by Naomi Lucas
“Daisy!” I roar, leaving the closet. My gaze falls upon the cage.
I should have never let her out. I should have kept her locked in it forever, even if she hated me for it, even if she denied me, even if I never saw her smile again. I’d rather have my queen in a cage, where she’s mine, where I can protect her and gaze upon her beauty, rather than free. Where she can be hurt, or worse. She isn’t safe without me. She’ll never be safe without me. I hiss deeply, reverberating my cowl.
Overcome with foreboding, I move to the playroom, hoping there’s a slim chance she is within. But the mirrored wall is still in place… There’s nothing but cold silence and my reptilian reflection glaring back at me. My hands shake.
She’s gone.
She left.
The noise I heard last night...
A growl bursts from my throat as I pivot and tear out of my house.
Twenty-Five
The Pit
Daisy
“DAISY!”
I startle, turning around as my name echoes through the gorge.
Zaku?
Goosebumps rise as I hear my name again. I can’t tell which direction it’s coming from...whether it’s ahead of me or behind.
I can’t let him catch me.
Even if he’s not with Vagan, Zaku will never let me near the facility, he’ll never let me warn Shelby.
I catch my body against a tree and clutch it, holding myself upright. Pushing off the tree, I aim for the river in the distance. It’s attached to the lake. Keeping high on the mountain ledges, I’ve kept it to my left, knowing I’ll need to cross it to get to the facility.
But not yet...
It’s the only river, and I remember seeing it below the plateau the first day. I need to cross there to keep my positioning. If I cross too early, I could miss the facility entirely while in the forest. But if I can spy the plateau, keep it at my back, I can make it to the facility. I can.
“DAISY!”
I flinch.
But it’s been hours and I still haven’t located the plateau. I’ve circled boulders, ledges, even climbed one of the trees to get a view of where I am and where I’m positioned, but no plateau. The sheer edge and the steep climb to the plateau’s bluff are unmistakable. There are no trees, no foliage after the dropoff.
Huffing out a ragged breath, I round another set of boulders, swiping the sweat off my brow.
And then I see it.
I nearly drop to my knees when I do. The plateau’s sharp ledge.
I want to sob, half-terrified I was never going to find it, that I was lost, that I miscalculated.
I’m a pilot, not a ranger. I’ve been on and to many alien worlds, but rarely do I set foot on them.
It’s time to cross the river and go straight north. Wiping my cheeks, I descend.
From one boulder to the next, from one rocky landing to a dead tree stump, I head for the river below. This side of the mountain has grown increasingly jagged with dirt and stone. There’s barely any shade. Losing my footing on a shifting stone, I slip and land on my butt. Wiping the dirt off my palms, I try not to touch my face. My cheeks are burned from the Earth’s sun. Sweat drips into my eyes, and I blink it out, wincing again.
When I hear the river, I sprint, wading into the reeds, and sinking into the water and mud. I push through the reeds until the water is up to my waist and the river opens up. Dipping under and cooling off, I wash the sweat off my face and drink all I can. I haven’t encountered an apple tree or a berry bush in hours, and I need to keep my energy up for as long as possible. Hydration is key.
“DAISY!”
I lower into the water as my name echoes and then fades.
When Zaku’s voice is gone, I glance at the barren slopes of the mountain behind me, expecting to see him charging down and toward me. When I don’t, I say a silent prayer.
It’s quiet as I dive into the water. It’s a short distance to the other side. On the far shore, I position my back to the plateau. Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and visualize the land, hoping to the stars that I’m right and the facility is in the spot I remember it to be.
I’m in the forest, on flat land. I have to be in the right area. I’ll know for sure in a couple of miles.
I wring out my clothes and walk into the trees. Soon, the silence gives way to sounds.
Hissing fills my ears. First, it’s on my right, and I drop and quiet my steps, and then it’s on my left. My adrenaline surges and my stomach drops. It’s a good sign if I’m hearing other nagas, I tell myself. I lick my lips and try to remain calm.
