Convergence/Chapter 5

5
 The noonday sun blazed fiercely in the sky, beating down on the dig site. Jhiranae mopped her brow as she knelt by a mostly-excavated wall, trowel in hand. The merciless heat left a faint shimmer on the ground, and even though the depths of the dig site were somewhat cooler, the heat was still intense. Jhiranae had long-since rolled up her sleeves and donned a wide-brimmed hat.

 She glanced over to see Lieutenant Gonnard lazily patrolling around the rim of the dig site. Though the man was prudent enough to wear a hat and sunglasses to protect his face, he was exposed to the full heat up there while wearing long sleeves. He had to be suffering. Well, that much was obvious. From their conversation—if it could be called that—in the speeder, Jhiranae knew he was not a happy man. Maybe he didn’t like being on Yanibar. She could hardly blame him for that. Traveling to distant, remote worlds did not excite everyone, and for a soldier like him, guard duty must have seemed excessively boring. Still, she intuited there was more to his laconic withdrawal than merely a taciturn nature. He was wounded and doing his best to keep it to himself.

             “You can’t fix the galaxy’s problems, Jhiranae,” she reminded herself.

             Her focus needed to be on the dig site, not on a Corellian soldier with a chip on his shoulder the size of a battlecruiser. They had made steady progress on the dig site, clearing out much of the sediment to reveal a fairly sizable farm compound similar to the others they’d found.

             “Jhiranae, I think the interior is cleared enough to map,” Kanjai called. “Do you want to look around?”

             “I’ll be right there,” Jhiranae replied.

             Dusting off her hands, she rose and headed inside the main building. Kanjai’s and Plaspek’s diligent efforts had yielded impressive results. Where sediment had previously caked and crusted every surface, Jhiranae could now see walls, rooms, and surfaces. The farmhouse was desolate, and the mudslide that had buried the house had crushed much of the furnishings that had been in house.

             “The house was abandoned,” Jhiranae noted, taking in the sparse furnishings. “Whoever lived here left before the mudslide hit.”

             “Like the other houses,” Plaspek agreed. “The world was evacuated.”

             “Which makes me wonder—is the geological instability a recent feature? If not, how did people live here?”

             “The house is solidly constructed,” Magnus said. “Weathered.”

             “Good point. Plaspek, how long does it date back?”

             “The chronomapper suggests four hundred years, give or take,” Plaspek replied. “Some of the furnishings are newer.”

             “What’s the youngest sample you’ve found?”

             “About three hundred years.”

