scouting the area beyond the cover of the trees.
Lyra cut into the conversation unexpectedly. <Can we get in and out of this settlement as fast as possible? Nishka can give you details once we are done.>
Dresden shrugged. <What’s the rush?>
<The rush is that I’ve picked up some remote sensors monitoring the area. They seem to be keeping an eye on the radiation, but there may be ones looking for people too. I’m trying to piggyback onto their signal and see if it leads me anywhere, but this is sophisticated stuff. They could have eyes in space watching this site. We shouldn’t linger.>
<Let’s assume they have eyes in the sky,> Dresden replied. <Everyone, pull on cammo-cloaks, these green hazsuits are going to stand out against all the brown.>
The team pulled the cloaks out of a
case on the a-grav pad, and formed up at the edge of the dying jungle.
Ahead of them was a kilometer of fields, all the grains and plants long-since dead. Beyond that was a small settlement, and stretching toward the horizon were more fields, filling a cleared area that Nerishka estimated to be at least a hundred square kilometers.
<IR isn’t picking up a thing,> Kelem announced, and waved the team forward into a field of shoulder-high wheat.
They remained silent as they approached the settlement, and Nerishka kept thinking something was missing, something wasn’t right.
<Damn, there are no bugs…no birds,> she said after a minute. <That impact site we passed couldn’t have caused this much irradiation…what did this?>
<I don’t know,> Lyra replied. <We’re already well past any immediately harmful radiation.>
<Maybe it’s nothing,> Kelem said. <Maybe there’s no IR because they just cleared out after whatever happened here.>
<If we find what I think we will find, then he’s in for a shock,> Nerishka said to Dresden and Lyra.
<Not as if we expected anything less,> said Lyra, her tone somewhat despondent. <I’m not sure I like where we are headed.>
<You’re very negative, Lyra,> said Dresden, addressing the AI directly for the first time.
<Not negative. Realistic. Statistically, optimism in our current predicament is foolish.> Lyra fell silent then and Nerishka sensed her withdrawal.
Though surprised to find that the AI had been so clearly upset, Nerishka didn’t have time to probe right now. They’d reached the first of the homes on the edge of the settlement.
Lyra spoke over the team Link. <Got a ping from a welcome beacon across the road there. This is Greshan Settlement—it’s a subsidiary of a large agro corporation, Grantham Agriculture and Horticulture. Population is just under two thousand. Sixty percent families with children, the balance is comprised of seasonal workers and permanent workers without families.>