Page 80 of Enslak

Behind us, hatches opened with pneumatic hisses. Footsteps—heavy, coordinated, military. Then voices speaking in that clicking, hissing language I'd learned to hate with every fiber of my being.

"Spread out. The tracker signal is present but degraded."

"Degraded?" The second voice carried frustration, confusion.

"It should work better than this." Another voice cut in, sharp with irritation. "The augmentations were supposed to amplify the signal, make it stronger. Instead, it's just a shadow of what it should be. Scattered. Fragmented. It took far too long to track him to this planet."

"So he's close?"

"He's here, but it's not giving us a precise location."

I felt something shift in my chest, something that might have been grim satisfaction. The tracker had been keyed to the altered DNA, the genetic signature the Ulkommenian had created through their forced augmentations. When the Garoot Healer reversed those modifications, he'd changed my genetic code back toward what it had been before their experiments. The tracker was searching for a DNA pattern that no longer existed in quite the same form, and that degradation would buy us time. Not much, but some.

We ran.

Deeper into the forest, away from the landing site, away from the coordinated search patterns of the Ulkommenian soldiers. I could hear them calling to each other, their clicking voices cutting through the trees like knives, but we stayed ahead. Barely.

Hours passed. The double suns climbed higher, turning the forest into a cathedral of light and shadow. Niki stayed right beside me, never slowing, never complaining. Just running. Her endurance impressed me—she was human, smaller, theoretically weaker, yet she matched my pace without faltering.

By the time the suns dipped low on the horizon, painting the sky in shades of purple and orange, I could no longer hear them.

We collapsed beside a small creek. Not gracefully—we simply fell, our legs giving out simultaneously like puppets with cut strings. Niki hit the ground hard, gasping, her chest heaving so violently I thought she might be sick. My own lungs burned like I'd inhaled fire, each breath a knife to the ribs. Every muscle in my body trembled from the sustained sprint, from the adrenaline that had finally crashed, leaving nothing but raw exhaustion in its wake.

The water was cold and clear. We both crawled to it on hands and knees, too spent to stand, and drank greedily. The shock of cold against my overheated body made me shudder, but it was exactly what I needed.

"We can't keep doing this," Niki said after what felt like hours of silence. We were both lying on our backs now, staring up at the darkening sky, our breathing finally slowing to something approaching normal. "We can't run forever."

"I know."

The words sat heavy between us. They wouldn't stop. They'd never stop. Not until they had me back.

Or until I was dead.

The second option was starting to look preferable.

"There's another way," I said quietly, still staring at the sky. "I could... I could go back. Let them find me."

Niki went completely still beside me. "What?"

"They're not after you. They want me." I forced myself to sit up, to look at her. "If I give myself up, they'll leave. You can hide in the cave, wait for rescue."

"Absolutely not." Her voice was flat, final.

"Niki—"

"No." She sat up, and the look on her face was pure fury. "Don't you dare. Don't you dare suggest that."

"It's the logical solution—"

"Fuck logic!" She was on her feet now, swaying slightly but standing. "You think I'm just going to let you sacrifice yourself? After everything? After—" Her voice cracked, and she turned away for a moment, collecting herself before facing me again.

"I need to know you're safe." I stood too, my legs protesting. "That's all that matters to me now. Your safety."

"And what about what matters to me?" She stepped closer, jabbing a finger into my chest. "You think I can just leave you to whatever hell they'll put you through? You think I can live with that?"

"You'd be alive. That's what counts."

"That's not living, Enslak. That's just... existing. Breathing. Going through the motions." Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. "I didn't come all this way, didn't fight this hard, didn't—" She stopped, swallowed hard. "I didn't fall for you just to abandon you the first time things get difficult."