"So this is what it looks like without Brick's bots to clean up," I mused. I had gotten quite used to anything on the floor that wasn't supposed to be there just disappearing, recycled into the station's material storage arrays. Sometimes it was quite grisly, like when Brick's spider bots had to break down a corpse into pieces small enough to move. I tried not to watch when they did that.
The lockers were tempting me to crack them open, but there was plenty of time for that.
"Jake, I've connected the communications relay," Brick said, his voice coming to me over the Interface clearly once again.
"Great. No one's here, Brick. I guess we're too late."
"It was three months ago,” Metra said. “Let's send Brick's bots through to salvage whatever we can from the base and close the gate. No tempting fate."
"I will be happy to do so, Metra. However, now that short range communications are in place, I am receiving Union carrier signals from nearby. It seems at least two are still alive. Should I connect you?"
"Yes, do it Brick," I said immediately.
"Connected," Brick reported.
I had no idea what the proper protocol was. Maybe there wasn't one. It didn't matter; there was no time.
"Hey, this is Jake Monde at the outpost. Who's out there?"
"Monde? Is Mattias with you? Thank the stars you're here, even if you're a bit late," the man on the other end said. He sounded like the guy from the message.
"No, Mattias is dead. I'm his grandson. We just got your signal. Things have been rough on our end. Where are you?"
"I'm sorry to hear that. Matty was a good man. Can you come and bail us out? Me and Kiril are trapped about halfway up the Spike. How many of you are there? The Ferals the Shard has been producing have been becoming nastier. They got nearly all of us, one by one. Kiril was just about torn in half. I've got him in a stasis pod here with me."
There was so much there. I wanted to ask questions, but convincing the guy on the other end I was a newbie didn't seem like the best idea right now. I'd need him to have faith that I could get him out of this jam.
"Sorry to say the cavalry's just me and my drones. What's your name?" I asked.
"I'm Regar, First Seeker," Regar replied, his tone seeming to imply that should mean something to me.
"Okay, Regar. Feed Brick your position and I'll come and get you," I said.
"Who's Brick? I thought it was just you?" he replied.
"I'm Brick. I'm a Core controller," Brick interjected.
"Ferals, Jake," Regar cursed. "You're relying on one of them? Did your grandfather teach you nothing? Restrictions or no, machine intelligences can't be trusted."
I was a little annoyed at this. "Hey, Regar, you're not in a position right now to choose who bails your ass out of this situation you got yourself into. A little respect for my friend, please."
There was a short silence on the other end. "My apologies, Jake. I intended no disrespect."
I noticed there was no apology to Brick in there, but one step at a time.
"Accepted. Metra is back on the station as well, but she's our engineer. She'll be supporting us as she can."
"Greetings, honored First," Metra said. "I regret to say that I would be of no use in a Spike. May I ask how this outpost is still intact without anyone here?"
Metra's voice was serious and full of respect I hadn't heard from her before. I definitely needed to figure out just what the deal was with Regar.
"There is a plasma turret above the airlock. Normally it's manually controlled by whoever has the duty shift. Before the three of us left on this mission, Kiril jury-rigged an automatic firing system. It will fire on anything it detects, friend or foe."
"We'll fix that. Metra, can you take control of the turret?" I asked.
"I will. Honored First, you said three?"
"Yes. Kiril, Danner and I. Danner's dead. We were pushing for the Shard and—" he said, his voice cutting off.
"Regar, what's going on?" I asked.
"No time to talk. They've breached the collapse and it's time to fight. Come and get us, Jake, please."
"I have a position signal from the First," Brick reported.
"Then I've got to go. Metra, do you have control of the turret?"
"I do."
"Good. Don't shoot me."
The inner airlock door opened at my touch and I stepped through, my drones following closely. I could hear a hiss as hidden vents sucked the breathable atmosphere of the outpost away, replacing it with vacuum. The hard vacuum light on my HUD lit up for a heartbeat before the outer airlock door opened and the outside air rushed in to fill the space. The atmosphere indicator changed from hard vacuum to "hostile/toxic atmosphere."
I stepped out into the weird blue light onto the rocky surface of an alien world.
Chapter Two: To the Spike
THE SCENE I WAS LOOKING at was one I'd seen only on album covers. I was high on the side of a mountain, looking down at a valley far below, filled with the shattered towers of an alien city. In the center of the city a shining needle stretched out of a deep black crater, dwarfing the buildings in the city around it. It sparkled in the light of the sun peeking over the horizon. Tiny specks seemed to float aimlessly around it, or flitted away into the distance. The Spike. What looked like wide, meandering silver rivers of metal stretched out of the city to the right and left.
The sky was a deep purplish-black, pinpricks of stars barely visible through the haze of the toxic atmosphere. On the horizon a harsh blue sun was either rising or setting—I wasn't clear on the local time—and casting deep shadows.
The airlock I'd just exited closed behind me. It was set into a sheer rock face, the dark grey stone looking just like the mountains on Earth did.
