Note: Wow, not sure where the weeks have gone! I've been really busy as I had a promotion at work, which has made my workdays far busier, and I've felt shattered in the evenings. Writing, editing and posting chapters always takes a lot of time and brainpower, so I've not had the energy for it.
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ACT 2 – TRUTH
Chapter 34 – First Segment
Daniel blinked up from the book balanced on his lap and tilted his head to one side, attempting to stretch out the cramping up muscles in his neck and shoulder. It helped a bit, so he rocked his head the other way to stretch out the other side. Tight, aching muscles protested, but it definitely helped ease the threatening background headache that prolonged research always had a way of provoking.
As usual, it was difficult to judge the passage of time in Janus' Lab. There were no windows and no nearby busy corridor along which you could hear people moving around to give some sense of time. That had often been the only way he'd been able to tell what time of day it was in the SGC: the natural flow of people moving around the base to and from their shifts and, of course, the occasional visit from one of his old team.
The tightness of his neck and shoulders told him that he'd been reading for a long time without a break; that was if you didn't count the occasional glance up to type in his latest guess at the Janus' puzzle as 'breaks' from reading. None of his guesses had worked so far and he was starting to worry that he was working along the wrong lines with this puzzle.
He peered up at the large glowing screen above and beyond the Ancient console in front of him. His vision was swimming a bit, which again implied he'd been sat here working for far too long. He blinked his eyes clear and re-read Janus' puzzle. It was one of the three linked together brainteasers, and though Daniel had been working on them for what had to be days now, he'd gotten nowhere. He'd started to focus solely on the left-hand puzzle, the idea being that by being more focused he'd get somewhere…not so far, but he was pretty sure now that Janus was referring to the ancient Greek myths relating to the Titans. But it was difficult to tell really, because Janus had used strangely lyrical language for the question, though it wasn't presented as a question. It was more like a poem, and though Daniel had at first though the answer was a place, he was starting to wonder if it was actually referring to a person instead.
The style of Ancient writing Janus had used was unusual too and the subtlety of the meaning was difficult to interpret when used so poetically. Though Daniel often found he understood the Ancient language more innately since he'd returned from being ascended, he was struggling to grasp the subtleties of what Janus had written, or at least what he was trying to imply and ask in the puzzle. Daniel's working theory was that Janus was using an older form of the Ancient language, as Daniel could kind of see how the usual letters and grammar might have morphed from what he was reading, which was fascinating in itself and worthy of far more study, but now also backed up the idea that Janus was referring to the Titan myths.
In ancient Greek mythology, the Titans had been the 'elder gods', the first Gods and Goddesses, so the more 'ancient' Ancient language seemed like an appropriate clue. And perhaps the Ancients had used the older language style in their poetry, he wasn't sure, but he had scribbled the idea down as a subject for further research. For now though, he'd been working his way through every place, battle, and inference he could from the myths of the Titans, but had gotten nowhere so far.
Perhaps Rodney was right, Daniel considered as he re-read the poetic question for the millionth time, maybe he should just move to other puzzles; except these three linked together brainteasers seemed so unique in Janus' database, that it felt right to keep at it. Plus, he couldn't help with the maths and physics focused questions. Still, he was starting to feel overly tired and a little bit dejected at the long unfulfilling work.
He had faith that Janus wouldn't have lied to Colonel Sheppard about there being information on the Skerti in the Lab, but still, it was taking a really long time to get through the multiple layers of dense encryption to find anything, let alone about the Skerti. Plus, the reality was that, even if Daniel found the right answer to this particular puzzle, that there would just be more layers of encryption and riddles beneath it.
The days just seemed to be passing without any concrete progress and were all merging into one long mass of maximum effort with minimum output.
Though, today had been somewhat different, but not in a good way. News had come in from the Alliance that the Wraith and Skerti had breached their border. Apparently another one of the Skerti Drive 'windows' had opened up, through which Wraith and Skerti ships had appeared in the middle of a battle, and had knocked an Alliance civilian space station out of orbit and down onto a nearby planet. That hadn't sounded good at all, but Daniel had heard Elite Skan repeatedly assuring his team working in Janus' Lab that there had been protocols enacted to attempt to land the station safely on the planet.
Still, a few of the Alliance teams spread through the different taskforces in the city had headed off through the Gate early, fearing they had family on the station. Later, Skan and Colonel Sheppard had visited the Lab again having received a list of names of those who had been on the stricken station, and Sheppard had reported that another few from the Alliance teams had gone back home early. Even with the remaining Alliance taskforce members still working in the city for the rest of the day, their friends and family not involved, there had been a subdued atmosphere in the Lab. Even the Atlantis team had been quieter and had tried to throw in renewed effort to find the promised Skerti intel.
However, the end of the workday had arrived without any further update on the station's fate and there had been no miraculous discovery of the promised Skerti intel. And so, the usual evening had started with just him and Rodney left working in the lab, though today Elite Skan had returned to join them. The Elite's HQ Gate was busy dealing with the station crisis, so Sam had offered Skan guest quarters in Atlantis for the evening, but the Elite Warrior seemed focused on continuing the search for the Skerti intel rather than turning in for the night.
Daniel looked over his left shoulder to where Skan was sat perched on a tall stool in front of the Ancient pedestal. One elbow on the Ancient tech, eyes moving between the Ancient screen and an Alliance electronic pad in his hand, Skan was quiet and focused. Daniel got the impression the Elite Warrior was even more determined to find something, and it probably felt like it was all he could do for his people right now; Daniel knew that feeling.
Daniel glanced back further over his shoulder, confirming that no one else was here, just him, Rodney, and Skan.
And the pile of empty food trays from the Mess Hall that had been delivered who knew how many hours ago. There had been a roast meal this evening with a nut roast for Skan. Daniel had really enjoyed the roast potatoes and vegetables in gravy, and then a thick slice of chocolate cake for dessert. Despite the cake slices, the Mess had still sent up another box of donuts.
He was really going to have use the city Gym again tomorrow. It had probably been a couple of days now since his last visit, and all this sitting around eating donuts was going to leave a mark.
A heavy sigh echoed into the silence from Daniel's right, so he glanced round at Rodney. McKay looked his usual focused, frowning self, but he'd seemed less depressed today compared to yesterday. Breakups were horrible things to go through, but Rodney had assured him and Sheppard that working was the best medicine. Daniel could understand that. After Sha're had been abducted by Apophis, Daniel had thrown his very being into his work with SG1. It had been the only thing that felt like he was doing something to help her. Though it had taken a long time to find her, and the outcome hadn't been anything close to good, SG1 had been his saving grace during those dark times. And when he found himself descending into the old familiar depressed thoughts that he'd failed her, he found some comfort in knowing that he and his team had done a lot to help other people during that time. That they had eventually helped defeat the Go'auld and stopped what had happened to Sha're from ever happening to anyone else again.
