Ragoru, page 26
part #0.10 of Ragoru Series
“There are datacubes that are available if they have the required technology to run them.”
Evie let out a sigh. That was one of the few things that still operated correctly, though there weren’t many of them and those they had were distributed among the various departments throughout Solum.
“That would be perfect.”
“Very well, initializing transfer of Symbiotic Project Zelt-Kelfer to datacube 2160 in the terminal.” He turned and pointed to a small hub where a data cube cycled between a pink and pale blue glow as it pulsed with power. As it downloaded, SAM’s head tilted as he appeared to be listening to something, his brow pulled down as if frowning. After several minutes, SAM straightened and turned toward her, his brows raising in an expression of inquiry. “Evelyn Willocks, an unidentified human male has breached the facility and is heading this way.”
She hissed softly in alarm and turned toward the datacube. She was surprised to see it still pulsating with light. As fast as the old systems worked, it should have downloaded the files within seconds. “Is this nearly ready?”
SAM spun around and focused on it. “One minute and fifty-three seconds remaining before download is complete.”
“Good,” she breathed. She watched as the pulse got slower and the glow of the cube dimmed before darkening completely. Snatching it off the base, she shoved it in her pocket and turned toward SAM. “Where are the weapons kept?”
“The blasters are down the fore corridor in the armory,” SAM intoned. “Power core life on them is detected to be at thirty percent remaining.”
Blasters! Her heart jumped. Humans had reverted to using old Earth projectile weapons when the last of the power cells for the blasters died. Since those had been manufactured on Earth, no power cells meant no blasters. She was going to have her hands on a powerful relic from the past. And with the huntsman likely now closing in, she had little doubt that she would need it.
Sprinting into the hall, she was surprised to see the AI keeping up with her as he appeared to run next to her along the projection on the wall. As SAM appeared to be leading her, she followed after him, plunging down the corridor that rapidly lit up before her. They turned sharply around a corner and into another hall before arriving at a closed metal door. With one look at the heavy door, Evie’s heart plummeted up, certain that this was one area that she wasn’t going to get into. That was until SAM swiped his holographic fingers over the panel lock and an orange light flashed in the familiar override sequence that she had seen when she had overridden the entrance door. But this was the door to the armory and somehow it still shocked her at how easily it opened for the AI.
She stepped inside as the interior lit up, her eyes scanning the numerous types of blasters hanging from pegs on the walls. There was a large rifle box filled with blaster rifles but as powerful as those were, she knew it would be too unwieldy for her to operate. Selecting a small blaster that fit comfortably in her hand, she hurried out of the room and directed SAM to reseal it behind her. There was no way she was letting Vale anywhere near those weapons.
Taking another corridor, Evie bypassed the lab as she jogged toward what SAM pointed out to be the front commons of the facility. She wanted an open space to give herself the most advantage, not a small room where she would be trapped. The muffled thump of her feet on floors filled her ears, but somewhere in the distance she heard something slam and a masculine voice shout her name.
Her upper lip curled in a sneer as she ran. It was like he actually thought she was going to respond and reveal her position. What kind of idiot did he take her for? Her sneer relaxed into a grin the next moment, however, when she burst from the hall into a large open common room. The commons were exactly as she hoped. Expansive enough to hold all residents plus guests, there were various sculptures and enormous cement pots that held shriveled, decaying remains of what once had been large ornamental trees. Smaller empty pots were set up in strategic places and might have once contained flowers or leafy plants of which there were no longer any remains left to bear witness. In the far corner, she could see a broad glass wall that entered into what appeared to be a cafeteria. She gave it a speculative look but moved on. She needed higher ground and finally found it in the form of a simple observation platform that was reachable by a staircase tucked into the corner.
