“Quinton?” I asked, moving over to stand behind her shoulder and looking at the four holo-feeds in front of her. One showed a graph of data that was coming in from the olthometer and there was clearly a spike in one of the readings.

  “It looks like these fragments are of a higher concentration than the samples I originally tested.”

  “How much more concentrated?” I asked, peering at the data as the spike kept increasing, though not quite as fast as before.

  “Much more. It’s almost double what I was able to analyze back on Darat.”

  I had remembered the analysis report she had shown me after her first tests of the firestone mineral and that the samples she’d used had come from two different sources, but I couldn’t remember which. “Remind me which sources you used again?”

  “They were from Garba Twelve and Kalmora.”

  “And the samples for both Garba Twelve and Kalmora were exactly the same?” I asked, wondering if this was a fluke or good fortune.

  “I would say they were in very close proximity to each other in the analysis I made. There was less than a two percent variance. I, of course, only had a little over two pounds from Garba Twelve and a little less than a pound from Kalmora to work with. The Darat geology repository only keeps small sample sizes.”

  But there was a reason for that. I had been inside the repository just once and was impressed with the size and scope of the archive that held geological samples from across the Empire. Some of them even dated back pre–Empire, which was well over ten thousand years ago. So even though the repository had more than a hundred large vaults in use, space was limited.

  “We assumed that the firestone would be the same in all four locations, but clearly, at least this sample shows that not all firestone is created equal,” Quinton continued.

  I stood back for a minute and took that in. I had been excited when firestone had proven to react to Shixxaminti technology, but then been daunted at the amount required when it showed that the mineral’s distance from the Shixx material mattered. Based on Quinton’s report on Darat, we would need tons upon tons of firestone for it to be usable to us, and that would significantly hamper our practical utilization. But if the firestone on Talion Proxi was more powerful, that certainly put things back in our favor.

  “That means we might need a lot less of this stuff than you originally were thinking.”

  Quinton nodded eagerly. “Possibly, but I’d feel better if we got more samples. This could just be an anomaly.”

  “Agreed.” I decided to check in the Leyva to see if she was registering what we were. She confirmed that she did.

  “Yes, these readings are amazing,” the Commander’s voice floated to me over the comms. “I have Dorn gathering another sample to try. We should be able to feed it into the olthometer shortly. Would you like me to take care of that other thing we talked about?”

  I turned to look at Leyva’s holo-feed, which showed Dax was clearing out the pieces of firestone to get it ready to read another sample. He looked absorbed in his work as Dax’s hands moved swiftly now, his concentration seeming to sharpen as he prepared the next sample.

  I switched the Commander and I back to private comms. “It looks like he’s doing better now that his mind is occupied with work. Just keep an eye on him. If he gets jittery again, send him back topside immediately.”

  “Copy that, Highness. I’ll watch him closely,” Leyva replied.

  The next half hour went by quickly as the team sampled five more firestone deposits. Each one seemingly more concentrated than the last. It was difficult not to get excited about the findings, and I could sense that excitement in Quinton as well, even though she kept a perfectly stoic expression on her face as the elevated numbers kept rolling in.

  “My question is… is this more concentrated firestone because the mineral on this planet is just better quality or is it because the mineral we tested on Darat had been sitting in a drawer for several years and not freshly harvested?” I asked out loud as Commander Leyva had loaded another sample in the olthometer, while Dax, Dorn, and even Lovet stood by with expectant looks on their faces. The team in the mine were getting excited about the prospects too, which only elevated mine. But I reined it in and switched to my scientific mind in order to work out the reason for the variance between samples.

  My question had gone over the comms so everyone could hear. It was Dax who answered. In his tuning into his work and now the enthusiasm for the firestone readings, he appeared to have forgotten all about his fear of being deep underground, and sounded like his usual factual self when speaking up.

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  “We know that mineral composition can vary greatly depending on environmental facets like pressure and heat over time. So that could be a consideration. The firestone mineral could also experience degradation over time after it is harvested.”

  “It’s more likely the difference is environmental,” Quinton spoke up. “We already had two samples from two locations other than Talion Proxi. Both showed very similar readings.”

  “I would have to agree,” Leyva spoke up, “but we should get comprehensive scans of this area of Mine Shaft Seven.

  “How long is that going to take?” I asked the Commander.

  The woman turned to give the mine where they were working a good look. It was a large, cavernous section, and in the glint of the light from multiple luminary rods positioned strategically all around the area, the color of dull red was scattered liberally throughout the black obsidian walls. It was hard to gauge from standing in the control room, but it looked like the surface area was the size of a small amphitheater.

