8. Kal’va

Before the human male finished speaking, I was searching for the transmission. It wasn't hard to find when I went looking for it—powerful enough to reach the ship from orbit, the spillover didn't give me any trouble. Nor did the encryption, despite it being much more complex than the soldiers' comms.

It took longer to understand the contents. Not simple audio, but inefficiently encoded holography.

My mate and her companions gasped as I projected the images into mid-air. Two humans, one dressed in the armored spacesuit of our attackers, the other a hard-faced female with long dark hair seated behind a wooden desk. She was speaking as I tuned in.

"It was supposed to look like a tragic accident, Captain," she said, voice hard as voidsteel and twice as cold. "An expedition lost in the sands, all dead, how sad. It's a dangerous world out there and it'll remain so until Taverner remakes it to be fit for humans."

"That was the plan, yes. Unfortunately, as is famously often the case, the plan failed on contact with the enemy."

Neither sounded happy with the other. Excellent.

"Enemy? Captain Rush, your task is to dispose of the xenoarchaeology team. A dozen academics? You outnumber them nearly two to one. Tell me how they can be an ‘enemy' capable of foiling you."

The captain winced at that, face going red. "Look, Mallory, I?—"

"That's Ms. Taverner," she interrupted coldly.

"Ms. Taverner, then. I'm not saying they did it, but someone or something killed six of my men, and wounded another five. Three more are unaccounted for. Fast, lethal, professional. That's all I can report—everyone who got a good look is dead or missing."

He looked around, outside the camera's pickup. "I think they woke something up. It's creepy as any place I've been, and this job's taken me to some damned awful places."

Taverner sat in silence for a moment, then pinched the bridge of her nose. "The Ancient ‘curse,' I presume? Let me be clear, Captain. There are no Ancient sites in the Tulla system. Your employment is predicated on that simple fact."

Rush looked like he was about to speak, but Taverner raised a hand to silence him and continued. "If you no longer agree with that assessment, we might have a problem. Do we have a problem, Captain?"

"No ma'am," he blurted. "I'll blow the site to rubble with whoever's in there and continue with the original plan for the rest of the expedition. If three bodies are never recovered, it won't change a thing. Just means they got separated in the storm."

"Yes, that is satisfactory." Taverner spoke slowly, thoughtfully, drumming her fingers on the dark wood of her desk. "Nonetheless, I will be down to make sure you're attending to things correctly. If you are losing troops to academics, you may need reinforcements."

She gave him no time to reply, killing the connection and vanishing. His holonet kept broadcasting as he slammed a fist down on the table and swore in a stream of profanity that expanded my vocabulary considerably.

The transmission switched to local, but I was already in, so I kept listening as he contacted a few other comms on board his ship. "Okay, folks, shit's hitting the fan. Boss lady is coming down to supervise, so we need to deal with this now.

"We're not getting our bonus, that's for sure, so it's up to us to make up the shortfall. Get in, grab anything you can, and plant the bombs. Then get the fuck out of there. I want this done quick, and those assholes dead, before Taverner gets down here. If she has her way, she'll get all the credit and we'll be lucky to get out of here alive. We go in ten."

His image vanished as well, and I glared for a moment.

"At least we know they're coming," my mate said. I nodded reluctantly—she wasn't wrong, but as advantages went, it wasn't much.

"This time, they'll be ready for trouble. You must get to safety before their reinforcements arrive."

Talia crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes, looking up at me. "You mean we must get to safety. I'm not about to abandon you here."

"I must protect this place. There is little choice for a guardian such as myself, but I can at least spare you. Let me slay our foes while you?—"

"I fight at your side. That had better be what you were about to say, mister." The fire in Tal'ia's eyes made it hard to argue, but more important than ever. I refused to let the flame of her passion be extinguished, even if it cost my life.

"No. You have a more important task." My mind raced, trying to think of a plan she might agree to. "You must live to report this. To your authorities. I will draw them into the tunnels and leave you a clear path to the exit. These humans fear me now, and they will commit all their forces to the fight. While they are busy, you steal their ship and escape."

For a plan I'd made up on the spot, that sounded reasonable. Risky, of course, and probably doomed to failure, but it gave her a reason to escape and a chance. Tal'ia's glare softened, and she ran a hand through her hair.

"Jules and Paulo can go," she said after a lengthy pause. "I'm staying."

"Talia, no." The other human female, Jules, said. I'd almost forgotten we had company. "We need you to come with us. You're the only one who can fly a ship."

My mate shook her head as though trying to dislodge the idea. She said nothing but looked stubborn. The male human spoke, voice shaking and muted. "It's not just us. The rest of the expedition is in that ship, stunned but alive, and we can rescue them. If we fuck this up, they all die."

Unwillingly, Tal'ia nodded. "Fuck. You're right. Fine, I'll go, but once we're aboard their ship, you come and join us, okay? No sticking around to fight them."

Bowing my head in sorrow, I sighed. If nothing else worked, I would have to tell her the truth. "I cannot leave, beloved. I cannot. My heart, my lungs, all my vital organs, are sealed in the jars of my crypt. The hyperfield linking me to them is not strong enough to carry far—if I flee, I die. If they destroy the jars, I die. I must remain and fight to the bitter end."

A strange expression passed over my mate's face at that. Part triumph, part horror.

"We'll figure something out," she said finally, crossing her arms. "You just get to the ship once we have it."

This time,tracking the enemy wasn't hard. They stuck together, moved slowly and carefully, and kept up a heavy flow of data between them and their ship. Professionals entering dangerous territory, they were taking no chances.

It would not be enough to save them, but I appreciated their skill. It also meant that there was no chance of them slipping past me. Not that they seemed interested in digging deep—the mercenaries stuck to the upper levels, circling.

Planting bombs. I growled to myself at the thought, but it made sense. Their mission succeeded if they destroyed the parts of the tomb which rose above the sand, and let the oncoming storm bury whatever remained. No reason to risk a fight they might lose, better to stay as far away from their foe as possible.

I stretched out the hyperwave field from my crystals, sweeping up a sandstorm in my wake.

No stealth this time, only rage and death. Turning the corner, I unleashed hell.

The sentry they'd set earned a bonus but would not live to collect it. He fired as soon as I came around a corner, a crimson beam of coherent light stabbing at my chest. The thick cloud of sand I'd wrapped myself in glittered in the beam, absorbing most of its energy before it struck.

Pain lanced through me, but nothing I couldn't live with. The same couldn't be said for the human as my claws severed his head from his body. I didn't stop or even slow as I passed him, leaving his corpse to drop to the floor as I burst through the doorway he'd guarded.

The chamber beyond was a mess already, tumbled stones littering the once ornate floor. A flash of memory surfaced: this had been a reception station, a place for the families of the honored dead to commune with their ancestors. Time and weather had ruined it despite all the Makers' precautions, and now the human mercenaries were intent on finishing the job.

My roar of rage rocked the humans, but they were professional enough to recover quickly. One stood too close to the doorway to react before I carved through his spine, but the rest started shooting and diving into cover.

I swept my bloody hand forward, and the sandstorm rushed past me, plucking a mercenary off from the floor and dashing him against the roof high above. Return fire scored my flesh and I found cover of my own.

More of them than I expected,I thought as the withering hail of laser-light burned into the black stone. Good. More to kill before I fall.