Dark Planet Pt. 04

"Where exactly are they keeping him?" I asked on the third day.

"I do not know," he replied.

"Well, how are they keeping him captive then?"

"I do not know," said Shadow, his tone cool.

I frowned at him in the darkness. "All right, maybe you can answer this then. You're not doing any reconnaissance and you don't sound very interested in helping him. How do I know you're not fucking with me? How do I know you're not working for them?"

Shadow didn't answer right away. I felt something soft and squishy press against my lips and I jerked away, remembering Perikos' touch before I realized Shadow had tried to feed me another mushroom cap.

"I suppose you do not have any way of knowing that I am truthful," he said after another moment, his tone cold now, mechanical. He forced the mushroom cap between my lips and I acquiesced, chewing slowly. "It has not been worth the risk of being captured to leave this cave because without my presence here, I have every confidence you would have died, if your assertions of your need of regular food and water have been truthful. If you are dead, then I imagine no one will be able to help Leader. Although I have not seen it and though I cannot speculate their means, I surmise the only foolproof method they have of ensuring control over Leader is the use of ultra-violet Light."

I chewed the flaccid mushroom cap a moment longer and the image came to my mind unbidden: there was a sunlamp on our ship, probably meant to be used for long journeys to prevent…well, vitamin D loss to say the least. And I remember several handheld generators. It would have been so easy, so sick and easy for them to turn such perfect torture on Perikos.

"Yeah, I think you're right." I tried to keep my voice steady. "H-how long do you think he has? If they're using light?"

Shadow kept a cooler tone that I could. "If the Light was used continuously, he is already dead. I believe it traps him in some way or prevents him from overcoming its bounds. And likely it is being used to extort information." His tone became hard and dark and I couldn't help but want to believe Shadow was telling the truth.

"Still though, we need a plan. Even if the reinforcements arrive, how will we know?" I asked.

"From what I have overheard, they will likely arrive either tomorrow or the day after. It is fortunate for us that we can use this information to estimate but the Loyalist information network is strong and we have lost the element of surprise. Still, they will expect an attack from without, not from within."

I nodded and allowed Shadow to feed me another mushroom cap. Just as I paused chewing to consider the chalky taste and oily texture of the mushroom, Shadow spoke.

"Did Leader tell you what it meant to come to this planet? What to expect? Do you regret coming and becoming part of this war?"

I finished chewing while I considered the question. "I decided to come here before I knew what to expect. And Perikos wasn't exactly forthcoming. Do I regret it? Constantly and yet not at all. Does that any sense?"

"Ineloquent, but I take your meaning," said Shadow. "I must leave soon to preserve my energy. I will not feed tonight."

I thought of what Perikos might say. "Erm…Shadow? Can I ask you a question? Is it…usual for…your kind to visit one another's dreams?"

"Dreams? I do not understand your question," he said and then I remembered they didn't dream.

"Umm…humans think while they sleep but they do not intentionally control the thoughts. Dreams feel real but they are just imaginary. At least I thought they were but the night before last and the one before that, Perikos was there. He knew everything that was going on and it was unusually coherent and it seemed so real. More than dreams usually do," I added feebly, already fully aware Shadow had no idea what I was talking about.

"How humans mistake their unconscious imagination for reality and then judge one thought more real than the next is beyond my understanding."

"But your kind can have some amount of telepathy maybe? Maybe share thoughts or emotions?"

Shadow paused a moment and I felt his full attention on me but when he spoke, his music was haughty, disdainful. "Were it true, it would be unprecedented. Judging by your reasoning I assume it would be unprecedented among humans also. Forgive my skepticism but I believe your optimism borders of foolishness. Rest now and perhaps you will enough strength tomorrow to engage in battle, if necessary."

I felt him move away and doubt set in like a dark cloud over me. I had been dreaming and I had been thinking long and hard about Perikos so of course I would dream he was okay, was speaking to me, assuring me he was all right. What it meant that I hadn't dreamt of him last night I couldn't think but a dreaming world with Perikos in it was preferable to a waking one without him, real or not.

