Interlude-Third Contact
“[Hold still,]” Dustin said, “[this is going to sting.]”
Fiona was one of the youngest abductee attending their screwed-up ‘summer camp’, but she was just old enough to try playing down an injury to look tough. Camp counselor Georgia had Gladys drag her to Jacob who’d immediately flagged down Dustin.
She did her best, but it was a four-inch gash on her shoulder. Even delta-force troops wouldn’t be able to keep totally still for something this bad, much less a thirteen-year-old.
A quick spray of alcohol was the first step to disinfect the wound, and Enumius cloth helped wipe away the dust and blood. Fiona hissed sharply, flinching with the pain.
“[Easy, easy,]” Dustin said, working as fast as he could. “[We’re almost done.]”
“[What exactly happened?]” Jacob asked.
Fiona averted her eyes guiltily, staying silent. Dustin would have just as soon left it alone, but Jacob wasn’t satisfied.
“[Look, you’re not in trouble for getting hurt,]” he said. “[But I need to know how it happened.]”
Neither girl said anything.
“[He’s just going to go ask Georgia if you don’t say anything,]” Dustin whispered.
“[…I—]” Gladys started to say something, but Fiona cut her off.
“[I tripped!]” she blurted. “[Georgia gave us a break from math lessons. We were running around, and I tripped against the cabin. The screw things cut me.]”
She was lying. The wound was too straight and deep to have come from a bolt sticking out of their lodgings. Dustin snuck a glance at Jacob and found that he also didn’t buy the story.
He let it go though. That was surprising.
“[Just remember to be careful,]” Jacob said. “[If we get hurt out here, things could turn really bad fast. We don’t have any medicine. I know this sounds crazy, but we could die even from a cut like this. We have to be careful. All of us.]”
“[He’s right, you know,]” Dustin said. “[I’m not a doctor.]”
“[Alright, as soon as Dustin’s done with your bandage, run back to Georgia. She’s in charge while we’re busy with the counselor campfire,]” Jacob said.
Dustin finished materializing a bandage snugly wound around her shoulder, and the two girls ran off to rejoin Georgia.
“[You gonna do anything?]” he asked Jacob.
“[Not right now,]” he said.
“[They lied to you, boss,]” Dustin said. “[Pretty sure that’s against the rules.]”
“[Not formally,]” Jacob said. “[Besides, I know what happened.]”
Dustin’s eyebrow crept upward. Just because the lie was obvious didn’t mean the truth was too.
“[Gladys was messing around with her powers,]” Jacob explained. “[They might have even been play fighting—I think she might have made a knife. She was about to confess when Fiona cut her off. They’re protecting each other and that’s not behavior I want to discourage.]”
“[That’s…probably smart,]” Dustin acknowledged.
“[It still has drawbacks,]” Jacob said, “[but I’ll burn those bridges some other day. We all set for the campfire?]”
“[Georgia’s in charge of getting the campers to bed and watching them, and Shakri was notified we’re sitting down tonight. So, yeah. I think we’re set.]”
“[How’re you holding up?]”
“[Why? You worried about me?]” Dustin asked with a smarmy grin.
“[Yes,]” Jacob answered honestly.
Yeah, that probably hadn’t been the best thing to joke about. Jacob was worried about everyone. He did virtually nothing to hide it. It could be unexpectedly disarming.
“[…Truthfully, I’m doing amazing,]” Dustin said.
He’d expected Jacob to react more to that. But his friend didn’t even flinch, waiting for more of an answer.
“[I’m not even kidding,]” Dustin said. “[I’ve been feeling great, even before Nora left.]”
“[I know,]” Jacob said. “[That’s what I’m checking up on.]”
“[You don’t think it’s weird I’m having a blast going through an alien abduction?]”
“[Do you think it’s weird?]” Jacob asked.
“[Well…no, but—]” Dustin started.
“[Then neither do I.]”
“[I was going to say no, but I have good reasons to think it isn’t weird. You don’t.]”
“[Your parents were shitty,]” Jacob nodded. “[You’ve mentioned. It’s not hard to imagine why getting whisked away from them might feel good.]”
“[It’s not just that,]” Dustin said. “[Even if I didn’t have a choice in all this, we’re the oldest here. And being ready to help the campers…]”
“[It feels like what you do matters,]” Jacob said.
“[Feels like it matters a lot,]” he agreed. “[Patching up Fiona feels like the kind of thing I should have been doing for my siblings. Mads would be so pissed if she could see me now. I felt like such a shitty brother for so long…doing any part of the job right feels good now.]”