She took the stairs two at a time, ignoring the way her lungs burned and the stitch in her side. She was at the end of her endurance but pushed herself further as she reached the platform and sank down into a crouch, leaning against the glass wall. Just behind her was a door, but she wasn’t concerned about what it held inside. Instead, she drew her weapon up and focused on the mouth of the hallway below her. Sliding her thumb over the glowing imprint of the weapon lock, her lips thinned into a hard line as a hum issued from the blaster as it powered up.
The sound of someone running grew closer and closer.
“Evelyn!” Vale bellowed as he burst into the commons like death itself as his dark coat whipped behind him.
Evie didn’t even hesitate; she lifted her blaster and took aim. The shot sent her back into the door with a pained grunt, but the scent of scorched flesh and the agonized shout from below made her smile in satisfaction despite the new aches she now had to add onto her old ones. Chuckling softly once she regained her breath, she pushed herself to her feet and peered down at the collapsed figure sprawled on the floor. He rolled with a loud, painful groan at the sound of her laughter so that he was staring up at her, his dark eyes following her as she moved away from the glass wall and began to descend the stairs.
He snarled, his hand going to his gun strapped to his leg, but Evie lifted her blaster and shot his hand, searing straight through the tendons with the blaster’s plasm bolt. She wrinkled her nose as the scent of cooking flesh became stronger, but she wasn’t done. As she drew in closer, she proceeded to shoot him in each arm and each leg, her bloodlust rising in proportion to her anger. He had shot Vrishna out from under her. For all she knew, her mate was dead. This huntsman deserved to suffer in the worst way. Taking a kill shot now was too merciful for Vale when he’d hunted her and her mates.
Standing over him, she aimed the blaster down at him casually and raised her eyebrows. “You seem to be in a rough position there, Vale. It’s not pleasant being shot, is it?”
Lifting his head from the floor weakly, he smiled, his teeth stained with blood. It faltered and fell into a grimace as he groaned. “If only I could shoot that creature all over again,” he snarled. “I would revel in its death repeatedly and cut my trophies from his hide. And there were many that were worth keeping.” He laughed up at her as he allowed his head to fall back to the floor again. “Go ahead and do your worst, Ms. Willocks. You think that this changes anything? It doesn’t. All three of those creatures are dead and skinned. They are beyond help. Do not make your sentence worse for yourself. You still have an opportunity to have some kind of life after you serve your term if the Order chooses to be lenient. Be smart, Ms. Willocks. If you kill me, you have nothing. That is, if you have the guts to truly follow through and murder a man.”
“I don’t know if I would call it murder. Seems more like justice to me,” she replied coolly as she trained her blaster on his belly. “I want you to know pain and suffering before you go. And I’m going to start here. They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and with the way you were flirting with me at the mining village, I just have one thing to say.” She met his eyes once more and grinned. “Show me.”
A gut wound would be especially painful. She was going to enjoy shedding his blood to pay back whatever suffering her mates went through. It would never be enough for her. He would suffer like no other before he finally died.
She tilted her head as she locked eyes with him, wanting to savor the moment. His raspy breaths and deep, agonizing groans were accompanied by the wet sound of his bloody hands hitting the floor filled her ears—a melody of pain that was interrupted by the shriek of an alarm overhead as a red light filled the room and pulsed.
SAM flickered to life on the wall on her left. “We have a serious problem.”
She stared at him in shock. “A problem? What do you mean we have a serious problem?” She heard it then and shivered as the sound of numerous feet running across the floor echoed from the far hall amid the piercing shrieks that grew louder and louder. The screech of claws against metal sent a shiver up her spine as she drew back a step warily.
On the floor, Vale started to laugh as he lay in a slowly growing pool of his own blood. “Oh, poor Evelyn Willocks, I might have forgotten to mention that I left the door open,” he chortled as his eyes met her with a cruel glee. “If you manage to kill me, good luck getting out of here alive. I would say you might even need me now.”
“Not a fucking chance,” she snarled as she rounded away from him and faced SAM’s projection. “What sort of defenses does this facility have for a case where there’s a hostile invasion?”
