Touch
Over two hours later, Inji sat next to two bags with equipment and waited. Waiting always made her anxious but now it felt even worse. She really wanted to see the suncave, see how the light filled a large cave. At least that's what she told herself. She didn't want to admit to herself that she waited so anxiously for him. He wasn't late for a date, he was just a bit late for a business meeting.
It was not a date.
It sure felt like it though.
The pitiful smiles from Gilaan and Heon did not help either. Inji flashed her lights angrily at them and returned to her calculations. She wanted to guess at the productivity rate in the suncave but she really needed numbers for that. So instead she began to sketch out the different development stages of the Lorey-vine. Broad, harsh strokes scratched against the slate until the tip broke off. Inji stared at it in surprise, she had not broken a pen in years.
"I'm very sorry to be late." The deep, raspy voice of Veelen shook her out of her thoughts. The anger that had slowly been building up inside of her threatened to break out in a harsh remark but she stopped herself. She had no right to demand his time like that.
"Well, let's not dawdle any longer then," she said, keeping her voice and her lights calm and professional. She picked one bag up and noticed with delight that he hurried to pick up the other one. He wore a short robe that left his neck and arms uncovered and she felt a surge of happiness that he let her see his lines.
She scolded herself for these silly thoughts, he probably just wanted to get out of his business robe. It had nothing to do with her. But still, she pulsed her lines friendly at him and was happy to see him answer in the same way.
They walk through Mekken was long and tedious. The young mayor got recognized a lot on the way and had to talk to many people. He seemed genuinely nice and happy to talk. He had kind words and encouragements for everyone and managed to deflect hostile complaints in an effective and still friendly manner. It was quite fascinating to watch for Inji, who always found dealing with other people exhausting.
Finally, they reached the bridges that connected the city cave to the farming area. Here the walkways were blissfully empty, making the trek much easier. Inji let Veelen walk ahead, he knew the way and it gave her the opportunity to watch him without getting caught staring at him. She found him really attractive and had no idea why.
Objectively, he was quite ordinary. He was slim, of average height, his lower legs had a nice but normal curve to them, and his fingers were of average length. But somehow his dark skin, his bold lines and the way he held her gaze whenever she looked in his bright eyes, made her shiver. The view from the back that she had right now was not helping her calm down either.
She pulled on her braids to distract herself, she needed to concentrate on the task ahead, not lust after the young mayor of the biggest city-cave inside Gelldre Kah.
He stopped at a roped off intersection and Inji almost ran into him, to her utter embarrassment. She had been so distracted watching his ass. What an idiot she was.
"This way," he said quietly, a tiny smile playing on his lips, "watch your step, there may still be rocks and pebbles on the walkway."
"Over here? Are we there already?" She had expected to smell surface air or see sunlight if they were close to the suncave.
Veelen shook his head. "No, we still have to go a little further. But the cave-in jolted this whole area, we had rock-falls everywhere around here. It actually showed..." he suddenly stopped, as if he had said more than he had intended to.
"It showed what?" Inji had to ask, she could not let it go.
"I really should not be talking about this with you...," he hesitated and his lines flickered uncertanty until he seemed to reach a decision. "A geologist looked at this area and said that the rock in this part of the mountain is much more brittle than they had expected."
Inji waited for him to continue but he stayed silent. She thought the information over for a while. "So that means that this area could be unstable? There could be more cave-ins?"
This time she really ran into him as he froze mid step. "I have not considered that." He looked at her. "I cannot guarantee your safety."
Inji grinned at him. "I hope you are not expecting me to run away now. I came here to see a suncave and I'm not leaving before I saw it."
He held her gaze for a few seconds, tilting his head as if he was sizing her up. She didn't flinch and when he smiled at her she knew she had won. "Very well."
They kept walking in silence, watching where they put their feet. The bags were beginning to strain on their shoulders. Around them, the walls looked rough and came in close to them. This area was clearly not finished yet. At some parts, they even had to duck their heads.
Just as Inji began to wonder is they had lost their way, Veelen stopped and put down his bag. They faced a rough wall, only on a second look did she see that it was actually covered with a piece of tarp, nailed to the rockface, just like Gilaan had done back when they had to close the exit they had used for their trip to the surface. Veelen turned to her and pulsed his lights insecurely. Inji had to will her eyes away from the beautiful bold lines on his neck.
