by Kayla Stonor
The feeling left her uneasy.
* * *
The last two flights of steps dropped them half a mile. They had to be close. Tierc tapped his comms-link, needing to know they retained contact with the Orion Nebula. “Axo?”
“Yes, Tierc.”
He checked their altimeter. “Confirm our depth.”
“You are three hundred feet above the required level to fulfill the parameters of your challenge.”
“Be done by lunchtime,” Ahnna joked.
Her words choked off as the ground dropped away. Behind him, Ahnna screamed. Tierc reached for her, but he was falling, too. His butt bounced off something hard and then he was tumbling down a slope. Something sharp snagged his elbow and he nearly dropped the still flaming torch. He glimpsed a long fall ahead, twisted mid-air and spotted Ahnna to his left. He didn’t have his wings, but he could control his response. On his next contact with the sloping ground—or wall, no time to know which—he pushed off towards her. Ahnna’s lighter weight put her slightly behind him. Spotting a jagged rock, he let go the torch and grabbed it, catching Ahnna around the waist as she hurtled past. She slammed against him. A second later, her hands were around his neck.
She clung to him, turned her head and looked down. “Shit!”
Reassured his handhold wasn’t about to give way, Tierc followed her gaze. A second later he heard the torch hit ground, its flame blown out. “You okay?”
“Bit bruised. Otherwise I’m good.” Blood trickled from her head.
They both had their backpacks with the medkit in Ahnna’s.
“I can climb this,” Tierc said. “It’s just a steep slope.”
“I can’t see.”
“Piggy back.” He waited until she had scrambled onto his backpack, half-choking him from behind. “Up or down?” His voice came out a little high and Ahnna adjusted her hold.
“Sorry. Down I think.”
He agreed. Tierc negotiated the slope until he could stand, Zeke’s drone flying in for a close-up, the vid drone’s night vision giving Octiron the advantage. He walked the last few steps, letting Ahnna down as he did. Grabbing the torch, he found his welder and relit the wick. They checked each other over. No broken bones but a lot of cuts and bruises. Tierc gave Ahnna the torch to hold while he checked her head wound. It wasn’t deep. They’d been lucky. Ahnna looked paler than usual and he took her backpack off her, pulled out both water and the medkit. All the time, he scanned around them and listened for danger.
“Drink,” he ordered. He waited until she’d drunk a few sips before cleaning her wound and applying gel.
“I hate this,” she whispered, speaking more to herself than him.
“In what way?” Crandal asked, speaking to both of them through their comms-link.
Ahnna stiffened.
“Give her a few moments,” Tierc said angrily, glaring into the holovid lens.
She shook her head and winced. “I hate being a pawn in your game. First HD-X. Now Octiron.”
“What would you rather be doing?” Crandal asked.
Tierc scented unshed tears, on the verge of brimming over. He felt the heat of her rising temper.
“Finding my son.” She fairly spat the words out.
Tierc found her hand and squeezed cold fingers gently, relieved when she returned the pressure. She nodded, took a cleansing breath, and packed the water away. Tierc couldn’t snap out of the mood her wish had conjured so easily. A deadness inside him gnawed, a loss that wasn’t his to mourn, and yet his heart ached. He wanted to wipe the sorrow from Ahnna’s heart. He wanted to destroy HD-X. Not the foot-soldier pawns in HD-X’s game, but the leaders, and, for the first time, not out of anger, or moral objection to their views and methods, or even a need to protect HD-X targets. He wanted to destroy HD-X so the people subjected to its lies could choose a different life, break from imprinted patterns of fear and hate.
“Ahnna?” Her head turned towards him. “We were getting close to breaking HD-X. The United Regions are surveilling several compounds across the globe. I think they’ll find the children and Joseph’s still young. He has the chance of a better life.”
Her tears were so close. “You can’t be sure of that.”
“No, but it’s possible. That he could enjoy the life you’d want for him.”
Ahnna stared at him, tears on the brink, but then she smiled, a brave effort at pulling it together. She swung the backpack onto her shoulders.
“Beautiful,” Crandal murmured.
