Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Kavon felt a growing sense of dread. He didn’t know if it was his nanami warning him of something, or just his own disturbed feelings from being so deep underground. They kept moving, and soon the tunnel opened into another vast cavern. This one was missing the glowing nanami.
Aurina strode forward, looking around. Her shoulders slumped. “Nothing.” She turned back, disappointment stamped all over her face. “There’s nothing here.”
As he watched her kick at the dirt, he knew his sense of dread was centered on her.
He didn’t want her to leave him, and this quest no longer felt like it was about avenging his father or cementing the favor of the king. Kavon felt that every step deeper into these tunnels was putting Aurina farther away from him.
He frowned. Even though he knew she didn’t fit, he wanted this bright, vibrant woman in his life long term. His hands curled.
“Definitely nothing here.” She looked at his warriors, who were also searching the cavern. “Anything?” When Colm gave her a single shake of his head, she sighed. “We move on and keep looking.”
Kavon hated seeing her so dejected, and right now, he needed to touch her and feel her warmth pressed against him. He pulled her close, tipped her head back, and kissed her. When he lifted his head, her eyes were closed, her lips parted.
“We will find what we’re looking for,” he told her. “I’ve realized you are a very stubborn and determined woman.”
“Damn right.” She opened her eyes and smiled, then her gaze slipped past him, angled upward. She went stiff and air hissed out of her.
He turned, his arms tightening on her.
There was no giant dusa or anything threatening them.
But high above, lodged on some rocks, sat what he guessed was a mangled starship.
The warriors all spread out, looking at it. Kavon couldn’t see the roof of the cavern, and suspected it went right to the top of the mountain where they’d encountered the naga.
Aurina was staring at the ship. “This is it, Kavon. This is how your ancestors came here. Durendal might be resting inside that ship. I need to get up there.”
He eyed the steep rock wall. He didn’t like the idea of her climbing up there, but he shoved his discomfort away. “Come here.” He gripped her waist and lifted her up.
She grinned at him. “Thanks, warrior.” Then she climbed up the rocks, steadily and cautiously. She tested each handhold and foot grip.
She reached the mangled ruin, and took a moment before she found a hole in the side where it was easy for her to slip inside.
Kavon waited. He heard a clang of metal inside the wreck, saw her light wand shining around. He wanted to tap his boot on the floor, but resisted. Just.
“Anything?” he called out.
“Not much in here,” she yelled back.
Then suddenly, with a groan of metal and a shudder, the entire ship slipped an inch.
The warriors gasped and leaped back. Kavon didn’t move. “Aurina!”
“I’m fine. Not finished yet.”
“Out. Now.”
“I still need—” The ship slipped another inch, small rocks cascading to the cavern floor.
Kavon eyed the wall, determining the best place for him to climb up. Then he saw a flash of movement, and spotted her climbing out. She climbed down the wall and above her, the ship slipped again.
His heart racing, he reached up and snatched her off the wall.
“It’s falling!” Colm shouted.
Kavon sprinted toward his warriors, Aurina in his arms. He heard metal screeching against rock.
He dived and turned, Aurina tucked to his chest, sliding the remaining distance to his warriors.
He saw the entire wreckage fall off its perch and crash to the cavern floor.
A massive cloud of dust rose up, choking them.
Aurina’s fingers flexed on his shoulders, and she coughed. “That was close.”
“I think we are finished here.” Kavon wanted her back in his estate, preferably locked in his rooms. She would turn his hair gray, a tough feat when the nanami kept Markarian hair dark well into their old age.
“There was nothing in the ship.” She stood and dusted off her clothes. “It had been stripped. Makes sense. They crash-landed, took everything that would be useful to them.” She held up her Sync and grinned. “I did, however, manage to interface with their comp system.”
He frowned. “It had power?”
She nodded. “Not much. I’d say their backup nuclear generator is running on fumes. It was just enough to get their last logs out.” Her grin widened. “There’s also a map. To where they settled in the tunnels here.”
“Where?”
“It’s a neighboring cavern. Follow me.”
He let her lead the way, but stayed close. They headed into another tunnel, and he half expected Aurina to trip over something, since her attention was focused on the text on her Sync.
“What else did you find?” he asked.
“A log written by the ship’s first mate…the second-in-command.”
