She couldn’t use her light to scan for more information, so she tried to go on her physical senses and her instincts instead. Whatever got hit, it felt strangely far away. She found herself thinking it happened on the surface, not down here.
Standing still briefly in the rock corridor, she waited a beat more, contemplating whether she should contact Balidor to find out what that was.
She decided it didn’t matter.
If it turned out to be from the micro-flyers, she was likely dead anyway.
If it wasn’t them, she was running out of time.
Breaking back into a sprint, she ran all-out, her booted feet pounding the packed dirt of the low-ceilinged, nearly-straight tunnel. She was finally in the long part of the north passage, after spending what felt like way too long to get here. She hadn’t seen another living soul, human or seer, in what must have been twenty minutes.
According to the map in her head, the OBE should be just ahead.
She only ran another few more minutes when the proximity alert went off in her headset.
She skidded to a stop, nearly losing her balance in the loose soil.
Once she had, she stared, panting.
It hit her that she wouldn’t be able to see the OBE without her seer’s sight. Even as the thought crossed her mind, she realized she could hear something.
It sounded like bees buzzing… or maybe wasps.
Taking a cautious step forward, she stared into the empty-looking passageway in front of her. She took another step. Then another.
The proximity alarm went off again.
She came to a dead stop, still breathing hard, and sweating. It felt like there was less oxygen down here, she realized.
Flipping into virtual mode with the headset Dalejem gave her, she scanned her immediate environment. Seeing nothing on infrared, she flipped to the aleimic light settings.
Immediately, the crackling blue-white current of the OBE appeared a half-dozen feet in front of her. Lightning like bolts of energy coiled through it, blue and violet.
Just beyond that, she saw what looked like thousands, maybe millions of small, green-blue dots floating in the air. The living light of the dots might have been too faint to see if there had been only one or two, or even a handful of them.
With so many, they glowed like plankton on a night ocean, filling the corridor beyond the dividing line of the OBE.
“Endruk et dugra,” she muttered.
Stepping closer, she felt the hair raise on her arms and the back of her neck when she saw how many of the small dots clustered on either side of the rock tunnel.
She wondered at first if they were trying to dig their way around the OBE.
Stepping closer, she realized they were only digging in three places. All three of those places coincided with where organic bulbs hooked into the rock walls, locking the OBE field into the tunnel’s contours from floor to ceiling, giving the field its shape.
They were trying to knock out the field stabilizers.
Once they’d dug close enough to those bulbs, they’d likely explode a few of their number to take them out. If they knocked out the stabilizers, the OBE would lose its shape, leaving gaps through which the micro-flyers could escape, gaining them access to the main corridor.
Hitting the comm key on her headset, she hesitated on which channel to use, then pinged the Sword, figuring it was probably better not to waste time.
He picked up at once.
“Are you there?”
“I am,” she said. “The OBE is holding, but it won’t be for long. They’re digging through the rock, trying to get at the field stabilizers.”
“How many are there?”
She hit a key on her headset, frowning.
“Eight hundred thousand,” she said. “Give or take.”
Sharing the view from her headset through their transmission, she waited while he looked at the layout. She stood there patiently as he used her headset remotely to analyze the composition of the rock making up the walls, ceilings and floors of the tunnel.
“Can it be done?” she said after a pause.
She could almost hear him scowl.
“Yes,” he said. “There’s a chance some will get through, and I’m iffy about saving the OBE without putting you in danger, but I’ll try.” After another pause, he added, “Okay, you’d better step back.”
“How far?”
“Twenty feet. I should be able to do it without collapsing your part of the tunnel, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Got it.”
She was already moving, walking quickly backwards in the tunnel without taking her eyes off the OBE or the plankton-like flyers behind it.
“Okay,” she told him, when she hit the distance he’d requested. “Twenty feet.”
“Starting now. Stand by.”
Exhaling in relief, she stood there, waiting, adrenaline making her nerves buzz, her eyes and headset trained on the corridor ahead.
She knew there was a good chance this could kill her.
Not the cave collapsing so much––she worried less about that. Both she and the Sword knew there was a good chance he’d miss a handful of the miniature drones, given their size. That, or the OBE could explode from pressure changes caused by the collapse.
She was weirdly reassured by the Sword’s businesslike tone, however, by his utter lack of drama about it, and the fact that he wasn’t hesitating to get started.
It hit her that she was damned lucky she’d gotten here before the micro-flyers broke through. It looked like they had only a few more inches of rock to bore through before they reached those OBE stabilizers.
The rumbling seemed to start below her feet at first.
She moved back a few more yards in reflex, stepping closer to one of the cave walls. She did the latter in reflex too, even though, in retrospect, that wouldn’t help her.
When the cave on the other side of that OBE began to collapse in controlled segments, bringing down six to eight foot long falls of rock and earth, she couldn’t help but stare in wonder. The sheer methodicalness of it was fascinating, especially as he got closer to where she stood.
