14. Chapter 14
Marissa expected them to tumble when the ship started to fall. Instead, it stayed mostly upright, turning and bouncing off rocks as though they were moving through a tube that was only slightly bigger than the ship itself. Every hit off the wall slowed their descent, but they still dropped at an alarming rate.
Straps sprouted from the chair and pulled her snug against it while she struggled to keep hold of the phone.
“Major Ozark,” the Commander called over the phone. “Major Ozark, respond.”
“Good news, sir,” she shouted. “I think we just left a big clue about where to find me. Just look for the big fucking hole in the ground and follow it to the fucking center of the Earth.”
“Major Ozark, we do not copy. Repeat, Major Ozark, we do not copy.”
“Dammit,” Marissa grumbled just before the call disconnected.
Another bounce had the ship turned abruptly. She didn”t scream, though the sound stuck in her throat. The chair padded her more than she expected and made the whole thing feel like the most terrifying roller coaster she”d ever been on.
They eventually stopped moving and the momentary silence made her wonder how much of her hearing she”d lost in the fall. Then the pounding started.
”Marissa,” Cooper called. ”Talk to me. Are you injured?”
”I can”t tell,” she told him. ”I can”t move.”
Cooper shouted something she couldn”t understand and the wrap holding her to the chair let go. She checked her movement and everything seemed to be in working order. Her neck and upper back were stiff but seemed to loosen as she flexed.
”I”m good,” she called on her way into the control room. ”I think we need those video feeds, though.”
”Working on it,” he grumbled. ”There”s something out there disrupting my sensors.”
”I thought they were hard wired in,” she said, taking the seat next to him.
”Thus my concern,” he said. ”How are you with a rifle?”
”I can hit a target. Pistol, too,” Major Ozark said. ”You have anything I can use?”
”Panel to the right,” he said, his focus on the controls. ”Hold your thumb on the green square.”
The pounding was getting louder and Marissa worked hard to keep her movements efficient.
She found the green square and pressed her thumb against it. A quick, sharp pain made her draw her hand back with a hiss.
Blood welled up on her thumb just before the panel slid open. She licked it off and reached for one of the rifle shaped devices lined up inside. Cooper turned and took one from her. He licked his thumb and pressed it against a slightly rough spot on the side of the weapon and it made the slight whine of something powering on.
He held it up and pointed out the various parts.
”Muzzle, trigger, ammo switch, power lock. You should be able to activate it with the finger it took your biocode from,” he said with a nod to the power lock.
Major Ozark ran her thumb over the rough spot and the rifle powered on. Lights appeared on the top of the butt with symbols she almost understood.
”You have power bolts and projectiles,” he explained. ”Should be full of both. Extra magazines are in the case at the bottom of the cabinet.
Major Ozark checked what she was able then reached for the extra cartridges. She was trying to identify which was which when the pounding stopped.
Sudden silence was never a good sign.
”Shit,” Cooper said just before the wall slid open.
Dark shapes appeared in the opening just before the world exploded into light.
With the light came a profound absence of sound and the sensation of floating through time and space. It also brought pain and confusion and a desire for something, anything, to stop the overload on her senses.
Marissa slipped into the cool, calm nothingness that followed with a sense of relief that she knew was going to be short-lived.
When she came to, it felt like the world around her was in chaos. Her eyes created a cascade of colors and scenes out of the darkness that pressed in on her while her ears strained to make sense of any sounds they couldn”t really hear.
She was being carried through a dark corridor with her hands bound behind her at the wrists, her legs crossed and tied at the knees and ankles, with everything connected by ropes that were too short running up her back.
She could breathe and her mouth wasn’t covered, so she started with an attempt to control her own breathing while she recited a prayer her grandmother had taught her as a child. It was the first thing she’d ever memorized and it did more to slow her pulse and focus her mind than anything else.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Bless the bed that I lay on…
They were deep underground and she was laying on something being carried by two well-trained people or a machine with really great shock absorbers. She could feel the movement but couldn’t feel the faults in whatever path they were moving along.
