Veera looked over her mate as Cauthan and humans alike bustled about the shuttle that would transport Russell, Thantis, and a handful of Event Horizon research personnel to Kel’s Forge, many kilometers to the west beyond the forests of the continent’s eastern coasts. “You have all of your weapons?”
“Yeah, I’m good. You can keep your spear. I’ve got access to the Event Horizon’s armory now. No offense to Nerazek and his temple, but I can get a better edge on my sword up there than down here. We have enough food and snacks for Fenrir? You have all of his leashes and harness just in case?”
Veera chuckled quietly and tapped his breastplate with a claw. “Don’t try to turn this around on me, my mate. I maintained my home long before you arrived and I’ll do so while you’re gone doing dangerous things. I’m fine,” she promised, accepting a small kiss from him. He studied her with a mixture of good humor and care in his eyes.
“You’re being a lot more subdued about this particular trip to the Forge,” he pointed out. The Cauthan fluffed her feathers irritably.
“That’s because Antoth specifically requested that Thantis examine the Forge and that you accompany him. I hope and pray that the two of you will be enough to remain within Kel’s favor. Just because the sun priest ordered it does not mean I am happy about it!” she clarified in a no-nonsense tone.
“Well if it makes you feel any better, I have two more reasons to come back home this time around,” Winters replied, glancing down pointedly at Veera’s still flat belly. They both knew it wouldn’t be long before she started showing even with her fur.
“Be careful!” she insisted.
‘Veera, the two of us are the very soul of caution,’ Io insisted. Winters began shifting his weight from foot to foot and looked up at the top of the gatehouse, not willing to defend that particular statement as Veera’s hand went to her hip.
“The soul of caution?” she repeated incredulously. “Would you like to try that again, Io?”
The AI cleared her throat. ‘We are… capable of caution when the situation calls for it?’
“Barely!” Veera responded before hanging her head in defeat. “What am I doing? It’s not like I can stop you.”
“No, not really. It’s Admiral Kaczynski’s orders too,” Russell agreed, collecting her up in a hug that she returned while doing her best to avoid all the gear attached to his armor. “But we will be careful and we will come back. They’ve been going in and out of this place for days now and nothing’s happened. This time will be no different.”
“I hope so,” Veera replied, leaving him with a final kiss before stepping back. “Will you return tonight?”
“We’ll try to, but I’m not sure. I’ll send you a message via Alice if we’re not going to be home,” Russell promised, glancing behind him at the shuttle. “Alright, we should get going. See you soon, Veera.”
“Selah, my love,” she replied in a resigned tone, rubbing her cheek against his before stepping back and allowing him to depart. He and Io felt next to nothing in terms of nerves or hesitation, but out of deference to Veera and her faith they made their preparations seriously and without fanfare. When Russell lowered his head and stepped into the shuttle he found that Thantis, having been assisted by Xan, was already chatting up a handful of the Event Horizon’s scientists. Unwilling to disrupt the conversation that sounded to be on the topic of human higher education and why human priests were not, in fact, priests as Thantis understood the term, the Jumper seated himself at the end of the row and equipped his helmet, affording himself and Io a modicum of privacy. He sighed and leaned his head back.
“Is it a bad thing that I just want to be done with this blasted Forge?” he wondered. Io looked up from her morning coffee and an issue of the ‘Mara Times’, her favorite non-existent newspaper which she also edited and published. The shuttle kicked off the ground as Thantis made sure to hold onto his cane, otherwise happy as a shen pecking on fresh grain to be back aboard a human flying machine.
‘Was that meant to be directed at me or a hypothetical?’ Io wondered. He glanced up quickly as though to shrug.
“Are you busy?”
‘I think at a speed that could be considered beyond light, and have computing resources available to me that would make most national intelligence agencies weak at the knees-’
“And your hair is the most fair and eyes the most verdant of all the lasses,” Russell added with a smirk. Io put on her best pout for him.
‘Since when do you know the meaning of verdant?’ she groused. ‘All I was trying to say is that yes, I always have time for you.’
“I’m sorry,” he offered pleasantly. “I meant it about the hair and eyes. And before you tisk me, Veera doesn’t have hair and her eyes aren’t green.”
