Chapter 21
GEMMA
“What’s happening?” Gemma feared she already knew.
Zalis glanced at his comm unit. “Still no connection.”
“Is it an earthquake?”
“This region has little seismic activity, but it is always a possibility.”
Another rumble, this one louder. Closer.
“That’s not an earthquake,” she said. No. It was something else entirely. Something familiar. “It sounds like we’re being bombed.”
“Agreed. We should remain—”
Before he could finish, an explosion rocked the tunnel. She heard the distinct crack and groan of stone, followed by a trickle of dirt. The tunnel was collapsing.
Zalis flung himself over Gemma, covering her smaller body with his bulk.
The ground shook again and the air shifted, carrying the scent of smoke.
Rock fell, starting in a slow trickle and then increasing until the sound of stone on stone drove out all thoughts.
It was too loud for anything but her pounding heart.
The explosions, the smell of smoke, and the flickering lights took her back nearly twenty years to huddling in the basement during a raid. She had been small and helpless then, her and Emry on either side of their mother, and she felt just as small and helpless now.
She counted the time between explosions, starting over at zero with each new blast. After a lifetime, the numbers increased, and the shaking ceased. Dust covered her—in her mouth, in her nose, and possibly her ears.
Zalis rolled off her. He spoke but she couldn’t hear him over the ringing in her ears.
She sat up and coughed. The overhead lights were out, leaving them in darkness.
“Are you injured?” he asked.
She shook her head, then nodded, and shook it again. She pressed a hand to her chest. “I don’t know. I can’t catch my breath. I can’t breathe.”
He set a hand on her shoulder. “Breathe in with me.” He took a deep breath. “Count with me. In, three, two, one. Out, three, two, one.”
She followed his example. Her shallow breaths grew deeper. The tightness in her chest eased but it did not leave. Not entirely.
“Your physical reactions are the same as when you have a nightmare,” he observed.
“You’re telling me this isn’t a nightmare?” Her voice quivered.
“Light will help.”
There was the rustle of movement, of a bag being unzipped, and a snap. Zalis held a glowing stick, it cast a ghastly glow over his face, highlighting sharp angles and making his horns positively demonic. The light really didn’t help.
“Thanks. What about—” She flinched at the sound of another explosion, this one sounding closer. “They’re coming back.”
Zalis cocked his head, as if listening. “I believe that is the sound of a fuel tank exploding.”
Fantastic. Random things catching fire.
He poked at his comm unit again. “Communications are down.”
“Not feeling super positive about things right now.”
“Stay here. I will assess the damage.” He handed her the glowstick as he took another from the pack.
With a crack, the glowstick came to life. He held it aloft, examining the damage. The pale green light illuminated the ceiling. Dirt drifted down from cracks, but it held.
“The walls are solid. I will check the integrity of the tunnel,” he said.
“Umm, sure. Good plan.” Gemma watched as Zalis and the light diminished until there was nothing more than a glow on the walls, then gone altogether.
She hated the plan. The plan blew. The longer she sat in the dark with nothing but a glowstick and the ruined remains of the picnic, the harder it was to breathe. The glowstick would die soon and she’d be left alone in the dark.
The sound of falling rock made her jump and turn around.
She didn’t feel alone. That same itchy, crawly sensation of being watched was back and it made no sense.
No, it did. She rubbed the spot behind her ear. She wasn’t ever alone. She had that chip they put in her. Physically, though, no one else was in the tunnel except Zalis, and he’d be back any minute.
The glowstick died. Darkness surrounded her.
Her body was coiled tight, listening for every noise.
Zalis was out there. She should hear footsteps.
Why weren’t there footsteps? Scenarios played out in her mind, none of them good and all of them ending with Zalis dead on the ground.
A stray rock hit his head in just the right spot.
Suhlik got him. A cloud of deadly gas released by the quake.
Or Vanessa’s glowing fungus gained mobility and attacked.
The scenarios spiraled in increased improbability.
