by Elin Wyn
“Ah,” Trevor said with a big nod. “Makes sense.”
“Good, now help me secure the rigging so we don’t lose him,” Sylor ordered. While my brother helped me attach the climbing gear to myself, Sylor and Trevor found a place to anchor my guideline. The other two guards kept a lookout at the surrounding desert in case any vines or animals decided to attack.
“You sure about this?” Rokul asked me.
“No,” I answered simply.
I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to chase after some idiot human with no concept of safety and no feelings towards anyone else’s well-being. I was not happy with this woman.
“Just, be careful, okay,” he said. “Remember what we saw on the trip into the first crater?”
I nodded.
It was more a case of what we didn’t see.
And that was concerning.
Karzin’s first encounter with the vines hadn’t gone well. They attacked him relentlessly, viciously. There was speculation, from all of us, that Karzin’s first encounter wasn’t really his first one. The Puppet Master had been known to secrete a memory-loss gas when it attacked.
So we had no way of knowing.
“I believe that I’m ready,” I said as we finalized the last buckle.
I took out a glow stick, snapped it to activate it, and then I slowly lowered myself down into the crater. I was unable to see the bottom of the hole, so I had no idea how far down it went.
Approximately ten to fifteen feet down, where the natural light started to disappear, I found a small ledge that was connected to a tunnel. I stopped my descent. I grabbed my glow stick and held it out into the tunnel. It looked to be a bit shorter than I was. If I traversed down the tunnel, I would have to do so at a slight stoop.
It was wide, however. My brother and I could have walked shoulder to shoulder and still not touch the sides.
At the end of the tunnel, I could see Daphne. I climbed onto the ledge and began to make my way towards her. She was covered in dirt, yet she was smiling.
It lit up her face, something I could see even from here.
What was she doing? I asked myself as I crawled towards her. Then I finally got a clear look. She was touching a vine. She was actually touching the vine, something we had warned the citizens of the city against.
Yet, here she was, touching it…wait…she was petting it. She was stroking it as though it were some sort of animal. How could she do that? Didn’t she know it was dangerous? Was the vine making her forget?
Was that why she was touching it? She had forgotten it was dangerous?
I fumbled with my buckles, trying to unclip myself. I cursed Rokul and his inability to tie a proper knot or to properly clip me in. It took too many moments for me to finally unhook myself. As soon as I did, I got to my feet and rushed for Daphne.
She looked over at me and for the briefest of moments, I thought she didn’t recognize me. Her mannerisms suggested that she didn’t know who I was, then suddenly her eyes went wide.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
I grabbed her and yanked her away from the vine. “Don’t touch that thing. What is wrong with you?” I hadn’t noticed how loud my voice was, but the tunnel around me began to shake.
She tried to pull away from me. “What are you doing?” she repeated angrily. “It wasn’t doing anything to me.”
“Enough!” I yelled.
I shouldn’t have done that. The tunnel trembled and shook even more, sending dirt and debris falling. There was a rumbling sound as the shaking continued, eventually culminating in a loud crash as the opening to the tunnel collapsed. The roof of the tunnel continued to fall down the length of it, finally stopping maybe six feet away from us.
“Oh, no,” Daphne whispered.
We were trapped, stuck underground with no way out, and a vine sitting right next to us.
And the day had started so well.
Daphne
Just as quickly as it had appeared, the vine slithered back into the ground. And all because of this stupid Skotan.
Had I thought he was hot?
All of that burned away in my irritation.
Pointing my flashlight at the ground, I tried to see where the vine had gone to but, of course, I couldn’t find any sign of it anywhere. The cave-in and the screams from the Skotan had scared it, it seemed.
“You idiot,” I hissed. “Look at what you’ve done.”
“And what exactly have I done?” he asked me, arms folded over his chest as he stared at me. He didn’t look too happy to be trapped in this tunnel with me, but I didn’t care about his feelings. This was his fault. He didn’t see it that way, though. “This is your fault, miss.”
“Oh, really?” I threw back at him, feeling angrier by the second. “You were the one that came here screaming like a maniac. If you hadn’t, we wouldn’t be trapped in here.”
“You were already trapped here, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“No, I wasn’t,” I replied. “I fell here, sure, but the packed dirt of the crater side would be enough for me to climb back up.”
“That doesn’t sound like much of a plan,” he sighed, shaking his head as if he were scolding a child.
God, why was he being so damn condescending? I knew I wasn’t supposed to be here, but that didn’t change the fact that this idiot’s sudden appearance had made things a hundred times worse.
Especially because I knew I was on to something...the vines didn’t seem as menacing as everyone believed, and I was pretty sure there was an intelligent being at play here.
I thought idly back to how he had felt when he had pulled me back and sheltered me from the cave in.
How his strong muscles had wrapped me against him.
With a deep breath, I willed myself to focus. Not hot, not hot.
“My plan was good enough.”
“Really?” he insisted, cocking an eyebrow up. “I didn’t know you had a grand plan. Care to share?”
