by Linda Mooney
The others got up and followed Jules as he led them through the maze of machinery to where the panel sat atop a metallic table. Massapa tried to set the portion on top of the other panel, without success. He finally resorted to leaning the piece at the foot of the panel.
“Okay. How’s this gonna work?” Cooter asked.
“Hell if I know.” Jules played with the settings on his tablet. Kyber noticed Dox scooting over to peer at the screen, giving a few suggestions with a soft voice. As the two men tried to figure out the new configurations, he sat back down on the floor.
Kleesod took a spot beside him and leaned over. “Por D’har, may I offer you my condolences. I have not had the chance to show you my sincerest sympathy for your loss.” The Seneecian’s voice was low and filled with sadness. Kyber glanced up to find his own pain reflected in his friend and fellow crewmember’s eyes.
“Your condolences are welcomed, Kleesod. I thank you.” He spoke in their native language not because he didn’t want the Terrans to overhear him, but because it had been a while since they had conversed in their home tongue. Strangely, the syllables rolling from his lips and tongue brought him comfort and a kind of serenity he hadn’t expected.
“When we reach a place of safety, we will have a ceremony for Kelen, along with one for Tojun. We will immortalize them both,” the Seneecian continued.
Kyber nodded. “Thank you. You have my gratitu—”
“Uhh, guys? Guys! You gotta see this!” Jules’s shout put everyone on alert.
Kyber scrambled to his feet and went over to where the ex-navigator was hunched over his tablet. Beside him Dox stared wide-eyed at the screen as his face grew pale.
“See what?” Sandow inquired.
Fullgrath drew his blaster. “What is it? More creatures?”
“It’s a bleep!” Jules excitedly told them. Tears began to wet his cheeks. “It’s one of Dox’s transmitters! It’s gone off!”
“What? Where?” Kyber demanded. He shoved his way between Mellori and the physician to look at the tablet for himself.
Jules pointed to a small blip going off at the bottom right-hand corner of the tablet, nearly undetectable. “Right there!”
“There where?” Kyber growled. “Where is it emanating?”
Jules shook his head. “Not here. I mean, it’s not coming from this temple. Hell, it’s completely off my chart of this place!”
“Is it coming from another temple?” Sandow guessed. “Check to see if it’s originating from one of the other temples. You still have them on file, don’t you?”
Jules made the adjustments as everyone waited in silence. A spark of hope lit a dim light inside Kyber’s soul, but he refused to acknowledge it, much less encourage it. Curling his fingers into his palms, he tried to follow as Jules recalibrated the equipment.
“It’s coming from the other temple!” the ex-navigator almost crowed. “It’s a signal coming from the…from within a yellow dot. Guys! It’s coming from a lower chamber at the ice temple!”
“But whose signal is it?” Cooter demanded. He counted heads. “We’re all here, so whose signal is it?”
“Kelen’s signal,” Dox quietly answered. Lifting his tearstained face, the young man peered directly at Kyber. “It’s Kelen’s signal. It turned on.”
Chapter 8
Return
The room grew quiet and hazy as Kyber tried to assimilate the words Dox had spoken. After a few seconds, and unable to believe he’d heard correctly, he asked for clarification.
“What did you say, Dox?”
The little man pointed at the tablet in Jules’ hands. “That signal. It’s Kelen’s.”
“How do you know that?” Fullgrath demanded.
“Pulse rate is hers. The one I gave her.”
Kyber focused on the tiny blip. It was Jules who confirmed.
“Fuck me, he’s right! It’s ancient Morse code. Watch! Long-short-long-short. That’s a C. Short-short-short-short. H. Short-long. A. Long-short-long-short. Another C again. It’s spelling out C-H-A.” The ex-navigator let out a whoop. “C-H-A! For Chambliss! It is Kelen!”