             “Consistent with all of the other dig sites. Nothing’s younger than three hundred years ago.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “So, what does that mean?” Plaspek asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Well. . . it’s likely that people left the planet around three hundred years ago,” Jhiranae said.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “But we already knew that,” the Twi’lek pointed out.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae’s shoulders slumped, one pointed ear twitching.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I know,” she answered. “I was sure there was something here different from the other sites.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Sorry, boss,” Magnus said. “Seems like the others. It’s a bit larger, but we haven’t found anything remarkable. Seems like the rest of the farm compounds we’ve dug up.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “So, this is what you spent all that time digging up?” cut in a voice from the entrance to the compound.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae turned to see Lieutenant Gonnard leaning against the doorway, surveying the interior.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Yes,” she told him, taking a few steps to the left so she could see him without twisting. “It’s similar to the other ones we’ve excavated.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             He frowned.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I heard something hollow just now.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “What do you mean?” Jhiranae asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             The soldier pointed at Magnus.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Stomp your feet.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             The man looked at Jhiranae uncertainly, then did as instructed when she nodded her assent. His heavy boots made a flat tap-tap against solid masonry.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Now you,” the man said, pointing at Plaspek.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             She shrugged and kicked her feet against the floor with the same tapping sound that Magnus’s boots had made.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Okay, that’s what I thought,” he said, swiveling to Jhiranae. “Take three steps to the right. Heavy ones.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae was puzzled, but curious enough to comply. Stomping over three steps to the right, she heard it faintly that time. The crunch and scrape of boots against a duracrete floor overlaid a hollower boom.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “The scanner said there was nothing but half a meter of duracrete flooring. Standard stuff, poured into a mold and laid down,” Magnus offered, puzzled.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae shook her head.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “No, I heard something—so did Lieutenant Gonnard. Let’s get this section of the floor up—carefully.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “After lunch,” Plaspek suggested, to which no one had any argument.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             They ate a quick meal, then carefully unearthed the section of the floor that had sounded hollow, one centimeter at a time. They’d only gone two centimeters down when the duracrete stopped. Some kind of thick black polymer was layered under the floor, cracked and pitted with age.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “What is this?” Plaspek asked, passing the scanner over it. “It doesn’t register on the scanner.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Not at all?” Jhiranae asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Well, a little,” Plaspek replied. “Not straight on. Only at oblique angles.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Which is why we didn’t detect it earlier,” Magnus remarked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “How deep is it?” Jhiranae asked, contemplating the other dig sites she’d visited. “None of the other houses had anything like this, right?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “No way,” Kanjai offered. “We took most of them down to the foundation. Nothing like this was detected.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Or else we missed it,” Plaspek suggested.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “The material is about three centimeters thick,” Magnus said, withdrawing a probe from the polymer. “It’s fairly soft.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “What’s underneath?” Jhiranae wondered aloud.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “One way to find out,” Magnus told her, slowly cutting a square several centimeters on a side from the polymer.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             He tried lifting the polymer square. The material resisted him at first, held down by some kind of glue, but it was dried and hundreds of years old. It gave eventually, leaving behind strings of dried adhesive. Underneath, a plate of solid metal was revealed. Magnus scooped up the scanner and passed it over the metal, whistling.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “This isn’t just plasteel,” he said. “It’s crystal-laced duranium bonded with hfredium.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “That’s what they used to armor warships with.” Jhiranae remarked. “Did someone bury a ship out here?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “That’d be fun,” Plaspek remarked. “Especially if we get salvage rights.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “But how do we open it?” Magnus asked. “Assuming it is a hatch.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I think I have that covered,” Kanjai interjected mildly. “While you three were oohing and ahing over a metal plate covered in black rubber, I found this.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             The Elomin gestured, revealing a large lever next to the ruins of what had once been a window. Though rusted, it stood solidly on a metal pole halfway embedded into the wall. Kanjai had removed the ancient cupola that once covered it and now pointed to its stem.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “A casual observer might think this went to the window controls. It might have even been hidden behind furniture at one point. However, the linkages go down into the earth.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Does it still work?” Plaspek asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “One way to find out,” the Elomin replied, throwing the lever.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             It pulled down with a loud creak as the archaeologists stepped away from the metal plate and watched intently. There was a creak and shudder, followed by a metallic groan and a hiss as actuators that hadn’t budged in centuries slowly unwound. The plate rumbled, then slowly swung down, polymer and duracrete and all, revealing a rusted ladder heading into a dark subterranean room.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Impressive,” Magnus said. “That thing must weigh half a ton and it still opened after three hundred years.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “And we’re sure none of the other sites had anything like this?” Jhiranae asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “No way,” Plaspek countered. “We’ve been to at least three of them.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Still, it wouldn’t hurt to tell the other teams. Kanjai, start recording.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             The Elomin nodded, retrieving a compact holocam. Glowlamp in hand, Jhiranae tentatively descended down the stairs. Despite his attempts at aloofness, Lieutenant Gonnard edged forward.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Maybe I should come down too. Just to make sure it’s safe.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Very well, Lieutenant,” she said, not wanting to offend the man further.