Subterranean (10 page)

“I do not know what ‘liquor’ is, but I assure you Kraan is better!”

“Well, thank you, Rolan.” He was befuddled in assessment of the strange bond of friendship growing between them, unsure of what to make of it.

“Ah, and my thanks to you, as well, my friend.” Rolan glimpsed over at Lisa and Rasina still fully intrigued in each other’s small talk. “Hmm, it appears my wife has taken a liking to your friend. Hopefully she still has a desire for me tonight after such extended conversation.” He shifted his view to Vale, who still sat in the corner. “Vale, what are you doing?”

Surprised, she took a moment to make certain it was her he was addressing before answering. “Waiting.”

“For what?”

“For it to end.” She arched an eyebrow. “Or for something exciting to happen.”

“Exciting?” Rolan walked over and sat next to her. “You mean like the time we fought off a pack of hukkas with only a single…”

Love and Romance

As the house emptied and farewells were traded, Flynn, Lisa, and Vale found themselves outside on the street once more. In the dark of night, or simulated night, rather, where about half of the city lights were powered down to enhance the illusion, Flynn suddenly realized that Vale was glowing, literally; parts of her skin, markedly around the more sensitive areas such as her lips, eyelids, and inner arms and thighs, glowed a cool neon green that cast supple rays of light in every direction.

“Vale,” Flynn said, observing the beautiful natural phenomenon, “you’re glowing.”

Vale looked down at her arms and legs as if she wasn’t already aware of it. “Why, thank you.”

He smiled at her comeback, still trying to grasp the fact that she had just joked with him. “Why didn’t I notice it before?”

“It normally occurs in considerable darkness. Most of the city is well-lit throughout the day, so it is rare for us to glow at any time other than night.”

“But I didn’t see you glow on the surface.”

“You would not, wearing the HTS-500’s. Everything appears unicolor and at the same level of brightness.”

“That explains a lot.” He was suddenly afflicted by memories of freezing upon hearing of the surface. “Maybe next time we could try to go on the surface during the day; I prefer sweating over freezing.” He flapped the collar of his robe to cool off his heated chest. “Speaking of sweating, is it always so hot in these caves?”

“We prefer a warm climate.” Vale wasn’t sweating at all; in fact, her skin wasn’t even flush although it felt like a hundred degrees.

“No kidding…”

It was always a fairly warm temperature inside the caves thanks to the geothermal heating system and the Subterranean preference for hot weather. Because of this, Lisa had unbuttoned her shirt, exposing some cleavage that Flynn had trouble keeping his eyes off of, which had also aroused him more than once, causing the three to stop for no informed reason several times.

Despite this, they ambled around the outskirts of the city while Vale explained to them how boring daily life was for her. She loved going up on the surface because it was the only place where she could visit the thrills of adventure; everything in the caves was so dreadfully peaceful that she figured she would’ve been driven mad if she was forced to stay underground all the time.

“Peace is a good thing.” Flynn said calmly, admiring the beauty of the tranquil city night. “And so is adventure.” He thought with a smile of all the dangerous situations he’d gotten himself into in the past. “They can both be amazing in equal parts.” With a pause, he looked into Vale’s eyes. “But if you share it with someone, then it’s more than amazing.”

Vale let the conversation dissipate away as she thought of all the lonely nights she spent at her house, lying awake in bed for hours wondering what was missing, and all of the times Rolan, her only friend, was too busy to be with her. “I am going to go back home.” She said with a sigh. “Thank you for coming with me, Flynn.” Smiling, she bowed her head at him in a mocking fashion, receiving a reciprocating grin. “Lisa.” She waved at her and turned to leave, the mist of the caves enveloping her from view.

Flynn still wasn’t sure how long the days were on the planet, but he did know that he was tired. It’d been a while since they left the hospital, most likely twelve hours by the feel of it, and he was already preparing for a good night’s sleep. He pictured the floor of the hospital room, scheming how he could steal one of Lisa’s pillows for the night, or maybe even ask for a blanket if she was feeling generous. Before they went to sleep, however, Flynn asked if Lisa wanted to share the container of Kraan together. Without knowing what the drink was, she accepted with an excited smile.