"This is the cave," the mayor said. "We sealed it after the cave-in. The advisers told me that we have to be careful when we open it again."
"I know what to do," Inji said, even though she would not say how she knew it so well. She took out the overcoats and pants and handed one set to Veelen. After they had put them on, Inji removed the nails on one corner of the fabric and carefully lifted it up. Sunlight poured out of the gap and Inji caught a short whiff of peculiar smelling air. It reminded her to put on the mask but she hesitated. She loved smelling this air.
But she had to keep the mayor safe too and who knew how he would react to the surface air. She handed him the mask and also the dark glass for the eyes. He put the mask on without problems but needed some help putting on the glass. She helped him and then fixed her own. He looked at her curiously, maybe he wondered how she knew so well how to put all of this on.
Before he could ask embarrassing questions, she pulled the fabric away and slipped through. The light bit into her eyes and she hurried to pull the glass over them. Her eyes adjusted and she managed to grasp the size of the cave. It was bigger than she had anticipated, long and narrow. Surface light poured in from three openings between the stalactites on the ceiling but it did not fill the whole of the room.
Inji carefully climbed over the rubble on the floor towards one of the openings. The rubble on the floor helped her climb up towards the crack in the ceiling and she peered in as far as she could.
"We might need to do some work on this opening, insert a light tube." A light tube was basically a metal tube with the inside polished to be reflective. The light cube in the laboratory was equipped like that, more or less by accident but it made the light cube a lot brighter.
She made her way over to the second opening, climbing and crawling over the rubble. The ground was still untouched, not levelled yet, small stalagmites rising from it. It had a steep incline and no steps to guide the feet. The rubble that had fallen from the stalactites turned the rough surface into a slide of rolling rocks under her feet. She had to go on her hands and knees to steady herself.
The second opening was huge and she could actually see a bit of the sky if she stretched her neck. But she had to turn away after a second, even through the dark glass the blazing sky hurt her eyes. Veelen crawled up beside her, looking a bit out of his element but managed to get over without hurting himself. Inji kept her grin to herself and was glad that her lines were covered so that her amusement wasn't obvious.
She took his arm and pulled him over to her. "Look! The sky!"
He sat down beside her and shielded the darkglass with a hand. "The light is so bright, I can't see."
"I know, just look quickly. Just a little." She held her hand over his head to give him some shade. "We have to go back here when it is dark, so that you can see the stars. You can not imagine how amazing the sky looks at night." She had to look away from the light, green spots dancing in her vision. She looked at Veelen and realized that he had not looked at the sky at all but at her. She was glad that he couldn't see her lights pulsing in excitement and embarrassment at the same time.
"I would like that," Veelen said.
"Like what?"
"See the sky at night with you." His face was mostly hidden behind the breathing mask but she could see that he was smiling. It still felt ridiculous that the mayor of Mekken could be interested in her but she was pretty sure she interpreted his signs correctly.
Inji was no expert in navigating the mazes of romance but she saw no point in hemming and hawing either. "So... that would be a date? To watch the night sky with me?"
Veelen chuckled, his laugh muffled from the mask. "I had actually hoped that this would be a kind of date. Disguised as a business meeting so that I could easily back out if... necessary."
Inji felt her face grow hot. So he really was interested in her. How weird. "It's not necessary, not from my side at least," she said, not hiding the big smile on her face. She knew that he could see it under her breathing mask. "My friend, Gilaan, said it was a date but I didn't believe her. Oh, she is not going to let go of that for days, that she was right!" She wanted to put her face in her hands but knocked against the glass instead. It hurt enough to make her cry out. Veelen was beside her in a second, his hand hovering over the glass, unsure of what to do.
"It's okay," Inji said, "so very typical of me to hurt myself on something stupid like that." She took his hand that kept hovering over her eyes to push it away but when her hand touched his, it felt like a charge got exchanged between them, even through the gloves. He gripped her hand, clearly unwilling to let go.
They sat like that, a bit awkward, both holding the other ones hand by the wrist. Finally Inji got up and pulled him up with her. Their glasses bumped together on the way up and Inji fell into helpless giggles as they both yelled out "Ouch!"
"This is going so well," Veelen said with a sigh. "I think I would rather pretend that this was not a date, it might screw with my expectations for future dates."