She knew it was the fear taking over her mind. She knew that, but all those fears came down to Zalis being gone.
That pained her more than she expected. They hadn’t known each other long but she didn’t want to imagine life without him. She never got the chance to tell him how she felt, that his romance plan worked, awkward dates and all.
Grief for something that hadn’t happened yet sank sharp claws into her, ripping another sob from her sore throat.
“The exit is blocked.”
She screamed. No shame in that.
A large figure stood before her, dark against the darkness. Patterns glowed on his skin. She recognized Zalis, but that didn’t stop her heart from racing.
A new glowstick burst into illumination like a supernova. She blinked at the sudden brightness. Zalis wasn’t wearing a shirt but otherwise was in one piece.
“You’re okay,” she managed to say, her voice nearly not cracking. Fine, it cracked. A lot. Look, this was super stressful. She was allowed to be emotional. “What happened to your shirt?”
“A water pipe burst and my shirt is wet.” He held up the offending item.
“Maybe your shirt is cursed. First a fire and now this,” she said, trying to keep her tone light and funny because the alternative was screaming in terror.
“This is serious.”
“I know it’s serious, Zalis,” she snapped. “That was a bombing. The cave… caved in. This is pretty much the extreme end of serious.”
“You are upset.”
“Yeah, I am. You’re supposed to keep me safe.” Her voice wavered, sounding more like an accusation than she intended but her intentions meant nothing at the moment. The dam holding back her fear broke, coming out in a massive sob. Tears rolled down her face. “I’m tired of being afraid.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “It is logical to be afraid. A wise warrior listens to fear and stays alert.”
“You’ve never been afraid.” The platitudes she could do without, but the hug was good.
Solid.
Real.
“It’s not just now. It’s always been like this.” Sobs added a strange staccato to her voice, but she couldn’t seem to stop talking. “I was afraid of a match, so I got my name out of the database. I was afraid to go back to Earth, so I glommed on to you.”
“I am glad and I have been afraid,” he said.
“Don’t lie to make me feel better. I know we’re in a collapsed mine shaft like some nineteenth century penny dreadful, but your credibility can only stretch so far.”
“Your humor has returned.” He sounded approving.
“Yeah, gallows humor. Everyone from Generation Invasion has it. When have you ever been afraid? You’re so… big.” She struggled to express, well, anything. Words were hard.
“Earth frightened me,” he said.
Gemma sat up, pushing away enough to get a good look at his face. “Earth scared you? You. I don’t think anything on Earth could put a scratch on you.”
He was quiet for a moment, then said, “The poisonous ivy was unpleasant.”
She nearly laughed. An alien catching poison ivy was preposterous.
“The contact dermatitis cleared quickly but the oil from the plant contaminated much of my equipment. I exposed myself several times.”
Now she laughed. “Yeah, poison ivy sucks.”
His arms tightened around her again. It was so comfortable being held by him.
“I was a young warrior when I arrived on Earth,” he said. “I was fresh from the Academy and I had never been far from home. The unknown frightened me. I wanted to make my parents proud. I did not want to shame the clan or my family.”
“Being away from family is hard.”
“Spiders are also disturbing.”
“Spiders?”
“Too many legs.”
He was being ridiculous to take her mind off the current calamity. “I’m supposed to believe that spiders freak you out but you’re into dragonflies. I’m not buying it. You like insects.”
“Dragonflies are exceptional.”
“How did you deal with being so far from home?”
He made a thoughtful noise. “There was a canine. It followed me one day on patrol and never left.”
“The puppy distribution system chose you.” Before he could ask for clarification, she explained, “That’s when chance or fate or the universe being random puts a puppy in your path. You have to adopt the puppy. Them’s the rules. You did adopt the puppy, right?”
“It is a highly inefficient system, but yes, I cared for the canine.”
“What was his name?”
“Doggo,” he said with pride.
“You named your dog Doggo?”
“I was informed it was a traditional Earth name.”