So, he could understand both Skan and Rodney's determined focus.
Still, despite how often he'd been annoyed at the impatient interruptions in the SGC, he could really do with a visit from Jack to lighten the mood a little in here.
He was tempted to email Jack, but he was probably asleep by now, or at least off duty and Daniel never wanted to disturb any free time Jack and Sam could find together.
So, Daniel turned back to Janus' poem puzzle. If he was right that Janus was alluding to the Titans, and if he should start thinking of the answer being a name instead… He'd already tried all the Titans' names, things they'd been associated with or places of battles when he'd through the answer had been a place.
He looked back down to the book on his lap, its thick weight supported against the side of the Ancient console in front of Daniel. It was pretty much his go-to compendium on Graeco-Roman mythology and research, well, volume one of the four in the set. He glanced at the other three dense volumes on the nearby trolley. Most of the other books he'd brought with him were no longer on the trolley and were instead lying in uneven piles on any flat surface around him on the console and floor. The books were now decorated with multiple torn strips of legal pad paper working as his bookmarks to save places that could be useful. It had been a long time since he'd read so much mythology, not since the days of researching Goa'uld names and social structure.
Though most of Janus' Ancient-based puzzles so far had linked to Ancients from Atlantis or places located in Pegasus, there had been a good smattering of clearly Graeco-Roman mythology, which was another fascinating topic on Daniel's 'research to do' list. Given that Janus had been the name of Roman God back home, not for the first time did Daniel wonder if it really had represented Janus himself.
Rodney sighed heavily again, this time the sound long and drawn out with feelings of woe.
"Everything okay there, Rodney?" Daniel asked.
"Janus was a madman," Rodney muttered.
Daniel had to smile at that summary as he turned a page in the book. "He had to be careful no one would break into his database," Daniel reminded Rodney not for the first time, always feeling the compulsion to defend Janus.
Several more pages of the book were various historians' analysis of the symbolism and meaning of the dethroning of the Titan Kronos by his son Zeus. Maybe he was being too complicated about this; if the answer was a name and it wasn't the name of an actual Titan, then…
"There's careful and there's just plain paranoid madness," Rodney muttered bitterly about Janus.
Daniel looked round, having heard the very clear exhaustion in McKay's voice. He was looking tired, well not that that wasn't their normal look of late, but he seemed pale in the glowing light of the Ancient screens and the two laptops set out in front of him.
"Maybe you should call it a night?" Daniel suggested though he was pretty sure he knew that wasn't going to happen. "You were up most of last night."
"Maybe," Rodney sighed, making Daniel do a doubletake back at him.
Rodney was agreeing with needing a break?! He really was tired.
"Besides," Rodney continued from his now heavily reclined slouch in his chair, "I've done more hours today because you started late this morning."
Daniel frowned at that exaggeration. "I had breakfast with Sam and Jack," he clarified the truth.
"Yeah, for like the last five mornings running," Rodney again exaggerated, but it was clearly teasing now, which was actually another good sign. Maybe Rodney was coming out of his depressed gloom.
Turning his attention back to the book, Daniel shifted the volume a little higher as he turned more pages, working through summaries of artefacts found that referenced Kronos and Zeus.
"You're just jealous," Daniel smiled as he turned pages, "because I get to spend so much time with Sam," he teased.
Ah, here it was, the extended family tree of the Titans. He flattened the pages and ran his eyes over the top lines.
"No," Rodney protested instantly from the right. "I'm not. I've only just returned to the open market, so I'm not looking for anyone to date right now."
"Yeah," Daniel grinned, keeping his eyes on the book, "that's the reason why it's never gonna happen."
He was actually amused to think what Jack might do if Rodney started hitting on Sam again like he'd used to do.
"At least I'm out there now," Rodney added, but his tone wasn't grumpy or combative anymore.
Daniel ran one finger along the line of the Titans; he'd tried all those names already.
"What about you?" Rodney asked after a pause. "I heard you were seeing that crazy woman…what's her name? With the black hair, didn't know what dogs were…?"
Daniel frowned round at him. "Vala?" He vaguely remembered Rodney and Vala nearly arguing about something to do with dogs during the Super Gate mission.
"Yeah," Rodney snapped his fingers. "That's her name."
"I'm not seeing Vala," Daniel explained.
"Why not?" Rodney asked though. "She seemed, you know, tall and intelligent."
Daniel let out a bemused snort at such a tame description of Vala. "Well, she is intelligent," he agreed as he turned his attention back to the family tree. "And she's not crazy," he felt he should clarify Rodney's earlier description. "Most of the time," he added as he settled a finger on the name of the a Titan on the tree diagram, Phoebe, and traced down to her children's names. Could it really be as simple as the answer being the name of a family member of the Titans?
"Does Vala live in Atlantis?" Skan abruptly asked from the left, surprising Daniel.
"Um, no," Daniel replied. "She's back home."
"Yeah, in your home," Rodney teased weirdly.
Daniel ignored that comment, not wanting to encourage Rodney, as he considered Janus' question again. There had been the…feeling…that there was a feminine turn to the early Ancient language Janus had used, so perhaps he should start with the descendants of the female Titans, them maybe female descendants of the male Titans after that…
"Is Vala a returned ascended being too?" Skan asked next.
Daniel almost laughed at that.
"No, definitely not. Though," he considered, "she is technically the mother of an ascending being similar to the Ancients, who wanted to return to a corporal Human form. And she was previously an unwilling host to a creature that posed as a Goddess for awhile," he frowned down at the Greek mythology filling the book in his hands. "You know, suddenly some of these old myths don't seem quite so outlandish."
"Sounds like the perfect partner for you," Rodney put in, definitely in teasing mode now.
"Let's just focus on the work," Daniel returned as he focused on the family tree.
His and Vala's very complicated relationship wasn't something he needed to dwell on right now. Vala meant a lot to him, but on most days that friendship felt confusing, not helped by her constant attempts to seduce him in a way that made him feel more like prey than it being anything real. But still, some days…
He frowned at the book. Phoebe's children, yes, he'd try the daughters' names first then. He'd start with Leto. He leaned forward to the glowing keys on the Ancient console and focused on how best to translate the Greek into Ancient. He just hoped Janus hadn't used the older Ancient language variation for the answer too, because Daniel wasn't all that sure how to translate it.
"Do you have anyone?" Rodney asked abruptly into the silence and Daniel glanced round from the console to see that Rodney was looking across the Lab towards Skan. "If Elite do…that…usually?"
