Chapter One
WRITTEN BY: KELLEY TOWNLEY
ILLUSTRATED BY: EDEN REEVE
Read with ambient sound:
CHAPTER ONE
This was not Dr Esther Sutton’s first rodeo.
Oh no.
And she wasn’t about to let some snot-nosed, straight-out-of-the-academy rookie tell her what to do just because they’d been given a smidgen of emergency authority from ASH!
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” Esther said, forcing a smile.
The official sighed unhappily. “My name is Rissa Cross.”
“Well, Cadet Cross, would you mind awfully just checking my very senior pass once more, please?”
The official dutifully scanned Esther’s pass for a third time.
There was a sad little beep.
“I’m sorry, Dr Sutton. It’s just not being accepted. I can’t let you through.”
“Of course,” Esther said tersely. “I completely understand.”
She snatched back the pass and stomped all the way across the chaotic concourse to the apprehensive faces of her team waiting in the busy transport lounge.
“No good,” Esther admitted.
“Well, plek,” Belek cursed, lightly kicking a large bag of camping equipment.
Jahan nodded stoically, while Amaia chewed her lip.
They were all tired. All worn out with fatigue and anxiety from hours of travel already. The world was literally falling apart and here they were, stuck fighting a wall of bureaucracy! Heck, most people were trying to get out of the area. Why did they care so much about a bunch of academics trying to get in?
“So, what now?” said Jahan. “We’re not giving up, are we?”
“Of course not,” said Esther.
“Should we call the professor?” said Amaia, making both Belek and Jahan suck their teeth at the junior intern’s mistake. Amaia’s eyes flicked nervously between her colleagues and her boss, whose mouth had taken on a decidedly grim tilt.
“Come,” said Esther, grabbing her bags. “We’ll follow the fence round and find a less guarded gate. Maybe we can get through there.”
Esther moved away and Amaia scrambled to collect the rest of their things. “What… what did I say?” she asked the others.
Jahan sighed as he picked up a bulky transceiver. “Don’t be a teacher’s – or rather a professor’s – pet, little intern.”
Belek effortlessly threw the massive pack of camping gear on his broad shoulders and gave Amaia a sympathetic smile. “The professor didn’t exactly approve this trip.”
Amaia almost tripped over a medevac box. “But… I thought… I mean… Why wouldn’t he approve?”
They began to move through the hastily erected evacuation camp. High up in the mountains, it was on a remote, age-old airfield from before the Expansion even. Cracked concrete all around. Tufts of hardy, alpine grass sticking out.
Abandoned for centuries, now buzzing with life, and urgency.
After the small plane ride, and half a day’s hike up from the isolated landing strip, it had been a shock to see such activity: dozens of tents; large transport trucks blocking the roads (all emblazoned with the shiny new ASH logo), queues of desperate people waiting for evacuation, and lots of eager new recruits in their disturbingly fresh uniforms. Too fresh.
The last few weeks had been so surreal. The Incident. The Braid. Unthreading. Esther shook her head. It had been a true global disaster, and yet still so many seemed not to grasp the true gravitas of it. Not the plucky young recruits who were excited to be at the frontline. Or the many people recovering back home. But the poor souls in the queues here did. You could see it in their faces. They’d had to deal with death on a daily basis, exposed to the brunt of the Braid storm. Lost their homes to it. Their possessions. Friends and family maybe. Some had even lost parts of themselves.
Jahan swallowed dryly as they passed an assessment tent and he got his first glance of real-life thread-damage. It took his breath away. Amaia looked over too, but Belek hurriedly stepped forward, blocking her view.
Up the busy road, there was a fence, beyond which were more refugees. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe. Who knew so many people lived in these remote mountains! Young and old. Families. All waiting to be cleared for travel. Eager for the transport trucks to take them as far away from here as humanly possible. All being funnelled through the process by rookie ASH recruits, marching up and down as if pure enthusiasm could single-handedly save the world from this disaster.
Esther actually liked the look of the young recruits. They were new. They were inexperienced. They were stupid. Stupid enough to let Esther and her team through maybe. Just then, a senior official stepped out of a tent and eyeballed them suspiciously.
