Opalina Outpost

Chapter 20: Unearthed

Ravi braced himself at the muster room table, eyes pinned on the door. He could hear the crew barreling down the hall, already erupting with noise. If their jittery energy was anything like his own, he hadn't been the only person who had trouble getting to sleep last night. He'd fought a battle just getting them to leave the old storeroom at all. Not that it was a storeroom. Whatever it was.

Lio burst through the door first. Hair in a messy topknot, uniform disheveled, he was still beautiful. The joy in his eyes and his smile and every fleet step made him incandescent. A needling stab of jealousy lanced down Ravi's spine. Two days ago, Lio might've looked that way for him. He was embarrassed as soon as he thought it. It wasn't as if Lio was driving away from him in a lightship yelling, "So long, sucker!" over his shoulder. They didn't even know for sure if that stuff below was a lightship. He shifted uneasily as the rest of the crew found their seats.

"Morn—" He started, and the crew ran right over him with speedy greetings, leaning forward in their chairs. Ready to cut to the chase, then. "Jossen and I have decided to postpone today's schedule so we can address the...situation from yesterday."

Aziri raised his hand. "Do you mean Yorune's gloop from lunch? Because that needs addressing."

"I'd like to see you do better." Yorune grinned and crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair.

"Focus, people," Lio murmured. He gave Ravi an encouraging smile, his eyes lit with hope.

Ravi looked away so the entire crew didn't have to watch him gawp like an idiot at Lio. "It's clear that there's more work to be done downstairs uncovering more of the metal. Jossen has worked out a system that'll help us remove rock, where half the crew works in the storeroom to move the debris up to the main tunnel, and the other half moves it outside. We'll take shifts of course, and hopefully by the time the experts get here, we'll have—"

"The experts?" Lio asked.

"I'll be contacting the ziggurat to let Archcom Huseda know we may have found something. I assume they'll send out a team."

There was a beat of silence. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lio's smile vanish.

"You can't do that," he said.

Ravi stared at him, heat spreading up his neck into his cheeks as the crew's gazes bobbled back and forth between his face and Lio's.

Lio blinked rapidly. "I mean...not that you can't, but we're not at that stage yet! I need—we need time to—"

Delaying notification felt a lot like lying to the Archcom by omission. "We need to notify the ziggurat. They have experts, better tools, and they're the ones who say if something is a real Mastali artifact or not. We'll follow their lead on next steps." He nodding sharply at the crew. "Our subal will give you the specifics. Head out."

The crew stood, far more subdued than they had been a few seconds ago. Good. They needed to keep their heads screwed on about this. And one of them in particular might have a hard time with that. "Lio," he muttered. "Stay a minute."

Jossen led the others out, and Lio lowered himself back into a chair. Ravi took a seat opposite him. "Look," he said quietly, "I understand that this is exciting, but we need to follow protocol—"

Lio shook his head, wayward strands of hair flying around his face. "There's no protocol for this. And if you tell the ziggurat, they'll take it away from us. They won't let it stay at Opalina."

"That decision isn't our call. If that really is a lightship, it's not...it's not ours, Lio."

Lio clasped his hands tight, leaning into the table. "Just a few more days. Please."