“Rolan said this drink is like liquor, so I guess we should propose a toast.” He said as he poured the contents of the container into two glasses. “What shall we drink to?”

“Why do we have to drink to just one thing?” She sat with her hands between her legs, eyes looking up at him expectantly.

“Hmm, you’re right. We’ll have to make a list.”

“You’re always trying to think things ahead. Where’s the fun in that?”

“I like to be prepared.”

She took the glass halfway filled with Kraan from his outstretched hand. “
I
like to see what life gives me.”

“Do you like what you’ve gotten so far?”

She lifted an eyebrow and regarded him in a beguiling manner. “I like some of it.”

He set the container down and leaned against the table. “Really? Well, maybe I
will
try your philosophy, then. After all, I didn’t plan for any of this,” he stared lecherously at her feminine features, “but I can’t say all of it’s bad.”

“Not bad?” She leaned in towards him and traced a finger along his coat. “You haven’t seen all of me, yet.” Her playful words gave voice to her seductive grin.

“Should I be afraid?” He gazed down into her lustful eyes.

She gripped his coat tightly and pulled herself up to his ear. “Very.” She let the sexual tension build until she couldn’t stand it anymore and had to pry herself away. “So,” she said, retreating back to the bed, “what shall we drink to first?” A raised glass of Kraan redundantly posed the question.

“To… each other…” He professed with a nod. “I don’t think I’d still be sane if I were alone on this planet.” Flynn sipped cautiously and carefully measured the taste, while Lisa gulped down as much as she could in one go.

“What next?”

“To my sister.” His tone fell solemn. “I hope she’s still alive and that I’ll get the chance to find her.” Flynn drank a bit more this time, becoming less concerned about the effects of the drink.

“And next?”

“To Earth. The best place in the universe.” Flynn threw caution to the wind as they both quaffed as much Kraan as their mouths could hold.

“What else?” She said in a rush to keep drinking.

“To… uh…” His head was already spinning from the powerful local favorite. “To… uh… man this stuff works fast…” He complimented the viscous green liquid with a smile. “Lisa, do you have anything to… to drink to?”

“Nooo,” she sounded completely smashed already, “I don’t have anything…”

“What?” He turned to her with a shocked expression. “Really?”

“Really!” She shouted woozily. “I don’t have anything…”

“Come on,” he said with a numb face, “you were a journalist, you must’ve had something! Someone?!”

“Nooo, I lied at dinner tonight.” Her head dropped in admittance. “I was never a journalist. I couldn’t have been one even if I wanted to.” She sighed in sorrow of having thought about Earth, her voice thick with dread in remembering a worse time. “I had nothing… no one… Everyone either left me or despised me and I left them.”

“That’s horrible!” Flynn struggled to hold his glass. “You didn’t have any friends?”

“Nobody wanted to be my friend… not after they had already used me.” Depression slowly seeped into her face with the words; her self-confidence tearing down its own familiar walls.

“Sometimes it seems like the Ravager invasion wasn’t such a bad thing after all.” He held one hand to the container and the other on his glass, waiting to join the two.

“No,” she said, descending into her pit of hate, “it doesn’t.”

He shook himself free of the angry shackles trying to drag him into the repressed depths of his heart. “But if we start thinking like that, we condemn countless innocents because of a few bad apples.”

“Hmph… there’s a lot more than a few.”

“Isn’t there someone, anyone, who cared about you back on Earth?” He paused and reassured himself of the possibility. “There has to be!”

“No, no one cared about me, Flynn… not as much as I did for them. The one person I thought actually cared about me left when it was convenient for them.” She hit the bed with a clenched fist. “They didn’t even say goodbye. I woke up one morning and he was gone…”

Flynn remembered his sister and all the times he left her for some excavation site halfway around the world; he felt like he was the monster that’d abandoned her. The barbed analogy stung deep within his heart. Yet, he somehow found the courage to resist the tempting security that his hatred offered.

“There
are
good people, Lisa.”

