Page 91 of Emerald

Kroaicho’s skin moves from purple to bright blue and zha looks down at zha’s arm, then to Kira, then back. I have a feeling zha will mostly be that color when Kira is around and it makes me smile, the glee of the fight rising again now that Kroaicho is no longer under attack.

“We’ll get this opened up,” Kira says with a dismissive wave. “You all should check out the main room. Maybe there is something you can salvage in there.”

Ree comes up behind us. “It would have been nice to see what it was like before it was crushed, I agree.”

“You’re a fucking wrecking ball, Drasuk,” Kira mutters. “We’ve talked about this over and over again.”

“You are quite welcome,” Drasuk replies in his usual rumbling voice.

“Idiot,” Kira mutters, then turns to the wall, poking at it in random spots.

We leave Kira and Drasuk behind to work on getting access to the hidden room, moving back into the much larger one. I take a closer look around, noting the broken panels with large metal wires running into an even larger area. Bodies litter the area and it’s hard to believe there is nothing but scrapes and the odd stab wound on everyone.

One of those scrapes is on Ree and Thivoll is inspecting it, growling.

“So there really is tech. Is this from the failed colony?” Ree asks.

“No,” Thivoll answers. “It’s too recent.”

Ree hums. “Why have all of these displays without power?”

I close my eyes and concentrate, but, no, I can’t hear the hum. “There’s no power,” I share.

“Oh, there wouldn’t be,” Ree says distractedly. “Technology doesn’t work here.”

“What? At all? Then why the machines?”

“I don’t know,” she says, biting her lip. “I thought you said the atmosphere destroyed tech, Thiv.”

He stops growling and turns to look at the displays. “No, it’s just power sources that don’t work. They degrade or explode.”

“Fuck, fluff brain. You’re just saying that now?” Ree gripes.

Thivoll lets out a series of chuffs and his tail dances over to Ree to tap her shoulder from behind. She jumps, yelping, and Thivoll’s chuffing gets even louder.

She lets out a growl, claws extending and swiping at his tail but he’s already dodging.

“We don’t have time for playing, Commander,” Drasuk says in a needling tone from behind us as he enters the room.

Ree lets out a huff. “Later, superkitty. Alright, so why aren’t we running?”

“Because there is no power source,” Drasuk answers with his usual superior tone.

I’m still trying to catch up. “But why do power sources explode, Thivoll?” I ask.

The big cat stops chuffing and settles down on his haunches, tail still twitching like it wants to get up to no good.

“I have no idea. I never looked into it,” he admits.

“Useless felines,” Ree grumbles, but there is a laugh in her tone and my lips quirk.

I turn a more critical eye on the structure. Panels, screens, long wires, chains…

“Was something really big held here?” I mutter out loud.

“I think so, yes,” Ree says.

Kira stalks in, foot falls light and with a giant smile on her face. She glances around. “Something big? Holy fuck it must be enormous.”

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