Tierc’s fist clenched. One day, he’d take great pleasure in smashing Crandal’s pug nose into the back of his skull.
Axo chimed in. “You are nearly at the challenge zone. I am permitted to inform you that an earlier team was lost going east.”
Tierc and Ahnna locked eyes.
“You lost a team? From the race? Here?” Ahnna blurted out. “Who?”
“Another year. You don’t know them,” Crandal answered.
“Fuck you,” Tierc snarled. “Have you no decency? Does Octiron have a quota of deaths to fill, or something?”
“Of course not, or the Central Alliance wouldn’t permit the race. You knew the risks when you signed up.”
They knew The Great Space Race posed a fatal risk, and that contestants had died, but an entire team? Had this challenge been done before? Octiron could have scrubbed the archives.
Ahnna was walking back and forth, studying their two options, which for her would be darkness or darkness.
Tierc lifted his torch high and scanned the ground beyond her. Twenty meters away was another tunnel. It looked the better possibility, except, “I have no idea which way is east.”
“Nor do I,” Ahnna said.
The drone flew off in the other direction, behind Tierc, its lens rotating around its belly to keep them in shot. “Follow me,” Zeke said in his ear. “The other way’s east.”
A hundred meters on they encountered a second tunnel, the entrance a couple of inches too short for Tierc.
Ahnna studied the ancient writing on a plaque outside. “This tunnel’s old. Same blockwork as the original structure we saw in the facility. The writing looks familiar too.”
“Axo?” Tierc asked, his comms still on.
“I regret I am not permitted to translate.”
Ahnna looked at Tierc and nodded. Okay, they were going in. Ducking down, he was relieved to discover he could stretch to full height a few meters in. Zeke’s drone flew in before them. Ahnna had barely stepped into the vaulted space when a thick metal barrier dropped down behind her, hitting the ground with a thudding clash. She spun around, startled. The holovid drone flew back and was scanning the door presumably for the viewing audience’s benefit when sand began to trickle down. Ahnna stepped back and the trickle became a gush.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Tierc said. Spinning around, he scanned the tunnel ceiling ahead and spotted inbuilt grooves every few meters. “We need to move, Ahnna. Fast!”
He shot off, slowed to Ahnna’s pace, and she was running for her life as door after door fell behind them. The thud of the latter doors sounded different from that first one and Tierc glanced back, running sideways on. Solid metal had given away to huge grilles, barred gates, and the sand was pouring out behind each one, spilling through the iron bars. Worse the distance between them and the next dropping gate was decreasing.
The drone flew past him.
“Faster, Ahnna,” he yelled.
She put on a burst of speed.
Tierc did too, scanning the tunnel for other hidden dangers. “We’re close to the end!” Fuck, was that the huge shaft? The sand would force them over. He carried the climbing gear. A couple of anchor bolts and a rope would save them. “Keep running!”
He shot off, pulling off his backpack as he went. Two anchor bolts later a yelp accompanied a bone-jarring thud of metal hitting rock. He looked back to see Ahnna bouncing off a metal grille just two meters from safety. She hit the ground and lay still.
&nb
sp; His heart jumped. “Ahnna!”
Sand began to pour into her partition. Abandoning the rope, Tierc raced to the gate, grasping the first bar up from the ground and heaved upwards. He could have been moving a mountain. Nothing! Skal! He needed his Qui.
Ahnna groaned and rolled over. Fighting the agony of the cuff’s shift suppression, Tierc accessed more of his Qui strength and poured the pain flooding his body into lifting the metal barrier. Zeke buzzed him with the drone on all sides, trying to get a better shot. Tierc smacked the thing into the tunnel wall.
“Ahnna! Get up!
The red sand hit her like an avalanche. Tierc roared with fury and hit the gate with another gargantuan effort. Ahnna grabbed his hands. “It’s too heavy. A hundred Qui couldn’t lift this thing!”
Sand poured around her feet, and up her knees. It spilled onto Tierc’s boots. Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, so sorry I took so long to realize. I want you to be happy here. You understand. Free. The race will end for you. Octiron will have to let you go.” Her voice dropped to a whisper and he moved closer to hear her. “You can disappear. They’ll never find you.”
