The Jack and The Delve (Part One of Two)

[thehonorablebat]

Short Numenera fiction, because why not.

Numenera are temperamental. A certain Jack would have preferred to run for the hills.

Jo knew two things for certain. The first is that the rich are the worst vermin to infect the world.

The second, glowing red towers coming in and out of phase were probably bad news.

“Mik.” Jo hopped up on her tiptoes to try to gain sight of her partner. The vent she’d crawled through reflected no light. Even with the orange veins running along the stone walls. Jo could see those well enough.

Another pulse cut through the air. She smelled burning hair. Felt the edges singe.

Jo made a face.

Walking up to the lightwall blocking the off the ancient facility, she planted her hands on her hips. She could see the flashing numenera on the other side. Red lights like that were the universal sign something was about explode.

Jo licked her cracked lips. The destruction of their small community was one thing. Destruction of this side of the Steadfast, another.

But now Mik was in there.

Jo laid eyes on the control panel. The bag of tools still lying under it. The thing hadn’t budged after an hour of work. In that time, the pulses had gotten worse. Whatever had set off the numenera had done a great job fucking things up.

With a grunt, fire erupted from Jo’s hands. She gripped the panel. Sinking nails in the tiny gap. If she could just get it hot enough to melt the screws....

A shrill alarm burst out of the speakers high up on the walls. A clicking automated voice in a language she doesn’t comprehend, says something.

A spray of foam poured out of sprinklers, forcing more effort from her to keep her flames going.

The light door deactivated.

If she’d known the ancients had a fire safety system, she would have tried that earlier.

Jo rushed through, spear at the ready.

“Mik!”

The octagonal room has three ways out. Elevator tubes filled with a green gel. Assuming they worked, they’d probably take her further up the tower. That's not where she wanted to go.

“MIKKIE!”

Another pulse. Her halo flares up. Tears running down her face turn to steam.

The ceiling sprays more foam down on her.

‘A power room’, she thinks. That’s where Mik would be. Trying to cut off power before their village turns into just another crater on the landscape.

Jo puts her spear through a nearby computer to shut it up.

The tower surfaces stop reflecting light. It’s not dark, or black, or anything.

There’s just no way to see anymore.

“Mik?” Jo grips her spear, using the blunt side to feel around.

“Coming!” The voice echoes to her. Bouncing off sides of a small tunnel.

There clanging and cursing from a vent nearby, but Jo felt herself smiling.