Chapter 15
Felicia
It was hard to put a label on our days aboard the Burrowing Revenant.
The control room was tiny and crowded, and with Auby’s sometimes curious, sometimes probing questions, privacy was limited.
I was still struggling to accept the changes in my life, and I decided that time-traveling the way I had, trapped in stasis, was not for the faint of heart.
It sucked, and I missed my dad. Most of all, I regretted not saying more of the things I had wanted to share with him.
I’d been so cocky when boarding the Future, convinced I’d make it back in one piece and go down in history as the first pilot to fly faster than light.
When I’d first met Levant, it had felt a bit like being torn in two.
On the one hand, there was the intense attraction I felt for him, alien as he was.
On the other, I’d been so convinced I needed to fix my ship and go back home.
The longer I was here with him, the more I was beginning to accept that would never happen.
I was even beginning to think I didn’t want it to.
I mean, think about it. What was there? A civilization that had moved on without me, my family line ended when my father died.
I might be welcomed back as a hero, a long-lost daughter, but that was a hollow comfort—especially when I knew I could not take Levant with me, could never ask him to make such a sacrifice.
Twisting in the furs where I was currently lying and perusing data on his tablet, I took him in.
Levant. The unexpected gift in all of this.
How could I have been so lucky as to have it be him who found me?
Perhaps he was right to call us fated. What else but fate could it be that had dragged me a thousand years into the future?
What else would you call it—that banishing him to the North Pole was exactly how he’d found me?
He was sitting on several loops of his tail in front of the massive, button- and screen-covered console of the Digmaster.
His long black hair was partially braided back and beautifully highlighted with bright green strands.
He wore only leather cords tied around his waist and an ivory bone necklace around his neck.
It allowed me to trace the flecks of gold and green that dotted his wide shoulders and muscled arms.
The horns rising from his forehead were long and sharp, primal in a way that made him look just a little savage.
I liked those horns very much, mostly because they constantly reminded me of how, without fail, I’d wind up gripping them when we had sex.
And the sex? It was absolutely mind-blowing.
The best I’d ever had. He smelled good, tasted good, in short, he drove me wild.
Even better, I knew it was the same for him, and having a guy that into you was amazing. Seriously good for the ego.
“Are you in love with him?” Auby asked, his voice pitched to a whisper.
I was still pretty sure Levant could hear every word.
We didn’t have much privacy from Auby, but I also knew Levant’s much sharper senses meant he was tuned into everything I said or did.
Auby was lying next to the tablet, his six legs curled beneath him, and his long, fluffy tail wrapped around him like a cat’s might.
He had his nose right next to the tablet—pink and cute—and he’d been reading every word I wrote, offering unsolicited opinions.
Auby had gotten more comfortable, and now he didn’t just tell us data in his polite tone, but opinions with a good dose of sass.
I liked it, and he knew it, which is why he kept doing it.
“Excuse me?” I asked, focusing on the text on the tablet while heat crawled into my cheeks.
I had definitely embraced my more feminine side a bit more around them too, but talking about feelings still wasn’t easy. It just wasn’t something I was used to.
The words danced in front of my eyes; I definitely wasn’t parsing the textbook Levant had supplied me about piloting Naga ships.
“Love him? Are you in love with him? I know that’s what’s supposed to follow the mate bond.
Has it happened yet? My previous companion never found her mate, so I’m curious.
How quickly does it happen?” Auby was a little scientist himself; he was clearly collecting data to satisfy his own curiosity.
Normally that was fine, but not at my expense.
From the corner of my eye, I could see that Levant hadn’t moved for some time.
His hands had frozen on the Digmaster’s controls; he had to be listening in.
My mouth went dry as I considered my answer.
What did I say? I didn’t really want to rebuff Auby’s natural curiosity; it was harmless and sweet.
I also didn’t want to say anything that could hurt Levant’s feelings.
“I’ve never been in love before,” I said.