“[Well, good,]” Jacob nodded. “[I’m glad for you. Now let’s get this thing put together.]”
“[You got it boss,]” Dustin said.
A hundred feet away from the cabins, right under the hangar windows, Dustin started creating logs. They’d been calling these little meetings campfires, in line with Nora’s summer camp conceit. And Dustin had decided to lean into it by actually making a small fire for them to gather round.
Without a chimney in the hangar, smoke would have hung around, even if the interior of the building was massive. But the Enumius logs he created featured a trick. He’d created them such that they would burn and then dissolve back into nothing a heartbeat later. The log made flame, but no smoke.
He was guessing on the chemistry, but even if the Enumius carbons bonded to real oxygens to make some kind of ‘quasi-CO2’, once the carbon dissolved, the oxygens would just bond to each other making more O2 gas.
Right?
He was sure it would be fine. The one thing the otters had diligently stayed on top of was keeping them from hurting themselves.
Accidents like Fiona’s still happened. But when they did Dustin would be ready with an improvised, half- Enumius medical kit. Combined with the powers of temporary creation, a great number of school supplies could be repurposed to healthcare.
Still, every time one of the campers came with an injury, however slight, Dustin felt the anger in his bones. These people, these children needed him. God help whoever tried to hurt them, because Dustin knew he was ready to kill anyone that did.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do to help his fellow abductees.
“[Need a light?]” Lacey asked, stirring him from dark thoughts. She offered him a simple Enumius- made lighter.
“[Yes, thank you,]” Dustin said, stepping back from his little pile of temporary logs and rocks.
The other cabin counselors all gathered around the fire, carrying stools from the cabin or just creating some Enumius seating to share. Shakri was present too.
“[I hereby solemnly declare,]” Dustin intoned, holding the lighter up like a holy torch, [that this sacred fireside gathering commence…]”
Eli and Michelle both elbowed him, not unkindly, and he tossed the lighter into his campfire.
Small orange flames crackled to life, and Dustin took a seat, letting Jacob take the floor.
“[Alright, per usual, any conflicts we’ve missed? What are our most pressing concerns?]”
Lacey raised her hand. “[I saw Fiona got hurt. She alright?]”
“[Yup,]” Dustin said. “[It was pretty nasty cut, but I disinfected it and wrapped it up.]”
She nodded, satisfied.
“[I need some help with our school stuff,]” Roxanne said. “[I was failing Algebra II back on Earth, and…crap, I just don’t know how to answer right when Charlie asks me why we’re still doing schoolwork.]”
“[I was going to bring up something similar,]” Eli said. “[We’ve been keeping things organized by cabins so far, but as long as we’re trying to keep the campers learning, we could do some activities by age.]”
“[My concern there is what we do when an eighth grader starts outpacing their peers, or even the juniors,]” Jacob said. “[I’m not sure any of us have the conflict resolution skills to handle that.]”
“[…I hadn’t even thought of that,]” Roxanne admitted. “[Yeah, like I know I’m terrible at math, but that doesn’t make it feel any better when a grade schooler is smarter than me.]”
“[…I have—I mean, can I say something?]” Shakri asked.
Dustin had felt like he was the only one keeping an eye on their guest, but every head turned to her now.
“[Sure,]” Jacob said before the group could look to him for approval.
“[In Vorak schooling, we are repeatedly told to measure ourselves against only ourselves. From what I have seen, it would be worth teaching that as much as possible.]”
“[Cultural imperialism withstanding,]” Jacob said, “[that’s probably a good idea. Question is how do we actually teach that? Just say it over and over again?]”
“[Actions speak louder than words,]” Roxanne said. “[I…aw crap, it’s gotta be me. I…gah, I can ask some of the youngsters for help with math. Set an example, you know? It’s gonna be embarrassing as hell, but it’ll help us stay level.]”
“[It would probably be worth making sure they know why beforehand,]” Sammantha said. “[If we just go ‘hey look at Roxie learning math from someone 6 years younger than her’ with no context, nobody is going to know what to think.]”
“[True,]” Jacob and Roxanne both said.
“[Gossip,]” Michelle said. “[We don-n’t tell m-many kids why. Just a few. We m-make it a secret, and everyon-ne will wan-nt to kn-know why all on-n their own-n.]”
Her voice was stuttering, but at least her spasms in her arm had been getting better.
“[That sounds like a decent plan,]” Jacob said, “[But I don’t want to rush any of this. It’s not going to be the end of the world if we don’t make the normal progress in school. We’re trying to keep ourselves busy, not actually get diplomas or anything.]”
