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Marlena stared at the opened remains of the communicator.
She had given up trying to contact her father through her magic. She felt that his proximity in space was too far away for her to contact him, that she was not strong enough. Then she focused her efforts on trying to fix the communicator. She had finally pried open the back cover after several hours using the tools she was given. The tools were now bent in all directions.
She didn't move for a few minutes. She already knew that the tools she had would not help her fix the communicator. Marlena shook her head and decided to look for Balthazar. Then she remembered that he told her to look for Beth if she was ready to look for him.
She left her quarters and followed the pathway toward the main area of the small base. She hadn’t been to the surface since she entered the underground dwelling and she didn't care to go topside until they were ready to leave. She wished she was in the forest instead of this place, but at least she felt safe here.
When she first heard she was going to Earth, she wanted to see all the animals and plants of the planet, maybe even one of the pyramids. Except, there was never time to go to those places. Instead, she came with the Alphas to this city named Austin. She also knew this was not a vacation, but a special mission that was meant for her to help the Alphas. It was her destiny, like Eastros had told her. The ancient elf, who was a pupil of Merlin, was waiting for a person just like her.
In the huge battle against the mutant Vvongs, she fought as hard as she could, but everybody was captured and a good number of humans were killed. She didn't feel special back then. Actually, she thought she was going to die. It was only after the Alphas came back to Austin that they turned the tide of battle and actually killed the head mutant. Yet, she wasn’t entirely sure it was true. She didn't actually see the Alphas kill the original mutant Grog. She had to surmise they killed him, because all the mutant Grogs died at once.
Marlena moved along the corridor and saw a few people sitting in the main dining room. But she didn’t see Beth.
"Ross, have you seen Balthazar or Beth?" she asked Ross, a teenager with dark brown hair. He was eating some peanuts from a bowl, and sitting in a chair with his feet propped on a table. It was hard to believe this young man survived the massacre back at the mall compound with the rabid wolves.
"No, I haven't seen Balthazar, but Beth is around here. Go to her room, I think she just came back from hunting. We will have meat tonight."
"Thanks," Marlena said, and nodded, then walked toward Beth's room. She noticed the humans had not treated her different since they entered this bomb shelter. Whereas, on the Hive, people always treated her with indifference, not answering her questions or just walking away from her. It was because she was a hybrid, part elf and part dwarf. The humans here talked and asked her questions about the Hive and about the other magical races.
She moved through the hallway and found Beth's room and peered inside. "Beth?" Marlena said. She saw Beth sitting on her bed working on a device that Marlena couldn't identify.
"Hi," Beth answered in a distracted manner. "I was trying to fix one of the computers. I was a computer engineer, before all this happened."
Marlena was surprised. "You look so young to have such a prestigious title."
"Oh, I look younger than I am, but thanks." Beth shook her head, then said, "I don't have the right equipment here."
Marlena smiled. She felt the same way.
Beth finally looked up to her. "I see you have also been working on something. Any success?"
"No, your tools and devices are different here than on the Hive. I can’t fix it. I kept trying because there was nothing else to do."
"Hope."
"Hope?" Marlena asked.
"Yes, we need hope. We need to know that we will survive all this mess. I don't understand about all these catastrophes that have happened. It feels like an act of God."
Marlena wanted to tell Beth about the Alpha Mages and the Bastions, but she wasn’t sure if Balthazar trusted these people.
Marlena said, "Do you know where Balthazar is? He told me to look for you if I wanted to see him."
"Sure, I see him every day. Follow me."
She stood and moved away from her work table was and stepped into the corridor.
Marlena liked Beth. She seemed wise and smart. In fact, she liked all the humans in the shelter. The only time she’d felt this safe and part of a group was when she was a crew member on her father's ship.
They stopped at a door. Marlena hadn’t been through this passage before. It was always locked, and nobody seemed to know where the doorway led to.
Beth opened a secret panel hidden on the wall and placed her hand on it. Marlena heard a snapping noise and the door opened.
Beth nodded. "Go inside. Balthazar is in the control room."
"Thank you," Marlena said. "I hope you can fix your device."
"Nah," Beth said. "The motherboard is fried. But I’ll try. I have hope."
Marlena stepped inside. She heard the door close behind her and then another metallic clicking noise.
Balthazar has his secrets.
