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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Dani

Dani caught herself staring at nothing. It was the third time she found herself lost in her thoughts, and she had to blink back to reality. She took a deep breath then zipped up her pack, making sure everything was secure. Nothing had been lost thankfully in the tunnels despite the chaos. She’d double checked every pocket several times to make sure. Slipping the pack on, she gripped the straps, trying to keep her hands from trembling.

They hadn’t stopped since they’d left the tunnel. Since that moment she had last seen Kryxis.

Beside her, Garret was checking his gear while Myrell was looking over her ISpad.

“It’s almost over,” she said.

The storm outside was beginning to settle. Much sooner than expected. At least according to Myrell’s weather gauge.

They had hunkered down in a small storage unit just outside the sector, finding their way back up to surface level many hours ago. After getting to safety, the adrenaline had worn off quickly, and Dani felt exhausted all over again, her muscles aching from being so tense, her ankle throbbing too.

They’d gotten lucky escaping the tunnels as they did. She only had to use one of the firebombs, taking Garret’s lighter to ignite the wire before sending the metal ball flying to the end of an infested tunnel. Once they got up to the surface and found the unit, they stayed put, knowing they couldn’t brave the storm and the tunnels would still be too dangerous, none of which led to the ship anyway.

It had been a long few hours after that. Most of it consisted of them sitting listening to the storm outside and eating what little they had left in the way of mealbars and water. Not long after, Garret prodded her about how she got stuck with the vrisha, and she told them very little. Only that Kryxis had saved her life at the bridge and had taken her to a place of safety.

“So, he was able to communicate after all?” Myrell had asked, sitting opposite. A yellow light detached from her suit was the only thing illuminating their faces in the dark.

Dani nodded. “Sort of, anyway,” she said. “He spoke in his tongue, but he understood some of my words too. He learned fast.”

“It’s a good thing I guess,” Garret commented, sitting against an empty crate with his gun in his lap. “Still, don’t know what his plan was.”

Dani glared at him. “His plan?”

“You know…if he was looking to…”

“If you say harm, I told you already, he wasn’t.”

“He’d tried to before, Dani. Don’t know his motives for suddenly helping is all I’m saying. I heard vrisha were cunning, much more than humans. He could have…wanted something from you.”

“Like what?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. But he was practically feral. You said yourself he’d been messing with you.”

“He just saved our lives!”

“Dani’s right,” Myrell said. “Why go through all that for us? He just took one for the team back there and he wasn’t part of the team.”

Dani’s heart sank. “He’s all right. He made it out…”

“After a blast like that?” Garret said.

“He took the fire Dani used on him pretty well,” Myrell argued.

“Maybe. But there were a lot of those bugs. If he didn’t get them all, they might have swarmed him.”

The pit in her stomach grew. Instinctively she reached for the pocket with the datachip and felt it inside. “He got out,” she said softly.

She’d gone to another end of the room after that and curled up against the wall, telling them she wanted to take a nap. She could hear them whispering every so often, but she closed them off.

It was hard to sleep, but she’d tried. Her thoughts kept rewinding over and over to the look Kryxis had given her right before he faced the horde.

He had to have gotten out.

Eventually sleep did come, and she was plagued by bad dreams of being hunted by something in the dark. She ran and ran but couldn’t get away. The only relief she had was when she was shaken awake and found Myrelle looking down at her.

“Storm is letting up.”

She’d gathered her things, trying to get her focus back on returning to the ship. She made up her mind while doing so that she would take the datachip directly to the heads herself and expose Marityne for the shitty company that they were.

Myrell took a drink from her canteen before sliding her helmet back on. “All right, storm’s died down enough. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Garret unlatched his helmet from his belt, putting it on before leading the way.

Outside, the wind was still strong, but the dust had mostly disappeared. Above, light was beginning to break over the buildings, showing a greenish-blue sky. Morning had finally come.

Myrell put an arm around Dani to help her walk a little faster. They treaded carefully between buildings, Garret keeping an eye out for any movement. Everything was silent at first, until a small black orb came flying by. A security drone.

