Architect Neron's Arc

Chapter 1 of 8

Architect Neron drove a survey stake into the black soil, and the ground drank it whole. The stake vanished with a wet slurp. Neron pulled back a hand slick with mud. This was the third spot today, and every spot lied. Somewhere on this untouched planet lay solid rock, ground that could hold the first alien city Neron had crossed the stars to build. But nothing looked solid. The meadow rolled soft and green in every direction, and under the green, the earth waited to swallow anything heavy. "You can't guess your way to bedrock," Nevin said behind Neron. The assistant crouched at the open supply crate, sorting chisels back into their slots with quick purple hands. He never let a tool sit loose. "We tested six places. Six times you found soup. Stop testing the skin of a thing. Look under it." Neron wiped mud on both knees. "With what? I can't see under it." Nevin lifted a tall metal cylinder from the crate. Signal fins folded flat against its silver body. Colored lights slept in a row along its base. "You brought this and never used it. It maps from above. Send it up, and it reads the whole ground at once, top and bottom." Neron took the beacon. It weighed less than a coil of rope. The fins snapped open at a touch. This was a gamble. If the launch failed, the device would fall into the same soft ground and drown. Neron had one. But guessing had already wasted a day. "Clear back," Neron said. Nevin stepped away from the crate. Neron set the beacon on firmer grass, pressed the base, and the lights woke one by one. The cylinder lifted straight up on a low hum. It climbed past the treetops, past a wheeling bird, until it hung small and bright against the sky. The fins spun. Then they held still. A signal pulsed back to the reader in Neron's palm. Lines drew themselves across the small screen. Green marked soft ground. Most of the meadow glowed green, a wide bowl of mud pretending to be a field. But near the far edge, a shape burned solid gray. A ridge of rock ran under the grass there, long and flat, wide enough for a foundation. Neron zoomed the image and traced the gray ridge with one finger. "There. That holds." Nevin leaned in and studied the screen over Neron's shoulder. His large eyes moved across the map, and his mouth went flat. "Neron. Look what sits on top of it." Neron looked. Red dots clustered along the gray ridge, dozens of them, spread across the only solid ground on the map. The beacon marked them as heat. Large, moving heat. Something big already lived where the city had to stand.