CHAPTER FIFTEEN

JAHLE

The tunnel was a tight fit for his new form. His horns kept brushing the ceiling, sending clods of earth into his hair and eyes. So he kept his head ducked, staring at the ground passing below. With his one hand on Mel’s ankle, he shuffled along awkwardly, pressing her onward. They could not afford to be slow. Who knew what Dogan might send after them?

Guards? Gas? A bomb?

And what lies ahead?

It was clear that she would die without him. It was also clear that Dogan would kill him for helping her.

If I could just get a chance to talk to him, one brother to another…

Only Mel’s harsh breathing broke the silence of the tunnel. Jahle strained his ears but he heard nothing of the battle behind them. Had Dogan given up? Had the guards missed the entrance to the tunnel? Were they crawling to their death?

In front of him, Mel slowed.

“What is wrong?” he asked.

“The tunnel forks. I-I don’t know which way.”

“Pick one.”

“But, I-”

“Pick. One.” His voice held an edge of scorn, and Mel responded to it, just as she had to his goading earlier. She turned right. Guilt gnawed at his belly, but Mel had too much pride. She didn’t want to seem weak, and he used the information against her.

With Dogan, Jahle had avoided provoking his temperamental brother. But with Mel, it seemed the best course of action. With Dogan, Jahle had wanted to survive. With Mel, he wanted her to survive.

More than survive. He wanted her to thrive.

They moved on in silence. At first, he enjoyed the power his new body provided. He was stronger and faster. The exhaustion and pain of the past few days had faded, and renewed vigor filled his body. His clawed fingers and toes gripped the dirt, helping him move forward. Time would help him adjust to his new bulk.

Still, it was a rough passage, and was barely wide enough for his width. Jahle’s back began to stiffen and his shoulder ached. His chest worked, heaving against the heaviness of the air.

He finally yielded. “Wait. I have to stretch.”

He lay down on the floor of the tunnel and rolled onto his back. In the glow of the lamplight, he took in the curve of her glorious backside and her concerned face peering around her shoulder. The front of her shirt covered her nose and mouth, leaving only her warm eyes and bright hair in sight.

Maybe this tunnel isn’t so bad, he mused, as the scales on his shoulders rose. At least the view is lovely.

“Is it just me or is the air really…” Mel’s voice trailed off.

“It is still breathable,” Jahle replied. He paused. “If you get dizzy or sleepy, let me know.”

When he caught his breath, they kept going. The world narrowed into nothing but the tunnel and the constant shuffle forward. An unknown amount of time passed. In the darkness, it was anyone's guess how much.

“Hey! I see something,” Mel said, suddenly. “I-I think I see… stars?”

Stars? Impossible.

He tried to peer around Mel, but could not. He had to follow as she led him to her stars. She paused at the glowing blue dots, moving slightly ahead so Jahle could see.

“Wow,” she whispered. “What are they? Some kind of magical rock?”

Jahle grunted and stretched onto his back again. “Water mollusks. This tunnel must have flooded at some point, carrying them here.”

At some recent point, his mind helpfully supplied. Flooding which might occur again. At any time. Without notice.

“Why are they glowing?”

“Bioluminescence,” he said.

“Hey, I think I see more of them!” Mel scurried away.

A rock snagged his pack when he rolled, and he spent a few minutes cursing while he untangled himself from its grip. By the time he freed himself, Mel was out of sight.

“Mel!”

“Jahle! Hurry!”

The flecks of light multiplied the further he crawled, and the air filled with a rancid smell. He slipped out of the tunnel and into a grotto filled with the pale blue-white glow of a million mollusks.

They dotted the ceiling and walls, like swirling galaxies, but did not touch the water filling the cavern. The wide expanse of dark water before him reflected their brilliance, a perfect mirror, its smooth surface unbroken by ripples. He gaped, turning in wonder at the sight.

“This is amazing,” he breathed.

“This is a dead-end,” Mel said, her voice flat. “A freaking stinky dead-end.”

“What?” He turned to her.

“Did I stutter?” Her hip was cocked and one fist rested on it, while she scowled at the grotto. “No way out. That clear enough for you?”

The sharpness of her tone made Jahle flinch. She was angry at more than their blocked passage. With a huff, she slumped down onto the loose grit underfoot and yanked her canteen out. She sipped while glaring at the view.

“Ration the water,” he said, gesturing to the lake. “I doubt that water is potable.”

She raised her left arm, extended her middle finger at him, and smiled sweetly before stoppering the canteen to return it to her backpack.

Some sort of strange human gesture of acknowledgment, he thought. I shall have to remember that one.

He studied the grotto, walking along the shore to peer at the far wall. The entire space was barely the size of the communal sleeping spaces in Kreebo, yet it might have served as a camp at some point. Three large barrels leaned against a wall, and when he examined the contents, found them to be empty.

