Neverwylde (The Rim of the World Book 3) (14 page)

            “Or it came here to avoid them,” Kyber noted. “That is something else we must consider. How do these creatures interact with one another? Do they leave each other alone? Are they territorial? Do they hunt in packs?”

            Jules interrupted. “What I’d like to know is why we haven’t come across that middle-sized monster before now. We’ve been on this planet for a couple of weeks. Where’s that thing been all this time? For that matter, where do those clickers and eye worms nest?”

            “Yeah. If we knew that, we could go wipe ‘em out once and for all. Get rid of the little buggers,” Cooter suggested.

            Sandow was quick to shoot that idea down. “We can’t go and exterminate a whole species until we find out what its purpose is on this planet. You never know. It could be a vital link in the life cycle.”

            “You mean like a food source?” Fullgrath asked.

            “Exactly.”

            “So what should we do? Kiss their little asses every time they try to attack us?” Cooter’s condemnation was unmistakable.

            “No,” Kyber replied. “We defend ourselves, but we do not attempt to slaughter the entire species. Not until we fully understand its place and definition on this world.”

            Cooter winced, clearly not happy with that decision. “Do you realize that if we did that, they could outlive us on this rock?”

            “Well, they were here first,” Jules commented.

            The security officer shot him a withering look but didn’t reply.

            They tried to make themselves comfortable however they could, considering how many of them were packed in the room. Jules and Tojun took advantage of the lull to curl up and catch up on their sleep. Cooter tried to clean his weapon as best he could without completely dismantling it. The others leaned their backs against the wall and closed their eyes, but Kyber could tell they remained awake and alert to every sound.

            Easing down onto the bed’s thin padding, he checked Kelen’s pulse and breathing. She hadn’t moved or made a sound the entire time he’d been there. Worse, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, she didn’t appear to be getting any better.

            “How is she doing?”

            Kyber glanced up to see Sandow scrutinizing him. “Her pulse is thready, and she seems to be struggling for breath.” He also noticed her shivering but didn’t mention it.

            The doctor nodded and went back to his work.

            With everyone settled down, they could make out faint scratching noises coming from the front door. Cooter snorted. “Persistent little bastards.”

            Drawing Kelen into his arms, Kyber shared his body heat with her. He felt himself growing drowsy, when Fullgrath suddenly bolted upright.

            “Holy mother of God!”

            His shout captured everyone’s attention. Kyber jerked awake, his body tingling in shock.

            The weapons master gasped for breath, his eyes nearly bulging as he stared at everyone.

            “Three! Don’t you get it?
Three!
”

            “We need elaboration,” Gaveer commented.

            Jumping to his feet, Fullgrath held out his arms. “These three apartments, they’re not separate apartments! They’re like one home with three rooms! Don’t you see it? One house to hold one family, separated by a tunnel to space them out from the next door neighbors!”

            He pointed outside. “Those bodies we piled up. Where’d they come from? These rooms are meant to hold three people per room. Three servings of food per person. How many depressions have we found under the floor? Three! The bed, the bath, and the toilet! I bet if you counted the number of glyphs in here, it would be a multiple of three.”

            Kyber frowned. “If your theory is correct, that would mean just twenty-seven people lived in this nonagon.”

            “We found more than twenty-seven bodies in here,” Tojun noted. “We found sixty-three.”

            “Yes, we did! So where did those other ones live? That’s why I think this isn’t the only nonagon. But that’s not what I’m trying to say.
Three,
people! Everything these indigenous people did was in threes. Not one, not two, not four.
Three!
”

            He pointed to the door. “There’s a front door, and there’s the back door. That’s
two,
people!
Two! So where the hell is the third door?
”

Chapter 21

Discovery

            “
So where the hell is the third door?
”

            Kyber carefully laid Kelen on the padding and climbed out of the depression. Instead of answering Fullgrath’s frantic challenge, the others began examining the walls, looking for that possible third portal. After several minutes of scrutiny without luck, Jules paused in the middle of the room and held up a hand.