She flipped back and forth between the enhanced view provided by the headset and her naked eyes, watching the tunnel’s ceiling cave in precisely, right up to the edge of the OBE.
Revik’s voice rose in her headset.
“Okay,” he said. “I’m going after the remaining flyers. Stay back, but give me a magnified view of the segment between the collapsed cave and the OBE. There’s some chance the explosions will destabilize the field… which means it could still explode. It appears undamaged, in which case it should be fine to absorb the shocks, but be ready.”
Chandre nodded, swallowing.
The “be ready” part was somewhat humorous, in that it wouldn’t do her much good to be ready for a full-blown explosion of the fusion-powered OBE.
Given how far such an explosion was likely to travel in here, she would be toast, as Cassandra or Allie might have said.
She had to stay in view of it, too, since he still needed her eyes.
Hitting the magnification setting on her headset, she zoomed in on the foot or so of air between the new rock wall the Sword created, and the sparking and writhing OBE field.
Inside that segment, she saw what must have been a few thousand of the glowing micro-flyers, all of them crammed together like angry hornets.
The first batch that exploded made her duck, falling to one knee in the rock tunnel.
Jerking her eyes up so the Sword could continue to use her visuals, she ducked again when he detonated the second batch, creating a kind of chain reaction within the small space the flyers occupied.
That time, she forced herself to keep her eyes level.
As a result, she saw the OBE flare out, absorbing the energy of the blast even as the field bowed outwards in a blue-green curve, sparking with living flames.
It looked almost like a solar flare.
A third round of stingers detonated a few seconds later, and again the OBE bowed outward, but not as far that time. Chandre watched in fascination as the Sword detonated a handful more, more or less one at a time.
“Okay,” he said. “I’m going to dig the ones out that are in the rock now, the ones going for the stabilizers. This might be a little trickier…”
She nodded again, her fingers clenching into fists under her arms where they folded over her chest. Again she watched, fascinated, as he used the telekinesis to pull the living lights out of the rock in a thick mass. Once he had them in the middle of the open air between the closed off northern tunnel and the OBE, there was another flare of light when he detonated them.
“That’s one,” the Sword muttered in her ear.
He did the same for the top stabilizer, and the one on the other side of the cave wall.
By then, Chandre felt nearly relaxed.
“Okay,” the Sword said. “You can walk closer now. I need you to check and make sure I didn’t miss any of the flyers. Use the aleimic setting, and really look, Chan. Your life may depend on it. Once we’ve done that, I’m going to ask you to disengage the OBE so we can use the organic to fortify the tunnel collapse.”
Chandre nodded, her jaw firm. “Got it. Approaching the OBE now.”
The rest of it went smoother than she could have imagined.
She found four more of the stingers, half-crushed by the rock but still moving and squirming. Revik detonated each of them, one by one.
Then he had her disengage the OBE, and place the raw organic on the floor. She watched in fascination as he liquified that somehow with his aleimic light and mind, running it up over the rock and earth filling the cave, using it to seal off the tunnel altogether.
He worked fast. Fast enough that she was nearly bewildered when she realized they were nearly done.
“Okay,” he said, once the organic covered the entire opening. “You good up there? I think I’ve done about all I can do.”
“Thank you, sir,” she said. “Thank you. You are amazing.”
The open gratitude and awe in her voice made her wince briefly, but she didn’t apologize for her words, or for either emotion. Instead, she made her voice more blunt when she repeated the sentiment in what she hoped was a more professional way.
“…Thank you,” she said, her words stiff. “You truly are the Illustrious Sword.”
He laughed.
The sound shocked her so much she flinched, eyes widening.
That smile still in his voice, he spoke before she could decide what to say.
“You did great, Chan. Thanks for risking your ass up there.”
He sent her a pulse of warmth––a liquid pool of affection, gratitude, love and reassurance that hit her right in the middle of her chest.
That shocked her even more, leaving her speechless, and nearly in tears.
Before she could recover, the comm clicked off. The Sword vanished, leaving her alone, panting, confused, a lump in her throat… and feeling lighter than she had in as long as she could remember.
In front of her stood what remained of the northern passage, a blank organic wall without a single stinger or drone anywhere in sight.
Taking a deep breath, she bent down, grabbing the undamaged OBE––the one she’d just disengaged from the passageway––in both hands, and shoved it into the knapsack she’d brought. Now that the stabilizers had retracted back into the main body, the field-generator was almost as heavy as the chunks of raw organic she’d carried up here.
She didn’t mind.
Truthfully, she felt positively giddy.
Hefting the backpack onto her shoulders and arranging it briefly to ensure a more or less even distribution of the greater weight, she gave the organic wall a last glance and a smile.
Then, still smiling, she turned, launching into a fast walk, then a combat jog, as she headed back the way she’d come.
“SHH!! QUIET! EVERYONE quiet! What is that sound?”
Angeline held up a hand.
Staring at her, the dozen or so other humans in the small cave fell silent, their eyes so wide their whites shone in the dim light. Their faces grew increasingly pale as they watched her cock her head near the corner of the room, listening to the wall.
