Priceless

Cycles Go ‘Round [Chapter 9]

There are many things in our universe that have not withstood the tests of time. I mean, for as great as the galaxy and the universe is, there have been just as many cycles— likely even more. Does that make sense, converting between time and space? I’m no math person, nor a history person, for reasons you can safely assume. After all, there are plenty of sorts other than me who are willing to put in the time to discover and understand things like those. My own understanding is that if certain things are insured, they may still not stand the test of time, but at least the owners will be reimbursed when they do whither away.

The planet I was destined for apparently was settled, civilized, and finally, forsaken, long before Cycles Go ‘Round was founded. My employers would call that lack of foresight. At the present time, however, this little dusty planet of Aktez had a group of archaeologists calling it home, at least for a little bit of time. They had contacted the company to see about getting a quote on something of theirs, but as for what, they would not say. And that’s where I come in.

I sighed as I realized the surface of the planet was not simply a fuzzy orange, but rather a massive dust storm choking the atmosphere. After weathering the low visibility and landing at the coordinates forwarded to me, I pulled the environ suit on and opened the hatch.

As I flipped on my tablet to seek out any local radio signals, I was interrupted by a loud, desperate call through the haze, followed by the dark silhouette waving an arm at me. “Hey, you!”

I placed a hand to my visored brow, fruitlessly trying to get a better look. The woman was dressed in heavy coveralls, stained with orange dust, and a face guarded by a breathing mask and a pair of goggles. “Hi there, I’m Anna from Cycles Go ‘Round, someone from this planet…”

It was clear my introduction was not of her concern as she ran about my ship, glancing at the ground. “Why land here?”

I spun myself about slowly, following her movement, before I responded. “The coordinates I received—“

“No, this spot, exactly.”

“Because it was flat?” I shrugged.

“You just see flat?” She huffed, suddenly hovering around me, looking me up and down with full gyrations of her body. “You know what also is found in flat places?”

“Uh, picnic blankets? Oh, maybe a tent? Especially if you’re sleeping in sleeping bags on the ground. Is someone camping here?”

She jerked herself back, arms folded across her chest. “No, but we will give you every rock to sleep on!”

“I mean, I don’t think I’ll be here that long, and… my ship is comfortable enough to sleep in… just barely… if I have to stay.”

“Why you!”

“Calm, Caeron,” Another said, approaching through the dust. “I’m the one who called her here. Assuming you’re the one from the insurance company?”

I tiptoed about the nosy woman to the stout man in similar garb. “Uhm, yes. Cycles Go ‘Round, Anna at your service.”

“Shoel.” He offered a dusty, gloved hand my way. “You’ll have to excuse her… what she means to say is, a flat area is possibly a marker where a building may have laid at one point.”

I glanced back. “Oh…”

“Furthermore, she thinks that she will have the time, energy, or even lifespan to dig up every remnant of the old ruins here.”

“Oh, are there a lot?” I said, trying to find any other signs about me.

“There was a whole city here,” Shoel nodded. “Come, we’ll show you what we have dug up. Then talk about the thing we called you here for.”

Caeron stomped past us, headed back in the direction they had come. “Just watch your step!” She shouted back.

I followed after Shoel, wondering how he could ever find his way through the dust and over the nondescript mounds of dust. “Is there much to find in these places?”

“Well, plenty of old stuff, scraps. But think of it like this… if someone were to go through the buried ruins of your current home a kilocycle from now, how much would they find of interest or value?”

I imagined the boxes of my belongings, stacked up high and collecting dust. “Well, I travel too much to have a permanent place of my own. But I have a storage container of sentimental stuff back where I’m from… and I pay a non-insignificant amount of money to keep that stuff intact, with a guarantee against something ever happening to them.”

“And I wouldn’t expect less from someone in the insurance business. Here we are, then.”

Up over the dusty hill, there was another choked valley, one with much more flat spaces and recent activity. The plots of old structures were dug out on either side of an old walkway or street. Upon some of the excavated areas were tents with clear flaps, blocking more outside dust from entombing the discoveries once more. At the far end was a camp-like settlement with more tents and a landing ship of a sizable carrier class.

“How many people are here?” I asked as we continued along the path, my eyes glancing around for the nosy woman.

“We have just four of us,” Shoel answered, nodding.

I wiped the dust from my tablet screen and readied myself for searching the name of their organization. “Just a small business, then. Or are you a part of some bigger museum, perhaps? You are the… boss, foreman, I can assume?”