            “Hold it, everyone. Let’s rethink this through. Let’s approach it logistically.”

            “How logistically?” Gaveer asked.

            Pulling out his tablet, he quickly scanned the room. “All right. Look here.”

            He used the table to project an image. A crude circle appeared on the far wall, above Sandow’s head. Presently, a representation of the room was superimposed over it.

            “Here’s the front door. Here’s the back door. And here, right in the center, is me.”

            Kyber caught on to what the man was doing. “You are thinking in threes, dividing the room in thirds.”

            Jules grinned. “Yep. Now, watch this. If I draw line from me to the front door, then from me to the back door...”

            There were gasps as the others mentally filled in the third line. The ex-navigator obliged, and an imaginary line appeared, pointing to an area directly behind where Cooter was standing.

            “There’s the third door.”

            “Guess we’ll find out,” Cooter remarked. “Does that little gizmo also pinpoint the doorknob?” Not waiting for an answer, he started running his hands over the wall.

            “Why is it hidden?” Tojun wondered aloud.

            “Damn if I can find the glyph.” Cooter sat back on his heels and glanced over at Jules. “Don’t suppose you can logistically tell me where it is.”

            “Think in thirds,” Kyber suggested. “Jules, place the diagram on the wall again.”

            The picture reappeared.

            “Now what?” Fullgrath grumbled.

            “Jules, pinpoint where the glyph to open the door is located on the front door. Then the back door.”

            It didn’t take them long to discover the pattern.

            “The primary door, the front door, its opening glyph is two-thirds of the way up on the right side,” Jules noted. “The secondary door, the back door, that glyph is on the left, a little further down. That’s a…a thirty-six degree angle.”

            “Why is it so low?” Gaveer questioned.

            “Because the indigenous species were short little buggers,” Fullgrath replied and pointed to the projection. “What do you want to bet the third glyph is further down?”

            “Draw another line using a thirty-six degree angle, ending on the right side,” Kyber instructed.

“And you end up with a triangle,” Sandow finished.

            “And the location of the third glyph.” Reaching down, Cooter pressed his fingers into the wall. He paused, a grin spreading across his face, and wiped the wall. “Found it! It’s not lit,” he announced and pressed the symbol.

            This door did not drop into the floor like the other two. Instead, it moved sideways, retreating into a recess in the wall. Everyone stared into the adjoining apartment.

            “Well, I’ll be damned,” Cooter softly said. “Good going, Jules. Obviously you’re smarter than you look.”

            Gaveer stepped through the doorway, entering the other room. Tojun followed him. “At least we have more room to spread out,” the Seneecian commented.

            Fullgrath playfully punched Jules in the shoulder. “If you manage to logistically find the windows, I’ll make sure you get a Christmas present this year.”

            Jules laughed as the weapons master stepped through the doorway. He glanced over at where the physician remained hunched over his samples, then at Kyber. “Are you staying here?”

            “Yes. We will remain close to the doctor.”

            Sandow also nodded. “Close the inner doors. If something should happen, and those things get into one of the rooms, we can seal ourselves off from them.”

            Giving a little salute, Jules stepped into the next room and the door silently slid shut, leaving Kyber and Kelen alone with the doctor. Sandow stretched his legs out in front of him and groaned.

            “We keep talking about how we need to shift our paradigms, our entire way of thinking, but we never quite manage to do it.”

            “We ground ourselves with what we know in order to face the challenges of the unknown.”

            The physician snorted with amusement. “You’re in the wrong profession, Kyber. You should have been a scholar.”

            The side door opened and Jules stuck his head around the corner. “The eye worms are gone.”

            “How do you know that?” Kyber demanded.

            The navigator gave him a wide, toothy smile. “I found the window!”

            Sandow waved at the man. “Get your butt in here and show us where it is!”

            “Let me guess,” Kyber added. “There are three of them?”

