The low keening sound is almost cetacean, and Lapis cringes inadvertently. Whatever creature may be sealed within that armored bulk, it sounds like no whale she has ever encountered. It sounds like it's in terrible pain.

"Yes," she says impatiently, the obviously going unspoken. "But from what?"

With the angry shriek of metal, a great drill punches through the wall barely a foot from where Lapis has been crouching.