Transmission

Kevin couldn’t blame them, because the jungle was full of life, in a way he couldn’t have believed. It seemed that everywhere he looked, there were plants he hadn’t seen before, from the giant trees that formed a canopy to the creepers that wound their way between them and the lower level things that snatched what light they could on the jungle floor. There were insects and lizards, small mammals and occasional rustles in the brush that suggested bigger things.

Oh, and spiders, big enough that Kevin didn’t want to go anywhere near them. The only fun part of that was that it seemed Professor Brewster was particularly afraid of them, jumping so high every time he saw one that Kevin thought he might reach the canopy.

“What do you think about when you’re here?” Kevin asked Ted.

“Aside from the mission?” The soldier shrugged. “Mostly memories of the last time I was here. You need to be careful, Kevin.”

“I’m not going to wander off,” Kevin said. Sometimes people treated him like he wasn’t thirteen. Like he was just… a child or something.

“Not what I meant,” Ted said. “Things are better after the peace with FARC, but there are still cartels out there who don’t like people coming into their territory. Even the army. A collection of different scientific groups? We’d be easy prey for the wrong people.”

He shot a look to where a group of soldiers from half a dozen different nations were helping to clear the way, hacking their way through with the certainty of people who’d had to do it many times before in other places.

“It’s not just that, is it?” Kevin asked. “You don’t trust the people we’re working with.”

“After they’ve spent the last day racing to be the first one there?” Ted shook his head. “But that’s common enough. We’re all going for something valuable. We have a valuable asset, in you, because you can translate the signals. Maybe nothing will happen. Maybe this will all go fine, but you know what they say: hope for the best, prepare for the worst.”

Put like that, the jungle seemed a more threatening place than it had before, full of spots where it might be easy to reach out and grab someone. Kevin did his best to ignore it.

One thing he couldn’t ignore was the heat. He’d thought that, since he was from California, the difference wouldn’t be too much, just a few degrees hotter, at most. He hadn’t thought about the effects of the rain, which combined with the heat to turn the whole place into a kind of giant pressure cooker, steam visibly coming off people as they walked.

“Are you doing okay, Kevin?” Dr. Levin asked.

He nodded. “I’m fine.”

“You’ll tell someone if you aren’t?” she asked. She looked over to where Kevin’s mother was making her way along the track behind them. “Your mother is pretty worried that we’re doing the wrong thing, bringing you here.”

“I want to be here,” Kevin said. He knew that the scientist was just trying to look out for him, but he wanted to see this. He wanted to find the object that the aliens had sent to Earth. He wanted to see where everything he’d translated led.

“Well, I just hope it isn’t too much further,” Dr. Levin said. “You might be fine, but I’m melting in this heat.”

“Not much further to the spot we saw,” Ted said, checking a robust-looking GPS readout. “Just a little more that way.”

They kept going, finding a clearing to use as a base while they searched. Some of the soldiers started to set up rough awnings to keep the rain off, while the different groups of scientists set up equipment that they had carried through the jungle. They brought out what looked like metal detectors and strange devices that fit onto small carts that could be pulled by hand. Some set up enough computing equipment that they could probably have run their usual labs from there if they hadn’t been so cut off from the world. The strangest part of it was watching half a dozen sets of nearly identical equipment dragged out

“The object that came to Earth fell somewhere in this vicinity,” Professor Brewster said, obviously assuming that he was in charge. “We need to find it. That means that we spread out and locate the general area of a crash site by looking for damage, then use our equipment to locate the object.”

“Stay safe,” Ted said, and Kevin suspected that if he didn’t say it, no one would have. Professor Brewster would happily have sent people off into the jungle with no more direction than that. “Always work in pairs, so that if anything happens, the other one can get help. Stay close to camp, and stay in contact. The jungle will try to get you lost. Watch out for the wildlife, and don’t go into any watercourses. There are caiman and snakes in this area.”

The scientists moved out cautiously, accompanied by soldiers and whatever local guides they’d been able to find.

“Do we go and look?” Kevin asked.

Ted shook his head. “It’s better to wait for now. Let other people do the work of finding it. You’ll see it soon enough. Now, I’d better go make a phone call.”