Serpent of the Abyss by S.J. Sanders

Chapter 33

Lori squinted at the dual suns dropping low in the horizon as she stepped out from the mouth of the cave. The air, while still very warm, was comfortable and bore a faint smell of perfume coming from a nearby cluster of flowers tucked between nearby rocks. They were just starting to bloom with the retreat of the suns. There was a beauty in the late day that she’d never seen in the rush to and from the mines. Not even her view from her dorm gave her any indication there was any sort of life on the planet.

With the late hour, the loud machinery was off and the mines now deserted. She had debated trying to approach someone in the mine itself since learning that workers had returned several days ago, but there would have been no avoiding the panic when her mate emerged from the shadows. This still remained the wisest course of action, even if it felt strange to see the mine laying silent. The track from the cave was already partially covered by shifting sands since the crew left. Her eyes followed it until it disappeared into the distance.

Her drive to get to the colony began to dry up as she stared off into the miles of sand stretching out in front of her. She couldn’t even see the curved top of the dome from where she stood. The distance felt daunting, especially for someone who relied on transports all of her life. Even though she was certain that Slengral planned to carry her, she felt oddly exposed with such a vast distance stretching between them and the colony. The colony hadn’t seemed so far away when she had been riding the transport.

“Ashlava?” Slengral called to her from where he rested just behind her.

She could hear the concerned note in his voice. If he had any idea that she was dragging her feet because of a bit of distance, she had no doubt that he would use it as the perfect excuse to snatch her up and search for a safe place to hole up in away from the madness.

“It’s fine,” she replied as she turned to face him.

Her breath caught in her throat as her eyes fell on her mate in full light for the first time. He was beautiful! The pink bioluminescence dulled to soft marks running up his body, but his dark scales, which had seemed gray and black in the cave, revealed their true hues in the evening sun. He was dark indigo and a cloudy gray-blue, which was striking against his gavo, that swirled with color despite their duller glow.

Like her, he had emerged fully from the cave, his large red eyes hidden completely behind a black lid that had descended over them. She was certain, though, that he could see just fine. She could practically feel the weight of his gaze as his entire attention focused on her, his head cocking with curiosity.

“I’m fine,” she reiterated as she smoothed her hands over her uniform. The thermo regulatory suit under it felt uncomfortably tight after weeks of not wearing it.

It wasn’t so much the colony itself that made her feel like she was breaking out in hives. No, it was realizing at the ninth hour that she—a virtual nobody in the colony—was actually going to have to speak to the lead supervisor and convince him to not only temporarily halt mining but to speak with the shinara. And while doing so not betray that she had an illegal mating with an alien. Her stomach rolled. In all of her many days desperate to get back, why had this never occurred to her?

“We should probably get going,” she mumbled, glancing up at the suns. “I need to get there before it gets dark and security detail increases for the night shift.”

Slengral rumbled in agreement. “And to avoid the hunters,” he replied in a tight voice. His black eyes narrowed on her. “I will not leave you to walk alone if there are hunters.”

“Yeah, let’s avoid that,” she hastily agreed.

The last thing she needed was one or more Seshanamitesh trying to pluck her from the ground while she tried to get back inside the dome. That part was going to be hard enough as it was. There were going to be questions—and likely weapons being pointed at her. After all, how often does a missing, presumed dead employee walk back across the rock from the mines?

She was pretty sure given the state of things with the Seshanamitesh, some of who had probably been picking off lone humans for some time, that the answer to that was… never.

Her mate’s head jerked in a clumsy nod, his crests flicking in agreement as he opened his arms for her. Lori didn’t hesitate to step into his embrace. She breathed a soft sigh when his arms closed firmly around her, drawing her closely to him. After being underground for so many days, rather than the relief she had expected to feel, she felt frighteningly exposed. In the tight circle of his arms, she felt safe.

Everywhere their bodies pressed together, she could feel the slight expansion as Slengral drew in a deep breath. It wasn’t just his chest, but rather it seemed as if every part of his body inhaled at once. She knew that it was because his kind had internal air sacks, but it still felt strange every time that she experienced it up close and personal.

He lifted up higher onto his tail, his dark indigo wings spreading wide and beating with large, gusting flaps, drawing them up from the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut against the cloud of dust that swirled around them, but it was only a moment before they were airborne and she felt the cool, clean touch of the wind brushing against the side of her cheek.

