Serpent of the abyss sha.., p.1
Serpent of the Abyss (Shadowed Dreams Erotica Book 2), page 1
The Serpent of the Abyss
A Shadowed Dreams Erotica
S.J. Sanders
©2019 by Samantha Sanders
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission granted in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction intended for adult audiences only.
Editor: Wright Editing Service
Cover Artist: Samantha Rose
Many thanks to all the people who made this book possible!
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Epilogue
Chapter 1
LORI SUCKED ANOTHER glob of nutritional paste into her mouth and grimaced at the landscape outside of the colony habitat. There was nothing but a desert reddish-brown stone for as far as the eye could see. No recognizable plant life of any kind—just rock. This wasn’t the adventure she’d been promised on a brand-new world. It was depressing.
When she signed up with Darvel Explorations, she had hoped that with her credentials she would have ended up on one of the more exotic planets working in the Alien Worlds Luxury and Tourism Department. Zeril Prime would have been nice with its lush tropical landscape and friendly locals. She had rather than that the fuchsia scaled males with their frilled crests and brilliant blue plumage to be quite attractive. Even working overseeing the agri-fields of Botan-7 would have been preferable. Instead, she was assigned as a miner on M285, a big ball of rock that didn’t even merit a proper name.
A helmet thunked heavily beside her as her crewmate and assigned mentor, Eddie Gerald grinned down at her as he bent forward over the table.
“Hey, Lori. This it! Your first time out on the rock,” he enthused.
“Hurray,” she muttered into her cup, taking a swallow of weak-ass coffee to wash down the nutritional paste. Being on an uninhabited chunk of space waste meant everyone’s diet was limited through the day. Coffee was offered twice a day and a filling meal at midday during shift change. Other than that, they were left with water and a nutritional paste of synthetic proteins and important vitamins.
“Aw, come on kid. I know she don’t look like much, but M285 is fascinating. You get deep enough in those mines and you’ll see beautiful rock formations, vast pools of water, bioluminescent fungi. It can get real pretty; you just need to get on your feet and go see it.”
She stared at him flatly but tipped back her last swallow of coffee and followed behind him begrudgingly to the prep-deck.
Eddie shoved a helmet into her hands, quickly followed by gloves. He held a laser vibrational drill in front of her, his finger quickly flicking the one switch. A vibrating light shot out about a foot from the handgrip, buzzing angrily. With another flick of his finger and he turned it back off and handed it to her.
“Make sure to never point the drill at yourself, kid. We’ve had a few accidental amputations that way. Nothing serious, a few fingers and someone lost an ear once. The vibrating beam is made to break up rocks so handle it carefully.”
A flexible half-mask filtration unit was the last thing to be thrust at her. Watching him carefully as he fitted mask, Lori slipped hers over her head and slid it back up until the mask clung air-tight to her skin from her jaw to the bridge of her nose.
He grinned at her and tapped his own playfully. “Technically, the air is fine to breathe but the dust we kick up can kill you. Keep your half-mask on at all times while working.” He scratched one whiskered cheek. “Think you got it?”
“Sure. Breathing death-dust is bad, pointing the laser at self is a big ouch. Anything else?”
If Eddie took note of sour disposition, he didn’t mention it. He laughed jovially and smacked her on the back. “I like someone with a sense of humor. You are going to get on just fine here!”
Why did that sound like a threat? She didn’t want to “get on,” she wanted to get out—preferably somewhere that plied her with fruity beverages at the end of the day.
She squinted as a bright light flooded the room, and a long tubular transport vehicle rolled onto the platform of the prep-deck. From lockers all over the prep-room, workers hustled over toward the transport and climbed in. Eddie beamed and gave her a thumb’s up before yanking on his helmet and gloves as he stomped over to the tube. Lori sighed and followed suit. She tucked her tool into the holster of the belt strapped securely over her ugly, yellow jumper and pulled on her protective gear before reluctantly she followed him to the transport. He patted her shoulder reassuringly as she sat down next to him on one of the hard metal benches and strapped herself in.
A loud beep blared overhead, and the tube jerked throwing her against her belt, before carrying them rapidly back out the way from which it had entered. Lori immediately winced at the piercing bright light until the automatic solar shield slid down over her visor. Once her eyes were protected, she stared at the passing hillsides. Despite her irritation, emerging out onto the surface of the alien world with its hot suns beating down on them still proved at least a little interesting, and one memory that she could take home at the end of her enlistment. That was until the craggy red landscape began to blur into an indistinct blur as the tube gathered speed the further it got away from the outpost. Within nothing to look at but streaks of color from red rock and gray skies, Lori settled on scowling down at her gloves.
One of the men sitting across from her leaned in to speak to Eddie, his brow above his filtration mask knitted together with concern.
“Second shift reported all kinds of tremors down there, Eddie. None of us know what to make of it. Boss doesn’t seem to think it's anything to worry about, but you know the Corp guys, so long as we are pulling ore out of the ground they’ll just smile and slap us on the backs.”