“[Is that our transition to the elephant in the room?]” Dustin asked, raising his hand. “[Because I know why we have to keep ourselves busy with school subjects like math and reading, and not say… foreign language?]”
“[I suppose now is as good a time as any,]” Jacob agreed, looking toward Shakri. “[You talked about making more progress teaching us Sasat more than a week ago. We’re getting fed up.]”
“[I’m doing my best,]” Shakri said. “[My commander is extremely reticent to allow any more Vorak than me have access to you. Even the guards are ordered not to engage with you.]”
“[But why?]” Sammantha said.
“[Seriously,]” Eli added, “[It’s not just your boss, you aren’t giving us answers either.]”
“[I am one person, and you are not my only responsibilities]” Shakri huffed, “[and Halax abandoned his post with no warning. If he were still here we would be able to make quicker progress.]”
“[Who cares about quicker progress?]” Jacob said, stepping forward. “[We’ve made zero progress!]”
“[You said we were going to make time for Sasat lessons, but you’ve shared a grand total of three sentences with us.]”
Jacob had prepped all of them for this confrontation. Shakri was their only point of contact and she wasn’t infallible. They needed to push her out of her comfort zone, enough that they might put her enough off balance to forget the party line.
Because the truth was, all Shakri had to do to ruin their chances was walk away.
“[You and your boss are keeping us in the dark!]” Jacob pressed. It was earlier than expected, but he played their trump card. If anything would get a reaction out of the otter, it would be this. “[I know for a fact you’ve received an English message from someone who wasn’t us.]”
Dustin scrutinized Shakri’s face and watched the look of surprise bloom a single moment too late.
The Vorak started to open her mouth, but Dustin accused her before she could lie.
“[You already knew we saw it,]” he realized. “[You know we found a way to sneak out of the hangar.]”
How? No, forget how. It could be a million different ways. Why hadn’t they brought it up sooner?
“[Why didn’t you stop us?]” he wondered aloud.
Shakri was not a cunning manipulator. Her face grew too stiff when she wanted to hide things, and she wasn’t quick enough on her feet to lie convincingly.
Every human around the campfire exploded in protest as they all grasped for the implications.
“[How long have you known?]”
“[Why can’t we talk to your boss?]”
“[Stop! Stop!]” Jacob said, trying restore some civility. “[Order, ord—oh fuck it.]”
He motioned to Dustin to do something, and a second later most of the campfire vanished, plunging their corner of the hangar into darkness, with only a few faint embers left.
Everyone shut up.
“[…We done?]” Jacob asked. “[Okay. Good. Now, one at a time.]”
He pointed to Michelle first, and nodded to Dustin. He created some more logs for the fire, and the light crept back.
“[Why aren’t you angrier about the tunnel? Isn’t it b-breaking quarantine?]” Michelle wondered.
Shakri was almost entirely clammed up. Hah. But it was hard to tell why. Did she think there was a way to salvage the Vorak’s position here?
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“[Nick and I saw the English message,]” Dustin said, hopefully dashing her hopes. “[The only alien who knows English besides you is Halax. So either he wants to talk, or there’s some other English speaker out there.]”
They were coming at her from all angles, and Shakri finally slipped up. Unable or unwilling to keep avoiding an answer.
“[…We were going to consult you, but the answer presented itself before we could.]”
“[Bullshit,]” Jacob said. “[You’ve had this message for at least two weeks. You could have asked us the day you got it.]”
“[M-more to the p-point,]” Michelle stuttered, “[just what answer p-presented itself?]”
Shakri didn’t answer.
“[That confirms it,]” Michelle said. “[You kn-know we already saw the English m-message. You kn-know we kn-know. B-but you’re n-not telling us an-nyway. You can-n’t.]”
Dustin saw Shakri’s face tighten as she tried to master her expression.
“[I can’t say. Orders,]” she said pathetically.
But Michelle was unrelenting.
“[You Vorak are b-breaking the rules, n-not just that, there are rules for you to b-break,]” Michelle realized. “[That’s why you aren-n’t having more p-people talk to us. You n-need to con-ntrol who we get to talk to.]”
“[And who talks to us,]” Jacob said. “[But we already knew that.]”
“[B-but we didn-n’t realize they were b-breaking rules to do it,]” Michelle said. “[If there wasn’t some other entity cap-pable of p-punishing them, then they would b-be m-more aggressive ab-bout teaching us. For their own good.]”
