“I guess. It’d be nice if we had a way to lift it and actually take the thing back.”
“Yeah, that would be good. But there should be some decent artifacts inside. It’s a pity it didn’t go down on one of these moons instead of in a jungle. It would be in much better condition. But thousands of years in this tangle . . .”
“Terrible way to die,” I said.
“Maybe not. In those days, vehicles didn’t travel alone. There should have been at least one more out here with them. So whoever was inside probably got clear.”
“Anything like this in the histories? I mean, if they got out this far, there’d probably have been something on the record.”
“It could be,” said Gabe. “There’s a world they called Farport where they had an accident. Nobody knows where Farport is. Maybe this was it. As best I recall, they got everybody off. And there’s no record anyone ever went back. At least the person writing the account didn’t think so.”
“I like the name.”
“So do I, Chase. It fits. But let’s not forget we don’t have a backup.”
We got more pictures and left it behind a second time. “Next time around,” said Gabe. When we were about twenty minutes out from launch, we went down into the cargo bay and took out the pressure suits. He looked seriously uncomfortable as I climbed into mine. We put two cutters and two blasters into the lander. When Belle announced that we had seven minutes left, we boarded the lander and began to depressurize the cargo bay. I checked to make sure we could keep radio contact with her. For several years, the lander had its own AI, which Alex had named for Gabe. But we’d finally caught up with the technology and got a communication package that allowed Belle to download software into the lander and provide a shadow version of herself to function in the vehicle. Gabe the AI is now operating in an orphanage in Basington, across the Melony. Last time we visited him, he seemed quite happy.
Belle took the count to zero minus three minutes and opened the launch doors. We shut the gravity down and started the engines. The cradle took us outside and, as the thrusters started, gave us a push. And we were on our way.
Belle had the vehicle on automatic. She’d take us in until we could see the wreckage, and then hand it over to me. Forest and mountains stretched in all directions as far as I could see. There was a river immediately below, and a lake to the north that was so large we could just barely make out the opposite shore. The sky was full of birds, if that was the correct terminology for the reptilian critters that moved in clusters above the trees. I could feel Gabe’s excitement. This was potentially the discovery of a lifetime.
We descended through scattered clouds until we were just above treetop level. The ground was also crowded with shrubs and giant bushes with gray pods and dazzling red flowers. said Belle,
“Okay, Belle. I’ve got it.”
She released control. I took over and reduced velocity.
Gabe leaned forward in his chair. “There it is.” The downed vehicle was partially visible within a cluster of trees. I continued to slow down until we were barely moving. The wreckage was partially submerged in the ground. A larger version of the comet stood out on the aft section of the hull. And something else that was hard to make out. A blue-and-white smear. “Might have been a flag,” said Gabe.
“You recognize it?”
“No.”
The bushes surrounding the wreckage resembled broadleaf evergreens. Long vines hung down from the treetops. The wreckage had been virtually swallowed by the shrubbery. Fortunately it appeared to be out of reach of the river. “We’re lucky Belle spotted it at all,” said Gabe.
Belle said,
We touched down in a narrow opening among the trees, about thirty meters away. Gabe released his belt, got up, and headed for the hatch. “Take your time,” I said. “You have your blaster?”
“Of course.” He hated being treated like someone who hadn’t done anything like this before. But I couldn’t see the weapon anywhere. He had in fact left it on the seat behind him. He tried to pretend he was checking his helmet before picking it up. When he’d finished he slipped it into his belt. Then he reached into a pocket and showed me a cutter as well.
We pulled on our air tanks, went into the air lock, depressurized, and opened the outer hatch. He got in front of me, determined to lead the way. But he stopped long enough to survey the area. he said. I followed him outside. When we were satisfied nothing was stalking us, I closed up and we started into the tangled vegetation. The flowers were gorgeous. I wondered if they smelled as good as they looked.
Moving forward was a challenge. We both got caught up in vines and lianas, which were clingy. Two giant shrubs dominated the space on either side of the vehicle. There was an unsettling aspect to them, maybe connected to multiple gray pods that had an almost flesh-like appearance. The vines were loaded with thorns.
We stood for a couple of moments studying the wreckage. It had not crashed. Whatever had gone wrong had apparently happened after they were on the ground. The hull had taken on a rusted taint, and there wasn’t much doubt it had been there several thousand years. Finally Gabe walked over to the hatch. There was a presspad about halfway up on the right side. He reached out and touched it. Nothing happened. He pushed down harder. There was of course no way it was going to work if that thing had really been there for as long as we thought. And that’s exactly what we got.
He pulled the cutter out of his belt. he said,
He turned the device on the hatch. It sizzled as the laser sliced through it. When he’d finished, he removed the presspad, but the door still showed no sign of opening. He stayed with it until he was able to remove the hatch. We pulled it out of the way, revealing the air lock. The inner hatch was also resistant, so we had to repeat the process. When he’d finished we broke it loose and looked past it into a shadowy interior. Then he climbed in, turned on a wrist light, and extended a hand for me.
I’d half expected to find the remains of some of the occupants inside, but there was nothing. So maybe they had been rescued. I think we were both relieved to see no bones, but it hardly seemed to matter at that point.
The vehicle was half again as large as our lander. But it had only five seats. Gabe wasted no time getting into the pilot’s seat. Numbers and letters on the gauges and dials were familiar. is Gabe said.
We found the remnant of a flag inserted in the pocket behind the pilot’s seat. The colors had faded. They might originally have been green and gold. We didn’t recognize it. Gabe took a couple of pictures. He folded it and placed it in his pouch.
A jacket lay in one of the seats. It felt like a piece of hard cardboard. There was a zipper, and a patch on the right breast depicting the comet we’d seen on the hull and three unfamiliar letters. Gabe said.
I was still looking at the control panel. “I wonder if there’s any chance we could power up the AI? Talk about a gold mine.”