Shoel rubbed his hands together. “Well, that’s a lot of questions right off the bat. Efficient, aren’t you?”

“Oh,” I paused, pulling my tablet back to my chest. “No hurry, I mean. Serving you the best I can is my main concern, do not think I’m trying to run off immediately.”

Shoel winked at me through the dusty goggles. “Well, let’s hope not. Come, there’s not a lot to look at here… unless you like old foundations and pits filled with fossilized poop. You don’t even know how many times you start digging down into old ruins only to realize it’s just an ancient sewer. Oh, how the smells linger, even after all this time.”

I found myself giggling, only to realize the absurdity and unprofessionalism I was displaying. “Oh, really? Well, that means that there was some sophistication in this place, way back when the people were alive here. To have a sanitation system.”

The archaeologist whirled about mid-step, bowing to me with great exaggeration. “Seems like you know your stuff, eh?”

“Well, I took a single class on the histories of pre-space societies in University, just to take up an elective spot, so I can pretend to know a few things.”

We had reached the end of the excavated areas to the location of their tents and their ship. Shoel ducked under the flap of the tent first, lifting it with an arm to allow me in. He shook his thick, wavy hair as he removed the goggles and mask, revealing a rugged face, bordered in dust and stubble. “Well, Anna, if that’s the case, you might appreciate what we found. Though, this civilization was, in fact, on the cusp of entering its own space-faring age. We’re talking about outside contact at this point.”

“I can’t even imagine what that would entail,” I admitted, removing my secured helmet to take in a breath of mostly fresh air.

“A whole lot. But I imagine your time is precious,” he said, hoofing it up the ramp to the cargo space of their ship. “So I’ll just have to show you what we found. Some people call it a cipher— like a proto-translator. For translating their native alphabet, or whatever you might call it, to Universal Standard. The one we all have to learn in these parts.”

I held my tablet to my chest in anticipation as Shoel yanked a cloth off a table of trinkets. At the center, under a clear covering, was a multi-faceted length of a plastic-like rod, looking like it once moved, inscribed with weathered symbols, some of which were familiar. “Quite the tool.”

“Not too complicated, itself,” Shoel nodded, wiping down his forehead. “But with it, researchers can learn more about this civilization’s language and writing system. I don’t think there’s anything else like it to be found.”

I stared at it for a moment longer, finding my eyes trailing to the archaeologist before my work responsibilities returned to me. “Oh, wow. I assume this is what you want the insurance policy taken out on? I’m sorry, but if that’s the case, Cycles Go ‘Round isn’t quite the right company for you. And especially for something… essentially priceless. We assumed that the insurance was for your team here. But we can certainly connect you with our sister company…“

“Ah, yes, of course.” He sounded deflated. “How silly of me. I suppose we weren’t very clear when we contacted your company, either.”

I nodded slowly, trying to think of the best way to rectify the situation. “Perhaps… if I talk to my supervisor, we can—“

Shoel turned my way and grabbed my shoulders in a sudden movement. “No, uh, there won’t be any need. Caeron!”

The nosy woman from before ducked under the covering outside and planted herself on the base of the ramp. “I told you, Shoel.”

“I know!” He hissed back, one hand still upon me. “Uh… get the door closed, and come around.”

I jumped as the ramp suddenly began to rise, closing off the space from the daylight outside. “What are you doing?”

Shoel yanked the tablet from my hands suddenly. “You, uh, won’t be needing this for right now, I assume.”

“Give that back!” I protested, making a ring around the tall man, who began his adept game of keep-away.

“You will get it back, relax!” He huffed, shoving a finger between us. “But if you can’t provide us with insurance, then… you will be the insurance, yourself.”

I stepped back, imagining leaving behind the company property and simply finding a way to escape. “In…insurance for what? What are you expecting to happen?”

“You said it yourself, that thing is priceless! Not that the museum the next system over won’t find the proper price to pay for it.”

“Are you people even archaeologists?”

Shoel scoffed. “Of course. But working for a museum? We’d be artifacts ourselves before we would get to paying off our student debits with their wages! We’re… freelance.”

I rolled my eyes, backing myself away from him until I reached the wall, searching quietly behind my back for a door hatch or set of controls. “I take it the authorities don’t like you effacing ancient civilizations?”

“Who cares what they think? But I can tell you they won’t hesitate to try and disable the ship and board us if we’re seen lifting off from this planet. And do you know how much care they will have for any relics they might pick off us?”

“So that’s why you needed insurance?” I dared to ask, shaking my head. “Nobody would willingly cover anything improperly obtained like that.”

