by T. M. Catron
Mina held his eyes with hers. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I didn’t want to complicate things further.”
“When you helped me escape from Reed—”
“That was luck. I hadn’t been looking for you, nor had I expected to ever see you again.”
Mina wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. If it had been within Doyle’s power, he would have stopped time so they could stay like that a little longer. Instead, he kissed the top of her head and pulled away.
“We need to get off the Nomad and find cover.”
“Will the Condarri know we’re here?”
“Not yet. I hope.”
Mina stood on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his lips. “Okay. I just want you to know. I don’t plan on dying after all this.”
Doyle thought they wouldn’t have a choice if it came to it, but he was more confident now than he had been since the adarria summoned him. Maybe it was the new revelation about his relationship with Mina, allowing him to hope where he’d had none before.
He was becoming a sentimental fool.
Chapter Thirteen
Calla crouched in terror inside an empty storage tube, waiting for a giant Condarri to pass her by. She didn’t dare breathe.
The warship glided out of Earth’s atmosphere. Calla didn’t hear the roar of a rocket or the hiss of thrusters, but it escaped Earth’s gravity as if the pull were nothing. Because of the trapped oxygen on board, she didn’t worry about having it on their trip to Condar.
But she did fear discovery.
The squadron had moved about the cargo bay, storing weapons and milling around. From her position, Calla couldn’t see them. She didn’t want to see them at this point. If one of them sensed her at all, they would find her. Calla had ridden on the aliens’ ships before, but never as a stowaway. There were plenty of places to hide, though.
Her particular hiding place now wasn’t the best choice, but shortly after she and Cummings had landed on the deck, the squadron had returned. To escape detection, they had stuffed themselves into one of the unused storage units. The ship was completely dark as if light were only a figment of her imagination. The Condarri created their own light. And they could see even without it.
Cummings’ knees were shoved into her back, putting pressure on her vertebrae. She wished he had found his own hiding place, but there hadn’t been time.
So, they waited. Every time one of the Condarri walked by, they held their breaths. This occurrence had been the longest. Calla’s lungs felt like they would burst.
It felt like days. Maybe it had been.
How far was her limit? She seemed to be searching for that a lot these days.
The aether swirled about the room, and terror rose in her mouth with a bad taste. Bile, she thought grimly. The aether would sense them even if the Condarri didn’t. But Calla kept hoping it didn’t get close enough. Feeling safe on their own ship, the beings weren’t on high alert.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on herself, on relaxing. Behind her, Cummings did the same. He hadn’t spoken for hours. At first, Calla had worried that he would panic and give them away. But to his credit, he hadn’t.
The tension in the air increased. Calla felt the aether slink closer to their hiding place, gliding in like a snake slithers through the grass. Sweat broke out on her body, causing her fear to double. She did not need any added odor to attract attention. Her anxiety increased as she felt the aether’s presence, heightened by the Condarri’s power. If only she could see them. Were they staring at her hiding place even now? Were they getting ready to draw her out?
Calla’s skin felt like something inside her was writhing, trying to escape. In a moment, she wouldn’t be able to control the trembling working its way into her fingers.
She had never known fear as she did at this moment. A detached part of her mind wondered at this, but she decided the feelings were a consequence of her newfound thirst for life.
If being a rogue was this full of agony and fear, maybe she didn’t want to be one, after all.
It’s terrifying, isn’t it? Cummings spoke into her mind.
Calla played dumb. The Condarri?
Wanting to live.
Was she that obvious? But of course, Cummings was a hybrid himself. He could probably smell her fear. The thought made her angry. And since she only had room for one intense emotion at a time, the anger washed away her fear, replacing the writhing with a hot, coursing web of electricity flowing through her veins.
The aether and the Condarri passed by, and she let out a slow, tiny breath, releasing the burning in her lungs. Then she drew in air. The stench of her own sweat disgusted her. But there was nothing to do about it now.
It might have been madness to go to Condar, but at least they had more places to hide there.
Not to hide, she thought with revulsion. To spy.
Doyle and Mina put on their helmets before Doyle opened the Nomad’s door. As they stepped down into the hangar, he heard Mina gasp through the comm.
“What?” he whispered.
“It’s huge.”
The hangar was large enough to house three warships. Like everything else on Condar, the room was enormous, with black walls adorned with adarria. And a ceiling so far above their heads they couldn’t make out the details from their headlamps. Most of the time, the ships docked outside the mothership for quick deployment in an emergency. But for repairs or during travel through deep space, the warships were put in the hangars.
“This one is tiny compared to the ones that dock the big warships you saw on Earth,” Doyle said. “This way.”
Doyle led her across the vast expanse, carrying both their packs. He’d give hers to her later when they weren’t so exposed. Places like this were prime opportunities to be spotted. A metal grate thirty feet tall by thirty feet wide divided the hangar from the rest of the ship. When they reached it, Doyle felt around for the catch he knew would be on the edge of it.
He found it—a long handle flush with the doorway, tucked under the lip of the reinforced bulkhead.
