Thera slowly walked around a huge, chugging engine with a critical eye on the look-out for any flaw. The pressure valves were barely doing their job and the structural integrity of the machine was questionable at best but Thera made note of every small detail and continued her inspection. She scribbled on the 'clipboard' in her hand, under the title 'M - 24', all the defects she found and the list was becoming quite unmanageable. The more Thera looked over the machine the more her frustration mounted. There was not nearly enough material or capability in the caves to take care of half of the issues on the list. It galled Thera that they couldn't fix the machines, upgrade them even, but Brenna vetoed her every effort to move their operations in that direction. When her pregnancy had been authorized Thera didn't bring the matter up with Brenna as frequently for fear of dirtying the favor she'd remarkably attained. For the sake of her baby she'd keep her mouth shut concerning subjects about which Brenna didn't want to hear. Still, it irked her.
Thera sighed and rubbed her back, to no appreciable avail but she gave it a try, anyway. She had to admit, even if only to herself, that her displeasure at the mired state of the engine technology was more intense (and escalating) with her late stage of pregnancy. She was objective enough to recognize her mood was clouding her judgment.
It was still stupid not to jump at the chance to better their way of life, hormones and backaches or no.
Thera's hand left her lower back and she trailed her fingertips slowly, lightly, and attentively over the rusted metal of the machine's outer husk. With all the dirt and grim built up on the machines sometimes touch was the only way to distinguish cracks from smears of dirt. The working engines were almost too hot to touch at some points but Thera preferred a little scorched and desensitized fingertips as opposed to missing something.
Thera's hand stopped when her skin barely caught on a small lip marring the smooth outer surface of the metal machine's belly. She stepped closer and rubbed harder to clear away the grease and soot. A crack. It was relatively small but Thera made note of it in meticulous detail.
It was no wider than the length of her index finger at its greatest side-to-side edges. The greatest dimension was height, two nearly-equal slivers running upward, drawn inward, until they met at the tip.
Thera made note of the triangle and was about to move on when something stopped her. She stood, head slightly cocked and brow furrowed, as she stared at the two-sided shape. Something about it struck her in that unguarded moment and she wasn't sure what. It was significant somehow.
Thera, baffled, ran her fingers over the triangular shape, traced its sides, then her hand flitted to the empty space above the shape. She got the distinct feeling something was missing. Thera stuttered to complete stillness again and her eyes narrowed.
As though moving on autopilot, Thera picked up the pen she held clasped against the clipboard and ventured toward the mark again. Her hand hovered, almost uncertain, then she touched pen to metal and scratched the tip over the pitted metal.
Thera stepped back and studied the faint, squiggly circle now sitting atop the crack in the machine's side. It was right there, chanting her name in such a way that 'Thera' was unrecognizable.
"Thera."
Thera, startled, turned quickly (as quickly as her body as of late allowed) and her eyes widened when she saw Brenna facing her.
"Brenna... what is it?" Brenna rarely descended into the work area herself, rather sent for people or had a runner speak to a worker on her behalf. To have Brenna come personally was abnormal.
Smoothly, Thera shifted her position so she conveniently blocked Brenna's view of the symbol on machine 24.
Brenna, giving no indication she saw anything flighty or unusual in Thera's behavior, merely frowned long and sad and said, "I need you to come with me."
"Of course," Thera answered on reflex, at first only too eager to leave behind the strange addition she'd made to the crack in the metal, but shortly thereafter overcome with foreboding. Brenna was acting odd. Thera couldn't help but think it couldn't be a good sign.
Brenna, without another glance in Thera's direction, crossed the main work room then ascended the stairs to her aloft office of silver metal and chrome that always made Thera think 'Indian Chief' (whatever that meant). Thera dutifully followed, despite the rising sense of dread.
When they were both in Brenna's office, the overseer stepping around her desk, Thera took the initiative to talk first. "I'm a little over half-done with the inspections of machines twelve through forty." She held out her clipboard of jotted notes.
