Page 9 of Alien Guardian's Vow
"And now you're trapped." Varek's golden lifelines brightened across his dark skin, visible even through the distorting field as he examined the field emitter itself. "The Council specifically warned against human interference with ancient tech."
"Oh, I'm sorry—should I have just left it to destabilize on its own?" My engineer's mind raced despite my fear, analyzing the flickering barrier. "The primary emitter is overloading! We need to reset the containment protocols, not bash the damn wall!"
"How convenient that you know exactly what needs to be doneaftercausing the problem." Varek's expression hardened as he moved to examine the dead external control panel again, ignoring my assessment.
I bit back my next retort as my markings burned painfully. Something about his proximity, his focused energy interacting with the field—it created an uncomfortable resonance deep inside me, a feedback loop I couldn't explain.
"Listen," I said, forcing my voice steady despite the tremor in my hands. "The field is collapsing inward. The energy signature is spiking exponentially. If it fails completely while I'm in here?—"
"I understand the implications," Varek cut me off, his eyes scanning the chamber walls outside the alcove, assessing structural integrity perhaps. His gaze flicked back to me. "The diagnostic panel. What did it show before it overloaded?"
Finally, a sensible question. "Containment failure in the primary circuit," I reported quickly. "The system is trying to compensate by drawing more power from somewhere deeper in the facility, but it's creating a feedback loop. Destabilizing everything." I pointed to a junction box on his side of the field, near where he'd struck the wall. "That junction box—it should have an override! A physical disconnect!"
He moved to the panel I'd indicated, prying off its scorched cover with the end of the metal bar. "This technology destroyed our ancestors," he bit out, his focus intense. "Now you play with it like a child's toy."
"I'm not playing!" My voice rose as the field's hum intensified, pitching higher, vibrating the very air. "I'm trying to prevent a catastrophe!"
A spark jumped from the field, striking my outstretched arm, leaving a painful red welt that instantly blistered. I jerked back, swearing under my breath, cradling the injury.
"The junction is fused," Varek called, his voice tense. "Melted solid. What else?"
I scanned the alcove desperately, looking for anything that might help on my side. "There's a secondary panel here, but it looks like auxiliary diagnostics only! I can't access the main controls from here!"
The field's color shifted rapidly from angry purple to a blinding, unstable white, the energy becoming more erratic, more violent. Every hair on my body stood on end as the charge built in the small space. The air crackled audibly.
"If we don't stabilize this soon—" I started, the words dying in my throat as the ground beneath us lurched violently.
The tremor threw me hard against the back wall of the alcove. Pain shot through my shoulder as stone and dust rained from the ceiling. The containment field sparked wildly, the emitters screaming with overload, the sound piercing through my skull.
A deafening groan of stressed structure echoed from outside the alcove, louder than the field itself. Through the destabilizing barrier, I saw Varek brace himself against the chamber wall, his golden lifelines flaring bright with alarm, his stance shifting instantly to combat readiness.
The field between us thinned, flickering like a dying candle, then surged with terrifying new intensity. Electricity arced uncontrollably from the emitters, scorching the stone walls around me. The diagnostic panel beside me exploded in a spray of sparks and sharp fragments, several pieces stinging my face.
My markings burned like fire against my skin, responding to the massive, uncontrolled energy buildup. This wasn't just system failure—this was catastrophic, imminent detonation.
"It's going to blow!" I shouted, pressing myself flat against the farthest wall of the alcove, making myself as small as possible. The air crackled with charged particles, making it hard to breathe, tasting like burnt metal.
The emitters glowed white-hot, seconds from detonation. If they went, I'd be at ground zero of an energy explosion that would incinerate everything within the alcove—me included.
Pure, cold terror seized my chest. My mind raced through options, calculations, possibilities—finding nothing. No escape. No solution. Just the blinding white light of the overloading emitters.
Through the failing field, my eyes locked with Varek's. Was he safe out there? Would the explosion be contained to my alcove, or would it take him too? The thought surprised me even in my terror. Why should I care about the fate of this arrogant, infuriating warrior who'd done nothing but blame me?
Another violent tremor shook the ruins, longer this time. More debris crashed down around me. The field's hum rose to a painful, unbearable shriek as the emitters reached critical overload.
Seconds left. Just seconds.
Through the chaos of the sparking, blinding field, I saw Varek moving with sudden, desperate purpose. He gestured frantically toward the primary emitter nodes—one on his side, one on mine inside the alcove. His meaning clicked instantly in my engineer's mind: synchronized disruption. Touch both nodes simultaneously to interrupt the energy pattern, force a collapse rather than an explosion.
The field was too unstable to hold, but too energized to approach safely. Touching it meant severe burns at best, electrocution at worst.
But doing nothing meant certain death. Annihilation.
Varek held up three fingers, visible through the glare. Then two. Then one.
I lunged forward, arm outstretched toward the primary node inside my alcove as Varek mirrored the action from his side. The field burned against my skin as I pushed through it, a searing agony that made me clench my teeth against a scream. My fingertips brushed the node—cool metal beneath the energy storm—at the exact moment Varek's touched its counterpart outside.
White-hot energy surged through my body. My markings flared with blinding intensity, a supernova beneath my skin. Through the contact, through the field, through the bond I didn't understand, I felthim—his fierce determination, his focused warrior's mind, his underlying fear—as clearly as if they were my own thoughts. The jolt of connection hit like lightning. Raw, intimate, terrifyingly powerful.
