Serpents of the Abyss (The Darvel Exploratory Systems #2) Read online

  Grin widening around the candy vine, Lori leaned forward to poke her friend when a sound in the distance made her freeze. Drawing up from a deep rumble to a piercing shriek, it came again, the layered sound loud and pulsating.

  Flying off the bed, they backed away from their room’s outer wall. Their dorm being the closest to the dome’s outer barrier, the unrestricted view of M285 from their room that had excited Lori now left her feeling vulnerable and exposed.

  Logically, she knew that nothing could get through the dome, but that message didn’t seem to get from her brain to the rest of her. Perhaps it was because the dome, for security reasons, wasn’t soundproof. The sound of late night windstorms was common, as well as those of animals calling to each other. But this was something else entirely. The piercing shriek of what could only belong to a predator—and a large one at that—sent a wash of cold down her spine.

  It cut off, and Lori’s ears strained to catch even a hint of it as she stared at the fading violets in the sky, the sands meeting it darkening from red to deep hues of plum wherever the perimeter lights failed to hit. The automated lights had only cut on a little more than twenty minutes ago, and while they usually annoyed Lori when she tried to sleep to the point of sometimes being forced to lower her blast shields, she was very grateful for them now. Even with the lights, however, it was too dark to see if anything was lurking just beyond them.

  Her skin prickled, and she exchanged a wary look with Vi.

  “Maybe whatever it is has moved on,” her friend whispered.

  Somewhere, someone or something screamed. It was such a wail of distress and pain that they both jumped and immediately dropped down onto the floor, flattening themselves.

  “Oh, fuck,” Lori hissed, her heart fluttering in her ribcage anxiously. Despite the terror flooding through her veins, she couldn’t look away from the emptiness in front of her. Not when the first was joined with a second scream. Nor when a third and fourth rang out.

  Vi’s hand curled around hers, her body scooting closer until they were huddled together as the terrible shrieks and screams blended into a symphony of horror. Thankfully distance blotted out any wetter sounds of flesh being torn apart. With those screams, her imagination was able to provide some pretty graphic possibilities of just what was happening. She imagined muscle and fat being shredded and ripped away, the heavy crack of bones.

  When the screams faded and no further sounds came from outside, they eventually climbed onto the bunk, cramping together on one bed so that they could continue to huddle together as they stared out into the desert beyond the dome. Neither of them was able to sleep after that. Instead, they sat there, wide awake throughout the night, long after the last scream had faded away, until the morning light cut over the horizon.

  Chapter 8

  There was an air of sobriety the next morning as the crews amassed on deck. It was clear that not one person wished to be there, and every one of them knew it made no difference. The orders barked over the loudspeakers that morning to report to duty had made it abundantly clear that unless they were verifiably ill enough to prevent them from working, all hands were expected to be there.

  Standing side by side with Vi, Lori grimaced. No two ways about it—their lives were owned by the Corp. Everyone was aware of that, and so it was with resignation, and no little trepidation, that the crews trudged out to the communal dining hall early in the morning. One or two of the guys growled and carried on about going out and whooping some alien ass, but Lori had little doubt that behind all that bluster they were just as terrified. Word got around that the remains that had been found of the missing men and women were a bloody mess of bits and pieces.

  Not even the deaths of over twenty guards and personnel had been enough to convince those in charge to close down operations for the day and investigate. Instead, after being provided the standard morning rations for their morning meal, the crews were amassed around a central podium that had been erected beside the duties’ center where assignments were given to the crew leaders.

  She wasn’t entirely sure what they were gathered there for. Why not just send them on out to the mines? She glanced questionably at Eddie.

  “What’s going on?” she whispered.

  He shrugged uneasily at her side, and that spoke volumes alongside his uncharacteristic silence. His face was drawn and pale as he spoke quietly from stiff lips. “Announcement of some kind I’m guessing. Don’t really know. Sometimes changes in work zones are provided there over the loudspeakers, or a crew lead might be pulled aside if they have a change in assignments. Sending us out there when security has been compromised… no speech in the world is going to make it better when it’s our lives they’re sacrificing for their coffers.”