‘And I know you aren’t that brutish,’ Io responded with a chuckle. ‘As for your question, were you a member of Beta Division I would say you are an affront to your Division and your ancestors. However you are not… and I daresay the both of us might be yearning for home far more than soaking in the ‘glory’ of tromping through alien installations. It’s been quite the trip, hasn’t it?’
“You act like it’s over. Still a ‘corrupted gate’ standing in the way of us getting home, well to my home anyway. Can’t say I disagree with the image, sufficiently spooky.”
‘There is a poetic lens to religion that you just cannot replicate with science, isn’t there? Corrupted gates, sailing over the seas of space, titanic struggles between divine powers heralding the seasons… quite a bit more entertaining than explaining that the planet is tilted.’
“Do you really think Veera’s people knew about it?” Russell asked curiously. Io shrugged.
‘There’s certainly a possibility. What we know of Veera’s people, well her adopted people at least, is that they arrived here from the east. Given the frontier-like state of their civilization and the nomadic, tribal living of the other Cauthan around here, it’s difficult to say. For the story of the Forge to be a part of their mythology it seems unlikely to be based on a rumor picked up recently from some nomadic people that they consider enemies. So if we rule that out, it would imply migration from the facility to the east and back. Who knows? With how old the installation is… no, I cannot say.’
“It’s fine, just passing some time,” he replied, rolling his shoulders slowly to work the sleep stiffness from them. Despite its primitive design, Veera’s bed was hardly the worst thing he’d slept on in his life, but one could still wake up having spent too much time on one side. He wondered for a moment how strange the beds on the Event Horizon must have felt to her before returning to his conversation with Io. “Where do you think the rest of them are?”
‘The rest?’
“The rest of who or whatever built the installation,” he clarified as Io finally put her paper away and gave him her ‘full attention’.
‘What is it with you soldiers and thinking I know everything about the intent of long dead or disappeared alien races?’ she wondered, though her tone was hardly accusatory.
“I’d say you know more than us, but we can talk about something else if you don’t want to.”
‘It’s as fine a topic as any,’ Io admitted. ‘And there is plenty to presuppose given the relative durability of the installation and, as you pointed out, the fact that we’ve explored a decently sized amount of this planet and not seen hide nor hair of anything that would pique the interest of a xenoarchaeologist. There have been no trinkets or necklaces made of refined metal beyond the capability of the current inhabitants, no ruined cities or other artificial caves, and so on. It’s an awful lot of effort to go through to create a natural preserve, isn’t it?’
“What if it wasn’t a lot of effort, at least to them?”
‘I’d rather not consider that, given a civilization like that could reasonably only end in one of two ways.’
“They blow themselves up or something else blows them up,” Winters finished. Io tilted her head at him and cocked her left brow.
‘How terribly eloquent. But yes, I’d say that sums it up well, sir. At least you have your head on straight and I am your AI. This is the type of situation that could drive a man… or woman absolutely batty. Where did they go? What happened to them? What is special about Mara? So many questions, some of which may have no place in reality. And then there’s you, ready to be done with it all and go home to his fluffy wife and unborn but equally fluffy children.’ Io took a moment to conjure a small spritz bottle, while Winters did his best to not bodily laugh and disturb the other occupants of the small shuttle. ‘Ah, refreshing.’
“Me or the squirt gun?”
‘Well you aren’t lemon scented, but both,’ Io allowed. ‘I fear we have digressed, though. No sir, I don’t think it’s strange that you wish to be done with things that are beyond our understanding or, more likely, our ability to affect as individuals. Even I cannot do much unless I were to clone myself, fully, and stick the independently thinking clone into the alien computers to see what would happen. My estimation is that the end result would likely be nothing, but on the off chance something happens it would be very bad.’
“No complaints or disagreements here,” Winters added hastily. “Let’s just get this done and dusted then.”
‘As you say, sir. At least Thantis is coming along this time!’ she pointed out.
“Yeah,” Russell agreed as he leaned his head back, thinking to pick up another hour or so of sleep. “I’m going to miss him if we ever get out of here.”
