by Tammy Walsh
And then… what?
What would we do? Would we live with my parents and help them out on their farm? Would we return to her planet and meet her friends and family? Where would we set up our lives? Where would we choose to be?
I didn’t know. And that was what made it so exciting.
Anything was possible.
So long as I was with her, everything would work out. So long as she was by my side, nothing else mattered.
Even sooner than that, we would be in each other’s arms again. I could share a room with her, kiss her, taste her…
And no one could stop me.
This time, there would be no secrets hanging over us. No threat of death, no fake shuttlecraft sitting ready and waiting to destroy us the moment we reached it.
We would be free.
And that made everything I’d gone through worth it.
Thump.
Something thudded on the other side of the back wall of my cell. A fountain of dust dribbled onto the floor at my feet.
What the hell?
I bent down and rubbed the dust between my fingertips. It was soft and spread like paint.
Thump.
Another shower of dust cascaded to the floor.
I stood up.
That dull ache in the pit of my stomach I felt when something didn’t feel right was going haywire.
Deep rumbling vibrations rose from the soles of my feet and up my legs, making my entire body shake.
A stone tumbled from the back wall and thudded on the tile floor. I approached the wall and placed my hands on it. Beneath my palms, I could feel the same rumbling vibrations.
Whatever it was, it was coming from behind this wall.
I pressed my ear to the cool surface.
There was something else there…
Something just beneath the rumbling, almost inaudible…
Almost.
It was the grinding screech of metal against stone, and earth being shoved aside. It grew louder even than the rumbling.
I stepped as far away from the wall as I could, until my back pressed against the front wall of my cell.
From this wider angle, I noticed the dust wasn’t only falling within my cell, it was cascading in a flood along the entire back wall. Dirt swelled in growing mounds.
I turned and shouted.
“Somebody!” I said. “Something’s happening in here!”
It was no good. I was drowned out by the loud grinding.
A tile slipped off and smashed on the floor, then another, and another, until it was raining ceramic tiles. The wall bent inwards, giving in to some unseen force.
But there shouldn’t have been anything on the other side. Nothing but solid rock.
Nothing could travel through this material. Not even a sand serpent.
Then something alien and lifeless reared its head. Metal teeth gnashed gears and ground to a crescendo as the entire wall fell, smothering the room with dirt and dust. The cell walls fractured and exploded into metal shards.
A pair of bright red eyes glared at me.
A single metal pole smacked me across the head, knocking me to the ground. A high-pitched squeal filled my ears as the dust swirled and fell, dusting me with a thick layer of dirt and blocking out the light.
I was safely tucked away inside a cocoon of earth, but even there, I could hear the explosions and rattles of blaster fire, the screams of dying creatures, and others shouting orders that echoed up and down the endless hallways and corridors of the underground base.
My fears about the Changeling siblings and their sly sinister expressions had come true.
Something terrible had happened.
But not in here.
I was safe in my little cocoon.
But Maddy wasn’t safe.
She was out there somewhere among that noise.
I got up, birthed from the thick mound of dirt and detritus. My throat was dry. I choked on clods of dirt. I spat the mud from my mouth and rubbed at my eyes to work the dust free.
My eyes leaked. Water ran from the corners of my eyes. I stayed there a moment on my hands and knees, disorientated.
Without the protective cover of dirt, the noises were nightmarish. I got to my knees, then my feet, slowly, and checked my limbs were unharmed and still working. I pressed a hand to my head where the metal pole had struck me. It was tender but there was no blood.
My cell walls had been shredded beyond repair and the entire room was covered with a layer of dirt at least two feet high.
The giant digger the Changelings had used to burst through the base’s walls was a large and sinister-looking device. It had two large headlamps the color of red demon eyes and a twin pair of arms that ended with twisted drill bits as tall as me. For now, they rested, their job complete.
Familiar footsteps rushed through the dust at my feet.
I would have recognized their tracks anywhere.
Changelings.
My stomach lurched the way it always did when one of my strong suspicions came true.
The Changelings had discovered the base’s location.
That was the reason the Changelings had that mischievous look on their faces.
They knew they might have lost the battle, but they would not lose the war.
I staggered toward the door that led to the hallways. I eased the door open and immediately pulled back.
Half a dozen Changelings stood with their backs to me. Most had morphed into various alien species and gripped blaster weapons in hands and claws. They fired around the corner at an entrenched Yayora position.
Red-hot anger pulsed through me.
I eased the door open and crept up behind the Changeling soldiers. I kicked a Changeling’s knees out from behind and scooped my arm around his neck. With the other hand, I grabbed his blaster pistol and opened fire on the Changelings.
Taken by surprise, three of the figures leaped back, directly in the Yayoras’ line of fire. The other creatures leveled their pistols at me. Most bolts of plasma found their comrade clutched in my arm, even as he attempted to shift into a different creature.