“Sure is something.” She laughed, which turned into a cough from smoke tickling her throat. Zalis had successfully distracted her, but the danger hadn’t passed. “What are you going to do about the tunnel being blocked? We can’t call for help and it might collapse on us.”
He looked up before answering. Gemma had no idea if he knew anything about geology or structural engineering. His answer could be bullshit but he would answer to the best of his knowledge.
“It appears stable. I have not heard any explosions for some time, so we must conclude that the raid is over. My colleagues know my location. They will clear the tunnel.”
“What about the air?”
“The air supply is sufficient.”
“I mean the giant scrubber things. What if the bombing took those out? The air is toxic.”
“There are many scrubbers, spaced apart in such a manner that it is unlikely they would all be destroyed.”
“But we don’t know.”
“I have breathing units in my pack if the air becomes unsuitable.”
“Good.” Knowing the breathers were available helped to ease her tension. “What if Suhlik teleport down? You don’t have any weapons.”
“These tunnels have naturally occurring deposits of hellstone. It blocks teleportation.”
“Oh, that’s handy.”
“It is one of the reasons Val Mori was selected for a base,” he said. “Also, I have a toolkit with several heavy wrenches and a utility knife. They are not ideal weapons, but blunt force trauma can be effective.”
“What about the translator chip in me? Can it be tracked?” For each worry he soothed, a new one emerged.
“Unlikely.”
“That’s not a no.” The swinging from terror to comfort and anger and back again was exhausting. “I want it out of me.”
“I understand,” he said.
“No, you don’t. Part of them is inside me. I can’t be me until it’s gone. I can’t. I’m sorry, Zalis, I can’t.” There it was, the last and biggest fear. She gasped between the words, chest aching from her sobs. She couldn’t catch her breath.
He held her as she sobbed.
ZALIS
Zalis was at a loss. The romcom films had not prepared him for this level of terror.
Communications were cut off from the surface.
He had no idea if the explosions had been a Suhlik raid or something else.
He had no way to know when the tunnel would be cleared of debris.
He had no way to monitor the air quality. All he could do was hold his mate.
Eventually her sobs ceased.
“I’m tired of being afraid,” she said.
He rubbed her back and held her.
“I love you, you know,” she said.
While his heart sang to hear those words, he said, “Your emotions are heightened. You cannot know what you will feel tomorrow.”
“Feel free to say it back.”
“The next time you tell me, when you are certain, when I am certain that it comes from your desire and not fear, I will. I will claim you and you will wear my mark.” His tattoos burned everywhere their skin touched, where she traced the patterns across his shoulders.
“You were gone for so long, I was worried you were dead. That’s when I knew.” She pulled away and lifted her face. Tears streaked through the dirt on her cheeks. She was the most radiant being he had ever seen. “My feelings won’t change. This is real.”
Zalis pressed his lips to her forehead. “Tell me again tomorrow.”
“And you’ll say it back?”
“Nothing will stop me.”
When rescue arrived, Gemma was taken to Medical immediately. Zalis did not leave her side. After determining that no bones were broken, he demanded that the translation chip be removed.
“It is not medically necessary, and we are busy responding to an emergency,” the medic said. “I have patients who are injured.”
Gemma squeezed his hand. He was unsure of her meaning, if she sought comfort in a disappointing response to her request or if she was silently encouraging him to advocate for her.
It did not matter. He made a promise to her, and he would keep it. He said, “It is unknown tech and a security breach.”
“It is impossible for you to make that determination while the chip is implanted,” Kalen said.
“Exactly. The chip should have been removed the moment Gemma arrived on board.”
“That’s true,” Gemma chimed in. “What I remember from that appointment is being told I was bad luck. Does that qualify for malpractice?”
A sour look settled on Kalen’s face, like he wanted to argue but could not. The male wore that expression often. “I dislike being grappled by the horns. Very well. You will have your procedure, but only after I treat the patients who are bleeding.”