TW: There are quite heavy mentions of blood, severe injury and surgery within this chapter.
"The map says the base should be up there," Lyra said, craning her neck to see if she could glimpse the Alterra building on top of the cliffs.
"Are you sure?" Samuel asked. He trod backwards, inches of sky revealing themselves before he bumped his back against a tall cluster of stones.
Lyra murmured to herself as she side-stepped around the base of the mountain. The coastal wind yanked at her fleece-lined coat, and she popped together a few more buttons. Clouds gathered but delayed in unleashing their fury to observe the life forms shivering on the dark sands, and fog glistened on the upper peaks, drooping wearily towards them. "The map says it's still there."
"Doesn't mean there will be anything of use," Hunter said. "Could just be an empty building for all we know."
"Or there could be resources and supplies." Lyra squinted at the vessel peeking out of the water behind them and the pilot on the roof repairing a few minor scrapes. "How is it looking, Cass?"
"Not as bad as I thought," Cassidy answered, lifting her voice over the whistling wind. "Shouldn't be too much longer. I don't want to hang about. Those cryptosuchus do not look like they appreciate visitors."
Lyra left her to it and trekked across the dark grains, keeping the rocky inclines to her right. Her protective boots crunched into the powder and sludged snow underfoot. The first alien planet she'd ever visited had been like Sector Zero. From her bedroom window, she'd seen a light like the one revolving at the top of the radio tower above her. The tiny golden light had spotted her watching and sparkled at her, and she'd counted each blink until she'd fallen asleep.
A warbled chirp lilted towards her and mingled with the rush of the tide. Around the corner, she found a huddle of Pengwings. The infants toddled in the centre of their ranks, trying to find the most warmth against their parents' round bellies as they waddled together.
"You are the most adorable little creatures ever," Lyra whispered as she lowered herself down. Some noticed her and trilled, slapping their flippers against their flubber. Others ambled from the shore and united with their fellows, chirruping in greeting and shaking the wet from their light coats.
Lyra plonked down on the sand and mimicked the Pengwings' warbles, holding back a giggle of delight when one returned the call. Feet ground at the dirt behind her, and she angled round, hoping to see more of them. Water lapped at empty sands, bubbles fizzled in the gaps between the pebbles, and crackling teemed in her ears like the remnants of lightening dying out after a heavy strike.
The Pengwings continued to communicate, and she pushed up from her powdery seat. Something crackled again, closer. The crinkle flurried about her head, and as she dragged her foot backwards, a force against her chest propelled her down. A section of air undulated before her, and a cloaked, humanoid figure formed within it, tentacles waving behind them and their fist tightening around a short, curved blade.
She scrambled to her feet and strained her breathing against the pain quivering in her left side. She rubbed at the sore spot and prickles of wet smeared against her palm. Red tendrils trickled through her fingers in racing drops.
Her body swayed, and her head lolled up, the thumping in her chest reverberating through her frame. The shrouded figure came for her anew, their form vanishing before they reached her. She lurched out of the way and swung out at thin air with a grunt, yelping out a cry for help. Her vision flickered between a hazing blur and her gifted sight. The grey of the mountains blended with the snow, and wisps of red and gold accumulated over the breach in her waist. She wrangled with the dizzying fluctuations until she permitted the Sea Emperor's influence full reign. The attacker's aura gleamed like flames. He dashed with speed and agility across the sand, and she surged towards him. She kicked at his shin and thrust her fist into the side of his skull before he could strike again, narrowly missing a second jab of the knife. He staggered up and careened into a cavern by the Pengwings. Her powers faltered and returned her to the misty haze.
Samuel skidded around the corner first. He caught hold of her as she faltered, searching for the offending beast or shard that had harmed her. "What happened?"
"Assassin," Lyra wheezed, squeezing her eyes shut against the searing agony. "Don't know... where... where he is..."
"It's okay. He's not here now."
"He has a... something... can't see him..."
Samuel lifted his head at the fervent crunching.