I opened fire on the unprotected Changelings. One fell with a bolt in the chest. The other took a wound in the shoulder and disappeared down the hallway.
I dropped the dead body and approached the corner.
“Don’t shoot!” I shouted. “I’m Chax. The Titan prisoner you keep in the cells. I’ve taken out the other Changelings. I’m putting my weapon down and I’m going to step into the hallway. Please don’t shoot me.”
“How do we know you’re not a Changeling?” a Yayora soldier said.
“I’ll roll up my sleeves so you can see there’s no band of skin around my wrists.”
No response came.
“Okay?” I said.
“Go ahead,” the Yayora soldier said.
I shut my eyes and said a prayer. Please don’t let me get shot. Maddy needs me.
I rounded the corner with my hands held up, my forearms and wrists on full display. I stepped over a couple of fallen bodies. One was a Changeling, the other a Yayora.
When I reached the end, they were quick to grab me and check me for weapons.
“Did you get them all?” the Yayora soldier said.
He was shorter than the others, with a terrible haircut that made his forehead too big. He had the spark of intelligence in his luminous yellow eyes. His name was stenciled across his jacket: V’SEN.
“All but one,” I said. “He escaped down a hallway.”
V’Sen nodded to a pair of his soldiers. They took off in the direction I’d just come from.
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to put you back in the cells,” V’Sen said.
“I’m not going back in the cells,” I snapped. “There aren’t even any cells for me to go back to. They were destroyed by the digger.”
That caught his attention.
“There’s a digger in the cells too?” V’Sen said.
That meant there ha
d to be more of them. It made sense. The Changelings knew the rough area where the base was, but not its precise location. They must have sent multiple diggers, certain one would break through the base’s defenses. Once the tunnel was dug, the Changeling soldiers could flood the base and take the Yayora by surprise.
It was a disaster.
“Give me a blaster,” I said. “More than one if you can spare it. And some grenades. I’ll fight alongside you. But my goal is to find and protect Maddy. That’s what matters most to me. Tell me where she is.”
V’Sen didn’t respond right away. He considered the situation. With how easily the Changelings had blasted through their defenses, they needed all the help they could get.
He handed me his pistol but gave me none of their grenades.
“We need to return to command for new orders,” V’Sen said. “The first thing the Changelings did when they breached our walls was take down our communication systems. I sent a messenger to command but he hasn’t returned.”
It wasn’t in the Changelings’ nature to take prisoners.
I hustled down the hallways and paused at each intersection. I peered around the corners before continuing.
The Yayora soldiers were well-trained. They kept a close eye on their rear as we bolted down the hallways one after another.
The lights blinked off and immediately switched to red. They flashed.
“Self-destruct sequence initiated,” Computer said. “T-Minus ten minutes.”
“Um… Is this something we should be worried about?” I said.
V’Sen didn’t answer me.
Dust continued to fall in some areas, forming a shroud that made attacking difficult. But it was also an advantage. The Changelings would find it just as hard to see as we did.
The reassuring echoing tap of our footsteps off the nearby walls faded as the hallway expanded. It was difficult to see much further than two yards out but already I could tell this was a much larger room than the regular hallways.
V’Sen approached a nondescript door.
“They should be in here,” he said.
I reached for the handle. V’Sen raised a hand and shook his head. He knocked on the door in a strange and unusual rhythm.
Probably a way for people on either side to know we were one of their own.
No response came.
V’Sen repeated his secret knock.
And again, there was no response.
He glanced at me with hard eyes. He didn’t need to give me an order. It was clear from his expression that it was not what he’d been hoping for.
He reached for the handle. He pressed it but it wouldn’t open. He tried again.
No good.
“Computer,” he said. “Open the command center door.”
“Negative,” Computer said. “The self-destruct sequence has been initiated. Please process to the closest exit.”
I kicked at the door. It didn’t produce so much as a smudge.
“It’s no good,” V’Sen said. “You’ll never get inside in time.”
“Want to bet?” I said, striking with another kick.
“She won’t be there,” V’Sen said.
“Say that again. I thought that was why we came here?”
“We came here to get my new instructions. Now that the self-destruct sequence has been initiated, the instructions are the same for everyone.”
“What?” I said.
“We must pull back.”
“Pull back where?”
“To the emergency base.”
“The emergency base? And where’s that?”
I never got to hear V’Sen’s response.
A scream cut him short.
My insides turned to water. I turned to face the thick mist that’d descended over the entire area. I gauged the direction the scream had come from and took after it.
The scream was nothing unusual. I must have heard dozens since emerging from my dirt cocoon.
As horrible as they were, none of the other screams meant much to me.
This one did.
It belonged to her.
I could only pray I wasn’t already too late.
