Lost Change

Chapter 81

The ship was dark inside.

It wasn't that bad at the entrance - there was light coming from the shuttles, and that filtered in through the damaged airlock. But beyond that it was... nightmarish. There were emergency lights spaced out along the walls, all leading the way we came, and they meant that the only light inside was an angry red color.

The guards with us did something to their helmets as we went inside, and for a half second I was hopeful they would at least have flashlights... but whatever they had done had just been for their benefit. Probably some very useful bit of Kymari technology that would illuminate things on their helmet display.

After another second of walking through the dark corridors Minna flinched, as if remembering something she was embarrassed about, then made the same motion to her helmet. After that she began walking more confidently through the ship.

Great. Everybody can see in this but me.

The ship was also quiet. There was a bit of a distant hum of machinery - the kind of noises I would expect from refrigerators or air conditioning. Something was still trying to move air around somewhere. And occasionally I could hear the guards talking. But other than that it was quiet.

I really, really did not want to be there.

I focused on the smells again. Now that we were on the ship a lot of the distracting smells had been filtered out. I could still pick up the scent of fires and of the Kymari city, but they were muted and distant. Now the air had a recycled quality to it, a sterile feeling. The scent of metals was strongest. The scents of Kymari was the next thickest in the air.

There were also scents of common Kymari foods, but they were faint, as if wherever the food had usually been eaten was further inside the ship, or else the food hadn't been exposed for very long. No scents of lingering cooking, the way I noticed around Terron or Minna's kitchens.

The scent of stagnant water was also a little stronger. Was that maybe a side effect of Kymari technology? Something in their spaceships that made the air smell like... sewage? Stale water, decaying plants?

I couldn't imagine the Kymari wanting to put up with that smell for long, even as faint as it was, but... maybe they had grown used to it. Their noses didn't seem to be as strong as mine was; maybe they didn't even notice it.

The scent of blood was also stronger.

Minna kept a close eye on me as we walked through the ship. I could tell she was hoping I would start acting excited, and that she could use that to find the sicora, but... I just didn't know what I was looking for. I wasn't even smelling the strange ktari scent. Just... random scents. The only thing that really stood out was the cologne or aftershave or whatever it was that one of our guards was wearing way too much of, but other than that, it...

It smelled exactly like how I would expect a spaceship that had suddenly crashed to smell, which was to say, I had no idea which of these smells was out of place - if any of them actually were!

We walked slowly through the ship. The creepy, dark, empty ship. In which a nightmare creature lurked, one that - if the Blood Memories and Ivy's descriptions were accurate - wanted to kill all of us.

I jerked and hissed as one of our guards lifted his hand and stopped. Minna stopped after him and watched me, but I forced myself to calm down. The sudden motion of the Kymari had startled me; I didn't want her thinking that meant I had found something.

"Ketzel's reached the bridge. They found three survivors; they're bringing them out now. He wants us to hold here until they're out, and wait until we have the guards escorting them out back with us."