“No, Flynn, there aren’t.” She said, wholly convinced of her truth. “Everyone on Earth is getting what they deserve.” In her anger, she flung the glass of Kraan against a wall, shattering it to bits, the tiny clear shards striking Flynn in the face. Seconds later, upon realizing what she had done, she covered her sobbing face with her hands. “Damn it!”

“It’s okay, Lisa.” He rushed to her side and calmed her with a hug, his drunkenly disoriented eyes meeting hers when she stopped crying. “What about me? I’m a good person, right?”

“I think you are,” she was interrupted by a sniffle, “but I’ve been wrong before.” She stopped to take a deep breath. “But I finally think I have someone who can never leave me, and the first chance you get you want to fly away back to Earth where you’ll become some superhero that everyone will love, and then you’ll forget about me… like you never cared in the first place.”

“Lisa,” he placed his hands gently on the sides of her head and wiped away a tear with a thumb, “I
do
care about you. I’ll always be with you no matter what happens. I won’t leave you like the others did.” He lowered his chin and gazed into her glacial eyes. “An entire world wouldn’t keep me from you.”

Touched by his words, she slowly brought her lips against his and slid her tongue inside his mouth, keeping him close to her by his shoulders while she ravished him with an unending stream of impassioned kissing. They slid their hands down each other’s bodies, groping and fondling as they went during their sensual interaction. She managed to push him off for a moment and stopped to look at him.

Confused, he wasn’t sure what she was doing until she started peeling off her clothes, letting them fall to the floor and reveal her sensitive areas now flushed with reddened blood. He quickly followed suit without thinking, only getting half of his clothes off before she shoved him onto the bed to help him. She crawled atop him and teased his growing tension with the grazing sway of her hips until neither of them could bare it any longer.

Chapter 9

Intrusion

For once, Flynn woke with a smile. He rolled over to Lisa and stroked her face lightly with a few fingers while she slept, the unmistakable guise of love settling upon him.

Was he truly in love with her?

He was weary of his own sensitive emotions playing tricks on him, but he’d never felt such intoxicating affection for anyone else in his life. Not to mention that with all of the paranoia circulating with the Subterraneans, he found it difficult to trust anyone, even himself. Amidst all the uncertainty that threatened to swallow him up in an indecisive black hole, he heard Lisa’s words echo in his mind:

I like to see what life gives me
.

With a smile, he then leaned in close to her ear and trailed a finger down the side of her body. “I love you, Lisa.” He whispered into the deaf silence with a surety.

Breaking the soothing silence shortly afterward was the startling
whoosh
of the sliding door; apparently the Subterraneans don’t appreciate the value of knocking before entering, because Overseer Vale and Rolan walked into the room mid-sentence.

“We cannot be certain of that, there is only one way to know for—“

Flynn scurried underneath the blankets, wrapping Lisa and himself in a shroud of white, thoroughly embarrassed by the predicament. Vale and Rolan stared with their jaws hanging open while he stammered out an explanation as to why he was naked in bed with Lisa.

“We were sharing body heat…” Their empty stares crushed him underneath a layer of shame, so he hid his face and closed his eyes; Lisa was so lucky to be asleep.

“It is one hundred degrees in here, human….” Vale said aloud, her disbelief a surging undercurrent for her agitation. “The doctors say you can barely tolerate that…”

“Wait.” Flynn pointed towards the door. “I’ll be right outside; I don’t want to wake Lisa.” Whether it was from discomfort or confusion, Vale removed herself from the room with hard stomps replacing her usually graceful steps, leaving Rolan to handle the situation.

“Did you drink the Kraan?” Rolan said suggestively, looking back and forth at him and Lisa.

“Rolan!” Flynn said in a loud whisper. “I’ll be right outside!”

“Okay,” he moved towards the door, “but you will tell me the story, yes?”

“Out, Rolan!”

Flynn rummaged around for his clothes softly so as not to disturb Lisa. He made sure she was completely covered, but with some room for air underneath the sheets so she wouldn’t cook in the hot environment. Standing with his Subterranean garment on, he leaned over her one last time and kissed her on the cheek.
Let’s go see what they want…
He pushed the control panel next to the door and joined Rolan and Vale outside.

