''Your guess is as good as mine,'' Beni said, ''but my suit is getting real hard to move. Let's get out of here.''
Kris joined the others limping quickly for the exit, but thinking as well. ''If any guess is as good as any other, let's have a few. For starters, I'm guessing that it has to do with this spire. What if it is a faster-than-light commlink?''
''And that shows where they got a signal from,'' Jack said.
''If you could make jump points across space, you could send signals through those jumps,'' Beni agreed, pulling ahead.
''But why the low-tech radio signal we picked up?'' Abby said, breathless. ''That certainly isn't the interstellar commlink.''
''Unless Abby's idea about the de-evolution of the species has something to do with it,'' Kris said, slowing to stay even with Abby. ''Part of Santa Maria was left as a nature preserve. Everything else was nano-mined. What if this was a nature reserve? A place for folks that didn't want all the tech?''
''And the last interstellar message had to be radioed to the other towns?'' Jack said, falling back, too. ''That's a big leap.''
''I'm open to other leaps,'' Kris said.
''When we get out of here, if we do, I'd sure like to see what that other circled star looks like,'' Doc said.
''So would I,'' Kris said, ''Resolute, you copy this star map?''
''We've got it,'' Captain Drago said.
''It fits the two new jump points I've found out of this system,'' Sulwan added.
''How long to boost to the one we didn't come in?''
''Not too long,'' Sulwan answered.
''Once we're out of here, we'll see,'' Kris said.
''Assuming we get out,'' Jack said.
''Whatever this stuff is, it's sure making our suits shine,'' Doc said. ''But I can't get any readouts off of it.''
''I can tell you that it's doing something to my joints,'' Abby said, coming to a halt. ''You go ahead. I got to rest.''
Kris didn't pause, but hobbled on, each step an effort. If she remembered right, the extra weight vanished from the nanos the second they got out of the building. Jack stayed beside her.
Beni, Doc, and his helper struggled out into the daylight, their heavy breathing filling the net. Kris was throwing each stiff leg ahead of the other by swinging the suit from left to right, right to left. Jack struggled, too.
''Who'd have thought a clean freak could kill us a million years after the last white-glove inspection,'' Kris muttered.
''Kind of makes you wonder what a Neanderthal would think if you handed one a bar of soap,'' Abby drawled.
''Remind me to say something nice about you,'' Doc said.
''Save your breath,'' Jack ordered.
''You okay, Abby?'' Kris asked.
''Long as my air holds, I'm just the tin man giving advice.''
Outside in the sun, Doc moved the arms and legs of his suit. ''It's gone. Let's see what happens,'' he muttered, and ran back in. He was only starting to go stiff legged when he reached Kris. He grabbed her shoulder strap, and dragged her along.
''I'm gonna hate myself if this don't work,'' Chief Beni said, and dashed in to help Jack.
Long minutes later, all four of them were in daylight. And the stiffness was gone. ''Can't you get any readout off of this?'' Kris asked Doc as she rotated her arms, bent her knees.
''Not a thing shows on any of my stuff.''
''We can't leave Abby in there,'' Kris said.
''I was kind of hoping you'd remember me.''
''Jack, you're with me,'' Kris said and headed back in. She and the Marine ran for Abby. The stiffness was just coming back when they reached her. The maid was locked up, stiff as a board. Kris grabbed one arm, Jack the other and they dragged her along most of the way to the shining door… and locked up themselves, twenty yards out.
''I'm really going to hate myself,'' Beni said as he, Doc, and the door guards headed back in and dragged Kris and Jack out. The two door guards, then, had no trouble going back for Abby.
''Glad that's over,'' Abby said.
''Look at our air supply,'' Kris said.
''My how time flies when you're turning to stone,'' Jack said.
''How do we protect this place?'' Kris said, looking at the door. ''If we close it, assuming we can, will it open again? If we leave it open, will we lose too much of what's inside?''
''Sure you want to save whatever that stuff was?'' Abby said.
''I've got a balloon,'' Comm Boss said. ''To raise an antenna if we needed to. We could use it to block the door.''
''We'll get out-gassing off the balloon,'' Doc pointed out.
''It's still better than nothing.''
A few minutes later, the balloon blocked the entrance and a coat of plastic glue protected the balloon from anything short of a rifle round and everyone was hurrying down the path they had taken in. Their gleaming battle armor got smeared with poop and rocks. Another large-tusked animal disputed the right-of-way with Kris, ignored the tossed rock, and had to be shot as it charged. Doc bottled hair samples of the beast but with air supply down to three hours, that was it. They arrived back at the riverbank where they'd left the shuttle. It was gone.
''It can't be far,'' Kris scowled, more bothered than scared. Just now, panic was not an option. Kris tossed her walking stick out into the river and watched as it drifted to her left. ''If someone untied it and pushed it out, it ought to be headed that way. There's not much of a current.''
Abby had waded out into the crushed rushes made by the beached shuttle. ''Mind if I go upstream? Those little dickens might have thought to tow it.''
''And now our intrepid heros separate into two groups,'' Beni muttered. ''Which one will vanish, never to be seen again?''
''Stow it, Chief,'' Kris ordered. ''It seems our jelly bean strings have a few tricks up their sleeves we didn't expect.''
''Ah, Kris,'' Nelly said softly. ''I just sent a signal to the shuttle. It is slightly west of us and moving slowly westward.''
''Thank you, Nelly,'' Kris said, to chuckles from the other twenty-fourth-century humans as they remembered they were, after all, not cavemen.
Around a small bend in the river, the shuttle bobbed gently along, drifting broadside to the stream flow. Four waded out to capture the line floating from the shuttle's nose. The synthetic rope had not been cut. ''They haven't forgotten everything they once knew,'' the woman gunner said, holding the line as she and the others dragged the spacecraft back into the shallows.
The return to space went quickly after that. Kris matched orbit with the Resolute, but did not enter the shuttle bay. Crew that had stayed behind now came out and passed them a line to follow into an airlock. The three girls started the process of decontamination. In Lock 1, their battle armor was sprayed, scrubbed, and generally scoured for anything virus size or larger. After the lock had been vented to space and the cleaning process run a second time and vented, the gals got to shuck their armored duds and advance into Lock 2. There they scrubbed themselves down, got to enjoy having the lock vented to space down to one-tenth normal pressure, then repeated. Stripped bare, they entered the third lock where they found long johns to skinny into and a airlock that wouldn't open.
''Sorry Princess, but we want you to breath the air awhile, let us test it for the creeping uglies, then we'll let you in.''
Which meant Kris, Abby, and Gunner Jennifer were still there when Jack, Beni, and Doc came through the hatch.
''Don't look,'' Jack growled, as he hurriedly pulled on the same style white long johns. Kris didn't look… very much.
About as much as Abby didn't look… much.
Jennifer didn't even turn away. ''I usually have to pay for a show this good.'' Beni went beet red.
''Captain, I told you we wouldn't have to go through full decon,'' Doc shouted at no particular speaker visible.
''Hey, be glad I'm taking you back. If one more member of the crew had voted the other way, we were going to leave you down there until a real expedition came along.''