            Jules let out a bark of laughter but didn’t answer as he took a stance in the middle of the room and held up his tablet, throwing a projection on the wall.

            “More logistical reasoning?” Sandow teased.

            “Hush and watch. Here’s how I figured it out. These are the three doors. This is where the food area is, the bath and toilet, and the bed. Tell me what you see.”

            Sandow pointed. “There’s a blank space right there.”

            Jules drew a circle where the physician indicated. “Where else?”

            The doctor picked out two more areas. Still grinning, Jules drew the circles. “Now, if I use the center of the room as an axis, and draw a line to each blank spot…”

            Sandow sighed loudly. “More thirds. Good job, Jules.”

            Kyber walked over to where the circle was superimposed on the wall near the front door. He tried to wipe it clear, when Jules joined him.

            “This way.”

            Kyber watched as Jules pressed a nearly invisible symbol, similar to where the glyph for the interconnecting door was located. A small, triangular-shaped panel dropped into the wall, and Kyber found himself looking out into the middle of the nonagon. He held out a hand, finding an invisible barrier preventing him from sticking his arm outside.

           
Or to keep something outside from entering.

           
A second glance confirmed what the Terran had announced. The nonagon was empty. A moment later, he watched as Cooter and Gaveer exited from the apartment two doors over. They stopped a meter from the doorway, as if waiting for the others to join them. Both men were armed.

            “We need to go after Massapa,” Jules told him.

            Kyber nodded, glancing back at Kelen. Sandow saw him studying her.

            “She’s safe here. Your man could be in danger. Go after him.”

“Are you up to it?” Jules inquired.

Flexing his claws, Kyber nodded.

“All right. I got your back.” Jules propped his tablet against the wall before withdrawing his tube weapon from his pants pocket.

Kyber cast one more glance at Kelen. He wanted to stay with her, but Jules was right. His man could be in danger. Kelen was safe here, and in the best of hands.

Slapping the door glyph, he limped outside to join the others.

Chapter 22

Surrounded

            They moved swiftly but stealthily, trying to make as little noise as possible. When they reached the machinery room without coming across any eye worms, Fullgrath took a stance beside Kyber. Silently, Kyber gestured for everyone to spread out. “Meet by the elevator when you are done.”

They couldn’t risk calling out to Massapa for fear of attracting the creatures if they were still around. It took them most of an hour to scout out the huge room before they gathered near the slab of rock. All except for Cooter, who had gone into the furthest depths of the gigantic cavern.

Kyber did a three-sixty. “He is not here.”

“Looks like the little buggers did their disappearing act again, too,” Fullgrath remarked.

“Do you think Massapa used the elevator to escape them?” Tojun questioned.

“Or he could have taken the maze up to the temple,” Gaveer observed. “I did not find any blood, or signs of a struggle.”

“Neither did I,” Kyber admitted. “Jules, could he have taken the elevator?”

Jules walked around the pillar of lights and checked. “Nothing’s blinking. I don’t believe so.”

“Then where could he have gone?” Gaveer wondered.

Kyber thought of the tunnel where Kelen and Fullgrath had found him, but didn’t comment about it. Massapa knew nothing of the passageway, but Kyber couldn’t think of any other way out of the cavern.

“What now?” Fullgrath asked.

“We need to check the area again. Keep your eyes open for another route.” Kyber felt Fullgrath’s attention focused on him and continued. “I know there’s one unmarked tunnel in that direction,” he told them and pointed in that direction. “The opening is crude, but it is ventilated, which means it goes somewhere. Perhaps he sought refuge inside it.”

Kyber raised a hand to catch Cooter’s attention and to have the man join them. The security officer had paused by the vats and lowered his weapon to reach for his water pouch, when he froze. Kyber immediately signaled for silence, pointing at where the man stood. Following Cooter’s line of sight, they could see he was staring at something behind them. They all whirled around as Cooter shouted a warning.