“So I don’t really know what it’s supposed to feel like?
” I considered the question more seriously, because Auby was giving me these big puppy-dog eyes, ears quivering as if he were hanging on my every word.
Levant was the most caring, sweetest man I’d ever met, or male, as they seemed to prefer around here.
He tried to do so much to make me happy that I had to actually push back to do the same for him.
Not that he didn’t trust my abilities; he just wanted me to be happy.
When he wasn’t caring for me, I could see the size of his heart in everything else he did.
He was worried sick about his friends at Serqethos, researching day and night to figure out how to help.
Contact with his Shaman friends was tough because the Digmaster interfered with the signal, and the outgoing booster was broken beyond repair.
We only got snippets of news, and Kaylass, the Shaman at Serqethos, hadn’t answered again.
“If you don’t know what it feels like, you’re afraid you’ll miss it?
” Auby asked, bringing me back to his initial question.
I shook my head, because that wasn’t exactly it.
More than anything, it was such a huge thing, it was hard to admit, even to myself.
I reached out and rubbed his soft ears. He wriggled against me with a sigh, cute as can be.
“I think,” I said, lifting my head to look at Levant.
He’d dropped all pretense that he was working and had turned to look at me.
“It won’t be hard at all to fall in love with Levant.
I just don’t know if it’s happened yet…” It was the best answer I could give, and he seemed pleased, his mouth tilting into a smile that made my stomach twist with happiness.
Oh yeah, it wasn’t going to be long until I’d fallen all the way.
How could I not? You’d think being crowded this close with someone would make me see their flaws, but even the weird quirks just made me like him more.
“Naga don’t remember the meaning of the word love,” he said.
“At least, not the females, and thus the males have forgotten to say it. It has become a word delegated only to our younglings, and to the loyalty a male feels for his brothers. Humans have brought that back for us. So thank you, Felicia. I will wait, patiently.” Patiently?
There was nothing patient about Levant. He was always busy, always eager for the next discovery, or to fix something here or improve something for me.
He literally could not sit still. Even working at the console, his tail had been twitching at the tip.
I smiled at him, because that was just one of those quirks I was learning I liked.
I was saved from formulating an answer to those heartfelt words, however, which was a mild relief—but not as big as it would have been a couple days ago.
I was getting better at letting myself just be vulnerable, be me around him.
A noise alerted us that the Burrower was slowing down.
“We’re there,” Levant said. Despite having figured out how to slow or increase the Digmaster’s pace as it made its way down the continent to the desert, we still could not control it.
All Auby could say about that was that it appeared his previous companion, Sisha, had locked out certain systems to prevent tampering.
We didn’t know exactly what the Digmaster was going to do when we reached the source of the energy signature.
Much fainter than the one my ship gave off when it was powered, we really weren’t sure what to expect.
The machine came to a halt, and silence, sudden and unexpected, filled the control room. It wasn’t like the Burrowing Revenant had made a lot of noise, but in its absence, it was eerily quiet. No white noise, no soft background hum, just pure silence.
“What now?” I asked, but I was already rolling off the bed to locate my boots.
They’d skidded under the edge, so I dropped to my knees to dig them out.
In the warmth of the control room, I’d mostly been in the underclothes I’d worn beneath my flight suit.
Shorts and a tank top—that was a little too underdressed for an excursion.
We did not know what we were getting into, or even what was right outside the hull of this strange, worm-shaped machine.
“The signature is still there, pulsing right beside us,” Levant said.
He did not bother getting dressed, but he secured several pouches on a belt at his waist. Then he sheathed a pair of knives and pulled a spear from the discarded backpack stacked in one corner.
When I had my flight suit and boots back on, I felt ready to face the outside, if slightly unarmed.
At least Auby came equipped with some dangerous parts of his own.
Levant reminded him of that as we climbed through the hatch to the outside for the first time.
“Protect her, Auby. That’s your job, don’t forget it. ”
“I can protect myself if you give me one of those knives,” I said, not offended but a little amused.