"Yes, that's fine," Brenna said and didn't take the papers.
Thera, uneasy, lowered her work and deposited it on the table. "Is something wrong?"
Brenna looked up at Thera and the sheer regret in her eyes made Thera swallow heavily.
"I'm afraid there is. I assume you've noticed Carlin acting a little... peculiar lately."
Thera lowered her gaze but didn't answer. She couldn't. If she confessed to noticing Carlin's behavior she'd have to answer for why she hadn't reported it. To outright say 'no', however, would insult Brenna's intelligence and Thera did not think it would be a misstep taken lightly.
"It's all right, Thera, I know he's your friend."
Thera, shocked that Brenna would just 'overlook' negligence such as that of not reporting strange behavior to the overseer, looked up at the other woman and stared at her.
Brenna sat down in her seat, folded her hands atop the desk slowly, then continued to speak. "I'm sorry, Thera, but Carlin's night sick. He'll have to be treated."
Thera's heart skipped a beat. "No!" She'd spoken without thought and Brenna grimaced slightly and looked up at Thera. Her eyes were full of apology and it frightened Thera.
"It can't be helped. We found out he's been sneaking into the room they found in the mines and that he was trying to conceal his actions. He's not well, but he... he'll be well again soon."
"Brenna, no, wait, please. There has to be another way. He won't go into the mines anymore. I'll talk to him, Jonah will talk to him. He won't do it anymore, I promise."
Brenna only looked to one side, then her desktop, and shook her head. "I'm sorry, but the orders come down from the administrator." Then Brenna looked up again at Thera the intensity in her expression made Thera hold her breath as her pulse quickened. "Thera... the treatment process changes people. You might want to... say goodbye."
Thera wanted to scream. She wanted to fight. She did neither, could do neither. She only gaped silently at Brenna and knew, in her bones, this wasn't just about Carlin. The same way Jonah knew it, the same way she'd always known it. She, Jonah, and Carlin were not and had never been separate entities.
"Brenna..." she whispered but there was nothing she could say.
Brenna looked away, as though it was suddenly too painful to look at Thera. "Carlin will be treated tomorrow; I've allowed a day's grace. It's... it was all I could do."
Thera backed away toward the door, numb, and without a word in parting she turned and hurriedly left the overseer's office. She had to find Jonah, and it couldn't wait for the end of their shifts this time.
The last thing Carlin had expected on his way to the lunch line was for the woman Kaegan to fall into step beside him. As the night shift mining crew foreman she should be asleep with the rest of her team. Perhaps even more startling than her presence at his side, however, was what she immediately said.
"I know you've been going into the mines when you weren't supposed to."
Carlin whipped his head around to look at her, Kaegan's dark eyes so intent upon him it was almost entrapping like a well-laid snare, and he had to gather his thoughts a moment. "What? Um... I–I have no idea what you mean."
Kaegan frowned. "Don't even try, Carlin, you're a terrible liar. You were before and you still are."
"Before?" he was genuinely confused now, but at least confused was a better topic than the mines.
Kaegan opened her mouth to say something else but she didn't have time. Carlin was whisked away, swept from his feet, as a blur of a man barreled into him. The human blur didn't slow and as one they didn't stop until Carlin felt the uneven front of a machine slam into his back.
Carlin yelped as dials and levers and pipe bolts spiked mercilessly into his back and the wind rushed from his lungs in a soundless gasp. His eyes widened (he couldn't even remember the last time he'd been attacked by another worker) and he blinked to focus his less-than-perfect eyes on his assailant.
"Jo–" Carlin croaked before a forearm pressed against his throat and while pushing his head back into the engine managed to cut off his voice.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!" Jonah raged as he pinned Carlin to the machine, his arm pressing continuously harder into his neck.
