Page 59 of Fallen from the Stars

“She’s unconscious,” Kane said. “And may be for some time. The strain on her body was immense. This sort of thing…it isn’t supposed to happen.”

“But it did,” Vasil said. He skimmed the backs of his fingers over her cheek. “Will she be all right?”

“Her brain activity has normalized, so yes. I think so. We won’t know for sure until she wakes up, but as far as I can tell…there’s no permanent damage.”

The sighing of wind and sea filled the ensuing silence. Vasil’s fingers and tentacles tensed, but he didn’t tighten his grip on her. He knew humans were fragile, but he didn’t know something likethiscould happen; he still wasn’t entirely sure what this was. Kane’s explanation made some sense but remained largely beyond Vasil’s understanding. Someone like Arkon might’ve understood and been able to explain it in clear, simple terms, but Vasil was not Arkon.

“You said there was halorium in that cave,” Kane said. “That must’ve been the energy signature I was reading. Is that what caused this?”

Vasil’s stomach sank as realization struck him. “I did not…Youare the machine, not Theo. Why would it do this toher?”

“Because I ampart of her!” Powerful fear and despair resonated in Kane’s voice. “I should have told her to turn back.”

“I should havemadeher turn back,” Vasil said. He gathered Theo against his chest and rose from the sand. Her body was limp now, in such alarming contrast to the stiffness of minutes ago that it set his hearts to racing again. He started back toward their camp. “I…should have been able tosee. I know the pieces, I should have been able to put them together.”

Kane’s orb swelled and brightened, only to dim and dwindle in size. “As much as I’d like to have someone to blame, I cannot hold you accountable for this. I should have recognized the energy as potentially harmful, and Theo should not have been so eager to plunge into the unknown. Weallmade mistakes today…”

Vasil dipped his gaze to Theo, his frown deepening. “I hope she does not pay any greater a price for those mistakes.”

* * *

Theo woke with a groan. Pain pulsed in her skull, and every muscle in her body ached. She raised a hand and squeezed her temples between two fingers and a thumb as though the pressure could ease the pounding in her head, but even that slight movement was a strain on her weakened body.

“Theodora?” Kane said. “Can you hear me?”

Large, strong fingers settled over her free hand, grasping it gently.

She furrowed her brow and opened her eyes — only to snap them shut against the blinding light, which added a delightful stabbing sensation to her already monumental headache.

“What the fuck?” she said, turning her head to the side. “Turn off the damned lights.”

“They aren’t on,” Kane replied. “You may be overly sensitive to light, at the moment. It should pass soon.”

“Why are you talking so loud?”

“I’m not,” he said at a lower volume. “Again, you are likely just experiencing some—”

“Sensitivity. Okay, got it.” Theo lowered her hand from her forehead to rub her eyes. She couldn’t remember ever waking up to feeling this shitty — and she’d gone drinking with IDC marines on more than one occasion. She turned her hand in Vasil’s loose grip and laced her fingers with his. “What happened?”

“Halorium,” Vasil said.

“And lo, for all your questions have been answered,” said Kane.

“Wanna be a bit more specific?” She lowered her hand and slitted her eyes open. The light blasted her, jabbing another knife into her brain, but she blinked the brightness away until her vision cleared, and everything came into focus.

Vasil stood to her left, staring down at her with concern. The light that had so blinded her streamed in through the open pod hatch, cast by a clouded sky that looked to be dimming with approaching evening. She glanced down to find herself sitting in one of the chairs, blanket draped over her legs and torso.

She couldn’t remember much from after she’d run toward the glow — toward the halorium. All she could recall was a sense of adventure and excitement, her eagerness to see what had pushed the IDC to break so many rules all those years ago, and then pain. She’d blacked out.

Her memory held a big black patch of nothing afterward — zip,nada, zilch — until she’d woken a few minutes ago.

Vasil grunted. “He must explain. I still do not understand.”

“The haloriumin that cave shorted me out,” Kane said. “It emits a powerful energy, almost like a form of radiation, and it was more than enough to short me out. Vasil did not exaggerate the effects — if anything, the vague explanation he gave us was an understatement. You suffered a prolonged seizure due to the electrical feedback from my failing system.”

“And that stuff — the halorium — was why your people were made, right?” Theo asked, looking at Vasil. “And if I didn’t have Kane, I could have just walked up to it and touched it.”

“Yes, it was, and yes, you could have,” Vasil replied. “From what I know, it is usually found in the sea. Below depths at which humans would die before they ever got close enough without diving suits or underwater craft.”

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