Chapter 19: Menace
I stop when I see Sefina’s back in the mirror. Rage boils me inside at the idea that anyone could carve up such a beautiful female.
Fracture>>Menace: Are you two almost done? We are landing in the tunnel and must move quickly so we can get this range extender to Clover.
Menace>>Fracture: Two minutes.
I step into the shower, ease myself out of Sefina, and set her feet on the floor. “We have to go very soon.”
“I figured.” Sefina washes quickly, then helps me remove the blood from my back. We don’t need any more scent to help draw welvirs.
We dry off quickly and climb back into our clothes. As we clip our weapons harnesses on, I open the door.
Sythius is standing just outside, a rifle in his hands. Fracture is walking toward us from the cockpit. “Short on time. Clover’s been harassing me to hurry. Let’s go.”
I turn around, wondering where Sefina is, to find her injecting herself with another booster.
“Feeling okay?” Sythius asks.
As she passes him, she smiles in a way I’ve not seen her do before. “Yeah.”
Sythius squints at me and wrinkles his nose.
I shrug. “After you.”
Sythius follows her down the ramp and takes up a post beside Fracture, who closes up the ship as I jump down into the dark tunnel.
Sefina’s got a hoverlift up and running. She glides it up next to us like she’s spent many hours on them.
“What?” she asks me.
“Familiar?”
“Come on, junkers and hunters need ways to haul their plunder. Who do you think gets to work while they dig through their treasure?”
Sythius sighs like he knows what she’s talking about. He takes a seat on the deck.
I take up a protective position beside her while Fracture sits in the back with Sythius.
We race through the tunnels fast, heading for the main pick-up zone of the BlazeStar. I send out a local signal, letting whoever’s on guard know we’re approaching.
Coil>>Menace: We copy. Slow on approach. Survivors loading now.
Menace>>Coil: Please relay, one half-Solcrue team member in our party. A friend of Sefina’s who helped us get the range extender.
“Slow down, we’re almost there,” I tell Sefina.
She eases back on the throttle, and a few seconds later, the lights of the cavern appear like a bubble in the rock. Coil is busy launching survivors up the ascent shaft. He drops as Thruster takes someone else up. The two of them are in full sprint mode.
A pair of blue eyes shift out from the rock, a dark, commanding Titan that makes me reach over and take the controls. I slow and stop the hoverlift at a distance. “Commander.”
Savage stalks toward us in the headlights of the lift. “A Solcrue, huh?”
Sythius gets down and turns to face Savage, who is far more menacing than I ever will be. “If you’re going to kill me, get it over with.”
Savage shoves him back against the rocky wall. He jabs a finger into Sythius’ chest. “If youeverso much as threaten or make uncomfortable any member of this rebel camp, I will make sure your death is very painful.” Savage exposes his elongating teeth as he growls at him.
Sefina gives me a worried look, but I don’t know any more than she does what Savage is planning.