“[Halax,]” Jacob realized. “[You guys are worried if anyone else gets to talk to us, they might do what he did…which makes you pretty cold-blooded.]”
All eyes fell on Shakri as they followed Michelle’s logic. When Halax had left with Nora, they’d had barely an hour’s warning in advance. It had been so spur of the moment, it was hard to determine just how trustworthy Halax had been in the moment.
By comparison, Shakri had stuck around. She wasn’t particularly well liked, but she remained present and helping the campers. That bought a lot of brownie points.
And yet, it was only after Michelle spelled it out for them, that it became clear. Just what wasn’t Shakri doing? More importantly, why?
“[You’ve got guards on the only exit to this hangar,]” Jacob asked her, “[for quarantine, but why? You did blood tests in the first weeks, and you haven’t worn a hazmat suit for months now. So just what are we being ‘quarantined’ for?]”
“[I don’t know!]” Shakri said. “[…Something Enumius.]”
“[Something to do with that English message you got,]” Dustin said. “[Nora was right. There’s a fourth ship of abductees out there and they made something. Something that has you scared shitless of us.]”
“[…Not a ship,]” Shakri admitted. “[One Human. The others on his ship are dead.]”
“[Jesus…]” someone said. That about summed it up.
“[What did he make?]” Jacob demanded. “[Why aren’t more groups allowed to communicate with us? What kind of quarantine is this?]”
“[A…mind one,]” Shakri said, tapping her head. “[I don’t have the good word for it. This Human made something that lives in heads. You all aren’t the only ones quarantined. So are we. We’re…a thousand…far. We’re far, far away from anyone.]”
Michelle was on her feet, almost shaking. “[What do you m-mean something ‘in heads’?]”
She hadn’t been quite the same since her Enumius powers activated, and when she had, she’d screamed about the things she felt under her skull. Stuttering wasn’t even half of it.
“[I don’t know!]” Shakri said. “[This— our quarantine is…two ways. If this…mind thing is in here, then it needs to stay. And if it’s already outside, then it can’t get in here.]”
“[This is crap,]” Lacey added. “[You can’t tell us anything about it, so why are we talking to you?]”
“[…I know,]” Shakri said, deflating even further.
“[And you aren’t going to do anything about it,]” Jacob realized.
“[…No I am not.]”
“[Why?]”
“[Because…]” Shakri stomped her foot in frustration, scratching at her head trying to find the right word, “[…my boss is a psycho, psycho bitch.]”
All eyebrows rose.
Not only because of Shakri’s honesty and word choice, but the sound of the hangar doors opening on the opposite side of the hangar.
A Vorak in glittering orange armor came into view, striding past the cabin prefabs toward their campfire. More concerning, the newcomer was flanked by two armed sentires.
“[I am Sendin Trakin,]” the armored otter spoke in badly accented English. “[I am in charge.]”
Even Shakri was at a loss for words, frantically looking between the abductees and the otter who could only be her ‘psycho, psycho bitch' boss.
“[…You’re bad at it,]” Dustin said simply.
Shakri looked like she might wither and die translating that line, but the new Vorak gave her a sharp glance, implicitly demanding a translation.
They don’t know English, Dustin noted. The otter must have learned exactly that phrase in English.
“He said…’you are aren’t a good leader’,” Shakri admitted.
Looking at the otter’s nervousness, Dustin’s impulsiveness was faster than his self-restraint.
“No, I did not,” he said, reciting one of the few Starspeak phrases he’d memorized so far.
He hadn’t understood Shakri’s translation. But he had a hunch the otter had softened the blow. It was worth doing, even just to test Shakri’s translation. Plus it was hard not to enjoy needling the Vorak.
They might have been trying to be polite about it, but they were still keeping them prisoner.
“What does it mean?” Trakin asked.
“Specifically…he said ‘you are bad at it’.”
Trakin’s eyes narrowed at the only translator. Shakri wilted further under the scrutiny. Dustin didn’t understand what the otters had said, but caught Shakri’s expression.
Just how liberally was she translating what they said?
“I don’t care,” Trakin said. “Tell them I was listening because if they keep pushing on this, things are going to get violent.”
“[ Sten Sendin is…giving a warning,]” Shakri translated.
“[Like…for violence?]” Michelle asked.
“[Yes.]”
“[You’re an idiot,]” Jacob said directly to Trakin, aghast. “[There’s kids sleeping here, and you march in trying to threaten us to get in line? It’s like you’re trying to get us to start something.]”
