Pearla led TO past the well-maintained tunnels and towards the ones that still lay in a state of relative disrepair. Walls crumbled around them, the floor beneath was treacherous and uneven, and water trickled past the stones and to the ground, wearing away at the ancient stones and working ceaselessly to degrade and wear away the tunnel. Eventually, they came across a collapsed section of the old stone wall which someone had used as an entrance for a simple dirt tunnel much like the one TO and Tham took to the underground cavern when they collapsed the old storage tunnels. The dirt looked like it had been freshly moved, with loose soil still crumbling in places.
“We only started this tunnel recently.” Pearla said, “And by recently, I mean we started it the day we decided to use your ship to get off the planet.”
“They’ve made excellent progress then.” TO said as they looked at the carved out walls. In a few places, they could see stones which looked like something had simply cut through them with a knife as they lay flush to the uniform size and shape of the tunnel. “This wasn’t done by hand, it was done by machine.” TO noted. As they looked closer, they could see that the edge of the stone had a smooth, polished look to it. “Lasers?” They asked.
“No idea.” Pearla said, “Vik got some old mining bots he altered ages ago so we could expand the underground as we needed.” She frowned as she looked at the well carved wall, “I’m surprised we need people working at this if the mining bots are cutting through everything so quickly and easily though.”
“I’m not.” TO said as they observed how the machines that Vik used had simply cut a path through anything and everything in its way. “Mining bots eat through anything and separate everything it collects for refinement. If it got too close to my ship, it could have caused some serious damage.” As the two continued on, TO’s point became obvious as they saw a large pipe that had been cut flush with the dirt wall, destroyed as easily as though it had been dirt or clay.
“Oh, wow…” Pearla said as she went up to it. “Yes… I’m guessing this could have caused some damage to your ship.”
TO checked the pipe themself, looking at how some of the metal had melted as lasers sliced it through. “It’s an old pipe. Probably hasn’t been in use for centuries.” TO said as they noted the rust crusted on the inside. They looked deep into the length of the pipe, and In the darkness they saw something move; a glimmer of light against chitin.
TO stifled a yelp and immediately backed away, nearly knocking Pearla over as they did
“TO? What’s wrong?” Pearla asked.
“N-nothing.” TO said as they wiped their hands on their shirt. They could practically feel the tiny legs of many insects trying to crawl over them. “Bugs.”
Pearla winced, “Yes, there might be a lot of them here.” She said, “Let’s get to the site quickly.”
TO was more than happy to take her advice and hurry along, trying not to think about the bugs crawling in the dirt all around them.
It took a while to get where they needed to go, walking the straight tunnel upwards, closer and closer to the surface near the center of the island. Soon the smooth uniform tunnel shifted to rough, clumsy walls which were clearly carved out by hand. The tunnel widened to a small cavern, illuminated by a few simple chemical lights that were set into the stone. The small clear orbs cast a blue-green illumination, providing light to the many civilians who worked nearby carefully pulling dirt away from TO’s ship.
“Pearla?” TO recognized Tham’s voice, and couldn’t help the way their ears pinned back as the Nagarajin approached. As soon as Tham recognized TO in the dim of the cavern, his face dropped and his pace slowed. When he stopped, even TO could tell that he stopped further away from them than he normally would. Pearla didn’t seem to notice though, and simply went up closer to him.
“Hi Tham.” She said, “TO got your message about the-”
“I thought you were too busy to be out and about.” Tham said, his tail tensing and slapping against the stones. His eyes narrowed. “I thought you were occupied with GiDi.”
Pearla’s face reddened, but even so her eyes narrowed, her tail lashed behind her, and her angry glare seemed to match Tham’s. “Yes, I was.” She snaps, “and I fail to see how that’s your business.”
Even to TO, who was only still learning how to pick up on the subtle intonations that so many civilians used to express emotion in absence of expressive ears, could tell that she was exceedingly angry. Even Tham looked away from her, his anger shriveling under her glare.
“I’m just saying.” He said, “You said you couldn’t help with anything-”
“I found some time to help out.” spat, “Would you rather if I stayed away altogether?”
Tham grumbled under his breath, saying that he was ‘just asking’ and ‘being worried.’ TO could just make out what he said, though Pearla seemed to hear him just fine. Maybe she was attuned to his voice, or maybe she just guessed what her brother was muttering.
“You don’t need to worry about me.” She snapped. “Now, what’s the picture you took eariler?”
“Right. This way.” He said. He glanced up and caught TO’s eye for just a moment before looking away and leading them through the cavern and closer towards where everyone else was working. It wasn’t far away, and though several people looked at and glared at TO, their expression softened as they saw Pearla.
Pearla really was a charm, a magic item that softened people to TO. A part of them wondered if she should send a message to everyone, stating that she was a friend, or even family to TO, and that people needed to at least treat them without the outward hostility they had so far!
That wasn’t much to ask for, TO thought, especially since they were working so hard to help!
Tham led them to a small, cement box in the center of the cavern. Large parts of the box looked like someone had smashed it in, the debris falling inside, rather than outside or on both sides as it would have if it fell apart due to time. TO recognized nothing from the picture at first. Everything seemed so different from what they saw on the camera. Of course, in the picture they could only see what the camera had captured. Now, the dull glow of the chemical lights provided more than enough illumination for a synth of Chilacian to see.
