Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Niklas stood on the bridge, tuning out the excited murmurs of the crew.
They’d come off the Sol Bridge several hours before. They’d passed a huge red gas giant that he knew had been called Jupiter in Terran times, and then an asteroid belt, and a small red planet. Mars had once been home to a thriving Earth colony. He would have loved to have seen it. One day.
Their destination would be coming into view shortly.
And seeing the Earth was a far greater prize.
He didn’t hear her approach, but he suddenly knew Nera was behind him. After the altercation with Gunn and his slave, Nera had been absent, staying in her cabin for the remainder of the trip.
One of Nik’s hands curled into a fist and his knuckles throbbed. They were raw. He’d spent the last day in the ship’s gym, beating on a spar-droid. The idea that Nera had been someone’s slave…it left an acid fire in his gut that needed to burn, roar, and consume.
But he’d known that wasn’t what she needed when she’d been lost in that darkness in the corridor. She needed his strength, his understanding, that he saw she’d escaped whatever hell she’d been trapped in.
“Sleep well?” he asked.
“Not really.” She moved up beside him. “We’ll be at Earth soon?”
He allowed the change of subject. “Yes.”
“Visual range,” one of the crew called out.
Nik tensed, excitement a zing through his blood.
The small orb grew in size, filling the viewscreen. He sucked in a breath. Earth.
The old records had spoken of a blue-and-green plane of vast oceans, and continents of brown and green. All teeming with life.
That wasn’t what was left.
It was truly now a dark Earth.
The oceans and land were now shades of black and gray.
Humanity had fought over power, money, religion, and just about anything they could until they’d deployed experimental nuclear weapons the world had never seen before against each other.
They had obliterated cities and killed billions.
They had destroyed forests and farmland, and ended families.
Some people had escaped, moved to distant colonies, gone on ships headed for a new life.
And some of those ships had been packed with ancient treasures and art in an effort to preserve history.
But so much history had been left behind, and now it was gone.
If there was anything at all left, he vowed to find it. And let the rest of the galaxy see it.
“Heading into orbit now.” The crew worked like a streamlined team, obeying their captain’s orders, and soon the Magellan was in orbit, everyone staring in awe at the planet below.
Avril’s face was filled with excitement. “Okay, we’ll be taking one of the shuttles down. Don’t worry, it’s a large expedition ship and has everything we’ll need. Bring all your belongings with you to the shuttle bay. The ship’s called the Drake.”
“After a duck?” Gunn asked incredulously.
Avril huffed out a breath. “No, after the famous Terran explorer, Mr. Gunn. See everyone at the Drake in twenty minutes.”
Nik wasted no time grabbing his things from his cabin.
Soon, he was strapped in, bouncing with the turbulence as the Drake descended to the planet’s surface.
Nera, Solomon, and Gunn were also all seated in the smaller cockpit.
This ship’s flight crew consisted of a pilot, co-pilot, and comms officer.
It reminded Nik a little of the Infinitas, although it was still much larger than Zayn’s baby.
“Clearing the clouds now,” the pilot said.
Nik stared out the window. A second later, the turbulent gray masses obscuring their vision were suddenly gone. He blinked. A vast ocean appeared beneath them.
The water below was black, the dark waves heaving and churning. Wind whipped the tips of them white.
“We’ll be over land shortly.” The co-pilot tapped her screen. “I’m detecting bio signatures in the water. They aren’t clear, though. The radiation is causing problems.”
“There’s life?” Nik asked.
“Yes. Large kinds of life. These signatures are huge.” The co-pilot shuddered.
Nik speculated that if anything had survived the nuclear fallout, it most likely would have…mutated into something else.
“How are the radiation levels?” Avril asked.
The comms officer swiveled his chair to face them. “High. Really high. Here in what was New York, you’ll be able to stay dirtside for sixty minutes, tops.”
Avril frowned. “That’s not long.”
“Land ahead,” the pilot said.
Nik craned his neck a little for a better view out the window.
There it was. Land spread ahead, like a dark shadow.
As they sped closer, he saw dark waves crashing on a beach of black rock and sand.
Beyond the water, the black sand continued.
It was a dark desert with giant dunes and rocky outcrops of twisted shapes.
Not a single instance of vegetation, no movement, and definitely no lifeforms.
“Coming up on the coordinates for New York City,” the comms officer said.
Everyone pressed their noses closer to the windows. Nik frowned. He didn’t see anything but black sand.
“There.” Nera reached over his shoulder, pointing.
