Alien General's Baby (Brion Brides 7)(3)

"I hate this fucking place," she sighed and the tone of her voice showed that she meant it.

"I know," Naima nodded, "but you know as well as I do that there is a good chance the lifestone is here."

"It's just as likely to be on any of the other twelve planets in the system," Janey pointed out miserably, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. “And how are we supposed to find something that apparently doesn’t really want to be found anyway?”

"Yes," Naima said with a chuckle, chiding her young colleague a little. "Or it might be on all of them. Imagine that. We’ll find it."

That made Janey smile a little, at last.

Naima couldn't really blame her for the mood she was in. The ocean was... unpleasant, to say the least. The research team of Doug Purnell had come to Matthos IV with such high hopes and eager hearts. After taking one look at the ocean, the good mood had quickly dissipated. Yet that was their charge and their passion, they’d have to keep going even if the situation wasn’t ideal.

"Do you remember how excited we were at first?" she asked Janey.

Dwelling on the good old days made the girl visibly relax at last, but Naima could see her nerves were getting the best of her.

"Yeah," Janey said, her voice taking on that dreamy quality. "Doug bursting through the door, telling us we have a chance to discover something close to the philosopher's stone. I felt like a treasure hunter, being given a map to the greatest bounty in the galaxy with so many X-s marking the spot that they made my eyes dizzy."

Naima nodded, the memory fresh in her mind too. The news had spread like wildfire through the entire Galactic union  , after all, when the discovery on Verien had been made. Though Naima and the rest of the crew had only heard the beginning of it – the part where something was supposedly found on Verien – it had been enough of a start to send the Palians into a flurry of research funding.

Since the funds came through, Naima and the rest of the crew of the Nautica and their ship Dawnstar - waiting for them in orbit – had been blissfully unaware of the rest of the universe and its dramatics. Personally, that was how Naima liked it. Science had to come first. Palians had found a mineral that had the potential to power everything until the end of time, or so the fairytale said. The truth was, at least for Naima and the rest of the team, a little less prosaic.

The lifestone was real and it was precious beyond anything. It meant no hardship was too much, but it didn't change the fact Naima and Janey were still the only ones who dared to dive into the ocean.

Anything could be out there. Neither Naima nor the officer of the watch would ever see it coming. The black ocean had many bothersome qualities and disrupting all the scanners they had was one of them.

The water was charged with something, possibly a magnetism or low radiation. Whatever it was, it disrupted radio contact and reduced communication to a simplified language of pulling on the rope.

It amused Naima to no end. They were in space, exploring alien planets, but to talk to the Nautica, Naima had to learn Morse. Talk about a history lesson.

At least they were able to conclude there was no danger to the researchers from the water alone. That was a small relief. She would have hated to leave this planet. Why, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she had a good feeling about it.

"Today's the day," Naima said, rising to her feet with determination.

Janey stood with considerably less enthusiasm.

"How do you know?" she asked as they walked along the prow. "So far, it has been months and months of nothing."

"I have a feeling," Naima replied with confidence.

And I do, too. I have to be right. Janey's not wrong. If we don't find anything soon, the crew will lose hope.

They walked over to the prep station, where some of the crew had been prepping their stuff, waiting to be fitted with their diving gear. As the crew worked on them, pitying looks on their faces, Naima only felt excitement. Going into the ocean wasn't something she looked forward to, but every day brought the possibility they'd find the lifestone. That was something to look forward to.

If half of what they're saying is true, the stone is worth a lot more than a little discomfort on our part. How great would it be to get to study something like that?#p#分页标题#e#

Janey clearly didn't share her opinion, looking like she was on death row. Her bright blue eyes and wild honey-colored hair made her look much younger than she was. Altogether she looked like a frightened child who was about to be thrown into the water, hoping she'd learn to swim somewhere between leaving the railing and hitting the water.

In contrast, Naima had always thought her own deep green eyes and long, red curls made her look more mature. And she definitely knew how to swim in these dark waters.

"How did Doug approve of this, anyway?" Janey asked as the huge diving frames were lowered over their heads. "I thought he wanted to move on to the next island."

"I convinced him to do one more pass," Naima explained, raising her hands to accept the straps around her waist. "Captain Gordon received a message from the orbit last night. The Palians thought they were able to narrow down the signature to our exact location. I think we didn't go deep enough last time. Doug authorized one more day."

"That is hopeful," Janey said and for the first time in a while, Naima saw actual thrill in her eyes. "What do our guards think?"

Naima snorted.

"Captain Gordon also said," she deadpanned, "that the mighty Brions don't think it is necessary for them to share their opinions with us. Which is a nice way of saying they're still here and until we find the stone, they probably don't care."

They both raised their eyes to the skies above their heads. Somewhere out there hovered a small Brion armada. Ever since its discovery, the search for the lifestone was closely monitored by the Galactic union  . Every world with even a hint of lifestone presence was heavily guarded. The union   didn’t want a repeat of the Verien disaster and Naima couldn’t blame them for it.

Palians, the most intelligent and nurturing species in the union  , had found the lifestone and they weren't taking it lightly. A potential energy source for ages to come wasn't something the thin, humanoid species joked about.

Even Brions fell in line for it, Naima thought. It must be tremendous.

While the events of Verien were somewhat common knowledge, the stone itself was still a mystery. Even the research team hadn’t been told much, other than the fact that they were not, under any circumstances, supposed to touch it. Considering that they were still confined to looking for it as if it were a needle in a haystack, Naima had concluded that the Palians didn’t quite understand it yet either.

So far, the Brions hadn't been needed and Naima wasn't surprised in the slightest. As far as she could tell, the nearest war was taking place three warp jumps away, and Matthos IV was the most boring place in the galaxy. The Brions had to be dying of boredom babysitting the little research crew.

The planet was so unimportant otherwise it didn't even warrant a real name, simply a designation code. They counted the worlds from the lone star Matthos that sat in the middle of the system, reminding the team of Terra and the Solar System.

It was a custom that had stuck ever since the good old days, when getting to the Moon from Terra was an event, instead of a minor inconvenience.

All twelve planets in the Matthos system were devoid of life and all of them were equally tedious. Naima had been on seven of them by now and liked Matthos IV the most. It was the only one with a suitable atmosphere to breathe without masks and suits.

The dark ocean covered about ninety percent of the planet, with the few land masses nothing more than glorified islands.

One of them, the unfortunately named Golgol – sounding like some mythical giant rather than a perfectly bland island - was where their base waited, but they hadn't seen it in weeks.

They were anchored near a smaller island, so tiny Doug hadn't even bothered to name it yet. Naima had searched the shallow waters around it alone the day before, but she felt like she must have missed something. Anything. It was about damn time they found something in the nothingness that was Matthos IV.

Now, Janey had to come along for her gut feeling, but the girl didn't seem to hold it against Naima. Just the ocean itself.

"How are the drones doing?" Janey asked as Captain Gordon stomped down the stairs to send them off as he always did.

"Usual garbage," Naima said with a sigh. "You know how it is."

Other than the problems with the ocean, they also couldn't use any of their advanced machinery to look for the stone. Whatever was in the water was messing with the drones as well, making their readings… well, illegible.

With no composition or heat signature to go by, the drones and AIs were running on the command to find anything that didn't fit known criteria. Which, on Matthos IV, wasn’t really much to go by.#p#分页标题#e#

It was a mystery what the Galactic union   was basing the search on in the first place, but presumably the planets themselves fit some profile that matched the criteria of known depositories. Down on the surface, they were on their own, with nothing but an occasional clue being filtered down through the Brions by the Palians.