Soulbreakers

Defensefarers

"So that's what happened to the missing astronauts..." Viatriz waved her arm to the side, closing the augmented reality e-mail window on her helmet. "They accepted to get paid to assume new identities and keep the research in secrecy."

Danita stood at the lab's entrance, next to the yellow taped crime scene banner, looking at the blood-tainted rod soldered to the trolley. "It seems one of those 'serious crimes' happened here. One of the crew members was stricken by the 'violent paranoid behavior' and pushed the trolley car against his colleague."

"Probably this happened during the second outbreak of the disease," Nikkie said, "immediately before this lab became an evacuation vault and was sealed."

"Both who pushed the trolley car and who was hit were victims," Baun said. "A lot of suffering must have happened here."

"But also some redemption," Viatriz said, optimistic. "They were rightfully absolved."

Nikkie was near the metallic construct with two spheres separated by concentric cylinders. "So this metallic beauty is a teleportation machine..." she whispered. "I wish I could use it now."

"I'll go on foot if you don't mind," Ryon said.

"I said 'I wish'!" Nikkie snapped out. "I didn't find a way to activate this machine yet, so you're safe, for now."

"It might've been left here for maintenance," Baun said, "before the whole base was suddenly evacuated."

Viatriz wandered through the room. "This must be one of the quantum scanners used in the sick astronauts..." she said, passing by the RMI-like machine. She stopped by the elongated box with robotic arms holding thin cables. "And maybe this helped in the nano-surgeries."

"Can we return to the surface now," Ryon inquired, "before Nikkie turns that machine on?"

"No need to return," Nikkie replied. "When the power came back, I found a function in the vests' software that opens the gate at the mountain. We can go straight forward to the base."

"At last," Ryon said, "we agree on something."

They passed through the opened gate and, after a while, were joined by the others. They went upwards through the tunnel's ascent, the long journey becoming less tiresome thanks to the path's gentle slope and the smooth linearity of a man-made passageway.

When they arose together out of the tunnel, they immediately saw, not far off, the automated ship Gily had left.

"Can't wait to arrive at the space station," Nikkie said.

"Same," Ryon said. "Let's leave this minefield."

"ASAP," Danita added, to what Baun nodded and Viatriz smiled.

They were all relieved when the automated ship ascended through the black daylight sky.

* * *

Defensefarers Space Station

The space station was a rotating ring-like structure, its external hulls made primarily of solar panels and glass, the ample transparent panels showing the station's illuminated interiors, mostly silvery and white, from afar.

A link between the ship and the station's systems coordinated the deceleration of the ship with the opening of the station's hatch. The ship floated in the docking bay slowly and smoothly landed on one of its platforms.

A mobile passage moved from the station's interior and notched perfectly into the ship's entrance. "That's quite a match," Nikkie said, "better than Earth's airports."