Either Side of the Strand (Stardancer Book 4)

When a routine mapping expedition uncovers what looks like ruins on the planet Theth-129, the crew of the Stardancer is thrilled to have something more exciting to do than catalog worlds only a terraformer could love. Their trip to the world's surface confirms their wildest hopes: their ruins really were made by natives and abandoned long ago, a find of incredible significance. But there's more to this world than an obelisk, a set of painted caves, and a mysterious shoreline. When the sea claims one of the 'Dancer's senior officers, their investigation reveals that the lost civilization might not be quite so lost after all.

Alysha Forrest and the crew of the Stardancer have no idea that their way of life is on trial. But before it's over, they'll be asked to prove themselves, and the fate of an entire world is resting on the outcome....

Genre (setting): space opera (Pelted)
Tags: aliens, leadership, ocean, archeology, adventure
Rating: PG for implied sexual situations

Excerpt from Chapter 2

“Captain to the bridge!”

Alysha started awake to find the gray disk had darkened, become almost opaque and twice as large as it had been. “What is it, Alastar?”

“We’ve found an anomaly on the planet in orbit around Theth-129.”

Alysha slid out of bed and ran a quick comb through her hair, straightened her uniform. The tunic didn’t wrinkle, but as a side-sleeper she found the skirting tended to wrap around her hips. “Chronolog,” she murmured to her dresser. The time popped up on the mirror—she’d been asleep almost two hours. “What kind of anomaly?”

“We think... they’re ruins.”

“On my way.”

The captain’s quarters had been positioned one deck below and almost beneath the bridge. Less than a minute later Alysha exited the lift onto the second level of the Stardancer’s bridge. In the three-story holographic display a green and yellow planet rotated in serene silence, whorls of gray clouds uncurling slowly across its surface. Her second commander was at the master science station. Alastar Virgil was a gray-brown Karaka’An felid with black hair cropped close to her skull, save for a single thin braid. Alysha had known her since an unlikely introduction at the Academe when they’d been cadets, and she had been ‘Star to her intimates, even then, before her assignment to the Stardancer had inspired the inevitable good-natured jokes about destiny and name-twins.

“What do we have?” Alysha asked.

“It looks like ruins,” Alastar said from the science station. The Karaka’An turned from the display and pointed to a smaller projection over her board. It enlarged with dizzying speed until the image hung over what looked like an obelisk and several stones arranged around it, edges heavily sharpened by the computer’s resolution-enhancing routines.

“Margin of error is twenty percent on these images,” Alastar said. “But even so, this is obviously a structure.”

“Agreed,” Alysha said. “And twenty percent is reason enough to investigate further. What’s the atmosphere like down there?”

“Safe for breathing. We’re not picking up any pathogens, but I’ve had the medplex and Engineering rig the standard remote sensor array to double-check.”

“Have them send it down,” Alysha said, leaning over Alastar’s shoulder and staring at the ruins.

“Pad Room 1, this is the Bridge. Send down the array.”

“Aye, sir.”

A new window opened on Alastar’s screen. She dragged it to the solidigraphic emitter and widened the resulting floating box as readings began to scroll through it in glowing blue. One by one, tags popped up beside it with floating discs indicating different areas.

When all the tags connected and flashed, Alastar tapped them with a fingertip. “Medical and Science readings indicate everything clears. It’ll be a little hot and dry for comfort, but not dangerously so. Terrain’s not rough either.”

Alysha frowned at the medical readouts, scanning them herself. “Have you assembled a team?”

“Not yet.”

“I’d like you to go. Take some science people. At least one engineer. Also a healer and a few security people. We’ve had no signs of life at all?”

“What looks like animals. We haven’t been able to find any people that might be responsible for erecting something like this, nor any atmospheric signs of a manufacturing society. No orbital debris indicative of a space-faring civilization either. The indications are not favorable.”

“We might have come too late to meet these people,” Alysha murmured.

Alastar nodded, then stood. “I’ll be in communication with you.”

“Make sure you follow both standard procedures, for possible first contact and possible archeological sites.” Alysha smiled. “Doesn’t hurt to be prepared, just in case.”

“Just in case,” Alastar agreed, and stepped into the lift.

With the second commander gone, Alysha walked to the railing and looked over the first level of the bridge. The walls on the first floor were lined with interfaces into the Stardancer’s many systems, and each had at least one woman keeping station, sometimes two where someone was in training or at work on a vital project. Their murmurs were not loud enough to carry to the loft where the captain sat, something no doubt planned by the designers who’d installed the sound-muffling carpets. The overwhelming impression was one of quiet purpose: a hall lit by the enormous tank and the dim blue and green glows of a ship in peacetime cruising mode.

A glimpse of fire-red hair revealed Taylitha, wandering toward the ramp. The woman ascended. As she crested the landing, she said, “You send Alastar down yet?”

“Just now,” Alysha said as Taylitha joined her at the rail.

Taylitha nodded. “There’s a lot of excitement down there, and some disappointment.”

“Disappointment?”

“That we can’t seem to find any signs of the people responsible for the possible ruins.” Taylitha’s ears canted sideways. “It’s going to take us a day to scan the entire planet of the surface at the same resolution, though. Maybe we’ll find something on the other side.”

“Maybe,” Alysha said.

Taylitha glanced at her. “What do you think, sir?”

“I don’t know what to think,” Alysha said, grinning. “That’s most of the fun.”