I paused. No one was saying a word. Were they thinking me a complete nardle? ‘We never found the device, the power cells eventually died, but then we had a solar super storm. It induced electrical currents in wiring and equipment on Earth’s surface, and gave the alien device a freak moment of power which sent a message to the sphere. That responded by heading to Earth, and now it’s up in orbit waiting for another message. It won’t get one because the solar super storm is over.’
Colonel Torrek spoke at last. ‘So the sphere is waiting for us to communicate, but not with random messages, with the specific one from an alien device that we never found. Where would that device be, Jarra?’
He wasn’t yelling at me for waking him up. He was taking this seriously. ‘The sphere is in geostationary orbit, sir, holding position over Earth Africa. Logically, the first place to look would be directly beneath it.’
‘We checked there already,’ said Colonel Torrek, ‘but not for this reason. We were looking for signs of an attack, but everything appeared perfectly normal and the sphere’s orbit was so far out from Earth that …’
‘The device would be underground,’ said Leveque. ‘Hidden and protected from damage. There would probably be a signal to attract our attention, but the power has run out. If it was buried thousands of years ago, any surface indications would be long gone.’
He paused. ‘When the portals are back, I’d recommend investigating this, sir.’
‘It’s the best idea we have at the moment,’ said Colonel Torrek. ‘How would we do this, Jarra? Military excavation methods involve blasting techniques, and we don’t want to damage anything.’
‘Archaeologists often blow things up when they’re working in the old cities abandoned in Exodus century, but with older, rarer remains, they do very delicate excavations. I’ve done very little of that, they don’t let school kids play around with irreplaceable ancient relics, but there are plenty of experts on the dig teams.’
‘We’ll want to keep this very quiet,’ said Colonel Torrek. ‘Your lecturer is Stasis Q, so he’s already taken the Security Oath and appreciates the need for secrecy in some areas. It would be simplest to call in people like him to help you with your excavation. If we get the sphere talking to us, it changes everything, but if we find nothing at all … ’
‘My excavation?’ I was grazzed.
‘They’ll expect the Military to be in charge,’ said Colonel Torrek. ‘This is your idea, and only you and Fian have the appropriate knowledge. The Military Academy sometimes sends cadets to the amateur dig sites for a week of practical experience working in impact suits and using lifting equipment, but that wouldn’t qualify anyone to lead this.’
‘Yes, sir, but I’m not qualified either. I’d be giving orders to experts who know far more than I do.’
Colonel Torrek laughed. ‘I do that all the time, Jarra. Do you think I have the faintest idea how Mason comes up with the numbers he tells me, or could match Nia’s scores in a flight simulator? The answer is no, but I don’t need to do their job, I need to do mine.’
He paused. ‘You know what needs doing, Jarra. You get the real experts to do it for you. If they hit a problem, or give you conflicting opinions, you listen and assess their reliability. You then decide whether to do something, to do nothing, to call in extra specialists, or refer the decision further up your chain of command. Simple.’
I was sure it wasn’t that easy, but I comforted myself with the thought that I’d only have to play the part for a few hours in front of some archaeologists, and I could depend on Lecturer Playdon to help me. ‘Yes, sir.’
‘We’ve got plenty of time before Earth is out of portal lockdown. We’ll send you a list of possible personnel and the data we’ve got on your excavation site before then. You can brief your lecturer now if you wish.’
‘Thank you, sir. He’s about to play drums in a music group, so I think I’ll wait until after that.’
Colonel Torrek smiled. ‘I’d heard there were huge parties going on all over Ark. We may have to let your recruits sober up before you start your excavation.’
‘Possibly, sir. Things are fairly quiet and well-behaved here, but I don’t know what’s going on at the other dig site evacuation areas.’
The call ended, and Fian looked at me thoughtfully for a moment before speaking. ‘Jarra, you’re going to be in charge of this excavation.’
‘Apparently, yes. I’ll need you to help me of course.’