We led our search team through the jungle and to the cave. We showed them the “monkey” nests on top, along with the black glass screens. Dmitri, who was most familiar with the technology, confirmed that they were, indeed, solar panels.

He used a metallic tool from his backpack to pry one out and inspect it.

“Yup, you were right,” he said. “It’s a similar circuitry to the panels they use back on Earth. I mean, it’s the same concept, anyway. It functions on the same basic principle. Sunlight goes in, it gets processed through the glass cells, and then it gets transferred through these wires.”

There were hundreds of slim metal wires connected to the back of the glass plate. They led somewhere inside the cave, most likely through the glowing blue cables.

“I’ll pop one of the glowing ones open in a bit,” Dmitri added.

He climbed off the top of the cave’s stony mound and joined us inside. As soon as the glowing blue cables came out of the black stone wall, Dmitri got down on his knees and put on a pair of rubber gloves, giving me a childish smirk.

“I’ve gotten myself zapped one too many times before.” He chuckled. “Live circuits and all that.”

“Oh, well, that explains a lot,” Kailani shot back with a grin.

Dmitri chose to ignore her, but let a low growl out, enough to let her know that he’d definitely heard her. I stifled a chuckle and quietly watched as he cut through a cable section. Sparks flew, but once the live connection was severed, they were gone. He brought the metal tool up and touched the open end of the cable. The current zapped through, releasing another round of sparks.

“Yup, definitely a live circuit here!” Dmitri said, slightly amused. “But there’s more to it,” he added. “The glow isn’t electric. It only covers the membrane, the cable coating. Which isn’t metallic. It’s…” He sniffed it, wrinkling his nose. “Dude… It’s organic! I don’t know what, exactly, but it’s not electric, see?”

He showed us the cable section. The interior was made up of three one-inch-thick metallic cables, neatly wrapped inside the glowing membrane. Each cable had a slightly different color, too, in three shades of green.

“Why don’t you cut off a section and take it back to the resort, after we’re done here?” Ben asked. “You could do an in-depth survey there.”

Dmitri nodded. “It’s not like they need it anymore, right?” he replied, shrugging. “I mean, the pods are empty, so I’m not compromising anybody’s life.”

“At this point, we don’t even know what type of creatures were in there, so…” Kailani crossed her arms. “It doesn’t really matter.”

“If the circumstances were different, I’d probably advise more caution,” Ben said. “But since this might be connected to our people’s disappearance, consideration for a bunch of cables is really not high up on my priority list.”

I agreed. Mom and Dad and their group were our priority. Dmitri grinned, then sliced a foot-long section of glowing cable. Unsurprisingly, the piece he removed lost its shine almost instantly.

“Hah,” Dmitri muttered. “So, it’s not electric in nature, but still connected to the whole circuit,” he concluded. “Okay…”

“Does it tell you anything about the stasis system?” I asked.

“Absolutely nothing. I just wanted to sound really smart by saying it out loud,” Dmitri replied. “I think Corrine would be more capable of telling us what all this does. Or,” he added, giving Kailani a sideways glance, “Kale here might want to help me study this thing once we’re back at the resort.”

Kailani bent down to have a look at the piece of cable, then nodded as she straightened her back. “I could definitely poke and prod at it with everything in my arsenal until we figure out what the membrane does. It’s definitely not for décor.”

I took a deep breath, once again catching that whiff of the lemon and ammonia I’d smelled during my first visit.

“Hunter, Dmitri, I’m guessing you can both smell it?” I asked, looking at them both.

They nodded, as did the rest of the group.

“We can all smell it,” Elonora replied. “This has to be ground zero.”

“It’s the same as what we identified at the resort,” Hunter said, his brows pulled into a dark frown. “Whatever came out of here was definitely at the beach.”

My stomach churned. I’d been floating that suspicion around in my head and desperately avoiding it at the same time, understanding its implications. The creatures that had come out of the pods had definitely been at the resort. In larger numbers and in an enclosed space, like the cave, their scent was stronger. But scattered and miles away from here, their trail wasn’t as easy to catch. That told me something about what kind of creatures they could be—specifically, the kind that had been naturally designed to leave as little trace as possible.

But the next question popping into my head was whether they were peaceful experts at concealing their tracks, or predatorial experts at keeping themselves hidden from their prey. The latter idea burned holes in my chest.

I led the search team deeper into the cave. We went straight to the main, sphere-shaped chamber. The pods were exactly as we’d left them—cracked open. Footprints were still pressed into the mossy floor. And the computer mainframe on the wall was still off, despite all the glowing cables.

“Whoa...” Dmitri gasped, gazing around with the fascination of a human child during his first trip to a planetarium. He looked as though the entire world had just opened up to him, in one splendid but overwhelming wave. He was trying hard to take it all in. “This is incredible…”

“Have you seen anything like it before?” Ben asked him.

Dmitri shook his head. “Only in the movies. Oh, and I read about stasis chambers extensively during my sci-fi period,” he replied.