I should’ve considered there would still be nagas scouting the facility. If it’s not Vagan who goes after Shelby, eventually one of the others might.
If they haven’t already.
My fury at Peter—at this whole operation—slams through me. I grit my teeth and try not to scream.
I’ll sneak in, find Shelby, and contact The Dreadnaut. That’s all you have to do. Once Central Command knows what’s going on, none of the rest matters. They’ll save Gemma, they’ll fire Peter, and they’ll make a better deal with the nagas for their precious Lurker tech. A deal that doesn’t include bartering flesh. This time tomorrow, the nightmare will be over.
I see the wall through the overgrowth and quietly move toward it. There’s hissing behind me, though it’s far off. But as I near, a low buzzing takes its place.
A scout. I crouch. Searching for it in the air, I spy the flying metal turret and let it see me. It stops, turns its guns on me, and flies in my direction.
I go still as it scans my face.
After a moment, it lowers its guns and I sag. The security systems still have me in their database. I move to the turret’s side and open its panel, wiping the data off its system and powering the turret off, hiding it in the bushes. I turn to the wall afterward, heading for one of the entrances.
Something touches my leg.
Twisting around, I come face to face with a large, darkly-colored male coiled around a branch. Our eyes meet, and we stare at each other.
“Please let me go,” I beg.
His expression doesn’t change.
“My friend is in danger and so is her child. Please, if you have any mercy, you’ll let me go.”
“What is your name?” he rumbles.
“Daisy,” I say, trembling.
“There’s another calling that name.” He tilts his head, glancing at the canopy. “It’s on the wind.”
“I know.”
The male’s eyes come back to me, darkening. “Are you in trouble as well?”
His question gives me pause. It’s not something I’d thought one of these aliens would ever ask. Am I? I am. I am in trouble, though it’s not the type of trouble a stranger could ever help me with.
Right now, all I want is to make sure Shelby and her baby are safe. And if possible, to reach Central Command and help Gemma. After that? Thoughts of Zaku flick through my mind.
“I...I’m okay,” I say.
The male regards me for a time. Waiting for him to snatch me or let me walk away, my heart pounds wildly. I brace for the former, for a fight. Slowly, I slip my hand into my pocket and grasp the nail file.
It’s always the former.
He draws his tail away from me and vanishes into the trees.
I sag. Thank you.
I turn and run through the entrance before he changes his mind, pivoting behind a barricade. I take a look around. There’s only me, the robots, and the ships on the newly-cleared field. None of the team is outside. Seeing everything the same way it was a couple of weeks ago saddens me. It also brings me some relief.
I’m not too late.
Glimpsing the sky, the sun is heading for the horizon.
It’ll be dark in a couple of hours.
The day shift is ending soon, if it hasn’t already. Everyone will retire to their quarters soon. Shelby will be working within the old facility or on the transport ship categorizing recent data—she’s o
bsessed with Earth and the Lurkawathians—a little too obsessed. We haven’t had many conversations in our short time together though each time we have had one, she brings up her work. She lives for it.
She loves it.
Something I have never really felt about my work...
Sneaking onto the transport ship will be risky, and riskier still is heading to the ship’s bridge to contact Central Command. It would be better to wait for the night shift for that, I decide.
I dash to the ruins before I can change my mind. I’ve never been inside them, but others have mentioned that the old building is big. If it’s big, there’ll be lots of places to hide and to wait.
Coming to a stop at one of the partially fallen walls, I duck inside. The inside is a mess of rubble, but it’s been cleaned out of all organic matter by the robots upon our arrival here. Hallways and rooms of dirt, mottled items, and old rusty metal greet me on every side. There are also lamps and beeping machines throughout, attached to computers under tarps. They hum softly in my ears.
