make that point to his fellow captains yet again, and pressed on instead with conveying the admiral’s last-minute remarks instead.
“Also, please have an eye for detail, and have the video feed on your com badges set to record. I’m sure I don’t have to tell any of you the tactical value of taking good mental and recorded notes, in case these people turn out not to be as sweet and neighborly as everyone is so hell-bent on trusting they are.”
Roberto kicked Orli again, and even with that, she had to bite down on her bottom lip to keep her remark in check. She knew her friend was right to silence her, but she scowled at him anyway, as if he were the one with the terrible attitude.
“Asad, you are something else,” said Captain Jefferies, shaking his head. A few others clearly agreed, though not all.
“Yes, I am something else,” Captain Asad sent back. “I am the last man in Troy trying to prevent a gullible populace from opening the goddamn gates because they are so dumbstruck by the pretty wooden horse they just can’t stop themselves. Now if you will all please acknowledge the admiral’s last communication, then this … medieval show-and-tell can be over, and we can get back to work repairing our ships.”
“Twenty seconds, Captain,” said Roberto.
The ship finished its fiery descent through the upper atmosphere and leveled off. Orli brought the windshield back to standard transparency as Roberto took over manual control.
“All right,” he said. “Here we are. So, where is it?”
“Over there, on the other side of those hills,” said Orli, pointing. “Just like it shows on the map they gave us. That set of hills just below that mountain range, where it forms a bowl.” She pulled a rolled-up sheet of parchment from under her chair and spread it out on the console. “See, look.”
“These people need to learn how to give coordinates,” Roberto muttered as he glanced at the map.
“They’re working on it,” she said. “They’re learning our ways as quickly as possible. Unlike some of us.” She lifted her foot, causing Roberto’s kick to hit the bottom of her boot rather than the soft flesh of her calf.
“As I said,” said Captain Asad, ignoring her but tipping a sideways movement of his head toward the parchment map. “Primitive.” He straightened himself and faced the other captains squarely. “I know there’s been a great deal of build-up and secrecy around this project, and to talk to their monarch, you’d think it was the greatest achievement in all of history, but let’s make sure to keep our expectations in check. Smile and act impressed.”
Roberto guided the ship toward the low-slung set of foothills, which, to the cartographer’s artistic credit, were rendered perfectly on the map. He brought their small ship closer to the ground as they approached the hills, in position for a quick landing if a magical pulse from something the wizards were doing forced him to set it down fast. In a matter of moments they crested the edge of the little vale, revealing as they did an area roughly three miles long and a little more than half that wide.
To the northeast, where the vale melted into foothills crowding up against the mountains, the shuttle occupants could see a shanty town. It wasn’t very large, comprised of several rows of wooden outbuildings that appeared hastily built and leaned one against the next. It obviously stood in service to the great pit just east of it, which opened out from the base of the mountain for a half-mile and ran along it for two. The ship was too far away for its occupants to see down inside, but the sensor readings indicated it was nearly a half-mile to the bottom of the pit.
“Well, there’s a backwoods set-up,” Roberto commented as he surveyed the shanty town.
“That’s the quarry,” Orli said, pointing to the corresponding area on the map. “Which means Citadel should be somewhere over there.” She pointed out across the vale,