The crossway curved into a long corridor with doorways. The doors, while still metal, had round knobs, square windows, and plaques with Meergeven words above them. Cassa studied them, shaking her head. “These list lab names and numbers.” She padded to a door and tried the handle; it clicked and opened. She peeked inside, then reached over. Light burst into life; Lapis squinted away and held up her arm to shield her eyes, blinking to remove the white dots floating in her vision. More than one companion hissed at the unexpected, temporary blinding.
She forced her feet to move and followed Cassa inside.
Tech equipment of different shapes and sizes, all some shade of white, sat everywhere, some with large screens, some without, haphazardly leaning against each other on white, unbroken tile, or stacked on carts with wheels, cords and wires wrapped about them and trailing onto the floor. Grey metal cabinets stood against the whitewashed walls, clipboards with forms attached to them. Large tubes on the ceiling produced the glaring light, which rebounded off the white color and made the space appear brighter.
Why so vibrantly illuminate a storage room?
Cassa grabbed a clipboard and scanned the top page before flipping through the rest. “This lists medical equipment,” she said. She set it back and skimmed through the rest. “I don’t recognize half the things here.” She opened one cabinet and examined the much-neater clutter of smaller tech, jars, boxes, then moved to the next. She studied the interior, then withdrew a sleek metal container. “Sponoil,” she breathed.
She set it back and shuffled through the others, then motioned to the door. Lapis hastened outside as she flipped the light off and shut it with a resounding click.
“The equipment in there is research-oriented items, not things one would necessarily use in a field medical ward,” she murmured. “Analyzers and microscopes and centrifuges and such.” She shook her head. “And it’s poorly cared for. I know it’s going to slow us down, but I want to check out more of the rooms.”
They spanned out, trying knobs. Not all remained unlocked; shining a light into them worked well enough to see tables, chairs, rolling beds with white sheets. A couple had humongous workbenches littered with tools, most of it unfamiliar tech. If anything else caught Cassa’s attention, she said nothing.
Pencil scribbling; Lapis glanced at Dagby, who made an entry in a notebook. She supposed documenting what they saw, before they forgot, might prove beneficial to the workstation and the Minq. Or, perhaps, it made him more comfortable to do something familiar in a strange place.
They came to the end of the corridor. Two plaques hung on the shiny grey wall, one with a green arrow pointing to a closed, black metal double-door on the left, and one with a blue arrow pointing to the right. The better-lit, right-hand hall held pristine whitewashed walls and shiny floors, multiple closed doors, and shouts and explosions echoing down it. Cassa glanced that way, then pointed at the words above the arrows.
“Right is Central Labs and Central One, left is the hangar.”
“Hangar?” Tearlach asked.
“That’s what it says. Maybe they keep the mini-Swifts in there.”
Maybe.
Vali signed at Cassa. “Vali says the scent of sponoil is strong enough she can’t smell anything else. We should go.”
With a nervous peek at the right-hand way, Lapis shuffled to the left-hand doors and pushed at the middle. Both swung open, and the stench of sponoil filled the over-heated air.
She panicked—khentauree!—before Tearlach grabbed her and hauled her out of the way of Mint, who surged just past the doors, his light flickering about. The rebel pushed her behind him and held his weapon at the ready, legs apart for balance.
After taking a step back, the terron whined and looked at Cassa. The scientist frowned and hurried to his side, Brander with her, alert. They paused, and her breath hitched.
“There has to be a light,” she said, stressed.
A light?
A crash from the right-hand corridor startled everyone. Lapis shook as she followed Tearlach through the door. The others raced after them, Vali bringing up the rear and slamming the doors shut. She planted her bulk against them; since they swung inward, if anyone attempted to open them, they would meet failure.
The lights from the two terrons, Cassa and Linz, flitted about the room; the illumination reflected off khentauree after khentauree, heaped against the walls, laying on top of one another. Sponoil coated them, the cement floor, some of it solidified in the center of the path between piles.
Lapis swallowed; each machine had some disfigurement, be it a missing appendage or head, dents, huge lacerations that exposed interior workings. Some torsos were bodiless, trailing innards, while some bodies contained no upper half. Limbs lay limply, haphazardly, as if someone had dumped them there without care. A thick layer of dust coated many of them; no one had bothered to fix them after they broke.
Several heads turned their way. A few feebly moved arms; none rose. Lapis choked on hate; whoever set them there was evil. Had the man and the other khentauree something to do with this?
“Someone was sending them to silence,” Brander said, his voice low and somber. He motioned to the left, where the cyan spheres had large cracks and holes in the bottom, allowing the sponoil to issue forth. It dripped and splashed into thick puddles that slowly inched into the pathway.
The odor issuing from them was oppressively foul; Lapis covered her nose, gulping down bile.
“We can’t leave them like this.” Cassa’s voice trembled.
“You want us to break the rest of the spheres?” Lapis asked. “How many—”
Bang!