Krissa bolted towards them and teetered to a halt, the others not far behind. "Stay back," she warned, holding an arm out to Hunter and Cassidy before they could cross into the clearing. She raised her gun, and her keen eyes tracked the area around Samuel and Lyra. "Can you see that?" she said discreetly to her fellow guard.
Siris shook his head but slipped the charged spear from his belt in preparation.
The weapon in Krissa's grasp followed the unusual shift of air. Her finger pressed against the trigger to charge the ammunition. Notch by notch, it filled the power bar. Two. Three. She tracked the ripples and released the button.
The assassin glinted into being long enough for the shot to approach, for him to make eye contact with her, before he vanished, leaving the discharge to reach another mark.
Lyra's grasp tightened around Samuel as he slumped onto her, steadily sinking to the ground with him. His arms fell limp against her and his forehead rested against her shoulder. Smoke hissed from his chest. Whirls of darkened shades approached her, and their noise muffled in her ears. Static buzzing wiped away any words until her own rapid breaths brought her back. A pressure burned against her side and she startled before Cassidy soothed her, holding a bundle of gauze to her wound.
"He's still got a pulse," Hunter said, fingers at Samuel's neck. The doctor ripped the first aid kit from his bicep and riffled through the contents.
Lyra watched perplexed, her own injury aching and the cloud of crimson and gold tingling at the slim rift in her waist. She blinked a few times and dragged her powers from the depths of her heart to alter her view once more. Auras flew around her friends, Samuel's weakening by the minute. One aura. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. She counted. Seven.
With a creaking groan that rasped through her lips like a death rattle, she stammered to her feet. As she rose, she whipped Hunter's gun from the magnetic clip on his hip and levelled it at Krissa, the faithful guard still frozen in place by her misfire. Siris made to act, but a swift aim at him quickly halted his steps before she directed it back at her intended target. "Don't move," she demanded.
"Please think about what you're doing," Siris begged. "She didn't mean to shoot Samuel."
"Shut up," Lyra hissed.
Cassidy dug her hands into the grit to get up. "Don't do this, Lyra. Death begets death."
The armed woman kept the weapon fixed on the tall, alien woman. Her vision drifted, and she gritted her teeth. The trapezium display on the top of the gun flashed as the last segment charged. A moment of hesitation blazed across her mind before she drifted the barrel an inch to the right and let the electrical sphere within fly.
Krissa tensed and clamped her eyes closed. The pop of the discharge surged past her ear. A heavy thud landed at her back and she scuffled forwards as something slapped against the heel of her boots. She regained her composure and stared at the fallen form of their foe, face down in the icy slush and sand. The last crackles of the shot dissipated into his skull.
Siris crouched down to test the assassin's vital signs and brought back his hood, revealing a pair of startled dark eyes and the lined markings of his people on his cheeks.
"Samuel," Lyra breathed. Her knees buckled and Cassidy aided her down.
"He's stable," Hunter said, cradling the blond and stroking the grains from his fair strands. "Can't say for how long. There's some internal bleeding, but I don't know if we have the right equipment to treat it."
"We should get him back onto the ship," Siris instructed, padding towards them through the increasing tumult of wind and sleet. "I've sent a distress signal. Help is on the way."
* * *
Rushes of red mingled with the water as Hunter scrubbed at his hands to dislodge the speckles of crimson stuck in the lines of his palms. He scraped a few times until they relented and picked at the dried blood under his nails. The stained equipment lay strewn on the tray beside him, waiting for him to clean them.
"How long do you think it will take him to recover?" Lyra asked, perched on the edge of the cushioned bench where Hunter had placed Samuel before operating.
"At this point it would be useless speculating," the doctor answered. He dried his hands on the towel by the sink and ran fresh water into the basin before placing the metal tools in to soak. "I stopped the internal bleeding and stitched up his lung, but he's going to need deeper surgery than this. There's still more damage, and even after further operations there's no guarantee he'll..." Hunter gripped the counter and hung his head, wiping at his nose and his eyes with the back of his arm. "If he makes it, there is always the risk of infection and recovery will not be pretty."