“You had a sci-fi period?” Elonora shot back, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

Dmitri raised his chin, pride oozing out of him. “I’ll have you know I’m quite the scholar on the topic.”

“Is that why you kept getting yourself electrocuted by live circuits?” Kailani cut in, chuckling.

“Hey! That came before I started reading up on the tech stuff!” Dmitri retorted, pointing a finger at her and feigning outrage. Their dynamic would’ve been absolutely hilarious, had we not been here searching for my missing parents and their grandparents.

Dmitri gave both Kailani and Elonora a grin, then settled in front of an open pod. He passed his hand along the edges, checking every screen and circuit board in sight. He even pulled the padding out, revealing more complicated systems underneath. He then frowned as he looked up at Ben and me.

“This is definitely a stasis system,” he said. “Not like anything I’ve ever seen. It’s obviously… alien, for lack of a better word. But! Like with the cables outside, it functions on the same physical and chemical principles. Something is being fed in. See these openings here?” he added, as we followed his finger pointing at various parts inside the capsule. “One of them is for the air. The second and third release some kinds of chemicals. The second reeks of ammonia, by the way, so that’s where that comes from. I don’t recognize the third, but it has a hint of mint to it.”

Hunter joined him in his survey, sniffing around the capsule.

“You know, the longer I smell this ammonia gas, or whatever it is, the drowsier I get,” Hunter said thoughtfully. “It takes a minute away from it to regain my focus.”

“Hah. It smells like ammonia because we don’t have enough Stravian knowledge to name its equivalent, but I’m willing to bet it’s a knockout gas or something,” Ben chimed in, his eyes lighting up with the realization. “Maybe it’s what kept them all in stasis!”

“And the minty stuff woke them up?” Dmitri asked, raising both eyebrows.

“That makes sense, actually,” Hunter said. “You get air through this slot. They keep you asleep with ammonia-like gas through this slot. And—”

“And if my grandma pulled the plug on one of these guys and the oxygen was depleted afterward,” Elonora cut in, “the wake-up protocol would dictate that the system floods all the pods with the minty gas through the third opening. Right?”

We were definitely on to something. Nowhere near finding my parents, but much closer to understanding how this whole cave system worked. The optimist side of me fed on this discovery. It was the best I could do to stop myself from worrying sick over my family’s disappearance.

Dmitri then followed the pod’s cable to the mainframe. He stared at it for a while, cocking his head to the side. One by one, we joined him, quietly waiting for him to give us something more to go on.

“Anything?” Ben asked him.

“Nothing about this big-ass contraption, if that’s what you were hoping for,” Dmitri replied dryly. “I do look forward to tearing it apart, piece by piece, and understanding how it works. It’s definitely a computer. And most laws of physics and mathematics are universally applicable, across dimensions,” he added.

“But there’s that lemony scent again,” Hunter said.

Dmitri nodded, then smiled at Ben and me. “The lemony trace absolutely belongs to the pod people,” he concluded. “I caught a faint whiff of it at the resort, in the jungle, too… not to mention in here. It’s extra strong in a closed space.”

“The pods, in particular,” Hunter agreed. “So, we’ve got five hundred and five unknown creatures with a lemony scent.”

“They were at the resort. Maybe not all of them, but some were there. 100 percent,” Dmitri added.

I scoffed. “Great, so five hundred and five potential hostiles.”

“Or peaceful creatures who are dazed and have no idea what year it is?” Dmitri replied, trying to look on the bright side.

“If they’re peaceful, what happened to our parents?” Ben asked. “And your grandparents. And our friends. They’re all missing, and they were definitely in touch with these creatures. I feel like I’m repeating myself, at this point,” he added, then sighed.

Kailani raised a hand, demanding our attention. “I wouldn’t be too worried about them. We’ve got a fire dragon, a Dhaxanian prince, a fae, and, well… me,” she said, trying her best to stay modest without selling herself short. “Whatever they are, I doubt they stand a chance.”

“On top of that, think about Derek and Sofia’s group,” Elonora added. “Vampires with plenty of combat experience. Fae with fire abilities. Plus, a seasoned witch and a warlock.”

Ben let out a long and heavy sigh. “I like how we’re trying to convince ourselves that it’s not all that bad.” His lips stretched into a bitter smile.

“Tell you what!” Dmitri said. “Let’s find that pier. The image stamp was the sunset before their cave expedition. Let’s see what’s in that area. They could be there, or nearby. Or the pod people might be there. Just spit-balling here, but it beats staying here and theorizing over what might’ve happened. Besides, Derek’s and the others’ scents have already faded. I can’t smell them anywhere in the area. The last trail for them is back at the beach house.”

I looked at Ben and instantly recognized the look of determination on his face. He didn’t need to say anything. I knew exactly what we were going to do next.

“Okay. Let’s look for it,” I said. “Northwest of the resort.”

“And once I’m there, I can try my True Sight again, on another three-to-four-mile radius,” Elonora suggested.

That was a good plan. It was pretty much our only plan.

And it was better than nothing, as my nerves were already stretching too far and thin.