Maddy
Ever since I discovered the location of the Control Room the Changelings used to oversee Lovers’ Escape, the Yayora leaped into action, improving their shuttlecrafts, boosting their speed, armor, and weapons systems. Chief among them, and leading the operation, was Stari. She weaved between the ships, checking their diagnostics and ensuring they were ready to launch in the morning.
The morning.
That was when they would launch their attack on the Changelings. They had waited all this time for that one piece of information. Now they had it, they intended on acting upon it immediately.
“Stari?” I said. “Can I speak with you for a minute?”
“Of course you can,” Stari said, before turning to the mechanic working on a shuttlecraft that looked like it’d seen better days. “Hey, Morpik!”
“What?” the mechanic said.
“I thought you said this hunk of junk would be ready to fly already?” Stari said.
“What can I say?” he said. “Sometimes perfection takes a while.”
“We don’t need perfection!” Stari said. “Operational is good enough!”
“Is that what you tell yourself every day when you do your makeup?” the mechanic said.
“You…”
Stari snatched up a wrench and hurled it at the mechanic’s head. He barely ducked in time.
“Hey!” the mechanic said. “That almost hit me! Be careful next time!”
Another mechanic approached the toolbox and searched for a wrench. He was finding it difficult to locate the size he was looking for.
“Go check over there on the floor,” I said to him.
The mechanic rolled his eyes.
“Stari again?” he said.
I grinned at him. I had no idea it was a common occurrence around here.
“As I was saying,” I said, turning back to Stari.
She wasn’t there.
I spun around to try and locate her but it wasn’t until I heard another wrench bounce along the floor somewhere that I realized where she was.
“So as I was saying,” I said, catching up to her again. “Chax told me about a funny feeling he has that the Changeling siblings are up to something.”
“They’re locked up in one of our cells,” Stari said, checking a report. “I would say their ‘up to something’ days are well and truly numbered.”
“I know,” I said, “but I really think he’s onto something. I mean, he’s had to deal with Changelings a lot more often than the rest of us. He knows them. He knows what their tells are.”
“What’s a tell?”
“It’s something in a game called poker back home. That doesn’t matter. Look, I think he’s telling the truth.”
“And what’s his evidence that they’re up to something?”
“He has a feeling.”
“He has a feeling?” Stari repeated back to me, pouring a whole load of doubt on top for good measure. “That’s not exactly the most powerful evidence I’ve ever heard.”
“I can’t tell you how I know he’s right, I just do.”
Stari studied my expression.
“First, a feeling from him, and now a feeling from you,” she said.
“Trust me,” I said. “If he says they’re up to something, then you can bet your bottom credit he’s right. And you don’t want a surprise to suddenly spring up when you’re so close to getting your homeworld back, do you?”
Stari finished checking the paperwork and handed it to an assistant. She kept her eyes on me but spoke to the mechanic.
“Increase the dampeners,” she said.
She sighed and shook her head.
“I suppose not,” she said. “But they’re locked up. What could they do that might cause such a big problem?”
“Maybe it’s not what they do, it’s what they know.
”
Stari scanned my expression.
“They know something?” she said. “About us?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
Stari leaned in close to me.
“I understand you’re in love with this dude,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean he has any kind of supernatural powers.”
“I’m not saying he does,” I said.
How could I put this in a way she could understand?
“Sometimes, when something occurs, did you know, deep in your gut, that it would happen?” I said. “Maybe there’s something wrong with an engine or a mechanic is lying to you about the work he did on an engine—”
Stari folded her arms.
“My mechanics never lie to me,” she said.
“Okay. Then you know something. You can’t explain how you know, you just do. That’s what he’s feeling right now. He knows they’re up to something. He’s seen the same expression on their faces a thousand times. He doesn’t trust them.”
“Nobody trusts a Changeling.”
I wasn’t getting through to her. I needed to push a little harder.
“During our whole journey to the shuttlecraft, Chax knew how to handle the Changelings we came across,” I said. “Without him, I never would have gotten anywhere.”
“Without him, you never would have been involved in this in the first place,” she said pointedly.
I held up my hands. Fair enough.
“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” I said.
Stari smiled to herself.
“Better to be safe than sorry,” she said. “I like that. Do you have any ideas on how we’re supposed to get this information out of them?”
“I guess by questioning them?”
Stari made a fart noise with her lips.
“Those two don’t know what the word truth means,” she said. “Every word they say is probably a lie. We can’t believe anything they tell us.”
“Then maybe we don’t need to question them,” I said. “Try running scans.”
“We already took their tracking devices away,” Stari said. “What else could it be?
She threw up her hands.
“Fine,” she said. “We’ll run the tests. But don’t be surprised if they don’t show anything. Is there anything else you wanted while I’m busy doing your bidding?”