Chapter 4
“How long will it take to scan for a power core?” I ask, following Kael through a long, dark tunnel. The only light source is a faint, pulsing navy-blue line running down the right wall.
“It is scanning right now, as we move. I have a neural overlay that allows me to see it if I get in the vicinity, similar to a human radar. This base is not large. Most of the equipment is ancient and broken, so I must rely on the limited tools I possess.” He stops short.
I bump against his spine and try to peer around his side, but the tunnel’s narrow and only allows a person to travel single file down its corridor.
“If this place is in the Voldera system, why haven’t your people sent a scout ship?”
He turns and leans his frame against a wall. The shadows play against his horns, casting their white hue into a gray. His sharp cheekbones stand out, causing his lips to look fuller.
I wonder if he’s a good kisser?
Mentally, I shake myself. This is not the time to think about him in that way. We’re going to die if we don’t get out of here.
His head tilts as his dark gaze roams over my face, and I realize I’ve been staring at his mouth like a lusty teenager.
I clear my throat, and he jumps at the sound, breaking off his stare.
He rubs his forehead. “That is a question I have been asking for the past two Earth years. I have managed to narrow it down to three reasons.”
“Wait, you’ve been here for two years?” How has he not gone nuts being alone for so long?
He nods.
“Don’t you get lonely? I mean, I sort of understand wanting to die, but I don’t know if I could stay sane if I had no one to talk to.”
“I do not like people, so it has been satisfactory to me.”
“Humans are social creatures. Research shows that we need other people, and even in our ancient times, we could not survive alone.”
With a shrug, he taps on his lifecord. “I am not human.”
Another rumble rolls beneath my feet. A metallic clang bangs behind us, and the scant light from the shelter goes dark.
“Gods,” he groans, taking a step toward me and then stopping since I’m blocking the way back. “I think the out building, our shelter, may be damaged from the cave walls above.”
“That can’t be good.” My heart beats wildly in my ears. I feel like an ant trapped underground.
“We can either go back and spend time trying to clear it, or we keep going. Farther back, there is a small barracks where the rest of the rations are stored, and another tunnel that leads to the main doors heading down to the ground. If there is a ship with a power core, that is where it will be. Records show our ancestors kept their fleets outside under electrical shielding, ready to fly at a moment’s notice.
However, I have seen no evidence of any defensive programs running. ”
“I vote we keep going where the supplies are at. The sooner we find power, the sooner I can get back home.”
Without a response, he turns around and marches forward and I follow.
“If there’s a power core in a working ship, could we use the ship itself to reach your planet? At the very least, we could leave this moon which is going to kill us for sure, and maybe your Volderen scientists can figure out how the wormhole works.”
“It is possible.”
Only the sounds of our echoing footsteps fill the dark hall as it widens into a square, where a rectangular door is outlined in the blue emergency lights.
Kael touches a white circle near the edge of the frame, and the door hisses, retracting into the wall. Bright white light floods the hallway as the alien steps inside.
Following him, I find myself in a squarish room, similar to the shelter from earlier. On the left, a set of sealed double doors with small windows set into each lets in weak sunlight. I walk to them and push my face against the cold glass.
Identical doors two feet farther out show the moon’s landscape. Outside, the scant sunlight reveals a straight black walkway, partially covered in grayish-white sand and rocks in some places.
“I am picking up a power core signature a klick away.”
I turn to Kael. “That’s great, then. Let’s go.
” I tap on my suit’s readout, ensuring my oxygen supply has refilled.
The suit’s filtration system uses outside O2 when it’s available to keep the reserve filled, which means at one hundred percent, I’ll have four hours of oxygen if I’m breathing at a normal pace.
Considering the terrain outside seems flat and relatively clear, I should be able to count on the full four hours.
“In case you have forgotten, the crust of this moon is heating up and slowly being torn apart, resulting in quakes. Just because the ground looks clear, does not mean it is or that it will continue to be safe.”
“Geeze, you sure know how t-to bring a lady down. Do you always look at everything with a cynical eye?”
“I am pragmatic, thus I see the situation with an electrical eye.” He rifles through a tall cabinet, grabbing something from a top shelf and pivoting toward me, holding up a small, silver sphere.
“This is a scouting drone. I will send it out to locate the skirmisher and scout the area.” He squeezes it with his index finger and thumb, then tosses it into the air.
It hovers near his temple and green, blocky font appears in the Volderen language—Scout mode activated—scrolls across its middle.
He strides to the inner door, pressing the open button, and the drone drifts inside. When the doors close, the outer doors open and the sphere zooms outside.
