Neverwylde (3 page)

“What in hell were you doing by the tower?” the engineer demanded hotly. Kelen could tell he wasn’t as angry as he was upset by Dox’s actions.

Dox made a sorrowful face. “Sorry. Needed to charge it.”

“Charge it? Charge what?” Dayall countered. “You need to stick with the rest of us and stop going off on your own. Understand?”

The ex-commander’s harsh tone had an immediate effect on the young man. Kelen could see Dox mentally and emotionally retreating, and she reached over to drape an arm across the man’s shoulder. She started to reply to Dayall’s comment when Fullgrath cleared his throat.

“Excuse me,
sir,
but if I recall correctly, you’re no longer in charge of this party.”

Dayall stared at them. Sandow patted the man’s shoulder but was shrugged off.

“Sorry, Hod, but you were dethroned, or don’t you remember?” the physician gently asked.

“No, I don’t,” Dayall spat back, getting to his feet. “This is still a military operation, and that means I’m in charge.” He turned to glare at Kyber and Tojun. “Now, will someone explain to me why we have the enemy in our midst? Fullgrath! Cooter!” Dayall glanced around the dim corridor. “Lieutenant! Sound out! Where are you? Why isn’t he here with the rest of us?”

“Umm, Cooter’s gone AWOL,” Jules murmured.

Dayall whirled on him. Behind her, Kelen could sense Kyber tensing as the man grew more incensed. It was clear to everyone that Dayall was slowly but inevitably becoming unhinged. A few feet away, she saw Fullgrath reach inside his pocket and extract something.

Sandow stood and held up his hands in an attempt to calm the man down. “Listen to me, Hod—”

“
Commander
, Dr. Sandow! Address me correctly when in front of the crew!”

“I
am
addressing you correctly,” Sandow informed him in his best physician’s voice. “Listen to me. You’re not yourself. You’re stressed out. And you took a hard blow to the head when we crash landed on this world.”

Dayall looked both ways down the tunnel. “There was no crash landing, doctor. This is a recon party. It’s you who is stressed. Fullgrath! Give me an update on our status!”

The ex-weapons master slowly rose and approached the man. “Currently, we’re about a mile or so beneath this planet’s surface. We’ve been following various tunnels and trails to get this far. The indigenous population ranks at Code Red, and the sentient population appears to have died out some time ago. Thankfully, there’s plenty of water. And, so far, we’ve managed to find some food that our systems can tolerate.”

Dayall pointed at Kyber. “Why are they here?”

Kelen could see Fullgrath’s fingers hovering near his pants pocket. The man was waiting for the right moment, and she was going to give it to him. Jumping up, she shoved Dayall’s arm, forcing the man to face her.

“They’re not our enemy anymore,” she told him. “They went through the same wormhole we did. They crashed on this world, just like us. We need them to survive, and they need us. It’s that simple,
sir
.”

Dayall’s face flushed. He obviously didn’t appreciate the tone she’d taken with him and made a menacing step toward her, when Fullgrath jumped him, throwing his arms around the man and trapping the ex-commander’s arms by his side. Immediately, Jules joined them, taking the ball of wire from Fullgrath’s pocket. Dayall struggled, cursing them and threatening everyone with charges of mutiny, while Kyber assisted the other men in keeping Dayall steady so that Jules could rewrap the man’s wrists and arms with the wire. When they were certain Dayall couldn’t retaliate, they moved away to give the man some air.

For several seconds, Dayall’s hatred was palpable as he locked eyes on everyone. The last person he turned to was Dox, who hadn’t moved since the man lashed out at him.

“This all started with you, you genetically engineered little freak! You turned them against me!”

Kelen laid a hand on Dox’s back to show a measure of support, but Dox shrugged it off and stepped up to the incensed officer. But instead of replying or commenting, the little man held out a short length of tubing and shoved one end of it into Dayall’s stomach. There was a buzz, a small flash, and the smell of something burning. The man went rigid, his eyes bulged, and he pitched forward, face first, onto the rocky ground without a sound.

Chapter 4

Nonagon

            They stared in shock at the motionless man on the ground, and the little man standing over him.