-----
While the vast majority of the humans involved were eager to get the show on the road once the shuttles touched down, Thantis’ enjoyment of his day simply continued straight on as he gazed about in wonder at the geothermal region that the Forge called home. They, in turn, were surrounded on all sides by the plains that stretched across the majority of the northeastern portion of the continent. As he stepped out of the shuttle, feeling the slight tug of his own muscles as he stretched them out, Russell got in touch briefly with Mendes. He advised him that Thantis would have to make his way at his own pace, and that if the civilian research teams wished to proceed immediately, they should. When there were no objections, he removed his helmet and walked over to where Thantis was still taking it all in.
“Little different from home, isn’t it?” he asked in Cauthan.
“I can safely say I have never seen so far in my life,” the elderly Cauthan replied, smiling as the autumn sunshine warmed his fur and a steady breeze cooled it again.
“Would probably look even better from over there,” Russell proposed, gesturing to one of the many small hills that defined the area. Thantis shifted his attention and nodded, though he hesitated for a moment.
“Would it surprise you to hear I haven’t climbed a hill in years?” the Cauthan asked.
“No, not at all. Your village doesn’t offer much in the way of them,” Russell replied. “How are your knees?”
“Worse than yours, but I shall be fine,” Thantis insisted happily. “I am simply slower than I was, and on occasion I find my back feels relief on account of the cane. Come, if you don’t mind waiting for an old timer like me.”
“We’ve been inside the Forge already, Thantis. Happy to spend some time in the sun,” Winters assured him. Their destination set, Russell walked along at a slow pace with small steps, allowing Thantis to set the speed. True to the Cauthan’s word, the trip took some time but he did not seem to be in any sort of discomfort, at least outwardly. When they reached the top he was breathing vigorously, but seemed very pleased with himself as he adjusted his glasses.
“Marvelous! Unbelievable! How does it do that?” he asked excitedly, pointing not at some far off element of the horizon but to the steaming rivulets and bubbling pools that defined much of the area directly around the forge. Understandably, the Event Horizon’s crew and shuttles tended to keep to a distance of several dozen yards from the nearest one.
‘I would be happy to give you an in depth explanation at a later time, perhaps when we return to the village,’ Io offered. ‘But to summarize, the crust of Mara, the hard, rocky surface of the planet which you have now seen from space, is relatively thin here. It allows the groundwater, which I presume comes from the mountains further to the west, to be heated by the energy from within the planet.’
Thantis scrutinized Io’s projection as she finished her explanation, stroking the longer tufts of fur that hung from the undersize of his muzzle. “The energy within the planet?”
‘Indeed! Given the fact that you and all of your compatriots walk the surface without being boiled alive or irradiated to death by Seil, Mara has a robust magnetic field. Those tend to originate thanks to molten metal at the core of the planet spinning and rotating. The energy to facilitate this process usually comes from radioactive elements.’
Thantis remained silent for some time, blinking every so often as he absorbed the information but otherwise refusing to react to anything around him. Io hummed in Russell’s ear, commenting how adorable he was when assimilating new information. “This… what was it you called it? There is a field?”
‘That is what humans call it, Thantis,’ Io clarified. ‘It is like an invisible shield that blankets the planet and protects it from the more harmful elements of the star’s light.’
After several more moments of contemplation, Thantis nodded to himself. “Nerazek and Antoth should know of this. Oh, I suppose Staroth as well,” he realized. Russell laughed.
“Pretty difficult seeing Antoth as priest of Seil, isn’t it?” he agreed.
“There was a part of me that assumed he would hold the position of Guardian until reaching my age! But that is beside the point. We will have to debate the meaning and implications of this new information. Are you sure that Seil’s light is that harmful?” he pressed, eager as ever.
“It’s good and bad,” Russell attempted to clarify. “It’s still the reason we’re warm and your crops grow but yes, without that shield it’s doubtful much would survive on this planet. It’s like a filter, only letting the useful parts in.”
‘Given that you’ve never suffered a bad sunburn while here I’d say it’s quite robust,’ Io agreed.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“To think that Uthos and Tyrdus were involved in such matters, to say nothing of the size and scope of the smith god’s workshop! But we have lingered long enough, haven’t we? I am sorry for getting distracted.”
“Like I said, we’ve already been there and back so no worries, but if you’re ready we should go. It’s a bit of a walk,” Russell explained.
“Then let us begin,” Thantis agreed. “I should finally see this Forge with my own eyes.”