Once the talking died down, the noise Angeline heard grew louder.
Not just louder, it grew so obvious and clear, so near-sounding, it sent a cold finger of terror down her spine.
Half-holding her breath, she stared up at that corner of the ceiling.
Her full lips pursed as she rested her hands on her hips, fighting not to overreact, to keep her cool. Even so, her throat felt cinched closed, all the saliva seemed to have left her mouth. Turning, she looked at Frankie, who stood closest to her inside the cave, staring up at the same segment of rock and earth.
Frankie’s long black hair was rubber-banded up in absurd ponytails on either side of her head, complementing her dark eye make-up and the 1970s-style cropped skater T-shirt she wore over a flared skirt. Purple glitter eyeshadow decorated her eyelids over almond-shaped eyes that now reflected worry, along with a deeper fear.
“Should we call someone?” Frankie said. She twisted her hands together in front of the glitter-covered T-shirt, biting her lip in obvious worry. “That can’t be good, right? We need to call someone, right?”
SCRAPE. SCRAPE. SCRAPE.
Angeline frowned, fighting to think past the sound, which seemed to be growing louder, even in the last few seconds.
Her mind went to Maygar, who was working with his father and that scary version of her old bar-buddy, Cass, in some other part of the caves, battling God-knew-what.
A harder pulse of fear hit her, one she shoved away without taking a breath.
An image of her boyfriend’s brown eyes, smiling at her from the last time they were alone together, briefly eclipsed her vision. She remembered him rolling onto his side, caressing her face with his fingers, blowing heat at her and light in that way of his, just before he kissed her on the mouth.
He’d told her he loved her. He’d told her she would make it through this.
That had been back at the camp, in those tents.
She remembered the early morning sun shining through the organic material, rippling in the cool morning air. She remembered the sounds of camp growing louder through the thin walls of their tent, the smell of smoke, bacon and coffee from the nearest fire, the sound of a group of seer monks chanting as they performed morning rituals near the creek.
That was the morning they’d said their goodbyes.
They’d said their goodbyes, and she’d cried, even though it upset him.
He’d made it clear he thought he might not make it.
She knew whatever he was doing now, it was dangerous, and might get him killed.
She wished more than anything she was there with him. She hadn’t wanted to be separated for this, even if she was essentially useless to him. She should have fought back, pushed him to let her just be there with him, if only to give him her light if he needed it.
If they were both going to die, she would at least prefer to do it together.
“Yes,” she said, hearing the fear in her voice. “Yes. Call someone. Who has a headset? We need to tell someone about this right away. Call the engineers––”
Just then, the first claw broke through the wall, grasping at the open air.
There was a deafening, long-feeling silence as they all stared at it, watching the metallic digits where they articulated gracefully, grasping for more dirt and rock that wasn’t there.
Then, from right next to her, Frankie screamed.
A BLOOD-CURDLING scream echoed down the stone corridor, bringing Chandre’s heart to her throat, bringing her feet and legs to an abrupt stop.
Pure, undiluted terror lived in that drawn-out wail.
Even without her seer’s sight, it seemed to vibrate the cave’s walls.
Gripping the straps of her knapsack with wh
ite-knuckled hands, Chandre stood stock-still in the corridor, holding her breath in the silence that followed that scream.
Then chaos erupted.
More screams rose, along with thuds, what sounded like rocks and other objects falling heavily to the packed dirt. Chandre heard a snarling, growling sound that brought her fear up in a stronger wave, making her light-headed.
All of the sounds came from a cave opening up ahead.
She didn’t think, she just ran.
By the time she reached it, humans and seers were flooding out the cave opening, running and screaming in both directions to get away from what was inside.
Chandre leapt back as a massive, wolf-faced metallic creature the size of a small horse, all dark green armor and black fur and razor claws, bounded after the fleeing humans heading deeper into the compound. She heard it snarl as it chased the nearest of those, running with long strides down the straightaway before it leapt.
Chandre hit her comm on, even as she jerked the backpack off her shoulders. She hid just outside the cave’s opening, going down on one knee as she ripped open the top of the knapsack. Humans continued to run and scream past her as she yanked out the OBE generator she’d pulled from the north corridor, setting it on the cave floor.
Once she had it in place, she sent a silent command via her headset.
Find parameters.
Three stabilizer bulbs shot out, attaching on both sides and the top of the opening.
Ignite, she sent, the instant the bulbs dug into the rock.
The generator burst out a cloud of blue-green energy. It traveled up like liquid light, finding the stabilizers and filling the entirety of the cave opening.
The instant it did, a human ran straight into it.
The young female got engulfed by the field, which charred her in an instant, too quickly for her to even scream. It turned her skin, face and body entirely black, burning her flesh down to the bone in less than a heart beat. She fell back inside the cave, and Chandre slid around to the opening, staring down at the smoking skeleton in horror.
The whole thing happened in a matter of seconds.
Balidor’s voice rose on the comm, impatient.
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