"We'll be there for him," Cassidy said from her seat by their injured friend's bedside, one knee drawn up to her chest. "He would do the same for us."
"He already has," Lyra murmured.
Samuel's breath grated in his throat, and Hunter adjusted the oxygen tube with a tender touch. Not that he'd be able to feel it. A dozen Rock Punchers could beat against the hull and Samuel would be oblivious to it.
He collapsed down into the empty spot at his patient's feet and hunched over, grinding his palms into his closed eyelids to relieve the exhaustion lingering within them.
"Rest," Cassidy told him. "You spent over an hour operating, now get some sleep. We can keep watch."
Hunter forced his eyes open and blinked. He declined with a sway of his head. "I want to be here with him."
"He won't know if you went to lie down for a bit," Lyra said.
"I will." The wearied physician slouched against the wall and rested back on the chilly metal, linking his fingers over his abdomen. "How's your wound doing?"
"Stings, but those stitches you put in should keep it together."
Siris rejoined them from the cockpit, entering the central hub as quietly as he could. "One of our transport ships on the outskirts got our message and is almost here. There are medics on board who will ensure Samuel is stable during the journey, and surgeons on standby for his arrival when they reach the city."
"I should go with him," Hunter said. "He needs me."
"We also need you," Siris pointed out. "If one of us gets hurt, we wouldn't know how to treat it. You are the only medic we have with us. Samuel will get the best care. Our anatomy is not so different from yours, and our surgeons can deal with a wound like this."
The doctor flicked his attention between his two conscious friends, a cascade of contradictory thoughts fighting in the battlefield of his mind until his concerns landed on Samuel. They hushed in an instant. "Swear to me they know what they're doing and they'll do all they can."
"I swear it," Siris promised. "I have suffered many injuries over the years, a few that medics feared would be the end of me. Yet here I am, thanks to their care and expertise."
Hunter swallowed, and with a forced exhale he agreed to remain with them for their foreseeable journey.
Lyra squeezed his arm and got herself up, shifting so that the doctor and Cassidy could take her place beside Samuel. She traipsed uneasily and favoured her right leg, the pain in her side throbbing with each suggestion of pressure on her left.
"I hope you are not in too much discomfort," Siris said, steadying her.
"Hunter gave me some painkillers which are stopping the worst of it," she replied, settling back against the round table. "Did Deema get your message?"
"She's taken full responsibility for the investigation, and she will plan an excuse for Samuel's injury and premature return to keep things calm."
"And my theory?"
"My aunt agreed it was plausible, but she doesn't want to accuse people hastily, not without evidence." Siris pressed his fists onto the surface of the table and chewed at his lip.
"But you agree with me, don't you?"
"I do," the guard sighed. "For a while now, we've known of the council's dabbling with stealth technologies. They kept it quiet, but we knew what they were doing. If it wasn't them, it opens up a lot of questions." He leaned towards her and looked at her as though she was about to fall apart, like one glance might shatter her into a million irreparable pieces. Delicately, he pulled her into his arms. "For a moment back there, I feared I'd lose you," he confided into her hair, testing a gentle squeeze to ensure he wouldn't trouble her wound with a tighter embrace. "You really had me thinking for you were going to shoot Krissa."
Lyra snorted out a short laugh. "I'm sorry."
"You need not apologise. I understand you did what you had to do."
"How is she?"
Siris withdrew and dropped his gaze, a response hesitating on his tongue. "She's blaming herself for what happened, but give her time and she'll be okay."
A low rumble agitated the waters outside, and Lyra jolted. As she hobbled to the window, she tried to detect any signs of life from the ocean beyond, but her gifts remained at her waist. They poked and weaved through the laceration, and wouldn't redirect from their task. "What made that noise?" The boom rolled towards them again, this time closer.
"It'll be the transport ship," Siris assured her after checking the radar scanners on the screen behind him. "They emit sounds at such frequencies to disperse any creatures in the area."