-----
“When I imagined the trials that might await me in the Forge of Kel, this was not one of them,” Thantis remarked humorously as he did his best to avoid the substantial mounds of aquila droppings scattered around the entrance. Some had been cleared by the human science teams, but only just enough to walk through without needing to wipe their boots and to lay electrical cables. The rest remained as Natori’s orders to minimally disrupt the natural ecosystems of the planet remained in effect. Russell laughed from where he walked behind the Cauthan, using his helmet light to illuminate the way for them. With patience and care they emerged mostly unscathed on the other side. Thantis did not seem to mind, well used to how dirty life on Mara could be.
“Thank you, Winters. I am fine now. This metal surface is quite sturdy,” he described, testing it with both talon and cane. “If I could trouble you, might you shine that light of yours somewhere more interesting than the floor?”
“Happily,” Russell replied, turning his head first to his right so that Thantis could get a better look at the faded metal walls. Whatever sheen they might have possessed was long gone, but they appeared no less sturdy as the two men began their long walk to the control room. “And don’t ask what’s down there. I don’t know and I have no intention of finding out.”
Thantis hummed in amazement as Russell walked over to the left side of the main corridor and leaned over the sloped, metal bank. Airflow could be felt rising up from the darkness below, but his armor’s light was not strong enough to reach the bottom of the structure. “How unsettling,” Thantis agreed. “Such a sight inspires more dread than leaving this planet and seeing the darkness of Kel’s realm itself. I suppose some mysteries are best left unsolved?”
‘Unless you have a strong stomach and a very long rope I would agree,’ Io cut in. ‘Shall we continue, gentlemen? Based on network traffic the other members of the expedition are already at the terminus and are setting up equipment.’
“Sure, Thantis?” Russell gestured, leading the Cauthan onward. The two conversed in low, easy tones as they walked for several minutes, finally coming across the old, skeletal heap of metal that now found itself lacking one ancient, cracked, nuclear power core. Thanks to light both from Winters’ helmet and a pair of industrial, construction type pylons that had been moved into the space, Thantis had no problem taking in the scene. His response was unusually brief.
“Bones of metal? Life is… full of mysteries,” he said, as though focused on something far away. “I know not what this might be doing here. Shall we continue?”
“We don’t know either,” Russell assured him. “In theory, the rest of the trip should be fairly uneventful, a long, dark walk.”
“Your people appeared to have remedied that,” Thantis observed, as illumination pylons lit the way like a string of pearls stretching into the dark. “How is your family, Winters?”
“Incubating, for the moment,” he replied immediately, managing to extract a laugh from Thantis. The Jumper allowed himself to chuckle a bit as well. “We’re fine Thantis, thank you. Veera’s pleased, no question. I just don’t think it’s really settled in yet. It’s not noticeable, you know?”
“Yes, the two of you did get something of an early warning, so to speak. I am happy for you both. Know that you will have my blessings.”
Russell hummed lightly. “Thank you, Thantis. That means a lot. Can I ask you something, something private?”
Io perked up at those words while Thantis gave a measured reply. “You may, of course! That does not mean I will answer.”
“Fair enough. I was just curious since you brought up the subject of family.”
“Ah, you wish to know why Gentia and I never created a family of our own?” Thantis deduced astutely as they walked on through the structure, alternating between light, dark, and light again as the light sound of Thantis’ cane and Russell’s boots clacked off the metal floor.
“Guilty as charged,” he admitted. “I understand if it’s a sensitive subject.”
“It was, at a time,” Thantis admitted. “But that was long, long ago. And it was not for lack of trying, Winters.”
“I see. I’m very sorry to hear that.”
“Thank you, but I would wish that no one else feel badly about it, especially now. There was enough of that when we were youthful. We jest now that when we pass on there will be some interesting conversations to be had with the Lady Meylith, about why her gift of life was denied to one of her most devoted adherents. I daresay that Veera’s pregnancy will only lend that discussion a bit more flavor.”
‘Well now I feel bad,’ Io admitted. ‘Though I have to say Gentia’s sterility was the likely explanation.’
“I’m sure that will be quite the chat,” Russell agreed with Thantis, keeping his tone intentionally upbeat. “It may be overstepping, but I’d say the two of you made the most of things from the looks of it?”
