Chapter 53: The Return back to sandworms valley - 1
Ash’s gaze lingered on the machine’s controls, the hum of the machinery reverberating in his chest. The system was fragile, temperamental, but it had to work. They didn’t have time for mistakes.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the woman again. She hadn’t moved, still absorbed in the book, her fingers turning the pages with a sense of ritual, as if lost in a world far removed from the one they were trying to survive in.
Eir noticed Ash’s glance and followed his line of sight.
"Don’t mind her, she’s Just a researcher. No use in a place like this."
Ash didn’t respond. He didn’t need to. The woman’s presence hung in the room like an unanswered question.
She didn’t even flinch as Ash moved past her, her fingers never pausing in their slow, deliberate flip of the page. The weight of the room seemed to bend around her, the noise of the preparations and the tension in the air seemingly irrelevant to her. She was lost in a world Ash couldn’t understand, and he didn’t care to.
He turned away from her, his focus already narrowing to the machine and the task that lay before him.
The mass handler hummed louder as Ash moved toward it, the soft whirring of its inner workings filling the silence. He bent down, his hands locking onto its cool surface, the weight of the supplies pressing down on him, but he didn’t feel it. Not yet.
Eir clapped his hands together, the sharp sound snapping through the stillness of the room.
"You’ve got your supplies, Now don’t waste time. Every minute counts."
Ash glanced up, his expression hardening at the sharpness of Eir’s voice. There was no need for the urgency. Ash had already known what needed to be done.
Still, the unspoken tension between them lingered, like a dark cloud in the corner of the room. He said nothing. His gaze lingered for a second longer before he shifted his focus back to the machine, his grip tightening.