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae had been in this profession for a long time, and had crawled down many a dark passage and crumbling tunnel. Still, Lieutenant Gonnard was here to protect them, and she didn’t begrudge him wanting to do his job.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             She descended the stairs cautiously, the lieutenant close behind, followed by Kanjai and Magnus. Jhiranae kept her weapon on her belt, relying on the glowlamp. To her relief, the room was empty. It appeared to be a survival room of some kind. Ancient floor-to-ceiling shelves crumbling into dust lined two walls. There appeared to be a well in one corner, with another nook leading into a tiny refresher.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Check this out,” Kanjai said, shining his glowlamp on the wall behind the shelves. “This whole thing is a box of that same metal.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “One more thing,” the lieutenant offered. “See the corrosion stains here?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             He shone his glowlamp on the ground, exposing orange stains on the duracrete floor topped with white shavings.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “That comes from having something heavy bolted into it. Possibly something with a lot of power.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Generator?” Jhiranae surmised.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Probably,” the lieutenant said. “That’s what I’d put down here.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “This is incredible,” Jhiranae exclaimed. “None of the other dig sites have anything like this, as far as we can tell. What makes this one special?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I can’t tell you that, but I found something too,” Magnus said.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             The digger was standing next to one of the walls that wasn’t occupied with shelving, brushing away at what Jhiranae had thought was plaster overlaid on the shelter’s wall. A closer look, however, revealed a decorative stone carving anchored to the wall, surviving three hundred years inside the protective shelter. The carving was decorative, bordered with curving scrolls and abstract shapes. A language of some kind? Jhiranae rejected that notion when she saw the standard Aurebesh characters carved into the lower half of the artwork—a single word.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Burke.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I wonder what that means,” Jhiranae murmured.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Possibly a name,” Kanjai suggested.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Or a place?” Jhiranae replied. “This could be a memento of somewhere else on the planet.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “If it’s that nice of a piece of art, you’d think it’d be upstairs, instead of the secret room where no one can see it.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Maybe the matriarch of the house didn’t like it,” Magnus suggested with a snicker. “Put it down here with the jars of pickles and tubers.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “That’s enough guessing,” Jhiranae said. “Let’s do this properly. Bring the scanners and cataloging gear down here. And one of us should be topside at all times. Just in case.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Kanjai shuddered appreciatively. Being trapped inside an underground armored cube would not be a fun way to die. Plaspek nodded and headed upstairs, followed by Lieutenant Gonnard. Jhiranae was about to issue further instructions when some motion caught her eye. Slipping on a pair of light gloves, she knelt down by one of the shelves and shone her glowlamp under. The Sephi half-expected it to be some kind of rodent or creature, but instead, she reached through cobwebs and dust to find a single piece of parchment. Weathered and yellowed with age, it crinkled lightly as she carefully lifted it from its resting place.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “By the Sacred Trees,” she breathed, her eyes widening as she beheld the artifact.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             This was the kind of artifact every archaeologist dreamed of, something that could potentially multiply their finds a hundredfold, a thousandfold. She was holding a fragile key that might unlock Yanibar’s secrets. She knelt in silence for a moment, too awestruck to move or speak. A chill ran down her spine as her eyes scanned the weathered ink.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “What is it, Jhiranae?” Magnus asked, noticing her unusual posture.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “It’s a map,” she replied, finally finding her voice.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “What?!” Kanjai asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Look,” Jhiranae said, showing him the map. “Seems to be hand-drawn.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Who would hand-draw a map?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I don’t know,” Jhiranae answered. “It’s pretty fragile. Get the imager. I want to capture this in holo in case it falls apart.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             With trembling hands, Kanjai carefully recorded footage of every single centimeter of the map as Jhiranae shone the glowlamp over it. The archaeologists stood in reverent silence, not wanting their voices captured in the holo—the map was a significant enough discovery that it spoke for itself.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Where are we?” Magnus asked, once the imager was done recording.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae frowned, puzzled.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “It’s hard to say,” she said. “The sea is fairly obvious here, but the outline is all wrong. It’s much smaller on this map.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Draskar’s to the south, and there is a scale,” Kanjai pointed out. “We must be in what this map calls the Neekham Valley.” “There’s nothing of significance marked in the map.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Perhaps this map was made before this farm was built?” Kanjai surmised.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Or the map wasn’t focused on this area,” Jhiranae said. “Its emphasis seems to be on an area of land called the Tusloni Basin.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             The area she mentioned was west of their position, behind a forbidding range of mountains.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Two problems with that,” Kanjai countered. “For one, orbital scans revealed nothing in that area. It was completely desolate. For two, half of that area is flooded.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Probably in the same ecological disaster that drove the people to flee this planet,” Jhiranae agreed. “But why would someone draw a fake map?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Maybe it was a child’s imagination?” Kanjai offered.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “This doesn’t look like an imaginary map,” Jhiranae countered. “If it is, it’s very well-thought out. This legend at the bottom of the map indicates cities, battle sites, and some kind of military base. Or whatever the ‘Yanibar Guard’ was.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I still think it could be a child’s invention,” Kanjai said.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “No,” Jhiranae replied. “A child might have made it, but I don’t think it’s a fake. There are clues here, and whatever was in the Tusloni Basin might be the reason we’re here.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “What are the sites of significance on the bottom of the legend?” Kanjai asked, peering over her shoulder.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Five of them,” Jhiranae said, struggling to read the faded writing. “Ayarolla.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Kanjai searched the map for several minutes before finding it.