"I have access to sexual partners if desired," Skan replied without a beat, not seeming insulted at the personal question.
"What like, other Elite?" Rodney pushed, clearly curious.
Daniel focused back on typing out his translation of 'Leto'.
"Sometimes," Skan replied as Daniel typed but the answer immediately flashed up as wrong.
Maybe he should try Leto's children as well? Perhaps Phoebe's granddaughter, Artemis? Daniel typed in the translation.
"Must be nice," Rodney mused thoughtfully at Skan's answer.
Artemis was another wrong guess.
"On my original homeworld," Skan added unprompted, seeming newly chatty this evening, "there are no marriages or official couplings, instead people have no partners or have multiple casual sexual partners if they choose to."
"Really?" Rodney asked, very interested now. "Do they let outsiders visit?"
"Rodney," Daniel looked round bemused.
"What? I'm interested in other cultures," Rodney replied, eyebrows raised in forced innocence.
Daniel rolled his eyes as he turned back to the book.
On a whim, he typed in Artemis' twin brother's name, Apollo, but it wasn't the right answer either. He tried several other guesses at the twins' names in Ancient, but each time the result was the same: no joy. It had been days of constant wrong guesses…
"Colonel Sheppard told me that on your homeworld that many people mate for life?" Skan asked from the left.
"Yeah, tell that to Sheppard's first wife," Rodney muttered.
"On Earth that is the intention with marriage," Daniel told Skan more helpfully as he moved on to Leto's sister, Asteria, on the family tree. "But, of course, life doesn't always work out the way you plan."
"Of that you are very correct, Dr Jackson," Skan replied with feeling.
Daniel glanced at Skan out the corner of his eye, the tone the warrior had used full of all sorts of subtext, but the Elite was back focused on the pedestal, so Daniel looked back the other way to Rodney and they shared a look. Clearly there were some interesting stories in Skan's life, but Daniel guessed they weren't likely to hear them any time soon, so he returned his attention back to the book. Asteria had had only one child.
"Any more donuts left?" Rodney wondered out loud.
"I believe there are four left," Skan was the one to answer him.
Asteria's daughter had been the Goddess Hecate. Daniel frowned back up to Janus' poem.
"Ooo," Rodney uttered from somewhere across the lab, "there's a jam-filled left."
In Janus' puzzle, there were several allusions to light in the poem, in particular 'glowingly beautiful' sat right in the middle of the lines of prose. Though Hecate was well known to be the Goddess of sorcery and magic, she had also been associated with the moon…a moon could often be described as glowing with reflected sunlight.
Daniel reached forward, mentally translating the name from the Greek as he began entering it into the console.
"Is there a glazed donut left?" He heard Skan ask Rodney.
"Yep, one here," Rodney answered as Daniel typed in the last letter.
"Thank you," Skan replied politely from behind Daniel's chair, the donut no doubt being exchanged.
"You want another one?" Rodney added, presumably towards Daniel, but Daniel had his eyes fixed on the Ancient screen as it shifted, not with the immediate rejection to his latest guess, but it looked like it was running a decryption.
"I think I got one right," Daniel uttered.
"What? Really?" Rodney asked around a mouthful of donut, his presence a sudden warmth just behind Daniel's right shoulder. "It'll just be another layer of…"
But Rodney's voice dropped away as the screen cleared to reveal densely packed Ancient text.
It wasn't another layer of encryption protected by a new riddle, but actual Ancient writing. Finally, they'd actually gotten through to something Janus had hidden!
"What does it say?" Skan asked hurriedly from behind Daniel's left shoulder.
Daniel was already running his eyes over the top lines. "It's talking about investigating a planet, seeking signs of…other life…like the Wraith…," Daniel stood up from his chair, leaning further forward over the console as he rapidly scanned the lines. "They found caves, a hidden underground network of…"
He reached down to the console, shifting the screen down to the next section of text, but as it appeared, it wasn't just text.
A photo of a Skerti filled the top half of the screen, it's sharp alien features and piercing Wraith-like eyes staring right out of the screen. It looked so instantly creepy, that Daniel had to resist the instinct to pull back away from the image, some primitive part of his brain telling him to get away from it.
Because this photo wasn't like the images the Elite had shared with them; this wasn't a dead Skerti, this was a photo of what had been a living Skerti looking straight into the Ancient's camera, the sharp edge of what looked like worryingly intense intelligence clear in the creature's face and eyes.
"The Skerti! We've found it!" Rodney exclaimed loudly from behind Daniel, shocking him for a second before he dropped his eyes down from the photo to the continuing text.
"Janus is talking about interacting with the Skerti, learning about them," he scrolled down to the next screen, which was just densely packed text. "There's a lot of information here," he concluded, scrolling down again, pages and pages seemingly nothing but text. It was going to take a lot of translating, but he could already see as he skimmed the occasional sentence, that it was all about the Skerti, their culture, how they had been hiding from the Wraith.
"I'll start seeing if we can capture everything,'" Rodney uttered from the right, bustling away to his console, roughly unplugging one of his laptops. "We can't download directly from the database because Janus blocked every way I've tried so far, but if we image capture each screen, maybe we can get the computer to translate it to speed things up…"
"Okay," Daniel agreed as he kept scrolling through the pages of text until another photo appeared.
This one was the inside of a cave around which stood several Ancients, peering at what appeared to be waist high slimy-looking plants, while above them the high ceiling of the cave held tiny pinpoints of light glowing down over everything. In the far wall of the cave, Daniel could see there were several entrances to tunnels leading off the cave, but they weren't dark as you'd expect, instead they seemed to be lined with a thick organic matter that was glowing.
It was like looking into some strange alien world…which, of course, it really was.
They'd done it.
"We've really found it," Daniel whispered, the words arriving on a long, relieved sigh.
A heavy hand landed on Daniel's left shoulder, and he looked round at Skan stood next to him.
The Elite Warrior smiled as he squeezed Daniel's shoulder. "The Ancestor Janus was correct then," Skan stated, "You were the one to find what we need."
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The dry stony landscape had begun to sink from reddish browns into darkening shadows through the long walk along the artificial valley carved by the BreakAway during its 'landing'.
What had initially seemed not too long a walk through the extended gouge, had quickly become far less so. Seeal guessed the barren planet's lack of any buildings or trees hadn't provided any scale by which to gauge the length of the walk, but once down inside the valley and pushing the trolley, it had become very clear that it wasn't going to be a short or simple walk after all.
When the BreakAway had ripped the new shallow valley into existence it hadn't done a smooth job; instead, the ground was uneven and scattered with broken piles of blackened debris from the station, some still smouldering. And there were also the occasional fabric draped shapes along the way, covering the remains of those who had been unfortunate enough to be in the lower five floors of the BreakAway and had been pulled out into the crash-field.