It watched them for a moment then followed. Passing another set of buildings, they heard the sounds of people shouting. The four-armed statue appeared as they came upon the courtyard, and Dani nearly froze as she saw their ship just a few yards away. Right beside it was another ship of the same size.

There were several new armed security moving across the landing dock. One immediately approached them. She recognized it was Saul.

“I worried you were all goners,” he said as he took off his helmet. He saw her being supported by Myrell and snapped to one of the men, “Get a medikit.”

“It’s fine,” Dani said. “I’ve got it wrapped.”

“You called for backup?” Garret asked.

“Yes. When you and the team didn’t return after a time, I knew something had gone wrong. Me and Tristan agreed and made the call. It didn’t get out right away since the ship was still down, and we had to use an emergency system that had shaky interference because of the storm. But once the message was out, the heads sent the response team down as soon as they could.”

“The ship still down?” Myrell asked.

“Unfortunately, yes. The storm slowed things a bit. But Morse is still working on it now with a couple others from the response team.”

“How long ago did you send out the drones?” Dani asked.

“Not long. With the storm, we could only get them out less than an hour ago.”

“Have them start checking the Research Sector. I want them searching for bodies.” Her voice was thankfully steady as she said it, despite how shaken she felt.

“Will do.” Saul glanced at Garret. “And Ryatt?”

Garret shook his head.

“I’ll call it in.” He looked back at Dani. “I’m sorry about your team. Did it happen all at once?”

“On the bridge.” Myrell spoke first. “We were attacked. There are dangerous things all over this godforsaken place. Should have had a larger security team from the start.”

“We’ll start a search. For now, you should take shelter in the ship.”

Dani sat beside her locker, staring at the sign.

NEXACOR. REBUILDING WORLDS.

Everything had been a disaster. The little relief she felt being back on the ship with everything in tow was overshadowed by the crushing weight of what she had lost.

Now that she was “safe,” that heavy grief hit her all over again. She had to blink back tears seeing Morse in his funny green goggles coming to greet them. Before he could mumble out a word, she was pulling him in and hugging him tight, a little sob escaping her after the words. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

She told him what happened and saw the defeated look in his eyes. They discussed whether it was worth it for him to continue working on the ship now that another had come, but he said he didn’t mind. He’d rather be working than sitting around thinking about what had happened to their team.

Dani had offered to help, wanting something to take her mind off everything too, but he declined, saying he had more than enough help already.

“Give yourself some rest, Dani,” Myrell said, patting her shoulder. “I’ll start making a report, so we can have it ready as soon as we get back to the main ship. At least we can say we grabbed almost everything.”

Almost.

Dani handed over the cryo-batteries in her pack to Myrell who then disappeared into the supply room. Now, she sat in the locker room, listening to the sounds of thumping in the engine room and men talking outside. She stared down at her hands, clenching them tight, noticing they were still trembling. When she shut her eyes, she saw the flash of fire.

Taking a deep breath, she slid her pack closer to her feet. She reached in and took out one of the growth tanks. The plants had gotten a little shaken inside, but they were still intact.

You fucked up, Dani. But maybe they’ll give you the blue suit in exchange for the plants.

A bitter laugh broke from her as she gripped the tank tighter. She set it down next to her and took out the others. She turned the last in her hands. The Tigrus Bluum.

“Why…why did you do it?” she whispered, pressing the glass of the tank to her forehead. “Why…”

She remembered his piercing gaze on her in the dark. How he had looked at her…He’d wanted to protect her. He had wanted to…

Her throat tightened and she swallowed hard. Damn you, Kryxis.

Angry that she was just sitting there, wallowing, she put the plants back and set the pack aside. No, she had to do something. Even if all she could do was limp around and demand to see what the drones had found.

As she rose, she heard a shout from outside. She listened, and fear gripped her once again.

Was something attacking again?

She almost stumbled out the door from her stiff ankle. She drew the gun from her belt, ready for a damn fight.

Veering around the front of the ship, she saw the soldiers rushing to the courtyard, heading toward—

She let out an unexpected cry and dropped her gun.

Lex broke into the courtyard first, with messy black hair and face dirty with dust, clutching Phen who had her arm in a sling. Behind them Tom followed, his head patched on one side. Sheek came last, blade in hand.

Her team had returned.