“I think it worked,” she told him gently, her eyes fixed on where she had been focusing the energy.
Giles spun round to look behind him, following her gaze. Right there in front of them, revealed in the cavern wall where there had only been rock, was a door.
Not just a hole in the rock.
A door. Made of wood. Carved. Varnished. And hung on hinges.
Giles whistled through his teeth. “Unbe-fucking-lievable,” he whispered to himself.
Arlene nodded, her eyes heavy. She lay back on the ground. “I just… need to rest for a little while,” she said.
Giles looked back at the door. “What if it disappears again?” he asked.
Arlene barely stirred. “It won’t. It was a revealing spell. Not a portal creator.”
Giles chuckled to himself at the bizarreness of the conversation. And of what he had just witnessed. “Well, in that case…” he started saying playfully.
But Arlene had already fallen asleep. For a moment he was worried she had overdone it with the magic and harmed herself, but he checked her breathing and heart rate and his holo scanner said she was just sleeping, so he decided to let her rest.
He tucked his pair of gloves under her head to make her more comfortable, and then set about making preparations for when she was ready to continue their journey.
Arlene awoke a couple of hours later, looking a little groggy and exhausted.
“Here,” Giles said, handing her a couple of small discs wrapped in plastic. “A few nutrient boosts will help,” he told her.
Arlene took them. “Thanks,” she said, sitting up, trying to muster some energy. She opened the discs and put them on her tongue, one by one.
Within a few minutes she was able to get up again and walk around.
“Looks like the fires are holding,” she commented. “How long was I asleep?”
“Couple of hours,” Giles told her. “We’re mid-storm right now, so probably best we stay put for another few hours anyway.”
Arlene nodded. “I wonder if perhaps it’s worth going back to sleep,” she said, stretching out, and then sitting back down next to the fire she had just got up from.
Giles was pacing around. “Yeah. That’s probably a good idea,” he agreed, stretching his back, and then settling on the other side of the fire. “I’ll set an alarm for when the freeze is due to thaw and then we can get going through our newly revealed door,” he added, nodding at the door and making an expression of being genuinely impressed.
Arlene smiled, sleepily. “Yeah. Who knew I still had it, eh?”
Giles lay down. “Who knew…”
Gaitune-67, Safe House
“You fucking what?” Sean Royale piped up, interrupting his story.
Giles blinked at him. “Huh?”
Sean reached for another beer bottle and took the lid off in the crease of his arm. “You mean you opened this magical fucking door and you didn’t go through it? Not even to have a peek?”
Brock had started sniggering. Pieter joined in as Giles scrambled to answer the question, his flow completely obliterated by the interruption.
“Well… er…” Giles stumbled. “There was the freeze going on outside, and…”
Sean took a swig of his beer. “You mean you were too pussy to go out there without Arlene to look after your nanocyte-enhanced ass?”
Arlene mercifully decided to rescue him. “Actually,” she said firmly, staring the slightly tipsy cyborg down from across the common area, “if he had gone through without me there is no telling where he could have ended up. And then we would have been separated.”
Sean immediately looked a little sheepish, and reached for another beer bottle, removed the top, and then handed it to Giles by way of an apology.
Giles accepted it with a nod and placed it carefully on the mocha table while he took a moment to clean his glasses.
Molly was smiling from her seat next to Arlene. “Well, I’m just excited to learn how to pull that energy from the ground on our next lesson!”
Arlene chuckled and looked over at her. “Well, we’d need to find a planet where they have enough land energy for it to register. Estaria would be a good place to practice.”
Paige suddenly jumped to her feet. “Okay. Since we’re pausing the story, I need to pee. Plus, I can order pizza while I’m up. Anyone?”
There was a chorus of agreement for pizza, and the odd order being called out. Paige clocked each request like an experienced server as she made her way over the obstacle course of legs and furniture to extract herself from the group. She trotted off at double time, her heels clicking on the concrete floor as the others discussed the intricacies of what they had heard, some critiquing, and some of them praising Giles’s tactical calls.
Giles, still the center of attention, settled back into his element after the initial interruption, and once Paige had returned he picked up the story again.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Aibek Moon, Orn System, Temple Caverns
Several hours later the alarm went off, rousing Arlene and Giles from their sleep.
“Well, I guess that’s our cue,” Giles said, rolling onto his side.
Arlene’s color had returned to normal and she looked more refreshed and alert.
“You’re looking better,” he commented.
She nodded. “I feel it,” she said flatly.
Clapping her hands quickly and quietly together, remembering what she had done and excited to see the result, she exclaimed, “Now let’s go and check out my door!”
Giles grinned, standing up and picking up their helmets and gloves. Within minutes Arlene had extinguished the fires and the pair of them were standing at the door ready to leave.
Giles stood back and allowed her to open the door. “Ladies first, as they say in human culture.”
