Chapter Nineteen Arturo
Nineteen
Arturo
Alanik and I flattened ourselves to the wall behind the illusion as an alien barreled around the corner. I recognized it immediately.
This was a varvax, one of the central species that ran the Superiority before it fell.
The creature had a hard exosuit that looked to be made from sandstone and steel, roughly humanoid in shape.
They were actually small crustacean-like beings suspended in fluid, usually behind the face mask of their suit.
This suit looked a bit different. The varvax was suspended in the torso, near where a human heart would be.
Instead of its usual plated headpiece, there was only a wire frame with a small lens at the top jutting out of its shoulders.
In its spindly hands, it held a robe like the ones worn by the figures that ushered Timon to Elysium.
The varvax stopped and, seeing nothing but the illusion of an empty hallway, raised the robe over its shoulders and draped it over the wire frame, covering the body and giving the impression of being headless beneath its hood.
It probably used that lens to see out while it was wearing the robe, and it was currently searching the space, scanning for us.
I held my breath, trying to stay perfectly still. These were no mystical priests, only the creatures that had terrorized my people, imprisoned us on Detritus, tried to exterminate us and our allies. The varvax were supposed to all be neutralized. Isolated.
What the scud were they up to on this planet?
The varvax shouted something else in its language, waving its arms in the air. Alanik’s pin picked up part of the speech, translating it in my earpiece. The varvax was calling to others, warning of intruders.
If they were worried about being discovered down here, why didn’t they have better security? A moment later, two more varvax in identical robes ran up the hallway.
Stars, they looked creepy, walking around without faces. Like the robes were flying down the corridor on their own.
The first varvax surveyed the door, which hung slightly open, and the lock lying at the foot of the stairs beyond. Alanik and I pressed against the wall to avoid being brushed. If the varvax passed too near us, bits of its robe might disappear behind the illusion and draw its attention.
It passed our hiding spot, then through the doorway, looking for intruders. The other two waited, waving their arms wildly and talking in clicks and taps too quiet for Alanik’s pin to catch.
It sounded like an argument, and the one who lost seemed to sulk before stalking down the corridor and out of sight, while the other remained, watching.
If it looked away, we could sneak around it before the third one came back, but we didn’t dare budge with it standing there, waiting for what felt like forever.
Alanik breathed slowly and deliberately, as if trying not to panic.
I slid my hand along the wall, brushing her sleeve.
She turned her head toward me, but her face was a mask, her expression betraying nothing.
Hoid had dropped the illusion that made her look human, probably to focus on the wall illusion around us, and it was good to see her true features again, even under these circumstances.
I wanted to ask if she was okay, but I couldn’t risk being overheard. As the seconds ticked by, I felt like I was suffocating, like we were moments away from being discovered, interrogated, maybe executed by aliens who wouldn’t think twice about it.
Alanik’s fingers brushed mine, and I brushed hers back, then reached a little farther and grabbed her hand in mine. I waited for her to pull away, but instead she squeezed back, and a warm current ran up my arm, calming me.
The first varvax returned, shouting loud enough for the pin to translate, “There’s no one there!”
“Someone shot out the door handle!” the other replied. “Find them!”
The varvax stopped centimeters from us. Alanik squeezed my hand tighter as we both stared straight ahead at it, the cloth of its robe drifting toward the illusion—which contracted to avoid it.
I wondered if it was my imagination, or if Hoid, peering out through the mesh bag, had realized we needed it to pull back slightly.
The third varvax returned with a set of power tools and a new door lock. They argued among themselves for a moment about who should fix the door, then two of them stalked deeper into the underground part of the arena, leaving the one with the power tools to repair the damage.
It shoved the door closed, using a heavy tool to hold it shut, and unscrewed the remains of the old lock.
Its back was to us, and I looked over at Alanik and then inclined my head toward the end of the hall.
Our footsteps covered by the whir of the tools, we edged along the wall, Hoid moving the illusion to block us from the varvax’s view if it turned.
Stars, these things could have eyes in the backs of their heads for all I knew. Theoretically, reverse lenses would be covered by their hood, but we knew so little about them, we had to assume the worst.
The corridor branched in two directions. I peered one way, then the other. The other varvax had gone to the left, so I chose the right.
Alanik didn’t let go of my hand as we wrapped around the corner. It felt so good to hold on to her, to know she was there, even if we couldn’t talk. There were so many things I wasn’t ready to talk about, and not just because of the mission or the varvax.
Focus, I told myself. We were inside an enemy facility. This wasn’t the time or place to get distracted. Still, I allowed myself the comfort. Calm nerves made for better decisions.
We edged down the next hall, then came to a set of ascending stairs. We were far enough from the varvax now that I stepped away from the wall, taking a deep breath.
Alanik’s fingers loosened on mine—my cue to let go. I didn’t right away. I didn’t want to. But finally I relaxed my grip and our hands drifted apart.
“Come on,” she said, moving ahead of me up the dark stairwell, lit only by dim floor lights.
The landing at the top of the stairs opened into a large room with no lighting at all. We waited, but I didn’t hear any movement or voices.
“I think it’s clear,” I said.
“Clear!” Naga agreed.
Alanik turned on her light-line, and we inspected the room in the red-orange glow.
It was an armory. An array of swords, electric spears, and light weapons hung on racks along the wall. I moved immediately to one of the swords—it looked even bigger close up—and reached for it.
“Is this necessary research?” Alanik asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Absolutely necessary.”
I picked up the sword, which was lighter than I expected.
It gleamed in the red wash of the light-line, and I held it upright, like one of the knights of old.
