The crawler lurched and groaned as it descended deeper, the grinding of its treads against stone echoing off the tunnel walls in a way that set my teeth on edge. Through the narrow windows, I could see the cave walls closing in, the passagebecoming tighter and more confined with each meter we traveled.
My chest was starting to feel tight. Not from lack of oxygen—the air quality monitors on my equipment showed perfectly breathable atmosphere—but from the weight of stone pressing in from all sides. From the memory of my grandparents trapped in their safe room while a tornado tore apart everything above them. And then, also them.
Underground was supposed to be safe. That’s what everyone had always said. Go underground during a storm. Take shelter. You’ll be protected.
Except sometimes the underground became a tomb.
“Hey.” Torven’s hand found mine in the dim red light, his fingers lacing through my own with gentle pressure. “Breathe.”
I realized I’d been holding my breath and forced myself to pull in air. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. I can feel it.” His thumb stroked across my knuckles. “But you’re managing it. That’s what matters.”
The crawler shuddered to a halt with a final grinding complaint that suggested we’d pushed the old vehicle as far as it could go. Vikkat spoke rapidly in D’tran from the front, and I caught enough to understand we’d reached the end of navigable passage for the vehicle.
“We walk from here,” he announced, switching to the simplified language Torven and I could understand. “Caves ahead too narrow for crawler. We make staging area, then proceed on foot.”
The D’tran began unloading equipment with practiced efficiency, and I took the opportunity to pull out my modifiedscanning equipment and run a quick diagnostic. The power cells showed full charge, and all the sensor arrays were responding within normal parameters. Well, normal for equipment that had been completely repurposed for an application it was never designed for.
“Sixty percent chance of working,” I muttered to myself, checking the calibration on the heat signature detector. “That’s generous. More like forty percent when you factor in the electromagnetic interference and the unknown density variations in the cave walls and—”
“Rivers.” Torven appeared at my elbow, his pack already secured and his portable scanner active on his wrist. “Status?”
“Equipment is functional. Whether it will actually detect anything is another question entirely.” I clipped the main scanner to my belt and adjusted the display so I could read it without having to hold it. “The modifications are holding, but I’m seeing some fluctuations in the power draw that suggest the amplification circuits are working harder than I’d like.”
“Translation for the non-scientist?”
“It works now. It might not work in an hour.”
He nodded, accepting that with the same calm he brought to every crisis situation. “Then we make the most of the time we have.”
Outside the crawler, the D’tran had set up a staging area that looked like something out of a military operation. Red lights on portable stands cast the cave in that same crimson glow, making everything look otherworldly. Equipment was arranged in careful order, weapons were checked andsecured, and two D’tran warriors disappeared down the tunnel ahead to scout the passage.
I moved to one of the portable stands and began activating my scanning equipment, acutely aware of how many eyes were watching me. The D’tran who’d been hostile in the crawler—Dorek and his companions—stood in a small cluster near the back, their expressions skeptical even in the distorting red light.
No pressure. Just the fate of an entire civilization resting on whether I could make improvised equipment do things it was never meant to do.
The scanner hummed to life, and I began running the first sweep of the surrounding area. The display showed a three-dimensional map of the cave structure, built up layer by layer as the ground-penetrating radar worked its way through the stone. It was beautiful in a way, watching the hidden architecture of the planet reveal itself in glowing lines and color-coded density readings.
“Anything?” Vikkat appeared beside me, studying the display with the intensity of someone who’d been searching for something their entire life.
“Not yet. The scanner has to build a baseline first, map the natural cave structures and distinguish them from any artificial constructions or energy signatures.” I adjusted the sensitivity, watching the readings fluctuate. “If there’s anyone down here, they’re either very deep or very well hidden.”
Or they’re dead,I didn’t say. But I could see the thought in Vikkat’s expression.
“How deep can your device see?”
“Theoretically? About a hundred meters through standardrock. But these aren’t standard conditions. The mineral composition here is different from anything in my database, and the electromagnetic interference from the planet’s field is significant.” I pulled up a secondary display showing the interference patterns. “I’m getting readings that suggest there are pockets of higher conductivity deeper in the cave system, but whether that’s water, metal deposits, or energy signatures from technology, I can’t tell from here.”
Vikkat studied the readings with an expression I was learning to recognize as hope trying not to get crushed by years of disappointment. “We go deeper. You keep scanning.”
The two scouts returned, speaking rapidly to Vikkat in D’tran. I caught maybe a third of it—something about stable passages ahead, no immediate signs of habitation, one branching path that showed evidence of deliberate shaping rather than natural formation.
“We move,” Vikkat announced. “Stay together. Stay alert. Dr. Rivers, you follow close behind lead group with your equipment. Captain Korvath, you stay with her.”
As if Torven would have done anything else. I could feel his protective instincts through the bond, a constant low hum of watchfulness that would have been annoying if it wasn’t also oddly comforting.
We proceeded into the tunnel in a formation that put me and my equipment in the center of the group, surrounded by armed D’tran warriors who moved with the silence of people who’d spent their lives hunting in these caves. The red lights they carried cast strange shadows on the walls, making every rock formation look like it might be hiding something.
