Page 30 of Fated to the Dragon Alien
Cerani. She was in E.
Stavian’s heart slammed against his ribs. He didn’t feel the floor under his feet anymore. Didn’t feel the heat flushing into his skin. Only the weight of her name dragged him forward.
Cerani was down there.
He tapped his override key into the panel without waiting for system clearance. “Lift to Auxiliary Shaft 2. Emergency access. Open now.”
The journey to Cerani’s sector felt interminable. Panicked guards and mechs ducked out of his way. His comm screamed with static, too jammed with system-wide crash alerts to cut through. Debris dust sifted down from the ceiling in thin sheets. The whole mine was protesting. Shaking from the inside out.
He reached Mech Control at full speed, slammed through the secondary door, and bypassed the locks toward the shaft leading directly into tunnel E. The main transport lift was down, trapped between floors, but there were ladders. Two levels. Not reinforced. He didn’t stop to think about it.
He didn’t stop at all.
Her name beat against his skull, over and over, louder than alarms, louder than the echo of falling debris.
She was down there.
The mine floor jolted again beneath him. He grabbed a beam to keep from sliding. Broken metal howled from below—something tore loose and rattled loudly, like the bones of the mine had snapped.
He jumped the last rung, landing hard, his boots skimming the debris-laced floor of level E, as he burst into the main tunnel. The emergency lights were off, but the distant lights of miners’ suits cut dimly through the thick dust in the air. They were like beacons, and it would make it easier to find survivors. Smoke curled through the vents like a warning.
The damage reports from his panel looped again—blast radius from the main tunnel, power fails on the E-row supports, vitals fluctuating. He blocked it out, shoving a hunk of rock out of his way as he worked through the ruined tunnel.
The first tunnel door groaned and cracked open just enough. He shoved himself through and sprinted down the main branch. Rubble littered the floor. Pipes hung low. One support beam had folded into the side wall like twisted bone. Mech guards were stalled across the network. Systems were just starting to come back online, but everything critical was too late.
He scanned the corridor for flickers of movement—helmet lights, suit strobes, injured miners. A collapsed section blocked the second access point.
Stavian threw himself at the debris, his boots sliding on broken rock. His arms burned as he shoved a steel panel aside and climbed up onto the rubble mound. From here, he could see deeper into the collapsed tunnel. Half the corridor was gone—buried beneath crushed support beams.
He activated his wrist panel again and sent a direct pulse across the lower frequencies. “Inmate 630-I. Report status. Immediately.”
The signal blinked red. “No response from assigned suit beacon.”
He swore under his breath. She could be unconscious. Pinned. Or—
No.
He couldn’t think like that. Not now. Not when the only thing that mattered was getting her out. Stavian ground his heels into the debris, heaved another slab aside, and forced air into his lungs.
He dropped down the other side of the rubble mound and kept moving. The tunnels here were twisted and half-collapsed. Steam hissed from a cracked valve near the floor. He saw an injured miner, stopped, and kneeled beside him. This male frequently worked alongside Cerani. His name was Jorr, if he recalled.
“Controller,” the male said in a whisper.
Stavian took in the bloody fabric pressed to Jorr’s wound and immediately recognized it as the same type that miners wore beneath their EP suits. The male’s suit had some tears, which were likely causing burns, but he was alive. “Medics have been dispatched to this sector,” he said. “Do you have other injuries aside from this one?”
Jorr shook his head slightly and swallowed with effort. “This one’s…bad enough.”
Stavian sent an urgent ping to the medical techs who were on their way. He held his wrist panel to his mouth and snapped out a voice message to speed up the process. “Injuries requiring triage, on-site stabilization, and evacuation. Highest priority. Get medics here immediately. Get mechs online to clear passageways.”
“You’ll be out of here soon,” he said to the miner.
“Thank you,” Jorr replied. He kept his hand on his wound. “Cerani took off her suit…ripped her sleeve to help me.”
Stavian’s stomach coiled into a knot. She’d taken off her suit to help this male, not knowing for sure whether it was safe for her. “Where is Cerani now?”
Jorr turned his gaze to the tunnel that continued beyond them. “That way.”
Stavian nodded and rose. “Stay still and keep holding that cloth in place.” He turned and kept going. He quickly came across another miner with an arm injury, but more of Cerani’s under-suit was used as a sling. Stavian kept going, sure, now, that she was alive. If she was helping the injured, the radiation hadn’t killed her. One more corner. More rubble. Then—
