The sound grew louder the deeper Jorgen went.
It wasn’t a buzzing, not like when he’d first met Spensa. He wasn’t even certain it was a sound. Nedd and Arturo couldn’t hear it, after all. Maybe he was imagining it.
But Jorgen could hear it. A soft music, growing louder with each tunnel they had explored in the five days they’d been searching. They’d hit many dead ends and had to turn back a dozen times. But they were close now. So close he felt it was just beyond the wall here. He had to find a way to lead them left . . .
He stumbled down a short incline, then waded through water that came up to his knees. He held his industrial-strength lantern up before him, the kind used by the teams who traveled the distant tunnels and caverns of the planet to service remote equipment like pipes that carried up water from underground reservoirs.
“More water?” Arturo asked from behind, his own lantern making Jorgen cast a long shadow. “Jorgen, we really should get back. I could swear that sound we heard was an echo of the alarms. We might be under attack.”
All the more reason to keep going. He waded forward as the water grew deeper. He had to know what he was hearing. Had to know if he was imagining things, or if . . . maybe . . . he could hear Detritus.
That seemed stupid when he thought about it like that. He hadn’t told the others yet, except to explain he was on orders from Cobb. Which he kind of was. After a fashion.
And everyone believes I can’t disobey orders, he thought. They don’t think I can be brash? Foolhardy? Ha!
Running off into the deep caverns without proper supplies, and only a couple friends to accompany him? Following a hunch and something he maybe thought he could hear, only nobody else could?
“Jorgen?” Nedd asked, standing with Arturo at the edge of the water. “Come on. We’ve been at this forever. Arturo is right. We really need to be getting back.”
“It’s right here, guys,” Jorgen said, hip deep in water, a hand pressed against the stone wall. “Songs. Right here. We have to get through this wall.”
“Okaaay,” Arturo said. “So we head back, see if anyone has mapped this section of the tunnels, and maybe determine if there’s a good way to . . .”
Jorgen felt across the wall, noting that the water seemed to be flowing oddly. “There’s an opening here, just beneath the surface. It might be wide enough for me to wiggle through.”
“No,” Arturo said. “Jorgen, do not try to squeeze through it. You’ll get stuck and drown.”
Jorgen dropped his pack, letting his waterproof lantern float on the top of the pool. He reached down into the water, feeling at the break in the wall. It was wide enough. “Spensa would try it,” he said.
“Uh,” Nedd said, “is Spin really the best example to follow? In acting stupid?”
“Well, she does it all the time,” Jorgen said. “So she must have a lot of practice.”
Arturo rushed into the water, reaching for him. So, before he could get talked—or pulled—out of going farther, Jorgen took a deep breath and ducked under the surface, then kicked into the hole.
He couldn’t see in the water; his motions had stirred up silt, and so the lantern wouldn’t have helped either. He had to feel his way forward, grabbing the sides of the rock tunnel, and pull himself through the dark water.
Fortunately, it turned out that the tunnel wasn’t long—it wasn’t even really a tunnel. Just a passage through the stone, maybe a meter and a half in length.
He burst up into a dark cavern, and immediately felt stupid. What did he expect to find or see in the darkness? He should have drowned.
Then he heard the sounds. Music all around him. Flutes calling to him. The sound of the planet itself speaking?
His eyes adjusted, and he realized he could see. The stone here outside the small pool where he stood was overgrown with a blue-green luminescent kind of fungus. Indeed, much larger mushrooms were growing all across the floor of the cavern, perhaps feeding off nutrient-rich water dripping from an ancient pipe running along the wall.
Hiding amid the mushrooms, fluting in a way he could now hear with both his mind and his ears, were a group of yellow creatures. Slugs, like Spensa’s pet.
Hundreds of them.
I awoke to a soft breeze on my face.
I blinked, disoriented, seeing white. I was back in that room with the delver. No, I couldn’t be! I . . .
The room came into focus. I was in a bed with white sheets, but the walls weren’t stark white. Just a cream color. A window nearby looked out on the streets of Starsight, a soft breeze blowing in and ruffling the drapes.
I was hooked up to tubes and monitors and . . . and I was in a hospital. I sat up, trying to piece together how I’d gotten here.
“Ah!” a familiar voice said. “Spensa?”
I turned to find Cuna, wearing their official robes, peeking in through the door. My translator pin, fortunately, was clipped to my hospital robe.
“The doctors said you’d be waking,” Cuna said. “How do you feel? Explosive decompression nearly killed you. I’d recommend against going into space without a helmet in the future! It’s been three days since the delver incident.”
“I . . .” I touched my face, then felt at my throat. “How did I survive?”
Cuna smiled. And actually, they were getting better at that. They settled down on a stool beside my bed, then got out their tablet and projected a holoimage for me. It showed a shuttle flying down and landing on the docks inside Starsight.
“The city’s shield went down,” Cuna said, “but emergency ES gravitation kept the atmosphere from escaping. Morriumur says you appeared in space once the delver vanished, and they were quick-witted enough to grab you and pull you into their cockpit.”
