The shuttle didn’t respond.
“Guess not,” Will added.
“AI, are you able to detect if any ships or other shuttles are nearby?” she asked.
“Of course,” the shuttle replied. “Unless they are equipped with extreme stealth measures.”
“So, are there any?” she pressed.
“At the present moment no,” the AI told her.
“Not really reassuring,” Will commented.
She nodded and glanced at her HUD. “Looks like we just exceeded the signal range of the local Internet.”
“We’re on our own,” Will agreed.
“Not entirely,” the eavesdropping shuttle said. “I can still send and receive communications with Centaar. Simply not in realtime.”
“I’m assuming the lag time is only a few seconds,” Rhea said.
“That would be a correct assumption,” the shuttle replied.
She glanced at Will. “So at least if we come under attack, Centaar will know, and respond appropriately.”
“That makes me feel a little better,” Will transmitted. “But not much, considering what I deem an appropriate response likely differs from city council’s definition.”
“Are you expecting an attack?” the AI asked.
“I’m not sure what to expect anymore,” Rhea replied.
A few minutes later the shuttle touched down.
“Have you detected any other ships yet?” Rhea asked the shuttle.
“No,” it replied.
“If anything changes, let me know,” she sent.
“Assuming you remain within range, then of course,” the shuttle replied.
The shuttle’s ramp descended. She felt the vibrations pass through the deck when it touched the surface.
Rhea hopped down the ramp and emerged to find the vast, empty moonscape stretching before her. Light from the sun cast the frozen landscape in a dreary gray. The surface resembled videos of pack ice she had seen online: shelves of ice protruded from the crust at intervals, ranging in size from small crags to tall, sprawling ridges.
She could see the dots of the satellites composing the superconducting ring network ahead, forming a neat vertical stack that reached from the horizon to the top of the sky. She was keenly aware of the radiation leaking through that network: although the suits were made of BNNTS, it was generally recommended that spacewalks be limited to two hours or less to minimize exposure.
Moving off the ramp, she bound-walked to the external storage compartment, which clicked open as she arrived. As promised, their weapons awaited. Rhea sheathed her pistol into the holster at her utility belt and slid the X2-59 onto the skintight portion of the suit above her wrist. The latter weapon blended in quite well with her suit, concealing it from any watchers from afar.
Will grabbed his pistol. Horatio didn’t have an exposed weapon, as the robot’s rifles were built into its forearms, and thus covered by the spacesuit. Rifles dangling innocuously from their shoulders, the other two robots kept watch on opposite sides of the shuttle.
Rhea started to bound past the craft’s right flank when Will stopped her. “I’ll go first.”
He drew his pistol and was about to take the lead, but then Rhea had a go at interrupting him.
“Wait,” she sent, muting the shuttle AI and the accompanying combat robots, so that only Will and Horatio heard her next words. “Consider the optics. If we’re archeologists or public officials who’ve arrived to explore the ruins, would we really act like we’re expecting an ambush? If assassins are out there, we want them to believe we don’t know they’re watching. That means we leave our weapons sheathed.” She glanced at the combat robots. “Or hanging from our shoulders.”
Will hesitated. “Wouldn’t it be possible that pirates might be salvaging among the rubble? That would be excuse enough to be on guard.”
“I somehow doubt the Europans would allow pirates into their space,” Rhea said.
“And yet they allow assassins…” Will said.
Even so, he nodded behind his faceplate, then shoved the pistol back into place at his hips. He rounded the bend.
“It’s clear,” he transmitted a moment later.
Rhea was about to follow. Then:
“Before we proceed,” Horatio said on the same channel, still excluding the other robots. “I noticed you muted our two escorts before raising the possibility of potential assassins. Maybe we should loop them in? They can only help us.”
“I don’t completely trust them,” Rhea said. “They could be assassins themselves, as far as I’m concerned. Keep an eye on them.”
Without a word more, she, too, bounded past the shuttle. The ruins of the Ganymedean colony came into view.
Towers emerged from beyond the jagged edges of a partially collapsed geodesic dome. Translucent panes of glass, frosted over, covered the intact portions of the broken dome.
The skyscrapers within were covered in a thin layer of snow. Many of them were splintered, terminating in ragged, uneven edges, with rubble lying in heaps at their bases. The rest mostly stood with their windows shattered, like hollowed out husks against the starry sky.
She was filled with a sudden, intense sadness, and a loneliness like nothing she had ever felt.
Once this had been a great city. Filled with Ganymedeans. Now it was gone, and she was alone, utterly so…
No. I still have Will and Horatio. My friends.
She bounded forward, following Will, who set the pace. First foot forward. Second foot forward. One, two. One, two. Her breathing was loud in her ears, and the faceplate fogged slightly with each exhale, but the anti-fogging tech dissipated the white smudges quickly.
The helmet limited her field of view, cutting off her peripheral vision. She could see Will ahead, and a quick glance at her overhead map confirmed that the two combat robots followed her, with Horatio bringing up the rear.
She considered ordering the latter robots to the fore to act as scouts, but once again decided the optics would be better if they remained where they were.
We’re just a group of archeologists, exploring what we think are vacant ruins.
Still, she didn’t really like having them behind her, where she couldn’t see them. She’d have to trust that Horatio would watch her back.
They circumnavigated the larger crags of ice that interrupted the surface ahead and gave a ridge a wide berth. Rhea studied the top of that ridge, searching for snipers, but
