I shook my head. "It was just I didn’t think I knocked it on ground." Then, because neither of them looked like he believed me, I shrugged and added: "There’s squads I rather not be assigned to, but no-one tried to break my things or hurt me or anything before."
"Which squads?" Selkie asked immediately.
"Expect you have good idea," I said, annoyed.
"Indulge me."
I thought about it, then decided it was nothing I wasn’t prepared to say if I were assigned to them. "Fifth and Seventh so far. Wouldn’t feel safe going into Ena with either captain, so would rather not. Ninth, I didn’t feel that way about." Ruuel handed back my watch and I looked down at it, remembering the sick stabbing feeling in my stomach. "They probably not realise what it mean to me."
"Not the object but the function, yes?" Selkie said, reaching to pick up my mobile. "This device can replace it?"
"Both have the date on Earth. That needs recharging every five or six days."
Selkie gave it back to me, added a little nod and left.
"What will happen now?" I asked, since Ruuel hadn’t gone immediately after him.
"Reprimand for any involved. The squad will return to Tare for review, then likely be stood down and reformed with personnel changes."
All for knocking my watch onto the ground. I felt ill.
Ruuel gave me an impatient look. "Don’t overreact. Ninth has needed to be rebalanced since it was formed. Failing this assignment is only the trigger."
I was confused what assignment he was talking about, until I realised he meant me. Protecting me is the Setari’s primary assignment here. I expect that emotionally screwing over someone you’re supposed to be looking after would count as failing.
"They forgot the psychological aspects," I said, letting myself find it funny.
I’ve no doubt Ruuel knew I was quoting him, but he didn’t break out of serious captain mode. "Concentrating on a practical solution was a good response," he said. "But you continue to hesitate to communicate when you most need to. It’s not only your own welfare you put at risk."
"Today more choosing not to speak," I pointed out. "But generally don’t see how to decide what’s important."
"Don’t try. If anything prompts you to wonder if you should inform us, or ask for help, then always assume the answer is yes. The same rule should serve for speculation about these sites. Parallels with Earth’s cultures could be misleading, but we cannot judge their worth if we do not hear them."
I looked out the long view port, to the triangle of mountain and camp which I could see from that part of the ship. It wasn’t raining yet, but people were getting under cover, the greensuits making sure all the tents were secure. It was true I’d been stopping myself from sharing any more guesses about the installation, not wanting to waste the historians' time.
"What did you feel when you touched that door?" I asked. Ruuel didn’t answer, and I turned back to find him even more than usually shuttered. Rather than make a point about people communicating, I continued: "Could you tell if it was Ddura which kill them?"
"No." He paused. "Fear, panic, anger, overwhelming betrayal. A sense of something approaching, but no tangible impression of its form."
"Was talking to Dase and Katha yesterday about how whole thing doesn’t make sense to the historians," I said. "Accepted Taren history says Lantarens decided to make space travel easier, built Pillars. Pillars tore gates everywhere including between real-space and near-space, and Ionoth started killing people on Muina. Lantarens built Ddura to kill Ionoth and to try and make it easier to get to the Pillars. Something happened that made them lose control of the Ddura, and lots people start dropping dead. Before finding Arenrhon installation, technicians had decided that it was combination of aether and Ddura killing people because their security clearance revoked. All historians here having big argument about how long did that all take? They all thought it was quick – was maybe around a Taren year from turning on Pillars to running away from Muina. This place fits that timeline wrong.
"When saw there was a town inside, historians thought maybe must be intended to be a kind of bunker, a place intended to keep the Ionoth out, but that didn’t work on Ddura and Ddura killed them. But whole place built in less than one Taren year, everyone moved in? Could Lantarens do that as quickly as Tarens can? If emergency shelter built quick, why spend time covering walls with pictures? And Ddura – whenever we touch the platforms, the Ddura have responded so quick. Don’t get impression it takes them long to kill things. Whole town would have died in moments if it was Ddura. And only me can hear anyway. Would not have had time to try and run away and get packed into exits and crushed. But if it was big wave of aether, then would have just collapsed in piles like Setari did. If was slow drift of aether, wouldn’t they all barricaded themselves in rooms with doors shut? And the air shafts they’ve uncovered are sealed by the aether stone too – so doesn’t seem like people meant to survive in this place once aether shield up."
I don’t usually try speaking Taren in such big blocks, and was a little tangled by this point. I’m pretty sure Ruuel had heard most of those theories already anyway; the Taren historians had been arguing about it for the past few days. He listened without impatience, though, and said: "We can’t overlook the possibility of there being another source of danger here, something the Lantarens could not defend against."
I shook my head. "You said it before. Betrayal. I think maybe the Lantarens killed the people here."
He didn’t give away what he thought of the idea, just said: "Why?"
"Being underground with a seal covering even air vents. And especially all the worshipful imagery. The Egyptians did this with their God-kings: preserved their bodies, built massive monuments to put them in, surrounded them with their treasures, covered the walls with images of the stories of their lives. And provided them with a household to serve them in afterlife."
That made his eyes narrow. "A household?"
"Servants. They would kill them, or just seal in tomb alive." I sighed. "It doesn’t quite fit, because if that was what was happening here, it would be well-known culturally. And not normal to build houses for the servants in the tomb. But if they were told it was a shelter beforehand, and then sealed inside and killed by whatever the Lantarens were doing, it does seem to match more than anything else I can guess."
"We may learn more tomorrow. They’ve been making progress on the fourth level seal." Ruuel had the distracted look of interface-conversation, so I wasn’t surprised when he only added: "Go get some lunch," and left.
I blatantly disobeyed orders. The idea of meeting any of Ninth Squad made me feel too ill to eat. But there’s never any escape, and Kaeline brought Anya and Revv in to apologise to me. Anya did so with a complete lack of grace or sincerity, but I think Revv meant it. I’d been wondering if only Revv would take the blame, but it seems everyone else has as much trouble lying to Tsur Selkie as I do, and it was obvious to anyone who’d seen anything of Ninth Squad that Anya would be behind a game of tease the stray. Kaeline sent them off, then apologised to me on her own behalf.
"Would rather no-one had noticed," I told her. "Caused all these problems for rest of Ninth Squad."
"We brought our problem with us," she said. "I hope to work with you again one day."
She left, and I felt slightly better because I noticed as she went that for once she looked as if she didn’t have a headache. I wasn’t surprised when Mori turned up and made me go have lunch. Ruuel doesn’t forget the psychological aspects.