I paused for a moment, not sure on what I should tell him. In the end, I just shrugged. “I’m pretty good at making plans up on the fly.”
He just stared at me as if I had said the most idiotic thing in the universe, but I didn’t pay him any attention. Turning my back to him, I placed my bag on the ground and started pulling my equipment out. I had fallen on top of the bag over and over again as I tumbled down the crater, and I needed to check if the equipment was still operational.
Even though I was pissed at him for causing the cave-in, I couldn’t deny that this was the opportunity I needed. If we weren’t trapped in here, I would already be on my way back to Nyheim. Now, though, I had the chance I needed to investigate.
“What are you doing?” he asked me, standing right behind me as he glanced at my equipment. “We don’t have any time to play around. We have to return to the surface. We should start removing the blockage and—”
“No,” I shook my head, a small grin spreading across my lips. “If you do that, you risk making things worse. You start removing the blockage, and there’s going to be a further cave-in.” He frowned then, but I could see he agreed with me. He still eyed the blockage for a couple of seconds, as if trying to confirm what I had told him, but his stern expression told me he had no choice but to agree with me.
Satisfied to see all of my equipment still worked, I started packing it all inside my bag once more. “We’re trapped in here for the time being,” I continued, looking back at him over my shoulder, “so we might as well use the opportunity to find something worth examining.”
“You’re insane,” he sighed. “We’re trapped in here, and your main concern is collecting samples? Do you even know what these vines are capable of? We’re in danger here.”
“Are we?” I snapped. “Because I didn’t feel like I was in any danger...before you showed up and started making a scene, that is. Besides, we have no choice but go deeper down the tunnel. Unless, of course, you have a better idea.”
He didn’t
bother with a reply. Instead, he grabbed the radio hanging from his belt and brought it up to his face. “This is Takar,” he started, holding one of the buttons on his radio. “I’ve located the human female, but there has been a cave-in. We’re going to try and find an alternate way out.”
There were a few seconds of silence, the static noise coming from the radio bouncing against the tunnel walls, but then there was a crackle and a voice. “Copy that,” the voice replied, sounding calm and collected. “We’re going to start looking for other craters that might serve as an exit point. We’ll also start doing sonic scans to see if we can map out the tunnels.”
“Copy that,” Takar sighed, and then continued saying something else. I was no longer paying attention, though. I started advancing through the tunnel, using my flashlight to light the way, and kept my eyes peeled to see if I could find any more vines.
“Hey,” Takar cried out, his heavy footsteps echoing through the tunnel as he made his way toward me. “We should stick together. Don’t rush ahead without me.”
“Then keep up,” I grinned.
“Do you even have any idea what you’re doing?” he insisted. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with here, miss.”
“The name’s Daphne,” I frowned, stopping for a moment to look at him. “And, yes, I know exactly what I’m doing here. I’m conducting an investigation into the Puppet Master. I think it’s time someone does it, don’t you?”
“What do you think the general has been trying to do?” he threw back at me. “We have a whole team of scientists working day and night to—”
“Well, it’s not working, is it?” I cut him short, now carefully analyzing the walls with my flashlight, hoping to see any vestige of the vines. “The way I see it, the government is more preoccupied with trying to prevent further incidents than trying to get to the bottom of this.”
“Of course we’re worried about further incidents!”
“Yeah,” I nodded, “but it’s not like you’ll be able to do it while having no idea what you’re dealing with. I mean, you call it the Puppet Master...but do you even have any idea what it is?”
“A dangerous threat,” he replied almost immediately, almost as if he didn’t care about a further explanation. Why did these soldiers only see the world in black and white? Either things were dangerous, or they were inoffensive...for them, there was no middle ground, apparently.
“Are you even sure it’s a creature?”
“Might not be,” he shrugged. “But it’s dangerous all the same.”
“See? That’s the problem with you guys,” I shook my head. “If you really want to stop things from getting any crazier, you have to understand what you’re dealing with. And that requires a thorough examination.”
“And do you think you’re the person to do it?”
“Actually,” I smiled, “I do.”
Takar
Getting back to the surface anytime soon was out of the question.
Getting this woman to believe that I was right about the Puppet Master was out of the question.
Getting myself to calm down and fully understand this insane woman was out of the question.
Unfortunately, those were the only questions I had and I needed to have them answered.
Daphne was, by far, the most annoyingly persistent—or persistently annoying—woman of any species that I had ever met. She was insistent on following through with her ‘study’ of the Puppet Master. She refused to give in.
“Why won’t you simply accept the fact that what you’re doing is wrong?” I asked her.
“How am I wrong?” she asked. “Wait, why are we about to have the same argument we just had?” She turned away from me and started studying the tunnel walls as we walked. She was enthralled by what she was seeing.
I saw...dirt.
“What do you mean ‘have the same argument’?” I asked, walking behind her. “I didn’t realize we were finished.”
She waved me off as though I were a minor irritant not worth the effort. She continued walking, studying, and talking to herself about what she saw. She was…infuriating, yet impressive.
