by Isaac Hooke
The dweller didn’t respond. Tane began to wonder if he had really guessed the alien’s identity correctly. He tried to ID the dweller and got the usual unknown race, level and class.
He was about to give the order again when the dweller extended the tentacle and dropped Sinive, rather roughly, to the floor.
“She is a feisty one, isn’t she?” came a voice from the speech synthesizer attached to the base of the dweller’s head.
Even though Tane was used to the way sound double-octaved here, he still had some trouble understanding the words, considering that each one came from a different human speaker.
With a free tentacle, G’allanthamas reached into a storage pouch hanging just underneath his sideways-jawed head and retrieved some sort of waxy substance. He applied it like a salve to his leg wound.
Meanwhile, Sinive dusted off her spacesuit in a huff. “Don’t touch me again, Dweller.”
“You are the one who touched me first, Human,” G’allanthamas replied. “You stabbed me. I don’t take kindly to individuals stabbing me. Human or otherwise.”
“That’s because you were trying to snatch away my friends,” Sinive said.
“Hardly,” the alien said. “Rescuing them is the proper term.”
“They’re like two bickering children,” Jed said from where he hung beside Tane.
“You haven’t changed one bit,” Tane told the dweller. He still felt a keen sense of kinship to the alien, thanks to the memories. Tiberius had known G’allanthamas for many years. They had been on several adventures together in the Umbra, although Tane couldn’t quite remember exactly what those outings involved.
“I have changed,” G’allanthamas insisted.
“Well, either way, uh, Gall old pal, can you let us down?” Tane said.
G’allanthamas gently lowered Tane and retracted the tentacles. As for Jed, the dweller simply opened the flexible limb and let the Volur fall to the concrete floor. Still bound by the energy net, Jed hit with a loud clang.
“Um, thanks,” Jed said.
Tane removed the Restrainer from the top of his faceplate and felt better immediately. The device might prove useful if he needed to disable an Essence-wielding foe at some point in the future. He went to Jed, and likewise removed the stamina-draining knob from his helmet.
“Can you free yourself?” Tane asked as he secured the two Restrainers to loops in his harness by tightening the fabric around each of them. He didn’t have any weapons at the moment.
“Unfortunately, no,” Jed said. “My Deactivate level isn’t high enough.”
“I got this.” Sinive came forward.
Tane saw that she still wore a storage pouch at her waist. That must be where she had retrieved the energy dagger she now carried. She used the blade to cut through the net, and then sure enough returned the item to her pouch, since it wouldn’t fit the pistol holster at her hips.
Jed stood, flexing his arms a moment. Then he glanced at Tane. “I want you both to drop the intensity of your transmitters. Set the max broadcast range to five meters.”
“Done,” Tane said.
“It’s done,” Sinive said.
“Did the TSN leave you with all your items?” Tane asked Sinive.
“Nope,” Sinive replied. “They left me that dagger, my clothes collection, and not much else. No other weapons.”
“That’s why you jumped at Gall instead of shooting him,” Tane mused.
“Oh, so she was planning on shooting me too!” G’allanthamas said. “What wonderful friends you keep!”
“You’re sure there aren’t any unwanted items in that storage pouch of yours?” Jed asked Sinive.
Her eyes defocused. “No. Everything else is as it should be, even in my nested pouches. Just no weapons.”
Jed held out a hand. “Let me have a look.”
Sinive shrugged. She unfastened her pouch and tossed it to the Volur. “I’ve turned off the security features. Not just for the main pouch, but for the pouches nested inside. Have a blast.”
Jed’s eyes defocused as he accessed the remote interface. He reached inside and removed a female-shaped chest plate. He examined it for a moment and then, apparently satisfied that it was harmless, he replaced it. He sealed the pouch a moment later and tossed it back to Sinive.
“She’s clean,” Jed said.
Tane turned toward the dweller that loomed behind them. He glanced at the pouch and artifact the creature still held in different tentacles. “Can we have our items back?”