Arlene nodded to him and stepped forward, trying the round knobbed handle on the door. She turned it, and it clicked open.
She pushed it open and stepped through.
Aboard the Flutningsaðili, Level 4, Restricted Access Area
Anne had dropped off to sleep while meditating, but was rudely awoken by the sound of the lights coming on throughout the warehouse. Again.
And footsteps. Again.
When she peeled her eyes open she could already see Lana squaring up to the window to take on their kidnappers with her tongue, if nothing else.
“Looks like you’ll be having some new company soon,” a man’s voice called out as he approached. It was the obnoxious one that had checked on them a number of times since the three had been there. Anne guessed he was the boss from the way he had been instructing people and led the security details on various occasions.
Lana’s fists were clenched. “You won’t get away with this, you asshole! People will know we’re missing. You’ll be discovered. And I’ll be there when they put you to death for kidnapping on Teshov.”
The man looked down at his nails and leaned against a desk that had a few chairs piled upside down on it just in front of the covered machinery a few yards away.
“My, my, my…” he tutted. “What little you know about Teshov. Death sentences are only handed out to the general populous to keep them under control and afraid.”
He glanced casually up at her. “I wouldn’t fall into that category. I’m far too valuable to the people who actually have the power out there. And on Estaria for that matter,” he added smugly.
Lana’s eyes flared in fury. “You won’t get away with this,” she shouted, her voice straining painfully.
Brahms came up behind her and whispered in her ear. She seemed to calm instantly, understanding that her position was futile. The older scientist led her away from the window and sat her down at one of the desks with her back to her taunter.
Just then the far lights started coming on again, guiding the path for still more newcomers. There were scuffed, and uneven steps.
And boots.
Lots of boots.
A few mome
nts later the party appeared from between the stacks of equipment and boxes, brandishing their weapons and their two human prisoners in cuffs. The same pair who had visited them before, with promises that everything was going to be okay.
Anne couldn’t help but feel vindicated for her skepticism. She remained silent, watching.
The boss man turned his taunts to the new arrivals. “Well, I suppose this is one way to meet the boss to vent your concerns,” he cooed as the two humans looked up at him.
They remained silent.
He continued. “I suppose you’re going to deny any knowledge of what’s going on here.”
The male called over to the human female. “Don’t respond. To anything,” he told her.
She nodded.
“Rex, is it?” the boss asked, wandering over to him. “Fancy yourself as a hero, do you?”
The man didn’t respond. Instead he looked straight ahead.
“Hmm. Do I detect military training in that disciplined defiance?” the boss asked.
The prisoner ignored him.
The boss man kept talking, though Anne couldn’t quite make out what he was saying at this point. Between the humming of the ship and life support unit, plus the glass between them, it was tough. And when his back was to her she didn’t even have the added information from reading his lips.
Her mind wandered as she realized what this latest occurrence meant. Their best hope of being freed from this prison cell was about to be put in there with them.
Anne started sizing the pair up again. The man was big. So big he might have the strength to open the door. Or maybe even the vent. She made a note to approach him about that. Once she was sure that they weren’t a threat.
There was more talking and posturing. Anne studied the exchange with a keen eye. She noticed that the two scientists were watching too, but with more emotional involvement than she had.
Eventually the boss waved for the two new prisoners to be put into the glass room and started to walk away.
The armed guards shoved them forward and into the room.
“Oh, and by the way,” the awful man said, turning to them, “we’ll be rounding up your friends on board and bringing them to join you too. Just in case you were worried you would miss them.”
The male human stood glaring from the other side of the glass, and the female followed him into the room, walking past him and putting her hands behind her head in frustration. She began pacing in a small area as the door was closed and locked behind them.
The man in charge gestured for the security detail to clear the area and then followed them out.
The Estarian female sat down at the table with the other three hostages and introduced herself as Maya, and her partner as Sean.
Sean, the human male, started to pace.
“Why aren’t they calling through?” she asked Sean. Her eyes traced his movements, watching him prowl like a trapped tiger.
“Probably a glitch in the tech,” he responded. “No idea how this shit works.”
Suddenly his facial expression changed. “They’re connecting,” he said, nodding at Maya.
Maya’s face relaxed a little, and the three others looked from her to Sean and back to her again hoping for an inkling of what was going on.
Sean put his hands on his hips and looked off across the room. “Hi, Pieter? Things have taken a turn over here,” he started explaining. “Maya and I have been rumbled. They don’t know how much we know, but they’ve put us in with the scientists and they’re going to eject us into space at their next scheduled trash dump.”
The scientists exchanged worried glances. Anne felt herself react too. This was the first she was hearing about being ejected into space. Something must have changed between taking them for whatever purpose and then deciding to get rid of them.
Unless it was just the two humans they were going to get rid of? she wondered.
Sean continued to look off across the tiny glass room. “Yeah mate, I was hoping for something a little more useful than that.”
