of paved ground and transparent steel underfoot. If they're interested in turning me into a grease spot, then they'd have plenty of time to take aim,” Oz said, shaking his head. “Thanks Ayan.”
“No problem, it looks like they have other things to worry about though. I've watched eleven drop ships go into the center of that port building and only five have come out. There's heavy gunfire in there.”
“I know, I've been watching the whole thing on infra and electromagnetic spectrums, one hell of a light show,” Minh said, sounding not at all out of breath.
“Looks like there's resistance inside. Hopefully we can get a read on them before we have to open a dialogue, maybe find a way to link the port up to the mountain, get them working together. By the way, how the hell are you in such good shape? What did you do while you were adrift?” Jason asked, still catching his breath.
“Ha! I didn't have much to do aside from run, jump, grow a garden and eat organically. I'd play guitar to break things up a bit sometimes.”
“Eat organically?” Oz asked.
“Yeah, I saw the digital tour Freeground Media put out, he had a better garden than most arboretums,” Jason chuckled. “Lorander's dragging the whole thing back to the new colony. They couldn't let all that mature growth just drift and die out.”
“They are?” Minh asked, in awe and surprise.
“I forgot, that's not public yet. Yup, Lorander's doing it as a courtesy. Your story is passing pretty quickly between deep space explorers and since Lorander is pretty much nothing but researchers, explorers and colonists, I wouldn't be surprised if they offered you a pretty good job eventually.”
“If it involves being out in space for long periods of quiet time, then they can count me out! I had so much time to think that my brain's been picked dry.”
“I couldn't imagine,” Oz said, shaking his head.
Ayan stood and checked her cloaking systems, energy levels and ammunition loads. “Well, I'm ready to move on. If there's a group of resistance fighters in there they could use our help.”
“I just wish we could have some transportation,” Jason mentioned. “Too bad they'd blast anything moving under mach five out of the sky from orbit.”
Ayan started jogging, taking point. Everyone followed her, keeping up with her brisk pace. “If it weren't for the war and all the running, I'd actually be enjoying this. I've never seen anything like this field up close before, it would be nice to stop and taste the sugar cane.”
“You have a point. We'll have to find an interesting place or two to visit when we're clear of this,” Minh agreed. “I've been in space my whole life and feel like I haven't really seen anything.”
“There was Zingara, now that was an impressive space station,” Oz said.
“Interesting place if you happen to be a geologist, maybe. It's really nothing but a big rock,” Jason replied.
“A big rock with three pongo ball teams and more entertainment than you can take in. Hell, you could spend two years there and not see everything once.”
“Who would want to? You can get a holo with all the best stuff and move on to a luxury port like Argyle where there's a blue sky and great big forests. We were snow boarding in the morning and sunning in the afternoon.”
“So you and Laura had a good honeymoon?” Ayan asked.
Jason was reminded of Ayan's rebirth, he had forgotten that she had no memory of anything after his wedding. He didn't pause long, however. “Once we got used to the gravity, it was only point eight five of standard.”
“Oh man that had to be fun. I've seen grav-boarding footage in low gravity, I couldn't imagine what doing it with nothing more than a flat board on snow would be like.”
“Cold. It was really, really cold,” Jason replied.
“Still, I'd have to give it a try.”
They were across the empty space surrounding the space port and running alongside the tall, transparesteel wall. The windows had been blacked out. As the first sign of the west entrance to the port started coming into sight silence settled over the group.
Instead of reaching out with entrance ramps, transportation terminals and vendor booths, there was a completely clear space outside of the port, continuing the two hundred meter wide paved ring around the structure. The doors hung open and slack, bent and burned by combat.
“Why is there so much empty space here?” asked Minh.
“Security. The flatter, more featureless an area is around a land based building the easier it is to scan and control. I wouldn't be surprised if there are automated guns mounted somewhere that can pick off anything that sets foot here.”
“Oh, that's reassuring. Still, shouldn't there at least be a few vehicles around? I see dents and impact marks in the surfacing.”
“You're right, it's like they removed everything to make it harder to approach without being noticed, like whoever is holding out in there is getting ready for a siege. At least our cloaksuits are doing their jobs, it doesn't look like we've been spotted.”
“I'm still not going to stand still if I can help it. Suddenly I feel like a duck in a shooting gallery.”
“Okay, decision time. We either go through and try to help any resistance inside or go around and try to get to one of the express tubes that run underground,” Ayan said as the bank of doors drew nearer.
“I vote we lend a hand,” offered Minh.
“I agree,” said Oz.
“That's if we can find them, it's huge in there, something like ninety levels, we might not be able to get to them in time,” Jason said calmly.
“But what would you rather do?”
“If there's friendly life in there I'd rather help. Besides, there should be a lot of transit tube access points in the station.”
“Good, then we're going in,” Ayan said with finality.
The signs of a firefight and the indiscriminate murder of thousands inside the main lobby were impossible to ignore. A hole had been blown in the center of the polished granite floor, there were scorch marks along the scroll worked light red and blue walls and the main lift shaft was blocked off by a brutally crushed air vehicle. In every corner, across every wall and coating the floor was smeared and strewn all manner of biological remains, evidence that the Holocaust Virus had hit suddenly, and no one had time to run from the automated security. To the relief of the foursome the bodies had been removed so there were no faces in the widespread gore.
Minh took their attention off the scene, walking towards the crashed air car. “Whoever flew that thing in had to be an ace, it would have barely fit through the doors,” Minh mentioned as they paused near the wreckage. “Guess we're not taking any elevators in this section.”
“Guess not. The control panels here are either fried or offline,” Jason said as he looked at one of the primary consoles in a long island in the center of the lobby, it stretched from the main doors almost all the way back to the interior windows overlooking the large docking and landing sections at the station's center. “No corpses, I wonder what happened to them?”
“Maybe the survivors had a chance to take care of the dead?” Asked Ayan.
“We can hope, but it makes more sense that someone was getting the port ready for use again.” Oz trailed off.
“I know, just trying to be optimistic. Let's start looking for whoever's fighting those soldiers. Regent Galactic doesn't seem to care much about securing this entrance at the moment, so I'm guessing we won't find anything here.” Ayan and Oz took point with Jason and Minh behind.
They kept a quick pace. Everyone felt exposed crossing open areas made to accommodate thousands of travellers at a time. There were empty outer security stations, where guards were given a place to screen and run detailed scans on people coming and going, gift shop stands with cheap electronic entertainment pieces, jewellery, stuffed toys, miniatures of various ships, landmarks and many other mementos all on display, deactivated and waiting to be purchased, brought to synthetic life.
Minh brushed his shoulder against a candy cart loaded down with packaged candy cane and other sugary treats. “Sorry!” he whispered reflexively.
