Lost and Sound by Viola Grace

planted. I didn’t tell the crew, of course. I didn’t want them wandering off into the dozens—if not hundreds—of possible areas without me. They are tricky and curious and must be protected.”
    He chuckled. “You seem attached to them.”
    “I think I am attached to caring for someone who looks at me with respect. In my home, I was loved, coddled and tolerated. I was part of the family but treated like a pet. Here, I can be more.”
    She checked her location and smiled. “We are under the nose of the ship. It runs from that brick to the third door down the corridor. What do we have that can make the hole?”
    “Hand me your blaster.”
    To her amazement, he took the gun, did some work on the settings with a kit from his belt and handed it back. “It is now a cutter.”
    She aimed it at the ceiling and pulled the trigger. The beam shot out and sliced through the stone. She carved a small circle just above them and moved back as it dropped with a few disks of metal.
    “One down, four to go.”
    Nearing gave her a thoughtful look in the dim light of the illuminated stone. “Can you sense the objects?”
    “Yes.”
    “Are they all together?”
    She caught on to his line of thinking. “Let me just see if they line up with any of the accessible areas.”
    “I will wait.”
    She snorted and sent out the blast. “Got it. We can get to it, but it is under guard.”
    “Lead the way and I will help. We can cut around them as fast as we can and bring the artifacts back to where they belong.”
    Yllin straightened her shoulders and headed into the dimness that marked the Webar caves.
     

Chapter Eight
     
     
    The Webar had been a population of UV-sensitive beings. Their softly lit tunnels had once held a thriving metropolis under the killing sun.
    They had dwindled down to a tiny population and eventually left to find another world.
    Now, two aliens were stalking through the leftovers of a dead society with the purpose of saving what they could. It made Yllin feel exceptionally odd.
    Carving a hole in the cargo hold wouldn’t keep the ship from lifting off, but the hole in the forward engine bay would.
    “If we cut along the walls, we should be able to get them all in one drop. We will start here. I will go left, you go right and we will meet up again on the other side. The drop will happen the moment that gravity takes over. We want to be well back from that.”
    He nodded, and they passed under the payload. She aimed at the ceiling and started to cut. She moved quickly and Nearing matched her step for step.
    They backed up and cut along the hallway lines, the intermediate layer of sand and silt sifted through the new holes.
    The chunks of stone dropped, and a moment later, there was a whine, a crash and a mighty groan as the components and four guards fell. Yllin grabbed her shock sticks and jabbed two of the men while Nearing zapped the others.
    He took another item off his belt and threw it upward. A web of energy locked into the hole they had made.
    “That will just keep us from being followed right away. They will have to work their way through the city.”
    She grinned. “If you can haul any of this to the alcove outside the library, I can get some of the traps reset.”
    “So, I get to do the heavy lifting?”
    She went up on her toes and kissed him quickly. “I think you are up for it.”
    Before he could grab her, she sprinted down the hall, around corners and kept in mind that two of the men were familiar with the first few blocks of the city.
     
    It took her two hours to get everything settled to her satisfaction, and when she returned to the library, the prisoners were free of their cuffs, and it was only the webbing of wire that kept them in place.
    That was what the alcove was for.
    Nearing was waiting for her with half the artifacts and all four of the guards still out and trussed with strips of their own uniforms.
    “What are you going to do?”
    She smiled and stepped behind the artifacts