“I would like to believe the same. Hearing such things from an outsider, well, a former outsider,” Thantis clarified with a wink. “That only makes it ring more true. It was difficult remaining without a cub season after season, but it would be a greater affront to the gods to roll over and give up on life. Look where it has brought me!”
Russell and Io both smiled broadly as Thantis gestured wide with his arms, his voice ever so faintly echoing in the cavernous space. The three of them filled the time with other idle talk for the duration of the journey to the control room, where Russell helped Thantis over the rubble and into the space. “Well, we’re back,” the Jumper murmured.
The Beta Jumper team looked over at them as they arrived, with Mendes leading a quick salute before walking over to them. “Sir, welcome.”
“Thanks, Corporal. Thantis, feel free to explore but maybe don’t touch anything just yet?” Russell advised. “You’ll have all the time you need to take records.”
“Oh, that reminds me. Here, sir,” Mendes spoke to Thantis, procuring a small device from a nearby supply crate. “The Admiral asked me to provide you with this. He said you would understand how to use it?”
“A digital scroll? Wonderful, thank you,” Thantis replied, taking it from Mendes as Orlova and the others looked on with interest. Watching an elderly Cauthan figure his way around a personal device and manage to activate the recording function was a bit more exciting than overseeing a science team, whose findings would likely not be put into writing until much later. The priest of Kel had no reservations, however, ditching the scientific method in favor of postulation, with himself as interlocutor at times.
“Damn, I hope I’m that hyper at his age,” Rex remarked, as close to a compliment as one could come to expect from the burly man. Lipper nodded silently, watching as Thantis moved throughout the room, talking about the vast metal cavern, how it fit into his concept of Cauthan religion or, more often, how it did not.
“And there are several cairns, totems perhaps? They look similar to constructs I have seen aboard the ship of the humans. While that ship can traverse Kel’s domain it is not of him, at least not that I can tell. The presence of such things here is curious. I shall have to ruminate more on this at a later time as I have been, understandably, forbidden from touching them. Moving on!”
‘Isn’t he adorable?’ Io opined for Russell’s attention alone. The Jumper nodded, holding his rifle with the barrel pointed at the ground. He didn’t anticipate needing it that day, but one never knew.
“He’s taken it rather well. Serious difference versus Veera,” he pointed out.
‘The two of you have much more to lose, and I’d say Thantis has everything to gain by being here,’ the AI reasoned. He couldn’t find much fault in her statement. Instead he quietly walked towards the barrier that divided the control room, as they presumed it was, from the machinery itself that was responsible for the Lancer’s destruction. A couple of researchers he passed by, clad in field gear that made them look closer to unarmored Marines than civilians, nodded his way before returning to their work. So long as nothing popped out of a door or the walls and attempted to kill them all, he was not in immediate need. That left him plenty of time to contemplate the ‘doom laser’. Neither he nor Io had much of anything to say to one another, but after some time the AI replayed Jess’ final orders to them.
You will launch your pod. You will make planetfall. You will survive. You will return to the fleet. And you will find out what happened here.
‘The fleet technically came to us but I… I believe we’ve done it, sir,’ Io opined sadly, stashing the file away in her folder for exceptionally important things as he remained stiff and stoic, shaking his head at the alien machine.
“When this thing is gone, or dead, we’ll be done,” he agreed. “I just wish I’d brought my device with me that day. I had all the pictures stored locally. Just a handful, really, but enough to get us in trouble if someone found them.”
‘I am truly sorry, sir. If I had possessed free will back then I would have likely attempted to recover them,’ Io told him, the emotional weight of the moment compelling her to be seated and clasp her hands in her lap. ‘Is there nothing else?’
“There is, assuming nothing’s happened to my old computer and phone back home. She was always the one insisting we take pictures, you know? Not too much, just one here, another a month later, that sort of thing,” Russell explained. Crying was something he’d left in the past for the most part regarding the loss of his ship and comrades, but she’d rarely heard him so dour. “I guess I was stupid enough to think that there would always be another opportunity, or that pictures would be something we’d do if or when a family became a thing. I think we should introduce Veera to photography when we get back.”