“Probably nothing,” Eddie muttered with uncertainty. “Just people getting spooked. There’ve been more folks reporting tremors since they started using the excavator. It’s aftershocks maybe.”
“What is the excavator?” Lori queried, perking up with interest.
The man across from her snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. “It is a damn foolish thing is what it is. The Corp doesn’t think we are drilling quick enough with our equipment—you’ll see it when we arrive, good reliable tunnelers—so they had a team develop the excavator to drill deeper from the surface. Who knows what important mineral veins they’ll be breaking up in the process...and who do you think will have to sift through all the rubble, I ask you? Us that is who,” he grumbled.
She glanced at Eddie. “How long has Corp been mining here?”
Eddie scratched his jaw thoughtfully. “I’d say about, four...no, five years now. Why do you ask?”
“Have there ever been tremors after you’ve used your equipment.”
“Nah, but then our equipment isn’t designed to blast with such force either. The excavator...well, it’s one of a kind.”
Lori fell silent as the vehicle rattled loudly over small rocks blown over the track. The planet surface was susceptible not only to consistent droughts which made water impossible to linger anywhere on the surface of the planet, but also wind and lightning storms.
What a shit hole.
As they rounded a bend, a massive wall of rock cleared away to reveal a monster of a machine in the distance. Nearly as tall as a twentieth-century oil drill. Standing on a massive cage of legs, the excavator dominated the landscape, the enormous barrel at the center angled downward at the ground. Lori felt her mouth go dry as it slowly grew larger at their approach. The metal reinforced mouth of the mine looked minuscule next to it.
Eddie nudged her gently and pointed at the mine. “When the first team arrived, that was nothing more than the entrance of a cave system. It took nearly a year to reinforce it. There is an elevator system in the main shaft that will take us down.”
“If the tremors from the excavator haven’t caused anything to collapse,” the guy across from clarified in disgust.
Lori peered at the cavernous mouth of the mine curiously. Although the metal beams had done much to tame its shape, she could almost make out what looked like a giant mouth with long pointed teeth shaped into the stone.
“Did the cave always look like a giant gaping mouth?” she whispered.
Eddie glanced over at her in surprise. “Well, as a matter of fact, they did. The first exploratory team called it Devil’s Mouth. Didn’t want to go in it either until they detected mineral deposits beneath it. The caverns took them to the first veins of wealth produced from this planet.
“Don’t forget to mention all that carcasses of dead critters they found in the lower caverns. Most were over a hundred years old, but there were plenty were of fresh ones too. Different animals live down that there are unable to survive on land. Who knows what all lives in the depths of the cave systems that we don’t know about?” their companion uttered ominously.
Eddie slapped his leg and chortled with glee.
“Dave, quit trying to scare the newb.”
“I‘m doing nothing of the sort,” Dave retorted disdainfully. “I’m just saying that is best to be on your guard at all times. Y
“Rumor!” Eddie declared with a laugh. “You only know of one person who went missing, and he was found with a broken neck from falling through an unexplored shaft in the cave system.
“What about the hunks of flesh that were missing?” Dave demanded, his red-rimmed eyes fastening on Lori’s mentor.
“Who told you that? Malcom? That ass suffers hallucinations from all that crap he smuggles in, and you know that.” Eddie shook his head and clucked his tongue. “Lori, don’t pay him any mind. You just stick by me and if a jackalope comes running out of the tunnel we will be sure to holler for Dave.”
Dave rolled his eyes and slapped his helmet back on his head as the shadow of the mining station fell over them. As it drew closer, the indented “eyes” above the mouth seemed to glower down at her, daring her to enter. Lori swallowed nervously. Suddenly, the last thing she wanted to do was go in that mine.
Their tube pulled to a shrieking stop beside a metal platform and Lori could see a man in white coat hurrying toward them.
“I don’t trust this planet,” Dave muttered. “And I don’t trust the men in the pocket of the Corp. You would be wise not to trust them either.” Casting a hard glance at Lori, he nodded his head to her as the official strode up to them with a wide smile.
The official squinted against the blowing sand, his eyes likewise red and irritated as she imagined her own were. “Welcome to Darvel M285 Mining Station Alpha.”
Chapter 2
HER “ORIENTATION” AROUND the mining station had been laughable at best. The foreman who greeted her did little more than mark her off on his tablet, double-check that her equipment was one her as he reminded her that any lost equipment that needed to be replaced would be docked from her wages, and handing her a small bag filled with several water pellets to serve as her ration for the shift.
The edible gummy pods of water would keep her hydrated, bursting open in her mouth the moment she bit down on them while the pod itself broke down in her mouth to minimize waste. About the size of a golf ball, she was alarmed to see that there were no more than ten provided. Ten pods for a twelve-hour shift. That meant she’d have to survive on less than a half cup of water per hour except the break for lunch. She immediately tightened the strap of the bag around her, a visceral fear filling her. What if she lost one? Or someone took her rations? She was already told that she would be given no more so to conserve them.