  Lori nodded quietly, and she shared a knowing look with Vi. They didn’t need it broken down for them. Losing an entire day of productivity, while still providing the costs of shelter and food for the miners, was a blow to the corporation’s accounts. She wasn’t so naïve to believe that any one of their lives would be considered worth the mine’s drop into the redline. Providing food and power for even one day for thousands of people in the colony was expensive, even without wages being paid out.

  Hell, as far as she had been briefed during orientation, there were no non-producing days for the mines. No crew holidays. The shift rotations were in place so that the mine ran daily without fail. There wasn’t the slimmest chance of the mine being shut down for even one day cycle, no matter how many lives could be saved.

  The lead supervisor stepped up to the podium and looked over them from where he stood. She hadn’t seen him since arrival. Possessing the waxy pallor of a man who clearly hadn’t spent even a single hour outside of the colony dome despite his crisp military uniform, Jack Dowry looked out over the crowd with the sort of overbearing arrogance and authority that clearly didn’t win him any respect from the non-gratas and the aliens sprinkled throughout the crowd from various Alliance planets.

  She knew that Darvel sometimes attracted aliens who looked to leave or were exiled from their homeworlds—sometimes even undesirable elements who were considered suitable fodder to be sent off as manual laborers by their governments. She had read of it often enough, but she had always assumed that it only happened occasionally. Now, noting that they comprised of at least a quarter of the crew on the ground and the fact that they wore resentful expressions as they stared up at the supervisor, she wasn’t so sure.

  The mandatory translator chips and vocal implant at arrival made a lot more sense. While nearly everyone these days spoke interstellar common tongue, when dealing with the aliens, if fluency became an issue, then the translator and implant would be invaluable.

  An unhappy rumble filled the room, nearly drowning out supervisor Dowry’s voice.

  “Please, may I have your attention?”

  After about the fifth time his request was repeated, each time with increasing hostility, a sullen silence had fallen over the crew.

  “Well, go ahead if you must,” a large, dusky green male snarled. Lori didn’t recognize the species, but he was a brute with thick, curling horns, long, pointed ears, and a shaggy pelt that ran down the back of his neck and disappeared into his uniform. “It’s not like we don’t all know what is coming anyway.”

  The supervisor’s eyes narrowed. “One more time, N’aglen, and that will be a write up and a day loss of wages.”

  The male in question grunted, his face set in stony lines, but remained quiet.

  Dowry’s lips pursed with irritation, but he appeared almost nervous when he looked down at his datapad in front of him. His finger ran over it a couple of times, and he cleared his throat as he glanced up once more.

  “Some of you may be aware of the disturbances from last night. The board of Darvel Exploratory Corporation reassures everyone that the matter is being handled. The loud noises heard were due to… ah, faulty piping outside the dome.” He twitched and rubbed his upper lip.

  Lori snorted si
lently. Clearly not even the supervisor believed any of the bullshit he was spewing.

  “It is most unfortunate that at that time a crewmember succumbed to his madness and ruthlessly butchered valued members of our personnel before ending his own life. We are not, at this time, certain if the sounds set him off or if it was a coincidence. The corporation does wish to reassure the crew that it is perfectly safe to continue on your regularly assigned tasks. That is all,” he squeaked as he rushed away from the podium to a safe distance.

  “Gonads of Galakthal,” a purple male Carsee barked, the mass of feathers along his skull standing up with his agitation. “Not one of us believes a word of that. The corporation would not care if it sent us all to our death as long as credits continued to flow. I did not sign up for this!”

  “The corporation is going to get us all killed!” a man to Lori’s right shouted, the tendons in his neck visibly straining. His eyes were blurry as if he also had not slept during the night, and his brown hair in disarray, almost standing on end with his anger.