“I do not know, but their species are angry when they are mating…” They stood outside by the overlook waiting for him, dressed in their armor to go on the surface. When they noticed Flynn approaching, their voices dissolved into the air.

“What do you want?” Flynn could tell the two Subterraneans weren’t aware of the severity of their intrusion; in fact, they were completely blind to it.

Rolan looked at Vale in the brief moments of silence before he spoke. “Tural requires our presence. An error has occurred regarding our last mission to the surface and we must rectify it.”

“What’s there to fix? Apart from some of the survey team not making it, we did our job.” Flynn pried, wishing that, for once, the Subterraneans would just tell him everything he needed—and wanted—to know.

Vale crossed her arms. “
Tural
wants to tell you that.” She said her leader’s name in a condescending manner. “We should not tell you until he does.”

Rolan slapped Flynn on the shoulder. “Another layer of mystery!”

“Right…” Flynn growled, and then returned to the hospital room and gathered up his armor, pulling on all of the pieces slowly and quietly in the mild darkness. When he was sure he had everything, he fixed his eyes on Lisa’s peaceful body and smiled.

Off to Tural, he set his mind to go back on the surface.

Missing Scientists

And so no sooner was he preparing to revisit the place regarded so harshly as the land incapable of providing for man, was he standing in the shadow of his two otherworldly friends as they discussed with their leader the next mission.

“You cannot be out there longer than a full day.”

It made no sense, why no longer than a day? Did it have something to do with the ships in the hangar? He remembered Rolan’s distress over lingering in the company of the shifting sands for too long before, so maybe there was more going on… Flynn didn’t like being left of the loop.

Tural had scolded them further through his piercing gaze and emphasized words for losing so many of the survey team last time; his large frame and dominating personality seemed to show more than ever to Flynn as he demanded total submission from Rolan and Vale, who fervently protested to the blame being forced upon their shoulders.

Flynn was certain that after Tural dispensed his infuriated tirade upon his subordinates, he would then mention the infiltration of the secret hangar, but nothing was said; yet another thing that didn’t make sense. The Subterraneans had to have cameras and Flynn knew the technician he incapacitated saw his face, if only for a second. So why hadn’t Tural brought it up? What was his game?

“Because we cannot ignore what happens on the surface, my friend.” Tural rose to his feet when Flynn asked why they must return. “We hope for it to become habitable again someday, and it is precisely occurrences like this that need to be studied if we are ever to see our world reborn.”

Tural was good, a true politician versed in the ways of misleading speech, but Flynn knew there was more to it than that. “So why do we only have a full day to investigate?”

Flynn’s constant questioning was quickly frustrating Tural, who was used to giving orders to servile followers. “Because a day is all you should need.”

“What exactly are we doing?”

Tural took a deep breath. “I need you to search for the missing members of the survey team.”

“The ones from last time?”

“Yes. Some of them ran away, according to you.” He rolled a clenched fist along the data pad on his desk as he spoke. “They must be located and returned safely,” he turned away from them and spoke over his shoulder while he inputted some data into a screen mounted on the wall, “or their deaths verified if the worst has already happened.”

He went on for another twenty minutes or so, explaining to them every painstaking detail of the mission that was essentially a typical search and rescue that he’d taken an excessively long time to explain, almost as if he was attempting to justify his actions to Flynn, the only variable in his obedient little kingdom.

There seemed to be a lot of anxiety surrounding Tural, but Flynn couldn’t pinpoint it; he was, however, certain that it concerned him in some way. How, precisely, appeared to change with each conspiracy Flynn conjured up to satiate his paranoia as time went on. If anything, he was more in doubt of the Subterraneans now than when he’d first met them, and it looked as if it was only going to get more convoluted with each relevant discovery. Flynn himself had perhaps noticed this anxiety because of the radio he kept hidden in his pocket; his paranoia made him more perceptive to the observations of others as his possession of such a device would likely be frowned upon, despite him having every right to keep materials from his own ship.

A Promise to Return

Flynn shed his armor and most of his weapons for a single pistol and a knife, along with his HTS-500’s, which were less painful in attaching to his face a second time.

