Chapter 18
Levant
I carried Auby on my back the way I would any injured patient, but he was so slight and small I barely noticed he was there.
That was not at all how it should be, because if there was one thing that was true, it was that Auby loudly let his presence be felt.
All the time. If he was the only patient I had to worry about, I would have pulled my multi-tool from my belt and gotten to work on him right now.
Unfortunately, my Clan depended on us finding this energy source and figuring out what it was. They just didn’t know it.
“I wish Auby could help us with his blueprints,” Felicia muttered when we’d gotten back across the massive pool and close to the energy signature.
We’d circled around the water teeming with fish again, via the side where the Dushka had made their nest, because I’d wanted to scour the remains just to be sure no parts of Auby had been left behind.
I hadn’t found anything, but that didn’t mean the beast that had bitten him and hauled him off hadn’t swallowed some parts.
Felicia had been very cute and a little strange in her relief at discovering that no Dushka pups had been left behind; they had all been hauled off by their fathers.
The eggshells had been speckled blue and green, with a sandy hue beneath that would have helped them camouflage had they been laid in a less secure place than this.
The nest’s insulated bottom had been made up of sticks and fur, plucked and groomed from the pack’s pelts.
I touched Auby’s ear, the soft pelt whispering against my fingertips.
It stuck out from the edge of the satchel I’d tucked him into, a reminder to hurry so I could fix him.
I didn’t think the damage was so severe that I couldn’t do it, but if it proved to take too long, I was not above asking Altare for help.
After all, any technology touched by that Shaman’s hands came out better for it.
Male was simply a miracle worker with anything that had a power source.
Then I considered my communicator and wondered if I’d be able to reach him if working on the fishery’s complex-looking machines proved too hard for me.
I hoped not, but you never knew when it came to machines built by our ancestors.
We were once again deep underground, so my communicator might have a very hard time reaching anyone at all.
“Let’s start with this hatch,” I said when we’d circled around the sides of the machine and the pipes leading from the water with the fish.
There was also a massive pipe that aimed straight up, going through the ceiling above us and vanishing into the rock.
I pried the metal panel open carefully, and both Felicia and I leaned in to peer inside.
She aimed her light left and right, revealing the complicated circuitry, pipes, and cables of the device. This was going to take a while.
My handheld scanner indicated we were in the right spot, though.
This was definitely the device that was emitting an EM field, disrupting things with some kind of interference.
“I need to study this before I change anything,” I told my mate, and I shrugged helplessly.
I’d brought my toolkit from the Burrower, but it wasn’t precise enough to fix Auby, and looking at this machine, I wasn’t sure if it would be precise enough to fix this one either.
“How can I help?” she asked. Silently, I handed her the satchel with Auby in it, and then the pouch with perimeter sensors.
“Set these up by activating the button on the side. They will alert us if anything approaches.” She nodded and immediately headed for the nearest exit, then diligently scouted all around the massive chamber.
She called out when she found the crack in the wall and the tunnel the Dushka had used to get in.
Then, without prompting—probably just to feel useful while I fiddled with the innards of the machine—she began stacking rocks and dirt back into it to block it off.
It wasn’t until hours later, and with a crick in my neck, that I figured out what made the machine tick, and what was malfunctioning.
“I think I’ve got it,” I said to Felicia.
She’d curled up on a fur and napped for the past hour, wrapped in a section of my tail for warmth.
Auby was in the satchel she held to her chest, and it pained me to see her care so tenderly for the currently broken Revenant.
I had to fix him, for her, for him. I couldn’t stand seeing her sad.
“You do?” she asked, uncurling slowly to blink at me with sleepy eyes.
“I knew you could do it,” she added, a smile spreading across her pretty, round face.
Lifting her with my tail, I pulled her close and settled her on a coil at my side.
Then I began pointing out all the parts I had recognized and the one I’d discovered was failing.
“Last year, a human and her mate came here from Haven and discovered the failing power of Serqethos’ Oracle was because the solar panels had all been covered by sand.
I think when we rushed to clear them and fix the situation, this already failing part was suddenly pushed to run back at full speed, and it burned out—thus accelerating the failure of this fishery.
” I had not yet cleaned the burnt-out circuit, which regulated the flow of water and thus controlled when and if hatches further down the line were opened.
“That doesn’t explain why all of them failed, or is this the only fishery supplying Serqethos?
” she asked, very astutely. This was why she had been chosen to test-fly the advanced spaceship with its Faster-Than-Light drive.
Because she was smart, clever, and quick in a crisis.
She had asked a very good question, and one whose answer I could only speculate about.
“Perhaps because this one is the last in line? Or perhaps because the failed circuit caused this entire device to emit an EM-like pulse, faint but there, that disrupted the others.” I cleaned the circuit very carefully, then began soldering the right connections back into place with my multi-tool.
My scales shivered along my spine, and a hint of pride filled me under Felicia’s avid, slightly awed stare.
“You’re just as good as the engineers who built the Future.
I’m impressed,” she said. “Let’s hope this works, Levant.
It would be a huge relief to know we’ve managed to restore your people’s food source.
” Felicia, like Kaylass, had never once questioned my connection to the Serqethos Clan.
They’d talked about them the way I did, like they were my people, my responsibility.
They were, but in a way it was nice to hear others acknowledge that.
Especially when it seemed natural for an older Shaman to imply it, or for my mate to understand that intuitively.
She was mine to care for and protect, but so was Serqethos; so was Serant.
Knowing all that, if she asked me right now to fly to Earth with her, I would anyway.
Half an hour later, the circuit was completely restored, and the strange EM signature that had attracted the Burrower turned off.
We watched with satisfaction as the machine began a gentle humming and water started flowing.
When we retrieved the perimeter alerts, picked up Auby, and left, the overflowing fish nursery was already beginning to empty.
“I’ll have to come back soon to make sure it’s functioning as it should and spawning new fish. ”
“Yes,” Felicia agreed. “We’ll make sure to do that.”
***
Felicia
The Burrower was gone. It was just… not there when we walked back out of the hole that Auby had cut through the outer wall of the fishery for us.
Gone. As in, not there. The sun was dipping low toward the horizon and beamed light straight into the tunnel, so everything was illuminated with a strange violet light.
That also made it very obvious that the Burrower had continued digging and curved away into the distance—back toward the surface, perhaps—but it was only darkness in that direction.
“Where did it go?” I asked as both of us stared.
Levant and I shared a look, and I knew we were both thinking: back to the North Pole, to my ship.
“Do you think it powered back on somehow?” I didn’t have to clarify what I was talking about either.
If that machine, that massive Revenant, was built to seek out an EM field–disruptive energy signature, there was only one reason it could have left.
It had sensed another source. Either there were more such sources on Serant, or it had gone back to my ship.
Either way, we were without a ride back, stranded.
“We’ll head to Serqethos. That way, we can check if the fish truly were released into the lake as well,” Levant said.
He took my hand, and the two of us began heading down the passage the Burrower had created, toward the violet light of the evening sun.
Excitement tingled through me, rapidly replacing the shock of the missing Revenant.
See Serqethos? The Clan Levant talked of it like it was his family, the place he considered his home? I couldn’t wait.
It did not disappoint, either. We came out of the tunnel and then had to cross loose, massive sand dunes to reach the place.
It was a true advantage to be able to climb onto Levant’s back and let him do the climbing.
His snake-like tail was perfectly suited to cross terrain like this, not sinking into the sand the way my feet did.