Kyber turned to Dox. “Are all pulses set for the first three letters of the name?” he almost growled. His heart was thundering in his chest. His soul was screaming for him to go after her, but his judgment told him he had to be sure. He had to be one hundred percent certain before rushing off after her.
Dox gave a short nod. “Last name. First three letters. All that would fit.”
Kyber’s heart took control and he whirled on Jules. “Get that thing working!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Sandow stepped between the two men and got into Kyber’s face. “Listen, Kyber, if this is really Kelen sending out a signal, we all want to go to her rescue. But we also have to be cautious about this. What if the signal is a fluke? What if Hoov or one of his disciples found it and turned it on?”
“What if Kelen is trying to reach us?” Kyber softly growled.
Cooter moved in close to them and hefted his pulse rifle. “We’ve beaten those insectoids before. If we have to, we can do it again. We can’t take the chance it’s from her. I say we go take a looksee. Whaddaya say, huh?”
“We have to be patient until we can get a firm sighting on this signal,” Sandow said.
“Hold on! I think we got this!”
A single gold filament connected the tablet to the portion of the alien panel they’d brought with them. Kyber stared at what he could of the small screen that was visible between Jules and Dox. He forced himself to remain quiet and let the two work their magic. After another minute, Jules pumped a fist in the air.
“Yes! Locked on! Okay. We can now use the little panel to reach the next temple, whichever one it is. But, as I mentioned before, I can’t guarantee which temple it’ll be.”
“Not a problem in my book.” Cooter took a stance on the platform and held his weapon at-ready. “If we land in the ice temple, fine and dandy. If we land in the garden, we know we can also reach the ice temple from there.” He gave his head a solid nod. “Hit it, fly boy! Let’s get this show on the road!”
“All right. You know the drill,” Jules reminded him. “Stay on the platform. The transfer should cycle within ten seconds and automatically return you so you can tell us what to expect.”
“Good luck,” Mellori added.
The security officer flashed them a grin and braced himself. As before, one moment he was there, and a heartbeat later he was gone. Everyone seemed to mentally count down the seconds for the man to reappear. At the end of the count, they stared at the platform.
Cooter didn’t return.
“My God, what’s happened to him?” Mellori’s soft inquiry spoke for all of them.
Fullgrath jumped onto the metal table. “He may need backup. Send me, Jules!”
Before anyone could object, the weapons master vanished. This time Mellori counted down aloud.
“Seven…eight…nine…ten.” He paused. “I said ten, damn it!”
The table remained empty.
“What now?” The engineer looked to Kyber. “What’s the next plan of action?”
“Have you considered the fact that the return mechanism is faulty?” Gaveer suggested, peering at Jules. The ex-navigator turned the question over to Dox, who appeared just as confused as the rest of them.
“Then I suggest we continue onward,” Kyber announced. Raising his hand to waylay any further argument, he continued. “If they are in trouble, it is up to us to provide additional help. One way or another, we cannot remain here.” He took a stand on the platform and gave Jules a nod.
The hot, orange-tinted room was replaced with a blast of freezing cold. Add the advancing darkness enveloping him, and Kyber found himself momentarily at a loss as to where to go. The wind picked up, forcing him to jump off the platform as bits of frozen rain sliced through the main opening in the temple and pelted him like a hundred tiny knives. Running to the nearest wall, he pressed his back against it when he
heard his name. Following the sound, he felt a hand grab his arm and jerk him behind another wall.
“Your eyes are better than mine,” Fullgrath almost yelled in the Seneecian’s ear. “Keep an eye on the platform for the next person coming through, will ya?”
“Where is Cooter?”
“Going after dinner.”
“What?”
“Let me know when you see someone.”
The next person to appear was Gaveer, followed by Kleesod. The Terrans came next. Massapa was last to show. As they appeared, Kyber and Fullgrath quickly helped them off the platform to wait for the next person. Once they were all gathered, they made their way to the alcove they had used before to seek asylum from the worsening weather.