Swords were terrible weapons—I’d rather have a pistol or a rifle in a real fight—but there was something majestic about it, something at once lethal and awe-inspiring.
“Coming to any conclusions?” Alanik asked, watching me with an amused expression. Okay, maybe I wasn’t being the most responsible flightleader right now, but also I was holding a sword.
“Tell me you don’t want to try it,” I said.
“I’d rather try this one,” she said, lifting the hilt of a laser sword off the wall. That one would light up the room, potentially drawing more attention. But…
“I don’t hear any varvax coming,” I said. “When are you going to get another shot?”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but then turned on the sword, the laser glowing blue.
Stars, she looked hot holding that thing.
Alanik turned it off a moment later and put it back on the rack. “We should keep moving,” she said. “I think the gate is above us.”
My eyes lingered on the sword in my hands. “Do you think we could take one?”
“I think someone on the street might notice you lugging around a weapon from their sacred games.”
She wasn’t wrong. The thing was half as tall as I was. It wasn’t going to fit in my pack.
“We could use an illusion to cover it,” I said.
“Arturo,” Alanik said. “What are you going to do with a sword that is worth that risk?”
I sighed. She was right. I wouldn’t take one of these into battle.
It would only be a trophy. I consoled myself by grabbing the laser sword and tucking it into my pack beside Naga.
Maybe the DDF could use that kind of technology.
It didn’t seem so different from our light-lines, and though I wouldn’t steal from potential human allies, I had no qualms about stealing from varvax.
Alanik moved to the door on the far side of the armory, which led to a multilevel stairwell. We went up, angling, I thought, toward the mysterious gate to Elysium.
In a large open room, we found it: The iron supports of the back side of the gate stretched from floor to ceiling to our right.
There was a winch on this side, and a switch to lift the gate, in addition to several large machines and drums full of liquid—probably the machines to create the eerie smoke.
To our left, the room recessed back about twenty meters, ending in a wall covered in scribbled lines, like someone held a pencil at varying heights while running back and forth along it. I stared at the wall, pieces clicking together in my mind.
“That’s why they don’t have much security down here,” I said. “They’re hiding inside a nowhere portal.”
I’d seen portals before—one on Detritus, and another on the kitsen planet.
When we hyperjumped, we slipped in and out of the delvers’ strange dimension, but if we wanted to stay, we had to enter through a portal.
The portals could be locked from the inside, so if the varvax hid behind it, security for these basement corridors was unnecessary.
No one but a cytonic could slip in or out without their permission.
“The varvax took Timon into the nowhere,” I said, “so Elysium could be anywhere. They’ve been abducting humans and transferring them somewhere. Maybe this really is where the Superiority was getting their human bodyguards.”
“It doesn’t make sense, though,” Alanik said. “The games are about training to fight aliens. Why train your slaves to hate you?”
She was right, but I didn’t know how to reconcile it.
“Do you think we can use this portal to get off the planet?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Alanik said. “It may be locked. Jorgen managed to open the one on Evershore, but even if I figure out how to go through, I can’t guarantee we could get back.
And we don’t know what’s on the other side.
We could find ourselves surrounded by varvax.
It might not be any safer than trying to fly out through the debris field. ”
That was true, and I didn’t want to strand the rest of our team on Blightfall, even more outnumbered than we currently were. “We can’t risk it,” I said. “Not yet. Our team can’t afford to lose a flightleader and a cytonic right now.”
We had more information, and hopefully Nedd and Sadie had found something as well. We could come back here, try the portal with our entire team—but if we got lost in the nowhere, unable to return home, Jorgen would still send a rescue team after us to be shot down by Ivy’s drones.
Stars, it killed me to be this close to answers and unable to find them. But we were trapped on Blightfall, and very much alone. Even if we could get through the portal, the risk was too great until we’d exhausted all our other options.
Varvax voices drifted up the stairs, arguing again, though the pin didn’t pick up enough to discern the topic. Alanik turned off her light-line, plunging us into darkness.
Scud. We needed to get out of here before they caught us and dragged us through the portal, ready to do to us whatever they did to the gladiators. We’d have answers then, but no guarantees that we could escape and bring the knowledge back to the rest of our team.
We couldn’t go back down the stairs, and if we hyperjumped, we risked revealing our location to Ivy and any cytonics among the varvax.
I felt Alanik’s hand in mine again, her sharp nails gently grazing my fingers. I became aware of my own heartbeat, of our breath in the dark. I held on, and she pulled me gently toward the gate. We couldn’t turn on the mechanism—that would make too much noise and alert them immediately.
Alanik led me to the motorized winch that held the door in place.
I knelt beside it, and she sheltered her light-line with her body, turning it on and keeping the orange glow localized over the motor.
The varvax continued to argue, their voices growing louder—either they were getting closer or angrier.
I wasn’t an expert engineer, but I managed to find where the crank disengaged from the motor.
I turned it by hand, and the gate rose a centimeter with a soft popping sound.
I held my breath as I rolled the door slowly, one centimeter at a time, until it was maybe thirty centimeters off the ground. I looked up at Alanik. Was that enough?
She nodded and switched off her light-line. Together we squeezed through the gap, sliding our bodies along the ground.
Suki levitated on the other side of the bulwark wall between the ramp and the stadium seats, her nose peeking out. “Finally,” she said. “One of those robed persons was up here searching for you, but they’ve gone below again.”
“Let’s go,” I said. Alanik and I hopped the wall, and all of us moved up the stairs to return to Gilaf and our light-rope.
The varvax would discover the gap under the gate eventually, but by then we would be long gone.