Those were the most obvious reminders at how lucky all those walking though the valley towards the underground tunnels had been.
Though most of those fellow evacuees had walked the route ahead of Seeal, Nanuet, and Saoka's trolley, they had only helped to somewhat tread down some of the rough path. At times it was difficult to push the trolley over rocky bumps and down small inclines of the stony ground. And where people walking could simply step over debris or squeeze between larger pieces, she and Nanuet had to find another route round for the trolley.
It all meant it was far harder work than she'd predicted – hoped for, really – but they were still making decent progress. She looked ahead down the rest of the valley still to come, just to the right of which the small semi-circle of remaining sun hovered above the horizon, and then back down the length of the trek they'd already walked. She estimated they were a good three quarters of the way towards the exit out of the valley, but it was still some distance to go, especially considering how fast the shadows were lengthening with the setting sun.
She was aware that people in the line were starting to huddle into their coats or shawls, so she guessed the temperature was dropping as fast as the sun, but she couldn't really feel the difference yet or see her breath in the air, so that was currently the good news.
The bad news was that the strange unhealthy air on this planet had quickly been making itself apparent. Nanuet assured her that short exposure to the planet's atmosphere didn't cause any harm, that you had to be here a good few days to see health problems from breathing in the thin alien air. She hadn't bothered to point out that they had no idea how long they'd be stuck on this planet, because clearly he knew that and, well, it would be just plain wasting her breath.
And her breathing was feeling far more demanding than normal.
Pushing the trolley clearly required effort, but she was aware that she was breathing far harder than normal for this level of exertion. And she wasn't the only one.
Nanuet was clearly breathing harder than necessary, as was everyone else walking close to the trolley, and the long line of fellow survivors were all unnervingly quiet. There was barely any conversation and, when she did hear some, it was short and whispered words.
Those whispered conversations that were most audible were among those who had congregated close to the trolley. Despite her and Nanuet's extended walk circumnavigating large debris, they'd still caught up with some of those who had been ahead of them in the long line. Those with injuries, young, or tired had run out of the eagerness everyone seemed to have initially upon on exiting the BreakAway wreck, but the long trek and the thin air was stealing people's focus and breath.
The elderly couple, the wounded engineer, and the mother with two young boys had quickly fallen back early on in the walk, but had managed to keep close to the trolley since. The two young boys had quickly tired, but Saoka had offered the mother, Jarra, to sit the boys on the edge of the trolley beside his stretcher. That had worked for a bit, but the older boy, Mafd, had been unnerved by the jarring motions of the trolley so was back in his mother's arms and was currently asleep, his cheek on Jarra's shoulder. The younger boy, Kix, had stayed on the trolley, being small enough to curl up between two of the larger straps holding Saoka's stretcher in place. His position on the trolley put the boy just in front of Seeal, so she found herself regularly checking he was secure and, quite frankly, it gave her something else to watch besides debris, struggling evacuees, and the lowering sun.
She lowered her eyes now to check on Kix again in his curled-up slot next to the stretcher. The boy was clearly exhausted, but he was fighting sleep, his little heavy eyelids lowering repeatedly, only to snap open and nervously watch Jarra walking alongside him.
Though he seemed to be getting some comfort from the soft toy tucked into his coat; though she found the large bulging fabric eyes of the soft toy poking out the top of Kix' collar a little unnerving for some reason. She had no idea what animal the toy was supposed to represent, but the massively exaggerated eyes were staring constantly in her direction and made the toy character seem far more freaked out than Kix.
She'd never had anything like the soft toy when she'd been Kix' age; any available fabrics had been used for clothing and blankets on the Glisi world, and Kix' toy would have iced up almost instantly in the freezing air. She suspected the Glisi would probably see soft toys as a waste of good resources. Still, it seemed Kix was getting some comfort from it, his little arms tight around his middle, hugging the unidentified animal against him within his coat.
Looking up and away from the glaring freaked out eyes of Kix' toy, she ran her eyes over the route immediately ahead, which was momentarily blissfully flat; or as flat as this valley floor ever got. Glancing to the left side of the trolley, she considered the station engineer with the bandaged head wound. He was still walking, despite his legs seeming a bit unstable at times, but having one hand on the side of the trolley was clearly helping him. Plus, she'd heard him and Saoka occasionally talking and she suspected Saoka recognised the male's signs of concussion and was helping his employee with some occasional whispered encouragement. It was probably helping Saoka pass the time too through the less than smooth trip. It seemed that whatever top-up pain medications the Healers had given Saoka before they'd left the BreakAway were still working, but she couldn't imagine his broken leg was anything close to comfortable through the trolley's journey.
Seeal shifted her gaze from the engineer to her limited view of the top of Saoka's head. She could see that his chest was rising and falling faster than before, the alien air affecting him too even though he was lying prone. Glancing back to the engineer and then to the elderly couple beyond him, she could see that everyone was breathing faster than necessary, and were all currently eerily quiet.
Everyone was just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.
She was doing exactly the same, well, along with trying to ignore her grumbling ankle. It was working and hadn't given away under her, but constantly pushing the trolley over uneven ground clearly wasn't what her ankle needed right now. But that was what she had to do, so she did her best to ignore the constant sharp discomfort, and shifted her gaze forward again.
And onto those in the line ahead of the trolley. Without intending it, she assessed everyone anew. Not that she could see much other than their backs, but you could still gauge a lot, even in the lowering light.
One who had caught her eye a short while ago was a male who was dressed in civilian clothing, but clearly had some military or security training. He wasn't walking in the line, but alongside it, eyes constantly moving over the survivors ahead, level with him and then further behind, and then periodically up towards the sky. Keeping watch on all angles. He didn't quite have the straight back she associated with military training, which given his middle years, she'd have expected to be inbred by now. But he clearly had training. She wondered if he was station Security who had been off duty during the collision. He wasn't armed that she could see, but he was in a puffy station-branded coat that could be concealing things.
She kept a vague eye on him though, just in case he was one of those who was actually looking to take advantage of the traumatised and walking wounded in the line. There were always those who leapt to take advantage of the weak in times of crisis.
She realised that was probably why she was assessing everyone, looking for the potential criminals, even here.
Maybe Oneakka was right that she still thought of herself as a Security Lead. Whereas here she was just a fellow survivor and a civilian; just one of the crowd.
She let out a sigh, which went on a little too long and she felt a small flush of light-headedness. She quickly drew in a couple of deeper breaths and the feeling quickly passed.
Ahead to the left, the possible-military male glanced up towards the sky.
