The covering dissolved open with a reverent hiss.
“Humans. Come.” Welozz demanded, entering the darkened room. His troops stayed outside, their ever-ready weapons held in tight grips.
Morgan followed the Ozevroc and stepped into the dimly lit Sanctum of Reverence.
The air was thick with the scent of sacred herbs and carried an aura of solemnity. The room was small but ornately decorated, with tapestries on every wall that looked like a depiction of the rich history of the Ozevroc people. At the center, an empty pedestal stood, the Talon of Ancients conspicuously absent.
Her heart sank. Damn thing was really gone. Sucking in a fortifying breath, she refocused on the task at hand. “Okay, let’s see if we can find out what happened here.” She kept her voice steady despite the tension pinching between her shoulders. Pulling out the multicorder, she scanned up and down the pedestal.
Ari nodded and glanced around the room with narrow eyes. “I’ll take a quick look around. Just to make sure no one came in except through the main door.”
“Find now. Only I Chieftain! Must have.” Welozz claimed, smacking the staff on the pristine metallic floor. His six muscular arms twitched with barely contained energy, making his navy-blue fur glisten in the low light.
Morgan studied the readings as they coalesced on the screen. “Don’t worry, High Chief. We’ll do our best. I’ll find clues that will point us to the thief.”
She circled the empty pedestal again with her handheld, its soft hum filling the air. She swept it over and around the intricately embossed column. Her multicorder screen lit up with data. The readings showed traces of an unusual crystalline residue, faint but unmistakable.
“Well, this is weird,” Morgan murmured, flipping the screen around to show Ari and Welozz. “The only organic residue is from the Ozevroc. But there’s some kind of crystalline remnant all around the pedestal and the floor.” She aimed her handheld above her to the ceiling. “It’s faint, but there’s even some here.” She brought the screen down. “It has a strange conglomeration of amethyst, quartz, and some kind of alien compound I’ve never seen before.”
“Hey, Morgan. Point that thing over here.” Ari gestured to a section of the wall that seemed to glitter.
Turning around, she brought the multicorder to where he motioned. “You’re right, it looks like this wall is thick with the same combination the pedestal has.” She brushed her hand over the smooth surface. “It doesn’t feel any different from this section to the next.” She focused her scanner around the room, and the multicorder picked up more traces of the crystalline substance leading back and forth from the pedestal to the wall. “It looks like our thief somehow came through this wall. Where does it lead?” She addressed Welozz.
Welozz’s snout tightened. “Outside ship.”
Morgan translated what the Ozevroc said for Ari.
“Bummer,” Ari muttered under his breath.
Morgan glanced at Ari with a frown. She turned to Welozz. “Has this been here before?” She gestured to the shimmering glow left behind on the wall.
Welozz snarled, which didn’t need a translation.
“If you’ll allow, great High Chieftain, Ari and I will go through the ship and…”
Bugurr raced into the room. “High Chieftain! Quick, come!”
Morgan never imagined she’d ever see that look of panic cross the Sub-Chieftain’s snout. His four eyes were wide enough that a hint of white surrounded their onyx color.
“No obstruct!” the High Chieftain demanded, pounding his staff on the floor.
“Lurvath killed!” Bugurr rumbled as he fell to his knees with his head on the ground. Just informing the High Chieftain that one of them was dead without him being involved was a cause for severe disciplinary action to the messenger.
“What’s going on?” Ari leaned down and whispered to her.
“Looks like someone murdered another one of them.” Morgan glanced up at him. “And this time, they found him.”
Ari’s lips twisted into a grimace. “Well, at least we won’t have to fire up the incinerator this time.”
Ari sucked in a deep breath when they stepped out of the small sanctum room. The confined space made his skin crawl, and the cloying scent of the incense the Ozevroc used made his nose burn. Saying his mood was darkening would be putting it mildly. And the narrow-eyed looks Morgan gave him didn’t help. Not that he blamed her. No telling how he ended up on another part of the ship. The blacknuteshsnare should’ve zapped him awake before he left the room.
Ari fingered the thick scarf around his neck. What happened to that snare? He glanced around to make sure the Ozevroc didn’t notice he wasn’t wearing their slave collar. An image shot across his mind. One of him with three other men as each ripped the offending thing off their necks with loud whoops of celebration. Had he been a slave on another ship? That might explain why he’d never noticed the collar until Morgan pointed it out to him.
A sharp shove to the middle of his back made him stumble. He glared over his shoulder at the short Ozevroc poking him with the cylinder pole he carried.
The alien hissed and growled.
Ari didn’t need a translator to let him know the guy wanted him to pick up the pace. “Hey, take it easy, fur-ball four-eyes.” He shrugged his arm away from the pushy guy. “No need to damage the goods.”