Turning her head, she opened her eyes, blinking away any sediment that still clung to her lashes and the creases of her eyes as she gawked at the landscape below her. While everything nearby seemed to slip by at an astonishing speed, there was so much to see in the distance that the far-off location captured her imagination.

What would it be like to explore there?

She laughed under her breath. Since when had she become such an explorer? Keeping her head down and doing her job had always been her preference. And yet… she couldn’t deny that there was something awakening within her that yearned to see more of this world.

It wasn’t just “the rock,” as many colonists referred to Seshana. It held a mystery of its own that seemed to be calling out to her.

Red rock and sand turned to dark hills in the distance, and yellow patches could be seen scattered near the jutting rock formations. An oasis? She had seen for herself that there was ground water deep within the caves, so it would stand to reason there could be areas where water broke through to the surface. If that were the case, why wasn’t the colony built closer to take advantage of them? She was going to point them out to Slengral and ask when his left wing suddenly dipped and they careened away at an angle, the yellow patches disappearing from sight.

Turning her face against his neck so she could angle her head to look up at him, she wasn’t able to see much more than the masculine line of his jaw. That was until his head ducked down, his dark shielded eyes meeting hers.

“Not much further,” he rumbled, the sound almost immediately being snatched away so that the words that reached her ears were faint.

She nodded against him, her head tucking once more against his shoulder. Eyes angling down, she froze in terror as two long tentacles burst up from the sand. Sand seemed to spray up from the tips and roll down the long length of both whipping protrusions that lunged for them. Her fingers instinctively dug into Slengral’s shoulders as she screamed and pressed her face tighter against his shoulder.

Lori gasped and choked on air when her scream was cut off by the force of his massive body as he wheeled away from it. She could see the sinuous flick of his tail in the air behind him as he shot forward, the tentacles slapping at empty air. In their frenzy, the tentacles collided hard enough that the sound made Lori’s head and teeth ache as it burst through the air. Only afterward did they seem to sink back into the sand as they were left further in the distance.

Giving another powerful flap of his wings, Slengral’s body relaxed, his wings stretching out again to resume an easy glide. His large hand stroked her back as he pulled her up tighter in his arms and ducked down to speak against her ear.

“Fazthal,” he hissed. “They travel through the deeper dunes over which we now fly. This is their hunting period, when the suns are near the edge of the horizon. Their eye stalks above the sand are difficult to see but are a warning of their presence. They take the opportunity to attack anything that walks or flies over them.”

She shivered against him. That could possibly explain why the colony was set up on a hard bedrock close to the caves. If Slengral’s slight diversion from the track between the mine and colony had been all it took to put them over the dangerous territory of the predator, traveling any distance to the mines over the dunes would have been treacherous at best.

Dangerous predators had also been entirely absent from Corp’s handbook for the planet and the several mines they had placed over the surface. It seemed to her that was an important thing to have in there.

Some of the planet’s mysterious beauty lost a hint of its appeal with that consideration in mind. Tucking her head against her mate’s shoulder, she tried to ignore the velkat strapped to his back, the end jutting up closer to her face than she liked, and relaxed as much as possible for the remainder of their flight to the dome.

Her eyes grew heavy as she lay against him, the rhythm of his body sluicing through the air oddly comfortable. She must have fallen asleep because her eyes jerked open when he dropped at great speed. He had warned her previously that the entrance to the rocky ridge nearest to the colony, where he could hide, possessed a steep incline that he would have to dive into. Even with the warning, her heart leaped in her chest as she clung to him. The descent into the dark alcove of rocks was sudden, and Slengral hissed as his tail dropped and whipped to coil beneath him in the narrow space.

Lori blinked against the darkness and stumbled forward as her mate reluctantly released her. She might have been tempted to linger there with him for a moment longer while she recovered, but she was eager to finish what she had set out to do. The sooner she spoke to Jack Dowry, the sooner she could return to him. She knew that her mate understood that as well. Slengral released her despite his muttered protest, his body lowering into the darkness, the flash of his red eyes glowing as he settled into the crevice. His eyes flicked to the rough crevice in front of them.

Taking her cue from him, Lori walked forward enough so that she could peer out from the jagged gap into the rocks. Just beyond the edge of the outcropping, she could see the side of the colony dome. She recognized the station marker on its side. They were positioned just off to an angle from the entrance. She would be able to see it easily once she stepped out.

She glanced back at her mate, noting the way he watched her anxiously, the end of his tail twisting and flicking. She gave him a small smile.

