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"And what were you doing there?"

"My techband slipped off my wrist and fell to the bottom. I went to go retrieve it but couldn't find it right away, so I went looking. When I did finally find it, I was lost." Aly had her answer rehearsed ever since Ryziel had left her at the elevator. It wasn't a total lie, at least.

"And why, then, did you not call for aid once you found it? Or use a map to find your way back?"

Aly was prepared for this question too. "The techband stopped working. When it fell, something must have gone wrong."

And, as Ryziel had predicted, they looked at her oddly. They didn't respond, though they did glance at each other with a sliver of suspicion.

Aly shrugged. "Sorry, I don't know the tech very well, but I did mess around with it while I was down there, and I must have fixed it somehow because it seems all right now, and I was able to find my way back up."

Still, they said nothing, but Aly made sure to keep herself looking as innocent and naive as possible. Something she was fairly good at, based on experience with her family.

"So you’re telling us," the lygin said, with yellow eyes now narrowed, "that your techband just went offline somehow and you went so far from the elevator that you could no longer see it?"

Aly shrugged again. "Guess so."

"And your suit lights stopped working too, huh?"

"I tried to use them, but it was so dark that they didn't really give me a good sense of direction."

"And you just walked around in the dark for several hours..."

"Sometimes I stopped to rest."

The lygin's eyes narrowed some more. "And you encountered nothing down there?"

This time, Aly had to look away. "There were these things that chased me. But I was able to hide from them."

The krull and the lygin looked at each other again. The krull handed her back her techband. "It isn't broken. I can't find anything that says it might have been meddled with..."

The lygin exhaled through her cat nose, her whiskers twitching. "We will make a report. For now, see to it that you stay on the upper levels," she told Aly. "And if your techband falls off again, donotgo looking for it." The lygin nodded to Braxin and started for the door, the krull following behind her. "We may have to return to ask follow-up questions. For now, you will have a strike to your name. See to it that you don't receive another."

The enforcers left, leaving Aly alone with her not-so-cheerful looking boss.

"Got lost, did you?" Braxin said, eyeing her intently.

Aly met his gaze. " I did. Is that so hard to believe?"

Braxin tapped his clawed finger against his console, watching her. "Perhaps not...though you look rather well-kept for someone who has been down at the bottom of the mine for several hours."

Aly clasped her hands. "I took a shower before I came here. I didn't want to dirty your workplace."

This time, Braxin's eyes narrowed. "And the things that chased you?"

"Like I said, I hid. They didn't see me."

"And was that all you encountered down there?"

Aly could see from his expression that he thought she might be hiding something, but Aly didn't give anything away. "No. Should I have?"

Braxin rolled his shoulders. "It is just very surprising. Since few return from the bottom alive."

"I guess I am very lucky, then," Aly said, unwavering.

Braxin's mouth turned up slightly, revealing one sharp tooth. "And you saw nothing of the nillium, then?"

Aly shook her head. "Not a trace."