Page 12 - Unlikely Stories 2

The Antiquities Commission

“Not afraid, are you?”
Ozok, no less attuned to mockery than the next Martian, goggled
at Trelim suspiciously.
“This isn’t my first dig. But you don’t believe that. Your equipment
is different, and I haven’t been up there in years. I hired you to get
me where I need to go, not to denigrate me.”
They were close to the surface now, solid rock giving way to softer,
impacted soil. Both hexapods insulated themselves in dewcloth and
attached tanks of concentrated lowgas. Gridshields were strapped on
and ready to lower on their lidless eyes. Survival on the surface was
difficult and hazardous; some of the best-equipped legally-sanctioned
expeditions had become disoriented in the unfriendly atmosphere
and illumination, unable to locate their tunnel of origin. The time in
which to carry out a mission was limited, accurate navigation
essential.
Trelim rattled noncommittally. He’d already been caught once
trying to sell undocumented antiquities. Despite his spelunking and
excavating skills, he had been shunned by respectable archaeologists.
Those with the audacity to breach the planet’s lithosphere were a
small group of adventurers, most of them well-acquainted with the
others’ capabilities and reputations. Getting blackballed meant a
return to less exciting and potentially rewarding work. Trelim was
looking for an unskilled job in hydroponics when Ozok had tracked
him down in a low dive.
Nursing his cheap nectar, Trelim had gotten a bad first impression
of the higher-class Martian presenting him with a proposition.
“I don’t know you,” he honked. “Maybe you’re from the
Antiquities Commission, trying to entrap me.”
“Not likely. They made me an outsider, same as you. I led the Blue
Crater team. Do you remember what happened to them?”
Trelim had crimped his driptube then and focused more orbs upon
Ozok. “Yes. All of them lost, except one.”
“That was me. I miscalculated our emergence point by half a
minute of longitude. That became clear to me in a hurry, but the
others wanted to continue. Then a sandstorm came up from

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