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“What was that?” I said. “Earthquake?”
“We don’t get them here,” Stari said. “Maybe it’s one of the ships. I never should have left the mechanics by themselves. They’re as likely to destroy the ships as they are to fix them.”
But she didn’t leave.
She knew it wasn’t caused by one of her ships.
Thump.
Dirt drifted down from the ceiling and dusted our heads.
I shared a look with her. Our eyes lowered to the metal tin clutched tight in her arms.
The tracking devices.
The Changelings had tracked them here.
Thump.
The wall in the surgery studio bent inwards.
My heart was in my throat.
They were here.
They were coming.
“We have to warn them,” I said.
Stari slapped a hand on a button.
“Get out of there!” she yelled, her voice booming from speakers inside the surgery studio. “Get out of there now!”
The surgeon and his nurses peered at the glass window at us. Terrified and frozen to the spot.
One of the nurses broke ranks and sprinted toward the door.
She never made it.
Smash!
The wall exploded inwards, sending a tidal wave of concrete, rock, and debris flooding into the surgery studio.
A giant pair of drill bits demolished the ceiling, bringing it down in a cascading snowfall.
The machine was huge, wider even than the surgery studio. Two lights glared brightly. One red, the other broken, revealing the white bulb underneath.
It almost looked like it was winking.
Above it, through the thick cracked glass window sat the creature at the controls.
A Changeling.
The engine revved as it came further in the room. It knocked into one of the operating beds and spilled Klang across the floor. His sister was already buried beneath an avalanche of dirt. Klang blinked his eyes, still unable to move his arms, as a fresh wave of soil swept over him. He screamed but it was too late.
The digger turned to one side. The Changeling soldiers squeezed through a gap made by the machine and entered the surgery studio.
They were heading for the door to the observation room where we were standing.
