Ellie peered up at a higher part of a channel, clearly seeing something he didn't. There were creases on her brow now as she looked up at it, and he was suddenly struck again by how intelligent this human was.
He'd met geniuses before. He'd worked with them for ages long before he had ever met her. But that expression warmed something in his chest. Perhaps the stasis in his prison had changed some chemical makeup inside of him. It wouldn't be surprising. Being alone for that long was bound to change how he saw the world.
Still, even looking at her made something in his chest heat in a way it never had before. She was so attuned to detail. She stared at the channel and then finally he saw it too. A mere drip. A small one, nothing that most people would have been concerned about, but his little Sisu noticed it and she would not let it stand.
"It's not a leak that would threaten those who are within it," he said, his voice tinged with amusement. "You can leave that alone."
"I think you're wrong. It's leaking from a seam, and I think if we added any pressure to it, the whole thing would break."Her frown deepened. "But it's all stone. I don't know how to fix stone."
Pilot chirped from where he was working on the hologram show. "Bring some metal and weld it into the stone. All you have to do is hammer it in place, and then it'll stay there."
"Right," she muttered, already looking for a piece to do exactly that.
She shouldn't have been doing any of this. He appreciated how much she wanted to help him, but Ellie was far more delicate than most humans. She hadn't been using her body for very long. Her arms were still weak, and her legs were shaky even with the bare minimum effort.
Of course, clearing out the sand had helped. In the week and a half that they'd worked on that project, he had seen her body changing. Her muscles were slightly more defined now. She was able to continue working for a bit longer every single day. But he was concerned about how deeply she slept and the dark circles under her eyes.
She needed more rest than he did, and he feared he would run her ragged long before she was ready to stop working on her own.
Sighing, he shook his head and watched as she gathered all her supplies and climbed up one of the channels. She'd done this a few times already. Dry as a bone, the channels were mostly chutes that would eventually hold running water. Although the water would be slow moving, it helped to keep oxygen in the gills of those who floated in them.
She crouched right above the broken part, muttering under her breath. For a moment, she disappeared from his sight as she laid down to look at the damage underneath and peered at the leak before her head popped up once more.
"If I weld metal here, is it going to hurt their scales?" she asked.
He asked the pertinent questions. How thick was the metal? How high did it stick up? And they both decided she would melt the edges, first to make sure it had a good seal, and second to make sure that it didn't cut anyone when they were up there.
He listened to the sound of the crackling welder, and for a moment, time seemed to waver. Pilot tested the holograms, and Proteus stared at all the images of the scientists who once worked here. It was like he had taken a step backward.
Proteus remembered so clearly being here as they built this facility. He remembered what it was like to listen to all the engineers working, the intelligent dreamers who had wanted to make a better place for humans to live, the environmentalists who truly believed it was possible. Their voices had echoed throughout the rafters in calls for hope and discoveries that would change everything.
Their voices had gotten quieter over the years. Roadblocks, as they called them, stopped them at every turn. From politicians to the rich and famous, so many people tried to stop them from saving this planet until it was far too late. The world was part of an agenda. Saving it had to serve someone before it could be saved.
He hated how sad all the brilliant minds here had gotten every time they had been forced to stop what they were doing. Their work had gotten so close so many times, and yet then they were forced to not even use some of it. Heartbreaking, really, but he knew where it ended up.
Those in power wanted the world destroyed. Because they had thought they could control the destruction themselves.
They'd been wrong.
The welding sounds stopped, and Ellie poked her head back up with a triumphant grin on her face. All the holograms faded away as Pilot muttered about something not working, and Proteus himself was forced to come back into the present.
"Did you fix it?" he asked, trying to keep the amusement out of his voice.
"Of course I fixed it. It wasn't that hard, really." She stood, wobbling a bit precariously before catching herself. "I think it should be better now. Can we test the water again?"
"If you'd like."
Proteus kept his eyes on her as she moved down the chute. It wasn't entirely safe for someone like her. Though it wasn't all that steep, it could still be slick as the insides were worn smooth. She needed to be sure-footed and careful, and those weren’t traits Ellie had. She was clumsy, and often times distracted.
Like this instant.
He watched as her foot caught on something within the chute and she tripped. Already he could see what would happen playing out. Another engineer had fallen just like this in the early days. There were two tiers for her to fall onto, just like the man had. His back had made a sickening crunch that had haunted Proteus for days on end.
Humans were so fragile. Their bodies were so easy to break.
With a whip of his tail, he propelled himself forward. Just in time, he caught her. His arms took the brunt force of her impact as she toppled over the edge of one chute and nearly killed herself on the wall of the next. The backs of his arms hit the stone hard enough to make him grunt, but it wasn't nearly hard enough to break his bones, which were so much stronger than hers.
He tucked her in closer to his chest, holding the warmth of her skin against his and breathing out a long sigh of relief.