“Not here,” Esther mumbled. “We’ll try further on.”
The group put their heads down and tried to look purposeful as they carried on. They weren’t in fatigues, so clearly weren’t part of ASH, but there were some independent organisations here too, and the odd dedicated journalist
– although generally the press used drones.
“But seriously,” Amaia whispered to Jahan and Belek. “Why wouldn’t the professor approve this trip? I can’t think of anything more important than securing the DNA of the flora and fauna we’re about to lose here.”
Belek nodded solemnly as they walked alongside the crowded fence-line, stricken faces peering out at them. Dirty and tired. Some even begged for food.
“I hate to say it,” he said, “but yes, arguably more so than these evacuees that we’re giving so much priority to. There’s already far too many humans on the planet, and we can always make more.”
“Might even be fun,” Jahan joked lamely, trying to lighten the mood.
“But if we lose the Dolmen musk deer, then that’s it,” Belek concluded. “No more Dolmenious moschus moschiferus. Ever.”
Amaia lowered her gaze from the desperate people. Belek’s point was logical, but it was hard to agree when there was a child right there, clutching their stuffed toy with only a fingerless stump. Their parents hadn’t fared much better either.
“Jeez,” Jahan responded with an involuntary shudder, before hurrying on.
“So why the disapproval?” Amaia insisted. “Why didn’t Professor Hearn approve this trip? And will I still get credit?”
Belek laughed. “Now you’re asking the important questions.”
Embarrassment, then guilt, then annoyance rippled over Amaia’s face. She didn’t know what to think anymore. Everything was happening so fast. The Braid Incident had shocked the world, but no one really knew anything about it. Was it really an ongoing global disaster, or would everything go back to normal again in a few months and it’d be back to her leaky old apartment, worrying about bills and what to do with her future?
“I remember my first field project as an intern,” Belek said cheerfully. “At the Pole. I nearly died.”
Amaia looked shocked but Jahan tutted. “You’re always nearly dying. I bet you were in a cosy little base camp processing ice cores or something.”
“Oh yeah, sure. It was some dodgy leftovers I ate that nearly killed me,” he grinned. “Seriously, being an impoverished intern is a dangerous job.”
At least that made Amaia smile.
“Hush now,” said Esther, as they approached another checkpoint.
They straightened themselves up and strode forward.
“What makes you think we’ll get through this one any easier?” Jahan whispered.
“Worth a shot,” said Esther.
Belek looked doubtful. “I fear our passes have been revoked. ASH are evacuating the whole area now. It’s a complete no-go zone.”
“All the more reason to get in there,” said Esther. “It’ll be fine. Just look straight ahead and appear confident, OK.”
They approached the gate, where two young officials were struggling to regulate the influx of people. They were inspecting every citizen, with an eye scan.
“First sign of thread-damage,” Jahan explained when Amaia looked confused.
“Purple tint to your iris.”
When the scanner beeped, that person was sectioned off and sent to a medi-tent. But the checks were slow work and the many, many people at the gate were getting frustrated, making the officials harried and harassed too.
Perfect, thought Esther.
“Hey! Hi! Excuse me,” she called out in a friendly voice, much unlike her usual tone. “I’m Dr Sutton. This is Dr Boguslav, Dr Hakim, and also Dr, um…”
“Zecuatl Xospa,” said Amaia.
“Yes. And we have special permission to enter the contamination zone.”
The nearest official snorted and continued to scan incomers. “No one goes in. We’re evacuating.”
“Yes, I know, but we have special scientific permission for…”
“Oh.” The official stopped and turned to look Esther up and down. “You’re one of them, are you?”
Esther paused. “Excuse me?”
“From VAU.” This was followed by spitting on the ground.
“We’re not from VAU,” said Esther. “We’re from the Polyatrium. As you can clearly see from this pass.”
The official snatched up Esther’s pass, gave it a cursory glance, and tossed it back. “Screw your pass. People are dying. We need more physicians not physicists. It’s you lot who got us into this mess.”
