Astro Equinox's Arc

Chapter 3 of 6

Astro played the clean bearing one more time. Then they heard it. The counting rhythm overhead had changed. The beats came faster now, packed tighter than before. Astro froze, three gray fingers on the dial. Since they split the layers, the sky had sped up. Something up there was closing in. Jeta heard it too. He straightened from the cable coil. "That's quicker than last night." "Much quicker." Astro tracked the beat on the indicator rings. Each pulse crowded the next. "It's tightening its search. It's found the trail." Astro needed to know how close. A faster count meant nothing alone. They had to measure the rate against the bearing. Astro keyed the sound tracker again and fed both signals in together. The rings spun. Numbers climbed, then settled. "Play it slow," Jeta said. He leaned over the polished dial. "Give me the gap between pulses." Astro did. The gap shrank with each loop. Astro held the first count beside the newest one. The difference was plain. The sky signal was narrowing toward the same point on the ground, the exact bearing their device had broadcast. "It's not searching anymore," Astro said. Their voice stayed flat. "It's aiming. The count speeds up as it locks on." Jeta set his palm on the tracker's casing. "How long?" Astro ran the numbers twice. The count would reach full speed in two days. Maybe less. When the beat stopped climbing, the thing in the sky would be on top of the ground device. "Two days," Astro said. "That's when it arrives." The room went quiet under the beat. Astro pressed both hands to the lab bench. Years ago Jeta had wired this building. He knew every panel. Now he only watched Astro, waiting. Astro made the choice out loud. "I can't study this from here anymore. I have to reach the ground device first. I have to get there before the count ends." "You know where it is," Jeta said. "The bearing gives you a line." "A line, not a spot." Astro pulled the sound tracker from its cradle. The device was built to catch a signal, not to carry. But it was the only ear that could read the bearing on the move. "I follow the line and listen as I go. The signal gets stronger near the source." Jeta lifted his coil of cable and looped it over his shoulder. "Then you'll need a hand reading it on the road." Astro stared at him. Jeta had given them the trick to split the layers. Now he was offering to leave the lab too. "You don't have to," Astro said. "You can't tune and travel at once." Jeta nodded at the door. "I can." Astro held the tracker against their chest. The faster count beat on, counting them down. They had their deadline now, and their direction. Astro stepped toward the door.