I blinked and I was in darkness but the surface I sat on felt metallic, cold like steel. I felt it against my back as well and the ceiling was incredibly low, so I could barely raise my head above my knees. I belt something cool brush against my toes.

"Jayn?" His voice was weak, yet so obviously surprised. Startled even. "How are you here?"

"Where's here?" I asked, though I was certain I already knew. And since I knew I couldn't have come here in person the question became Perikos'. How?

"This is…my cell," Perikos' song didn't have half the strength it did when I dreamt of him joining me on Ferox 4. I reached my hand down and felt him coil around it slowly. He was so small, barely larger than my fist.

"It's okay. We're coming. Shadow and I are coming."

"Little Shade, they'll kill you. There are too many."

I drew him close to me, pressed him between my breasts, over my heart. I hoped he understood. This dream felt hazy, oddly fragile, like some fragmentary feverish drowse that might dissolve at any moment. "Don't you get it? Without you I'm dead anyway. I can't survive here and without you I wouldn't want to."

Perikos was silent so long I thought the reality of the dream had faded already but then he murmured, "Yes, come if you must but be very careful Jayn. You are hurt and weak and human besides."

My curiosity overcame my better judgment and instead of trying to get tips or directions to where he was being held, I needed to understand. "Shadow said this couldn't happen. We shouldn't be able to share dreams."

"He is quite right," Perikos' song was so soft I had so slow my breathing to hear him over it. "I do not dream. Yet I was with you at Kragosa, for a brief moment at any rate. I felt you there, surrounded you, tried to ease your fear. I did not know what I was experiencing, only that you were in distress. Then, while conserving my energy I found myself on your home planet during daylight and thankfully you did not allow it to cause me harm, though I doubt it would have been real harm. I did not fear the sunlight because I knew it was contained within you and nothing within you is painful or frightening. I understood then that something about our bond was allowing me insight into your unconscious thoughts. But this…Little Shade, until now I was under the impression that I was visiting your dreams. I do not dream and even if such a thing were known to be possible, I could not contribute. Now you visit me here and while my consciousness does not stretch far, it is as though I feel your touch. I have the sensation of your heartbeat although I know you are not truly here. How is it possible? I conclude that it must be something about you."

That posed more questions than it answered but it did provide fairly incontrovertible and consoling evidence -- Perikos was alive, we were together for now and I was relieving some of his suffering. "If we could…could you feed, do you think?"

"No more easily than you could enjoy nourishment from the smell of meat. You are not really touching me, Little Shade."

I felt foolish suddenly, and terribly guilty. "Should I leave? Is my being here making it worse? Making it harder?"

I felt his small mass tighten around my hands. "No. Please stay here as long as you can. I confess that I am rather unused to feeling helpless. Even at Kragosa I was not completely without means, nor fearing for the life of another. Imagining that I am feeling your warmth gives me hope."

I felt my eyes sting a little but I cleared my throat and fought it off. I adjusted myself, lying on my side in a very tight ball, confined by cold steel on all sides. I wrapped Perikos in my arms, too afraid that if I tried to change the setting I would lose control and we would be separated again.

"They've been horrible to you, haven't they?" I asked, pressing my cheek against him.

"No worse than they have been to you," Perikos whispered and I felt my wrist and ear throb painfully at the reminder. "I do not suppose they have fed you?"

"No, Shadow's been with me the whole time," I said, remembering the immense awkwardness of the conversation the last time we discussed Shadow in any detail.

"And he has cared for you. Yes, I remember now." Perikos' tone was not exactly bitter but neither was it particularly enthusiastic.

"I'll do anything -- put up with anyone -- to get you out of there. I know he feels the same way."

"I do not deserve you," Perikos whispered, so softly he was almost inaudible. Something about his words, his song, stabbed at me so hard and so deeply I couldn't stop myself from whimpering. I swallowed hard again and when I spoke, my voice trembled.

"Don't be stupid. We've both made it through worse. I'll be there soon and we'll be together again in no time."

His song was impossibly soft, frightened. "I do not want you to die."