            “Dox, what did you do?” Kelen softly asked. He continued to hold the tube thing away from his body, and no one reached out to take it from him.

            Dox looked over at her. “He’s not dead. He’s asleep.”

            Sandow crouched over the fallen ex-commander and rolled him onto his side. A dark sheen of blood smeared the ground. Dayall’s nose was bloodied, and there was a noticeable scrape across his left cheek and forehead. The doctor placed two fingers over the man’s carotid artery.

            “Heartbeat’s steady. No telling how long he’ll be out. Dox, what did you hit him with?”

            Dox held up the tube. “It’s a stopper. It stops things.”

            Kyber reached out and plucked the weapon from Dox’s grasp. Kelen saw him peer at both ends of the tube.

            “And you charged it at the tower?” the Seneecian inquired.

            Dox nodded, smiling. He was clearly proud of his new toy. “You threw away your weapons. We needed new ones.”

            Fullgrath snorted. “He’s right. Most of us tossed our pistols when those eye worms attacked us in the temple.”

            “Or in the garden,” Kelen added.

            “That’s because we didn’t think we’d have any way to recharge them,” Fullgrath noted. “Dox, if we’re able to retrieve our guns, could you recharge them?”

            Kelen saw the little man’s eyebrows rise as he thought about it. “Maybe,” Dox finally answered. She smiled to herself. In Dox-speak that was a yes, but with a caveat. More than likely that caveat meant he’d probably have to tinker with the weapons’ initial construction. She’d almost guarantee he’d change them to the point where they wouldn’t look anything remotely like they’d been originally. And he’d have a great time doing it. Dox was happiest when he was tinkering. It was more than an obsession with him. More than a job. It was his whole life. Want to give Dox a present? Give him a tool, the more unique and exotic, the better.

            Kyber hefted the tube weapon. It looked small in the Seneecian’s big hands. “Dox, how many of these do you have?”

            “Four.”

            “This looks like a piece of insulation from the ionic filters. How do you fire it?” Fullgrath inquired, taking the tube from Kyber. “Do you have to touch the creature?”

            “Shake it and point,” Dox instructed. “Wide dispersal. The closer, the better.”

            Giving him a look of disbelief, Fullgrath gave the tube a shake, then aimed one end of it down the corridor. There was a faint keening sound. A second later, part of the wall exploded, sending dust, debris, rock, and dirt billowing through the tunnel. Everyone ducked and covered their faces as they turned away from the blast. Once things began to settle, Jules snorted.

            “I bet, given enough time, Dox could get our ship space-worthy again.”

            Mellori laughed. “I wouldn’t take that bet!”

            “What about Dayall?” Kelen brought their attention back to the unconscious man.

            “One thing’s certain. He’ll have to remain tied up and watched,” the physician noted.

            “Your crew member is mentally unstable,” Tojun commented. “He is a threat to us.”

            Sandow shot the Seneecian a guarded look. “I’ve seen this reaction before with others, usually those in command positions. Dayall’s condition is exacerbated by the concussion he took when we crashed.”

            “Is there anything you can give him?” Jules asked. “Something to keep him calm?”

            Sandow held out his hands. “We have no meds. My scanners are useless, unless…” He turned to Dox. Reaching into the pouch hanging from his waist, he extracted the palm-sized machine and handed it over to the little man. “Dox, I need you to fix this. Recharge it, recalibrate it, whatever you need to do, do it.”

            Dox nodded, taking the scanner and shoving it inside his shirt for safekeeping.

            Kyber peered down the corridor. “I’m not familiar with this tunnel. How far are the apartments from this entrance?”

            Gaveer answered him. “Less than a majuur’s walk. Not far.”

            “Good. Let’s move. We need to dry out as soon as possible, and find food.”

            Fullgrath reached down toward Dayall. “Jules, help me carry the commander.”

            “No need for that,” Massapa intervened. Stepping forward, he lifted the man and hefted him over one shoulder. Kyber took the lead again, and everyone else fell into step behind him.

            They reached a familiar looking door before too long. Kyber signaled for them to keep their distance and approached the portal. Taking another tube weapon from Dox, Fullgrath joined him. With a nod of his head, Kyber palmed the symbol to open the doorway, and they waited. When nothing jumped out at them, Kyber entered first. A moment later, he stuck his head back into the corridor.