“I think these things don’t want to kill me anymore.” He said jokingly as they burrowed into the tingling skin around his brow.

“What are you doing?” Vale was utterly perplexed by the pile of armor and weapons that lay next to Flynn.

“Traveling light.” He unclipped the strap of his last piece of armor. “We’ll move faster without all of this gear.” He set his rifle down on the pile and withdrew his energy pistol, inspecting the gun with his curious fingers.

“You will be killed instantly if anything should attack you.” She sounded concerned, something that surprised Flynn.

“I’ll make sure nothing attacks me, then.” Flynn said, holstering his pistol and loading a crate onto the desert buggy vehicle.

“You cannot be sure of that.”

“There are a lot of things I can’t be sure of.”
Like if you know about the fleet of spaceships stashed away in one of the storage hangars
, he was tempted to say, but somehow found the restraint not to.

“Flynn,” she picked up a piece of armor and shoved it at him, “put your armor back on.”

He stared at the stamped fragment of metal meant to hug his chest. “Why?”

“Because I…” she darted her eyes away from his, “…because your friend would not want you to be harmed.”

Flynn traded glances between Vale and the dented chest piece she held in her hand. “Okay,” he sighed and grabbed the shell, wrapping it around his torso as he thought about Lisa, “you’re right.” He donned the rest of his armor and picked his rifle back up when he was finished. “No point in going to the surface for a rescue if we end up needing rescue ourselves.”

“That, too.” Vale hopped up onto the buggy to perform some routine checks. “Retrieve Rolan for me, I need him for this.”

Flynn scanned the room and saw Rolan in the corner of the hangar talking to the requisitions officer, an elbow leaning on the counter and a chest heaving in laughter.

“That is nothing, I remember the time I fought
five
hukkas!” Rolan’s convivial energy electrified the atmosphere, bringing color to the pale chrome walls.

“Five? Did you gather them all up from across the wastes so they could all attack you at once?” Flynn knew that hearty voice; he could picture the delicate requisition’s officer heaving a massive weapon into Rolan’s face already.

“That gives me an idea… Gladiatorial games! It will be a thrilling adventure!”

“Tural would never allow it.” She sternly retorted.

“He does not have to know! Haha!” Rolan seemed to be joking, but Flynn wasn’t sure; anything could be true with Rolan. “I can see it already! How exciting!”

Flynn had the difficult task of wresting Rolan from his invigorating conversation with Brekka, the requisition’s officer, but when at last he was able to do it, he brought Rolan over to Vale for the assistance she needed. Lost in listening to their humdrum measurements back and forth, he barely heard Lisa’s hurried footsteps come up from behind.

“Flynn, where are you going?!” Her gait clear indicated that she was distressed about something.

“I have to go back to the surface to find the other scientists.” He said, cursing himself on the inside for not telling her. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“You were just going to leave without telling me?”

“I…” He could feel Rolan and Vale’s eyes upon him. “…was going to tell you.”

She crossed her arms. “When?”

“When… I came back!”

His vain hopes of saving himself were terminated by Lisa’s hurt expression.

“Lisa, come on, I wasn’t leaving you. You were sleeping, I didn’t want to wake you, and… ugh!” His forehead felt the brunt of his own frustrations with a hard smack from his hands; she watched his stumbling efforts with a dejected frown. “Lisa,” he took her hand, “I’m sorry… I’m not good with saying goodbye.”

“Goodbye?!” She withdrew herself startled. “Since when is this goodbye? Aren’t you coming back?”

“No… I mean, yes! Yes, I
am
coming back.” He sighed deeply; his mind suddenly imagined the ‘friend’ that had left her in the middle of the night, a spitting image of himself. His voice fell to a soft breath. “I promise.”

Lisa stood there, arms crossed, her eyes crestfallen. “Goodbye, Flynn.” With a dismissive glare, she turned to leave and headed for the exit, the melancholy of her stride forcing Flynn to cry out for her.

“Lisa!” Flynn tried to pursue her, but a strange sensation chained him to the ground. He glanced at the Subterraneans, almost as if waiting for their permission, and then shook himself free. “Wait!”