  Humans and aliens alike muttered their agreement, their eyes narrowed on the supervisor as his hired guards closed in around him at his signal. Lori doubted that there was a single person on the planet despised as much as the corporate representative at that moment. That fact was not lost upon him either, given the way he didn’t dare leave the safety of the guards.

  “I say that we refuse to go out there, not until they deal with whatever it is out there that’s killing our people!” another shouted.

  This one she recognized from the transport train. Dave looked just as grim as always, but there was something wilder in his expression that made her nervous. More than one plasma rifle lowered on him and was likely the only thing keeping him in check.

  Dowry sneered from his position of safety. “You have no choice. None of you do. The corporation holds your contracts. Unless authorized otherwise, each and every one of you is to load up for departure to the mines. You are to present yourselves at the prep-deck within the hour. That’s an order.”

  Lori had no doubt that a feather could have been heard dropping to the floor when the guards ushered their charge out the door. Then, it was as if something cracked and shoulders slumped as resignation once again set in. Trays of food were grabbed, quickly consumed and, like clockwork, everyone departed to the prep-deck.

  As Lori and Vi followed Eddie to their lockers, she kept glancing up at him, hoping to see some sign of his usual humor and confidence. She didn’t realize how much she needed it to feel okay until she caught herself looking to him for reassurance. He glanced down at her, his brow knit with worry, and attempted to dredge up a smile. Although it was a complete failure, Lori appreciated the effort and leaned into him a little as he patted her on the back, his other hand squeezing Vi’s shoulder.

  “It’ll be okay,” he said calmly as if trying to convince himself as well. “We’ll get down there, do our job the same as yesterday, and before you know it we’ll be coming back and the mines won’t be our problem for a whole week.” His expression went stern. “Don’t go wandering, Lori. That goes for both of you. Stay with me the entire time, and lock yourselves in your dorm tonight with the blast shield down over your window. Don’t take any chances.”

  They nodded silently. Lori felt like she was suffocating as she attempted to breathe through the fear tightening her throat. It didn’t help much. She couldn’t bear to look anywhere as the transport rolled through the desert. She kept her eyes screwed shut. If something was going to spring out and kill her, she decided she would just rather not see it coming first. If she could have spent the rest of the day walking around with her eyes shut, she would have, especially when they descended to their assigned level and walked to their station. Despite the entire team standing close together as everyone worked cooperatively to break up the vein of ore, the crevice drew her eye even more strongly than ever.

  The black hole of the crevice made her tremble with dread. Worst was that she couldn’t seem to look away for more than a minute before she had to look back at it again. It couldn’t be ignored and was determined to drive terror deep into her heart. It had been ominous before, but now it bore what felt like an undeniable threat.

  Although no one overtly ignored her, the mood among the crew was noticeably subdued as they worked. Even Vi was uncharacteristically quiet as they worked side by side. Every now and then, everyone would still as they felt a tremor from the excavator powering through rock from above, sending out micro blasts of earthquakes echoing with every application of the strong sonic beam. Only after several minutes of nervous vigilance following each blast, they once again turned their attention to their tasks. Thankfully, toward midday the tremors stopped, and the unease that had plagued all morning slowly began to loosen its grip from her as their shift neared its end.

  Soon she would be back in her dorm and never more grateful for the small cubby of space secured behind thick metal walls. It couldn’t happen soon enough. Her nerves were fried.

  A blaring emergency alarm shrieked from the comm unit strapped to Lori’s wrist. She jumped, dropping her drill in the process. She cursed as it rolled out of sight beneath a ledge of rock. She was told not to lose her drill, and here she had done exactly that. With the alarm shrieking in her ear, Lori dropped to her knees and slid her fingers beneath the ledge as the crew broke up and began to run out of the cave. A cold sweat broke out over her skin as her fingers scrabbled for it. She needed to get out of there—but not without her fucking drill! Where was the blasted thing?

  “Lor!” Vi shouted, her voice barely audible above the chaos as she fought her way back through the crowd to Lori’s side.