            “The way is clear.”

            The pile of bones lying in the middle of the atrium, the last remnants of the past inhabitants, appeared to be undisturbed following the eye worm attack a few days ago. Everyone filed into the main atrium, giving the remains a wide berth. Remembering Dox’s description, Kelen glanced around and noted there were nine doors. A nonagon, exactly as the little man had mentioned. She frowned. Nine doors, with three additional passageways.

            “Chambliss, show us those marks that indicate food.” Mellori gestured at her from one of the doors.

            She glanced around again and her scrutiny alerted Kyber.

            “Is something wrong?” he asked, tensing.

            “Dox called this a nonagon.” She eyed the little redheaded crew member who had parked himself to one side and was busy examining the medical scanner Sandow had given him.

            Jules joined her and scanned the room. “Yeah. It is. So?”

            She pointed the each aperture. “Do you see the pattern? Three doors, a corridor. Three doors. Corridor. Three doors. Corridor.” She turned around as she noted each one, stopping to face the tunnel where they had emerged. The doors to the apartments were different from the ones leading away, making it easy to differentiate between them. “That way is to the lake. That’s the way we came in. So one of these other tunnels has to be the one we used to get here from the garden.”

            “I believe it’s that one,” Mellori offered, motioning toward an entryway.

            “What are you trying to say, Chambliss?” Sandow asked from where he was crouched over Dayall’s inert figure.

            She glanced at him. “The apartment Kyber and I fell into had a back door. It was a small tunnel that exited to the lake. How did the rest of you get to the lake?”

            “We followed that tunnel,” Jules answered, indicating the corridor where Gaveer remained standing at guard.

            “Wait a minute.” Fullgrath called for their attention. He looked at Kyber. “You and Kelen took an alternate route to the lake?”

            The Seneecian nodded. “The apartment had another exit.”

            “Which probably means all the apartments have secondary exits,” Kelen noted.

            “I still don’t understand what you’re trying to get at,” Jules commented.

            “I believe I do.” Kyber stepped closer and checked around the room. “You believe three apartments and one corridor lead to the lake. Three other apartments and a corridor lead to the gardens. And the last three apartments and that one remaining corridor lead…to where?”

            “To more apartments?” Jules suggested.

            “Dox?” Kelen called out to the little man. “Dox, do you know where the third corridor leads to?”

            This time, however, instead of being able to give them an answer, Dox shook his head and resumed taking the scanner apart. Kelen sighed.

            “Well, it was worth a try.”

            “Speaking of worth a try, let’s try and find us some of those blue pancakes you were telling us about,” Fullgrath rumbled. “Do you remember which apartment you were in?”

            “No, but I don’t think it matters. I’m guessing they’re all pretty much alike.” She went over to the nearest apartment doorway and slapped the symbol to open it.

            The dark shape exploded outward without warning as a shrill scream ripped through the air.

Chapter 5

Threes

            Kyber’s reactions were instinctive. Extending his talons, he snarled and launched himself at the black vapor pouring out of the apartment. It was thick and acidic, burning his throat and lungs when he inhaled. It was also formless, folding around him like so much vapor. His brain told him this wasn’t an enemy he could defeat, and his focus shifted. Throwing out his arms, he searched for Kelen.

His left elbow struck something at hip level. Grabbing it, he quickly backed up, out of the cloud. Someone wrapped their fingers around his belt and helped him retreat.

When they were free of the mass, he dropped to his knees, coughing and gasping. Beside him, Kelen lay limp and unresponsive. He glanced up to see Sandow already scrambling over to them to check her out. The others moved away to give them room. As for the noxious fog…

“Where did it go?” he managed to croak.

“It floated upward and evaporated,” Gaveer remarked, pointing at the arched ceiling.

Massapa squatted beside him. “Are you well? What was it?”

“Well, whatever it was, it obviously wasn’t able to escape on its own,” Fullgrath drawled. “My guess is it was trapped in that place, and Chambliss had the bad luck to choose that door to open.”