I brushed my lips over his darkness and felt my lips creep into a tight smile. "Me neither. Hey though, if I had a choice between dying setting you free and staying where I am and just waiting to die, the choice is pretty clear."

"I do not know what possessed me but I am sorry. So sorry I brought you here."

"Knock it off, would you? Things are grim enough. I came here because I decided to, not because you made me. I had nowhere else to go. And it's not like you could abandon your duty, even if there was another predominantly lightless planet that either of us had ever heard of, which there wasn't."

"It is my responsibility -- "

"To do what, exactly? Know everything? Win every battle, even when we're hugely outnumbered?"

"Protect my people. Protect you."

"Look, when we met, we both had responsibilities," I stroked Perikos' huddled mass, keeping my rhythm steady and what I hoped was soothing. "My responsibility is to get you out of where they have you now. Yours is to make sure we make it out after that because I'll be useless. Like old times, you know?"

"Love?"

"What?" I must have misheard or misunderstood. "What did you say?"

Something shook my shoulders hard and I was chilled, dizzy and decidedly not with Perikos. I felt the ropes tighten painfully around my wrist and neck.

"Come to your senses!" I heard Shadow say as he shook me. "I have heard word our reinforcements are here, which means we have precious little time to enact our plan."

"I wasn't even aware we had a plan," I muttered as I felt Shadow snap the rope around my waist and wrists.

"We must find Leader as quickly as possible and do whatever it takes to rescue him," Shadow said briskly, snapping the rope around my throat. I stumbled as I stood up for the first time in days.

"Some plan," I said, feeling my wrist and ear throb painfully.

"Perhaps you will offer a better one?" Shadow wound a thin tendril around my left, unbroken wrist, almost carefully avoiding my bracelet. He pulled me towards the stone my captors always entered from, the one at the mouth of the cavern.

"Well, I haven't really been at liberty to move around and case the joint, have I? But I'll know it when I'll see it, the place they're keeping him."

If Shadow believed me or had any confidence in my assertion he did nothing to show it. After a moment of studying the boulder in our path he turned to me. "We must not allow ourselves to be separated. To have lasted this long only to fail would be intolerable. You will not make it through these caverns without me and I cannot hope to free Leader if they are in fact using Light. You must not speak or make any intelligible noise. If you somehow have insight as to our intended location, guide me. And do not break contact with me or they will know I am not your captor."

"Is that all?" I asked, at the same time remembering Perikos' instructions to me back on Kragosa. Hell, even when we arrived here. I resolved to do exactly as Shadow instructed. If he had been lying this whole time I stood a chance of escape. If not, I stood an even better chance. And Shadow rolled the stone aside.

I wasn't sure what I expected. Maybe long, sterile white hallways leading to the mad scientist's secret laboratory, or an amphitheater lined with uniform soldiers all behaving as though they were brainwashed. I didn't not expect more cave, unremarkable from my cell except for the higher ceiling and the passing presence of five or six Loyalist guards. Judging by the sounds of shouting and what I guessed were several small explosions, it was all hands on deck as they rushed for what were probably the exits. Not being a criminal mastermind myself, I hoped my simple logic that if one meant to keep a certain person well away from being rescued it made sense to hold them as far from the exits as possible would prove valid. Shadow was on the same page and he glided down the corridor, away from the exits and towards the passage we both hoped would lead us closer to Perikos.

Several passing Loyalists slowed their pace when they noticed us but thankfully none of the stopped or questioned us. Shadow pulled me through a wide archway at the end of the passage and the corridor thinned and the stone walls became more precise, more uniform.

"Alien!" A voice cried out from down the passageway and for just a moment I thought of my two interrogators but this song was different, more feminine. And oddly familiar. General Six from back at the camps. Oh shit.

"Why has it been moved?" She sounded angry. And suspicious.

"Rebels were attacking," Shadow's voice sounded gruff, stilted. "You must know what it could mean if they recover it. Best to relocate."

She was silent nor several long seconds. "Yes, well. Keep it away from the South Dome." She glided down the corridor towards the commotion.

