EXCAVATOR: Tales from the Twelve Vessels

Chapter Twenty-One: In the Interest of Time

Meera's head couldn't turn around fast enough. The nkrey had collapsed into a crumpled mess on the rocky hill top. A pained grimace spread across xer face, arms hugged close to xer abdomen.

"Whoa, hey!" She rushed over and crouched by xer side. "Are you okey?"

Sauk spoke through a strain in xer voice. "Yeah, perfectly fine. Only doubled over in pain here. Nothing to bat an eye at. Just give me a couple minutes and I should be good to go."

The sense of alarm was about the only thing preventing her from rolling her eyes. "What's wrong? Where does it hurt?"

Xe gripped xer midsection tighter, left side rubbing across the ground as xe bent further in half. "My ankle," xe groaned.

Meera swallowed her frustrations. "I'm going to need you to cooperate with me for just right now, okey? Tell me what's wrong."

Something in xer voice changed. Resignation? Unguardedness? "I don't know. Something happened during the storm, I'm not sure what, though. Since we were in the cave—gah."

She pulled her lip in. She wanted to chastise xem, admonish xem for not saying anything sooner. But she understood why. Even ignoring all she read about the nkrey being a prideful race, Sauk in particular came off like xe wanted to keep everyone and everything at arm's length closest. "Can I see?" she asked carefully.

Sauk lifted xer hands from xer abdomen, but there was nothing to see. The tightly woven exosuit kept just about everything from getting in, but it also kept anything from getting out.

"I can't—I can't see anything. I'm going to need you to take off your exosuit."

Sauk hesitated. With shaking hands, xe propped xemself up to seated and reached for the collar of xer exosuit. The suit loosened and expanded. Gingerly, xe lowered xer arms and began to wiggle xer top half out of the suit.

Meera placed a hand on xer back, trying to support xer weight as xe maneuvered.

Once xer arms were free, bothreached for the expanded collar of the suit and carefully pulled it down to xer waist.

Meera couldn't help but observe carefully as the suit folded, revealing more of what was underneath. Just as she had suspected before, there wasn't much to xem besides skin and bone. The uniform xe wore underneath the suit resembled hers, made of a heavy, skin tight fabric. Depending on which angle she looked, she could see the shadows of a rib cage slowly rise and fall underneath. The shape of the nkrey's body wasn't much different than a sapien's. Sapiens had more triangular upper halves—at least loosely—with wide shoulders coming down to either the waist. The nkrey, or at least this particular one here, was more linear, more closely resembling a tight rectangle than any sort of triangle. Her eyes continued to travel down to the abdomen.

And that's when she saw it.

On her left, xer right, just off to the side of the abdominal muscle. A device she couldn't recognize stuck to xer side. Part of it—a rod, it looked like—had punctured through the fabric of the uniform and had undoubtedly pierced through xer grey skin. She couldn't tell how deep it was lodged, the shirt obstructed her view. A dark spot, smaller than a fist, stained the area around it.

Sauk stared at it. Xer breath stopped for only a moment. Then, a realization Meera hadn't reached yet. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

"What? What is that?"

"It's a—" xe suddenly looked exhausted. "It's just an excavation tool."

"What is itdoing inside your suit like that? That should have gone—"