Inji couldn't suppress the giggles. She was still holding his hand and she liked it. His eyes were faint lights behind the dark glass but it still felt like he looked directly into her soul. She took a small step closer to him but she lost her balance. Pebbles rolled under her feet, rocks that had been solid before, tilted under the weight of her feet. She grabbed Veelen's other arm for balance but realized that he struggled just like her.
The ground was moving. Dust and pebbles fell from the ceiling and tremors made the rocks they were standing on slide down the incline. They crashed on their sides, still desperately holding on to each other. It wasn't quite clear who tried to protect whom. They crashed into a larger bolder, Inji's glass-frame smashed against it and broke apart. The glass cracked and shattered. Luckily she had squeezed her eyes shut. With a shake of her head she cleared the remains of the frame and the shards away but now the light around her was blinding.
As sudden as it had started, everything was quiet again. Inji pressed her hand over her eyelids, even closed her eyes burned from the intensity if the light. "Did the ceiling come down?"
She only noticed now that Veelen held her in his arms and his voice came from around her shoulder. "Only small rocks, pebbles, nothing big came down. It wasn't much of a tremor, I think it felt worse than it was because we stood on that incline." He still held her as if he wanted to shield her.
Inji shook him off and moved to stand up, her eyes still closed. She obviously could not make it out of the cave on her own without opening her eyes so she felt for Veelen's hand until he placed it in hers.
"You have to guide me out of here," she said, "I have to come back later with new darkglass."
Veelen made her link her arm with his and began leading her forward, announcing bigger rocks she had to step over or around along the way. His voice was calm and soothing and Inji wondered if he really was calm or if his lines were pulsing in panic like hers. The trek to the exit was painfully slow, with Inji stumbling and slipping and Veelen trying to hold her upright on the uneven ground.
"There, we are at the cloth," he said, "duck your head down to crawl through."
Inji hesitated, they should have taken off the overcoats first but she couldn't stay in the blazing light any longer. She got on her knees and crawled through the gap, slowly unclenching her eyelids on the other side. Her eyes were tingling and green spots danced in her vision. Veelen came through the gap and she helped him to find a position to sit and take off the dark glass. Here in the comfortable darkness of the cave, he was the blind one while she could see.
They took a look around. The walkway looked a bit more dusty but the ceiling seemed to have stayed intact. Inji picked up a few pebbles and let them clack against each other in her hands. She would have to ask her geologist friend how common it was for tremors to follow so close to each other. Maybe she knew of a way to measure the stability, to foresee tremors. Maybe she would know if this was the last one or if there would be more.
She realized that she had sat in silence, deep in thought for several minutes when Veelen cleared his throat. "I don't want to intrude on your thoughts," he said, "but I wonder if we could get out of these suits now."
"Yes, I'm sorry, we..." she took off the gloves to help him with his overcoat, "we should do this very carefully, don't let dust fly off them. While we're at it, we should designate this area as the transition place, later we can block off this part with fabric so that any particles from the suncave stay here."
Veelen looked worried. "Are we in danger from the particles?"
Inji sighed. "Personally, I think the dangers of surface particles are exaggerated but you never know. You should watch for allergic reactions for the next few days."
"Aren't we contaminating the city-caves?" Of course, the mayor of the biggest city-cave would worry about that.
"That's why I brought wipes with us. We will clean ourselves with them." She helped him out of the overcoat and pants and carefully folded them up and placed them next to hers on the floor. His sleeveless robe was wrapped tight around his midriff by a belt and fell short over his pants. Inji wore a similar robe in darker colors and wondered if it looked as good on her as on him.
She made him sit down and took a wipe and began wiping his braids and face, working from top to bottom to wipe down all particles. She had done that before with Heon and Gilaan but it felt distinctly different now.
As she wiped his braids, carefully separating them and wiping between them, Veelen closed his eyes. His bold lines were shining in vivid purple and a soft hum came from his throat. Inji felt herself blush and her lines showed the same purple as his. A shudder went down her spine. Wiping down his neck and over his back felt more intimate than anything she had ever done.
She continued wiping, over his shoulders, down his arms. She used a new wipe on the robe on his chest and over his stomach. To wipe down his legs, she made him stand up. She hesitated shortly when she came to wipe the dust off his clothed ass and groin and looked up to him. His eyes were still closed, his face relaxed. Inji returned to the task with determination, it needed to be done and she would do it. He did not move as she wiped over his back down to the back of his knees but she noticed an intake of breath when she did the same in front.