Kael touches his lifecord. A holographic screen projects above his wrist, revealing the area outside of the base.
With a tap, he directs the lens to travel farther out.
“Once I verify this location is stable enough to travel on foot, we can head out.” He nods to the tall cabinet that reminds me of high school lockers.
“There are four ration packs inside, which is the last of what this place has. Put them inside your pack.”
“Shouldn’t you take half, in case we get separated?” I walk to the cabinet and shrug my backpack off, putting the square blocks of sealed food and water inside.
“If we are separated, then we are dead.”
“Guess it’s a good thing you want to die, then.” I offer him a smile to soften my words.
He lifts his eyes from the drone feed, his inky black stare troubled. “I do not seek death, but if it is inevitable, why fight?”
“So you’re giving up?” With the locker emptied, I zip my bag and close the metal with a bang. “You’re letting them win by getting in your head like this.”
“Your people did this to me.” He jerks a finger to his cybernetic arm. “They use no anesthetic, and after they took my arm, they left me in a cell to bleed out. I only survived because the Volderen Council sent a rescue team.”
Damn. I can’t even imagine the pain he must’ve felt. No wonder he’s so angry.
“I’m sorry, Kael. On behalf of all the good humans, and trust me—most of us are good—I truly am sorry for your pain.” I reach out and give his real arm a gentle squeeze.
After three seconds, he pulls away from my touch and refocuses on the drone feed.
“You have nothing to be sorry for. You were not there. However, hearing you speak, looking at your face, brings up those horrible memories, and I do not know how to make them go away. There is this dark place in my heart and in my mind that whispers I should finish what XVU started, that I am only a burden, that I am weak, that I am unworthy of the Volderen race.”
There’s such pain in that last sentence, that I’m unable to let him suffer in silence.
I press my face against his back and wrap my arms around his waist, hugging him tightly.
“You are not alone, not right now, and you are not weak. You could’ve given up since you’ve been here, but you haven’t.
That tells me you’re brave, that despite what you think, deep down you want to live, to heal. ”
His chest rises and falls, but he doesn’t step away or lash out at my touch.
The muscles of his back press against my chest. He’s warmth and light in a cold and desolate world. “I wish I could take away your pain.”
With a deep inhale, he pivots around, forcing me to let go.
When his attention lands on my face, he presses his lips in a tight line and leans his neck down, his mouth close to mine.
He searches my eyes. His whitish-silvery hair falls on either side of his cheeks, brushing his shirt.
Carefully, his eyes locked on mine, he lifts a hand, the veins pulsing beneath his skin with a bluish glow, and traces a fingertip along my eyebrow.
The touch sends a tingling rush through across my skin, raising the hair on the back of my neck. I close my eyes as his touch lights a fire deep in my core. I may be about to die, but there’s something about him that makes me feel more alive than I’ve ever felt before.
The pressure of his fingertips disappears.
I exhale and open my eyes, bringing myself back to the moment.
He steps back a couple of steps and raises his other wrist with the lifecord and points at the screen. “There. In that ravine is the skirmisher.”
Okay, I guess we’re going to pretend that whatever that was didn’t just happen.
With a mental shake in my head, I ignore the heat in my cheeks and stare at the live feed.
The ravine he mentioned seems to be about a hundred feet deep.
At the narrow bottom, though, lies a Volderen skirmisher.
Its design, more rounded than what I’ve seen on Mars, reminds me of the old alien movies I used to watch with my dad.
Kael activates something on his lifecord, and a clear film crawls from his boots, up his legs and toward his head, finally encapsulating his entire body. Volderens don’t refer to it as a space suit, though. The Volderen word for it is sedurraI, which basically means a cocoon or encapsulation.
“Man, my people could really use that technology. I’d be able to stay on Mars’ surface much longer to get language samples.”
He nods toward me. “Everything good with your…” A line forms between his brow. “Your, uh, spaceman clothes?”
I laugh as I clamp the lifecord prototype on my wrist, then reseal the glove and forearm section to protect my oxygen supply and pressure.
“Pressure suit, or even space suit. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a man.
” With a quick press on my collar, my helmet slides out into sections as its shape conforms to my skull.
When the maglock seals with a snap, I look at him through the visor and shake my head, still amused by what he said. We must look like barbarians to them.
He opens the outer door, then peers at me from over his shoulder. “Yes, I have noticed you are female.” With that, he marches outside.
Not sure how to take that at all. Unlike a human from my world, reading a Volderen’s face, especially his, is like trying to read a book backwards. Oh well, at least he doesn’t seem as angry, but he’s definitely a grump.