Sandow dug a lighter from his package of goods and started a fire. Kyber noticed him pulling out a piece of metal that looked suspiciously like part of the canister that had contained the soup they’d eaten. The physician caught his intense stare.
“I learned a long time ago to make do with what I had. I figured at some point I’d need a mortar and pestle to grind down ingredients to make medicine, and this would do nicely. Here, Gaveer. Fill it with snow for me, would you? I can set this over the fire to melt into water for us to drink.”
The Seneecian quickly obeyed, returning with it packed with ice crystals.
“How does it look out there?” Kleesod asked.
“Brutal.”
Once they settled down, Mellori demanded answers from Fullgrath. “Why didn’t you return?”
“Couldn’t. We were attacked by a whole herd of those big furry things.” The weapons master snorted. “They were sniffing around and seemed on edge. Or at least it appeared that way. Cooter shouted a warning at me when I appeared. Seems the creatures didn’t appreciate him showing up right in the midst of them and tried to attack him. He said there were too many to fire upon, and felt he had no choice but to jump off and run for it. He hoped they would try to go after him and whoever came through next would be safe, but then he realized I wouldn’t be aware of those things being around. So he kept them at bay until I showed. Between the two of us, they took off, when Cooter said to fuck it, he wasn’t gonna let dinner get away, and he ran after them.” The man shrugged. “That’s the last time I saw him.”
“Jules, what is our proximity to Kelen’s signal?” Kyber softly inquired.
“Already locked in. It’s coming from directly below us.” Jules pointed downward. “Two hundred meters down.”
A banging on the wooden door suddenly silenced them, until a voice yelled above the howling wind. “Hey! I know you guys are in there! How about some fast food? And I do mean fast!”
Kleesod and Fullgrath managed to open the door, shutting it behind the security officer as he dragged in the body of the creature he’d killed. Cooter flashed them his toothy grin.
“Who here ordered takeout?”
He jerked the creature closer to the fire, when a familiar tremor began to vibrate through the floor.
Chapter 9
Glyphs
When they brought her some more water, Kelen was on the verge of falling back to sleep. Several furries had returned, exiting several of the large yellow cubes she now thought of as hives and laying along her back and down her sides to share warmth. She opened her eyes as a thought came to her and she slowly sat up, careful not to allow any furry to fall off of her and hurt itself. Kelen watched as one fuzzy slowly ambled to one of the golden cubes and vanish inside it. A moment later, another furry, one whose pelt was a different shade, exited the cube and walked toward her. Apparently a changing of the guard. She lifted herself up enough to where she could drink the cold liquid without spilling it. Setting the bowl to the side, she laid back down to rest.
It was growing dark outside. As dusk descended, a soft glow filled the chamber. For the first time she realized the cavern walls were luminescent. Either they had a light source behind them, or they were also solar powered, like the machinery.
Her thoughts grew foggy. She was beginning to think the black lumps were definitely spiked with some sort of sleeping agent. But unlike the food that Hoov’s people tried to feed her and the others, she wasn’t fearful of eating it because she trusted the furries. They had done all they could to keep her alive, although she wondered if they hadn’t been talking among themselves about what to do with her.
She felt a movement along her hip. If she wanted, she could reach out and touch the creatures, but she resisted the urge. She had no idea how these aliens would react to her putting her hand on them, no matter what her intent. However, it had become clear early on that they weren’t averse to touching her.
She sniffed. The furries had a musky, almost cinnamon like scent. Not unpleasant. Wonder what I smell like to them.
They conversed a lot among themselves. Mostly chirps and purrs, and a few chitters. Vaguely she wondered if Dox would be able to come up with a translator for them. I have no doubt he’d love the challenge.
She was also beginning to tell a few of them apart from the others. They all sported yellow fur, but the shades ranged from a pale, almost milky yellow to a very dark, nearly caramel tint. Some of them also had physical deformities, which she presumed was a result of previous tussles with Hoov’s people.