Carlin's sight spotted and crackled at the periphery of his vision but he was able to make out the vague figures of Thera and Kaegan standing in the background, watching. They both looked surprised, Kaegan more so than Thera, but neither dared try to intercede. Carlin knew neither would take the chance Jonah would do the same to them. He couldn't blame them, really, but it did seem unfair that Jonah was going to kill him right there and neither would step up to try and prevent it.
Wait, why kill him?
"What..." Carlin tried to ask but Jonah didn't let him finish his thought. Jonah pressed closer, the skin of Carlin's back tore as his flesh gave before rough engine edges did, and Jonah's voice dropped. Somehow, the low hissing whisper was more frightening than full-out bellows. "I oughta kill you, you fucking low-life."
"Jonah! Please... what did I do?" Carlin rasped out.
Jonah's eyes were pure fire and Carlin was not reticent to admit he was petrified. People were afraid of Jonah for good reason. Not only was his dark side scary as hell but the things Jonah's body knew how to do... that and the fact murder in the caves was apparently lightly punished. They were largely left to police themselves, and as far as the majority of the workers were concerned Jonah was the law.
"Jonah, please..." Carlin was getting light-headed, his temples throbbed as his brain cried for air and his eyes felt two sizes too large for their sockets.
Jonah's furious face became the only thing Carlin saw, and he bemoaned the fact it would be the last thing he saw before he died and tried, before the end, to remember the woman from his dreams.
"Jonah." It was Thera's voice.
Jonah's eyes narrowed on Carlin, just when Carlin (on the edge of consciousness) thought the man couldn't look more intimidating, and fractionally the pressure on Carlin's neck eased. It wasn't much but enough for a half-decent gulp of air and the blackness receded.
"Jonah," Thera said again, in a small voice, but Jonah would be mollified no further.
"I should kill you," he hissed again and Carlin thought better than to struggle. He'd hate to tempt Jonah's lethal skills.
"What... did I do?" Carlin squeaked.
Jonah was rigid and on the edge of shaking with rage and Carlin knew he was on very, very dangerous ground.
"Brenna knows, Carlin," Thera answered, still in that meek voice that Carlin could hardly call Thera's. His eyes dared to leave the looming threat of Jonah to seek out Thera. She was standing still as stone, a hand on her stomach, her face down-turned but enough of it visible for Carlin to see the pallor to her skin.
"Knows what?"
Jonah pressed into him again and breathing once again turned into a luxury. "You and that god damn ship," Jonah hissed.
Carlin's eyes widened.
"She found out," Thera repeated.
"And now we have to pay for what you've done. Thera has to pay," Jonah snapped, and Carlin's eyes darted again to Thera and the concerned hand she held against her stomach.
"I didn't–"
"Think! You didn't think! You selfish prick!" Jonah ground out between clenched teeth.
"I'm... I'm sorry."
"Sorry? Sorry won't spare her, will it?"
"What is going on?"
Carlin looked toward Kaegan, who was alternately looking toward him, Jonah, and Thera. She was getting testy and it was a death-defying thing to do with Jonah in the mood he was. Then again, Kaegan never did back down from a confrontation, even in the face of common sense.
"This is not your concern," Jonah said in a barely-civil voice.
Kaegan's face twisted. "Does this have anything to do with Carlin sneaking into the mines?"
Thera looked at Kaegan. "You know?"
"I reported it this morning."
Thera winced and Carlin was given a small reprieve when Jonah stiffened and eased away only a little... more as though considering turning on Kaegan than relenting on his assault on Carlin.
Carlin took the opportunity to get a word in edge-wise. "Jonah, please... let me... let me explain."
Jonah's eyes were infernos of fury, aimed directly at Carlin, but before Carlin could say a word in his defense the ground shook violently and a loud booming thundered through the rock walls.
Jonah staggered and Carlin slipped to one side then to one knee. His freedom from Jonah's grip was hardly freedom as Jonah tangled one unforgiving hand into Carlin's coat as though, as an afterthought, keeping his prey from scurrying away.
Everything went deathly still, all conversation stopped, and only the working of the engines cut through the stillness as every single person, surprised, stopped and fought for a notion about what had just happened.
