Helix anchored himself with one forelimb and with the other, he held onto Qalu. She tried not to feel so pleased about his protectiveness, but she couldn’t quell the feeling entirely. I want him to care about me. And now…now maybe it isn’t so wrong. He’s met others and he still wants this. Still wants me.

Most of her instincts still insisted it was too soon. She must be cautious and let him experience more first before pouncing and claiming him like a predator. There ought to be lots of beings, at least comparatively, at the resistance base, so he could acquire more experience. Soon, though, if he still wanted everything, then…maybe—

Yes, definitely. Soon.

Mind made up, she nearly missed the rush. The ship plummeted from the sky and into the water, alarming her when they submerged. “The base is below the sea?”

Immediately, she imagined everything that could go wrong. Walls of water, drowning, pressure seals bursting. Helix seemed to sense her disquiet. He slid his forelimb against her skin, comforting in his own way. She breathed in, out, hoping her terror didn’t show.

I can’t swim.

“It’s the safest place. We found an old facility that escaped much of the surface damage and upgraded it slowly. The early days here on Altarion were…difficult,” Praxys said.

The ship AI added, “Casualties were high during the repair and construction phase. Fatalities ranged from—”

“Nobody wants to know the exact death toll,” Bojak interrupted. “It’ll just make us feel guilty when we can’t do anything about it.”

“Information is always beneficial,” Nita said.

Qalu admitted to some morbid curiosity, but such knowledge probably wouldn’t make her feel any safer, so she stayed quiet as Praxys opened a comm channel and relayed a complex (and likely ever-changing) code so those inside the base knew it was safe to open the hatch. Externally, she couldn’t see much on the sensors, but she had the impression of a metal plate sliding back. The ship dove farther and emerged in a series of locks that drained, massive doors that opened and closed behind them, until at last the ship came to rest in a suboceanic docking bay that was grim and gray, the lights flickering orange as they disembarked.

“Before you called this a settlement, but it seems more like a hidden base,” Qalu said.

“It’s both,” Carow said. “The settlers who eke out an existence on Altarion are all hiding from something or someone. Otherwise, they wouldn’t choose to live at the bottom of the sea. They’re not all resistance, but most are, and their lives are improved by aid from free AI and droids who don’t use up organic resources. Instead, they require fuel from the mining operation. It’s a fair trade-off.”

“We can refuel the ship here?” Helix asked.