Chapter 19

'Holi, how long before the full diagnostics on our blood samples is complete?'

Eoin looked over his shoulder at the projected blonde in the centre of the room.

Closing her eyes, Holi shimmered as she processed the necessary information from the computers.

'Another five hours.'

'Will the nano-virus still be viable? It's been three days! How long before it deteriorates beyond use?' Eoin fretted.

'I will achieve the required results in time, Eoin,' Holi assured him.

In the living quarters, sprawled across the couch, Ally let out an exasperated sigh.

An alarm screeched overhead.

'EMERGENCY BEACON ACTIVATED!' Holi propelled her voice over the din. 'SHALL I TURN OFF THE ALARM?'

'Yes!' Eoin bellowed as Ally raced into the main room.

'Holi! Can you see anything?' she demanded, the fog of boredom from being stuck in the lab for the last few days vanishing in an instant, her mind clear and exhilarated at the thought of a challenge.

The sounding alarms silenced and Holi shimmered. Eoin frowned at Ally.

'You're not going, you promised!'

Ally scowled at him. 'Trust me, you don't want me cooped up here any longer. It's not good for us. And I'll be careful.'

'No trace of humans,' Holi said as her image solidified again. 'Possible tree fall or animal encounter.'

Ally nodded and headed for the supply cupboard, seizing her pack from it and adding a few other potential necessities. Eoin followed with an anxious face.

'Be careful, take one of those communicators with you. Here, I've set it to channel 13, just hold the button and talk.' He handed her a small box, like the one she'd seen the human shouting into. Ally studied it with interest running her fingers over the tight honeycomb surface on the front and testing the button on the side as Eoin demonstrated. A sharp crackle and whine made her flinch away from him, which finally brought a smile to his face.

'It's because of our close proximity,' he explained and backed up, till he stood at the other end of the main room. 'Now try.'

Wrinkling her nose at the expected noise Ally squeezed the button. 'Hello?' she said cautiously when no electronic shriek rang out. From the other end of the room, Eoin grinned at her.

'Now release the button,' he called and Ally did. The unit in her hand hummed a second later then Eoin's voice came through loud and clear as he whispered into his device.

'Be careful, love, you know I worry.'

Ally laughed at the ease of it and held the button again. 'I will! I'll hunt out some of those tubers again.'

'And mangos!' Eoin said and he walked over, opening his arms wide to her. Wanting to get moving, dancing on her toes already, Ally darted forward to give him a tight hug but paused for a kiss. Taking advantage of the moment, Eoin held her firmly, lips devouring hers till she pulled away with a gasp.

'Eoin!'

He winked, lips flushed like hers felt. 'Be careful out there.'

With a chuckle she was off, up the stairs and down, jogging alone the tunnel toward the freedom of the jungle.

Climbing the rope brought a smile to her face when Ally recalled Eoin's face the moment she showed it to him the other day after he'd come out to rescue her.

'But I, I, climbed…' he'd trailed off, staring down at his dirt smeared clothes that left Ally giggling. Sympathetic giggling, she'd assured him, though the flat look he delivered suggested he didn't believe her.

'Silly boy,' Ally muttered to herself, a grunt of effort huffing out as she climbed steadily hand over hand, up the green rope.

Sounds made her hesitate as she neared the top and she paused, listening.

Heavy shifting, crunching noises and the twanging release of branches yanked down. It was a lot of noise yet Ally could hear the unconcerned song of birds and primate cries, which puzzled her. Taking a steadying breath, Ally eased herself just high enough to peek over the top, teeth gritted with the effort to hold her position.

Her jaw dropped.

Scrambling up, slinging one arm then the other over the lip of the hole, Ally staggered to her feet.

Trumpeting sounds erupted around her.

The parade of elephants flared out, their ears flapped wide with alarm as they regarded the newcomer suddenly standing amongst them.

Barely breathing, eyes wide and heart pounding with excitement, Ally couldn't stop a spreading smile of delight. She stayed still as the elephants recovered from their shock and smelled the air around her, their trunks extended. Behind the legs of the largest animals, a baby elephant gave trumpeted squeals while flapping its ears as it rushed around behind the adults. Ally didn't move, counting fifteen animals, including the baby. They weren't like the images she'd seen in the animal book Eoin had given her when they were first courting, a rare gift that had made her father relent to her partnering with him. These elephants had smaller ears, and she didn't see any tusks. Their foreheads weren't rounded either but humped, their backs too. The heavy smell around them made her eyes water and nose itch. She breathed through her mouth, not offended by the arid faeces smell but not inclined to savour it. The elephants kept watch on her and Ally made sure to keep her motions slow and obvious. Walking a little away from the hole, but keeping it to her back, Ally reached back with a grimace and untangled a strand of hair that had caught in the strap of her pack. Dropping the pack to the ground, she unwound her hair and shook it out then gathered it up again, fingers twisting the sly curls that escaped back in. The dense curls and length made it fairly easy to shape it back into a bun, the curls twisting back on themselves, holding it in place. Ally sighed in relief with the weight off her neck, the air humid and thick, an instant sheen of sweat layering her skin.

An odd muffled shriek of a squeal rang out and all the elephants rushed away, forming a tight group. Ally dropped to a crouch, ready to run.

Expecting shouts and shots any moment, she had the communicator in her hand and ready to go. The muffled shrieks continued and all the elephants flapped their ears while stamping back and forth around the noise. Ally crouched back down, trying to peer beyond their legs. She pressed her fingers to her mouth when she spotted it, wincing in sympathy.

The wrinkled baby elephant stood awkwardly, tail lashing and ears cringed back. One forefoot seemed to hop back and forth with increasing urgency while the other sat heavily on its delicate long trunk.

The muffled cries got more urgent, but one of the adults reached down with its own trunk, sliding it under the offending leg's knee joint and tugged. The baby made sense of it and lifted its foot, silencing the awful squealing cries. Instead it snuffled around the adult's legs, trunk coiled against its chest just like a child who's jammed their hand in a door.

A half laugh of relief escaped Ally's lips, making the animals turn their heads to regard her, but this time their ears didn't flare, just flicked back and forth at the curious sound. They returned to foraging, keeping near, the adults occasionally casting looks back at Ally who stood still, mesmerized by the scene. Shaking it off, she slung her pack on and started her own foraging, keeping her eyes peeled for the tell-tale shoots to the tubers she'd found the other day.