Being of the Field Read Online Free PDF

ship’s hold, Zeven swung the craft around and headed back to AMIE.
    When a bit of distance was put between them and the anomaly, the negative charge ceased to register.
    ‘The FFRD reading has stabilised,’ Taren said with a quiet sigh of relief.
    ‘ I guess we got away with it then, ’ Lucian concluded with satisfaction.
    Taren could tell from the captain’s voice that in his perception of events—that is, via the onboard cameras of their craft—the mission had been without incident. ‘I truly hope so, Professor,’ Taren said warily. As usual, it would be up to her to prove that anything extraordinary had taken place.
    The return flight gave Taren the opportunity to see AMIE from the outside and she beheld a very impressive and beautiful vessel.
    AMIE was a huge craft comprised of six interconnected modules, smooth and elegant, like spheres stretched to an almost flat shape, each one having observation windows all the way around the outermost rim. The body of each module had a metallic fibreglasslooking finish that turned a pale pearly pink tinged with gold in the ship’s exterior lighting. If that exterior lighting was turned off and the window shields were down, Taren imagined the highly reflective surface would camouflage their vessel in space and render it virtually invisible.
    Starman explained that the module at the top of the vessel was the command section that housed the flight deck and the docks for their air and land exploration craft. The four modules clustered around each other in the centre housed the bulk of the labs, observatories, offices and living quarters for the staff. There was also one major observatory in the centre of the exposed side of both the upper and lower sections. The base module of the vessel was the marine module, which launched the submersibles that the marine department utilised in their research and this module was a submersible itself, as was the entire craft. The marine module wasn’t attached this evening as it had been left on the warm stormy surface of the planet tonight along with the marine department.
    ‘A smooth ride, yes?’ Zeven asked in a seductive fashion as he helped Taren down the ladder from the cockpit.
    Taren felt patronised but thankful for the aid. Her legs had gone to jelly. ‘As that was my first time, I have nothing to compare it to,’ she retorted, reluctant to feed his already oversized ego. Although the look of disappointment on the young man’s face when she gave him the cold shoulder told Taren that his ego was just a false front. ‘But I’m sure you’re very good,’ she added, in more friendly fashion. ‘And as I’m back here in one piece, you’re a bloody hero in my book.’
    For the little flattery it cost her, the smile on Zeven’s face was well worth the effort. When he was happy or exhilarated, his whole being vibrated with an amorous, upbeat energy that was nice to be around.
    ‘Easy now,’ Bonar Colbers instructed his team as they unloaded the trap from the small transport into an incubator trolley.
    Taren approached Colbers. ‘That’s going straight to the quarantine lab, I presume?’
    ‘Yep, chicky-babe, those were my instructions.’ Bonar winked at her and the younger techs smothered snide laughter.
    ‘Fabulous, honey-munchkin,’ Taren replied with a good serve of humour, and this set all the men to laughing out loud. ‘I’ll meet you there.’
    ‘You handled that well,’ Zeven commented as Taren passed by him on her way out of the dock—most of the women they’d had on board were offended by the tech crew’s chauvinistic remarks.
    ‘Lots of practice,’ she explained and kept going, eager to start analysing their acquisition.
    Lucian was awaiting Taren inside the quarantine facility, where all her paraphernalia had been delivered.
    ‘I took the liberty of having your equipment brought straight here,’ said Lucian. ‘All your personal belongings have been taken to your new living quarters.’
    ‘Which I