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“I do,” she said, looking up—then she let go of my hand. “Just look a little bit. Be careful.”
“I will do my best,” I said, choosing to creep forward using my suckers on the ground, rather than jet. I had seen all sorts of fictions in Elle’s mind last night as we’d been chatting, plus I could feel her thoughts now, so I knew she was worried about booby traps, lasers, and rolling boulders for some reason.
The next room seemed the same as the first had. Mostly gold light, with occasional flickers of other colors, like the sun itself was shining down from above. I went back to go tell Elle that, and then I stopped with a gasp.
The entire hallway she was in was bathed in the light that she shone for me, like she was in the center of a never-ending crystal—and the door behind her was closing.
I rushed and grabbed her, jetting us toward the exit at full force, but by the time I got there the gap was already too narrow. I set half of my tentacles through one side, half on the other, trying to push the door back open so I could eject her safely.
She was screaming—both from surprise, and at realizing what was happening—and I was fighting like my life depended on it, because it did. Then a force plucked me, and through me, Elle, who I was holding, and pulled me back.
I shouted in surprise and fear, and wound all of myself around Elle as the door slammed on her cable and I saw it snap.
“My pearl, my pearl, my pearl,” I said, rocking her.
Her mind was frantic, but she managed to say, “I’m here.”
“You are not dead?” I asked her, unwilling to believe.
Perhaps I was, then. Maybe we had both died, and this was her heaven—another strange concept the two-legged had, that we did not.
“I don’t think so. But I’m scared.”
“Me as well,” I said, slowly unwinding. I kept strong hold of her cable though, unsure if the fact that I had it cinched in my lower-arms was the only thing keeping her alive. I looked back the way I’d come, and found that entrance closed as well.
We were trapped inside the ship.
“Did you trigger something, in the next room over?” she asked. “What was it like? What did you see?”
“Nothing,” I said—but I’d forgotten she was with me now, riding with me on my ’qa.
“Don’t lie to me, Cepharius,” she complained. “And don’t make me go through your memories either.”
“The next room looked like the first. But when I turned back and saw you—you were bathed in—in—light.” I didn’t have a word I could give her for it, just a concept of great beauty, like the inside of a shell.
“Why?”
“I cannot begin to guess.”
“The ship knows all the wavelengths you can use to see.”
“Oddly, that knowledge does not bring me pleasure.”
She frowned, tapping a finger against the glass of her helmet. “It’s not even alarming—and my bail-out bottle hasn’t gone off.”
“Did the other humans sabotage you?”
“I doubt it. Although—maybe the spaceship’s doing something weird to my systems?” I saw her eyes flicker, as she read the inside of her face shield’s screen. “It says the pressure of this room is changing.”
“That is untrue,” I said. “I feel no change.”
“And the salinity,” she went on. “And—the oxygen levels. Ceph, are you all right?”
“I am fine—but you are experiencing the madness that struck those other men.”
She took my concerns seriously at least. “Am I? I don’t understand—everything in here says I can take off my suit. It’s not totally back to the pressure I’m used to topside—but it says my surroundings match the habitat.”
“Whereas I am here, swimming, telling you, you definitely should not do that, as your mate.”
