“Coming up on Roan Andessa,” Hap Galish announced.
“Any sign of the Faiurae? Or Mayir for that matter?”
“A couple of Rhya wardships and a freighter, but other than that, the area’s looking pretty clear. One or the other of our opponents are probably loading up the Kryrk right now, while we prepare to go on this wild goose chase.”
That was an odd thing to say. Even as a joke. “What makes you think that the Faiurae and Mayir are after the Kryrk as well?”
He smirked at me. “What are you, stoned? Of course they’re after the Kryrk.”
I searched my mind for the mission competitive analysis that would certainly have been implanted as part of my briefing, but came up blank. Piettow must have messed up. Maybe with all the frantic, last-minute prep, the competitive analysis was accidentally left out of the package.
I glanced at both Galish and Ana-Zhi. “Tell me about it.”
“We don’t have time now,” Ana-Zhi snapped. “We’re about to go in.” Turning to Galish, she asked, “Did anyone bother to check the ion lances? If not, this might be a real short trip.”
As we descended into the mist, most of the crew—except for Xooth—huddled in the bridge. On the other side of the ship, the Plargond was manning our single gun turret.
“Slowly,” Ana-Zhi told Galish. “I don’t want any surprises.”
You couldn’t see anything outside of the portholes except for swirling water vapor which caught the shafts of light from the Freya’s spotlights.
Ana-Zhi turned to Yates, who had his eyes locked on a scanner display.
“Anything?” she asked.
“Plenty of lifeforms down there, but I’m not picking up anything as large as a cthulian.”
That was a relief.
“What about you, missy? You find this cave of yours yet?”
Chiraine was studying her own datapad which was linked to the ship’s EMR array. “Not yet, but according to the topographics, it’s right at the base of the mesa, southwest quadrant.”
All of a sudden Yates called out. “Something coming in fast. And it’s big!”
“Image it! Xooth, you seeing anything on your scope?”
“No lady!” His voice sounded frantic through the comm. “Not yet!”
“Keep your eyes locked on it!” Ana-Zhi shouted. “Yates?”
“Two hundred meters and closing. Way too fast for a cthulian. And the image isn’t making sense.”
“Obarral, tell me that the proximity plates are charged.”
“Of course they are, darling.”
“Good, then everyone. Prepare for impact!”
What?!
I didn’t have time to do anything but grab onto an acceleration strap. Then the ship jolted, a warning klaxon sounded, and the lights dimmed—just for a second—as the hull’s proximity plates discharged a cloud of energized particles into the mist. The ship lurched again, but the guidance system quickly righted the Freya.
“Calm down everyone, we scared it away,” Yates said.
“What was that thing?” I asked.
He peered at his datapad. “Based on the size and rate of movement, the match I’m getting is a K’Lortai Dragon.”
“Here?”
That didn’t make sense. K’Lortai were winged saurians from the planet Gilaa. And while they were large creatures, they weren’t big enough to knock a Mako-class ship around.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a stowaway,” Ana-Zhi said. “Wasn’t there a Gilaan mission in ’39?”
“Yeah, there was,” Galish said. “Maybe they smuggled in some eggs or something.”
“Well, it must like its new home to have grown so big. Too bad it’s not going to last. I can’t see the Rhya allowing a non-native species to—”
“Excuse me!” Chiraine called. “I found it!”
7
The cave was right where Chiraine had said it would be: at the base of the mesa, set into the cliff wall only about thirty meters from the bottom. Ana-Zhi directed the optical scanners towards the cave’s location and an enhanced image came up on the bridge’s main display screen.
“At least it’s not flooded,” Galish said.
The mouth of the cave was fairly wide, but not wide enough for the Freya to fly in. That was for sure.
“Anyplace to set down?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“Not seeing anything yet. We may have to do a hot launch.”
“Oh goody.”
She started to call for folks to suit up, but I jumped in and began ordering the crew around. Ana-Zhi smirked at me when Chiraine wasn’t looking.
“Obarral, take the con,” I said.
Chiraine asked, “You did change your mind about going, didn’t you? Because I really think I need to be part of the incursion team.”
“No, on both counts,” I said. “I’ll be running the op remotely. And I could use your help.”
“Besides,” Ana-Zhi said. “The Captain flies for shit.”
“Here we go. A spot for a picnic.” Obarral had found a place to set down the Freya.
It didn’t take long for Xooth, Yates, Ana-Zhi, and Galish to suit up and prep the sled. They weren’t taking much gear besides the Raker and some weapons.
After running some environmental scans, Obarral gave them the all-clear and the team propelled the sled out of the launch bay. Chiraine and I watched as the small utility craft launched a half dozen micro drones ahead of them and then disappeared into the darkness of the cave mouth.
After a few fumbles I figured out how to change the comm display to the sled’s POV video feed and we watched as the sled rose up into the lava tube, flanked by a formation of the micro drones.
“So far, so good.” The shaft seemed to be plenty big enough for the sled, with a few dozen meters of clearance around it.
We had decided to run silent for as long as we could, since we didn’t know whether or not the Rhya—or Faiurae or Mayir for that matter—were monitoring for chatter.
Technically we weren’t prohibited from exploring a lava tube beneath Roan Andessa. It was the city itself—and the Obaswoon—that we needed to keep away from.
It took less than two minutes—even moving cautiously—to get to the top of
