Beyond the Sky: Chapter 7
Down Around Underground
Murmurs passed between squadmates as they stepped with care down the towntunnel. Most of the shop and apartment doors were closed, Velli saw, though a few stood open. Hearing a voice, she peered into one and saw a black-and-white television, encased in a fine wooden cabinet, crackling out a news report: troubles in the Middle Sea, a diplomatic kerfuffle between Mespreth and the Iruktak Amalgamation. This shop, a low-ceilinged chamber dug out of the rock beside the tunnel, had been an eatery—cups and plates still sat on the tables, food cold and half-eaten. She stepped in and switched off the TV, to stop the noise.
“What happened here?” She rejoined the others.
“Take a look at this,” Teliv said from the second level. Velli ascended a rickety staircase, Commander Udan following, and had to duck to stand on the catwalk outside the apartments. Teliv had one open, and looked inside. Some cabinets and a wardrobe were open, but the beds were made and the floors clean. No obvious signs of a struggle.
“This wasn’t slavers.” She pointed to a dresser, where a jewelry box sat closed. Slavers were too sloppy and greedy to leave a place like this.
“Maybe whoever’s in charge just ordered everyone out?” Teliv suggested. “Burrowers do that, you know. Draw lots to decide who goes to market.”
“I’ve never heard of slavers taking so many,” replied Udan. “Where’s everyone else? If they demanded an entire city the Burrowers would fight back, that’s why they only take a few at a time.”
Naaca said, “Maybe they’re holed up in shelters somewhere?”
“We’ll search the rest,” Udan decided. “But stay together, I don’t want anyone running off into the dark.” He glanced up at the apartment’s light, still on.
A short walk brought them to an intersection, where four towntunnels met.
“That’s a way down to their underworks.” Udan indicated an elevator, encased in a rusted iron cage. “The atrium is around here.”
The largest open space in any Burrower city, the atrium stood a good five stories high, hewn from the rock and supported by iron struts. Ramshackle buildings lined its sides, and more stood in the center. Ascending a staircase, Velli stepped onto a main thoroughfare, running all the way to the great circular door at the far end—closed shut, with no one to tend it.
The atrium was where the Burrowers did their trade, where the squad stood now was the stairs to the towntunnels, into which few outsiders went. Sunlight from shafts to the surface shown down and reflected off mirrors, giving the space an inviting glow. Again, no residents were in evidence. The shops, as they jogged down streets, were all carefully closed up and waiting.
“No one here either,” Teliv said, then shouted a few times. No reply came.
Velli said, “I swear, this is getting stranger than...” Dread swept her mind, she wondered if those beings she saw, the monsters piloting the Black Triangle, had done this. Make an entire city disappear? There seemed little reason to doubt it.
She rounded a corner. From an alley, a six-limbed creature leapt up and cracked her across the helmet with its rifle. Stars exploded in her vision and she tumbled to the road.
“Surrender, or die!” the Burrower barked.
Velli threw up her hands.
“On your feet, intruder!” This was a Burrower warrior, the most dangerous caste in the Slee species. Taller than her by a head, he had a burly body and limbs knotted with muscle. Two wide-set eyes watched from his snouted face, and he wore leather and denim over his front and scale-plated back. The warrior pushed Velli into the street, and joined the circle around her squad, shotgun raised.
Another warrior stepped forward, gold trim adorning his head-scales. His eyes scanned the group, picked out Udan as its leader. “What gives you the right,” the Slee demanded, “to invade our tunnels?”
Udan replied, without hint of fear, “We were told the way in. We are from the National Front.”
“I know that!” the warrior replied, annoyed.
“Then do you also know what our headquarters sent you? I must make sure your work for us is safe.”
“The Matron knows of what you speak. This way.”
Velli grumbled as a warrior shoved her forward. They filed back down the stairs and went left. This towntunnel was more crowded, filled with brick walls spaced every so often, like defenses. Narrower ones branched off it, supported by iron ribs. Rounding a bend, they reached another great vault-door set into its end. This one was partway open, a half-dozen warriors standing guard outside. The nursery, Velli knew. Most Burrowers were workers, sterile females who tended the city and supported it through labor, while the breeders and children remained ensconced inside. Any non-Slee found inside that door would be immediately killed—Burrowers showed their young to no one.
One of the warriors went inside, returning several minutes later with a wrinkled old Burrower woman in fine robes. Udan greeted her with a bow, then asked, “Respectfully, what happened here?”
The Matron remained silent for a moment, looking around the tunnel, silent save for the thrum of ventilation fans. In a hoarse voice, she replied:
“We do not know. A sickness came over us last night, confusion and fear. We sealed the nursery, and when we emerged, they were all gone.”
“Your workers?”
Some of the scales on her head raised—a Slee version of the common gesture used by most other species.
“What of your project for us? We can help you, but I must know it’s safe.”
“That was the workers’ concern, I’m afraid.”
“Do you know where they kept it?”
“Our foundry, in the underworks.”
“Then we must go there.”
“You will do no such thing!” the gold-trimmed warrior shouted. The Matron held up her two right arms.
Udan responded, “The way I see it, we’ve got a shared problem on our hands. By the honor of the JNF, I pledge we did not do this, and we can help you find your workers, but for both our sakes I must see the project.”
The Matron conferred with the warrior leader in a Slee language, then the latter turned back to Commander Udan and said, “Let us see to it.”
Another warrior held out Velli’s rifle, she snatched it back.
Back around the bend was a cargo elevator, the whole group squeezed in and they rode it down into the earth for what felt like a minute, electric motors rattling and whirring. When it stopped, the front-most warriors lifted the grate to reveal a dingy, iron-plated tunnel festooned with pipes and cables.
“Touch nothing.” The golden warrior stepped out, started heading right. “This way.”
The lights were a mix of incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes imported from Mespreth, Velli kept her head down lest she break one. The whole thing felt terribly claustrophobic, walking along she had trouble comprehending the notion Burrowers liked living this way.
On the right was a new tunnel, a boring machine stopped a few heightspans down. They reached a two-story open space, a brief respite of openness, then it was back into another tunnel. This one ended in a door which the warriors unlocked. Behind it was a workshop with milling machines and toolboxes. A dust-free spot on the floor showed where a large crate or crates once sat.
“It’s gone!” Udan exclaimed.
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