I felt so lightheaded with relief I very nearly lost my balance. I desperately wanted to ask how she could have mistaken Shadow's voice when even I could recognize her but I kept my word and pursed my lips closed. I was not going to fuck this up, especially not when she'd given us such good directions.

Shadow pulled me down a short series of winding passages to another wide open cavern. There were more Loyalists here, dozens even, but they all seemed to be scattering towards all available exits. I could only hope that meant the rebels had brought one hell of a fight to their door.

I was hopelessly turned around now but Shadow made a beeline for the smallest of cavern openings off the great room. Probably a good guess, since it was guarded.

"You bring it here?" The guard's tune was stilted, gravelly. Obviously frightened.

"Orders from the Operative," Shadow replied. His tone was still gruff, brusque and so quick to answer that for a moment I doubted him all over again. "Said to take the alien to South Dome. A power reserve in case they penetrate too deep."

"Impossible," he said, though whether he thought the instructions were impossible or the successful invasion was impossible, I wasn't sure. Judging by the fear in his voice, I thought it might be the latter.

"You may check yourself but I have my orders. I am to drain it and use its energy to defend the South Dome in case of catastrophic failure. What are your orders, Little Shade?"

I blanched a moment, forgetting he wasn't talking to me. Shadow had certainly succeeding in embarrassing the guard and planting another seed of doubt in my mind. The young general stepped aside and Shadow wasted no time pulling me through the narrow hole in the wall and down a long, quiet corridor, away from the sounds of chaos outside. There was another boulder barring the exit on the other end and Shadow gripped my wrist harder as he rolled it aside. Was he afraid I would try to run?

I was blinded even through the narrow entrance to the room as white light washed out the high ceiling and smooth walls of the room. Light. It was the first time I had seen any since leaving the ship, nearly a lifetime ago and I thought I would welcome it but instead my heart sunk below my knees. I could barely make out anything in the room, just burning bulbs that left ghostly imprints on the inside of my eyelids.

Shadow sunk away from me and released my wrist. I shimmied my way through the entrance and ran into the room to kill the generator. There were three spots surrounding a wider circle of lights; they had taken a leaf out of the Kragosi's book and somehow installed a circular panel of UV lights in a circle around the perimeter of a small metal box. Looking at it made my chest physically hurt. I was much too big to have ever actually fit inside and Perikos was so weak only a half hour ago. Was he still okay?

I fumbled with the generators, trying to kill the lights on the circular floor panel. "Shadow! Come in and close the door!"

The light from the floor did not extend as far as the doorway but that didn't stop Shadow from whimpering like a coward and I expected nothing less than his loyalty to Perikos forced him into the room, where he slid the boulder into place to block the exit. Not much of a barrier but I would take what I could get at the moment.

I crawled on my hands and knees till I found a thick black cable running the length of the room and into the circular floor panel. I tried to pull it but it was heavy and impressively thick.

"Shadow! Help me rip this apart! It'll kill the light!"

He didn't need telling twice, though he skirted along the wall to the cord. He wound a thick tentacle around it and yanked with all his strength. What was left of the light fizzled and the darkness was more complete than I could remember darkness being.

I closed my eyes, trying to visualize the room in the light. I dropped my knees and crawled over the stone floor towards where I imagined the center of the circle must be, trailing my left hand over the floor to guide my way. I felt the panel under my hands, warm and deadly and stretched my hand out in front of my, feeling until I could touch the thick metal box. I ran my hand over the top, searching for a seam or a lock of some kind but I could find nothing. They were torturing him with light though…and they wouldn't want to be in the room at the time. They must have a way of letting light enter and preventing escape.

I traced my hands over the side until I felt a thin divot in the metal and braced my palm against it, pushing it aside. A thin slat.

"P-Perikos?" My voice trembled as I spoke. "I-it's safe. No m-more light."

Something exploded in front of me and I was knocked backwards at least two meters and I had one split second to try to find Shadow. I had been lead into a trap! And then I felt Perikos grasp me bodily, massive tendrils winding around my waist and thighs and I tried to stand but he pushed me down and flipped me over onto my stomach.