Grace floored the hovercraft away from the township. Miles was desperately trying to connect his seatbelt, having not done so before she forced the accelerator all the way down. His camera was flying on its strap over his shoulder in the breeze. The small five-seater vehicle hovered a metre or so above the desert sands and sped over them at well past the legal speed limit on most civilised systems. Grace hadn’t checked, but she was pretty sure there wasn’t one anywhere this remote.

“Are you sure we can keep this speed up for an extended period?” Miles shouted over the sound of wind buffeting the convertible.

“It’ll be fine, Miles,” Grace said, waving away his concerns with her left hand. “These things are designed to go days,” she added. She had no idea if that was true—she’d give it five more minutes and then slow down just a bit.

There was another sound coming from directly ahead, a distant buzzing. Looking up, Grace saw Brewster’s shuttle circling, and she was pretty sure they were sticking close to wherever she was driving.

“Get a shot of that,” Grace said, pointing straight up.

Miles obliged.

“They might have air superiority, but we’ve got every right to drive here that we just agreed,” Miles said.

“How far are we from our first potential site?” Grace asked him.

He had put the camera in his lap and pulled up Grace’s search route on the dashboard screen. “Another 20 km,” he said.

Grace pulled the slate out of her right pocket and handed it over to him, unfolding the screen as she did so. “Get my research program running,” she said.

Miles did so, copying the display over to the dashboard. A topographical image of the region refreshed itself every two to three seconds as it scanned the area. She watched it for a few moments before looking back ahead, knowing it would sound audibly if anything was discovered.

“All right, way to go, Miles,” she said, looking in the rearview mirror and tilting it upwards. The shuttle appeared to have broken off from them and was heading west. They’d either found something or didn’t have faith that Grace was about to.

There was a ping. Grace looked at the monitor for a second to confirm that there was actually a readout. It was too far to confirm what it was. She looked back in the mirror—the shuttle had definitely moved far enough away that they shouldn’t see a change in direction. But Grace made sure to stick to her route for another five minutes before banking to the left.

Miles changed his program on their tablet to scan the specific area where the ping was showing up. “We don’t want a repeat of last time,” he said, half-jokingly.

Grace grabbed a shovel and began digging. When the flash went off from Miles’s camera, she glared at him. He got the hint that he should be digging in, not taking photos, and picked up the other shovel to assist. It was slow work, but they started making their way down towards the signal’s source. They knew it was metal and large; hopefully, that would mean it was a ship, but they had to get to it first.

There was a roaring sound from above them. Grace dropped the shovel and headed out to the sand dunes. The ship they had seen earlier was circling around and now looked very much like it was seeking somewhere to set down.

“Fuck,” said Grace under her breath.

Miles stepped out after her. “What is it?” he asked.

Grace pointed. “That’s not good,” said Miles.

“I really should learn to bring a gun to these things,” said Grace.

“You can’t be shooting people over archaeological dig sites,” Miles chided her.

“I had a lot worse done to me,” said Grace defensively.

Miles looked at her questioningly. “I mean, I survived them,” she added.

The shuttle set down, its hatch opening before it had finished doing so, and Brewster jumped out and started running towards them.

“Stop what you’re doing!” he yelled loudly.

“On whose authority?” Grace shouted.

Four large men in body armour, carrying rifles, came out after Brewster. “Theirs,” he indicated. “We have the digging rights to this system. You are committing an unauthorised dig.”

“We’ve heard this one before,” said Grace. “Get your lawyer, and we’ll consider it.”

The large men surrounded them, raising their weapons. Grace couldn’t see much in the way of identifying marks; they were not military, nor were they in the casual uniforms worn by the local police either. They were private security—that was not a good sign.

“Good, you have a gun, you know?” said Miles.

“Shut up,” Grace said to him. “Now they know we don’t have a gun.”

“It could be a double bluff,” Miles suggested.

The closest soldier raised his weapon from Grace over to Miles.

“Nice one, Grace” said Miles.

She shrugged innocently.

Grace turned and walked back down the dig site. The guns all shifted back in her direction, but she paid them no mind. She hadn’t been shot yet, so she might as well see how this played out.

“Grace, what are you doing?” Miles called after her. When the guns didn’t shift back to him, he came after her, as did everyone else not long after that.

Grace looked at her slate’s readout. They had removed enough layers of sand that the reading was stronger now. She set the more detailed scan running.

Brewster barged past his security team. “You have no rights to this dig site. Cease and desist immediately,” he said.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Did your lawyer write that one for you?” Grace asked.