A fuzzy passed in front of her face. It was so close, she could blow on its fur. “Hey.” She kept her voice to a whisper so as not to alarm it. The furry alien paused to look at her. Its nose with its three slitted nostrils wriggled in her direction as it waited for her to continue.
“Hey, how long do you plan on me staying here? Any idea when the doctor will let me go home?”
Go home. That hard pressure in her chest returned. There was nowhere for her to go. There was no home. And no one to go home to.
Kyber, where are you? What are you doing? Have you been thinking of me?
Was he even alive?
The furry made a little burbling noise, then continued walking in the direction it had been heading. Kelen closed her eyes again and tried to clear her mind. Rest was the order of the day. It was the best thing for her if she was to heal and survive. Because once she was able to move about on her own without risking falling or further injuring herself, she was going to find the nearest teleportation panel to try and find where the others had gone.
The wind seemed to pick up outside, but a quick glance behind her showed the sail-like panels were keeping the worst of the weather at bay. She heard a familiar scraping sound and turned her head to see Five had returned and was pushing the empty bowl back to the cubes. Curiosity made her wonder again if it had lost that middle limb in an accident, in an attack, or if it had been born that way.
She noticed the vibration immediately. It was more of a low-range hum under her body, as if a giant machine had been turned on. But as it increased, so did the sound.
All of the little fuzzies around her pressed more tightly about her. Either to protect her, or to use her as a source of protection, she couldn’t tell. Five made the smarter move and turned the bowl over before ducking underneath it.
The far wall that was covered with the sail cloth moved, as if it was being blown by the wind. Until the floor started to shake.
Kelen clutched the floor with her hands and kept a close eye on the ceiling. She’d felt ice tremors while she was in this yellow chamber, but none of them amounted to much. Nor did they last long. But as the trembling and noise increased, she quickly realized this quake was going to be a major one.
The ground suddenly heaved upward, cracking like lightning as the golden panels buckled and broke apart from the stress. Kelen watched as cracks appeared in the nearest cube in front of her, then shattered like glass to reveal…
Nothing. There was nothing there. She’d half-expected to see little burrows, or at least some kind of arrangement of tiny apartments. When the cube fell apart in minute shards, there was nothing there…
She gasped at the sight of the square-shaped hole where the cube’s base had
been. A hole that led down further into the depths of the planet. There was no chance to examine the hole’s interior. The ground bucked upward again, and more cracks appeared in the floor. The cracks widened, and one of them splintered off to race toward her. Realizing she was in its direct path, she picked herself up and threw herself to one side. Furries jumped off of her and out of the way, scurrying across the floor toward…
The wall. They were racing for the wall and the tunnel entrance that had to be there.
She glanced down at the oncoming crack, like a deep vein running through the planet’s core. Somehow she managed to get to her feet to limp after the crowd of fleeing furries, when she caught sight of the upside-down bowl. Bending down, she pulled away the bowl and scooped up the terrified fuzzy. Cradling it in her arm, she gritted her teeth and pushed herself as she followed the disappearing herd.
Thanks to them, she was able to spot the concealed hole where they were vanishing. At the last second, she remembered the tunnel could be one of those smaller ones with a low-hanging ceiling. Getting on her hands and knees, she first reached out to feel for the opening’s dimensions. She was right. It was one of the smaller ducts. As the cavern gave another jump, she ducked inside and paused.
Hundreds of little furries sat huddled in groups, paralyzed with fear. Kelen hoped it was because of the quake and not due to her presence. She remembered Five in her arms, and carefully set the trembling alien on the ground. To her delight and surprise, the fuzzy pressed itself along her leg, reluctant to leave her.
The roar coming from the cavern began to lessen, but she knew there would be aftershocks. Some of which could be as powerful or even stronger than the initial quake that spawned them. Lying on her belly, she faced what could almost be the entire population of furries for as far as she could see.