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “That’s far to the north,” he said. “Far from the rest of the map’s emphasis.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “And no clue what it is,” Jhiranae agreed. “The second one is the Hall of Remembrance.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Interesting,” Kanjai replied. “That one should still be above water if I remember the topographical map correctly. It’s inside the Tusloni Basin, about 200 kilometers west of here, if it exists.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae ignored the implication.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “The next one is close to it as well. ‘Kraen residences.’”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Is that a name of a person? An organization?” Kanjai asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “One way to find out,” Jhiranae told him. “We could go there.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Indeed,” Kanjai agreed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “The next one is labeled ‘Sha Kalan/academies.’ It’s close as well.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Assuming the map is correct and to scale,” Kanjai replied.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Assuming that, yes.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             The Elomin’s skepticism was starting to rankle somewhat.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Last one is something called Kraechar Arms. The symbol for it looks vaguely like a factory.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “That one is likely submerged,” Kanjai pointed out.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I agree,” Jhiranae said. “But we shouldn’t take this lightly either. We have yet to find anything else that explains the significance of the world, or how they could have aided the New Republic. Every other settlement is a hardscrabble colony that we’ve seen on dozens of worlds—people stubbornly eking out a living, but hardly something that could draw the attention of a galactic power. This settlement is different. I know it.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “The survival shelter, if that’s what it is, speaks to that,” Magnus agreed. “I think you’re right.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I’m sure of it,” Jhiranae said.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “In that case, do you think the map was left here on purpose?” Kanjai asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I don’t know,” Jhiranae replied. “It might have been, or it might have been left by mistake. Given that I found it under a shelf, it’s possible the previous occupants didn’t even realize they’d left it. It certainly wasn’t where I would have placed it if I wanted it to be found.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Her conjecture was interrupted by the clomping sound of Lieutenant Gonnard’s boots on the staircase.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Heads up, there’s a bad storm coming,” he warned them. “What did you find?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Something very significant,” Jhiranae told him. “We found a map.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “A map of what?” the soldier asked cynically.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Sites we weren’t able to detect from orbit,” she explained. “There might be schools and military bases, even entire cities, inside of a large basin two hundred kilometers west of here.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “You didn’t detect them?” he asked. “How could you miss an entire city from orbit?” “I’m not sure,” Jhiranae admitted. “Our scanners aren’t exactly military-grade, but we shouldn’t have missed a city.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Well, our scanners are military-grade,” the soldier retorted. “We didn’t detect any cities either.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “As I said earlier, it might be a child’s invention,” Kanjai offered tentatively.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “It’s not,” Jhiranae said flatly. “I’m sure of it.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Whatever. You can discuss it back at camp,” Lieutenant Gonnard told them. “We need to leave now.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae almost stopped to argue with him. Technically, she was in charge of the expedition and the dig site. It was her call to make, but she realized that there was no sense in doing so when she probably would have concurred anyway. As much as the dig site was calling to her, tempting her to stay and unravel its mysteries, she and her team were not equipped to withstand one of Yanibar’s fierce storms. They also needed to conduct the map back to the base camp—it was fragile enough already. Exposure to moisture, wind, or fast-moving sand would undoubtedly damage it.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Then let’s go,” Jhiranae agreed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Carefully, she sealed the map into an airtight collection bag and then placed that inside a hard-shelled artifact box. Closing the locks, she stowed the box inside their speeder. Once everyone was out of the emergency shelter, Magnus threw the lever to seal the entrance again. Thankfully, the heavy door shut with a creak and a groan. Jhiranae had no desire to see their fascinating discovery flooded out. The water would undoubtedly wreck any other finds.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             The wind was picking up as Jhiranae and the others made their way out of the excavated site, clutching their tools and sample boxes. The gusts rolled across the plain, kicking up sand and tugging at their sleeves and hair. The temperature had dropped ten degrees, and where previously the sun had blazed in the sky, now ominous dark thunderheads loomed on the horizon. A flicker of lightning, followed by the sharp crack of thunder several seconds later, served as a harbinger of the inclement weather.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae stood transfixed for a moment, staring at the storm. The towering behemoths in the sky were nearly black, jutting dozens of kilometers high and eager to unleash their stormy wrath on the surface below. They stretched as far as she could see, borne towards them by relentless gales. The situation was direr than the lieutenant’s initial warning had indicated.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Leave the rest,” she shouted over the deafening wind currents. “Grab what you can and run!”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Spurred on by her words, the archaeologists scrambled into the speeder, followed by their escort. Magnus’s excavator and several other larger pieces of equipment were left behind in their haste, but it didn’t matter now. They had to escape the valley for the shelter of the hills.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae gunned the speeder and set out. Her hands gripped the steering yoke with white-knuckled fervor as gales of wind buffeted the vehicle. Alone on the rocky steppe, the vehicle seemed so fragile and helpless against the immensity of the storm.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Sheets of rain rocked the speeder, followed by the sharp crackle of hailstones. The speeder lurched and shuddered as the wind jarred and pulled at the vehicle. She could barely see thirty meters ahead, but Jhiranae kept the nose of the vehicle headed south back to their basecamp, riding along the edge of the tempest. The winds threatened to topple the vehicle, but each time she wrenched control back.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             It was only after twenty minutes of harrowing piloting through treacherous terrain and winds that threatened to dash their speeder into rocky outcroppings or spill it into suddenly-flooding gullies that they reached the relative safety of the mountain pass that led back towards their camp. The storm subsided somewhat, and only then did Jhiranae reflect that this was twice now they had been chased away frantically from this particular dig site.