“I have exclusive digging rights in this system!” he shouted.

“Miles has been looking over your contract. You might be disappointed,” Grace clarified.

“The hell does that mean?” said Brewster.

Miles pulled out his own tablet, pulling up the camera. “Rights, yes, but not exclusive. You’ve seen the towns here—there is no central government to offer exclusive access, and there’s no way to enforce it if they did. We’re on the frontier here.” Miles folded the tablet and put it in his back pocket.

Brewster looked putrid, the frustration tensing him up. “I don’t believe you.”

“Doesn’t matter if you believe it,” said Grace. “It is what it is.”

A tablet pinged. “Holy shit,” she said. The sensor had not been able to determine exactly what kind of ship they were dealing with; it could just be a particularly large garbage can for all she knew. But what her sensors had just told her confirmed what she had been hoping to find.

“It’s the right age,” said Grace, now smiling.

“You’re sure?” said Brewster. The confrontation momentarily fell away, and archaeological excitement surfaced.

“Obviously, we won’t know until we excavate it, but that’s what it looks like.”

Miles walked over and laid a hand gently on her left shoulder. “Grace, you might not want to give them any more information before we’re done here.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” she said, nodding. “Very logical, Miles—much more logical than me.” she agreed.

“So you two will head back to town, and we’ll take over here,” said Brewster, who was practically rubbing his hands together with glee.

There was a flash; Grace turned to see that Miles was now documenting the occasion. “Not your best suggestion” commented Miles.

Grace had picked up her shovel and continued to remove layers of sand. Brewster indicated to the security detail to put a stop to this but offered no hint as to whom they were supposed to stop first. Suddenly, Miles fell to the ground. Brewster’s hired goon standing over him, holstering his weapon.

“What the actual fuck?” Grace spat at them. She turned, lifted her shovel, and went to launch herself at the closest security man.

Brewster actually stepped in to intervene. “There’s no need for that,” he said, holding her right arm firmly enough that she couldn’t introduce the shovel to his head. “Your friend is only stunned; there’s no need to avenge him.”

“There’s always a need,” said Grace. “Look, this is my dig site, and you have shown that you are not willing to work with us. So I am removing you. You are removed.”

“I’ll remove something from you,” Grace yelled.

“That’s really not necessary,” said Brewster.

“Well then,” said Grace, “stun me and pack me back to town with him.”

Miles was starting to come around and looked very confused. “Where am I?” he asked.

“They stunned you,” she explained.

“Bastards,” said Miles, who slowly brought himself to a sitting position and began examining his camera to make sure it wasn’t broken. The sound of the shutter releasing confirmed it wasn’t.

“We’re going nowhere,” said Grace.

The sound of another engine filled the air along with a siren. A few minutes later, two members of the local constabulary entered.

“Mr. Brewster?” one called out.

Brewster raised his right hand. “That’s me. These are the two troublemakers.”

The police glanced at the six armed men and then at Miles and Grace. “Dakota, right? Those are the troublemakers?” the officer said, sounding quite sarcastic. “Best come with us, troublemakers,” he added.

They stepped down and grabbed Grace firmly by the left arm. She was tempted to go limp, but instead, she went along willingly.

“They have no right to do this! They don’t have exclusive archaeological claims,” Grace spat.

“That would be a civil matter,” the officer replied. “You’ll have to write to your representative and have them look into it.”

“I think you’ll find the civil authorities are pretty caught up in the war effort right now,” Grace said in frustration.

“Yes,” said the officer. “I wouldn’t expect a quick reply.”

Miles was walking out behind her, following the other officer willingly. They were put in the back of the hovercraft. The second officer took their vehicle back to town.

“This is my first time in the back of a squad car,” said Miles. “It’s quite exciting, really.”

“Glad you think so,” replied Grace. She watched the dig site fall away as they climbed to fifty metres and headed back towards the township. Grace could see the station as soon as the town came into view, but they settled down on the outskirts not far from their apartment.

“Your vehicle’s been taken back to the lot,” said the officer, looking back at them from the front seat. “Look, just try and stay out of that guy’s way. He’s an idiot, but he pays people to walk around with him carrying guns. We don’t really want that kind of bother out here.”

“I make no promises,” said Grace.

“Suit yourself,” said the officer with a shrug, and opened the side door with a switch on the dashboard.

Grace stepped out into the warm sun and started walking back to the apartment. Miles took a quick snap of the parked car.

“Miles!” she called out after him as he scurried to catch up.