The cement block was part of the landing pad for their ship; the part that sunk underground to hide their emergency vessel. As TO stepped inside the small area they saw the emergency vessel, docked into the main ship's lower port. The side doors of the cockpit were clear and soon TO would have free access to their ship once more.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“My ship.” TO said, their voice rushing out in a sigh of relief. Yes, home was where DH was, but the ship was the place they had spent such a short, happy time with their mate. The ship was where they confessed their feelings to one another, where they explored one another. Even as the memory brought a subtle flush to TO’s ears, they couldn’t help but smile.
Wherever DH happened to be was TO’s home, but the ship made TO feel safe.
“Looks fine.” TO said as they approached, “What’s the matter with it?”
“Look at the panel to the side.” Tham said. “Is that important?”
TO frowned, and shifted to the side to see the panel that Tham was talking about. It was, in fact, the security panel for the pilot's side door; the one which would allow people to enter and exit since the back entrance led into the main ship. It had a hand sensor, of course, which would allow any synth linked to the ship to open the door, but it also had a number pad in case of emergencies where a synth needed to get inside and could not use their chip properly. Something had fallen on it, a bit of debris from when the cement was smashed most likely. The scanner was damaged and sparking, and the panel was crushed.
“A bit of cement smashed it?” TO asked as they approached the damaged section.
“Yes.” Tham said, looking away, “It happened while we were trying to get in at the ship.” Tham admitted, “We were trying to be careful-”
TO wasn’t worried. This was an emergency ship, and emergency ships were expected to get into dangerous situations and certain levels of damage were expected and prepared for. They looked to the other side of the door and found the hidden panel near the ground. TO pried away the panel and pulled out the tools hidden inside.
“The part that’s damaged, the panel that opens the door.” TO muttered as they took the toolkit over to the smashed panel. “I should be able to fix it so long as the stuff inside isn’t too badly broken, but if I can’t then the door itself can be pried open. I would rather not do that as it’ll cause further damage to the vessel, but it’s something we can do if we’re left without options.”
Tham made his way over to watch TO work, but stopped further away than he normally would. TO did their best to ignore him as they opened up their toolkit and pulled out the basic tools.
“That doesn’t seem very secure…” Tham said, glancing at the door. “Just anyone could just pull it open?”
TO couldn’t help but feel their ears pin back as they glanced at Tham. Tham was the one who triggered the failsafe when they were in the outer-ring. TO remembered how friendly he had been when he got drunk on that strange drink, when he came up to TO and put his arms about them. TO would have considered that an action of a friend, not someone who would knock them out.
TO pulled the chip off their hand, slipping the elastic band back to their wrist where their chip could sit until they needed it again. They didn’t know if Tham still had the remote on them, and didn't want to risk being caught unawares. “Yes, well, it’s not intended to be hard to get into. What if something happens when you’re outside your ship and you need to get inside quickly? What if the programming fails, or something gets broken? There has to be a way to get inside.” They turned back to their work, “That’s why we have all these other ways to get in, and why we have a toolkit nearby. That’s why we keep it hidden underground when we land, and why we have additional security measures inside, and why it's attached to a transport ship with defensive capabilities.” They glanced at Tham, “Without us, you’d never even know the emergency exit was here.” Their glare deepened and their ears pinned back. They felt their lips curl slightly.
“Without us, without my ship, you’d not be getting off this planet.” TO said.
Tham looked away, the slightest darkening of his red-toned skin spreading over his cheeks. “Yeah. I know, and I’m grateful for that-”
“Funny way of showing it.” TO hissed as they pulled out a screwdriver and removed the damaged panel. Half the screws had already broken, so it was very easy to pop out the damaged parts. Thankfully, nothing seemed too broken on the inside: To could fix all the major parts, and the parts that needed to be replaced were small things that TO had extra of in their toolkit.
“... Did I miss something here?” Pearla asks. TO had nearly forgotten she was even there, and busied themself as they focused back on their work.
“It’s nothing, Pearla, it’s fine…” Tham muttered. TO said nothing, but focused on their work. It wasn’t fine, that was for sure, but it wasn’t something that TO particularly wanted to talk about here.
“Well, it doesn’t look like nothing.” Pearla said, “You two were getting along so well before! What happened?”
“I wouldn’t say we got along well.” TO muttered. “Tham just got drunk and was kind for a little.”
Pearla frowned, then looked at her brother. “What did you do?” She asked, her eyes suddenly narrowing.
“I… I’ll tell you about it later.” Tham muttered, looking away, “Look, I have to check on something, so I’ll come back and-”
As Tham began to leave, Pearla reached out and grabbed his shirt, holding him back. “No.” She said, her voice solid and cold, “You can tell me now. What happened?”
TO stopped what they were doing and looked up at Tham. TO their surprise, they caught Tham’s anxious, almost scared expression. Were they afraid of Pearla, or just ashamed of their actions?
Maybe both.
When Tham said nothing, Pearla looked at TO. She smiled sweetly, but her tail slapped against the dirt behind her.
“TO.” She said, smiling, “What happened between you and Tham?”
Tham looked at TO, his eyes wide as he shook his head slightly. Was he asking them not to say anything? TO felt their head practically shake with anger as their vision blurred a little. Did Tham think that after everything, after how this whole situation hurt them, DH, and Avery, that TO would cover for them? That they would lie for them?
They looked Tham in the eyes, holding their pleading gaze for a moment before they turned to Pearla and spoke in a cool, clear voice.
“Tham and Vik put a failsafe in our chips that knocked us out in the Outer Ring.”