The deathly silence and immobility shattered with a second thunder crack and shake and finally Jonah released Carlin to stumble to Thera's side and brace her from falling.
The second shake seemed to jar loose the motionless workers and confusion and panic started to take hold.
"What's happening?" Kaegan asked, her voice betraying her trace of fear, as another rumble and shudder shook the very cave itself. A secondary sound, an echoing crack like a giant egg breaking, and small rocks and dust began to fall from the ceiling.
Carlin struggled to his feet and looked around, agape. Workers were starting to cry out in anger and fear. Jonah was standing, stance wide, his arm around Thera and hers around him. Kaegan was wobbling on her feet, her hands spread open to catch herself should she fall.
Carlin's mind spun then flew apart when it hit one thought.
Carlin rushed to Jonah and Thera and they pulled their gazes away from the overhead rain of dust and rock to look at him.
"We have to get to the ship!" Carlin said urgently.
Jonah's expression hardened, his gaze ice-cold, but Thera's eyes only sought answers.
Another tremble and Carlin was nearly tossed backward. He heard Kaegan squeak and fall behind him.
"He came back! It's him, he's here. PLEASE! The ship's the safest place there is!" Carlin begged.
Jonah stared darkly at Carlin as another exploding sound beat at their ears. He was deciding. Jonah didn't confer with Thera, didn't look to anyone but himself for a judgment call, then he gave a short resolute nod and turned to Thera. "Come on," he said in a normal tone of voice but for the commotion it may as well have been a whisper. Thera didn't argue, only gripped Jonah's hand with hers and steadied herself desperately from falling when another strike hit and the ground lurched. A great cascade of rock and debris fell from above and the entire cave seemed to groan and bow.
Carlin turned to lead the way to the mines but he stopped to grab Kaegan's arm and haul her to her feet. She tried to fight, merely on principle, but Carlin was too strong and she was too shaken. "Come with us!" Carlin yelled, and Kaegan grew complacent and did as told.
The four stumbled and staggered their way toward the mines. Behind them, near the barracks, they could hear the crash of a large section of the ceiling and the workers haplessly caught underneath.
"Hurry!" Carlin said even as they reached the entrance to the west mine shaft. They were the only people trying to get into an even more confined space when, in truth, the mines provided just as much safety as the main cave. It was all the same, only on different scales.
The ground titled and bucked and Thera lost her footing and started to go down. Jonah leapt to catch her and nearly went down face-first but he pulled her back to her feet and she clung to him.
Kaegan was starting to pull back, leery of entering the mines when the roofs all seemed to be collapsing. "You can't be serious..."
"We have to, just trust me!" Carlin insisted, and it was far from reassuring to Kaegan but Jonah and Thera seemed to be going on faith, faith in the man whom only moments ago Jonah was prepared to tear limb for limb.
"GO!" Jonah barked, to them all, and Kaegan startled and mindlessly obeyed. The shaking ground and imploding cave were incentive enough to pass on all higher-level thinking tasks to another.
Thera staggered as the ground shuddered once more and her knees almost buckled as her weight jostled, seemed to lift them plummet, and Jonah's arms clutched around her to keep her upright. She heard another part of the cave, even larger than those before it, echo with death as it crashed to the floor. The sound of breaking glass and renewed screams drew Thera's eyes up, past Jonah's shoulder, and she saw the skylight. She gasped as she saw it shatter and shards of fire-illuminated glass sparkled red and orange toward the ground. She waited in horror for the snow and ice to pour in. Instead there was a shaft of light and the barest glimpse of blue beyond.
It was all she saw before Jonah grabbed her hand and dragged her into the mines.
The lighting inside flickered and made the journey alternately ill-lit and pitch black, made more treacherous by the shaking ground underfoot, but Jonah, Carlin, and Kaegan knew the mine with great familiarity and Thera trusted them (i.e., trusted Jonah) to know their way.
