Page 10

VAREK

T he aching in my lifelines led me through the dark passages, a thread of silver-gold pulling me forward. The bond, unwanted but undeniable, tugged with increasing urgency as I navigated the treacherous path. Each step brought me closer to the human - to Rivera.

A faint glow appeared ahead, spilling from a massive archway carved with warning glyphs. I approached cautiously, senses alert for any threat. The air carried a subtle vibration, a hum so low it registered more in my bones than my ears, and the sharp tang of ozone intensified.

I stepped through the archway and froze.

Rivera stood on the opposite side of a collapsed section of flooring, her silver markings catching the dim light from scattered consoles. My breath caught. Not from the jump—from seeing her. Her eyes found mine and softened just for a second, and something inside me unclenched. Her eyes widened when she saw me, relief washing across her face before she masked it with her typical engineer's practicality.

The moment our eyes met, the painful tug in my lifelines eased instantly. The sensation flooded through me - relief so powerful it momentarily overwhelmed my caution. She was unharmed. Alive.

"You made it," she called across the gap, voice echoing in the vast chamber.

"As did you." I kept my tone neutral despite the traitorous surge of emotion. "You are unharmed?"

"Intact. You?"

"Functional." I surveyed the gap between us - perhaps four body lengths across, with unstable debris scattered throughout. "Stay there."

I backed up several paces, gauged the distance, then sprinted forward. My leap carried me across the gap, landing with practiced precision on the other side.

Rivera stepped back, giving me space. "Show-off."

The chamber stretched around us, impossibly vast for something buried so deep. Dust lay thick on every surface except for the path Rivera had clearly made to a console. The walls curved upward to form a domed ceiling, inlaid with what might once have been luminous panels, now dark or flickering weakly. Data consoles lined the perimeter, some dark and lifeless, others glowing faintly with ancient glyphs. The very structure seemed to groan around us, a low, continuous sound of stressed metal and stone.

In the center, a massive circular platform dominated the space - a holographic projector, currently dormant. Even in its dormant state, the technology exuded power, humming with an energy that felt fundamentally unstable.

"I found something," Rivera said, pulling a data crystal from her pocket. "Maintenance logs, I think. And you?"

"Cave skitters. A blocked passage. Signs of energy fluctuation growing stronger toward this chamber." I scanned our surroundings, marking potential threats, exits, unstable sections where the floor looked thin or the ceiling sagged dangerously. "This place is different. Too... preserved."

"It's a data archive." Rivera moved toward the nearest active console, her steps quickening with excitement. "Maybe a control hub for the entire facility."

I followed, keeping a careful distance between us. The bond hummed with proximity, steadier now that we were together again. I pointed to prominent glyphs etched above the main console.

"These are warning symbols. Different from those at the entrance. More severe."

Rivera barely glanced at them. "We need information more than we need warnings right now."

"The warnings exist for a reason."

"So does the instability threatening to collapse this entire system." She ran her fingers along the console edge, searching for an access point. "Can you read any of these?"

I reluctantly approached, studying the ancient script. One symbol caught my attention - a curved line intersecting with three vertical bars, enclosed within a circle.

"This symbol means..." I hesitated, searching for the right translation. "Planetary Balance. Or Environmental Regulation. The translation is archaic."

"Environmental regulation?" Rivera's hands stilled on the console. "That would explain the energy signatures, the facility layout." She looked up at me, excitement breaking through her professional demeanor. "This isn't just some random ruin. It's a control center."

I stepped back, taking up a guard position near the entrance. The chamber felt wrong - too intact, too powerful after so many centuries. My people had learned painful lessons about meddling with the ancients' technology. The Great Division had nearly destroyed us. Yet here I stood, watching a human commune with the very machines that had broken our world.

Her resilience was... notable. Despite the dangers, despite her fear which I could sense faintly through the bond, she pushed forward, driven by her need to understand, to solve. A warrior's focus in an engineer's mind.

The bond between us thrummed steadily, stronger here among the active systems. I turned away, scanning for physical threats, but my attention kept returning to the human engineer and the glowing console beneath her hands.

Hours passed. I patrolled the perimeter of the chamber, examining wall inscriptions, deciphering fragments while Rivera worked. The hum in the chamber had grown stronger, vibrating through my boots. The air temperature fluctuated subtly, another sign of failing regulation systems.

"Got it," Rivera called, her voice hoarse from dust and lack of water.

I approached the console where she hunched, exhaustion evident in the slope of her shoulders. The display before her glowed steadily now, forming coherent if fragmented patterns of light and data.

"What have you found?" I kept my distance from the console itself, unwilling to trigger any further reactions from the ancient technology.