The dweller tossed Tane the pouch, and then extended the miniaturized dark artifact. Tane held his hand underneath expectedly.
G’allanthamas hesitated, then finally lowered the apple-sized object into Tane’s hand.
Tane secured the artifact to another spare loop in his harness, and then tossed the sack to Jed. “This was the robot’s storage device. Is your Deactivate level high enough to disarm the trap?” All storage devices contained traps that activated whenever anyone other than the designated owner opened them. The trap hadn’t sprung when Nelson opened it because the robot had granted the navy man access.
Jed examined the pouch, and by way of answer, he loosened the drawstrings and reached inside. He removed another pouch.
“This would be mine.” He set the pouch on the ground in front of him. He reached inside the robot’s storage device and retrieved another pouch. “And this, yours.”
Tane accepted the offered item and secured it to his utility belt. Jed also removed the D18, beam hilt, two grenades, and shield generator. Tane slid the D18 over his shoulder, and secured the remaining items to his utility belt and harness. He activated his energy shield.
Jed also removed his Chrysalium sword from the device, and his Essence-imbued pistol, and holstered each of them. Then he stowed the robot’s pouch inside his own.
“What else is inside?” Tane asked.
“Just a few trinkets,” Jed replied.
“Do you have a spare pistol for Sinive?” Tane pressed.
Jed hesitated. “Are you sure it’s wise to give her one, Engineer? Considering what she did up there?”
“She’s back to herself,” Tane said. “Just like me. Look at her.”
“No, maybe Jed is right,” Sinive said. “I can’t be trusted with a pistol.”
“I won’t be allowing one of my good friends to travel unarmed in the Umbra,” Tane said.
She shrugged inside her suit. “I’m not unarmed. I have an energy dagger.”
“Ha,” Tane said. “That’s useless against a kraal. Or dweller.” He turned toward the Volur. “She tried to tackle the dweller. And she set you free. It’s obvious she’s herself again. We can trust her. We’re going to need all the pistols we can get in the coming hours, I suspect.”
“As you wish, World Bender. Against my better judgment...” Jed grabbed a pistol from his pouch and tossed it to Sinive. “One of mine.”
The weapon caused a small convex section of blue energy to flash into existence half a meter from her body and the item bounced away. Sinive had obviously activated her shield, like Tane.
“Thanks for reducing my shield strength.” She must have deactivated the aforementioned shield because she knelt to pick up the weapon.
Tane watched nervously as she held the pistol to eye level and studied it. He knew Jed was doing the same.
Finally she holstered the weapon.
“Thank you,” Sinive said. “I can keep it?”
“Consider it a loan with an indefinite period.” Jed secured his storage pouch to his belt. He kept his gaze on her the whole time.
Tane wasn’t sure how to feel about her. He was in control of his faculties, but was she truly in control, too?
Now that he had his pouch back, Tane decided to stow the dark artifact and one of the Restrainer knobs inside. Each used up a separate inventory slot. He kept one of the Restrainers secured to his harness for easy access in case of need. He ran a quick ID on the device.
Item: Restraine
r.
Item type: Rare.
Effects: When attached to the forehead or faceplate armor of a White Essenceworker, it generates a fatigue field that prevents said individual from Siphoning. It works best when the subject is restrained, for example via an energy net, because otherwise the individual can simply reach up and remove the Restrainer, negating the effects.
“They’ll be searching for us,” G’allanthamas said. “We can’t stay here.”
“You figured that out only now, Dweller?” Sinive said. “You’re pretty smart.”
“If you ever want her killed, please let me know,” G’allanthamas told Tane. “I’d be happy to do the deed.”
Sinive glanced at Tane. “And the same goes for me.”
“Like I said, children,” Jed commented.
“There will be no killing,” Tane said. He eyed Sinive and the dweller sternly. “You’re both my friends. And you’ll both behave.”
