I opened my eyes to darkness and a horrible headache. I blinked and reflexively moved to sit up, and was halfway surprised when it worked. I’d expected to be bodiless and floating in the spawn void. Instead, I sat up and looked over to see Sallis kneeling over Jozoic.
As I blinked grit from my eyes and shrugged off the brain fog, a wet slapping sound pulled my attention back to the bank of the pool at the end of the room. The black jelly was still busy eating the pack of crabs, which were now barely putting up a fight and either moved sluggishly beneath the gelatinous surface, or laid still and were only marked by muted lumps of color in the snotty mass. Another bubble formed over one of the slumped crabs and popped with a second wet smack, releasing a faint cloud of vapor into the fouled air within the ravine.
I reached down to my side where the centipede had bitten me and found my jacket and nanoweave shirt ripped open and the wound patched over. I rubbed my hand along the bandage and groaned as my body reminded me of the punishing workout from yesterday.
Sallis glanced at me from the corner of her eye as she worked to bandage the other downed dwarv. “Good, thought the venom might’a taken ya out. House Galidurn hasn’t had an initiate death since the first year, I’m glad we aren't resetting ta’ counter.”
I groaned and crawled over next to her to get a look at the sting she was currently cleaning out on Jozoic’s shoulder. The centipede's fangs had somehow gotten under his armor and pierced through the padded harness underneath.
Sallis had peeled back the armor plates and undone the buckles that held the strapping together over the area. She kneeled amongst a mess of ripped open packets and discarded gauze and ripped open another envelope packet before dumping a mix of powder that sort of looked like salt and pepper into the wound, causing Jo to wince and grimace. “By the bones that stings.” He grumbled and I realized that despite his eyes being closed, he was still conscious.
“I’m glad we’re all gonna make it too… but what the fuck was that thing? No one warned me about man-eating creatures down here.” I questioned.
“We call ‘em malkie. Mindless predators. I think they’re from old Tuata.” replied Sallis as she dug out another packet from a disorganized medkit that lay on the ground next to her. “You find them in the subterranean biomes on most planets, luckily they’re solitary. The Clan pays a pest bounty for them too.”
She poured a thick liquid over the powdered wound, causing Jozoic to relax and sigh in relief, then slapped a patch over-top of it and gave it another smack just for fun. “There we go, good as new. Don’t let the carnivore sneak up on ya like that next time, alright?”
He grunted in reply and slowly sat up, already preening and re-strapping his armor into proper place. “Let's just get this done.”
We could all agree with that sentiment, and while giving the still feasting black jelly a wide berth, we got to work scanning, logging, and sampling the various pockets and veins that were revealed in the ravines walls.
We found the forecast section of high-density titanium ore, called ilmenite, made up about half of the cavern. It didn’t look like metal to me, only appearing as a mottled and somewhat shiny black and reddish-brown crystaline stone. Still, the scans came back with readings hovering around the 45% titanium-dioxide mark in two of the spots we checked. The other portion consisted more of magnetite, a quality iron ore that the clan had less use for.
We also found a few traces of the gold Chane had talked about, but nothing substantial enough to warrant following the band of quartz down beneath the broken floor of the cavern, especially with the pool that warned of more water in the stone beneath us.
Sallis, being the best climber and least injured of our trio, had scaled the walls in a couple of places and found a dead-end cavern near the ceiling above the pool. When she returned, she showed us a few screenshots of the likely den of the malkie, and a short video of her kicking through the dried husks of a number of crabs as she cautiously explored the little cave.
A couple of hours later we had mapped and scanned the entire cave, only leaving out the portion surrounding the black jelly and its pool. The jelly thankfully seemed perfectly content to simmer and gurgle as it digested the slumping mounds of shell that used to be ferocious looking crabs.
“Those are from our world, ya know.” Sallis said as she stepped up beside me to watch the dark bubbling blob.
I glanced over at her, then looked back to the slightly steaming mess at the bank of the pool. “I did not know that. Do they bring all of the animals over when a new world opens up? I haven't come across anything like this before.”
She shrugged. “No idea, it seems like a lot of the underground beasts are pretty widely scattered though. The surface world tends to stick closer to native fauna. Most planets come pre-stocked with all sorts of interesting and entertaining animals. Eora has its horses, whales, elephants and tigers and so on, but caves tend to be mostly empty, and the wonderful rulers in the core must think it's more entertaining this way.”