Everyone, including Vali, jumped. The lizard pressed herself against the door while the banging intensified. Several people excitedly babbled, but she could not understand their muffled words.
Several moments after the last sharp smack, Vali relaxed. She signed and Cassa nodded.
“Vali can’t hear them anymore,” she said. “They were speaking Meergeven. Something about the mercs.”
“The ones that have Rin and Tovi?” Lapis asked, dreading the answer.
“I don’t know. They didn’t say anything about a terron being with them, just that the attack came from the field center. I don’t think they were guards.”
Tia hissed, in time with a soft voice drifting from the darkness.
“They probably aren’t. There is a large scientific contingent here, and they would flee fighting rather than participate.” The warm, calm voice spoke Lyddisian, with an Abastian accent.
Everyone who carried one, readied their weapon. Lapis’s blade slid out with a shing, and she stepped in front of Linz and Dagby, ready to defend them—though, considering the ex-chaser’s skill as a hunter, he did not need her protection.
The man she and Brander had watched earlier halted several steps away, his hand held out, holding a round, glowing ball. He wore a black trench, one too warm for the room because his light reflected off his sweat-shiny face. The khentauree, Sanna, placed herself between him and their group. He half-grinned in embarrassment and fluffed the back of his shoulder-length brown hair.
“It seems this way is blocked as well,” he said, amusement lacing his words.
“Who are you?” Cassa asked, nearly drowned by Vali’s rumble. The scientist frowned and hesitated; the khentauree did not.
“Vali,” she said, shocked. Could a machine sound shocked? “Why are you here? You sleep in the city below.”
The terron barked and signed. The darkness hid her words from Lapis, but not the khentauree.
“Yes,” she said. “They are here. It is a mine, so they work. They sniff, they break rock. But they do not know how to do it, and the men who order them do not know, either.”
The man glanced at his mechanical companion, then sighed. “The young terron and the teen?” he asked.
“They search for them,” Sanna said, her head turning a one-eighty to him before snapping back to their group.
“I figured so,” he said.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Tearlach asked, no hint of fear. Lapis envied him for that. She doubted she could manage a nonchalant attitude, considering the apprehension that raced through her.
“Not really. I haven’t been back to the base in days, but I can make an educated guess.” He motioned to his left, towards the fighting. “Those jackass mercs decided to invade, as far as I can tell. The hangar ends in a walkway that overlooks Central One, and men in black uniforms are battling the guards here. There’s been hostility on both sides, so it’s not—”
Bang!
“Dammit,” the man muttered. “We need to get to the loading dock. It’s safe there.”
“You must send them to silence,” Sanna insisted, her head turning to him.
“I will keep that promise, Sanna,” he said. “But we have others who need our help, before we finish.”
“That is true.”
“I have something to block the door,” he told them. “It’s in my pocket, so I’m going to reach in. Please don’t shoot.”
“They will hit me first,” Sanna said. Vali rumbled, drawing attention to her claws; the khentauree cocked her head at her. “He is Jhor,” she said, as if the moniker obvious.
Cassa set her fingers against her lips, fighting amusement. “Vali asked if we could trust him,” she whispered. “That was her answer.”
Sanna’s head swiveled to her. “Human and terron trust is not khentauree trust. But I trust him.”
The man raised a skeptical eyebrow at the machine. “That is a boon,” he said as he pulled something from his trench pocket. He strode past the khentauree, smiled at them, and held up two doorstops.
Doorstops.
“You expect those to hold the door shut?” Lapis asked in disbelief.
“Yes. They’re very good doorstops,” he said.
Tech permeated the place, and he used doorstops? She told the rats that simpler was better in some chasing situations, and this proved her point. If they held.
After the banging ceased and Vali deemed it safe to proceed, the man stuffed the two wedges under the door, then pressed the tops; their ends raised up, their fronts bulging out as if the tips filled the space and had no room to continue expanding.
“It won’t hold a protracted assault, but they will keep the stray non-guard out.” He smacked his free hand against his trench as Sanna rose on her hind legs and did a pirouette, to face into the room. “Please follow Sanna. The loading dock is the only area of this hangar that’s lockable.”
“Lockable?” Tearlach asked.
“Yes. If the fighting is near enough the scientists are fleeing, hiding behind a stout door is in order.”
An audible explosion rocked the walls, and a shower of debris rained to the floor.
“We must go,” Sanna called. “There are many coming here. They hold weapons, and they will get through the door.”
Lapis’s distrust flared as her chest tensed. Why believe them? Of course, their other option was to go back out, and perhaps encounter the fighting. Vali jerked her snout to the khentauree, then butted Dagby and Linz into motion. She gently pressed her nose into her back to move her forward, then looked expectantly at the man, who graciously nodded and followed, allowing the two remaining terrons to bring up the rear.
Lapis hated him at her back, but considering the swift reactions of the terrons, he would have trouble harming her before they acted.
She hoped. She glanced over her shoulder, suspicious, but he regarded her calmly.