She resisted the urge to look up as well. Whatever battle might still be ongoing up there was nothing but a distraction right now. She couldn't do anything about firefights above the planet, so she'd stopped worriedly looking up at the thin layers of darkening cloud overhead.
The male looked down and away, which presumably meant there wasn't anything too worrying up there; or at least nothing had changed.
What she wouldn't give for a nice tall cup of her favourite Athosian tea right now. To be sat on the grass slope in the Hydroponics Bay, Splodge nestled on her lap while the other goatlings racing around her and Oneakka. They'd be talking about anything and nothing, their fierce argument long forgotten.
Despite many things demanding her focus through the long walk, parts of the argument still replayed in her head. Which included no small amount of embarrassment at how she'd let things get out of control, how she'd followed him down that hallway demanding answers from him. He'd been out of line, but a niggling voice whispered that maybe she'd stepped over some lines too. Not the line she'd been holding to between him and the soft feelings, but still some lines that she worried might never be recovered.
Which was stupid thinking considering that she had no idea if she'd even get off this planet…if she'd ever see him again.
The trolley's front wheels stalled against a particularly hard raised edge of rocky ground, snapping her back to the reality she needed to focus on, not emotional distractions.
Without conferring about it, she and Nanuet both added an extra coordinated shove and the trolley rolled up onto the large flat section of rock. It looked like some of the darker grey rock that could be seen jutting out of the valley floor here and there. She guessed it was a stronger strata of rock that had resisted the crash a little better, but as she and Nanuet pushed the trolley over this particular slab, she glanced down between her boots to see that its surface had long deep blackened lines across it. More evidence of how powerful the crash had been, how this planet's landscape had been forever changed by it.
It made her wonder how the other two BreakAways had fared, especially the one that had formerly been the end of the station that had been hit by the Wraith Cruiser. It had been in serious trouble, venting atmosphere, internal fires and possibly worse even before that BreakAway had begun to land on this planet.
She wondered how many others were walking away from those two other BreakAways, if any.
Was it possible that those stretched out in the long, shadowed tired line ahead and behind her were the only survivors from the former station? Perhaps-
A bright sudden flash of light lit up the darkening valley, making everyone gasp, and a split second later a crack of sound hit Seeal's eardrums. She hunched down as she turned, looking up at the sky in time to see a small fireball dissipating through a high layer of cloud.
The firefight was in the atmosphere now then, much closer…
Around the small fireball, small fast moving dots became apparent and little flashes of streaking light between them…weapons fire.
Then another much louder boom of sound hit, the force and vibration of it making Seeal start. People cried out around her in fear, the former silence now filled with panicked worried conversation about the distant battle. But that boom hadn't been from weapons fire or a ship exploding so far up, that had been from a least one fast-moving ship breaking the sound-barrier far closer. Seeal turned from the distant firefight, scanning the rest of the sky out beyond the sides of the valley. But the sun's dying light wasn't reaching out there, the deep twilight stealing any ability to pick out anything in the gloom.
She turned again, almost catching sight of something moving in the dark distance in the other direction.
Everyone around her gasped loudly again so Seeal looked back up towards the battle high overhead to see two more small fireballs in the darkening clouds. With the sun so low, the undersides of the highest clouds were cast in deep reds and purples, but with each second it was becoming more difficult to pick out the dark moving dots.
She couldn't imagine it was a good sign that the firefight was now in the atmosphere rather than in orbit. Unless it meant Alliance backup had arrived? Or were those dots up there the surviving Fighters from the station, still locked in prolonged battle with the Wraith Fighters?
From down here, there was no way to separate which tiny moving dark dots were friendly and which were Wraith.
She had no idea what time it was, though if-
Something caught at her attention over the nervous chatter around her. A new sound.
She turned quickly, scanning the dark distant air beyond the valley walls again, having noticed that the possible-military male was looking around worriedly as well. He'd heard it too then.
A shifting sound…was it just her ears from the former sonic boom or….?
No, it was possibly a buzzing sound…
"EVERYONE QUIET!" Seeal shouted in her most forceful Security Lead voice and, surprisingly, it worked instantly.
The survivors' voices dropped away, and she could feel all eyes on her, but she kept her attention moving, her ears straining.
And the distant buzzing became obvious…and was clearly growing louder.
"WRAITH!" Someone screamed and suddenly the formerly calm steady line of survivors became a rushing panicked mess of people racing in all directions.
Seeal held her ground though, turning on the spot as she tried to identify exactly which direction the growing buzzing was coming from; there was no point running when you might be running towards the problem.
"Over there!" Nanuet shouted, his long arm showing in her peripheral vision.
She looked out beyond the side of the valley to see a dark dot emerging from out of the gloom. She dropped to the ground, pressing herself up against the back of the trolley as the Wraith Fighter sliced loudly overhead, crossing over the width of the valley in a loud buzzing rush of noise.
And then, in an instant it was out of view, the buzzing reducing again.
"Move!" Nanuet shouted his command while pulling roughly on her shoulder to draw her up alongside him as he started pushing the trolley again. Seeal got her hands on the trolley handle and added some extra push to it as it rumbled forward far faster than she and Nanuet had risked before.
"We need to find cover," Seeal shouted to Nanuet as she craned her neck to scan the side of the valley where the Fighter had disappeared and then back down the valley behind her. Like them, people were racing to the sides of the valley or towards the largest pieces of station debris, everyone looking for even the smallest nook and cranny for cover. The problem though was that during its crash, the BreakAway had gouged down and into the ground, creating mostly outward leaning walls to the new valley that provided very limited cover.
She ran her eyes over the sides of the valley closest up ahead and suddenly spotted a small overhang of the darker grey rock strata protruding out from one wall. It wasn't much, but there was a big chunk of former station shoved up against it, providing the possibility of some combined cover between the two.
"Over there!" She pointed towards it across Nanuet's view.
"It won't be big enough," Nanuet argued.
"It's the best we've got," Seeal argued back, "We can barricade the trolley in between the rock wall and the big bit of debris, that should extend the overhang's cover," Seeal theorised, and, despite his initial disagreement, Nanuet was already using his strength to redirect the trolley towards the limited offer of cover.
In front of Seeal, Kix was sitting up on the trolley, crying out for his mother. Seeal had no idea where Jarra was right now, but hopefully she was close behind.
"Hold on tightly, Kix," Seeal told the boy through the bumping ride across the valley. "Hold on."
She craned her neck round, struggling to listen out for the Fighter over her loud panting, the noise of Kix crying, and people's panicked shouting around her. She couldn't see the Fighter, but, yes, on the edge of her hearing, there was the buzzing.