“Words written by the First Warriors,” Kian breathed.
Aurina glanced at the warrior, then at Kavon. “You sure you want to hear this? I mean, it might simply make them men in your eyes.”
A part of him didn’t want his beliefs shattered, but they’d come this far. The truth was important. He looked at each one of his warriors—strong, loyal, and honorable. Nothing would change that.
“Go ahead.”
She nodded. “They were a group of former soldiers. Ex-military. They were tired of fighting and seeing innocent people injured and killed in conflict. They wanted a new life, someplace where they could help people and not always kill.”
Kavon felt his stiff shoulders relax a little. Maybe he had been worried. “They were honorable.”
She stopped. “You were afraid they wouldn’t be?
” She grabbed his arm and squeezed. “Kavon, it doesn’t matter.
It is who the Markarians are now that matters, who your people have made yourselves.
Honorable, protective, maybe a bit autocratic with a hint of arrogance.
” She winked at him. “The first two are pretty awesome.” Her face turned serious.
“You don’t have poverty or hunger, or people living alone and suffering.
Most of the galaxy can’t claim the same.
You should be proud, whatever you came from, you’ve made yourself into a great people, a great person. ”
“You should be proud, too,” he said quietly. “It matters little who your father was. Your mother was clearly a good, strong woman.”
Aurina smiled. “Thank you. And yes, she was.” She squeezed his arm again. “Let’s go find this sword.”
They moved into yet another cavern. They’d been through several other ones, and they still hadn’t found anything related to the crash survivors. Aurina released a breath and studied the map again. According to this, they should have come across it already.
Had she read the map wrong? Had they missed it? Maybe after all this time, there was nothing left to find?
Then she heard a sound. The tinkle of running water.
She turned her head and followed it.
“Aurina?”
She heard the crunch of Kavon’s boots behind her. There. She saw a small waterfall running down the rock from above. It pooled in a small puddle at the bottom…a pool with smooth metal sides.
She glanced around, holding up her light. “Look at this.” She saw a wide, neat entrance cut into the rock wall of the cavern. She looked up and saw numerous similar rooms carved into the rock. A few metal ladders still dangled from above.
Kavon strode into the ground floor room. “They lived here.”
She saw tables and chairs made from debris from the ship. A pile of animal furs sat in one corner. They’d used what they had and what they’d found here to make a home. “The smaller rooms above must be where they slept.”
She didn’t see any sign of the sword.
Then she saw something strange. A glass door at the back of the cave. Frowning, she moved toward it. The glass was frosted, and, as she touched it, lights flared to life. The door slid open.
Kavon was behind her in a second, sword drawn. Behind the door, more lights clicked on.
She gasped. This was no primitive cave. This was a lab.
She stepped inside. Metal benches lined the room, and an old-fashioned comp dominated a table in the center. Lots of scientific paraphernalia was scattered around—beakers, test tubes—and at one end of the lab, large cylinders filled with colored liquids.
Wandering closer, she tapped the comp. The screen flared to life, filled with text and images.
As she read, the meaning of the text seeped in, and she gasped.
“What?” Kavon demanded.
God, should she tell him? She’d seen that he’d been worried about the true intentions of the First Warriors.
“I…” She turned to face him, sliding her hands over his chest. “Are you sure you want to know?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Yes.”
That was her warrior. Straight to the point and ready to face anything. “They were researching the nanami. They…created the nanami. They actually called them nanamites.”
Kavon frowned. “No, the nanami have always been here, a part of us.”
She glanced at the comp again. “It seems the original organisms, the mites, were here, living in the cave, glowing on the walls. What you call the primitive nanami. The First Warriors started experimenting on them. Some of the group were high-tech military scientists. This world was harsh. They believed the entire planet was like the Wilds, filled with wild animals, and a primitive humanoid species.”
“My ancestors.”
“The natives and the Terrans, they are both your ancestors, Kavon. And the Terrans, they spliced their nanotechnology—small machines they could program—with the mites, creating nanamites. Then they infected themselves to make themselves stronger, faster, more suited to surviving here.”
He ran a hand over his head. “There is more?”
“They also infected the primitive species. To increase their intelligence. To make them a more viable species for the survivors to mate with.” She strode away, anger bubbling in her chest. “They were playing God, Kavon. They came here and did things they shouldn’t have done.”