Washed here during a flood? But how?

His lamplight only reached halfway across the water, the light from the mollusks helped him see that Mel was correct. Unless they went back the way they came, they were trapped.

How had the barrels arrived?

He walked to the wall and examined the mollusks. He guessed they survived by eating some sort of algae growing on the walls. They were round, with almost transparent shells, and they flinched when he brushed them with a finger.

“Water mollusks,” he muttered. He peered over his shoulder, at the dark water. “Why aren’t they in the water?”

Jahle bit his lip and pried a chunk of rock out of the wall, taking some creatures with. He hefted the rock and tossed it as far into the lake as he could.

“Oh!” Mel jumped at the splash.

The rock floated down, and Jahle watched the glow of the creatures fade as the dark water obscured them. Suddenly, they blinked out. Jahle frowned. What in the…

“Oh!” Mel yelled. “I forgot!”

He turned to see her scrambling for a compact square carrier on her hip.

“Olex gave this to me,” she said, her face bright with hope. “She said it would help me get off this planet.”

She threw open the case and then frowned. She reached in and pulled out a squarish object with a bright silver finish. One side was entirely smooth, while flat silver buttons covered the others.

His eyebrows rose. Is that… He hurried closer.

“Whatever it is,” Mel said, rotating the object to examine all its sides, “Olex took great care of it.”

Jahle crouched beside her. “Let me see it. Yes, I know what it is.” He pushed one of the buttons and was rewarded with a hum and a buzz as the machine started up. “It’s a navigation cube.”

“Uh-huh,” Mel said. “Exactly what I thought. I said to myself, ‘Self, it’s a navigation cube, clearly.’”

That made him smile. “It will help us find our location. Give it a moment to process. It must contact the navigation satellites above.”

“What? Like GPS?”

He didn’t reply. Merely stared at the cube, willing it to make the connection to the hunks of metal floating above Geran which may or may not have decayed from decades of neglect.

His breath huffed out when the machine beeped and the flat display side began to show numbers. They streamed across the screen until the machine beeped again. A representation of Geran emerged on the screen.

For a second, Jahle saw his planet again. The basic readout rendered the image in shades of sickly green, but it was enough. Longing welled up in his chest. Geran. His home.

Then the machine beeped one more time, before zooming the image to a representation of where he and Mel sat. He blinked at the image, turning it this way and that, trying to make sense of it.

“What? What is it?” Mel said. “You see something?”

“Yes, I-” Jahle broke off and stared at the far wall. “It says that wall… If I am reading this correctly, that wall does not extend to the bottom of the water. There is a second cavern on the other side. Look.”

He pointed out the features to Mel.

“There’s also a tunnel on the other side,” Mel breathed. “Wait, there! Does it connect with a bigger tunnel?”

“Yes, that is an Ennoi-made shaft. Not a borebug one.” His fingers worked over the map. “We have been blessed. It is a shortcut. If we catch this tunnel here, we can be at the spaceport within a day.”

Mel hopped to her feet. “So we just swim across, get under the wall and boom! We are outta here like a bat outta hell!”

“I cannot swim.”

At his words, the triumph in her face faded.

“What?”

“I cannot swim.”

She stared at him. “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Pardon me for growing up on a planet with water scarcity.”

“You said you had flowers! That means water!”

“It doesn’t mean swimming holes,” he retorted.

She bit her lip. “Ugh, fine. Okay. That’s okay. We just need a plan. Can’t swim…” Her eyes drifted around until they landed on the barrels in the corner. “But can you float?”

Only two barrels were in good shape. Mel rolled up her pants and tested them, spinning them in knee deep water. They were mostly watertight.

“Slow leak on this one,” she said, rolling it back to shore. “Other one is pretty solid. We can put our belongings in that one.”

“Will this work?”

She scratched her chin. “I dunno. It just has to work enough to keep you afloat. I’ll be the motor.”

They fashioned a pontoon by using the straps from the backpacks and sonar evaluator to lash the barrels together. Mel stashed the food and electronic devices in the watertight barrel and, biting her lip, she stripped off her jeans and sweatshirt and bundled them in, too. Jahle followed her lead before he slammed the lid into place with a fist.

“We got everything?” Mel said, hopping in place to stay warm.

Jahle averted his eyes. “I believe so.”

“Good,” she muttered. “Can’t leave anything behind.”

“We could head back,” Jahle suggested, eying the water. “Dogan might be gone by now.” No matter what the navigator had shown him, the far wall seemed substantial. They were taking a considerable gamble based on technology that was almost a hundred years old being correct in its assessment.

Mel shook her head. “No. This is a shortcut. I’m ready to leave this forsaken hellhole. I want to go home.”

Jahle said nothing, but his lips tightened. If it meant getting her closer to Earth, he would wade into that darkness.

Mel shook out her arms and rolled her shoulders. “Let’s go.”