A hollowly echoing crash bespoke of a collapse within the tunnel system and Thera closed her hand tighter around Jonah's.
Suddenly they turned right and Thera followed blindly. Jonah reached a point then stopped and said loudly, "Through there!"
Thera looked into the darkness, through where, then she saw Carlin's hand reached out from a black hole in the wall. Thera tossed one fleeting look at Jonah then took Carlin's hand and maneuvered her bulk through the entirely smaller-than-necessary hole in the rock wall. Carlin and Kaegan, on the other side, were waiting for them.
Thera's eyes went immediately to the room around them. She could only make out rough dimensions and the smoothness to the surfaces, the likes of it were only found in Brenna's office. Even her terror, for a second, got pushed to the side in favor of curiosity about this place.
Jonah slipped through the hole and his hand came to her shoulder. "Sight-see later, now, MOVE!" and with a gentle shove he propelled her inward.
Carlin led the way and Thera, helpless, followed.
The four of them crammed into a small, dark room and Carlin went to the doorway through which they'd just passed and hit some kind of command control. The door groaned and creaked its way down until it was shut and the room cast into utter blackness without the faint light from the shaft lanterns reaching them.
It also cut out a great deal of the sound and the ensuing silence was deafening.
"No one move," Carlin said, his voice still raised from the melee outside and seeming needlessly loud. "I'll turn on some lights."
Thera and Jonah stood, hands clasping one another's, until Carlin stumbled his way across the room and did something that made light stutter on in the small room. For a second each merely took note of the other occupants. Carlin by the panels opposite the door, Kaegan on one side the room and Jonah and Thera on the other.
Kaegan gasped and cried, "What is that!"
Thera looked and saw two lumpy figures piled in one corner. It was armor, she knew it at a glance, and the bones weren't hard to figure out, either.
"Oh, um, they were here when I found the room, I just moved them over."
Then utter stillness descended, like an uncomfortable cocktail party. The ground still shook but it was muffled. Somehow the ship was dampening the concussions. The explosions were still echoing dully but it was muted. The sounds poorly penetrated the hull.
It was a moment of near-peace and no one, considering the recent eruption of chaos, knew what to do with it.
Thera looked around the room,curious despite herself. It was alien and known to her at once, which dumbfounded her. The room was small, definitely a cockpit from the front-oriented chairs and consoles where, presumably, the bodies of the Jaffa had been found. Against the far wall... she had to look again. It was provisions. Bowls of food with clothes secured over them, bags of water, blankets... Carlin stole them, he must have.
"Carlin," Jonah's low-pitched (but less enraged) voice, and from it Thera knew he'd noticed the supplies when she did. "I think you better start explaining."
Carlin looked around the small space, at his supplies, then he rubbed at the bridge of his nose and sighed. "All right." He looked up, met Jonah's gaze, and said, "At first I only came back to try to turn off the homing beacon. Despite Thera's theory that the being for which it was originally intended was dead I still felt it was a danger so I... it took me three days to figure out how to turn it off. After that... I just, there was something about this place and I had to know. I had to figure this out, learn more about it. I'm sorry, Jonah, I didn't think about the consequences if–"
"I think it's the farthest thing from the administrator's mind right now. What's with the food and water?"
Carlin looked a bit sheepishly at the piles. "Bad feeling? I don't know why but I was sure that the god I read about on the tablets was real and that he was alive. I know you both thought it was... foolish, but I couldn't get rid of the feeling that he was a very real threat. I thought it would be prudent to take precautions."
"You stole," Kaegan accused sharply.
Carlin looked at her, only then seeming to consider the fact he'd grabbed her and taken her with them. "Considering the circumstances don't you think it's a good thing I did?"
"NO! What's going on? What is this thing?"
"Carlin," Jonah said and jerked his head once in Kaegan's direction.
Carlin nodded in understanding. "Kaegan, I know this is going to sound strange at first, but I need you to listen to me..."