The Wraith would have seen them, now knew where the food was, so it would probably be circling back round…
"There's not enough of the overhang to cover Saoka," Nanuet said worriedly and she looked back ahead to see the truth in that statement now they were fast approaching the limited ledge of overhanging rock. There were already several people trying to press themselves into the space already, eyes wide and fearful, as Seeal and Nanuet rushed the trolley over the last few feet towards their target.
"Saoka, we need to take you off the trolley," Nanuet started to shout as they rolled the trolley to a stop, but the buzzing was definitely getting louder now in the distance.
"There's no time," she disagreed. "We can turn the trolley on its side, Saoka will be inside under the overhang with us," she suggested.
"We're not-" Nanuet started to protest but was quickly interrupted.
"DO IT!" Saoka ordered loudly, his head cranked backwards to look at her and Nanuet behind his head.
"I'll help," a male voice announced from the right; the possible-military male had been following them and was now moving around the right side of the trolley, as Nanuet adjusted the position of the trolley against the debris ready to overturn it.
Except Kix was still on the trolley.
Seeal quickly reached for the boy, sliding her hands under his arms to lift him out from among the straps. Except he was holding onto the straps with surprising strength given his age and clear panic. His eyes were wide and panicked, tears coating his little face and his toy staring its freaked-out face towards her.
Seeal was almost certain she could hear Jarra's voice shouting somewhere behind her, but the buzzing was now definitely getting louder in the distance, so Seeal pulled on Kix a little harder, plucking him out from between the straps and pulled him roughly up and over the trolley's handle and into her arms.
The second Kix was extracted, the males started rocking the trolley, the engineer, despite his headwound, helping too.
Someone bumped into Seeal as she stepped back and away from the trolley, giving the males plenty of room, as she hugged Kix to her front as she turned, straining her hearing on locating where the damn buzzing was coming from.
She'd had far too much experience doing exactly that in her life before Dream, so she turned on the spot, aware of other survivors rushing towards her and the promise of cover they were creating with the trolley.
Behind her, she heard the trolley's side hit the ground, heard the males talking about adjusting it.
Kix was crying hard against her front, but he was holding firmly onto her, his hands tight around the back of her neck, and his legs wrapped around her middle.
"It's okay, it's okay," she repeated to Kix as she turned, looking back down the valley towards the distant lopsided pyramid of the crashed BreakAway, the distant buzzing rising in volume and pitch.
The sunlight was falling as fast as her heart was hammering as she fixed her eyes on the BreakAway. It was like a giant signpost on the landscape that would clearly lead the Wraith to the valley where all the tasty Humans could be found.
Abruptly two Wraith Fighters slung round the sides of the BreakAway into view, both quickly dropping down into the valley, their sweeper beams activating instantly.
"MOVE!" Seeal shouted as she quickly backed up, watching in horror as running survivors at the end of the valley disappeared up into the beams.
She turned, arms around Kix, and raced the short distance back to the trolley. The plan had worked, the trolley was on its side crammed up against the debris at one end and leaving an open entrance at the other end. People were scrambling into the limited entrance to the cover, Nanuet and the possible-military male stood beside it, pulling and shoving people inside.
Behind her, Seeal could hear the screaming constant rising sound of the buzzing getting closer, the wine of the sweeper beams. At the entrance to the cover, Seeal could see that there was limited space inside, but she dropped onto her hands and knees, Kix thankfully holding onto her tight enough to stay in place, and she scrambled into the tight dark space inside as quickly as she could.
Hands were instantly on her shoulders, pulling her deeper into the crush of humanity inside, while someone shoved at her from behind.
She dropped and turned onto her left shoulder, cramming herself into a tiny dark space between the trolley and the tight press of people behind her, one arm around Kix, and she pulled her legs up as much as she could to make room for where she could see the possible-military male and Nanuet dropping and squeezing inside after her. People around her were reaching for the males, helping pull them roughly inside while outside the flight of the Fighters thrust hot air and dust into their cover.
The limited light flashed with the bright glow of a sweeper beam as it rushed past just outside, and then the noises were moving away, the sound dropping in tone as the Wraith Fighters headed away down the valley.
Seeal coughed out a lungful of dust-filled air, aware of Kix' body shaking against her and the fear-induced smell of body odour of the tight press of people behind her filling her nose.
But the sounds outside were still fading, the buzzing definitely moving away down the rest of the valley.
She reached down and rubbed the back of Kix' little shaking back. "It's okay, Kix."
"We're here, Kix," Jarra's voice called from somewhere behind Seeal, full of breathless panic.
"Ma?" Kix whimpered against Seeal's shirt.
"He's here, I've got him," Seeal called back to Jarra.
"What's that noise?" Someone interrupted urgently though, and everyone went quiet.
"Blaster fire," Nanuet correctly identified the distant rapid sounds outside.
"It'll be Station Security near the tunnel entrance," Saoka's stiff voice reported from somewhere a few inches away from Seeal in the darkness. She blinked against the dust caught in her eyelashes, her eyes adjusting to the dark to see Saoka lying suspended sideways along the trolley, his lowest shoulder bare inches in front of her.
To the right, Nanuet shifted partly out of the cover, letting more of the sunset colours into the dark space.
She watched Nanuet carefully peer up and around the end of the trolley to the rest of the valley outside. "They're firing on the Wraith Fighters," Nanuet confirmed as he moved further out of the shelter.
"Be careful!" Someone warned him unnecessarily.
Seeal focused on Saoka though. Despite the sideways angle after his trolley had been dumped on its side, the stretcher seemed to be holding its position well; they really had done a great job securing it. "You okay, Saoka?" Seeal asked breathlessly, still rubbing her hands over Kix' back. Jarra was talking to her son through the tight press of people, which was clearly calming him.
"No worse than I was before," Saoka replied tightly with surprising humour given the situation and the suspended position he was in.
There was another loud burst of more fire and a rumble outside which snapped Seeal's attention back to Nanuet, though she could currently only see his lower legs. "What was that?" She called to him.
"They've shot down one of the Fighters," Nanuet called back, dipping down to peer into the shelter. "It's crashed further down the valley. The surviving Fighter is out of sight. We need to move, now."
"What?! Are you mad?" Someone protested from just behind Seeal's back. "We can't go out there!"
"You stay here, you die," Seeal told the disembodied male voice as she started to shuffle on her backside towards the small exit out where the likely-military male was already moving out to join Nanuet.
"Out there is where the Wraith are!" The male voice protested again.
"Yes," Seeal replied as she held still, letting the elder female crawl out ahead of her, Kix still a tight clinging wrap around her. "But they know where we're hiding."
"They can't sweep us up while we're in here," the male argued.
Mostly out of the shelter now, Seeal paused to get on her hands and knees again and looked into the darkness of the shelter. Her eyes adjusted now, she could see the tight mass of people piled up and over each other, all faces turned towards her and the way out.
