Telisa resolved herself to a wait that she estimated at about ten minutes, given the speed with which Shiny buzzed along. Everything had happened so quickly with the alien. Telisa could hardly believe that she had seen a live alien—even spoken with one, if you counted a lifting of its leg to say yes or no.
She still held the small digging device that Shiny had given her. She rolled it in her hand, examining the faintly visible metal lace patterns around and inside the cubes. A real alien artifact. What fascinating things would she learn about Shiny’s race by analyzing it? And once she had learned all she could from it, could it be sold? Such a piece might command a hefty price on the black market for alien technology. She could use the money to finance other expeditions.
But first, they would have to escape this place. She listened but didn’t hear any sign of Magnus’s return. Her gaze settled on Shiny’s cache of objects in the center of the large cavern. It looked like a piece of art, made of hundreds of cubes laced together with delicate strands of molten silver. Yet whenever Shiny had manipulated it, the cubes had seemed almost malleable. Everything turned and glittered at his lightest touch, almost too fast for the eye to follow. What else was in that trove before her?
Telisa wanted to walk over and investigate it, but she realized that it would be dangerous to do that. A wrong move with some unknown device could kill. Or she might somehow disturb Shiny’s plan, which she desperately hoped involved escape.
The minutes dragged on. She checked her link chronometer. Ten minutes came and went. Crazy thoughts of a fight in the caves ran through her head. What if Shiny had decided to separate the humans and kill them one by one? Telisa told herself that nothing had happened. She hadn’t heard any shots or explosions.
At last Magnus jogged into the cavern.
“Oh, good. I was starting to go paranoid!” Telisa said
“Hi,” he said. “Everything’s going fine. Let’s go this way,” he said.
Telisa fell in after him. They moved through to the other side of the large cave and out a tunnel.
“When we separate, how long should I wait?”
“We can talk about that later, over the link,” he said. “We should just concentrate on remembering the direction of the cache room. Since this place is unpredictable, we need to pay attention to that so we can find each other again.”
Okay, Telisa said over the link. Just checking to see if it works.
I hear you, Magnus returned.
They moved for about fifty meters as straight as they could manage through the caves. Directly ahead, Telisa saw a smooth white corridor stretching straight away. Bright lights flooded down onto the passage and out into the caves.
“Okay, you wait here. I’ll move ahead until I’m well out of sight and contact you.”
“Okay. Good luck,” she said and patted Magnus on the back before he strode away.
Telisa turned back to look the way they had come and took out her stunner. She thought that the heading of Shiny’s cube cache was slightly to the right of the tunnel that headed back in that direction. The tunnels would probably be different if they went back that way.
Telisa waited for Magnus’s message. She wondered what would happen if Shiny’s plan worked. Would the alien come back and get them? Where would he go? What would happen to the caves and the maze-like corridors?
“I’m in position,” Magnus’s voice echoed in her head.
“This is crazy,” Telisa sent.
“Crazy, but at least we’re alive,” he transmitted. “If we get out of this place, let’s make a run for it. Joe may not be telling the truth about letting us go.”
“I want to stay and learn more about Shiny,” Telisa replied.
“Sure, but be realistic. The UNSF won’t let us. The most we can hope for is an artifact or two in our hands and escape from this planet.”
Telisa didn’t want to hear that. But she thought Magnus was probably right.