The Starlight Lancer

Chapter 109: Breakthrough

"Sometimes the worst thing to happen is the best thing."

—Spence Raffier, philosopher

The work was fast-paced, but Zaina's strength and stamina kept it from being terribly arduous. After about three trips back and forth she no longer needed to follow anyone to know where she was going; now.

They went back and forth for a few hours, removing the rubble while the temple was painstakingly dug out. Zaina watched the others at their jobs—many unmarked were working on the scaffolding lining the mountain face, drilling and picking away. As she went to wipe the layer of sweat from her forehead, she missed the cooling system in her lancer armor.

A low buzz came from her pocket—her vis-screen. It only did that for communications marked as emergencies. The moment the next opportunity presented itself she resolved to step away to check.

Maybe it's Xyrthe with some news. Probably not good.

Of course, working with so many people on a closed circuit, that privacy seemed unlikely. There was always someone coming or going as they desperately tried to keep pace with the others. Zaina noticed a rhythm to how each group was inter-connected—the drillers tried a little harder, the drillermechs dug with more vigor, the shoveler worked a little faster, and the clearers had to increase their pace to keep up. Every hour was a little faster, each group giving and taking from each other as needed—every once in a while the digging team would pile up rubble faster than the clearers could take it out, at which point the machines went noticeably slower until the other group caught up. Then, the clearers would completely wipe every pile and have nothing to do, making the digging team work faster to keep them busy. It was a beautiful, intricate dance that could only be performed by people who had worked on it together long enough to perfect its intricacies and navigate its imperfections.

Every so often, Zaina's pocket would buzz, maybe every ten minutes; each time it did snapped her out of the dance. The buzzing vis-screen was a reminder of reality—that she was an infiltrator, a lancer; that Deonago and the Sivanya Enclave were teetering on a knife's edge, a ready wellspring for conflict. She kept looking for her moment, but before she could slip away she'd fall back into the dance. Then, another buzz.

She sighed. Here I thought I'd get more information out of being on the dig team.

Another few cycles went by. How many times had Zaina filled up the same wheelbarrow, trod along the same path, and dumped it over the cliff? She lost count somewhere around what felt like eternity. At the four-hour mark, everyone stopped for a break; Zaina only knew it was the four-hour mark because Geramad announced it after everyone had a few minutes of rest.

"All right, guys! Let's get back to it! Four down, four more to go before we break again! Let's move, double time! See those piles? We're close! We're real close!"

They hopped back to it. Before Zaina hustled back to fill up her wheelbarrow, another buzz went off in her pocket. She sighed. I need to slip away somehow. But I can't be seen.

Wracked with anxiety, Zaina made her way back up the mountain path. Something had to be really wrong for Xyrthe to be messaging her this much, and Zaina had a feeling she knew what it was. She hoped it was anything else, but for now, she had to seem like she wasn't beginning to panic.

Relax, Zaina. No one knows you're freaking out.

She tipped the wheelbarrow over the edge, then pulled it back, stepped out of the way, and wiped some sweat from her forehead. The routine was suddenly and violently interrupted by an ear-splitting crack and some heavy, crunching thuds, followed by an eruption of raucous cheers. Zaina's head, like everyone else's, turned toward the dig-site—a pillar of smoke twisted into the air.