“What are you doing?”
Mina was having a hard time seeing anything, even with the soft lights he’d allowed her to use on her helmet.
“The adarria control the gates, but the Condarri built in latches for the hybrids. For when we were young, I think.”
“I didn’t realize you were here as a child.”
“The offspring traveled to Condar early and often. I’ll explain later—not here.”
“Why is this called Condar when the constellation we saw in the silo was also known as Condar?”
“Could you stop asking questions for a moment?” Doyle was having trouble moving the latch. It had become stiff with disuse. Apparently, no one had used this hangar in a very long time. He managed to get his fingers under it and pulled. For a moment, it didn’t do anything. Then, with a creak that seemed incredibly loud, Doyle swung it out and up from the wall.
A human-sized door popped open in front of them, sliding up into the larger metal gate. “Douse the lights,” he said.
When Mina did, he grabbed her hand and pulled her through the door.
They entered a corridor that ran the length of the ship. It arched up like a stone cathedral. In a way, the Condarri treated the ship as such. Damaging the stone was punishable by death.
But then, so was almost every other infraction Doyle could think of.
This would be the most dangerous area to get caught in. Each hangar was protected by a door just like the one they had entered through. Most didn’t have hybrid-sized latches. If they were spotted, the Condarri would catch them before they would have time to open one that did.
“I can’t see.”
“I can.” He felt a tad annoyed by Mina’s statement, even now. The glow was gone, replaced by the calm, steady focus needed for the task at hand.
“This ship is darker than the Factory.”
“If you’d stayed
put like I told you, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
Mina sighed but didn’t rise to the jab.
“Can you use the adarria?” she asked.
“No. There’s a good chance they would turn us in as soon as I did.”
Mina squeezed his hand a little tighter, and her comm clicked on again. “Don’t they know we’re here already?”
“I’m blocking them for the moment. I learned how to do it on Earth. They can’t find me.”
“What about me?”
“I don’t think that’s an issue. You weren’t cataloged as an offspring. They’re the only ones Condar used to be able to find. The corridor is clear, so we’ll make a run down to the first deck. Run fast and hard. I won’t let go of you, but it’s going to be a rough trip. If you feel like you’re falling behind, let me know before it happens.”
“Okay. Where are we going, exactly?”
“For the moment, we’re just trying to find a safe corridor to get lost in. One that isn’t used much.”
“Okay. I’m ready.”
Doyle braced himself like a runner on the starting line. “Three… two… one…”
He took off, keeping a hold of her hand without pulling. If she fell, they’d lose valuable time. To Mina’s credit, she kept up with the pace he set. Doyle tried going faster, but as soon as he did, she lagged. He found a pace just below that and blazed down the corridor. In the back of his mind, he knew it was madness. He shouldn’t be here, let alone Mina. But he put the thought to the side and focused on running.
Five minutes passed, and they were still going. Mina didn’t show signs of tiring, but he didn’t try to speak to her. They still had a long way to go, and she’d need every bit of breath. He hadn’t told her how far it really was.
They passed one hangar, then another. Each time, Doyle watched it carefully as they approached, looking for a sign that it would open.
After ten more minutes, Doyle slowed.
“Why are we slowing?”
“I wanted to give you room to breathe.”
“I’m alright.” Her words were clipped, but her voice was firm. He sped up again. After passing five more hangars, Doyle saw the entrance to the corridor on the lowest deck. This particular one led to a cargo hold. A perfect place to hide until he figured out which way to go from here.
The light flashed just before they reached the door.
Mina saw it too, jerking her hand in his in surprise. Doyle stopped running and threw them both up against the wall. The cover wasn’t great. Any Condarri looking their way would see them immediately.
The adarria lights flashed again, farther up on the ceiling. Doyle pressed Mina into the wall, covering her with his body. But his eyes didn’t leave the adarria.
They weren’t shifting, so they hadn’t been summoned. But the lights were sliding down the grooves of the wall, flowing like lava toward the door he wanted to use. Then, as if they had been diverted, they changed direction, stopping at a point at eye level, to the right of the entrance.
“Doyle.”
He squeezed her shoulder, urging her to be quiet. A Condarri must be moving this way. What were the adarria doing? Surely they weren’t warning them?
But that’s exactly what Doyle thought was happening. And if that were the case, they needed to get through the door right now.
He bolted for the entrance, pulling Mina so hard she gasped in surprise. But just as they reached the corridor, Doyle saw a gleam of light that he knew from his dreams.
A Condarri was headed down that very corridor.
Doyle pulled back, flattening against the wall once again, looking for an escape. But the next closest door they could use was almost a mile back. They’d never make it in time. He was just beginning to think that the mission was already over when Mina pulled him away from the corridor. Toward the lights.
“Here,” she whispered.
When Mina’s arm went through the wall, Doyle thought he was hallucinating. It took him a full second to comprehend that she’d let go of his hand and was reaching up into the solid stone above their heads. It pulled her. For one wild moment, Doyle grappled for her, wrapping his arms around her waist before she could disappear.
