01 Taxilas Children

TAXILA'S CHILDREN
"Your concern is touching - "
"Get out of there, Steve!"
"I have to take a look at something first."
"It'll be there when the storm has passed - whatever it is."
"I'll take a look now - it might not be."
"Don't be a bloody fool, Steve - you know the rules!"
"Bye - Laura!"
He waved his hand over the receptor and shut off her squawk of apprehension. Laura was a
nice girl - but that was the trouble - she was a nice girl.
He moved quickly to get into a surface suit. She was right, the speed of the storm might
pick up and he would have precious little time to investigate the anomaly. He looked at the
square cube sitting to one side of the cabin floor. He grimaced in disgust, there was nothing
for it, he would have to manhandle the Bole to the site. The thing weighed a about twenty
Martian kilograms and he sometimes wondered if there wasn't an easier way of obtaining the
precise measurements and analyses his profession demanded.
The wind was already picking up, when he vacated the Skimmer. The Bole wasn't designed
for comfort, it bounced against his suited legs and didn't add to his general state of happiness.
Laura had been right, of course - she always was, which was one of the annoying things
about her. Prudence - and Laura - dictated that he ought to be heading out, away from the
menacing wall of yellow red dust which was looming in from the west.
The problem was, that he didn't know what he had found and he hadn't been joking when
he had said that it might not be there after the storm. He had deviated from his regular flight
plan and survey schedule, to revisit the area. He had landed as close to a rock wall as he had
been able. Even so, the onboard computer and the Bole had joined together in an unholy duet
of complaint about the way he was risking the ship, himself and presumably, themselves,
whilst he was trying to make a perfect landing.
He aimed for the cleft in the rock which had claimed his attention. Around it, at the base of
the cliff, was the residue of a rock fall which he presumed, had uncovered it. He looked up at
the rock face with a certain amount of apprehension. This area of Mars was notorious for its
instability. The last few paces were a scramble over the rocks at the base of the incline. At
any moment, he expected to be brained by another boulder. He looked back at the Skimmer.
The wind was increasing and he could already see the ship's skin beginning to flow and ripple
under its intensity. He almost made up his mind to return, the thought of the 'I told you so'
expression he could expect to see on Laura's face, changed his mind. He turned to examine
the cleft.
It was hard to say why it had attracted him. Perhaps it had been its regularity. His mining
surveys had led him into many remote areas on Mars and he had a good reputation for
uncovering some of the more valuable minerals. It didn't concern him very much that the
wealth they represented was destined to expand the credit balances in the coffers of the
mining Cartels. As Laura had so pointedly mentioned, he was paid handsomely for the risks
he took.
His discoveries had not been neatly laid out, waiting to be discovered. More often that not,
they had occurred in jagged outcrops of weathered base rock and he seemed to be blessed
with a kind of intuition which led him to the right spot. He wasn't used to regularity, it was
something totally alien, even on an alien planet like Mars.
The cleft had a regular outline - not smooth and tooled, it was still rough rock, but there
was a regularity of shape, which was intriguing. He shone his lamp into it as far as he was
able, it went back quite a way. He couldn't be sure at first inspection, whether it was a cave or
whether there was a turn at the end which implied another section. The mouth was wide and
the floor was smooth - and the Bole was heavy enough to pull his arm from its socket. He
3