“And it goes all the way back?” Bridge asks him.
“All of the caves have it,” the medic says.
“All of the caves on this side of the city,” Bridge says.
“No,” the medic says. “All of the caves in the Basin.”
I feel my breath catch. Mikk glances at me, apparently trying to see if I’m following the discussion. He doesn’t seem real sure about it.
But Mikk knows more about relics and history and shipwrecks and diving. He has never professed to know much about science.
“But you said there was no black when there was a cave-in.” Roderick has joined the discussion. He’s looking at the leader. “Have you seen it grow before?”
The guide looks trapped. “I haven’t, no.”
“But there have always been stories,” says the medic. “Quarantined houses because they accidentally punch through the subbasement wall, and then the entire lower level is subsumed.”
“What do you mean lower level?” Bridge asks.
“The subbasement. The basement. Anything below ground.”
“But the black stops when it gets above ground?” Bridge asks.
The medic nods.
“Even if that above ground area is protected by a roof or shade?” Bridge asks.
The medic nods again.
“Is this simply rumor or do you know this as a fact?” Bridge asks.
The medic rubs his hands together. It’s his turn to give his colleagues an uneasy glance. “Fact,” he says. “My grandparents lost their home to a quarantine when I was a boy.”
“So you’ve seen the growth before,” Bridge says.
The medic nods.
“How come you don’t study it?” Bridge asks. “You needed to study science to have medical training. Why didn’t you branch into a study of the cave walls?”
“That’s not a course of study,” the medic says.
I frown. I’m not quite sure what Bridge is getting at, but I’m finding the path there interesting.
“The walls aren’t a course of study,” Bridge says.
“That’s right.”
“But don’t the local geologists want to know about this? Or do you think it belongs in the biological sciences? Maybe bio-chem?”
The medic seems confused. The lead guide steps in again.
“We are a small city,” he says. “We don’t have the scientific resources available to people from other places.”
“Surely you could have brought them in,” Bridge says.
“It’s a natural phenomenon,” the guide says. “Nothing more.”
And with that, he has clearly closed off his part of the conversation.
I’m trying to review the data I’ve studied about the Vaycehn ruins. I remember mention of growth on the walls, but not this. And I seem to recall that the implication was that the growth preexisted the discovery, that it didn’t grow afterward.
“Is the material removable?” I ask Ivy. After all, she’s the one who has been studying the tips of her gloves, where she touched the blackness.
“I don’t know,” she says.
“We’ll take a sample,” Bridge says. “Not just here, but at the top. We’re at a disadvantage, though. We’re to look for a certain kind of tech, which is a higher form of physics than we’re familiar with. I don’t think this is.”
I appreciate Bridge’s discretion. He doesn’t mention stealth tech in front of the guards.
“Because this stuff grows?” Roderick asks. “Or because it stops near the surface.”
“Certain fungi won’t grow above a certain level. The different environment on the surface doesn’t allow the growth.” Ivy is still rubbing her fingertips together, as if she’s afraid of what she touched.
“Yeah, but to grow that fast…” Mikk lets his voice trail off when several of the others stare at him. “Right? Nothing grows that fast.”
“Bacteria does,” Ivy says. “So do a lot of other natural organisms. You just don’t encounter most of them in a vacuum.”
Meaning that those of us who work primarily in space are ignorant of what we’re facing here. Which is probably true. Although I knew that many things grow quickly. Just because we work in space, doesn’t mean we haven’t encountered deadly bacteria or viruses that run through a space station in a matter of hours.
But I’m staying silent through this discussion. That’s one of the many management tricks I’ve learned. I hire the best I can find. I have to trust them to do their work, which is what this speculation is.
Bridge turns back to the lead guide. “Was this room shaped like this, then, when the blackness came?”
The guide shakes his head. “This was a—” He pauses, as if he had been about to say something forbidden. “A certain kind of cave-in. The blackness covered it and created the shaft. That’s why no one came down here for years. They were afraid they’d get trapped inside.”
“But the growth stopped,” Bridge says.
The guide nods.
“After the chamber was formed.”
The guide nods again.
“Fascinating.” Bridge glances at me. His eyes seem brighter than usual. He’s excited about this.
“We’re spending our day here?” I ask him.
“I think this is important,” he says. “We need a lot of samples.”
I try not to sigh. I want to go deeper, to see what’s ahead. I just want a sense.
Then I realize that he doesn’t need all of us for the samples. “You and Ivy and Roderick stay here. I want Dana and Mikk to accompany me farther into the tunnels. I want to know what’s ahead so that we can plan.”
This is not how a dive would work. On a dive, we would all stay together and let the person whose work takes precedence take charge of that part of the mission.
But my archeologist, scientist, and historian don’t know that. Only Roderick and Mikk do. They’re looking at me in surprise, but they say nothing. They know this is a different kind of exploration.
“You,” I say, pointing to the lead guide. “You’ll join us, along with you—” I point to the medic who told us about the blackness “—and whatever pilot you feel is necessary.”
“It’s not accepted protocol to break up the group,” says the lead guide.
“But it’s not accepted protocol to stop here, either, is it?” I say.
He nods once, reluctantly.
“We’re trained for dangerous situations, just like you are. We’ll take every precaution we can. And we won’t be gone long.” I say that last for the three I’m leaving behind.
The guide looks at the other two members of his team helplessly. They say nothing. He goes to the cart I rode in on and climbs aboard. After a moment, the medic joins him.
Then I get in, followed by Mikk and Dana.
“Where are we going?” the guide asks with that bitterness he seems to reserve only for me.
I give him my most level look. “We’re going to the edge of the section where the fourteen archeologists died.”
FIVE
The group stirs around me. Apparently they think I’ve just contradicted myself. I say we’re going to be safe, and then I suggest something reckless.
But I’m not going to justify anything. I need to see that site to know what we’re facing. I won’t get close. I doubt the lead guide will let me very close anyway. He seems a lot more cautious than I am.
I’m paying so much attention to the negative reaction from my team, I almost miss what the lead guide is saying.
“They didn’t die in one place.”
We all turn toward him.
He looks pleadingly at Bridge. “We do not always know where there is danger.”
Bridge raises his eyebrows as he looks at me. He’s asking if I want to change my mind.