Shakri did her best trying to translate quickly, but maybe it was a good thing that it took so much time. It meant everyone had to stay patient to hear what was said.
“My responsibility is to keep you all isolated,” Trakin said. “I don’t answer to the Organic Authority, and I don’t answer to you. If you make any attempt to circumvent our quarantine measures, you will be detained by force.”
“[She says her responsibility is—] I—that’s…not going to translate well…” Shakri said. The otter seemed physically exhausted by trying to keep up with the conversation.
She muddled through the Sten’s ultimatum, accentuated by the very armed Vorak with her.
Dustin frowned. There had to be more.
“[Stick…]” he said. Shakri frowned, not knowing how to translate the word. That was fine. It was for Jacob anyway.
“[Now the carrot,]” Jacob agreed. “[You have to quit stalling about us being able to communicate. Even if you think we have this…mind bug, radios exist. Why can’t we talk with more people than Shakri?]”
“[It’s cause Shakri’s not kidding,]” Dustin said. “[They don’t know anything about it. For all they know it’s spreadable just by talking to someone over a radio.]”
“[That would b-be ridiculous,]” Michelle said. “[Germ-ms can’t go through radios.]”
“[She didn’t say it was a germ,]” Jacob said. “[She said it was something Enumius.]”
“[You can’t test for it—whatever it is,]” Dustin said to Trakin, “[Can you? Is that part of why you’re keeping us here? You need a control, something untouched to compare to.]”
That, Shakri did translate.
“…No, we can’t. Which is why I’m operating under standing orders. We’ve had zero contact with any consciousnesses for months, and we’re going to stay that way until my commander contacts me. Not the other way around.”
“[How many Vorak are stationed out here in the middle of nowhere then?]” Jacob asked. “[How many of you have been up to nothing for months now, when they could have been trying to help us communicate?]”
“My sentries aren’t here to coddle you, whelp,” Trakin grumbled.
“Sten Sendin,” Shakri said hesitantly, “I know you couldn’t translate the meeting’s discussion, but they really are trying to—”
“Shut up and translate Tashi,” Trakin snapped.
She did.
Dustin was doing his level best to try following the Voraks’ interactions through facial expressions alone, but he should have been paying more attention to Jacob.
Their not-so-fearless leader took a page out of Dustin’s book and marched right up to Trakin wearing a dark grin.
Shakri and the rest of the camp counselors held bated breaths. The last time something similar had happened, Dustin had threatened to shoot himself.
“[Then you just volunteered,]” Jacob said. “[Because if your sentries are busy keeping us penned in, and Shakri is spread to thin, well then that leaves us with you: the one person here who doesn’t have anyone to report to.]”
“[Oh, nice,]” Dustin said.
Trakin frowned while Jacob paused, giving Shakri time to translate.
“[You said it yourself, your commander isn’t in contact with you. You must be in control of your obligations. Which means you can either tell us to our faces, right now, that you’re completely giving up on even the slightest form of cooperation, or you can help out Shakri and stop trying to keep us completely in the dark.]”
Dustin studied the expressions on the Vorak’s face. Jacob’s point landed, but it wasn’t enough.
He was giving the Vorak a reason to cooperate. Carrot.
But his and Jacob’s relationship had always been this way. Dustin was more than enthusiastic to provide a stick.
“[Of course if you do decide to abandon all pretense, we can too,]” Dustin said, giving the commander a wave. She remembered him, and the last stunt he pulled.
He gave the threat some flavor by materializing a simple bubble in the air and blowing it toward the Vorak.
It was innocuous. Just an Enumius soapy bubble. But the Vorak betrayed their own mindset in so many ways. The commander knew the bubble was probably harmless.
But she also had to know it didn’t have to be.
“…Fine,” she growled. “If you’re so eager to hear more from me; I’ll oblige you.”
·····
Halax was cross.
For quite a number of reasons. The adjutant, the Marshal, Caleb Hane, and more.
But somehow, the thing that topped the list was security measures. Specifically, a lack of them.
He crawled through the lunar dust, trying not to think about what it could do to skin if it got inside his suit. For almost a kilometer now, he’d been keeping as low a profile as possible, slinking across the surface of Yawhere’s moon, carefully adjusting his line of travel.
There should have been guards. Or at least laser tripwires. Something.
Yet, as Halax approached the massive hangar complex, there was nothing to detect him as he crawled inside the air barrier and approached the fence.
It had taken dozens of hours of surveillance, more than a few promises, and some very well-timed threats, but he’d tracked down the Red Sails complex the Humans had been moved to.
