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The smell of smoke in the ventilation shafts was too intense for our masks to block out as much as they had outside. It was a little hard to soothe my anxiety when I couldn't breathe deeply without the smell of smoke ramping up my anxiety again. I could see the worry growing on Mae's face. I knew she would see through any attempt I would make to put on a brave act, so I didn't bother.
"How much further is the central control station?"
Ryka looked over the map on their tablet which was both our means of navigation and light. "Just a little further ahead."
Kol stayed close to Mae and me with a fearful expression. "I still don't get why they have all the lights out."
I shrugged, taking Kol's hand in mine. "Their power system was probably damaged by the explosions."
My words didn't seem to comfort my companion. "Shouldn't they have backup systems for this? How will the repair crews work like this?"
Ryka shook their head. "There aren't going to be repair crews, Kolyver."
Kol furrowed their eyebrows. "But the news showed repair crews going into the system."
"It is unwise to fully trust what your government-run news services tell you." Anak's voice sounded bitter as it echoed around us.
"You seem to know an awful lot about how Human society works for someone who hasn't been here long." Mae tried to keep the suspicion from her tone.
Anak glanced over his shoulder at her. "I have been studying your people for quite some time. That is the only reason I was anywhere near the place where I saved Ryka. Your people have begun making expeditions to the surface. I suspect the system failures have prompted those in charge to seek potential solutions to the imminent disaster.”
“You say that like the whole colony system is going to fail.” Mae looked uncomfortable with Anak’s momentary silent. “It isn’t all going to fail, right?”
Anak sighed heavily. “To be honest, all of your systems will fail eventually. They were not designed to last forever. This underground sanctuary was always meant to be temporary.”
We came to a three-way split in the ventilation shaft with no indication of what lay down any of them.
Ryka worriedly looked over their tablet. “This split isn’t supposed to be here. It isn’t on either of the maps I have.”
Kol tilted their head. “Why do you have two maps?”
Ryka swiped from one map to the other. “One is the official map released for public records. The other is one I stole from a government system.” Ryka pointed down the path to the right. “That one exists according to both maps.” They pointed to the middle path. “That one is only on the classified map.” They turned to the path to the left. “According to the public and the government, this shaft doesn’t exist.”
I stepped toward the left-hand shaft, gazing into the darkness beyond the light from the tablet. I felt drawn down the path as though a rope had been attached to my sternum and someone was tugging on it somewhere beyond my range of vision. “This is the one we want.”
Mae looked down the shaft as well. “How can you be sure?”
I shook my head, my eyes locked on the nothingness ahead of us. “I can’t be, but I am.” I hadn’t realized I was walking until the darkness enveloped me, but even then I couldn’t stop my forward motion.
“Xamber!”
Mae’s voice sounded further away than it should have. I couldn’t see anything, but I somehow knew exactly which direction I was supposed to go.
Run.
I was running before I could stop myself. The closer I got to whatever my destination was, the harder the invisible tether in my chest was pulled and the faster I found myself running. I could hear the shouts of my friends, but their words were indistinct.
Stop.
It was as though my feet had become glued to the floor, my forward motion stopping as suddenly as it had begun. My heart pounded in my heaving chest as I desperately attempted to catch my breath. My whole body shook from the exertion.
“Xamber!”
I winced when the light from Ryka’s tablet shined on me, briefly blinding me after my mad dash through the shadows.
Mae grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a small shake. “What is wrong with you? Why would you just run into the darkness without any idea where you were going? You could have run into a wall or fallen down an access shaft!” There were tears in her fear-filled eyes.
I frowned down at her as I fully came back to my senses. “I don’t know. I couldn’t stop until this very spot. It was like being dragged.”
She pulled me into the tightest hug she had ever given me. “You scared me. Don’t do that again.”
I tenderly ran my fingers through her hair. “If I could have stopped, I would have. I never want to make you afraid.”
“Not to break up this tender moment, but I think Xamber may have just found our destination.” Ryka shined their light on the door I had stopped a few feet from. RESTRICTED was printed across the metal door in big red letters. There was a keypad on the wall next to it that presumably was the only thing standing between us and answers.
“How are we getting past that?” Kol examined the door and keypad with a frown.
Anak stepped forward and held his hand over the keypad. A dim silver glow emanated from his eyes, the veins from his neck and down his outstretched arm taking on the same strange light. Electricity danced between his hand and the keypad, sparks shooting from between the buttons. There was a quiet beep and then a heavy clunk as the lock disengaged. Anak closed his eyes and pulled his arm close to him. He clenched his hand and pressed his shaking fist against his chest.
I stared in awe of the display of power. “That was amazing, Anak. Are you okay?”
The Shapeshifter nodded as he reopened his eyes which had returned to their usual color. “I will be fine. It has been quite some time since I have had to exert that kind of energy.”
Ryka stepped toward Anak and took their companion’s silver veined hand away from Anak’s chest. Ryka held Anak’s hand with both of theirs. The silvery light slowly faded from Anak’s flesh but had left dull, scar-like lines behind. Ryka traced them with concern.
Anak smiled down at Ryka with tired eyes. “Calm your worry, Ryka. You know they fade.”
Ryka let out a frustrated sigh. “I know, but it worries me every time.”
Anak pulled Ryka in for a hug. “I know. I’m sorry to worry you so.”