I climb through another broken wall, deeper into the space where there are more shadows, rather than take the cleared hallways, and search for one of the team members, or for a place to hide.
Hearing footsteps, I duck behind a tarp and press my hands to my mouth.
The footsteps move past me and I peer over the tarp to see who it is. Squinting, I make out Collins’ uniform. He turns left, down a different hallway, and toward the outside. I decide to go in the opposite direction. I don’t want to encounter Collins any more than I want to run into Peter. I might just kill him and rid the universe of his presence if I do.
Seeing lights ahead of me and an open space, I slow and slip to the wall to look inside. I find what may have been a large atrium at one point, maybe a gym. The ceiling is caved in, and there’s digging equipment. In the center is a giant pit with rusted pipes and old infrastructure bent up and out of the ground. More tarps and spotlights are blazing down into it.
There’s also a lot of sentinel robots protecting the pit.
They’re guarding it.
My curiosity piques. I can’t see into the hole from my angle. Glancing around the room, it’s empty but for the robots. I check behind me and there’s no one coming.
Having only two ways to go, I enter the space, dodging to the right. The sentinels don’t acknowledge me, staying angled to the pit. My brow furrows, and I move a little closer to see what it is they’re focused on.
Could it be?
Is it?
What we came here to find?
I don’t see anything at first, just dirt, cement blocks, and more pipes and wires than I can count. A flicker of blue light emerges, casting upon rocks from under the biggest tarp in the middle, and I suck in.
“Shelby?” I whisper.
Twenty-Six
Lies
Daisy
“Collins, if you’re trying to scare me, fuck off,” she says from somewhere below and out of my sight. “I am not in the mood.”
My heart goes wild, and I scramble down into the pit before I can think otherwise. “It’s not Collins, Shelby.” Heading toward the deepest part of the pit, where tarps are covering it from my view, the blue light of Shelby’s eyes brightens. It shifts in my direction. Shelby ducks her head under the tarp and blinks, turning off the light of her mechanical eyes.
“Daisy?” she says, her lips parting when she sees me. She stares as I rush over to her, taking her into my arms and hugging her to me, hard.
She’s tense in my arms at first but then throws her arms around me with a cry. We hold onto each other tightly. I don’t want to let her go. I thought I’d never see another human ever again. If I hold her hard enough, long enough, maybe I’ll never be torn away again. She’s warm. She’s alive. The journey was worth it just for this hug.
But she pulls back and I let her go.
Her face is dirty, smudged with dirt and dust, and she’s shaking.
“Daisy? How—how are you here? What happened? We need to get you to medical! Do the others know your back?” Shelby’s questions fill my ears.
I grab her wrist. “I’m fine. I don’t need medical attention. Though we need to go, and we need guns if they’re around. I’ll explain later, but we need to get you out of here. Now!”
The sentinels fly toward us from every side.
Shelby jerks her arm out of my grasp, stopping me. Fear lights her eyes as she looks at the sentinel drones. “I can’t. Why do we need guns?”
The sentinels aim their lasers at me. “For protection. I’ll explain later but right now we need to go,” I tell her.
She shakes her head. It’s then I notice the exhaustion on her face, the amount of dirt covering her. There are sweat stains on her clothes and her face looks long and winded. Her long hair is in a messy bun on the top of her head and some of her braids are slipping from it.
She’s thinner than she was when I last saw her.
“What has happened to you?” I whisper. The last time I saw her, she was healthy, clean, and full of energy. Though angry too and filled with desperation for the situation we were in.
“I’m being watched,” she whispers. “I can’t go anywhere without guards, without Collins. Daisy, I’m so sorry—”
“I don’t understand—”
“—I tried to contact Central Command, but Peter stopped me. I can’t go anywhere without them.” She points behind me. “They’ll shoot me if I try.”
I look back at the sentinels now hovering around us.