  Her fingers skimmed the curved edge of something when a powerful grip wrenched her to her feet.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Eddie barked.

  “Eddie, I dropped my fucking drill,” she hissed, slapping at his hand.

  He gave her an incredulous look and shook his head, tugging her away from her workstation to shove her brusquely at Vi. “I don’t care if you lost the holy jewels of Xenx IVX—we’re getting the fuck out of here!” he shouted.

  They stumbled forward as the cave shook, their arms linked, Lori in between Vi and Eddie. A fine dust fell on them as small rocks broke free from the walls. A larger rock fell where Lori was only a moment before, crashing against the tunnel floor with a crack that sent vibrations through the ground beneath their feet. She coughed into her sleeve as Vi wrapped her arm around her and dragged her back up the tunnel. Eddie’s voice was in her ear to keep going and not look back. She stumbled, but he dragged her upright, keeping her moving as the cave slowly collapsed all around them. Her eyes watered from the sting of tiny bits of rock attacking them, and she blinked constantly in effort to keep them clear.

  Through her blurry vision, she could make out workers fleeing from their assigned stations, many of them abandoning gear as they rushed toward the tunnel entrance. Their shouts, and the screams of those crushed beneath the falling rock, blended in together in a cacophony. Eddie’s grip tightened on her arm as he picked up speed to the point of nearly dragging her behind him as he raced to catch up to their crew.

  Just ahead, the elevator began lifting off the ground. One burly alien male spotted them and strained against the gate to keep it open as others reached down and yanked her, Vi, and then Eddie into the car. Her body hit hard, but she didn’t care. She entwined her arm with Vi’s as they kicked back the few inches available from the edge of the lift. All she cared about was the fact that the lift was ascending and getting her out of that hole.

  Lori panted as she stared down at the ground crumbling beneath them. No one was prepared for the hard jolt that shook the elevator, least of all her. The safety gate was still slowly descending since they had emergency lifted, meaning when the car slammed into a rocky ledge and tipped dangerously, there was nothing to save her.

  With a shriek, she pitched forward, the momentum breaking her free from Vi’s gra
sp. Her friend cried and shoved forward, and she felt Vi’s fingers grapple at her sleeve as she slid to the edge. Spinning slightly, her eyes wide with panic, Lori watched with dread, her fingers skimming the metal frame of the elevator as Vi was pulled back by the team so she wouldn’t be dragged out too. Vi threw her elbow at the guy holding her and jerked forward, but it was too late. Lori slipped free from the compartment just moments before the gate slammed shut with a deafening crack. Her terrified screams, and the shouts of her crew, followed her. The last thing she heard was Vi’s cry echoing through the mine as she dropped into the jaws of darkness below.

  “Lori! No!”

  Chapter 9

  Lori didn’t hit the ground immediately. As she fell, some sort of creature attempted to snatch her out of the air. More than one, if she wasn’t mistaken. She felt something warm glide over her body and attempt to coil around her. It gave a frustrated shriek when it wasn’t able to secure its hold or do more than slow her descent before another made its attempt.

  She lost count of how many instances something slid around her, attempting to coil around her. And how many times she slipped out of their grasp. She cried out each time, her nails scrabbling against a smooth expanse of scales as she attempted to grab ahold of anything at all. It didn’t even occur to her in that terrible freefall to be frightened of what was striking out to snatch her up. Anything at all was acceptable compared to falling to her death.

  As she fell deeper, the air whistling around her, Lori closed her eyes. She was surrounded by darkness since losing her helmet. But she didn’t want to take the chance that the damned helmet, and its lamp, didn’t sit waiting for her below, a spotlight cast on the scene of her ending.

  She gritted her teeth, a tiny whimpering cry escaping her. It would come soon. The caves were deep, but there would be some narrowing somewhere even if it didn’t reach the bottom. Her fingers curled into fists, and her nails would have been biting into her palms if not for the thick gloves, helpless to do anything but wait for the impact. She was falling too fast and when she stretched out her arms, she had felt nothing but space.