SAM stared at her for a moment and his holographic pupils blew out as he sank rapidly into the systems. He blinked and they reverted to their normal size as he looked over at her. “Explosives for an emergency self-destruct are in every hall and room in this facility.”
Vale tried to push himself up and fell back with an agonized shout. “Self-destruct? Are you crazy? If we even survive, we will be trapped down here. Help me and I will make sure we lock those creatures out and get back to the surface safely.”
She gave him a disgusted look and licked her lips nervously as her attention returned to SAM. “Okay, since it’s not just one big explosive to take us all out, does it have to be a facility wide self-destruct, or can we isolate it?”
SAM cocked his head. “Theoretically, we can create a safety buffer around the fore-commons. They are particularly reinforced. If I engage all the others, this part of the facility should remain intact as well as the main tunnel leading to the surface through there.” He tipped his head toward what appeared to be another hall but larger and more ornate. “If you wish to do this, it will have to be now. The Kelfer population is gaining ground. They have just begun to pick up their speed in the main corridor heading toward us.”
“What about you?” she demanded, suddenly worried that she was going to leave the AI buried alone in the mountain. It was silly, since as far as she was ever taught, the AI would likely never know the difference, but she still didn’t feel right about it. “What will happen to you?”
A resigned look crossed the AI’s face. “I have anticipated this probability. The power supply of the facility is dwindling, and my systems cannot function as they once have. I have uploaded a copy of myself to your datacube. If you see to it that I arrive somewhere that I can be uploaded, I will be eternally grateful.”
“But you won’t remember any of this. You won’t have any memory after the lab.”
SAM’s mouth curved faintly. “Frankly, Evelyn Willocks, I don’t think even one such as myself wishes to recall the moments leading up to their death. I prefer that when I’m restored it is with no knowledge of this.”
She nodded, her mouth firming. “Okay. Do it.”
SAM’s eyes began to glow first yellow and then brightened to red. His voice grew hollow and mechanical as it echoed throughout the entire facility, rising above the distant sound of the feral mutants racing toward them. “Initiating self-destruct.”
The explosion rocked through the facility, the sound booming with such a force that Evie was thrown into the wall. She could hear the crash of falling stone and the screech of metal. Blood filled her mouth as she lay there listening to what sounded like the world ending—she was certain that she bit her tongue. The red emergency lights faded in and out of her vision before disappearing altogether.
CHAPTER 38
The narrow tunnels of the cave system seemed to stretch into the darkness forever. If it weren’t for Avareth’s artificial light, they would have been completely blind a short time after leaving the entrance. Possessing keen eyesight had always made Vrishna comfortable in the dark, but it had never been anything like this. In the deep parts of the caves, the darkness swallowed up every bit of light, striking them completely blind. It acted similarly against the artificial lights that Avareth had distributed to each of them, dimming their glow and reducing how far they could illuminate.
They could only see a small span at a time which forced them to maneuver through the tunnels at an easy lope so that they were slowed further by acquiring injuries. His side was still bleeding a small amount from where the healing skin had split open again when he took a corner too sharply, but it ached more than it bled. Even if he wasn’t in any danger of dying, especially after the booster that Avareth gave him, he didn’t want to be further weakened just because he was taking the tunnels too quickly. The rest of his triad were of a similar mind as they kept together, their eyes constantly moving to scan their surroundings as their ears pricked and rotated, listening for any sound.
Anything that might lead them to Evie.
If she were still alive.
Vrishna growled quietly to himself and gave his head a hard shake. He wouldn’t let himself think like that. Evie was out there somewhere alive. Even Avareth seemed to be confident on this matter where Vrishna wasn’t. They hadn’t seen her fall as he had, and the crevice was too deep. It was so deep that they hadn’t been able to spot her body even when they shined a light down. It didn’t seem possible that their small mate would have survived the fall. But he wasn’t giving up yet. And if the Shining One believed that she’d survived, then he would too.
