***Now detecting big decoherence wake signatures, Base…nearby…heading two one five degrees…large source of quantum disturbance nearby***
Winger told the others about Doc’s report. “Could be another Sphere in or around the village.”
Barnes shook her head. “Jeez, they’re spreading like kudzu, Major. Everywhere we wind up, there’s a Sphere.”
Singh had a theory. “They must have been planted by someone. Maybe another race, extraterrestrials. Maybe that’s how they get around…sort of a quantum railroad.”
Winger said, “We’ve seen intel about Red Hammer somehow being in contact with an off-world race. It’s rather incredible but it fits the facts. It would explain a lot of things. But why have Spheres in all these ancient times and places? I don’t understand that.”
Barnes didn’t care. “Just get me home…that’s all I ask. If there’s a Sphere in that village, I say we go there and use it…maybe we can work it correctly this time…get back to Mesa de Oro…” she eyed the rivers of lava cascading down the sides of Kipwezi. “…anywhere but here.”
Winger agreed. “Mite’s right. Our mission is surveillance but we’ve lost the targets. Protocol says we return to base and report what we’ve found.”
Singh knuckled ash and dust out of his eyes, shaking himself off like a dog. “If there is a Sphere in the village, I’m betting it’s in or around the shaman’s hut. That would make sense, wouldn’t it?”
“About as much sense as anything else around here. Let’s go.”
The three troopers staggered to their feet and pushed on deeper into the forest, finding the tree canopy welcome relief from the volcanic ash and heat. Presently, they could see the clearing ahead, its crude thatched huts veiled in smoke and dust, but the central fire pit drew them on like a homing beacon.
Winger called a halt a few hundred meters away. “I’ve got an idea. It’s a cinch we can’t just walk into the village. We don’t really have any weapons either. But we do have Doc. Suppose I hack out a config that would make the Doc swarm resemble their god Ngai, at least as best we can figure it. There were some emblems inside that hut where we were kept that could be symbols of that god.”
“Yeah, Skipper,” said Barnes, “send Doc in on a recon mission—they’ll never detect him in all this ash and soot—and then make up a swarm to resemble those images we saw. It could work. “
“What are we waiting for?” Singh asked.
Winger sent the commands to the Doc master bot. “Doc…set propulsors for max speed….here’s the heading—“he sent the data to Doc “—and form up a photon lens when you get there. I want to do a little visual recon once you’re inside the village.”