Page 5 of Dark's Savior

As his fingers barely brushed against her neck, a hiss of breath escaped him, blowing against her ear. The air went from warm to cold, and when she opened her eyes, he was gone.

***

Aly stood there for a long moment, too shocked to move. Her hand still gripped the cold metal railing behind her, her eyes blinking away beads of moisture from the air. It took a moment for her brain to process what had just occurred. Slowly she loosened her hand from the rail and lowered it, staring into the darkness, her breath coming in short bursts, her heart thumping in her chest.

She didn't think she could be more tense if a bear had just come out and sized her up. She knew now who that had been. She had been warned...

Her techband beeped softly, letting her know the meeting was starting. She would be late.

Still, she stood there as if she couldn't move. Still unable to think clearly. She stared back at where he had come from, but something told her he was long gone now.

She turned away and carefully made her way off the bridge. Her limbs were actually shaking. Now that she knew who she had just encountered (and had somehow come out unscathed), the adrenaline in her blood was making her a little lightheaded.

So, this is what it felt like.

Using the rail for support, she made it over to a nearby elevator car and stumbled inside. The doors closed, but the elevator didn't move, and she realized it was because she had forgotten to press the button. She pressed for level eighteen, and the car began to move.

When she got to the old station in Section D, she opened the slide door and was met with several curious and annoyed pairs of eyes.

"Glad you could finally join us," Kate said at the head of the room.

"I'm sorry I'm late. I just—"

"Save it and have a seat," Kate said, waving to a chair by the wall next to Jamie and Mark. Aly did as told and silently made her way over. The room was a tight fit. The station was nothing more than an old observation room, hanging off the side of the cave face and supported by old, rusted metal. The lights were dim and flickered occasionally, and the machines inside were long dead. The station had been abandoned long ago, when the heads of Lethe Maws found it no longer useful, so here it was collecting dust, with a few large gashes along the outer walls from some unknown beast that had come up from below and clawed its way up the side.

And now it was their little meeting center.

"So, we were discussing," Kate said, with her husband Julian by her side, "about our continued efforts to persuade the Xolis Council to allow us to acquire a ship. But, as usual, they have given us no answers or decision. We are also still trying to persuade them to let us use one of their high transmitters to send a signal back to base, but we also have yet to gain any permissions. Julian believes he will be granted a small window of time to talk to one of the council members about it in a few nights’ time."

"That's what they said before," Ethan, on the other side of the room, interjected. His eyes were sunken, and his skin looked ashen. He seemed to be taking the transition to the mine the worst; ever since he had encountered a nasty creature hiding in a crevice while he worked. Aly's eyes fell down to his leg, where still he wore the metal brace from when he had fallen. "They say it every time and then nothing," he snapped. "It's been weeks."

"We know," Julian said, bending forward in his seat. "But we don't have many options. They sent us here to work. It was either that or stay lab rats."

"Like they aren't still experimenting on us now," Mark mumbled beside her.

It was true. Ever since they had been saved by the Xolis enforcers and taken to the refugee facility to be treated, they knew they were being studied. It was funny being on the other side of the glass. As the silion medics cared for her and her team, they had taken their samples and recorded their data. Who knew what they were doing with the DNA they had extracted? And then there was Sarah.

"This is bullshit..." Ethan said, not so quietly.

"We all want to go home, not just you," said Cilia, her arms crossed tightly, her mouth set in a hard frown. "And Kate and Julian are doing all that they can."

"There has to be something more we can do," Ethan protested.

"Like what?" Davis said in the back. "We're stranded within a galactic system run by the equivalent of the Roman Empire. Were outsiders."

"We could get rights. I heard a miner talking about becoming a civilian...a silion," said Ethan.

Davis snorted. "It takes years to become a silion. Years of working for the Xolis Emporium on slave wages."

"But it is possible." Ethan's eyes got a little brighter. "And silions have access to ships."

"We will still be here a long time before it happens. Who knows if we will make it that long in this place," Davis countered.

Ethan had nothing to say to that. He scowled instead but remained silent.

"We will think about it," Julian said. "For now, I am going to continue trying to gain an audience."

The others stayed silent, though a few grumbled. Anger and anxiety were beginning to run high. A few weeks in Lethe Maws could do that to a person. Aly didn't want to think how bad it was going to get if they were here for months or even years.

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