Shoel rolled his head back and forth, approaching me one heavy footstep at a time. “Listen, you don’t understand. It was properly and safely obtained from the ruins here. We have the know-how to do so. And the museum doesn’t care how we get our hands on things like this. That’s just how museums operate. Do you know anyone from this civilization who would complain? No, I didn’t think so. It’s just the part in between. And again, since you won’t insure us for these artifacts, you will be the insurance.”

“This is kidnapping!”

Shoel looked me up and down. “You look like no kid to me. Listen, it’ll be easy. You just stay in here, okay? I’m gonna round up the team, and we’ll be off. And in the case we get noticed before we get to the neighboring system, you’re just gonna come up and make yourself available to the patrollers. We were rescuing you from being stranded down here, certainly not digging around. The authorities will know not to start a fuss with a big insurance company like Cycles Go ‘Round. Got it?”

“So we’re all just going to happily lie?”

“Yes, we’re all just going to happily lie.”

I hung my helmet at my side while Shoel yanked the cloth back over the collection of relics. I tried to follow after him as he went for the front hatch, but a stern hand pushed back my way stopped me.

“We’ll get you back here for your ship soon enough. And hey,” He said from the doorway. “Maybe we’ll pass you some of the money in the form of a real insurance plan, just to quell you and your bosses or whoever.”

Before I could answer, he slammed the door, latching it with a metallic clunk from the other side. The lights were low, with no signs of any of the dusty natural light from outside. I followed the interior panels, looking for any sort of way to get myself out. After a bout of fruitless searching, I conceded to taking down one of the minuscule folding seats at the side of the compartment. “At least they only want me to lie, and they don’t seem so bad.”

I lost track of time there in the dark, twiddling with the fasteners on my suit. I considered going through their pile of artifacts there on the table and maybe pocketing an insignificant-looking one for myself. Luckily, I had enough time to tell myself that if worst came to worst with the patrols in the system, having my hands on one of those things would implicate me as well.

I wondered if the cargo hold was properly pressure controlled if and when we lifted off and headed into space. I grasped at my sides for anything resembling a seatbelt, imagining how well or poorly the so-called archaeologists would be at piloting a craft of this size. The sudden unlatching of the door interrupted my series of worries.

The woman from before stepped through the door, looking about for me, presumably. She quietly shut the hatch most of the way behind her. “Well, look at who we have here. The pretty little Terran.”

What the hell are you doing, making observations like that, I wanted to say. “Are you worried I won’t do as told?”

“Do as told?” Caeron sneered. “You’re doing enough already.”

I shrugged in disbelief. “Ah, well, nothing much I can do back here but be your hostage.”

“Disgusting, you, a hostage.”

I stood up with a jolt. “Do you not realize being a hostage means I’m here against my will?”

She put her hands on her hips. “Well, Shoel certainly got you packed away in here pretty quick. And I don’t like it, you using your charms like that on my boyfriend.”

Are you kidding me, I said to myself. “Well, I had no idea he was your boyfriend.”

“Well now you know,” She huffed, jumping back to the door. “I need you to get yourself out of here before Shoel decides he’s too good for his own kind.”

I squirmed out of the way as the back hatch folded back down. “And what about getting off this planet with your… antiques, without the authorities knowing about it?”

Caeron shrugged. “This trash? My reward is being down here with my Shoely-boy, digging through these ruins. We don’t need any of the damn museum’s money.”

“Ah,” I nodded, looking out through the now-open hatch. “Well, you might want to talk with your Shoely boy about what you want from your relationship.”

“Like I need to hear that from you!,” She growled, trotting to me with my tablet, shoving it into my hands. “Get!”

I pulled on my helmet and took up the company device before rushing out into the dust.

I managed to avoid contact with anyone else on the way back to my ship. As soon as I was back up in the air, I reached out to dispatch. “Hey Grep, you there?”

“Hey there, Anna. Any sales on that end?”

“Let me answer your question with another question.”

“Uh… sure.”

“Does the employee insurance policy cover kidnappings?”

The radio was silent for a few moments. “Don’t think it does. In my experience in the industry, those sorts of plans are prohibitively expensive. For already rich folks, or politicians and the like. I mean, there’s certainly the interest there for those kinds of folks to be kidnapped.”

“That figures.”

“There must be a reason why you’re asking.”

I glanced down at the dusty orb I was leaving behind. “Well, for now, let’s just put this guy on a blacklist.”

“Done and done.”

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