Readyworld

fiction by michael werneburg

"Don't concern yourself with that for the moment, just know that we're under a time constraint."

Stunned, I blinked at the officer, and back at Hu. I wanted to say something, but nothing was coming out.

His jaw muscles clenching, Alain Hu pushed by the officer as the hatch opened. The rest of us followed.

I would later learn that the report I'd already filed would make me wealthy. But what I did then would make me famous. I turned on the camera on my suit.

Two young military types were demonstrating a collection of equipment for the exobiologist. He cursed them, and collected a small, self-contained shoulder pack from one of them. With that, he turned to Mead, and said, "You going to tell me these characters are going to put everything back? None of that stuff belongs outdoors! What did you do, tell them to bring everything they found?"

"Yes, Doctor, that's just what I did," said Mead. "Time," he added deliberately, "is of some importance."

Then his gaze lost focus as he accessed is OHUD. "Okay, lead on," he said to the air.

It was then that I noticed that the soldiers accompanying us had taken up a square formation around us, and were now marching us in the direction of the Big Room. With their giant stature, the engineered soldiers took huge strides. The officer was moving at a something close to a jog just to keep up. Hu and I scrambled after him.

We marched at that pace right through the downtown, and up the hill back to the nearest entrance that led back down to the Big Room. One of the soldiers in front of us held out a hand stop us.

I glanced from one the soldier to the officer and back. No one was saying anything.

"What is it?" I asked, unable to bear the silence.

The officer held up a hand, and stared off into the west. I turned to look in that direction, but there wasn't much to see. More of the sloping packed earth of the hill-side, and the long expanse of bare rock that crowned the hill. In the distance, more rugged coastline. A sudden roar from behind us startled me, and I turned to see an atmospheric jet lifting from the military compound beyond the main cluster of alien buildings. The jet was a small reconnaissance/fighter unit, bristling with sensors and weaponry. Its chemical rockets shut off once it achieved an altitude of maybe 100 meters, and its silent displacer drive sent it hurtling overhead. It quickly zipped off to the west, becoming a small speck in the distance.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing to concern you. Just a routine check."

"Is that right?" asked Alain Hu. "I've been here over three years, I didn't even know you had jets like that here. That's hardly what I'd call routine. What happen, you spot something juicy that you're not sharing with us?"