"This facility..." Rivera pushed back from the console, rubbing her eyes. "It's not just some random ruin. It's a key node in a regional environmental regulation system."

"Explain."

She gestured to the display. "It controls atmospheric composition, seismic activity, even weather patterns for this entire region. Or it did, before it started failing."

The implications hit me like a physical blow. "The tremors at the settlement."

"Just the beginning." Rivera pulled up another display - a chart showing a steadily declining curve that suddenly plunged downward. "Look at this decay curve. It went exponential three months ago."

Cold dread pooled in my stomach. "The Elders sensed something was wrong, but this..."

"It gets worse." Her fingers danced across the controls, bringing up a map of the region. A pulsing red zone spread outward from our location, encompassing both the Nyxari settlement and the human encampment. "If this goes, it takes everything with it. Both settlements."

I stared at the projection, horror growing with each moment. The facility regulated the planet itself? And it was failing at an accelerating rate?

"How long?" I asked, voice low.

"At current decay rates? Weeks, maybe days before catastrophic failure."

The weight of responsibility pressed down on me like a physical force. The Elders had sent me to monitor, to prevent human interference. Instead, I'd found myself facing a threat that could destroy everything my people had built since the Great Division.

Through our unwanted bond, I felt Rivera's urgency, her fear mirroring my own growing dread. For the first time since meeting the human engineer, I sensed complete alignment in our purpose.

"We need to understand the cause," I said, moving closer to the console. "What triggered the acceleration?"

Rivera nodded, already turning back to the display. "I'm on it."

She worked frantically, cross-referencing data streams, searching for patterns in the chaos of information. I helped interpret the glyphs she couldn't read, translating ancient Nyxari script into concepts she could understand.

"There," she pointed to a series of spikes in the data. "Massive energy drains starting approximately three months ago. But they're not originating from within the facility."

I leaned closer, studying the display. "External interference?"

"Let me cross-reference with the Seraphyne survey data I downloaded." Her fingers moved across the interface, pulling up overlapping maps. "There. The source is here, northwest of the ruins."

The location registered immediately. "That's near the human settlement."

"Not just near it." Rivera's voice hardened. "That's Hammond's drilling operation."

She pulled up another display - chaotic vibration signatures that pulsed with irregular patterns. "These are consistent with repurposed salvage tech - geo-survey drills, energy emitters pushed way past safety limits. He's targeting deep energy signatures near the ruins."

Cold fury replaced horror as understanding dawned. "Hammond. The human leader."

"Son of a bitch." Rivera slammed her hand against the edge of the console. "He's tapping into energy sources he doesn't understand, creating resonance patterns that are accelerating the decay."

"The Elders left warning glyphs in that area," I said, remembering the Council discussions. "Markers indicating instability and danger."

"He would dismiss it as superstition." Rivera's disgust came through clearly. "This is for his power needs - for his 'decontamination' plans! For controlling the artifacts!"

The pieces fell into place with terrible clarity. Hammond's recklessness, his arrogance, threatened everything - not just the human settlement or the Nyxari, but the stability of the region itself.

I felt Rivera's anger burning as hot as my own through our bond. Her markings pulsed with it, silver light flaring in response to her emotions. For once, we stood in perfect alignment - united against a common, catastrophic threat.

"He must be stopped," I said, the words carrying the weight of absolute conviction. "And this facility must be stabilized."

Rivera nodded, turning back to the console with renewed determination. "We need to understand exactly how he's interfering with the systems. Then we can develop a countermeasure."

I watched her work, my earlier distrust of human ambition now focused entirely on Hammond. Rivera might be human, but her goals aligned with mine - with survival itself. Her skills, her understanding of the technology, had become not just useful but essential.

"There's more," she said after several minutes of intense focus. "The drilling operation isn't just accelerating the decay. It's creating new fracture points in the containment systems. If he continues..." She looked up, meeting my eyes directly. "The release won't be gradual. It'll be catastrophic."

"How long do we have?"

"At current rates? Three days, maybe four before the system reaches critical instability."

Three days to stop Hammond. Three days to save our peoples from a disaster none of them even knew was coming.

I made my decision. "We need to return to the surface. Warn the Elders. Stop Hammond's operation by whatever means necessary."

Rivera nodded, already downloading critical data to her scanner. "We'll need proof. And a plan to stabilize the system once we stop the interference."

"Can it be done?"

"Theoretically." She didn't look away from her work. "But we'll need access to both this facility and Hammond's operation."

The implications hung between us - Nyxari and human working together, sharing ancient knowledge and modern technology.

A level of collaboration, of engaging with the dangerous past, that my people had shunned since the Great Division.

Yet the alternative was unthinkable.