Sinive rolled her eyes. “I don’t need some Outrimmer telling me how to behave, especially not now while I’m still recovering from having my mind taken over. If you were the World Bender, maybe I’d listen, but you’re not, so…” She sauntered off toward a side passageway.
“Sinive wait,” Tane said. “Enable sharing, and send me a call so we can communicate without using our external speakers.” He coulnd’t send a call until she turned on sharing.
She waved in annoyance, as if trying to swat a buzzing fly from her ear.
With a sigh he turned away. But a moment later Tane received a share request from her and accepted. Her indicator turned blue on the overhead map. She called a moment later, and he routed it to the shared comm channel.
She quickly moved past the five-meter range of their current broadcast settings and dropped offline.
Jed stepped toward her. “Where are you going?” He said via his external speakers.
“Out of here, hopefully,” Sinive replied over her shoulder.
“We shouldn’t let her out of our reduced comm range, Engineer,” Jed said over the comm.
“If she tries to send a transmission to the TSN, will you pick it up?” Tane asked.
“I will,” Jed replied.
“Let her have her space, then,” Tane said. “If she tries to broadcast, we’ll deal with it.”
Jed seemed about to contest him, but the nodded behind his faceplate. He kept a wary eye on Sinive, however.
“Gall, are you able to interface with our chips or postal nodes?” Tane asked via the external speakers.
“I’ve got some tech from Tiberius installed in my synthesizer, yes,” G’allanthamas said. “Just send me a request.”
“I’ll get him set up,” Jed said.
The dweller’s red indicator turned blue on the overhead map, and a call from G’allanthamas (ID: 00000000000) appeared on Tane’s HUD. He added the alien to his contact list, and then looped him into the shared comm band like he had just done for Sinive.
“Can you hear me?” the alien’s voice came over the comm. Each word still seemed sourced from a different speaker.
“Got you,” Tane said. “Now, before we go...”
Tane glanced at the nearby Dirac and felt that familiar, almost all-consuming longing.
Yes, I can’t feel fear here in the Umbra, but I can feel desire.
He definitely couldn’t leave the Dirac behind. Especially considering how much he could get for selling the crystal back in his own universe.
But he decided he didn’t want to be the one to carry it this time, considering how hard it had been to divest himself of the last one.
“Jed, you might as well grab that, too.” Tane nodded toward the Dirac.
“No!” G’allanthamas raced to the crystal and wrapped a protective tentacle around it. “My food.”
Tane glanced at the dweller in confusion. “I thought only kraals ate them?”
“Dwellers, too.” G’allanthamas dropped the crystal into the storage pouch that hung underneath his sideways-jawed head, and Tane experienced a sense of loss.
Tane shook the feeling away. “Then why did you leave it out in the open, if it’s so valuable? With those big kraals lurking out there.”
“Tastes better when you let it age in the air,” the alien explained. “And besides, kraals don’t come here. They learned long ago that they’ll find only death here.”
“I seem to recall a Convert Kraal work of the Dark,” Tane said. “That converts kraals into Diracs. Is that where you got it from?”
“You always were very good at putting two and two together, Doomwielder,” G’allanthamas said.
Thanks to Tane’s vague memories, he realized that was what G’allanthamas had called Tiberius as well.
Doomwielder.
The dweller headed toward the passageway on the far side of the concourse, opposite the egress where Sinive now loitered. Tane checked his map, but his chip didn’t have enough data to extrapolate his overall location within the city. There was no digital signage to identify where he was either, nor any positioning satellites to link to, and his map set didn’t include the pedway system underneath Durahepte. He would have to trust that G’allanthamas was leading them to safety, and not into some dweller trap. He supposed that if the dweller really wanted to make them prisoners the alien would have done so already. At this point Tane was more worried about Sinive betraying him than the dweller, anyway.
Speaking of Sinive…
“Did you detect any transmissions from Sinive?” Tane asked Jed over the comm.
“None,” Jed replied.