Max broke out in laughter, again seeming to come externally this time rather than the usual omnipresent inner-monolog feel that he usually had. “She used some far more colorful language about the core. Those pansy Suks can’t even let their players shit-talk them in game.”
I unconsciously nodded in agreement with Max, and Sallis mistook it for agreement with her. “Don’y ya worry, unless ya plan on getting into the mining or scouting teams after the trials, yer likely to get assigned some cushy diplo job and ye wont have to worry about these things outside of an arena again.”
Not knowing what to say back to that, I just grunted and nodded. I doubted Max would let me settle into anything cushy or easy for very long. When he spoke up about the core I got a sense of his emotions along with his words, a perk of being melded into a single body I guess, and the burning hatred for the Suk behind his words was starting to bleed into and overwrite my previous resigned indifference. We were going to jam a wrench into the gears of their game, somehow, someway, sometime. Max was a super intelligent, if somewhat crass, advanced AI. He had to have a plan for our two-man rebellion to follow, didn’t he?
We were the second to last group to complete our run and call for extraction after retracing our steps back to the main cavern. We lounged around in the bottom of the scraped out pit that held the portal to the cave as we waited to be picked up. After only a few minutes of sitting around and rechecking our logs and samples, a smaller grav-tech truck zipped out of the darkness and blinded us with its headlights before landing a few yards off. We waved to the driver and all loaded into the open back of the truck. After hooking our harnesses onto D-rings welded to the bed of the truck, the driver pulled the vehicle in a tight turn before we zoomed off back towards the undermountain.
When we finally had made it back to our training room, we found most of the class standing at attention while Chane stood at the head of the formation. We looked around, taking in the situation for a second before we moved to join our proper places in line. Kikkelin and I exchanged smiles as I took my place next to her at the end of the line, and then we waited in silence for the last team to arrive.
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The last team strode in and took their places in formation after 20 long minutes of waiting, in which my feet reminded me that I had been pushing way too hard over the last few days. Everything ached or stung, and standing in place left my lower legs burning brightly enough to blind my senses to the rest of my complaining nerves.
“Four bounties, zero deaths or hard fails, minimal injuries, and full scans completed. You all have shown an acceptable effort this day.” Chane called out, his face hard but no longer enraged like the day before. “The day after tomorrow, we will find out if your efforts have been worthwhile. I expect you all to give it your all, there will be no excuses, tardiness, or insubordination! You will report to the House gates at dawn in your initiates robes, after utilizing the next 36 hours to take a full day of rest and get a proper meal. You will then be escorted by the honor guard to the trial field and you will make me proud, understood?”
We roared back as one, “Yes, Driller Chane!”
“Your whole lives have led up to this point, your house has given you every tool necessary for you to succeed, and as the final few hours of your childhood come to a close, I expect you to make us all proud. Remember, you are House Galidurn! The latest in a long line of greatness! The future of the House is in your hands, and you will carry our excellence into the heart of the mountain for all to see!”
He paused for a moment and stared at each of us in turn, meeting our eyes for a few seconds each before continuing in a more subdued tone. “I look forward to welcoming you all back into the House as Brothers upon your triumphant return. I have every confidence that you will not only succeed, but show dominance and superiority through your upcoming trials. Work smart, work hard, and act as one. Row…” He paused again, adding weight to the final word as our drill instructor. “Dismissed.”
We all neatly turned and filed out of the training room, quickly scattering as everyone limped and staggered back to their family holds to make their final preparations for the trials. I was the last in line but the closest to the door, so I led the pack out of the Row house and to the courtyard, before turning off to the side and leaning against the wall. Before portaling back to the Hub, I checked the message that had come in during Chanes' short speech.
The message was a confirmation of the bounty for the beast we had slain in the caves, which had netted each of us 75 Faction rep and a bonus 200 glitter, the clan's internal currency. We were told that the final grading for the trip would not be revealed to us until after the trials, after they had a chance to send a professional team to conduct a second survey to compare our initial run to.
I was wondering how much purchasing power the glitter really had, because I had yet to gain the freedom to buy anything in the public markets of the city. All of the shops within the House grounds were based on requisition and necessity, and were essentially free as long as you could give proof of a valid reason. I closed my UI after reading the message and spotted Kikkelin, who had hung back and was standing nearby, nervously waiting for me to notice her. She smiled again and approached when I nodded at her.
“Hi, Kaninak. How was your expedition?”
