In response, Helix nuzzled his face against hers, his head tendrils eager and affectionate.

“Then I will forget that there were ever any…shadows.”

“You are so precious to me,” she whispered.

“As you are to me. It…wasn’t like that before,” he admitted quietly.

“When you touched yourself?”

“Yes. I had completion outwardly, not that other feeling.”

She gathered that he’d only managed to pleasure his gynosome. Understandable, as that was the simpler act of stimulation. For a time, they stayed close, and he didn’t press to reciprocate. Instead, they whispered of where they might go when this was over, what they’d do when they dealt with Toth Krag and shook the pursuit dogging him from the criminals who ran Gravas Station.

“Perhaps we could find See-ra?” Qalu suggested.

Helix seemed to like that idea, but before he could respond, an explosion rocked the Vault and alarms kicked on, blaring a state of urgency. Lights flashed in the dark, echoing the high alert status for the hearing impaired.

A robotic voice spoke on all channels. “The facility is under attack. Please proceed calmly and carefully to your emergency muster points.”

My little one. Where is she? I’ve been so neglectful, letting her wander, paying so little attention to her since we left.

Qalu clutched Helix’s swator. “We have to find Aevi.”

[  17  ]

Helix didn’t hesitate.

He connected seamlessly to the station network and surfed through ten thousand impressions–a deluge of information that would have overwhelmed anyone else. As an AI, he’d sorted much more data faster than this, but there was a limit to what his organic brain could process. In a heartbeat, he had the knowledge they needed.

“She’s with Bojak, and they’re heading for the ship.”

“Are we leaving?” Qalu asked.

“I am uncertain. Let’s go.”

Another jolt rocked the station, and shrill sounds of distress echoed all around. It took judicious timing to avoid being trampled, though he had no notion where these beings were rushing off to. The only escape was outside, and he’d seen what was attacking the Vault while he was searching for Aevi. Going outside was highly ill-advised under the current circumstances, though staying in the facility might not offer better odds.

All told, it was a dismal situation.

“Who’s attacking us? Did you find out while you swept for Aevi?”

He considered withholding the information, but…why? Quietly, he said, “I have never encountered such a creature. It is…titanic with many fluid limbs and a conical core. I screened footage of it rising from one of the trenches. From the scientists’ urgent communications, I collect that it was stirred by the sudden proliferation of Cril.”