Reluctantly, she sheathed her blade and turned back, nearly running into Dagby’s back. She glared up at him, irrational irritation brimming up from the pit of her stomach; he focused forward, frowning. Jhor cursed and shoved past them; Lapis narrowed her eyes and followed him, her skepticism concerning his goodwill growing.
“How did he get here?” he muttered. Annoyance did not conceal his unease.
A white glow caught her attention. She slid around Tia, and stopped behind Sanna, who knelt, arms bent up and over her bowed head, shaking.
A khentauree, a head taller than Sanna, stood amid the piles of broken mechanical beings, white lights the size of her hand zipping around his torso. They spun out, then passed close to him before orbiting away, leaving a haze behind. His metallic skin shimmered like a sheer dress, an otherworldly appearance, and reminded her of the glow that surrounded heavenly beings in paintings. He did not have a cyan sphere in the center of his chest, either. What did that mean?
The air about him crackled, a soft sound, like the crunching of crisp bread crust.
“You came here because the guards are gone,” Jhor said. He spoke loud but his voice sounded thin, as if the enormous space swallowed his words. “So did we. To send them back to silence.”
A grating metallic snarl ripped from the machine and the khentauree raised a finger and pointed at her. Lapis mentally clawed back her courage, because she wanted to run from him. She could not explain, her immediate terror of him, a far stronger punch than what she experienced from the cyan-sphered ones. She had not felt so afraid since Nicodem and struggled to form an explanation as to why.
“They are with Vali,” Jhor said. His calmness remained, though the humor previously underlying his words was absent.
Vali yipped and Tia warily moved back, allowing the Jiy terron to take her place. Her confidence did not buoy Lapis; just because her skin withstood tech and blade did not mean it could repel whatever weapon this machine might deploy. She had just fought dozens of them. What if her protections did not work as well because of it?
“Vali.”
His tone, a fuzzy, low rush of scraping bell sound with a tinge of insanity, made her shudder. She knew that color of voice well, having dealt with desperate guttershanks time and again.
Vali signed at him.
“Children?” The khentauree cocked his head, and his stance relaxed. “Yes. Black-dressed ones force them to mine, as before. They are . . . obstinate, and the black-dressed ones dislike their words.”
“Are they hurt?” Cassa asked, rushing forward. Did Tovi disrespect authority as Rin did? Did that prompt her concern? Lapis well-imagined Rin’s snarkiness earning him punishment.
“No.” He straightened his back, rising taller.
Cassa sagged, putting a hand to her chest. “Tovi’s my adopted son,” she said, tears evident. “They kidnapped him with Lanth’s apprentice. We’ve come to rescue them.”
“Lanth?” he asked.
She swallowed the enormous lump in her throat and raised her hand. “I’m Lanth. If you’ve seen them, can you tell us where they’re at?”
Her bravado astounded her.
The khentauree rocked back and forth, then slowly nodded. “They are together, in the Caast. They are unhappy, they want—”
An explosion from the right, and light burst into the room from a distant hole.
His head swiveled. The lights about him raced faster; he turned on his front legs, emitting a ringing growl. His glow intensified, and Lapis winced away, shielding her eyes. Sizzling filled the air, accompanied by the acrid stench of burnt metal and dirt.
“Ghost!” Sanna called, remaining down, her words steady despite her body’s twitching. “We will wait until they are gone, to send them to silence. Please.”
He stalked towards the trouble without acknowledging her plea. The lights tore through the bodies of the broken khentauree, rending them apart and scattering the remains. The heads swiveled to follow his progress, then several turned to Sanna.
“Dammit, he’s not up to a tech hit,” Jhor gritted.
“What are the lights?” Linz asked, curiosity running with their terror.
“I’m not certain,” Jhor replied, waving at them to follow him. “When I first arrived, he had something like them. He called them sprites. They were small spheres that orbited him, filled with aquatheerdaal. They did light tricks. He said they were a final gift from his creator. What they’ve become . . . I don’t know. The Meergevens captured him briefly. Whatever experiments they did, he came out of them like that.”
“His revenge is stone and ice,” Sanna said, rising. “He will send them to silence, for this.” Her arm swept to the khentauree around them.
“At least he knows we have nothing to do with it,” Jhor muttered, hurrying down the path. “He visited here before the Meergevens showed up. He saw that I wasn’t interested in resurrecting your people.”
“They chose silence,” Sanna said. “We honor their choice. Anquerette does not.”
“We need to get to shelter before—”
Another explosion, accompanied by white light. The air vibrated and debris tore through the space before them, shredding the walls, khentauree skin, breaking spheres and flinging the sponoil across the machines, digging divots into the ground.
“Ghost!” Sanna shrieked. Jhor jumped back, grabbed her hand, and hauled her after him. The rest of them followed; they had no other option, unless they wanted to face the powerful tech that ripped through metal walls.
Lapis had the unsettling suspicion that tech went by Ghost.