"No, they can't," Seeal agreed, though she couldn't quite tell who in there had been arguing. "So, they'll just land their Fighters and come in for you on foot instead."
"There's just one Fighter left though," someone else argued.
"They'll be a lot more incoming," Saoka was the one to point out, and Seeal had to remind herself that some of these people probably hadn't lived outside the protection of the Alliance, hadn't had to survive cullings.
"The planet blocks their communications," the first voice argued. "I say stay in here and let Security deal with the last Fighter."
Seeal had identified him now in the press and fixed her eyes on him. "Wraith are psychic," she reminded him. "You want to bet your life on them not communicating with each other that way? The fallen BreakAway out there is a giant 'this way' sign for them to find us in the landscape. We need to get to the tunnels as fast as possible, keeping close to the valley walls and any cover we can along the way."
With that she crawled backwards out of the shelter, more people following her.
Back out in the air, she straightened up and looked both ways down the valley as she moved away from the trolley, leaving Nanuet, the now very likely-military male and the engineer as they started working on pulling the trolley away from the overhang to right it again.
Panting still, hands around Kix, Seeal turned, straining her hearing, but the buzzing was gone. Ahead, down the target end of the valley, she could see little pinpoints of light, torches perhaps, moving over a broken dark mass buried into one wall of the valley. The downed Fighter, but there was still at least one out there.
With loud grunts, the trolley was righted, so Seeal hurried back towards it. Jarra was there, worried eyes on her and Kix, Mafd an equally tight presence wrapped around her.
"I've got him," Seeal assured the worried mother. "We need to move," She ordered as she got her hands on the trolley handle and started pushing. Nanuet was there a second later and they started shoving the trolley forward again as fast as possible.
Seeal didn't bother to look into the former shelter to see if the argumentative male had taken her advice and was leaving with them. For now, she just focused on pushing the trolley as fast as she and Nanuet could risk.
People were running ahead, keeping close to the wall of the valley, and even those limping were doing well, but then being hunted by Wraith could do that.
The trolley overtook a few of them though and Seeal was pretty certain that most of the speed was coming from Nanuet's strength, but she didn't stop pushing in case she was helping.
Kix was a panting tight corset around her middle still, and she was pretty sure she could feel his tears and perhaps saliva soaked into her shirt, but she repeated calming random assurances to him as they ran. Jarra was just to her right, clearly panting with the exertion of running while carrying the older boy.
Seeal had to wonder how quickly the unhealthy air timeline worked when you'd had to breathe this much.
Buzzing suddenly registered in the distance again.
Wraith shit!
The exit point out of the valley was getting closer, shocking fast really considering how far it had seemed before, but Seeal fixed her eyes on it and the route ahead. Fortunately, there wasn't much debris here, but the buzzing was increasing in volume, getting louder with each passing panting second.
A part of Seeal's brain did the calculations, born from years living on different planet's streets and running from Wraith. It was experience she couldn't quantify out loud, but was still able to compare just how loud the buzzing was getting, how fast she was running, and how far it still was to the exit point. And it all told her that there wasn't enough time.
They were too far from the exit – which, even once they reached it, was still a slope up the valley wall to get the trolley up – and the buzzing was getting loud far too fast.
"It's in the valley!" Jarra reported panicked and Seeal looked over her shoulder to see the Fighter's glowing sweeper beam sliding sideways across the valley, tracing the side walls, picking up people trying to cower out of its reach.
"We need cover," Seeal shouted even though she knew there wasn't much to find where they were.
Beside her, Nanuet abruptly stopped, and the trolley slowed almost instantly without him, proving she hadn't been doing that much. As she slid to a stop with the trolley, she was aware of Nanuet turning, his hand moving through her peripheral vision, dropping to his hip as he turned. The biggest blaster from his holster was in his hand a second later and he sighted down the length of the valley.
There had been another big blaster on his other hip…. Seeal looked down to his left hip facing her now as he started firing down the valley. She reached for the big blaster; it would have more effect than the smaller blaster he'd given her earlier. She pulled the bulky weapon out of the holster and turned, lifting its overly heavy weight up in front of her.
"Keep your head down, Kix!" She ordered as she pulled the trigger, firing towards the big dark buzzing shape tearing down the valley towards them.
The blaster had a surprising recoil to it, and she had to brace the butt of the weapon with her other hand before she fired again. It felt more like an energy canon than a normal blaster! She compensated quickly though, and her weapons blasts ran alongside Nanuet's through the darkening air towards the Fighter, and, from somewhere to the right, another set of weapon blasts joined in.
The Fighter was just that bit too far away still though, and was easily adjusting its flight to avoid most of the attack, but still some blasts hit one wing and skimmed down the underside of its belly.
In the expanded adrenaline-slowed moments, Seeal suddenly remembered something Oneakka had told her: that people always instinctively fired towards the body of a Wraith Fighter, but the real threat was the Wraith inside. She adjusted her aim upwards, towards the domed canopy of the Fighter and fired rapid fast shots as it raced towards them.
One factor on their side was that the closer the Fighter raced towards them, the bigger the target it was becoming and less time it had to adjust its path. But it tried, swinging and wobbling it's wings to try to be less of a target, and suddenly blasts of its own weapons fired out through the air.
Seeal dropped to one knee, hunching slightly over Kix as she kept firing, but the Fighter's weapons fire had sliced by overhead; the Fighter was too close now to be able to hit her and Nanuet…which wasn't a good thing.
Because it was clearly now heading directly for them, intending to reach them with its sweeper beam before they could damage it enough.
She kept firing at the canopy, aware of someone else following her lead. Energy blasts danced over the canopy, turning it into a ray of dazzling energy impacts.
And suddenly the canopy broke open, blaster fire finally reaching inside, and a fire broke out in an instant before the Fighter abruptly listed sharply to the left and slammed its nose down into the valley floor only metres away. A plume of dust, debris bits and fire filled the air.
Seeal ducked down and away, covering Kix' head with one hand and her own head with the bulk of Nanuet's blaster as the hot dust cloud rushed over them.
She heard stones and debris pepper down around her, felt fortunately lightly weighted debris glance off against her raised arm, her shoulder and something skimmed to a stop up against her knee.
And then everything went silent.
She blinked open her eyes and looked cautiously over her shoulder, seeing the air clearing to reveal the Fighter partly buried and crushed into the valley floor.
Across her view, the possible-military male moved forward, a blaster held ready in his hands as he carefully headed towards the Fighter…to make sure the Wraith inside was dead, she realised.
She stood up quickly, lifting the heavy blaster up once more, pointing it towards where the Fighter's canopy would be among the piled-up debris and earth.
