Silent Shapes of Mist and Stone

Then he took a few steps away from the ship and stopped. "I turned on the suit's muscle-augmentation system. It's a little more difficult to move under this gravity than I anticipated. Breathing rate increased with the extra effort."

  "Doctor Feher, it's Doctor Tao. You may have to reduce oxygen flow to prevent hyperventilation."

  "Yeah, I know. But it should be less of an effort with the augmentation system on." His light swept over brown, wind-worn rock and dense, rolling mist. "Patchy fog limits my visibility to about ten meters. Wind holding steady at thirty knots. That's what passes for calm on this world. Temperature is thirty-two degrees centigrade. The air taster is picking up some protein molecules. It'll take a few minutes to analyze, but they're probably wind-borne microbes. No toxic chemicals so far." He knelt down and attached a small device to the ground. "It's going to take a few minutes for me to analyze these rocks." He stood again. "If I remember the Akran telemetry correctly, there should be some larger rock formations a few meters that way." He pointed. "Can you see everything clearly from my helmet cam, by the way?"

  "Yes professor, it's nice and sharp," Contadino said.

  "Good." Feher began walking slowly in the direction he had indicated.

  Inside the skiff, all five of them were at their own laboratory stations, monitoring or analyzing Feher's data. Tao leaned back from his station and peered around the divide to the next terminal where Gantulga sat.

  "I was expecting to hear a memorable speech from Feher," Tao said to Gantulga, who looked up and raised his brows.

  "You know you're on the comm line," Feher said.

  "Oh, sorry." Tao switched off his microphone.

  "Okay everybody. When Doctor Tao goes on EVA, brace yourself for an inspiring, history-making speech," Feher said.

  Gantulga grinned, but Tao ignored the comment.

  "What instrument package will you take when you go out?" Tao asked Gantulga.

  Gantulga's eyes rolled back to his terminal for a moment. "Uh, I wasn't planning on taking anything but a sidearm."

  "Oh, right. I keep forgetting your background. Covert Combat Unit, right?"

  "No, just a former shock trooper. Not that I've ever shocked anyone. Unity doesn't have much use for soldiers, these days. It was a lot of training, and a lot of ceremonial duty."

  "Hm. Well, I'll be taking a full mobile medical kit. I have to monitor the vitals of all EVAers simultaneously."

  Feher's voice came on the line again. "Are you seeing this? These tors are heavily eroded by wind, like Earth sandstone. But this type of rock is not particularly soft. I think it's metamorphic."

  "Yes, we see them. Very nice," Zoltan said. He, Contadino, and Kovacs were at the other end of the lab, poring over the same station.

  Tao turned back to his and watched the video feed of spindly, top-heavy rocks emerging from the mist.

  "Some fantastic shapes," Feher said. "They're exposed to relentless wind, and always from the same direction."

  Kovacs spoke over the comm. "Okay Professor Feher, we need to keep an eye on the time. If you've made an initial assessment on the biosphere, you should come back for deeper analysis and let these boys have their turn."

  "Well, my assessment is that there's nothing here except some stray peptide chains blowing around. There's definitely a microbial population, but as I explained in the lab, they're not likely to pose a threat to humans."

  "All right. Come back in, then."

  "Yes ma'am."

  Ten minutes later, Feher was back in the lab, removing his helmet. Tao, wearing his doctor uniform, put the strap of his medical kit over his shoulder. Gantulga wore plain black citizen clothes. He strapped his holster belt around his waist and checked the battery of this sidearm.

  "It's going to feel hot and humid," Feher warned.

  "It sure is," Tao said as he prepared breathing masks.

  "Step aside," Zoltan said. "I'm going first. He secured his helmet, checked the airflow, and entered the airlock. After his cycle was complete, he exited the vessel without a word and began walking. Tao and Gantulga entered the airlock to begin pressurization.

  Over the comm line, Feher asked, "Zoltan, where are you going?"

  "I'm following a path ninety degrees to the one you took."

  "But I already looked around that area—near the rock field."

  "Not this far west. And the suit's scanning microphones are picking up a sound. Did you hear anything out here?"

  "Nothing but wind."

  "It's not that. Too regular. I think it's waves on a shoreline."

  "Be careful," Kovacs said. "Don't go too fast. We don't really know what's out there."

  "Don't be so dramatic. This entire world has been surface scanned by the Akran. If you look at their data, our landing zone is clearly adjacent to the world ocean," Zoltan responded. "Visibility is still ten meters. I'm not going to fall off a cliff."

