Chapter 10

The cave-ins had stopped now, for which Threv was somewhat resentful. He had partly been hoping to be crushed under a heavy rock, to free him from Chalmos' judgemental gaze.

There was no doubt now that his cowardice when confronting the Draco up top had been noticed by his bondmate, earning the chan's scorn. Having a unfamiliar ancient language to decipher had pleasantly distracted Chalmos, but now, as they cleared away the debris from the cave-in, his cold silence had resumed.

Sylor had gone to seek some help moving the rocks, leaving them awkwardly alone.

Chalmos was struggling to heave one of the larger rocks off of the table in the middle of the room, his skinny frame inadequate for the task.

Threv walked over to help, the two of them wordlessly lifting the small boulder onto the ground.

"Thanks," Chalmos said quietly, as if they were mere acquaintances. That stung Threv more than the silence.

His bookish partner sighed as he looked at the damage to the table, which had been smashed in, destroying some of the writing there.

"Lost to the ages now," he lamented.

Although still bitter, at least Chalmos was talking to him again, Threv reflected. He knew he'd have to address his actions at some point, before Chalmos formed the wrong opinion. Maybe Dr. T'Ling was right; he needed to get things out in the open sooner rather than later. He just wished fate hadn't needed to force it out of him.

"Chalmos," he began softly, "about what happened up there…"

Chalmos gave him a brief sidelong glance. "It's okay, Threv. I understand."

Threv was surprised by this apparent acceptance. "You… You do?"

Chalmos nodded but avoided looking directly at him, examining the table intently. "You were trying to protect me. It was still a foolish thing to do though. You should have stayed with your fellow soldiers."

Threv just stood there a moment in realisation. Chalmos had misunderstood his retreat - thinking that Threv had come to save him specifically, instead of just trying to save himself cowardly.

It was almost a relief. Chalmos still thought of him as heroic, albeit a bit more self-centred, trying to protect his ch'te rather than remain at his post. Deep down though, Threv knew it was a dishonest image. He couldn't allow Chalmos to think it, especially as the chan may feel guilty for being the cause of Threv's abandonment of duty.

And, as Dr. T'Ling had also said, Threv would never truly recover from his trauma until his bondmates knew the truth.

He decided he would tell Chalmos everything. About his panic attack up top earlier, as well as those he'd experienced before, including during the war when it all began.

He gulped. "Chalmos…"

"Intolerable!" came a gruff exclamation.

Both Threv and Chalmos turned to see Supervisor Grum enter the room.

The rotund Tellarite shook his head at them. "Lieutenant Sylor asked for some help clearing the rocks out of this chamber, so Captain Thorpe sent me to assist you. Said I should make myself useful! Of all the-"

"Where is Sylor, Supervisor?" Chalmos asked.

Grum threw his arms up. "How should I know? We were separated in the tunnels. Foolish Vulcan got himself lost, probably."

"Not unintentionally, I'm sure," Chalmos said in a quiet aside to Threv.

Threv smirked, knowing that Chalmos' mood was getting better, but still felt he owed his partner an explanation.

It would have to wait.

Loxus predicted that the insufferable Tellarite would keep the two Andorians busy long enough for his absence to go unnoticed.

His scanner had detected a faint, intermittent power signature some time ago, purely by chance. He had just needed an excuse to slip away and examine it, and the cave-in, while destroying much of their findings, provided an adequate distraction.

If something in these caverns was still powered up, he didn't want the Humans or their allies finding it first.

He made his way down one of the dead-end corridors, lit only by his flashlight glancing off the dark, crumbling walls. All of this corridor's exits were blocked off by fallen debris, made worse by the recent cave-in, so it hadn't been explored further.

His scanner held out in front of him, he traced the power signature to its source with difficulty. The signal was weak and flickering, hence why it had gone undetected by the others.

Eventually, he found a closed off room from which the signal emanated. Relying on his superior Romulan strength, he gradually pushed aside enough of the boulders to allow his access. Doing so without bringing the surrounding structure down around him or otherwise eliciting noise was moderately difficult, but at least it warmed him up.

The beam from his flashlight danced over the contents of the room. There was another circular table in the centre with blank control panels, but this one had a large, clear sphere above it, containing a smaller blue sphere. Both were miraculously undamaged and the outer sphere was patterned with the same sharp lines that decorated the caverns.

The far side of the room, however, contained a stranger structure. It was a short, broad archway, like one normally found over a door or gate, only this one framed a portion of the wall.

Loxus reflexively raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

His scanner determined that the power source was beneath the table and, although there was still some magnetic interference, he surmised from the readings that it was geothermal in origin, hence its longevity. It had most likely been put into some sort of 'stand-by' mode when the caverns were evacuated.

His attention turned back to the arch though. Scanning it, he found it to be completely sensor-opaque. It wasn't just that there was interference; he was getting no readings at all from the unusual construct.

"Curiouser and curiouser," he said aloud, then chastised himself for using a Terran expression.

Moving over to the table again, he noticed some writing on its surface, above the panels. He was able to translate a few words - 'active', 'change', 'power', 'location' - indicating this was a control console of some sort.

There was one word, however, that he immediately recognised. It appeared quite prominently in each derivative language he'd studied from those other worlds, although its context had never been established.

It read: 'Gateway'.