Panting, Kix silent against her but still holding tight, she kept her eyes on the ship. The canopy was missing, she realised, the back spine of the fighter ending just above an open space before the destroyed pile of valley floor. The open space out of which the Wraith could suddenly appear…
She felt lightheaded, but she drew in deep breaths through her nose and out through the mouth, her vision clearing.
The male reached the Fighter and glanced back towards her and presumably Nanuet. She nodded that she had him covered – he definitely had had proper training – and he began to climb the small mound of earth to peer cautiously into the space where the canopy had been.
He looked down into the Fighter for a prolonged moment and then lowered himself back down. "It's dead, but I'm going to make sure," he called out before he climbed further up the pile, one boot balanced on the side of the Fighter as he lifted his weapon and fired a rapid series of blasts into the ship, lighting it up in bright flashes in the dull new-evening light.
A moment later, he climbed back down and jogged towards them.
"It looked dead, but I've blasted several holes through it," he reported as he reached them. "It's not regenerating from that."
"We need to get moving to the exit," Nanuet stated breathlessly from just behind Seeal's right shoulder.
She nodded and turned, lowering the heavy blaster, her aching hands trembling slightly from its weight and the adrenaline in her system. That had been really close.
"They'll be more incoming," the likely-military male added.
"Saoka, are you alright?" Nanuet asked worriedly as Seeal turned back to the trolley, finding Jarra and the engineer stood close beside Saoka on the trolley.
"I'm alright," Saoka's voice drifted up from between them.
"Everyone else?" Nanuet asked as he set his hands on the trolley's handle while Seeal stepped around him and slid the energy canon back into his holster, glad not have to hold the heavy weapon anymore.
"Then let's move," Nanuet commanded a second later. "Fast people!" he added as he started pushing the trolley forward, glancing round at Seeal as she added her hands to the handle. "Alright?" He asked her around his fast breathing as they ran, shoulders grazing.
"I'm fine," she confirmed. "You?" She glanced at him to see a few little pinpricks of blood across his dark profile, likely from the flying debris, but he seemed okay otherwise.
"Fine," Nanuet replied but the trolley started moving even faster as he poured more of his strength into it. She understood the hurry, glancing back over her shoulder, checking the now almost black sky over the valley for more Fighters.
But nothing else showed, and even straining her hearing over the panting breaths of those running alongside the trolley, she couldn't hear any more buzzing.
Well, except that in her ears from the adrenaline and the desperate awareness that her internal resources were seriously depleted. She needed water and something to eat, but she would deal with that once they got to the tunnels.
Everyone was running silently now, outside of their gasping panting, keeping close to the walls of the valley, the way fortunately devoid of any more large pieces of station debris. But it was still hard work at the pace they were keeping, and she and Nanuet had to control the trolley more at the faster speed. Seeal's limbs were aching, her ankle protesting, and Kix' death grip around her felt like a tight corset limiting how deep a breath she could take, but she just kept on running and pushing.
Ahead of her the likely-military male was now helping the someone with a bleeding shoulder, his attention sweeping up and around for more incoming, but the air remained empty of any new impending sweeper beams. Seeal didn't let up though, she kept pushing, kept racing forward, ignoring her body's aches and the slightly tunnelling vision she had from the tell-tale signs of sugar depletion in her bloodstream. Glancing down, she spied the edge of one of the packets of dried kita fruit that had somehow stayed put between the water bottles on the trolley's enclosed shelf during its overturning; she'd eat that whole fruit packet as soon as she could.
For now, keeping moving was the only thing to do.
Ahead to the right, the sun was now the thinnest of crescents at the horizon, the air registering as cool against Seeal's cheeks, and she could now see smoke drifting up from the dark pile ahead that had been the first downed Fighter, buried into the far valley wall. There was no one near it, the Station's Security staff not guarding it, so she took it on faith that meant the Wraith inside was dead.
But finally, all her energies almost spent, the trolley finally reached the base of the slope up out of the valley. The line of survivors ahead of them were spaced out as they worked their exhausted way up the slope. At the top, Seeal could see the electric light held by a Security staff member watching over them, the light glowing above the glint of a blaster in the male's hand.
Just the last hill to go then. Fortunately, getting the trolley up the incline turned out to be strangely easier than how it had been getting it down the initial slope from the BreakAway. That was probably because the ground felt more stable here and the military male, Jarra, the engineer, and someone new were all now helping her and Nanuet push, shove, and grunt their way up the slope with the trolley.
Seeal's ankle protested angrily at the particularly sharp angle of the slope right at the top, but with everyone pushing together, the trolley finally crested the rise and blissful flat ground stretched ahead.
But there was still some distance to go, the line of people ahead of them racing towards a large rock formation. There was low lying scrub brush up here now, adding some texture and sense of the speed as they rushed the trolley onwards.
Her throat was burning now, dry and sore from all the panting and lack of water, but the path was easier now and the air remained absent of any more explosions high in the sky or any incoming Wraith Fighters…but the Wraith would be out there still.
And if those now dead Wraith in the two Fighters had shared this location with others, then it would be all too damn easy for them to locate the BreakAway and the valley, find the tracks out of it.
The rock formation ahead was growing larger, and it quickly became obvious that the path was leading down an incline to the foot of the rock.
She could see people moving downwards out of view…the promised tunnels…
They were almost to cover, almost to what she hoped would be nice smooth floored tunnels inside.
The ground began to gently slope downwards, and she could now see the lights of two Security stood outside an entrance sunk beneath the rock formation.
Almost there.
She looked up and round hurriedly. The sky was almost pitch black now, the sun shedding its very last vestiges of light through the thin cloud layers above.
She couldn't see any ships moving up in the clouds anymore, couldn't hear any Wraith Fighters incoming ready to pick them off in the last moments before they got to cover.
The ground underfoot abruptly changed, a metal mesh sunk into the sloping path down towards the tunnel entrance, which also helped to slow the trolley from racing down the slope and crushing those ahead of them. The likely-military male and the engineer were now helpfully bracing the far end of the trolley, helping to control how fast it rolled down the slope. Seeal had no idea how the engineer was still on his feet with his head wound, let alone able to help with the trolley, but he was, and she felt desperately grateful through her tiredness.
The path then levelled out for the last few feet to the entrance to the tunnels, inside of which she could hear the whispers of a lot of people and see pinpoints of light moving far ahead.
Just before they pushed the trolley into the tunnel, Seeal looked up to the dark night sky once more and prayed to whatever might be looking out for her, that the tunnels wouldn't turn into her grave.
That she'd get to see the stars again and, hopefully, even see her big Oaf again.
0000
TBC