In case she needed a place to hide out.
In fact, this was a blessing in disguise. The perfect opportunity for sneaking about. Exactly what she'd been wanting.
Except she hadn't thought she'd be all alone when she did it.
"It's all right, Uncle Jin," Elena said with forced cheer. "I can find my way."
That's right. She was the Raven. Super-agent extraordinaire. Any situation she got herself into; she could get herself out of.
Elena started walking again, trying not to think about what would happen if she never found her way out of this cavern labyrinth.
Starvation would probably get her first. Or maybe not.
That burrow back there had looked like something an animal would create. She shivered as she remembered the creature the other children had encountered in the main cavern.
What if there were more of those wandering around?
She'd have to defend herself. Maybe they could be her new food source. Though cooking them might be a problem as the cave's climate was too damp to start a fire. Which meant she could get intestinal parasites from eating uncooked food.
What a way to go. As a cautionary tale of what happened when you got too curious for your own good.
She doubted she'd be found either. Her body would be left to lay where it fell. Fossilizing in place. All those lessons in badassery cut tragically short due to Elena's inability to navigate a cave system.
The thought was a chilling one that she shook off in favor of concentrating on finding a way out of this mess.
It felt like hours passed before Elena felt a spark of hope. A change in environment that brought a renewed sense of purpose.
"What's this?" Elena asked, stepping out of the cave and onto a walkway suspended over a glowing pool of water.
She looked through the metal grates, finding the milky looking water familiar.
"Yes!" Uncle Jin's crow of relief distracted her from her examination. "You just popped back on my scanners."
"That's great."
"Wait. No. It's not."
Elena found out the reason for his concern as she followed the walkway into a familiar looking room. The central platform waiting off to her left. The bank of cryopods that held her half siblings to her right along the edge of the room.
"How did I get back here?" Elena asked, her stomach sinking as the water below her rippled with movement.
She was sure to keep to the center of the suspended walkway as a vision of tentacles dragging her into the pool haunted her.
"The cavern must connect to several places in the ship," Uncle Jin said in explanation. "Let's not dawdle, Elena mine. I want you out of there as fast as possible."
Elena didn't have to be told twice as she hurried toward the stairs that would take her to the exit, passing the bank of cryopods in the process.
She slowed.
"Elena, you need to get moving," Uncle Jin warned.
"In a minute. This might be the only chance I have to meet them."
These individuals who'd inspired her egg donor to go to such lengths to protect them. Her siblings.
Elena didn't know what she was expecting to find as she stopped in front of them. Maybe a sense of connection. Some spark that would help explain why Elise couldn’t abandon them.
There were five in total. One full grown. Another close to it. The rest were Elena's age or a little younger. Not all of them looked Tuann or human.