Lyra returned to Hunter and Cassidy, and crouched down by Samuel's bedside to plant a tender kiss to his cheek. "You must go back to the city now, but we will join you the moment we're done here," she said, stroking his exposed arm. "And I know you, you'll worry about us, but we'll be okay. I promise. You just have to focus on getting better."
The vessel rocked as the transport craft suctioned over the doorway, locks clicking into place and securing the two vehicles together.
"Be brave, Samuel," Lyra whispered, rubbing tears from her eyelashes. "We'll see you soon."
* * *
They spent most of the passage to the Glacial Basin in silence. Siris monitored their incoming messages and reported Samuel's return journey, hoping that it would ease their worry, but his words of reassurance and optimism made little difference.
Hours passed, fading into the churned water left in their wake, until their smaller cave pods rose to the surface and locked onto the small dock awaiting them.
Jagged glaciers ascended to the overcast sky and announced their scope through the mist. Icicles lined the snowier edges with spines of ice so sharp they could have impaled someone unfortunate enough to be passing beneath them as they fell. Frost Vase plants scattered their crimson shades and trembled in the bluster riding down from the higher ground. Fervent rushes whipped up the undisturbed snow in swirls of white and grey.
"It's just up here," Lyra shouted from the head of the trudging travellers. She gripped the rim of her hood as the wind's hands sought to pull it down. "I can see the door." She pushed her legs into an unstable jog until at last she squeezed through the broken sliding doors.
The dim cave offered them protection from the insistent gusts outside and welcomed them with a twinkle of navy blue speckled ice. A collapsed Alterran base lay tilted in a wide alcove, and the walkways leading to it twisted at all angles on their raised stilts. Two stairways gave access to the connecting paths, one contorted beyond use. A few remaining lights blinked around the exterior, the bulbs within them hissing like angry wasps with each desperate flutter.
"Robin's signal is coming from somewhere around here," Lyra reported, tracking the lines on her PDA and shaking it when the signal glitched. With a huff, she stuck it back into her pocket and rubbed her hands to warm them. An icicle dropped from the ceiling and she lurched backwards, the spike bursting into fragments at her feet. The glassy crash echoed through the cavern. As it hit the floor, she sensed a fleeting murmur of life not too far away, pounding through the ice and rattling the foundations of the planet.
"Careful," Siris said, skimming a few of the splintered shards about with his foot. "This whole place looks like it's about to collapse."
"I'd rather take our chances in here than out there with that blizzard," Cassidy said, wandering up the only remaining staircase and pausing by the rickety walkway. She tapped at it with the tip of her boot and retreated as a threatening creak reverberated through the metal. "Maybe not."
They stuck together as they explored the lower levels of the cave, riffling through the surviving crates and fishing out whatever they could carry back with them. Most of it had deteriorated under the strain of the environment, other parts crushed beyond use.
"Hey, come look at this," Hunter called, waving them over to a heap of scrap and smashed equipment. He hoisted at a pair of handlebars and wiggled out the body of a motorcycle, monitoring the blocks of ice above. Once the back wheels had slipped from the crushed clumps of old machinery, he swung it around. The digital screen fluctuated and eventually settled, and the gliding mechanics extended to keep the vehicle adrift. He swept the snow from the seat and scratched at the frost covering the glass. "It doesn't seem to be in too bad a condition. If there are any others, we'll find Robin in no time."
"No," Lyra insisted. Four sets of eyes snapped to her. Goosebumps prickled up her arm and down the back of her neck, and dread squeezed around her heart.
"Why?" Hunter asked.
"There's something close by, something big." She forced each inhale and exhale to slow so that she could home in on the source of her terror. Ice churned and melted away, cracking in her ears. For a moment she swore the ground beneath her quivered like a warning shot. Her chest thumped, and the scalding pain in her side flared. Hunter abandoned the snowfox to offer her some stability. "I don't know what it is, but it's angry," she said, imploring him with frightened eyes. "Whatever we do, we shouldn't disturb it."