Star Trek: Typhon Pact - 09 - The Fall: Revelation and Dust by David R. George III

Author:David R. George III
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, Action & Adventure, Media Tie-In, General
ISBN: 9781476722306
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2013-08-26T23:00:00+00:00

Ten

Keev Anora swung her handheld beacon from side to side in front of her, illuminating the walls and floor of the cave. Beside her, Altek Dans did the same. The ambient temperature, which had dropped continuously since they’d started back from the far entrance, seemed finally to have stabilized. That, coupled with the muscles in Keev’s legs revealing that, at least in some places, they had begun to climb, told her that they had passed the halfway mark of their return journey.

Keev and Altek hiked through the cave system, their boots thudding heavily against the dirt and stone over which they trod. They did not speak, although Altek had occasionally tried to begin a conversation. Each time, Keev had shut him down, claiming the need to concentrate so that she could find and read the coded markers that delineated their route.

That claim had been true, at least in part. The extensive cave system beneath the Merzang Mountains grew more complex the deeper it reached into the range. Their path varied from narrow slits through which they had to edge sideways, to even narrower ledges bordering precipitous drops, to low crawlways that sent them onto their bellies, to huge open chambers off of which led numerous other passages. As far as anyone in any of the gilds knew, only one course through the labyrinthine subterranean network had ever been found that allowed travel from one side of the mountains to the other. A one-way journey that began before dawn would end past midday, and along the way, a hundred or more choices had to be made. A single wrong turn could multiply the possibilities of getting lost by an order of magnitude. Through the years, more than one gild member who’d entered the caverns had never returned to the open air. They risked it, though, because it bypassed the trip around the mountains, reducing the travel time to the distant Bajoran city of Shavalla by weeks.

Keev and Altek had left their gild’s encampment in the middle of the night to ensure that they would reach the cave entrance before even the first hints of sunrise robbed them of the cover of darkness. They brought with them four Bajora the gild had helped flee their enslavement in Joradell. The twelve-year-old Resten Ahleen had been among them.

Everybody in Keev’s gild had wanted to move Ahleen from their encampment, through the caves, to true freedom, as soon as possible. Life in the wood, always on the run and under the threat of imminent attack, humbled the heartiest of adults; children did not belong. On top of that, the burden of protecting Ahleen in such circumstances weakened their ability to defend themselves, whether by flight or with weapons. More than all of those considerations, though, the members of the gild simply wanted the girl to begin her new life.

But that hadn’t been possible. When Keev successfully smuggled Ahleen out of Joradell, the girl arrived at the gild’s encampment malnourished, poorly rested, and—worst of all—the victim of physical abuse.

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