“I’ll return as soon as I can,” she assured him softly.

His crests flicked. “I will be waiting here.” His tone hardened. “If any of the males touch you…”

The threat was left unspoken as he swallowed back whatever words had been on the tip of his tongue. It was as if he did not even want to think of such a possibility. She nodded in understanding.

Whatever treatment she was shown today would determine what mercy her mate would show to the colony and how much help he would be willing to give her people—if any. Whether Supervisor Dowry or anyone else wanted to acknowledge it, it would take a hunter to establish contact with the shinara. Without that peace, and the shinara’s official protection, the rogue hunters would continue to prey upon the colony.

Lori slipped from the crevice and crept along the rocks until she arrived at a point where she could drop onto the packed earth just behind the ledge. Dusting off her uniform, she straightened it and proceeded to head toward the entrance without anyone being any wiser as to where she had emerged.

She knew her mate was watching. She could almost feel the charge of tension in the air, just as she knew the moment the entrance guards spotted her. Unlike the visceral feeling she got from her mate’s unwavering focus, human shouts were jarring and abrupt, the sound harsh on her ears after so many days listening to the rolling voices of the Seshanamitesh. She jumped, her hands shooting into the air in the universal sign of surrender.

Thankfully, no weapons were raised. Although she had prepared Slengral for that possibility, she was glad that she didn’t have to find out how he would actually react to it. Instead, the guards strode out toward her, their plasma rifles held in a relaxed position as they eyed her with open curiosity. One of them withdrew a datapad, his brows furrowing as he quickly looked her over.

“Who are you?” he bellowed across the short distance separating them.

“I’m Lori Straford, citizen ID U2386-99-02!” she shouted back, the words raking her throat raw. “I’m a miner.”

Like her ears, it seemed that her throat had become accustomed to speaking her mate’s language. Shouting just made the discomfort all the more abrasive.

The guard dropped his eyes to his datapad to input the information. He remained still and expressionless as he studied whatever came back to him. She was slightly alarmed when he turned away to speak into his comm, his low voice too muffled for her to hear.

After several minutes, he nodded to himself and slipped the datapad back into his pocket as he turned to face her. With a flick of his hand, he gestured for the guards to take position behind her, cutting off any retreat as he approached. Dark brown eyes stared down at her through his helmet visor.

“Lori Straford, I am sorry, but you will be coming with me. There are questions that must be answered.”

She nodded mutely, thankful that he didn’t grab her arm as he turned to take position at her side. All the same, she felt trapped between them as if she were being marched to some terrible fate rather than a lost soul being welcomed back. That feeling settled like a knot deep in her belly as the metal entrance loomed forbiddingly over her. A light lit up, and the clear panel slid away to admit them.

She wanted to turn and run—back to safety, back to Slengral. He represented everything that was safe to her. For all the freaky shit that happened in the caves, he protected her. Here, where she had no protection, there was an ominousness that she couldn’t escape. One that threatened to swallow her deep into some unknown recess and never let her out again.

But it was too late. The guards hustled her through, and the gate locked behind them. Long halls stretched out before her as they led her beyond the common areas, deeper into the heart of the colony. Doors that were biometrically locked unsealed to admit them further inside with their blaring confirmation alarms and the quiet whoosh of doors sliding open. A nervous sweat trickled beneath her TRS when they approached a locked elevator.

The guard beside her set his hand on the lock, and the metal doors parted, revealing the elevator cage within. She balked at entering, her pulse spiking.

“Wait…”

Where exactly were they taking her? The command station for the colony was clearly marked in the public blueprints that projected from numerous viewing screens set up throughout the colony. It was heavily fortified, but she knew damn well that it was not underground.

“Keep moving,” he grunted, practically shoving her inside.

She spun around as the guards piled in after her, their hard eyes tracking her every movement as if she were a prisoner.

Eyeing them, she wrapped her arms defensively around her waist. She didn’t understand what was going on. She didn’t do anything wrong.

There had to be a mistake. Who the hell treated lost citizens like this? Or any of the miners if they might have returned? Briskly rubbing her arms to chase back the unease assailing her, she swallowed. They wouldn’t dare do anything to her… would they? Surely, once they spoke to her they would realize what they were doing was overkill.

She was there to help the colony, not harm it.

She only prayed that Supervisor Dowry would listen and take her seriously. The colony command needed to hear what she had to say.