  “If we want deep scans, which I would highly recommend, then it’s going to take at least four hours. Maybe a little longer.”

  I looked out the wide window in the control room as I contemplated the Commander’s statement. The afternoon light had changed since we’d come into the admin building, which I realized had been nearly two hours ago now. The shadows were longer, and the light more subdued. It wouldn’t be long before this planet’s night cycle was upon us. Not that the time of day would make much difference in the shaft, but my team was used to working in clean, sterile labs and offices, not deep underground. I didn’t want to push them too much for one day, especially not Dax.

  “Let’s get a few more sample readings today. Focus on harvesting firestone from different locations in that cavern so we can see if there is any variation within that particular ecosystem. We will come back tomorrow to do the environmental scan,” I replied.

  “Copy that.” Leyva then ordered Dorn and Lovet to gather samples deeper in the cavern.

  As she moved back to read the olthometer’s scans over Dax’s shoulder, I glimpsed Vossner. He had set up shop near an outcropping that was devoid of any firestone. Over the time the team had been doing their work, the Talion Proxi’s engineer had settled into a half standing half sitting posture and had closed his eyes. As far as I could tell, he hadn’t moved a muscle since Dax got his first reading from the olthometer.

  While it was infuriating to witness, Vossner’s lack of helpfulness was probably just as well. He would have been in the way. All the members of my team were particular about how they worked. An outsider would have messed up their processes. Still, I threw Markus a rather peeved look, which he returned with a snort. I knew what he was thinking. At least if the Chief was asleep, he wasn’t causing the team any trouble.

  “It seems this batch is the most potent yet,” Leyva said as she looked at the latest readings.

  I smiled. At this rate, the day’s finding would be a resounding success and significantly change our projected number of how much firestone we would need to track down the Shixxaminti.

  There was a short beep from Markus’s unity ring indicating an incoming voice comm. Markus tapped it and said, “Go.”

  My Protector’s unity ring erupted with a cacophony of shrieks and roars that made the three of us in the control room look at each other with puzzled looks. A moment later, Gayle’s voice yelled through the ring in order to be heard. “I just thought you should know that there’s something odd going on out here, Markus.”

  “Does it have anything to do with that racket? What’s going on out there?” Markus asked, raising his voice to make sure she heard him.

  “Don’t know,” Gayle responded. “Something’s agitating the wildlife. I wasn’t going to call, but I’ve seen three large predators up near the fence in just the last five minutes. And one is well… very large and looks like it’s testing the fence.”

  Markus and I exchanged a puzzled look. “Is there any sign of what could be causing whatever is going on?”

  “Not that I can see.” Gayle responded. “It’s been golden out here, not a person in sight on the whole compound. They must have all gone down to Jotham. Everything else was fine until about fifteen minutes ago, when the noise out in the jungle started escalating.”

  “Maybe this is perfectly normal for the planet, or even related to the time of day. Night will be falling soon,” I suggested. “It would certainly explain the fence and why they chose to put most of the colony underground, but it wouldn’t hurt to call Korrel to confirm.”

  Markus nodded as he spoke into his comm. “I’m going to call the Governor to see if this is a normal occurrence. Keep an eye on the fence and let me know if anything changes.”

  “Copy that!” Gayle yelled over the noise, and then Markus’s comm went silent.

  Once the animal noises had been shut off, the control center seemed extra quiet. I was impressed that we weren’t hearing any of that noise from outside. Only a soft hum of the Nanite terminals that Quinton and I were using to access our holo-feeds broke up the silence.

  I glanced out the window. There was no evidence of the activity that Gayle had reported, at least not on our side of the facility. From here, I could see the landing pad we parked our shuttle off in the distance, and just beyond that was the metal gate of the fence. All looked quiet and calm in the fading light of the day.

  I turned my attention back to the team’s holo-recordings as Markus tapped at his unity ring to bring up Governor Korrel’s comm link. I gave the man a side-eye. “Korrel didn’t give you his link number before he left?”

  “Yes, but it didn’t save on my network for some reason,” the Protector said with a scowl as he scrolled through the holo-interface that materialized in front of him as he looked for the Governor’s unity ring link in the Talion Proxi directory.

  “Highness, we may have an issue here,” Commander Leyva’s voice came from the open comms I had with the team.

  “I’ll take this outside,” Markus said as his unity ring started to chime to indicate his call was attempting to connect. The man whirled around and marched toward the exit. I could still hear the beeping as he stepped into the hall and the door closed behind him.

  After he was gone, I could turn my full attention to Leyva. “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “It’s strange, but we are getting unusual readings. It’s almost as if––” the Commander’s words were cut off as all six holo screens in front of me went dark at once.