Eddie patted her arm as they took the small path leading to the gaping maw of doom ahead of them. “Don’t worry, kid. Just keep an eye on me. I will show you how to ration your water through the day to get the most out of it. You’ll be alright. Everyone is scared over their water the first day,” he chuckled.
She didn’t know what he found so humorous about the situation but forced herself to relax. Her eyes slowly raised to the jagged “teeth” of the cave opening and Lori shivered, and not from the cool blast of damp air that came from below. Despite how good that felt on her hot skin, already tightening from sunburn, she couldn’t help shivering with dread as they began to descend.
Glow tracks marked their way down into the cavern, but there was little other light available to see. Now and then a light pole would shine down wherever they were erected over important workstations where more men in white coats worked. It wasn’t until they passed the last workstation that Eddie tapped his helmet, opening the lumination strip that ran up the middle of it. Lori repeated the gesture and was comforted by a beam of light that lit up several feet in front of her. That didn’t stop her from occasionally sliding on loose gravel, but at least she could see where she was going.
Eddie didn’t say much, for a change, as they entered the elevator. The metal box creaked slightly as he slid the metal safety gate shut and hit the down switch. The tech seemed a bit antiquated in her opinion, and she said as much. Eddie flashed an amused grin. “Some of the gadgetry doesn’t work too well on this planet due to all the dust, especially down here in the mines. The tunnelers and the excavator are built with special containment compartments around their engines and parts, but for other stuff, they went back to old gear designs that are easy to clean and replace.”
The car chose that moment to shudder and groan, forcing them to grip the metal bar that wrapped the back of the compartment.
Eddie chuckled and patted the wall. “Don’t worry, she’ll get us where we need to go safely. She just makes squawks a lot about it.”
Lori forced a weak smile, her stomach jumping when the elevator wrenched and thudded loudly as they reached their destination. She didn’t waste any time getting out of the metal beast and was immediately surrounded by a touch of coolness to the air and a vague scent of water that managed to penetrate her filtration mask. The beams from their helmets were the only thing that cut through the inky darkness. Lori squeaked when a heavy hand fell on her arm. Shooting a glance over her shoulder, she attempted to slow her breathing. It was only Eddie.
He offered her an apologetic smile. “Didn’t mean to startle you. We are right over here working in the left branch of this tunnel system.”
Lori followed silently behind, the reflective yellow fabric of Eddie’s uniform a silent beacon to her as he strode ahead. Aside from red rock that was visible when the light fell upon it, everything else was obscure. It was perhaps a good thing because she nearly had a heart attack when her light fell upon the impenetrable darkness of the deep tunnels breaking off the side of the mainline that she was currently walking in.
Her palms immediately slickened with sweat at the ominous gap in the rock as if some creature of nightmares might come flying out of her at any moment. Who knew how many such tunnels were hidden in the dark? Or what lurked at the depths of them for that matter. This planet was a recent discovery and determine opportune for mineral extraction, but no one really knew much about it.
It was perhaps merciful that her vision was limited and she couldn’t see the depths stretching before her, or the numerous tunnels. Biting her lip, she scurried to keep as close as possible to her mentor. He wasn’t leaving her alone in the godforsaken place...not yet, anyway.
Trailing after Eddie, she exited into a tunnel to the left that opened into a large, cavernous gallery. Now she saw what he’d meant about the stone formations. Three light poles were set up throughout the space, the light of which bounced off stalactites and bands of shimmering crystals clustered on the walls. Everywhere, yellow-suited miners worked with their drills, cutting into thick veins of minerals in the stone walls.
Eddie gave a shrill whistle which had the entire team looking up from their tasks and turning off their tools. “We have a new recruit, boys! This is Lori!”
Lori waved at them, disconcerted at being in the center of attention of so many people. One of the men grunted, his eyes narrowing over his mask. “You know anything about mining, girl?”
“Not particularly,” she admitted. “I didn’t know that they were assigning me here.”
A round of laughter followed her confession. Then one who spoke squinted further at her and shook his head. “I swear there is no sense in how Corp does anything. Is it too much to ask that they have some sort of experience before being set on this damnable rock?” he huffed. “What did you do, then, before enlisting?
“Well, I was a boutique manager, one of the finest on Space Station Rudyard.”
“Well, fuck me, a boutique manager she says,” he laughed sharply. “What would make hoity space station lady decide to leave the comforts of the space station to enlist in exploratories?
Lori frowned at his condescending attitude but refused to allow it to bother her. If living with Kris taught her anything over the last three years, it was that responding to a juvenile outburst always backfired. Instead, she narrowed her eyes on him icily. “If you must know, my boyfriend and I separated. Since he decided that he was the one to keep our apartment, I had little choice in accommodations. It seemed that a fresh start and a bit of adventure was a good idea. Although, I’d hoped for something more tropical. I gave them excellent references for my suitability to manage one of the pleasure resorts on Zeril Prime. My management experience should have worked to my benefit. I was assured that it would before I enlisted. I can’t imagine why they stuck me here.”