  For a few more minutes, Tao and Gantulga sat in the airlock, listening to the comm on their earpieces and watching the helmet feed on their eyepieces. Then the pressure was equalized. Tao slid the outer hatch open, and hot, humid air blew into the airlock. They stepped out and stood silently for a moment, looking out to the fog.

  "Guys, are you alright?" Kovacs asked. "How do you feel?"

  "Perfectly normal," Tao said. He looked at Gantulga. "You?"

  "It's difficult to believe I'm not dreaming. This place looks like Iceland but feels like Panama."

  Tao took a step away from the ship. "Except it takes a lot of work to move."

  "Didn't you feel that way on the skiff, as soon as we landed?"

  "Yeah, but it's more noticeable now because the ground is uneven. Have to pay more attention to my footing."

  Gantulga began walking in the direction Zoltan had gone. "I had several months of high-g training before entering hibernation on Red Wolf. This is when it really pays off."

  "Okay, Gantulga, I don't know if I can keep up with you. Can you go a little more slowly?"

  "Come on Doctor, it's not that hard."

  "Well, my muscles have to work harder. My brain stem is attempting to increase my respiration rate, but my thoracic muscles are getting fatigued."

  "Already? I feel perfectly fine." Gantulga stopped and put his hands on his hips. "Doctor Meszaros? How's it going?"

  "I'm not a doctor yet, Gantulga. Just a graduate student, remember? I'm fine, though it is a little more work to breathe during periods of activity, as Tao mentioned."

  "Zoltan, where are you?" Kovacs asked. "Do you see water?"

  "No, but I think there are more rock towers ahead. They look quite different from the ones Feher saw, I think. Forty to fifty meters ahead, so they're mostly obscured. I am getting somewhat tired. Slowing down."

  "Let's go, Doctor," Gantulga said. "I want to catch up to Mr. Meszaros." Tao had one foot up on a rock, elbow resting on knee. His face was in shadow behind the mask; the lamp below the mouth was projecting a focused beam. "You look like you're shooting a laser out your mouth. Or breathing blue fire," Gantulga said.

  "Yeah, Gantulga—all I can see is a bright light where your head is. Could you make the beam a little tighter?"

  "Sure. I just wanted to be sure my peripheral vision is reasonably lit." They began walking at a faster pace. "I think I can see Mr. Meszaros ahead." Gantulga pointed.

  "Just barely. Zoltan, we're about thirty meters behind you. Zoltan?"

  "The rocks are symmetrical. I think they might be statues," Zoltan said.

  "Repeat that last, Zoltan," Contadino said.

  "You see what I see," Zoltan said. "There are about a dozen scattered objects, all facing the same direction."

  "Yes, we see them," Feher said. "But you'll need to get closer to get a better sense of them before your imagination takes you too far afield. These rocks may share similar features
because the wind always erodes from the same direction."

  "No, I think it's more than that. Okay, I'm getting closer. Tao, can you see them yet?"

  "Not quite. Wait, there's something."

  "Yes!" exclaimed Gantulga. "It's huge, but I can't tell what I'm looking at."

  "I've reached the base of the first one."

  "My god," Feher said. "Are the Akran relaying these images to the spinship?"

  "Yes," Kovacs said quietly. "Marika should be seeing this in a couple minutes."

  A patch of dense fog blew by, and Tao and Gantulga could see Zoltan clearly. His spine was arced backward in his flexible pressure suit as he looked up at the massive petrified object. It appeared to be a gray stone, eight meters tall and three wide, carved with long ridges and grooves, protuberances and cavities. There were thirteen more scattered in the fog beyond.

  "It's intricately sculpted," Zoltan said. "No sign of erosion. These must have been placed here relatively recently. Amazing."

  "Well, Doctor Feher, it looks like there is more to this world than a few microbes," Contadino said.

  "Not necessarily. This place may have been visited by space-faring travelers, like us."

  "And before they left, they just dropped off a few of their favorite statues?" Zoltan asked dubiously.

  "There could have been some mass extinction event recently," Tao offered.

  "Leaving only a perfectly preserved sculpture garden?" Feher said. "Where are the other artifacts and signs of an extinct civilization?"

  "We haven't explored everywhere. There could be other remnants," Tao said.

  "But we do have topological scans from the earlier probes. They would have detected