I hesitated. ‘This will sound really stupid. There’s a plant they genetically engineered to reclaim deserts. The Tuan creeper.’
‘The one you mentioned in your site tour, Jarra?’ said the Colonel’s voice.
‘Yes, sir. You can find them in the rainforest, but they’re very rare. Well, there are more than there should be around here. Far more. It probably means nothing, but …’
Leveque cut in. ‘Those plants must have grown long before the sphere arrived. It’s because of something unusual, probably a higher concentration of minerals or nutrients they need.’
Dig Site Command were talking on broadcast channel, telling us we were off course. I let Fian listen to them and guide me, while I concentrated on the conversation on command.
‘My team will research the plants,’ continued Leveque. ‘I gather you’re already trying to find where they’re most numerous.’
‘I doubt you’ll find much about the plants,’ I said. ‘No one’s been interested in desert reclamation for hundreds of years.’
‘This is Captain Eklund,’ said Fian’s voice on broadcast channel. ‘Mark our position and record thirty-one. Continuing to move clockwise.’
I left my command channel link set to listen only, and looked upwards. There were definitely a chaos lot of flowers.
I glanced across at Fian. ‘Do you think I’m just being nardle or …?’
‘I think you’re right,’ said Fian. ‘This is weird, and it has to mean something.’
His voice suddenly spoke on Military command channel. ‘Sirs, the Tuan creepers are growing high up in trees, getting their nutrients from the air. If there was digging in this area, a long time ago, with something like laser drills, it could have created a lot of very fine dust that still gets into the air when disturbed. That would explain why there are so many of the plants.’
‘It would,’ said Leveque. ‘We’ll set up a couple of hand sensors for you to check for dust in the air.’
I spoke on command myself. ‘I checked all the records on this area before we started work here. There’s no mention of any drilling or mining.’ I paused and added the nardle-sounding words. ‘By humans, that is.’
Fian and I headed on through the rainforest, calling in two more positions on our way. I stopped after that, and used my Military lookup to project an image of the site. It was only a fraction of the size of normal dig site mosaics, since only the immediate area had been surveyed. Dig Site Command had added numbered dots to mark the positions we’d been at, and the numbers we’d given them, and those were well into the black area of no data.
‘The number of flowers is dropping now,’ I said, ‘and over the far side from us there were far less. Thirty-one was the high point. Let’s head back towards the portals. The survey plane is still parked back there.’
I did more switching of comms settings and spoke on broadcast channel. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. It’s clear nothing has been buried at our target point, but there’s something unusual in the direction of 192 degrees. I’m planning to take up our survey plane and extend our dig site mosaic across that area to map the terrain, before doing some more checks on foot.’
‘This is Site Leader,’ said Pereth’s voice. ‘We’ll make a start clearing a route through the trees in that direction. Any idea why the aliens would park their sphere off target? It seems to make no sense.’
‘This is Commander Tell Dramis,’ said an unexpected voice. ‘As a fighter pilot, I’ve been through alien warfare training. Aliens won’t think like us. We may be completely unable to understand their logic. Their technology won’t just be more or less advanced than ours, but different. They may have discovered things we’ve no idea could even exist, while missing an area we consider basic, such as electricity.’
He paused. ‘Incidentally, Jarra, if you need a plane flying, I’d be happy to do that for you.’
I was feeling ridiculously more cheerful now. This was probably a false dawn, but at least there was renewed hope of finding something here. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. That’s a very kind offer, Drago, but I want to take a look from the air myself. You carry on talking to Earth Rolling News.’
‘This is Commander Tell Dramis, who is running out of things to say to Earth Rolling News.’
‘This is Captain Eklund, who finds that hard to believe.’
I giggled. We’d been walking in what I hoped was the right direction, but we’d had to skirt a couple of fallen trees so I was getting confused. I finally gave in and asked. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. Are we going the right way to reach the portals and survey plane?’