Chapter 11 - Dust and Echoes
Ava returned to the console. She pulled the coin out, severing the connection.
She pressed a sequence of glyphs she somehow instinctively understood.
A mechanical voice echoed through the chamber in a language she had never heard, but perfectly understood.
Core overload initiated. Structural collapse in T-minus ninety seconds.
She was burying the ship.
“You’re insane!” Holloway screamed from the floor as the gravity field lifted. “You’ll bury them alive!”
“They are in stasis,” Ava said calmly. “They can survive under a mountain of rubble. You can’t.”
She grabbed a heavy metal briefcase from the base of the console. It contained the ship’s primary data drives—everything she needed to find a way to wake her people safely when the time was right.
The ground began to shake violently. Rocks fell from the cavern ceiling, smashing into the ship’s hull.
The soldiers scrambled toward the exit tunnel in a panic, leaving Holloway behind.
Holloway tried to run, but a massive boulder crashed down, blocking his path. He looked back at Ava, terrified.
May you like
Ava didn't look back. She sprinted for the exit, her superhuman speed carrying her through the tunnel just as the cavern roof collapsed entirely.
A massive cloud of dust exploded from the fissure into the desert air, burying the secret of the valley forever.
