hundreds more sacrificed their lives so that she could escape Othus with the location of this outpost. To arrive and find nothing but a lifeless husk left an ache in her chest that she wasn’t sure would heal any time soon. Instead of letting the sadness overwhelm her, however, Keryn pressed ever forward, hoping beyond hope that the blockish grey building in the distance would offer redemption for this abysmal failure.
Struggling to keep up with her feverish pace, Adam and Wyck walked side by side behind Keryn. They had spotted the facility on their initial approach and had been tempted to land closer. Those on board, however, had insisted on taking the opportunity to search for the mythical plant that created Deplitoxide. After stepping off the craft and sinking into the snow, Adam instantly regretted that decision. The mood of the walk, already dour and hostile, did not improve as they moved through the landscape. The densely packed trees had died under the frigid assault. Long icicles drooped from the hanging branches like ominous claws. The light refracting from their flashlights cast stark shadows, which danced in between the trees, and reflected harshly on the white snow.
After closing the distance to the facility, the grey building loomed before the trio. They scanned its facade with their flashlights, but the narrow beams seemed insignificant as the passed along the outside of the three-story structure. All along the front of the building, windows were smashed, leaving jagged shards of glass protruding from their sockets. To Keryn, it seemed uncertain whether the damage had been done by the Terrans before they left or by a native creature searching refuge from the plummeting temperatures. Turning away from the windows, Keryn located the closest door that, to her surprise, stood partially ajar.
The trio moved toward it and, with Adam putting his shoulder against it, forced the door open enough for them to enter. The interior was dark, penetrated only by their lights. Just past the door, a snow bank sat piled where it had blown through the cracked doorway. Beyond, among the twisting maze of hallways and laboratories, silence stretched like a blanket over the facility.
“Why did they do it?” Wyck asked quietly, fearing to intrude on the thick silence.
“Why’d they do what?” Adam asked, pushing his boot through the refuse that lay buried beneath the snowdrift. He couldn’t be certain whether the pile of trash had been naturally carried on the winds or had been placed as a nest. He hoped for the former.
“Why destroy their own world?” Wyck explained. “They owned this planet and everything in this entire galaxy. They had the means to produce infinite amounts of Deplitoxide and the laboratories to refine it. But, instead, the planet’s dead and the outpost abandoned. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“It makes perfect sense,” Adam said darkly. “They had enough Deplitoxide to cripple the entire Alliance. I’m also willing to bet they found an antidote for it. By destroying Beracus, they made sure we never got our hands on any of it.”
“And by destroying the lab,” Keryn said as she pushed past them both and proceeded down the hallway, “they ensured that they were the only ones to hold the cure. They had both the instrument of our destruction and the cure at their disposal.” Without slowing, Keryn walked down the hall until all that remained was a slight silhouette and the clicking of her boots on the tiled floor.
Adam and Wyck exchanged glances and sped off to catch her. The winding passages within the outpost looked to be in little better condition than the exterior. Large panes of glass that once separated the halls from the individual labs had been destroyed. The glass had shattered into the labs, lending itself to Keryn’s theory that the damage to the building happened intentionally as the Terrans were evacuating the planet. The trio stopped at a number of the laboratories, searching through the toppled vials and destroyed centrifuges, but found nothing of value.
Keryn threw the test tube in her hands, shattering it against the far wall. “Why are we even here!” she yelled into the destroyed laboratory.
Adam motioned for Wyck to wait outside while he moved over to her side. He placed an arm around her shoulder and held her close, even as she tensed at his touch. Alone with Adam in the lab, the tears she had held back outside now flowed freely.
“It’s not fair,” she cried into Adam’s shoulder. “We’ve worked so hard. We’ve been through so much. I can’t accept that this is how our mission ends.”
Adam stroked her hair as she buried her face in his chest. “It’s not over yet,” Adam said, consoling. “We didn’t come this far just to reach a dead end now.”
“Shut up, Adam,” she said between sobs. “Quit being my savior and just hold me until I get this out of my system.”
They stood in silence, wrapped in each other’s embrace, until Keryn’s shoulders finally quit shaking. As she pulled away, she wiped the streaks of tears from her face and looked him in the eyes.
“Tell me we can do this,” she demanded.
“We can do this,” he said confidently. “If there’s a computer left in this outpost, Wyck will find it. I figured that’s why you brought him along.”
“That’s exactly why,” she confessed. “I wish he could search the
“Tora will do fine on the ship. Wyck is needed here.” Tora was an Avalon who had shown some impressive computer proficiency, but nowhere near the same brilliance that Wyck had demonstrated. Still, they were both sure that Tora would do fine sorting through the multitude of files.
“Let’s get out of here before I have another episode,” Keryn said, dejected. “My Voice is already calling me names.”
Adam laughed out loud as he followed her into the hall where Wyck waited, looking surprised at the sudden laughter. Placing his hand on Wyck’s shoulder, Adam pushed him deeper into the labyrinth of the Terran facility.
The trio lost track of time in the dark, winding passages. Occasionally, they passed a destroyed window, the dark glow from the outside shining only slightly brighter than the inky gloom within the building. Twice, they went up sets of stairs, following Wyck’s guidance. He explained as they walked that the computer system would be closest to the center of the building, which was the direction they moved. However, the humidity and indigenous creatures that would have roamed a marshy planet like Beracus precluded the computer systems from being stored on the first floor. After an eternity of walking, Wyck’s intuition paid off when they found the main control room.
Keryn’s mood did not improve as they viewed the decimated remains of the room. The large monitor that dominated the far wall was shattered, appearing to have suffered from multiple gunshots before the screen cracked and crumbled. Wyck moved to one of the imbedded computer towers in the room, shaking his head as he stuck his fingers into the holes blasted into the side of its alloy casing.
“They shot it,” he said, irritated. “It looks like they shot everything in here!”
“Focus, Wyck,” Keryn said calmly, suppressing the frustration she shared with the young genius. “Search all of them. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that soldiers firmly believe that if you shoot something, it’s no longer an issue. They often fail to understand the intricacies of aiming at a specific part of the computer tower. Find me a computer tower where they didn’t hit the specific part we need.”
As Wyck went to work examining the computers, Keryn left the room and activated her microphone. “
“This is
“Patch me through to the control room,” Keryn requested, referring to the computer room where Tora was examining computer files.
“This is Tora,” a bubbly Avalon voice replied over the radio, her voice crackling from the interference.
“Tora, this is Keryn. We’re in the computer room now, searching for anything useful. What have you found up there?”
“Nothing so far. I’m sorry, Keryn. There are still quite a few files to go, though, so I’ll let you know the second I find something worthwhile.”
Keryn frowned, disappointed. She had hoped that one of the two current missions would reveal some good news. She keyed the microphone again. “Don’t worry about it, Tora. Just keep working to find me anything I can use. Keryn, out.”
She walked back inside, shaking her head in response to Adam’s inquisitive look. She gestured to Wyck, who slid on hands and knees from one tower to another. A steady stream of profanity flew from his lips as he examined