But the wall grabbed him too. And before he could fight back, it sucked him inside like a warm blanket. And he went blind. The thick, viscous liquid they were going through squeezed his ribs so hard he worried they’d break. But Mina wasn’t struggling, and he still felt her in his arms.
A moment later, they landed in a heap on a cold stone floor. Mina landed first, and since Doyle had been holding her, he fell on top of her.
“Oomph!” she said.
Heart pounding, he let go and rolled to his feet, ready to fight.
But he needn’t have. They were in small, human-sized tunnel made of stone. Adarria were interspersed throughout, but they were nowhere near as thick here as on the rest of the ship. They were dark. Doyle took it all in and then turned to help Mina to her feet.
But she was already up. She turned on her helmet light and grinned at him.
“Hi,” she said.
“Turn it off!”
“I think we’re safe.”
Anger rose in Doyle’s mouth, leaving a bad taste on his tongue. “What makes you think that?”
“Well, for one thing, this is too small for the Condarri to get into.”
“That won’t stop them from tearing the place apart to get us if the adarria tell them.”
“They won’t. They led us in here.”
Doyle stared at her. Suddenly, Mina was the strangest creature he’d ever met. He almost drew his gun to point at her and ask who she was and what had she done with the real Mina.
Don’t be mad, she said.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“It’s quite a story. You’re going to be upset. I think you’ve had enough of that for one day.”
“And I think you better start explaining. Now.”
“You haven’t been in one of these before?”
“No.”
Mina hesitated. Whatever she was about to say, she knew it was going to make him angry. Doyle took a calming breath and crouched down to catch his breath. “Just tell me.”
“I found one of these tunnels on the Factory… Yesterday.”
“How?”
“The adarria showed me. They let me out of the hospital bay, led me through the tunnels of the Factory.”
“You went exploring on your own? Mina, what were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t exploring.”
“What were you doing?”
“I went up to the detention center.”
Doyle closed his eyes, if only to keep calm. When he opened them, he looked up at the woman he held most dear. It helped to think of this as he asked, “Did you speak to it?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s why you became a stowaway.”
“No, I’d already decided to do that. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why the adarria helped me.”
“What did it tell you?”
“Don’t ask me to repeat it.”
Doyle stood up, towering over her. “Are you kidding me?”
“I don’t see what good it’ll do.”
“Mina.”
“It said some crap about you.”
Doyle tensed, bracing himself. But after telling her he’d pulled her out of the airplane, he hadn’t kept any other secrets from Mina. She knew what he was. So, he pressed her for more. “What did it say?”
“It said you would come back into the fold.”
He had no idea what to make of that. “Is that all?”
“And that you wouldn’t have a choice.”
“I have no idea what that means. What else did it say?”
“That’s about it. It laughed a lot. At least, I think it was laughing.”
What was he supposed to do with that information? Mina had been right. Knowing didn’t help, exactly.
“But now that you’ve told m
e,” he said, thinking aloud, “I know they have a plan to come after me. Even if I don’t know what it is, I can be prepared.”
“What do you think it could be?”
Doyle shook his head. His body was growing cold, his anger turning him into the calculating hybrid that he was. “And you didn’t think to mention you could speak to the adarria so well.”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?” Mina’s voice rose a little in anger, her temper flaring.
He swore. “Not without me helping you! The adarria are dangerous.”
“That’s news to me! You just left me alone for days and expected me not to find something to do! If you’d wanted me to wait for you, you should have been more clear.”
Her shouting caused the comm to squeak in Doyle’s ear. He winced.
“I asked you to keep a low profile,” he hissed.
“I did. No one knows but you and me.”
“You hope.”
“Why are we arguing? In case you haven’t noticed, I just saved your alien hide. So shut up and stop pronouncing doom over everything.”
“Pronouncing—” Doyle gaped at her. Mina had no idea how much danger they were both in.
Could he really blame her?
To clear his head, he looked around at the tunnel they were in. It was shaped like a five-sided polygon, with longer sides for the walls and narrow ceiling and floors. He and Mina would be able to walk side-by-side, so it wasn’t too bad. The best part was the ceiling wasn’t even ten feet tall, not nearly tall enough to accommodate a fully grown Glyph.
A hot breeze blew past them and straight into the wall behind, the one that led out into the corridor. Doyle's suit rippled in the air current. He checked the sensors on his suit. Methane gas, with a tiny amount of oxygen. Not enough to breathe. Not for Mina anyway. Doyle could survive on the mixture for a short time. But it would weaken him.
“Must be some kind of ventilation shaft,” he said, avoiding the argument a while longer. But when he looked back at Mina, who was looking more smug than he’d ever seen her, he let out a short laugh. “Maybe the adarria really are looking out for us.”
Mina crossed her arms, glaring at him, waiting for him to say something else.
He held up his hands. “So you saved my alien hide. It’s a new experience for me. If you wouldn’t die of methane poison, I’d take off our helmets and kiss you.”