Tane turned toward Sinive, who was looking at him, and he gave her a come-hither wave. In response she only repeated the gesture, as if to imply that he was the one who should be following her.
He momentarily increased his broadcast range to its default setting, and on his HUD she slid back into the online column.
“Hey Sinive,” Tane said over the comm. “You’re going the wrong way.”
“No, you’re going the wrong way,” Sinive replied. “Following that dweller.”
“Sinive, he saved us,” Tane said. “I know him. Or Tiberius did. We can trust him.”
“Really...” Sinive said. “Tiberius knew him a thousand years ago. You’re certain his loyalties haven’t changed since then? You remember what happened on Remus, don’t you? Two groups of dwellers were fighting over us. One wanted to capture and enslave us. The other, kill us outright. Which faction do you think this alien belongs to?”
“Neither,” Tane said. “Isn’t that right, Gall?”
The alien didn’t answer.
“See?” Sinive said.
“Fine, go that way then,” Tane said, turning his back on her. “And we’ll go this way.” He was bluffing, of course. He wouldn’t really leave her.
He kept an eye on his overhead map as he walked toward G’allanthamas, and was relieved when Sinive’s dot hurried toward him. When she was close enough, he dropped the broadcast range of his gear back down to five meters.
Sinive assumed a position behind Tane, so that Jed brought up the rear. The warrior obviously wanted to keep an eye on Sinive, not to mention the dweller.
“Stay in front of me, Outrimmer,” Sinive said. “I want someone separating me from the dweller at all times. I might accidentally hurt the ugly creature, otherwise.”
“I prefer that the hideous human remain separated from me as well,” G’allanthamas said. “Also for her own safety. Sometimes, my tentacles strike out of their own accord, and I might accidentally throw her into a wall.”
Tane shook his head inside his helmet.
This is going to be a long day.
“Both of you are going to walk in front of me,” Tane said. “You’re just going to have to get used to each other’s proximity.”
“Hideous!” G’allanthamas said. But he offered no further complaint as Sinive moved in behind him, while Tane and Jed followed.
The dweller led them inside the concrete passageway, proceeding into the undergro
und pedway system that wound underneath the city.
Overhead light panels illuminated large bones strewn across the floor, some leaning against the walls. They were tinted blue thanks to the Umbra, and had well-defined edges, like the dweller. The largest seemed to be a thigh bone of some kind, about as big as a human body. Judging from the shape, these definitely weren’t dweller body parts, and belonged to the big kraals Tane had seen on the surface.
“Uh, where are we going, exactly?” Sinive said.
The alien didn’t reply.
G’allanthamas slowed down, meticulously lifting his eight legs to step over the bones, apparently not wanting to touch any of them.
“This is you’re doing, Gall?” Tane asked.
“Like I told you,” the dweller replied. “The kraals learned long ago not to set foot in this place.”
“I’m surprised they decay like this,” Tane said. “I guess I wasn’t sure what happened when a kraal died in the Umbra. I thought they might turn into Diracs or something.”
“Of course they decay, Engineer,” Jed said. “You forget, the environment teems with microcrillia.”
“Well these kraals must have certainly been dead a long time then,” Tane said. “Unless Gall stripped the meat from their bones.”
“I did no such thing,” G’allanthamas said. “But yes, it has been a long time.”
“By the way, how did you do that back there?” Tane asked.
“Do what?” the alien replied.
“You created a distortion tunnel beyond line of sight...”
“The artifact,” G’allanthamas said. “I imbued it with a beacon.”
Ah. So that was his secret. The alien had turned the artifact into a beacon stone. That was a level seven Essencework, for both White and Dark, so that meant the alien was high level. Probably not surprising, given his age. That didn’t mean the alien was any less mortal than the rest of his species, of course: a few well-placed Essence Missiles could take him down if he wasn’t paying attention. Or ordinary plasma or laser bolts, for that matter: it didn’t appear as if G’allanthamas had an energy shield.
“I was also able to watch you through the artifact,” the dweller admitted.