Chapter 8 #2
With a hissing noise, the kind hydraulic brakes made, the Burrower came to a halt, and something whirred and clicked just behind the terrifyingly huge drill head.
A door opened, or rather, a hatch. It wasn’t very big, just a round hole suddenly spiraling open like an iris.
I wasn’t sure, because I still hadn’t fully recovered my hearing, but I was pretty sure this infuriated the savage Naga even more.
Levant wasn’t quite steady as we rushed forward, his big, way too long body swaying and curling awkwardly through the snow.
That arm around my shoulders that had previously felt like safety, like he meant to protect me, now felt heavy.
I was almost, but not quite, pulling some of his weight to help him close the distance between us and what I hoped was safety.
The hatch was high up, I couldn’t reach it, and there were no convenient steps or handholds.
I suspected this was because the massive, worm-shaped body rolled and shifted when it was in motion; it was just a matter of chance where the hatch ended up.
Not helpful right now, how were we going to get in?
That dark gap tempted me with safety, and already, I was beginning to hear again, and what I heard wasn’t good.
Shouts, screams, growls, and howls. The savages were preparing to charge; perhaps they thought they needed to protect their god. Not good.
Levant picked me up so abruptly that I screamed, and, more surprisingly, he lifted me high on his tail.
That hole was no longer so distant, and though he swayed and I feared he’d drop me, he managed to toss me through the hatch.
I scrambled to my hands and knees, turned around in the very dark and very narrow passage, and was just in time to catch Auby when the calf was tossed in after me.
We had to grab hold of both of Levant’s arms to pull him in after us, his big backpack nearly getting him stuck in the opening.
He had blood, dark red, on the side of his face.
I could see that because Auby had lit a blue light behind his eyes again, using them like a pair of headlights to illuminate everything.
There was a ladder against the wall behind me, where the narrow passage abruptly changed angle and went straight up.
I hooked my arm around one of the rungs and pulled harder.
With a tearing noise, Levant ripped free and managed to haul the rest of him into the small passage.
It didn’t really fit; it wasn’t meant to fit a human, a tiny Revenant, and a full-grown Naga male.
I was forced to climb up the ladder, even though I could not see where it was headed.
“Are you okay?” I asked, and when the answer was some kind of hissing noise I could not decipher, I realized it was the first time in hours that he’d let go of me entirely.
How quickly I’d gotten used to a curl of his tail or a touch of his hand being on me at all times, it felt strange to discover I was without it now.
Wrong, even. I didn’t want to miss out on a single thing he said, even if it was just “yes, I’m fine” or “damn it, Auby, a warning would have been nice.”
The ladder wasn’t very tall, only six rungs led up to another round opening.
This one was already open, but I had a feeling that was Auby’s doing as well.
Beyond it was a room, a small room with a low ceiling.
Lights glowed very faintly along the edges of the floor and in sinuous, curving strips along the ceiling.
When I hauled myself inside, they burned brighter until I could see everything clearly.
A control room, all right. With a bank of windows at the front that probably once looked out over the front end of the worm.
They’d been frosted over completely, so it was impossible to see what was happening outside.
Much more interesting were the many banks of computers and screens, along with all kinds of controls.
From something that looked like the joystick of a gaming console, to wavy-shaped keyboards and panels with switches.
Auby clattered with his little hooves as he appeared through the hole behind me. He pranced into the room with a cheerful noise, circling it and sniffing at corners like he was reacquainting himself. It was a bit dog-like, except he wasn’t a dog; he was a robot. It was quite cute to watch.
Levant groaned behind me, and I quickly turned to help him.
He’d been smart enough to take his backpack off, and he pushed it into the chamber ahead of him.
I helped him crawl through the narrow opening, although it might have been more hindrance than actual help.
“Can you believe this?” I whispered, tingling with both excitement and awe.
“I was right! And we actually managed to get inside! You know this means we can dig out my ship, right?”
Levant gave me a nod that was surprisingly grim.
Why was he grim? Was he not happy that we got to see the inside of this insane, massive machine?
That we could rescue my ship from the ice?
I swallowed as I watched him circle the room, hunched low on his tail.
It should have looked awkward, but it was obvious there was a good reason the ceiling was not tall enough for me to stand under.
A Naga didn’t actually need that height.
Levant could perch low on his tail with just as much ease as when he raised himself to tower over me. It was pretty cool.
“I don’t think we can,” he said, dashing my hopes.
He had curled the tip of his tail around my ankle, as usual, and the glow of the markings on his body added to the cozy atmosphere inside the small control room.
“Auby, can you control the Burrower, sorry, I mean Digger?” he asked, but I had a feeling that question was almost performative; he already knew the answer somehow.
Auby sat down with a thump on his haunches, the middle pair of his six legs splaying wide, while the front pair raised his chest and head.
He flicked back his ears and looked extremely dejected, a soft mooing kind of noise escaping before he said, “No, I can only open the Digmaster 6-20D. I cannot steer it. That was the task of my previous companion.” Which meant we could not dig out my ship right now, not until we figured out how this machine worked ourselves.
I eyed the massive array of buttons and controls with dismay. That was going to take a while. Damn it.