Tierc shook his head. “This isn’t over, Ahnna. I can shovel the sand out! You’re not giving up!”
Her fingers were on the cuffs and then her eyes closed. Nerves tingled in his arms and hands and then it was as if a pressure enclosing his wrists lessened. Hating to lose contact with her, Tierc pulled away from her touch and accessed his Qui strength in full, scales breaking out all over his body. He tackled the gate one last time as the sand reached Ahnna’s waist.
The gate moved.
He needed leverage. No. The sand would block his efforts. Or…
“Tierc, what’s happening?” Crandal was asking him. “The drone’s not responding.”
“Ahnna’s stuck. I’m working on the gate. Can you port her out? Axo! Port Ahnna out! This is an emergency!”
“I am unable to get a secure fix on her location.”
“It’s the fucking sand!”
“I’m so sorry,” Ahnna repeated.
“Ahnna, I’ve an idea. Hold your breath, like a deep sea diver. You know how to do that?”
She nodded, her eyes glittering with fear.
“For as long as you can.”
Tierc shifted to full Qui, pulling his shirt off as wing bones formed, his unlocked cuffs getting caught inside the sleeves. He threw the clothing to the ground and launched into the void, flexing his muscles. Huge feathered wings spread out behind him, beating the air furiously, creating the lift he needed to fight gravity. He began to climb the shaft, vital seconds ticking by as he searched for the entrance to the level he needed.
* * *
Hold her breath? Hitting the gate had winded her. She struggled to breathe.
Adrenalin pumped through her veins and her mind cleared. Training took over. Exhaling hard, she purged her lungs of carbon dioxide calculating she had less than a minute before sand covered her mouth. She began to fill her lungs, diaphragm first, a practice attempt.
Now her sternum. Before her lungs filled completely she exhaled quickly and began another deep breath, building up the level of oxygen in her blood. The temptation to shovel sand away overcame her, expending energy in exchange for more time.
Did it matter? What could Tierc possibly do? Her eyes searched the darkness. Sand filled her hair. It trickled over her face, more quickly now. She wiped it off her mouth, her arm fighting to move against the buildup of sand between her and the gate.
One last deep breath, not too full.
She closed her eyes at the last possible moment. A minute raced by. Probably only half a minute. Hard to tell. She activated her nanos to help her conserve energy. Must stay calm.
Sacrifice. Fight the good fight. Preserve humankind.
Her mind drifted on the familiar mantra, unable to shake the pacifying effect. Meditation had saved her sanity in the punishment cell. She had drawn on the same HD-X rhetoric she had questioned in class and the familiar words had helped her then as it helped her now. Her chest began to ache.
She could hear her name. Was she hallucinating?
“—will let you breathe.”
The urge to exhale became unbearable. She fought the sensation. A gentle pressure pushed sand between her lips and Ahnna fought a well of panic. She let her breath out slowly, mainly as a means to force control of her body, and then something hard hit her chin. Her fingers fought through the sand and grasped something round and smooth. Metal.
A lightbulb went off in her head. Metal piping. The pipe would let her breathe.
“Yes! Ahnna! That’s it! Put the pipe in your mouth. Blow out any air in your lungs. Help clear out any sand that got inside. Then breathe in slowly.”
She guided the pipe to her lips, expelled the remaining air in her lungs quickly and drew in a slow breath. The pipe filled her mouth, angled strangely, downwards.
“The sand’s stopped flowing! A few more minutes, Ahnna!”
Very quickly, she could see and breathe. Tierc removed the pipe from her mouth. He worked tirelessly, clearing the sand out from before her with his bare hands. His hands weren’t the only part of him bare. There were fringe benefits to being trapped, unable to do anything but watch a naked man at manual labor. Even better, he’d found another torch and the flickering light bounced off his rippling human muscles. Presumably he’d turned Qui and burst out his Octiron-supplied clothing. Qui didn’t have this problem on Earth, their clothes designed to adjust for a shift.
“Umm…” Ahnna gestured up and down his body, turned on when his cock immediately stiffened under her attention. Not a hint of wings or his reptilian Qui…
Tierc paused in his shoveling, a wicked glint in his eye. “The holovid’s broken, but Zeke says it’s still recording audio.”
