Chapter 13 #3
“You’re sure this is the one?” Colm nodded at their entrance.
“As certain as I’ll ever be. It matches the location on the map.”
They moved inside. The tunnel went straight, the floor surprisingly smooth. Then she spotted something ahead.
She frowned. “What the hell is that?”
It was a long, brown…shell, lying on the tunnel floor.
Colm whistled through his teeth. “It is the skin of a dusa.”
Kavon nodded. “The beasts shed them every winter.”
Everything in Aurina stilled. It had to be fifteen meters long! And thicker around than she was. It was clearly some sort of giant, snake-like creature. “Tell me they’re friendly.”
“Hells, no,” Colm exclaimed.
“They are not friendly,” Kavon said. “They like to bite, and have a terrible poison that can burn through the skin. They can also spit molten rock, and circle around a man and squeeze him to death.”
She closed her eyes. Of course. Trust her to crash-land on a planet filled with fire-breathing horses, huge monsters, massive cranky birds, and giant snakes. “Let’s hope this one is long gone.”
Kian touched the skin and held up his hand. It dripped with a clear, sticky goo. “I would guess this was very recently shed. Perhaps in the last few hours.”
Aurina groaned.
“It changes nothing,” Kavon said. “If we meet the dusa, we will take it down. Carry on.”
She stiffened her spine and kept moving, perhaps a little more cautiously than before. The tunnel turned left, and soon branched off. They continued to follow the map, but every scrape of a boot had her glancing over her shoulder to make sure a giant, lava-spitting snake wasn’t stalking them.
Kavon held a hand up. “There is something else ahead.”
She couldn’t see anything in the gloom. “You’re sure?”
“He has the best eyesight of any Markarian,” Colm said. “But I can also make out something propped against the wall on the left.”
They moved forward cautiously and, out of the shadows, she saw a lump of…something against the wall. Was it another dusa skin? She suppressed a shudder.
“It looks like the skin of some sort of creature,” Colm said.
Aurina squatted beside the object and frowned. It looked like it had arms and legs…and it was very humanoid in shape. It had a thick, green skin that was coated in a dense layer of dust.
“I need some more light. Hold a wand up higher.”
One of the men complied, and the light reflected off a round, bulbous head that was made of a luminous, smooth substance.
She froze. Oh, God, it couldn’t be. It wasn’t skin at all. She swiped a hand across the head, and through the clear spot she’d made, she saw a visor. The green skin was the high-tech plas of an enviro suit, and the “head” was a helmet.
And inside, she saw a human skull.
“It’s not an animal.” Her hands shook a little.
She found the old clasps at the base of the helmet and flicked them open. She pulled the helmet off.
The warriors all gasped.
“This is an enviro suit. It’s a really old model, but space travelers wear them to survive in harsh environments.
” She lifted her scanner. It beeped and she looked up at Kavon.
“He’s not Markarian, he’s definitely human.
” She swallowed back the excitement making her a little giddy. “We must be getting close to the ship.”
Kavon nodded, still staring at the body.
“He…he is one of the First Warriors,” Darroch breathed.
She glanced back at the long-dead man. “Yes, I guess he was.”
After a moment’s silence, Kavon stepped back. “We keep moving.”
As they trekked deeper down the tunnel, it started to narrow. Soon, they had to walk in single file to make it through. Of course, Kavon refused to let her lead. His over-protectiveness left her amused, annoyed, and feeling safe all at once.
Then the roof of the tunnel lowered. They stopped, all staring at the tiny space.
She got the impression warriors did not like crawling.
Kavon nodded his head, and with a giant sigh, Colm fell to his knees and squeezed his massive shoulders through the gap and disappeared.
Kavon followed, and then Aurina wriggled through after them.
Behind her, she heard Darroch and Kian muttering and cursing.
Thankfully, the gap widened again, and the roof rose. She stood, and saw Colm and Kavon standing over something, hands on their hips.
“What is it?” She hurried over and her mouth dropped open.
A sheet of twisted metal lay against the wall.
She crouched, lifting her scanner again.
“It definitely looks ship-grade.” Results filled her scanner screen.
“It’s been subjected to a lot of heat and force.
” She touched it, wondering who had made it, how long ago, and how it had ended up here—in the dark of a buried tunnel on a barbarian world.
Her hand brushed something engraved into the metal.
She grabbed her light wand and tilted her head to read the words.
“Infinity Aerospace Industries.” Her eyes widened.
“Stars, Infinity still makes starships today.” Her gaze collided with Kavon’s.
“The company began on Earth. Kavon, this is from a Terran starship.”