Not two months ago Halax had escaped a nearly identical facility with Nora in tow, and Sendin Trakin hadn’t made any changes to security!
There were a dozen reasons why, most of them even decent. The new location was even more isolated than the last, and if Tox was correct, then the Marshal wouldn’t have given Trakin any additional security.
Still, Halax was beginning to think Sendin Trakin wasn’t so good at her job. One of her own soldiers had abandoned his post, and she made no significant security changes? She might have shared her sister’s keen observational skills, but she lacked the late Marfek’s self-rigor.
The complex itself was a series of industrially fabricated foundation platforms laid atop a massive slab of specialized concrete. Each platform’s height could be hydraulically adjusted as needed. Even the multi-acre hangar rested upon the platforms, raised enough that power conduits could be run underneath. Water too, since Trakin was keeping the humans inside.
As Halax crawled closer, he cursed Tox under his breath again.
Radio silence on a mission like this was understandable, but no less frustrating. He was completely on his own, and there was little doubt how Trakin would feel about him returning.
He wiggled his way through the lunar dust toward the very edge of the concrete sub-foundation, and climbed his way up, slipping under the hangar itself.
Every second, he had to fight his habit to cascade everything he touched.
If Shakri was present in the hangar and she felt a cascade underfoot…well, it was possible she’d chalk it up to one of the Human Adepts.
But it didn’t seem likely.
No, Halax needed to get someone’s attention without any Vorak being that ‘someone’.
Based on what Nora told him, it would best be Jacob or Michelle.
In that case…maybe going beneath the hangar wasn’t the best course.
He recalled how insistent Shakri had been about the prospect of windows on one of the hangars.
Trakin had been recalcitrant, but it was a harmless idea. They were in a barren remote corner of Archo. There wasn’t anything to see, and it wasn’t like adding a few small windows to the hangar made the complex any more visible.
There they were…four neat little portholes cut into the hangar exterior. It was almost quaint. The hangar was almost a kilometer long, and there were no other windows for the whole stretch except a quarter way down the side that overlooked the lunar vista.
Once again he had to struggle to poke his head right up to those windows. He might be seen prematurely.
This would have to be done carefully…
Halax thought about shining a laser into someone’s field of view.
He visualized a small laser device in his mind. It was relatively simple. Casing, battery, diode, extras…truthfully, it wasn’t simple at all. It was no less than nine different materials organized into paper thin layers, in an intricate design distributed across no more than a few grams.
It wasn’t even a good idea. It was a gamble over if whoever saw the laser would have the wherewithal to realize why they should stay quiet about it.
A small square mirror on a stick was a much simpler creation by comparison.
Lying down squeezed against the building’s exterior, Halax poked his mirror-on-a-stick up. It was tricky to get it in position by the window…but…if he looked carefully and kept his hand steady…there.
Halax caught a glimpse of prefabricated cabins and a few dozen Humans separated into group activities. Nora would have said camp was in session.
His timing was unideal.
The duty shifts must have changed cycles since Halax had left. He’d meant to arrive a few minutes before the ‘campers’ went to sleep while the oldest abductees stayed awake for a few minutes to discuss any urgent matters.
A glance at his oxygen revealed a problem. Unlike their last position, this complex wasn’t under an air dome. He risked cascading the hangar wall to confirm what he suspected. The barriers were conformed to the hangar walls.
It was, he realized, a security method preying on the humans’ ignorance of Adept technology. They wouldn’t try to break through the hangar walls if they thought a hard vacuum was on the other side.
So Trakin had adjusted the air barriers to be consistent with that assumption. Except…if someone did punch a hole through, they might wonder what invisible barrier was keeping the air in.
This was too strange. He didn’t have time to wrap his mind around it all now.
Halax felt the urge to swear, and he considered uttering a single one. But he wasn’t feeling pressured enough yet.
This was a problem, but not a particularly challenging one. It just made things more time consuming. If he couldn’t get someone’s attention before he ran out of air, things were going to get complicated.
His fate was sealed when he checked the window a second time. Poking his mirror stick up, he caught a glimpse of orange armor before he immediately yanked it back down out of sight.
Trakin was in the hangar? Spending time amongst the abductees?
He cursed under his breath again. He was definitely going to run out of air too quickly now. He wouldn’t be able to accomplish all his objectives.
This mission was going to take multiple trips. Honestly, it was always going to be a multiple trip job, but he’d been holding out vain hopes that he might get lucky and find some quick progress.
Once more, he cursed just to himself.
As Nora would say, just what the [hell] was going on?