She understood the warning and nodded.
“I have to dig the drone out,” Tierc continued, “and take it with us. Axo is transporting a new drone in shortly.” He paused. “Our AI also reports he can port you out.” He lifted a questioning eyebrow.
“Not much point,” she said. “We’ll forfeit the challenge and we need the points. I’m fine, assuming you can get me out of here.”
“That’s what I thought.” Tierc retrieved the welding torch, his muscled torso a delectable work of art. “Once we’ve cleared you some space, I’ll cut here and here.”
She arched her eyebrows. “I’m not a limbo dancer!”
“Okay.” He tapped the next bar up. “And here and here.”
Ahnna drew breath, his sexual prowess displayed before her in all its glory, a smattering of dark curls leading up to a well-defined V and an eight-pack she hadn’t appreciated sufficiently last night. She leaned into the gate and reached for his swollen sac, repeating her intimate caress from the night they met. “Have I thanked you yet?”
His voice hitched as her nails tickled him gently. “Can I borrow your belt?”
She laughed, the question weird given his reaction to her attentions. “Why?”
He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “Axo’s about to send in the drone and I need something to hold up my pants.”
Chapter Eleven
“H e’s a goddamn Qui!”
Ahnna threw her hands up. Emphasize the point, hide Tierc’s nature in full view, and hope Zeke’s replacement drone didn’t zoom in on the perspiration dampening her hair.
She hated these interviews.
Crandal’s flickering image sat on a chair in her cabin facing Ahnna who sat on her bed, sharp eyes burning through her charade. Until her near buried-alive experience on Altaira, her past had been Crandal’s obsession. Now Octiron’s guard dog had his teeth in a new bone—Tierc Marcel—and their handler wasn’t giving up. She no longer feared Tierc’s true nature, well, maybe a bit, but now a new worry chewed her gut. Tierc hid his shifting ability from Octiron and for good reason. Until they gained true freedom, it was vital Octiron didn’t discover Tierc’s rare nature.
That was now her job. Self-assigned and, even more revolutionary, more important to her than her former allegiance to Human Defense-X, former beliefs meaningless in the face of Tierc’s inexplicable loyalty to her.
“Qui are strong, fast, and apparently amazing climbers, not something I had really thought about before. He gave you a demonstration getting your bogus geo-scan! What’s your problem?”
Interest flashed in Crandal’s eyes. “Bogus?”
“You didn’t need us to get the scan. You could have sent a drone.”
“Where would be the entertainment in that? Look, Altaira’s unpredictable, the sand trap being a case in point.” He paused, frowned. “We’re getting off topic. Explain to me. If Qui are such good climbers, why did Tierc need you to take charge of the rope?”
Folding her arms, Ahnna initiated bio-rhythm control courtesy of her nanos, enough to pass a lie detector test. “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?”
“I did. He claims he used the ropes for your benefit, that he didn’t want to force his Qui abilities in your face.”
Ahnna softened her voice and let her hands fall into her lap, palms up. “Yeah, well, not like I was gonna let him carry me over his shoulder…”
Crandal laughed agreement even as a sly look stole across his face. “He climbed a considerable distance to the facility level, far more challenging than his demonstration. And then he negotiated the climb back down carrying piping, all while you held your breath.”
“I can hold my breath a long time.”
“Not long enough. I suggest he did the impossible.”
“He wanted to save me.” Ahnna couldn’t prevent the hint of wonder in her voice. Tierc cared for her, sincerely, deeply. Her heart soared and a smile tugged at the corner of her lips, took over. “He loves me.”
Crandal’s return smile dampened the exuberance dancing inside her. “Yes, I believe he does. You know, love and war defines The Great Space Race. Joy and pain sells air time and our audience is eating up this newfound truce on the Orion Nebula, the laying down of arms in exchange for silk bedsheets.” Messianic notes lifted his voice. “As they watch you and Tierc whisper sweet terms of surrender, they can’t help but argue over how soon old enmities will rise up and blow the sweet lovers apart.”