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Peter began another round of tests on the ground, using the PET and MRI scanners to ensure there was nothing archaeologically significant between them and the base of the Pyramid.
     
    “How’s it looking?” Echohawk asked, as he approached his two assistants.
     
    “If the Doppler seismology reading was right,” James said as he and Peter calibrated the MRI scanner, “We’re about nine, maybe ten meters from the base of the Pyramid. The ground is starting to become solid rock at this point, so we might consider precision blasting to widen the pit and bringing in more laser cutters to get past the rock deposits.”
     
    “I’m not crazy about using explosives,” Peter advised Echohawk.
     
    “Neither am I,” the elder archaeologist concurred, “But I’m inclined to agree with James. I’ll call the Society and have them send us an explosives engineer. We need to uncover the Pyramid, at least.”
     
    “Yeah, but then what?” James asked, “Prof…this thing isn’t some Mayan ruin. The Pyramid is metal . And if it really is sitting on a structure twenty kilometres wide, what the hell is it and what do we do with it once we have access?”
     
    Echohawk shrugged. “We go inside and have a look around.” He said.
    ♦♦♦
    Nightfall brought the day’s work to a close, the pit a little wider, a little deeper. The last of the work crew left the dig site behind and only James, Peter and Echohawk remained, staring at the Pyramid under floodlights. James and Peter were sore, sweaty and filthy from their day in the work pit. Echohawk had done his share, but had to balance his time in the work pit with his time coordinating the other tasks involved in the dig: analysis of recovered soil and stone, coordinating the expansion of the dig site, the logistics of hauling away the earth burying the pyramid and keeping the World Aboriginal Archaeological Society abreast of the ongoing efforts. Experts from around the globe were already beginning to weigh in on the artifact and its origins. Echohawk had to sift through their reports to find nuggets of use to the dig.
     
    “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this,” Peter said, tiredly.
     
    “Neither have I,” Echohawk replied, “Although I’ve had worse digs. Try cutting through stone like what we’re chopping up with jackhammers and weak explosives. We didn’t always have laser cutters and sonic pulverisers, you know.”
     
    “I keep hearing that with Doppler seismology, MRI, PET scanners and deep probe radar that the days of digging are over,” Peter said, “And it’s all bullshit. We’ll never stop digging in the dirt to find things.”
     
    “I hope you’re right,” Echohawk said with a smile. They turned and began making their way from the site. Echohawk stopped and clasped his left ear as it suddenly started to vibrate. He’d been wearing a communications headset so long that day that he’d forgotten he still had it on. He toggled a small switch on the earpiece and began speaking.
     
    “Mark Echohawk,” He said, “What? Really? That’s excellent. We’re on our way to the lab now. We’ll linx in directly from our main computer console. Thanks!” Echohawk ended the linx and began pacing from the work pit a little faster.
     
    “What’s up?” Peter asked, jogging up beside his mentor.
     
    “That was Professor Todds,” Echohawk said. “We got our operation time with Concord 3. The orbital scan of the area is going to begin in a few minutes.”
    ♦♦♦
    Early in the twenty-first century Space Station Unity, the International Space Agency’s crown jewel, went into operation. The costly venture helped open the door for other international efforts in space, including the Bova Manned Mars Mission, the Clarke series of robot probes to Jupiter and its moons and an international commercial venture by the Netter Consortium to build an orbital hotel. The privatization of civilian space ventures paved the way for cooperative