If she had been a Skotan, this stubbornness would have been relished. A flare of interest went up my spine as I realized that even the lack of scales didn’t deter me.
Skrell. I must be borderline intoxicated by this human woman.
We continued walking in silence for approximately twenty minutes, stopping often so she could look at the walls for one reason or another.
The tunnel sloped down, at a gentle, but noticeable, angle. Not ideal. Not at all. But maybe ahead we’d come to an opening. Some sort of branching, and could work our way back up towards the surface.
Deciding to try a different tactic, I decided to ask her a simple question. “Are you a geologist like Annie?”
“No, not a geologist, and definitely not like Annie,” she answered over her shoulder.
“Then, if you don’t mind my asking, why are you studying the walls so much?”
She stopped walking and turned to look back at me. “What? Just because I’m not a geologist, I’m not allowed to study things like dirt and soil? Who said that I was only allowed to do one thing?” I think I had irritated her. “Do you big-ass aliens only do one thing?”
“Well, no,” I answered. Before I could explain that we were a very adaptive crew, she flew into even more of an outrageous defense of herself.
“Oh, so you people are allowed to be multitalented, but we measly humans have to be limited to a single interest, huh?” she put her hands on her hips as she spoke. “Too bad the multiple talent gene didn’t make it to you.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” I asked.
She snorted in laughter. “Of course you don’t know. Yesterday? Your little desk job thing you were on? You suck at it.” She grinned as she turned away from me and started walking again.
“I never once said that I enjoyed speaking to people like you,” I shot back as I too, began walking. “I would much rather be doing something productive than sitting at a desk.”
“Then we actually have something in common then,” she shot back. She reached out and touched part of the wall.
“Will you stop doing that?” I demanded.
“What?”
“Stop touching things,” I answered. “The Puppet Master is dangerous and can emit some sort of gas that causes short-term memory loss.”
“Really?” she asked. It sort of sounded as though she were being sarcastic, but there was a hint of actual curiosity and fear mixed into her voice. Then it was gone. “Well then, tell me something, Mister Big and Red, if it can make us forget, why hasn’t it done that yet?”
I…I actually had no answer.
“Thought so,” she said triumphantly. “Now, if this thing was so dangerous, why didn’t it completely destroy any of the cities? Why didn’t it crush Nyheim, instead of just contain us? Why did it let me touch it?”
Again, I had no answer.
“Uh-huh,” she said with an overexaggerated nod. “You don’t know any more about this thing than I do, do you? Do you?” At my hesitation, she continued. “I didn’t think so. That’s why I’m down here. I’m trying to learn about this, get some real information about it.”
“‘Real’ information?” I sputtered. “Very well, here’s some real information. It can emit a memory-loss gas. It controls anything and everything that is plant-like, including the semi-sentient ones. It can encompass entire cities in vines that are thicker than both of us combined. Based on what you and I have already seen, it has tunnels all throughout this area. The information that Leena and Tella have already gleaned from the vines show that it has an incredible rate of healing far beyond anything we understand.”
She pursed her lips together and gave me a drawn-out “Ooh. So you have learned a couple things. It’s dangerous, but not outrightly so. It’s mobile, or so you think. It’s controlling, but we don’t know how. And, if it can heal so damn fast, w
hy did it let you take down the dome?”
I opened my mouth to respond, then shut it in confusion. I was grateful she was still walking ahead of me and not looking back to see me like this.
I hadn’t thought of that last point in the same way. Could the Puppet Master have allowed us to escape?
“See? You got nothing,” she went on. “That’s why we need something more in-depth, more complete to look into. If we want to know what this thing is, we need to get closer and figure it out.”
“You’re just using that as an excuse for your own curiosity,” I shot back.
She shrugged. “And?” She stopped and looked back at me. “So what if I am? If I satisfy my curiosity, isn’t that better for all of us?”
It made sense. Skrell, but it made sense. However…
“Do you even know what you’re looking for, or are you making that up as you go, as well?” I asked, partially making fun of her lack of planning and her penchant for not thinking things through.
She had no answer. At last, I finally had something that prevented her from talking!
She spun back around and resumed walking through the tunnel. She no longer stopped to examine the walls, she just walked at a fairly brisk pace. I truly believe that I had touched a nerve with her.
I was about to say something to her when, suddenly, the tunnel ended.
But instead of a blank dirt wall, or another cave-in, we looked out onto an underground paradise.
Stretched out for a distance well beyond one of Nyheim’s city blocks was a cavern. The small pathway that we had been walking on sloped gently down into a cavern filled with small land bridges, columns of stalagmites and stalactites that stretch dozens, if not hundreds, of feet up and down, some of them connecting to create giant pillars.
There were thin streams webbing their way across the floor of the cavern, some ending in small pools of water, others disappearing into the walls on the far side. Plants of shapes, sizes, and colors that I didn’t know could possibly exist filled the cavern, lighting it with some form of bioluminescence.