Shelby continues, “You need to get out of here. It’s not safe. Peter is not…”
“Not what?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “If we don’t deliver…” she whispers. “If I don’t deliver… Peter’s head is on the block. All of our heads are. The Ketts took out The Mercy.”
I still. The Mercy was the ship my father once commanded before he retired on The Prime. It was where I was born. It’s also one of the biggest colony battleships in the entire fleet. A whole army of battleships was docked there.
Nearly a hundred thousand people lived and worked on The Mercy.
Dead. My heart stops. They’re dead now.
“If Peter doesn’t give Central Command what they want…”
I scrunch my face. “Stop. Just stop,” I beg, reeling from the news. Losing The Mercy is a huge defeat, but there’s nothing we can do about it here. “You’re in trouble. There’s a naga, a rabid one, coming for you. We have to get you out of here.” I grab her hand. “I tried to kill him but these aliens don’t die easily. They regenerate. We have to tell Central Command what’s happening down here. Your baby is at risk.”
Shelby tugs her hand from mine. “What are you talking about?”
“Vagan. I’m talking about Vagan. An alien who’s after you, who’s willing to kill me and—never mind. That’s not all, the facility is surrounded by aliens. You’re the only woman here. You’re not safe and neither is your baby.” I take her hand again and tug her after me.
“Daisy...” Shelby pulls from my grip. “I’m not pregnant.”
I face her, not sure if I heard her correctly. “What?”
“I’m not pregnant,” she repeats.
“Y-You miscarried?” I stutter.
Her face falls. “No.”
It takes me a moment to realize what she’s telling me. “You lied?”
“I was scared. Collins convinced me it was for the best. I’ve been doing everything I can to get you and Gemma help—”
“Wait. You were never pregnant?” I’m still not believing what she’s saying.
“Daisy…”
I drop my hand. She’s not pregnant. She never was?
“Are you okay?” Shelby reaches for me. Reeling, I turn from her.
She was never pregnant. My heart sinks further, and tears well. Shelby grabs my arm, I tug it out of her grasp.
She lied to save herself. She abandoned Gemma and me when our worlds fell apart. The fear I felt, the di
sbelief when Peter gathered Gemma, Shelby, and I to tell us what he plans on doing to us comes back to me. I had no lover, no friend, no one to turn to for help. Only two women, two strangers who served on the same ship.
“Daisy?” Shelby whispers my name. “I’m really sorry. I tried to buy an opportunity to help. I should’ve told you and Gemma. Collins said it was too risky.”
I wipe my eyes with the back of my hands, hating the betrayal I’m feeling. I push through it. I try to, at least.
I never should have left Zaku. I should’ve waited for his return, should’ve looked for him. I should’ve searched for Gemma.
I clench my hands. What am I going to do now? Can I even leave the facility without getting caught, or find my way to Zaku’s mountain? Will I ever see him again?
“Please forgive me,” Shelby begs. “I tried to use it to help us.” She waves at the sentinels with defeat. “I tried.”
I finally look at her, exhaling the betrayal. It doesn’t change anything. “I forgive you,” I choke. My voice is numb after I clear my throat. “Vagan is after you. We need to get you out of the facility before he or another, or several band together and come for you.”
“What do they want?” she asks, her voice lowering.
“Nestmates? I was almost raped,” I wheeze as flashes of the Python return. I push him out and think of Zaku instead and even the male I met outside. “Some are not bad… I have no idea what Gemma is going through. You’re not safe. You need to get onto the transport ship—to The Dreadnaut if possible. That, or join me. There’s a place you can hide. A place you’ll be safe. Zaku has a den…” I trail off. “It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re not here. I need to get to the ship and send a message to Central Command.” I turn to leave.
“Wait! The sentinels.”
I pause. “They’re watching you, not me. They still recognize me as part of the team.”
“They’ll shoot me if I follow you.”
“Okay. I can turn them off manually.” I glance at the turrets poised on us, shuddering some more. “Give me a minute.”