For a second, he was distracted by her body pressed against his. Then he blinked and saw what she was pointing at.
The shapes looked like rocks, but he realized they were shards of broken buildings. The remnants of skyscrapers pointing toward the gray clouds.
“That must be the city center.” He wanted to see it. He wanted to go down there and explore what had once been a great city of Earth.
But they had a mission, and he was the one who’d suggested the suburbs.
“We’re heading west of the city,” Avril said, her gaze glued to the scene outside. “It looks like this black sand covers everything.”
“It was formed from the nuclear bombings,” the comms officer said.
And over the thousands of years, it had obviously overtaken the city. Moments later, the ship stopped.
“We aren’t going to land,” the pilot said, his hands on the controls. “The scans are showing the sand may not be stable for the ship’s weight. You’ll have to rappel down.”
“Okay.” Avril nodded. “Solomon and Gunn, you’re Team One. Team Two will be Nik and—”
“I’ll go with Nera,” he said.
Avril frowned. “Fine. Team Three will be myself and Agent Ryant. Get suited up. There’s light body armor for everyone. Scans have assured us the air is breathable.”
Soon Nik was standing at a side door of the Drake, watching Nera hook up to a line. Beside them, Solomon and Gunn edged over the side and zoomed to the ground.
“Ready?” Nera asked.
“Yeah.” Nik closed his safety clip. “Let’s go find some treasure.”
“See if you can keep up with me, Phoenix.” Without warning, Nera leaped out of the ship.
Nik’s heart kicked his ribs. He gripped the doorframe and watched her. Her body fell gracefully, in a perfect arch. She flew past Solomon and Gunn. As she neared the ground, she straightened, and as her rappelling device locked, she spun to deflect the jerk and set down on the sand in a crouch.
God, she was gorgeous. He shook his head and stepped out of the ship. He whizzed downward on his line, and a minute later was standing beside her. “Show-off.”
He saw a brief flash of white teeth and his chest tightened. That was his first smile from Nera Darc.
He wanted more.
“We’re heading to the east,” Solomon called out. “Good luck.” He turned to follow Gunn who was already striding away.
“We’ve got north,” Nera said.
As they walked, the coarse black sand crunched under their feet.
Here and there, Nik saw structures, worn by time, poking through the sand.
He stopped and ran the scanner on his Sync.
He cursed. “The radiation is interfering with the readings. There are definitely structures under the sand, but I can’t tell the size, or what they even are.
” And they weren’t here to do a full-scale excavation.
Nera was watching Solomon and Gunn disappearing over a large dune. “Hope the kid doesn’t turn his back on Gunn. I wouldn’t put it past the snake to make his share more lucrative by eliminating a few of us.”
Nik grunted. “Jonas might be young, but he seems switched on. He’s survived tougher situations before.”
She nodded. “Let’s get moving.”
As they walked, Nik stopped every now and then to poke at things in the sand. He collected what looked like a shard of a broken plate and a bottle of some description. Not valuable, but interesting, nonetheless.
Ahead, Nera crested the next black dune and paused at the top. “Niklas, you want to get up here and see this.”
He jogged the last few steps, sand slipping under his boots. Then he saw what lay below and sucked in a breath. “Holy stars.”
A portion of the city lay devoid of sand. Some sort of structures, walls maybe, had kept most of the sand at bay. What looked like the shells of a few houses and small shops were visible.
“Come on,” he said.
They skidded down the dune and stepped foot onto ancient pavement that was warped, twisted, and cracked. They walked toward the nearest structure. Half of it had fallen down, and what was left was the steel frame, rusted by the years.
He stepped through what would have been a doorway. “You can see the rooms delineated.”
“Be careful,” Nera warned. “It may not be stable.”
“Scans say it isn’t going to fall down on our heads.
” He wandered through to the next room. “This would have been a living area, this possibly a dining area.” He stopped, staring at a melted lump of metal.
“I think this was a refrigerator.” He turned in a circle, excitement in his blood.
“That would have made this the kitchen.”
Nera crouched and picked something up. “Look.”
“A spoon.” He took the metallic object from her. “Not bad condition.” He gestured for her to spin so he could put it in her backpack. “Nice work, Nera.”
“I am the best treasure hunter in the galaxy.”
He smiled. “Dathan might argue with you.”
She sniffed. “Your brother has delusions of grandeur. And he’s lost his edge since he got married to an astro-archeologist. Now he’s donating a good portion of his finds to museums.”