While Russell’s eyes might have been dry, Io’s were leaking like a burst pipe in the middle of winter. It nevertheless brought a sad sort of smile to his face as she began sorting through much of the video footage from their year and change on Mara, selecting the occasional moments when Veera had been with them and tagging several. By nature of the exercise they wouldn’t be ‘couple’s photos’, but it was something. “Thanks, Io.”
‘Mein barbar, so sentimental. The pleasure is mine, sir,’ she assured him before pointing out that Private Orlova was approaching the two of them from behind. Winters figured they’d probably been standing there for some time, long enough to draw attention. He turned to face her.
“Do you need something, Private?” he asked professionally.
“No sir, but men can be obstinate about certain things,” she explained without explaining much. Io pursed her lips and nodded, however, clearly approving of the sentiment. Winters shot her a slight ‘I’ll rib you about this later’ glance. Orlova continued, not wanting to be too flippant in the presence of a superior. “You know the other two well on account of your fists, and I believe Corporal Mendes still hasn’t figured out whether to idolize you or consider you a threat. But you have our condolences, from all of us.”
Russell took a breath to consider his reply. While he was more than capable of ensuring Orlova would be the only one to hear his reply, she’d been insistent on not involving herself in the posturing and rivalry between the two divisions. He saw no reason to poke privately at a Russian bear. “Thank you, Private.”
“I think they wonder if they would have been able to do what you did. I do, at times.”
Russell brushed away the praise. “I had a lot of help from the locals, and Io, and my fabricator. Unless the Admiral has a thing for incredibly large and expensive drop pods, I think you would have had a harder time.”
‘Look at you, Mr. Humble Pie,’ Io teased him, taking a small bow as he acknowledged her role in his year of survival by flourishing a tophat before otherwise leaving him to his conversation.
“I see,” was all Orlova had by way of reply before moving on to a new topic. “At least you made some interesting friends to replace the ones you lost.” She nodded subtly at Thantis, who had taken a break from examining every inch of the control room in order to ask one of the Beta Division researchers how they managed to make their lanterns so small. Many of them were wearing helmets with lamps on the front. Russell smiled faintly behind his own.
“Yeah, they’re good people,” he agreed, readying his weapon immediately as the two of them were interrupted by one of the large, impregnable blast doors sliding open, seemingly unimpeded by millions of years of aging. A couple of the researchers audibly gasped, but Winters, being the senior military entity in the room, held his hand up for calm. “It’s the same one.”
The metallic Cauthan, which by that point was considered something of a janitor by the Beta Division personnel more familiar with the site, paused in the doorway, as if surprised to see so many living beings in its domain. No one other than the Jumpers moved as its impassive gaze swept over them, and Io made note of the fact that it passed over the military personnel quickly, possibly on account of having already ‘catalogued’ them. Perhaps predictably, the machine stopped when it noticed Thantis, prompting Russell to move swiftly but calmly to the Cauthan’s side. The flesh and blood version was having some difficulty putting his amazement into words, while the one made of metal and silicon approached and, with movement of its long dulled feathers, attempted to communicate. Io co-opted Russell’s armor to begin recording immediately, clothing herself as a mid-20th century spy, perhaps from a divided Berlin. “Did you understand that?” Russell asked Thantis.
“Not a word, Winters,” the elder replied. “If only I were female. I’d be able to do much more with my feathers.”
Multiple humans held their collective breath as the robot attempted to speak again, its eyes now singularly focused on the Cauthan. With the two of them standing side by side, it struck Russell for the first time how detailed the robot was. It was as though its creators had endeavored to give it all of the functionality of a living Cauthan, while reminding anyone looking at it that it was certainly not alive. Thantis, to his credit, was attempting to speak to the machine. “I am sorry, but I cannot understand you. Do you know of Kel, the Lord of Death and Keeper of the Balance? I serve him humbly, as my mate serves the Mother, Lady Meylith.”
The robotic lifeform cocked its head with precision, while Io waved to get Russell’s attention. ‘Sir, I understand this is the event of a lifetime but I’m picking up electromagnetic activity from within the facility, origin unknown. Not the best sign, I believe.’
“Lance Corporal, get everyone ready to leave, now,” Winters ordered, feeling his heartbeat begin to accelerate as the robot spoke again. It was a garbled mess, perhaps a long lost dialect or a truly alien tongue from another world, but one word rang in their ears like a gong. Russell and Thantis looked at one another. “You heard that too, right?”