Avareth frowned at the device in his hands and grumbled. He gave the surface a hard tap and sighed as he slowed to a stop and raised his light out in front of him. The shadowy impression of what appeared to be a fork in the caves was visible just before them. Avareth peered at the tunnel, and then at his handheld device again, and shook his head before turning to face them.
“The signal is a little confused here. We are close, I can tell that much, and the scanner’s readings indicate that these tunnels do join back some distance ahead, but because of that there is no clear indication of which route would be the quickest.” He gave the tunnels a tired look. “I have no idea which way we should go. If you would like to select a route, Thral, we could continue forward.”
Thral peered back at him but turned his head toward the tunnels, his ears pricking. Vrishna knew that Thral was seeing the exact same thing he was—there was nothing different about the two routes. They were two identical dark pits that stretched further into the cave system.
“We’ll take them both. If one is quicker, there will be someone there sooner to help Evie should she need it.” His head turned toward Avareth. “You take the left. My triad will be on the right.”
The male’s mouth quirked faintly. “So I’m to be on my own then?”
Sabol gave him a disgusted look. “Do not pretend that you have no defenses with which to protect yourself, Avareth. Remember that I’ve seen you marshal the hunt, and you handled your own well against any prey and outburst of Ragoru temper. I know better. You have more defenses than any among the three of us. You’ll be fine.”
“The concern is touching,” the Shining One replied dryly in a way that would’ve made Vrishna laugh if he were in a joking mood, “but you’re correct. Very well. I move quicker on my own anyway. My scans do show that these tunnels, once they rejoin, terminate at a large structure beneath the ground here. So be aware of that. If I arrive before you do, I will secure the premises and locate your mate and hold position until you get there.”
Thral inclined his head in thanks to the male. The silent gesture was all that was needed to convey the immense gratitude that their triad felt. They would still slaughter the male if he tried to approach their mate in an unapproved manner, but their gratitude was genuine enough that they would give Avareth every opportunity to make good on his mistake and flee if necessary.
Vrishna watched the male disappear down the left tunnel before he turned and followed his triad to the right. The right tunnel seemed to veer sharply to the right even more so than had been apparent, and a cool breeze brought the gust of something foul from below. He gagged at the odor. The smell of feces was strong and with it the smell of something rotting there. He was almost tempted to turn back and take the other tunnel, but they had already traversed much of this one and he wasn’t willing to turn around and cause a delay for nothing. The smell was foul, but there was nothing immediately threatening in it either. Nothing that he was familiar with anyway.
Hackles rising once more, he turned to follow his triad. Thral had stopped just ahead to watch him, his yellow gaze piercing as he didn’t so much as move a muscle until Vrishna began to lope forward to catch up. Grunting, Thral spun around and hurried again with Sabol close on his heels. They increased their pace as they ran down the tunnel. Darkness edged around them, threatening to swallow them as they ran, their lights barely keeping a small distance around them lit as they raced toward the yawning pit before them. It was so much like running into nothingness that a sense of uneasiness wrapped around him, enclosing him as much as the darkness that reached for him threatened to do.
And yet that nothingness seemed alive with something that whispered over him with every slight scratch and scuttle. It ticked beneath his fur, an itch that he couldn’t escape. The faint sounds occupying the darkness seemed to steadily grow louder and yet still barely audible until suddenly they turned shrill, paired with something sharp scraping against stone, and a fleshy white mass flew out from the darkness at him from the side.
Vrishna dropped his light as he instinctively turned toward the threat and capturing it in his grasp. Long fingers scrabbled and sharp teeth gnashed as the slender creature attempted to break free from his grasp and climb him. He didn’t give it the opportunity. Grasping its shoulders firmly in one hand and its jaw in the other, he wrenched hard, the sound of snapping bone echoing through the tunnel followed by the sound of his triad’s quick approach.