There were people talking around her and the language teased at her brain until she almost thought she could understand what they were saying.
Panic that she knew wasn’t hers rolled through her brain and Marissa felt a moment of relief that Cooper was still alive. She understood the panic he felt and she was certain he wasn’t trying to project it at her. She was tempted to hum the song that had started running through her head but she didn’t want whoever was carrying her to realize she was awake and singing to herself. As her pulse slowed, she was able to focus on the movement around her.
Her eyes adjusted slowly and she realized there was some light. Not enough to see anything clearly but enough to get a vague feel for the size of the tunnel they were moving through and the cloaked shapes around her. They were human sized, at least, though the cloaks concealed enough of their forms that she couldn’t tell how close to human shaped they were.
As Cooper”s panic eased, she could feel his curiosity, then his astonishment, at the situation. She was overwhelmed momentarily by his frustration at the language and she sympathized. There was a nagging feeling in the back of her brain that she should understand what they were saying.
More light reflected off the walls, and Marissa could tell she was lying on a stiff fabric cot over a metal frame that looked remarkably familiar. She still couldn”t move much and that was starting to become a more urgent problem.
The corridor opened abruptly into the largest cave Marissa had ever seen. Soft lights radiated from the walls and pillars that had been built throughout what she could see of the space. Something about the sound wasn”t right, though.
She felt like she”d had cotton stuffed in her ears. There wasn”t enough noise for the number of people surrounding her moving through such a large space.
”…dampeners…” drifted through her mind in Cooper”s voice.
It felt like he”d turned to her in a conversation and she strained to hear the rest of what he was saying.
”Don”t shout, I can hear you,” he grumbled. ”And I was saying that they were using sound dampeners.”
”How can I hear you?” she asked.
”I want to think it”s because our bond has become stronger, but I don”t think so. Somehow, they”ve devised something that increases their ability to communicate without speech. Probably because of the sound dampeners. I wonder how long they”ve been running.”
Marissa caught sight of another column and felt a shiver run up her spine. ”I think they”ve been down here for a while, if the architecture is period.”
”Well, that”s annoying,” Cooper said.
”Why?”
”Cause they”re not a rescue party that got here before I sent my signal. I was kinda hoping for that.”
”Was that likely?”
”No,” he admitted. ”But every other option is worse. Especially if they”ve been here a while.”
An abrupt halt that nearly rolled her off her stretcher cut her next question off. Marissa struggled against the bonds to keep herself from falling and stilled at the hand that gripped her arm.
”Is this the intruder?” the voice asked. It sounded ancient, hoarse, as though it came from a throat that hadn”t been used for speech in a very long time.
”Yes, sir,” one of her captors said.
”Why is she here?”
”She was in his ship. We understand she was captured from the nearby base and he was going to negotiate her return in exchange for other alien technology.”
”Has she been harmed?” the first voice asked. Marissa suddenly knew that they were speaking aloud for her benefit. Her first reaction was suspicion that they were hiding another conversation, followed by gratitude at being included.
”Had he managed to make a deal yet?”
”No, sir, we believe we got to them before he was able. There are others looking for her but the trail will have gone cold by the time they arrive.”
”Good,” the ancient voice said. ”We will make arrangements for her return but make sure she has been unharmed by this action.”
”Yes, sir.” Movement just out of her line of sight preceded her cot being lifted again.
”Wait,” Marissa called. Or tried to. The word came out more like a whisper, and she was sure they didn”t hear her.
She struggled to protest, to be heard while she was taken away from her mate. Cooper”s own protests echoed in her mind, fading with each step away, until she couldn”t hear anything but the low murmurs of whoever was carrying her.
Darkness surrounded her as they entered another corridor and she tried to breathe. It was harder, this time, and the only part of the poem she could remember were the last two lines.
One to watch, one to pray,
And two to bear my soul away.