18.
HUNTER
3 HOURS, 44 MINUTES REMAINING
ILEAN BACK INmy chair once the screens start to blur together, gazing up at the ceiling where a passionfruit vine is snaking its way across the latticework. It reminds me of Cleo’s tattoos, actually. The plants seem to find a way to cling to every little place they can – kind of like humans on the red planet, I guess.
What are the intruders looking for? They’re still digging through the registers – well, what’s left of the tech team is – but they’re all over the place.
I let my gaze drop to the standard displays, scanning them idly. The navigation scan has Pax at the center of its circle, and a line that rotates slowly around the display, flicking past the nearby settlements one by one. I watch as they flash their names in turn.EURO W. EURO E. AFRO U. ARES TECH.
They’re all agonizingly close, but totally oblivious. It feelslike we’re standing here in a crowd, but however loud we scream, nobody will hear us.
The scanning line sweeps around the navigation panel like a hand on a clock, and each one of them jumps to life for an instant as it passes. It’s almost hypnotic, watching as each one flashes in turn.
And then there’s a new ping.
I scramble forward in my chair, leaning down to get a better look at it. It’s a dot halfway between us and Ares Tech, labeled UR-9999.
Hope jolts through me like a shot of adrenaline, like a flutter in my belly. I twist around to look for Cleo, who’s hovering in the doorway. I can’t even spit out words yet – I frantically wave her over, getting to my feet.
She kills whatever display she’s looking at on the headset, jogging over toward me.
‘There,’ I manage. ‘Something’s coming. See that dot? It wasn’t there before. We’ve got things much farther out – all the big stations. So if that just started showing up, it must be small. In this storm, it had to get close enough to be picked up.’
‘What does that mean?’ she asks, staring down at the nav scan, watching the line sweep around the circle.
‘It means it could be a rover. Someone from Ares could be out and about.’
‘It’s not quite on course to have come from Ares,’ she points out, squinting at it. ‘Oh, but there’s a crevasse it would have to go around, and …’ She trails off, then lifts her gaze to me as hope dawns. ‘Hunter, you think we can get them on comms?’
‘I think let’s find out. The mercs have the main comms to the other bases blocked, but local stuff is on a different system. They couldn’t block it, unless they wanted to block on-base comms. Pair your headset to the console, hail them.’
She swipes up her headset’s menu – only visible to her, as the one using it – but her fingers dance in the air, and a moment later I accept the request at Susanna’s station. Cleo hands me the headset, fumbling a little to get it off her temples. ‘You do it.’
I don’t argue, but just slip on the headset, still warm from where it rested against her skin. And then I send a ping to UR-9999.
Time drags out, every second stretching into a lifetime, and I force myself to count slowly. I’ve reached fifteen when it pings us back, and the screen lights up.
‘Holy shit,’ Cleo whispers, and leans down to rest her hands on my shoulders, pressing her ear to mine to listen in.
I draw in a shaky breath and speak. ‘UR-9999, this is Pax Station hailing, do you read?’
There’s a pause, and then a startled voice, crackling with static.Pax Station, this is rover. What the hell are you doing there?
Relief rushes through me like a river. I want to laugh, I want to cry – I want to slide down and sit on the floor, or float up to the ceiling. I lift my hand to squeeze Cleo’s, where she rests it on my shoulder. She squeezes back, hard.
‘Rover, that’s a long story, but we are incredibly glad to see you.’
Cleo grips my hand even tighter suddenly, and I hear herquick intake of breath behind me. I mute the line, turning my head to look up at her.
‘They can’t listen in on this, right?’ she whispers.
‘We’re safe,’ I reply. ‘It’s a secure line, one comms point to another. We’re not on one of the five public channels, so they won’t pick it up on a general sweep.’
Pax Station, do you need assistance?Rover is asking. It’s a woman, her voice flattened by the transmission, but I can still hear her surprise.Our information was that the station is repressurizing after a bio vent, but the signal’s been fritzy, so I got diverted by Ares Base to scan from close up. We thought the mess on the signal was the dust storm, but if you’re alive in there, I’m assuming you do have pressure?
‘Rover, I confirm the alarm was a false signal,’ I reply, lifting my hand to rest it over Cleo’s on my shoulder. ‘We’re alive, but we are not okay. The station’s been invaded by a hostile force. If you have enough battery to make it here, we could really use a pickup.’