I knew exactly how Levant meant it, and it was not an attack on my abilities like I’d been used to back on Earth.
There, I’d always fought to prove myself worthy, to crawl out from under the shadow of my father’s reputation.
Levant didn’t care about any of that; it didn’t mean anything on Serant.
The speed with which he handed over one of his knives also proved he did not think I could help.
The passage was as narrow and cramped as I remembered.
Just a quick drop down a few ladder rungs, followed by a tunnel only about ten feet long that I could only awkwardly crouch in.
It did not look awkward for Levant in there, even though his shoulders filled the entire passage.
His tail was coiled in my path, filling up nearly all the space, and Auby complained loudly.
“You are much too big, Levant. Very rude. Sisha and Felicia are much better sized.”
I saw only a flash of half-amused, half-annoyed golden eyes in the dark.
Levant chose to ignore the statement, focusing instead on why we were here.
“My scanner indicates there is a space beyond the hatch. We are underground, at least three hundred feet down, but there is oxygen.” He did not hesitate, touching the control for the outer hatch.
It spiraled open, but there was only darkness beyond.
Levant slid out silently, dropping from the hatch and disappearing from sight.
I hurried after him, leaning out of the hole to get an idea of what was outside.
It was so dark I couldn’t see a thing, and for a brief, terrifying moment, I felt like I was all alone in the dark.
Then I felt the nudge of warm fur against my side, Auby’s robotic body perfectly mimicking the warmth of a living being.
“Auby, can you provide some light?” I asked.
He instantly began glowing a cool blue light from his eyes—two headlights beaming from his small face—and he turned his head to illuminate the space.
A rock wall was not far from the hatch, and a drop down to sandy ground below.
Levant was right there, balancing on his tail, already rising to help us down.
Without his help, it was a very steep drop, but he could tower on his tail, displaying all the power in that muscle.
“What is this place?” I asked as he pulled me into his arms, with Auby piling on top.
We lowered slowly, and I discovered that the rock wall we were right beside was made up of giant blocks.
This wasn’t some layer of dirt, of rock, strata that showed the history of the world.
No, this was a wall made by hands and tools.
I touched the cool stone and shivered when my fingers came away slick with moisture.
“I believe the Burrower has brought us to the outer wall of an underground structure. We’re going to have to find a way in.
” Levant set me down on my feet, and I dipped to put Auby down.
Now, most of what I could see was one long wall and a narrow gap between it and the body of the Digmaster.
A massive, mind-boggling machine. Having lived inside that tiny control room for nearly five days, I had forgotten how truly humongous it was.
It had dug a passage along the wall, and in the distance, we could see that the tunnel it had dug was curving up toward light.
It had not removed enough dirt to lay bare the wall entirely, and a combination of loose sand and rough dirt made walking hard.
I followed Auby and Levant, my Shaman with his nose aimed toward his scanner as he tried to find us away in.
“I think we’re going to have to dig ourselves a way in,” Levant said.
So that’s what we did, finding a space just beyond the massive Digmaster where the wall seemed a bit cracked, and Levant’s scanner indicated there was space beyond.
Auby proved most useful then, opening his little mouth to beam out a laser to cut through the rock.
Then, armed with knives and lights, we stepped into an ancient structure beneath a desert I had not even seen yet, searching for an answer to a food problem for people I did not even know.
An adventure, a way to help and be useful.
I kind of liked that; I felt in my element.
The darkness was creepy, the unknown that lay beyond much like flying into space and hoping to find aliens.
I didn’t know what we’d discover, and that was half the fun.
Somehow, that feeling of confidence that we’d come out on top was back.
A coping mechanism for the extreme things I’d done in my life.
Levant’s golden eyes glowed as he looked over his shoulder at me. “Let’s fix this, shall we?” I realized he was feeling the same way, and in that we matched so well. Fated, I was beginning to believe it.
“Lead the way,” I said.