“YOU don’t know that!” said Esther. “No one knows that. That’s why we’re here. We need to research and—”
The official squared up to Esther. “I thought you said you were here to collect DNA samples? That’s what your pass says. Nothing about any research.”
Esther flustered, and Jahan muttered, “Wow. Quick reader.”
“Get out of here,” snapped the official. “Go on! Get! Go back to your ivory universities and your dangerous, unprincipled ‘research’!”
Esther took a rallying breath but Belek quickly steered her away.
“That ignoramus!” snarled Esther. “They clearly don’t know the difference between a university and a research facility! VAU indeed! We’re Polyatrium!”
Belek sat Esther down on a crate to calm her, while the others milled about uselessly. Around them, hundreds of people were going about important business: putting up tents, carrying supplies, fuelling trucks, and an outdoor canteen was serving hot soup.
Amaia sighed. “I guess this really is it, then. If they’ve truly locked down the entire area, what more can we do?”
“But if they’ve locked it down,” said Belek, “then that’s all the more reason to get in there and gather a sample – er, I mean, samples. Otherwise, all those plants and animals will be lost forever. Isn’t that right, Dr Sutton. Dr Sutton?”
Esther was lost in thought. There had to be another way in. There had to be. Everything depended on it.
Amaia considered Esther’s faraway look. “That is why we’re here, isn’t it? To collect samples? You didn’t mean what you said about studying the Braid, did you, Dr Sutton?”
Esther glanced to the side. “No, of course not. I just meant scientists in general.”
“Good,” said Belek. “Because I have absolutely no intention of getting mixed up in anything dangerous. We get in, we collect our DNA samples for future conservation, and we get out. No heroics. No problems.”
“No glory,” said Jahan, prompting the others to look at him. “What? I’m just saying, if we were in there and happened to observe something new, wouldn’t that be cool? They might name it after us!”
“Not that cool if you’re not alive afterwards,” Belek said doubtfully. “The storms are dangerous.”
“Yes, but how dangerous exactly?” Jahan said suspiciously. “No one quite knows yet.”
“And I don’t intend to be the one who finds out,” said Belek.
“We’ll just have to find another way in,” Esther said, jumping back up. “This fence can’t go on forever. It’s just a courtesy thing anyway. Herding people towards the transport hub. We’ll head east and then up or something. Belek, you know the area, right? That’s why you’re on the team.”
Belek looked mock hurt as he shouldered the heavy camping bag. “And here I was thinking it was because of my two PhDs.”
“Yeah, yeah. Those too, big guy, those too,” Jahan teased, patting Belek’s huge arm.
As Esther took them further along the fence-line, Amaia fell into step beside Belek, taking twice the number of strides just to keep up.
“Well, I thought your article on Hedysarum theinum Grasnob was fascinating,” she said.
“Thank you, Amaia,” smiled Belek.
“Thank you, Amaia,” smiled Belek. “I appreciate that. Although, sadly, not everyone agrees. But it really is the most remarkable little alpine perennial, which only grows here, in this exact region. It has many, many medicinal properties: anti-inflammatory, immunoprotective, bactericidal, antispasmodic, antioxidant, and more that haven’t even begun to be studied properly yet. We were in danger of losing it even before all this Braid business. If we were to lose it now…” Belek let out a deep sigh. “Well, anyway. Like I said, it’s very special. And, yes, likewise, I thought your work implementing bio-gardens in South Menhir was inspired.”
Amaia suddenly scowled. “Actually, that wasn’t me.”
Belek’s face fell into panicky confused embarrassment. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Pretty sure. But,” she conceded, “I guess I should be thankful you looked me up at all.”
“Of course. I mean, you’re on the team now, right? And knowledge is power,” Belek smiled, happy to get over his faux pas.
“You want power over me?” Amaia queried, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh no.” His face fell again. “No. I just meant… It’s good… To know stuff. Isn’t it?”
Amaia struggled to maintain a straight face as Belek flustered and Jahan smirked behind him.
“Stop winding Belek up,” said Esther. “He’s sensitive enough as it is, and we’ve no time to mess about.”
Esther looked down at her screen. They had less than twenty-four hours to get to where they needed to be, and it was still a good day’s hike away.
No time at all.