When she was finished, she stepped away and handed him a pack of wipes. He nodded and went to work. His face was full of concentration as he worked through her braids and she closed her eyes just like he had done. His touch was soft on her braids, moving them from one side over to the other. The he moved over her ears to her face, following the greaves and lines. She became aware that he wiped over her dark spot and her eyes flew open. She searched for disgust in his eyes but he just looked warmly at her and pulsed his lights calmingly.
With a sigh, she closed her eyes again, letting him work over her face. She flinched when he touched a cut from the shattered glass but it was not deep. The shards had not hit her skin hard enough to penetrate the tough epidermis. He kept humming while he softly wiped over her skin and clothes. When he wiped her neck, she almost shivered. Her lines were probably shining twice as bright as they normally would. He made her stand up to wipe down her front and back. It felt like he got even slower in his movements now, wiping over her stomach and her groin. This time she really shivered and she dug her nails in her palm to stop herself from moaning.
Finally he came down to her calfs, kneeling down beside them. He used both hands to wrap around her legs, pressing down firm. It looked like he had a thing for legs, giving the curve of her calfs special attention.
When he stopped and stood up, a sigh escaped Inji. She opened her eyes to see him stand right in front of her, his eyes alight with bright purple. They looked at each other, holding their breath, until the sound of approaching footsteps pulled them out of their reverie.
A messenger boy came running towards them, easily jumping over the rubble on the walkway. He skidded to a halt in front of them, producing a rolled up parchment and a pen from his pockets. "Mayor!" he called out and handed him the parchment. "Your assistant is worried about you. Please give him a message about your well being." He held out the pen and waited for Veelen to scribble down a few words, slightly bouncing the whole time. When he got the parchment and pen back, he turned around to run away but got stopped by the mayor calling him.
"Was there any damage in Mekken from the tremor?" he asked.
The boy reluctantly stopped and waved a hand vaguely towards Mekken. "Some rubble fell down at the west but nothing big. There was some damage in Hardet's cave but I don't know what."
Inji snapped around. "The Knowledge Cave got damaged? Did something happen to the laboratories?"
"I don't know Ma'am," the boy was fidgeting, like he couldn't wait to get running again, "they're not saying stuff on the waveat."
Inji gave him a wave and the boy sped away, skidding and leaping like gravity was optional for him.
"It seems like we have to go back," Veelen said with a sigh. He bent down to pick up the overcoats but Inji stopped him.
"Let's leave those here. We would just spread the particles everywhere and we can use them again next time." She placed a rock on each folded pile and looked into the bags. "I didn't get to set up the spectrometers or the seedlings."
Veelen put a hand on her shoulder. "Next time. Leave them here. Would you think the cave is bright enough for surface light farming?"
"Yes, I'm sure," Inji said, "I mean, I would need precise numbers, hence the spectrometers but if I would guess..."
"I trust your guess," Veelen said and smiled at her. "I have a construction crew on standby for this project, they just need the dark glass and overcoats." He ushered her forward with his hand on her back and walked her back over the walkway. "I'm putting this project under your supervision, I want you to make this a hyper efficient protein farm for Mekken."
"Only for Mekken?"
"Mekken will fund this project and we will of course share any excess harvest but..." he looked at her, probably to see her reaction, "I know it sounds selfish to built this for Mekken only but you have to understand, we are already rationing the protein-base. We have to transport protein from the other cities because the farms do not produce enough for us. And it's not like the others have much to spare. If Mekken is self sufficient, the other cities can stop rationing too."
Inji flashed in panic. "And you want me to head this project? I have no experience in running such a large scale operation."
Veelen crossed his arms behind his back. "My assistant will take on most of the organization, she will talk to the architects and builders. But they don't know what needs to be done. You know about the surface light and about the plants. And I have a feeling you know more than you let on." He gave her a sheepish grin. "You know about the surface, more than you are willing to tell me." He held up a hand to stop her from protesting. "I will not pry, you don't have to tell me anything."
She looked at his face, taking his expressions in like she would see him for the first time. He seemed so sincere and serious, an experienced politician. But there was a boyish charm to his smile that showed how young he truly was. Inji wanted to talk to his boyish smile and tell him all her secrets but that other part of him held her back.
"Maybe I will one day," she said, smiling at him.
Yes, it's alive! I'm uploading the chapters I have already written and will finish the story. I would like to thank all my remaining readers. Thank you for being here.
