They turned and trotted back along the stone paths back towards the research hives, only to find complete pandemonium. The wolves must have broken past the blockade. Dozens of them roamed the pathways, chasing fleeing Stone Seekers. Anyone who was caught on dry land was a target. Panicked clicks and honking screams echoed off the cave walls, mixed in with wolf snarled.

Most Stone Seekers with sense had fled to the watery pools, but they couldn’t breathe underwater and eventually needed to come up for air. Morgan saw teams of wolves surrounding the pools, waiting for a head to appear like polar bears around a seal’s breathing hole.

Wolf heads swiveled their way, and several peeled off to give chase.

“This way!” Al yelled and leaped clear over one pool, spreading his wings to give him lift and glide across. It was a smart place to go—none of the nearby pathways spiraled toward that direction. Anyone chasing on foot would have to go a long, long way around.

Unless, of course, they could swim.

This particular pool was filled with bile yellow liquid. Morgan grimaced, but the wolves were coming fast. She didn’t have a choice.

Arms pointed in an arrow, she dove in. The liquid—too thick to be water—closed around her, cold and foul. Momentum from her shallow dive carried her to the other side. She glanced back to see that the wolves had paused. They didn’t want to jump in after her, and she didn’t blame him. She smelled like a gas station.

Al bent to help her up, but his claws pricked into her soft skin and drew long scratches down her arms. She shrieked and he recoiled. “I’m sorry!”

“It’s fine. I’m fine.” Dripping yellow goo, she heaved herself up under her own power. The scratches were shallow—she’d worry about infection later. The wolves would kill her a lot faster.

She risked a glance behind in time to see one dart to the right, the other to the left, seeking a way around.

“Go! Go!”

The wolves were faster on foot, but they still had to negotiate the twisting, nonsensical pathways. She and Al had the advantage of already knowing the fastest route. And, unlike the Stone Seekers, they weren’t trying to escape.

Please don’t let me be too late, she thought. And, more desperately, Please let me be wrong…

But she didn’t think that she was.

They were both panting and out of breath by the time they made it to the research hive and the room with the Knowledge Transfer Device.

Thankfully, the cave was empty. Morgan let out a breath and strode towards the device. “Watch the door.”

“…Door?”

Right. All the caves here had open entrances and she didn’t remember seeing any doors in Al’s memory.

“Let me know if any of the wolves are coming.”

Al bobbed his head and stood sideways so that his body was hidden by the wall as he peeked out. “Are you searching for a way to fight them?”

“No,” she said, hands hovering over the cloudy orb. “I need to erase the data on humans before they can get to it.”

Al did a very good version of a raptor double-take. Then his upper lip raised up in a snarl. “You think that is why they have come here?”

“It’s my best guess. They conquer other species, right?” She gestured to the foggy globe. “The Stone Seekers have all the information they need on all the other ranges around: Culture, their weaknesses, and probably where they live.” She didn’t think she had given that last part away, but Mud Bubble had been able to glean unexpected information from her memories. She wasn’t going to take the chance.

I’m not leading the wolves back to my friends.

She hesitated, palms a hair’s width from the globe. She had only a vague idea of what she was doing, and no idea if it was possible. The Device worked off of intent. If two people touched it at the same time, they traded languages. One person could access stored memories, or add their own. It seemed reasonable they could take them away, too.

… Right?

Closing her eyes, she shut out the distant growling, howls, honking and screaming sounds of two species at war. She tried to make her mind as blank as possible with her intent crystal clear.

Erase the files. Delete them or lock them away.

She placed her hands upon the foggy globe.

Instantly, it lit to life. She was treated to memories of herself typing away on her computer, trying and failing to come up with a password that had both numbers and special characters.

Morgan shook her head. No, she didn’t want to access a memory of creating passwords. She wanted to lock her own memories away.

Her concentration shifted, and so did the device. Now a memory played out of her messing with a rusty combination lock to her father’s shed.

She frowned. That wasn’t what she wanted at all.

“Morgan.” Al ducked back from the entranceway. “A pair of wolves are coming this way.”

Her time was running out.

Returning her attention back to the globe, she concentrated as hard as she could and spoke clearly. “I need to hide the files.”

A strange thing happened. Instead of a memory, an image of herself rose up with the fog. It was like looking at a reflection. Only this other Morgan wasn’t drenched in yellow, oily water and didn’t wear an expression of fear and frustration. She gazed up at Morgan with polite curiosity.

It wore her face, but instinct screamed that this was something other.

“The Wolves are coming,” Morgan said to her. “How do I erase the memories I put in here?”

The other spoke back with Morgan’s voice, calm and serene. “No knowledge can ever be truly erased.”

Looking away, she saw Al take a glance outside and then swiftly withdraw. He looked stared at her, fear in his eyes. He didn’t have to say anything: They were coming.

Trickles of sweat rolled down Morgan’s spine. She turned back to the globe. “Well, can I, like… password protect them or something?”

“Knowledge is free to whoever seeks it.”

Morgan’s own lips pulled back in a snarl of frustration. “Fine, I’ll do it the human way, then,” she said and lifted her hands away. The other being vanished and the globe went dark.

They were out of time. Al couldn’t hope to fight off two wolves by himself. And, as Mud Bubble pointed out, Morgan had no natural weapons. All she had were a few tools.

Tools…

She abandoned the Device and stepped to the nearest wall. Up close, the lit stones which provided soft, ambient light pulsed slightly as if they were plugged into some kind of electricity. Holding her breath, hoping she wasn’t about to get zapped, she flipped her multi-tool around to the chisel and wedged a blue stone out. It went dark as it came away in her hands. No wires, either. She wished she knew how that worked.

Turning, she ran back to the Knowledge Transfer Device.

“What are you doing?” Al asked.

She looked at him. “Denying a resource from our enemy.”

Then, holding the stone against the glass orb, she slammed the butt of her multi-tool against it like a hammer. The glass cracked on the second strike. The third made it shatter.

Fog poured out of the hole, so cold that it burned. Morgan yanked her hand away and backed up. She had no idea what kind of toxic crap had been in the orb, but it was heavier than air and started pooling along the ground like fog from dry ice.

At that moment, two wolves appeared at the door.

Al squawked and leapt back, flapping once to clear the fog which boiled across the floor, and landed at Morgan’s side.

Morgan didn’t blame him. One of the wolves was the gray-furred beast that had killed Mud Bubble.

The two wolves had stopped dead upon seeing them, and the second wolf, darker referred, growled something in a guttural language. Their eyes shifted from Al to Morgan, and then to the Knowledge Transfer Device. Upon spotting the hole in the globe, the gray one took a few steps forward, its hand outstretched as if to stop the fog from escaping.

“Oh, I really don’t like being right sometimes.” Morgan backed up a step, putting the expanding river of fog between herself and the wolves.

Al hissed low in warning, standing slightly crouched with his wings and claws spread out. The large dark wolf snarled back and took a step forward into the freezing fog. Immediately, it stepped as if surprised by the cold. The gray one snapped its jaws at it in rebuke and strode forward.

Even though she was more terrified than she had been in her life and pretty sure she was about to die, a part of her was surprised that the Wolves carried no weapons. Not even a stick.

Tools were such second nature to Morgan that it was weird to think humans were unique.

Morgan had no claws or sharp teeth. All she had were her tiny blades and the stone in her hand. So she threw it, aiming right at the gray wolf’s head. It missed and struck the floor in a shower of sparks.

There was a flash of light and intense heat.

The next thing Morgan knew, she was laying on the ground.