“No,” Sean kept talking, responding to a voice on the other end of his communications line, “we’re okay at the moment.”
There was a pause. Anne took a step towards the table, despite her initial wariness of them.
Sean glanced at Maya, who was starting to look scared. “We’re ready for an extraction,” he said calmly, as if he were in control of their current situation.
Sean shook his head. “No idea. Could be minutes, could be hours or days.”
Sean exhaled. “Okay. Cool.”
There was another long pause as if arrangements were being made at the other end. Sean eventually nodded. “Will do, boss.” He glanced over at Maya as he spoke. “See you shortly. Keep us posted about ETAs, eh?”
The line disconnected, leaving Sean staring now into space, looking a little more nervous than he had been just seconds before when the connection was live.
He turned to Maya again. “They’re on their way. But we need to figure out if there is a way out of here, just in case.”
He wandered over to the table where the others were sitting quietly, bewildered by the unconventional rescue party. “How about you tell us everything you know so we can work on a plan to keep us all alive until our friends get here?” he suggested, looking into the fearful faces.
Aibek Moon, Orn System, Temple Caverns
The revealed door led into another similar passageway, except this one quickly turned into a spiral staircase.
“This must have taken some construction,” Giles remarked as Arlene led the way, producing a magical glowing ball to light their way as if it were nothing.
Giles shook his head. “Are you sure you’re going to be able to leave this place and its land energy when we finally get out?”
Arlene kept walking down the steps, unperturbed. “You mean in favor of creature comforts?” she chuckled. “Hell yeah.” She suddenly stopped and turned back to him. “Really, you don’t need to worry about me anymore, at least not when it comes to the power thing. I’m over it.”
Her eyes were sincere. But in the back of Giles’s mind, it wasn’t that he didn’t believe her. It was that she might be sincerely wrong.
“Okay,” he conceded. “If you’re sure. But you know, you can always talk to me about it. Anytime.”
Arlene smiled, and started walking again. “Thanks, G-man.”
Giles rolled his eyes and followed after her.
It seemed like they had been walking down steps for hours. It was disorientating: round and round. Down and down.
Arlene’s knee muscles were starting to ache. And just before she was about to stop for another break the stairs came to an end and opened out into a small passage with an open doorway carved into the rock.
“I think we’re here,” she whispered, slowing her pace and creeping forward quietly in case their intrusion became known to anyone.
Giles didn’t say a word. He just watched as she evaporated the glow ball she’d been carrying and stepped out into the soft light of the next chamber.
Giles followed her through, seeing her reaction from behind before seeing what she was noticing.
At first she slowed, and looked up. Giles stepped through behind her, noticing the big open space, and then looked up to see that this cavern had a ceiling indeed, but it was at least a dozen stories high.
He involuntarily let out a small gasp.
Arlene turned and looked at him. “What is this place?” she asked.
Giles glanced around the chamber, taking in everything he could: an altar, various pillars around, markings on walls in places. “I think this is some kind of sacred offering place,” he told her. “And probably where we’ll find our talisman. Although, it has a feel of a burial ground and yet, it seems too revered for that. Maybe the burial ground of a god or monarch or some-such?”
He scratched at his head trying to understand the belief system behind the construction. Most cultures he’d studied honored their dead usi
ng tombs and temples that later became sacred because the civilization’s ancestors were buried there. And yet, this… was simply something he couldn’t put his finger on.
“Let’s find the talisman and get out of here,” he decided, putting his intellectual curiosity aside.
Arlene nodded and started walking around, inspecting the area. “I’ll let Scamp know we’re likely to need picking up too. Hopefully he can locate us using our holos.”
Giles was already distracted again by some writing on a stone tablet on the wall. He recognized it as being consistent with the writing that had given them the spell for the door reveal. Spontaneously he started documenting what he could with his holo. “Yes, good idea,” he called over to her absently.
He was vaguely aware of her talking with Scamp, but was more intent on pulling what intel he could before finding the talisman.
Arlene finished the call and called over to him. “He’s on his way. Says the temperature is improving out there, too.”
“Any signs from our hosts?” he asked grimly.
“None yet,” she replied, “but he’ll keep an eye out for them coming from their base again.”
“Great,” Giles acknowledged. He finished documenting the text and then spun round looking for clues.
There was silence in the hall while he stood taking it all in and trying to figure out the next piece.
Eventually he broke the silence and spoke, his voice once again echoing through the chamber. “Remember the Moons of Orn nursery rhyme that led us here?” he called over to Arlene.
She nodded. “Vaguely,” she admitted. “I can try and pull it up.” She flicked another screen open on her holo and started punching in search terms.
Giles’s eyes scanned the overall structure of everything in this huge vaulted cavern.
“Here it is,” Arlene called triumphantly. Wandering over to his position and reading it out loud:
Giles Kurns_Rogue Operator Page 15