I watched a projected Morriumur dock at Starsight, pop their canopy, then stand up, holding me, unconscious. They were met with cheers. I really was getting better at reading dione expressions, because I immediately recognized the befuddlement on Morriumur’s face.
“Morriumur thought everyone was going to be angry, didn’t they?” I said. “They assumed they’d get in trouble for flying into battle.”
“Yes, but for no reason,” Cuna said. They swiped the holoimage to another: this one showed two dione parents holding a small purple baby. I could see Morriumur’s features in the parents—at least, half of them on each face. “It turns out, relatives who were advocating for a redraft changed their minds quickly once the draft became a celebrity. My culture has its first war hero in centuries! It will be a few years before Morriumur develops enough to enjoy their notoriety though.”
I smiled and settled back into my pillow, feeling worn-out—but not in pain. Whatever they’d done to heal me had been effective; Superiority medical technology was obviously beyond our own.
“I can’t stay long,” Cuna said. “I need to speak at the hearings.”
“Winzik?” I asked. “Brade?”
“It’s . . . complicated,” Cuna said. “There is still some support for Winzik in the government, and there are conflicting accounts of the events a few days ago. Winzik is trying to claim that your people summoned the delver, and a brave dione—Morriumur—was our salvation.
“However, I’m confident in my case. I’ve insisted on being allowed contact with your people. Always before, Winzik’s people have been the only ones authorized to interact with the humans in the preserve.
“How surprised some of our officials were to get such calm, rational messages from your Admiral Cobb! This has proven that free humans aren’t the ravening terrors that everyone expected. I think Winzik will be forced to step down, but it will help if you can speak to the press. I’m afraid . . . I may have nudged the doctors to wake you early for that reason.”
“It’s all right. I’m glad that—” I bolted upright. Wait. M-Bot! “My ship, Cuna! I flew here on a ship that’s very important. Where is it?”
“Don’t worry,” Cuna said. “Winzik’s department raided your embassy after you fled the city, but I’m working to get all of your things restored to you. Your leader, Cobb, mentioned the ship specifically.”
I settled back, unable to shake a sick sense of worry for M-Bot. Still, I doubted that I could have hoped for a better outcome, all things considered.
“The delver is really gone?” I asked.
“So far as we can tell,” Cuna said. “Odd, as once they appear, they usually linger for years causing mayhem. Whatever you did saved more than just Starsight. Plus, casualties were remarkably low for an event of this magnitude. Morriumur and Vapor explained what they could, though we’re still uncertain about . . . how exactly you dismissed it.”
“I changed its perspective,” I said. “I showed it that we were people. Turns out, it didn’t want to destroy us.”
Cuna smiled again. Yes, they were getting good at that. It almost wasn’t creepy.
Something about the entire situation still put me on edge, but I forced myself to relax. We’d figure this out. It seemed . . . the war might actually be over, or close to it. If the Superiority was talking to Cobb, that was a huge step forward. And here I was, sitting in a Superiority hospital without my hologram on, and it was fine.
I’d done it. Somehow, I’d actually done it. I smiled back at Cuna, then held out my hand. They took it. Hopefully I could leave most of the details from here to the diplomats and politicians. My part was done.
I closed my eyes.
And found that everything just felt wrong. I let go of Cuna’s hand, then stood up, pulling the tubes from my arm.
“Spensa?” Cuna asked. “What is it?”
“Where are my clothes?”
“Your things are over on that shelf,” Cuna said. “But it’s all right. You are safe.”
I dressed anyway, putting on a laundered jumpsuit and flight jacket, then clipped on the translator pin. They’d left my bracelet, fortunately, which I snapped onto my wrist—even though I didn’t need the hologram at the moment. I tried tapping it to contact M-Bot, but got no response.
I stepped up by the window, still not quite certain what had set me off. Part of it was abstract. Winzik had been willing to summon a delver to fulfill his plots. It didn’t feel like he would accept defeat like an honorable general, turning over his sword to his enemy.
I scanned the city through the open window, standing just to the side of it, so I wasn’t silhouetted as a target. I’m being paranoid, aren’t I?
“Perhaps we should let you rest a little longer,” Cuna said, their voice calm, but their fingers twitching in a sign of distress.
I nearly agreed, and then I realized what the problem was. The thing that was setting me off, the thing my instincts had recognized even if the rest of me hadn’t put it together immediately.
It was quiet.
The window was open, and we were only three stories up. But there was no sound of traffic, no hum of people talking. Indeed, the streets outside were virtually empty.
I was accustomed to noise on Starsight. People always crowding on the streets. Movement everywhere. This city never slept, but today the streets were mostly empty. Was it just because everyone was upset and staying in following the delver attack?
No, I thought, spotting someone moving down a side street outside. A dione in a brown-striped outfit. I picked out two more of them ushering away a small group of civilians.
Those people in the brown stripes, they looked exactly like the diones I’d seen cleaning up after the protesters had been dealt with. They were the same ones who had exiled the gorilla alien.
They’re isolating the area, I realized. Getting bystanders off the streets.
“This isn’t over yet,” I said to Cuna. “We need to get out of here.”