“What do you know of Kel, my fellow servant?” Thantis implored, holding out the recording device he’d been given. “Do you know of Meylith or Uthos as well? Tyrdus or Valta? Kel’s children?”
‘Sir, the activity is getting stronger!’ Io warned, having returned to the bunker she’d used during the ursae hunt. ‘Oh dear…’
What captured Io’s attention, as well as everyone else’s in the room, was the fact that the ‘doom laser’ had begun moving at a far more rapid clip than necessary to remain aligned with the warp point of the system. As it slowly pointed its tip lower and lower, the robotic Cauthan’s eyes faded before it collapsed into a heap of metal and circuitry at Thantis’ feet. The elder was distraught, and he knelt as quickly as he could given his aging body to try to elicit any further response from the machine. Without ceremony the gigantic construct that had defended Mara’s warp point for millennia detached from its moorings and fell into the abyss, the force field protecting them from any noise associated with the calamity. The subsequent shaking of the floor beneath their feet, however, was more than sufficient to instill fear. Winters had seen enough. “Move, now!” he ordered, apologizing as he picked Thantis up and bolted for the exits behind the civilian teams and the Beta Jumpers who were in charge of their safety.
“If you have energy to scream you have energy to run fucking faster!” Rex observed of the civilians, nevertheless ensuring that none fell behind. Anything not immediately portable was left to whatever fate awaited the control room, the device, and the finally defunct robot that had maintained the facility for who knew how long. Russell could barely hear himself think over the pounding of blood in his ear and the rumbling around them, as though Mara itself were waking up from a long slumber.
“You ok?” he asked of Thantis as the still stupefied priest did his best to hold on to his cane and recorder without being too much of an imposition. “Oh man, Veera is going to kill me when she finds out about this!”
“I am glad your concerns are so relatable, my friend. But please run faster!” the priest encouraged. Russell took the advice to heart and fell silent, focusing on a steady rate of breathing while Io tried desperately, and without success, to hail the Event Horizon.
‘Oh I really wish they would just roll the boulder at us already,’ she groaned, running her hands through her increasingly frazzled hair. ‘And remind me never to ask about the concept of dread again! I’m done with it! And just so those aren’t my potential last words, I still love you damnit!’
“Later!” Russell shouted, pounding the floor with his boots as he and the other fifteen humans made to set a record for shortest trip back to the surface from the control room. Though the rumbling and shaking only got worse, along with the interference, their way out did not crumble to dust or become blocked by rubble, though they did find it quite devoid of aquila when they finally arrived. More than a couple of the civilians fell to their knees immediately, only to be hauled back to their feet by Lipper and the others, who insisted they clear the area. Io tried the Event Horizon again.
‘Natori? Natori!’
“Report!” the Admiral ordered immediately, his harried face visible along with that of Emissary Qul’Roth. The Ghaelen was not faring much better from the look of things. “What the hell happened down there, Io?”
‘You would know better than we would! Check the warp point!’ the AI insisted as Russell finally judged the three of them to be at a safe distance from the Forge. With shaking arms he set Thantis down as steadily as he could before collapsing onto his back, yanking his helmet off and sucking down the pure, Maran air.
“I really need- to run more-” the Jumper gasped, working his diaphragm and intercostals to their limits. “Oh I’m going to feel that one later. Io, what’s the word?”
‘Still waiting,’ she replied as the rest of the Event Horizon crew collected themselves, inspected what gear they’d been able to take with them, and independently contacted their ship while simultaneously trying to document what had just happened. In the meantime, Thantis contemplated things far deeper than the state of his cardiovascular health.
“Was I… not devout enough? Has my service to Kel been inadequate” the old Cauthan questioned of the ether, his mourning tone prompting Russell to sit up and look his way. He’d only known Thantis for a year and change, but he’d never seen the priest wear such a difficult expression on his face. He reached out to rest a comforting hand on Thantis’ shoulder as Io spoke to him.
‘Just the opposite, my dear friend. Don't fret,’ she advised supportively before addressing Russell as well. ‘Natori just received confirmation from his bridge crew. The corruption around the warp point is gone, sir. Whatever happened back there… we can all finally go home.’