I shrugged, not exactly wanting to expose just how close we had come to failing. “It was alright, we ran into some dangerous wildlife, but nothing we couldn’t handle.” There was an awkward pause, and I started to wonder why she had come up to me. Not knowing what else to say, I asked her about her own run.
“How did yours go? You were with Lokralda and, uh…” I floundered for a moment, totally at a loss for her final teammate's name. I had been introduced to so many dwarves who all looked so similar, it was difficult to keep track of them all. “Um, what's-his-name? The one who can already sort of grow a mustache.”
She giggled, and something about the tone of her giggle snapped a whole lot of things into perspective. I’d brushed off a number of her actions as friendliness, curiosity, or plain ol’ youthful awkwardness, and ignored a number of signs she had given me throughout our training. That giggle, both innocent and inflated with what felt like flirtatious intention, finally made me realize maybe there was something to Korfook’s complaints, and why Max had been teasing me about banging aliens.
“Our mission was fine, other than a submerged section of tunnel where we had to break out the breath-tanks. I’m glad yours went well too, I was worried we might disappoint Chane again.”
I nodded, barely hearing her reply as I thought over what I would say next.
“Hey, look, so… I have to ask.” I stumbled over my words, unsure which would be the best way to ask the huge scary beetle if it was crushing on me. “You said Korfook has been bothering you for your… promise? What does that mean, and… well, why not?”
Her eyes widened for a moment, caught off guard by my sudden change of subject and personal question. She leaned against the wall next to me and we both looked out over the bustling courtyard as she answered.
“A promise is what binds a hold together. Parents and their children, like one of your human marriages” Her tone was subdued and she breathed out a big sigh before continuing. “He’s alright, but honestly, I just don't like how he smells. Plus his family is only a half-step from being exiled, my own hold would not have it even if I did want to be with him. I don’t even plan on starting a hold just yet, we are the first generation to have grown up Linked to a different homeworld. Some might be content to quickly settle down and start hatching but… I don't know, I think I can do more.”
I looked over at her out of the corner of my eye, surprised at her sincere reply. I’d expected more nervous flirty bullshit, not a heartfelt, thought out, and direct answer. Still, it did not answer the question I had hoped to coax out of her, so I asked another question.
“You sure you’re not like… holding out for someone else?”
She returned my side-eye and stared at me for a moment with an added frown. “No. I’m not looking for anyone at all.” There was a long pause as she looked back at me, and something must have given my intent away. Her eyes narrowed, and over the course of a few seconds went from suspicious to angry. “Wait… you too? Ga-rah, Kaninak. No.” She pushed herself away from the wall and turned to face me with crossed arms and glaring eyes.
“As an ambassador, I thought you would understand. Half the house thinks I’m some obsessed weird girl who wants to try to mate with the squishy human, but they’re wrong. It's just…” Her sudden rant started to lose some steam, and her mouth shifted back and forth between a frown and a pout before she finished in a small voice, barely enough to carry over over the noise of the yard.
“It's just… I think humans are cute. Not like… let's mate cute, but like… ugh.” She groaned and looked away for a moment, running her hands through her hair while pacing a few steps away, then turning around and stomping back up to me.
“It's like, you know how you humans keep pets? Cats, dogs, little furry creatures that you take care of and treat as family? It’s sort of like that… you’re so cute that I just want to squish your little face and pat that tuft of fur on the top of your head. Not… take you to my chamber. I’d hoped we could be friends, but I guess I was wrong.” She made a disgusted sound, spat something down onto one of my boots, then stormed away from me.
“Well… that's just great.” I muttered to myself as I watched her storm across the courtyard.
“Oh my, that's fantastic! Hahaha.”
“Shut the hell up Max.” I grumbled back as I queued up a Hub portal. “Even you thought that's what was going on.”
“That is entirely untrue, I just didn’t want you to get any weird ideas while we are sharing a body. I pinged the system for her info weeks ago, and it's blatantly obvious by her search history that she is the Zk’Aek equivalent of a horse girl. Although it is pretty strange that she fixated on an actual sapient species for her obsession.”
“And you didn’t think to mention that before? That would have been some pretty useful information, Max.”
“Bah, I’ll be useful if you really need it, or when I feel like it. I’m boooored, and messing with you helps pass the time. You have a habit of-”
The Hub portal ritual finished and swirled into existence, and I stepped through before Max could finish his thought.