Blink: Leviathan (Book 2)

15

The message left a chill in Amber's body, as though a winter breeze had just slammed into her. She physically shuddered and took a step away from the huge, aeons-old hologram looking at it with a mixture of apprehension and fascination. The echo from the alien's last statement hung heavy in the air as the operatives exchanged dubious looks. Most of them had been down a similar road on their last mission, a mission that was burned into her memory for the rest of her life. As silence descended, she hugged herself, trying to banish the chill that seemed to have seeped into the room.

She looked to Darien. His brow was furrowed deep in thought. He raised a hand to his comm piece.

"Professor Churchwood, come in."

"I'm here."

"Did you get all that?"

"We did indeed," the man didn't sound at all perturbed by the doom laden warning. "Quite remarkable that the program is still functioning after all this time. And the translation programming – ingenious!"

"Never mind the compliments," Darien snapped. "Did you actually listen to what the message said?"

"Oh that? I wouldn't concern yourself, operative. The message is thousands of years old. We have been installed on this planet for over a year and encountered no hostile life forms. I think it is safe to say whatever fate befell our friends, the threat no longer exists."

Amber shot Darien a dubious look and shook her head. She, for one, was disinclined to toss the warning aside so casually. The memory of their experiences with the ancient creature on Titan Aquilla had proved that bad things could withstand the test of time. She followed his gaze back to the central console where his city-wide map still squatted, dominating the main platform. He looked back, caught her eye and gave a tiny nod of understanding.

Together they crossed back over to the city display and for the first time she took a closer look at it. She marvelled at the detail as she circled the image, peering in at the honeycomb of corridors, passages and chambers. On impulse, she reached out and brushed a finger against the shimmering lines of green, and the result was unexpected. The image zoomed in dramatically on the point she'd touched and she instantly jerked her hand back.

"Hey..." Darien blinked in surprise. "What did you do?"

"It's touch sensitive – the hologram," she replied. "You can control it without using the console."

"Cool."

"It must work like the holo-matics – you know, engineering structural designs?" Brannigan put in. Amber gave her a blank look. She knew a lot more about navigation and mathematics than applied engineering.

"They use them all the time in mining operations," the other operative continued. "It helps for blast projections in excavations, stuff like that. You can detect stress points and run detailed sims of controlled detonations. Principle looks the same."

"Care to give it a try?" Darien suggested.

Brannigan didn't hesitate, stepping up to the console and narrowing her eyes as she examined the massive green display. Amber could see easily enough that the girl was eager to contribute to proceedings after her conduct against the underwater creature had been so woeful. She wanted to make amends.

While she looked over the machine, a message slashed over the comm.

"Hammerhead, this is Tundra," said the voice of Vass Juntar. Being so engrossed in their discoveries Amber had almost forgotten about the other teams searching the city.