Mae coughed quietly to get everyone’s attention. “I hate to break this up, but we are on a time limit.”
I was the first to go through the door which led into what looked like the central ventilation control station. It seemed untouched by the fires but it looked as though some kind of fight had occurred. Chairs were knocked over, three of the six keyboards at the control station had been destroyed, and there was an ominous dark stain on the floor and walls near a door that was across from the one we had entered through. Each of the keyboards had a slot for a removable tablet and all but one of them was missing.
I cautiously took my breathing mask off. “It doesn’t smell like smoke in here at all.” The others followed suit as we investigated the room. I went directly to the stain on the floor. “This is definitely blood. What happened here?”
Ryka extracted the remaining tablet and tried to turn it on. “I think this one was damaged when its keyboard got wrecked.”
Mae looked at the tablet over Ryka’s shoulder. “That’s probably why they left it behind.”
Anak held out his still scarred hand. “Let me see it.”
Ryka pulled it away from Anak with a glare. “Negative. You’re going to try to boot it up and you already used more power than you should have.”
Anak crossed his arms. “That tablet may have answers or at least more clues.”
Kol gestured for Ryka to hand over the tablet and Kol looked over the busted technology. Kol put the tablet into a different slot with an unbroken keyboard and the screen came to life. Part of it was cracked and portions of the screen were completely black but it was on. “There we go. See? No need to bring more magic into this. Since these are government-grade tablets they all have universal ports. Doubtful that we’ll be able to take this with us since it is depending on the console for power, but we can at least search for some clues.” Kol frowned when the tablet asked for a password. “Well, that’s not helpful.”
Ryka moved to stand next to Kol, swiftly typing in a complicated set of numbers and letters.
“Welcome, Agent Fitan. Would you like a system update?”
Kol raised an eyebrow at Ryka. “How did you know that password would work?”
Ryka nervously rubbed the back of their neck. “I might have stolen it from a database I hacked a while back. I wasn’t certain it would still be valid, but the passwords are so complicated that it is rarely necessary to change them.”
“I’m sorry, Agent Fitan. I did not understand your answer. Would you like a system update?”
Kol looked up at Ryka again. “You think it will only respond to the agent.”
Ryka shook their head. “No update necessary, computer. Open the last document in your history.” A document appeared on the cracked screen. “Computer, what is the nature of this document?”
“This is the shipping manifest from Cargo Bay 6.”
Ryka tried to read the display, but much of it was hidden by the damaged screen. “Computer, what was received in Cargo Bay 6?”
“Cargo Bay 6 had a classified shipment delivered. The content is not specified in the official manifest.”
Ryka frowned in annoyance. “Computer, can you get me the unofficial manifest with that information?”
“That information is security level 6 and requires an access code. Would you like to enter your access code, Agent Fitan?”
Ryka hung their head. “Damn. security level six access codes are changed frequently.”
I flipped one of the scattered chairs over and sat down. “Could it tell us where the things from that shipment went without the code?”
Ryka smiled at me. “Worth a try. Computer, can you tell me where the cargo from that shipment was sent?”
“Three parcels were sent to each of the Omega Sector colonies to be delivered to maintenance officials for routine modifications to the Omega Sector ventilation systems.”
Ryka tilted their head. “Modifications? That’s not usually why things go to maintenance. Computer, what modifications were the maintenance officials installing?”
“Maintenance officials were tasked with improving the efficiency of the Omega Sector air filtration systems.”
Mae leaned on the broken control station. “So, we should go check the air filtration systems?”
Ryka nodded with their eyes still on the screen. “I need to see if I can get one more thing from this system. Computer, can you scan the security footage for this control room for any unusual activity levels?”
A video popped up on the screen but it was hard to make out the images with the damage to the tablet. There was a group of officials standing in the control room and it appeared they were having some kind of argument. The monitors were flashing an evacuation message, but the officials didn’t seem to notice. There was no sound accompanying the video.
“Computer, where is the audio file for this video?”
“Audio equipment was damaged during the incident.”
The argument stopped when a new person entered the room from the door we had come through.
I got up to get a better look. “Is that Minister Saltyr?”
Ryka had a triumphant look on their face. “It is. This is proof that he is involved in-” Ryka fell silent as the scene on the monitor became violent. The Minister grabbed one of the officials by the neck, crushing their throat with his bare hands before throwing their lifeless body to the ground. The other officials had moved to a portion of the screen that was too damaged to see. The Minister held up his arm with his palm facing the officials, strange yellow-green veins running into his hand. He closed his fist and blood sprayed across the only portion of the wall that we could see where the officials had been standing.
Ryka snatched the tablet from its slot before more of the video could continue. Mae had buried her face in Kol’s shoulder, shaking from the graphic nature of the video. Kol’s expression was unreadable.
Anak glared at the monitor with a burning rage in his eyes. “He’s Awoken…”
I tore my eyes from the empty tablet slot to look at Anak. “What do you mean?”
Anak rubbed his temples. “He’s gone through the process of getting powers. I don’t know how he survived the process. Almost no Human can. You have to go to the surface for an extended time and hope you don’t get eaten, turn into a thing that eats people, or die horrifically. Your people’s bodies and minds have not adapted to what the contamination does. Even my people don’t always survive the process.”
Ryka shook their head. “We can worry about this later. We need to get to the maintenance shafts. That’s where we’re going to find our answers.”