Shades Of Forever

I peer at the empty lengths of my right hand where my last two fingers should be.

"...Box? What's going on here?"

Not enough biomass for a full reconstruction. I'll finish it when we find more. Unless Huckens wants to volunteer some of his own?

"...Box says it'll finish growing back later. Uhm. Where do we go now?"

Huckens goggles at me.

"...you're sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine."

"...if you say so." He turns a quick circle, peering intently at the hulking ruins, then points at an entrance several floors up, the one where I killed the first Marauder. "This looks like the starboard logistical wing, which means our best chance at finding an intact molecular forge is on that level."

"What's inside?"

"Some armories, vehicle repair bays, ammunition printers, maintenance halls, stuff like that. MacWillie would send me there to get parts for the engines. The forge should be in between repair bays three and four."

"Okay." I pause, trying to think of how to word what I want to say. "Look, Huckens, I was serious about you not having to scout ahead. Box and I can deal with whatever's in there. Just tell us where to go."

He shakes his head in dismissal.

"You fought two integrators and lost two fingers. At that rate, you're going to be nothing but stumps before we're halfway there, and then where am I going to be?"

I scowl at him, but it bounces off his shaky smirk.

"...fine. But be careful."

"I will," he replies seriously. "Come on, let's do this before I lose my nerve."

I sigh as I lift him with one of my limbs, using the other two to climb up to the entrance. I make sure I check it first, keeping Huckens out of sight, before I hoist him into the passageway. The light only penetrates a handful of scrumbles-

...I hate you

-before it's replaced by stygian gloom, the narrow corridor turning a ninety degree angle and hiding anything laying deeper within. Huckens takes a couple deep breaths, then exchanges his spanners with the glass 'diagnostic' pane from his satchel.

"Wait here," he whispers. "I'll be back in a couple minutes."

He sets off down the hallway in a casual stride, glass pane held in both hands, and I hope the slight trembles in his fingers don't give him away. He rounds the corner and slips from sight.

The following seconds pass like hours, every muscle in my body tensing as I anticipate all the things that could go wrong. The integrators don't recognize him. One of the integrators higher on the ship was watching everything outside and is patrolling down. Huckens drops his 'tablet,' does something to make the integrators suspicious.

Relax, Sky. Breathe.

Silent slices of time drift by, stretched out beyond breaking. I try to follow Box's advice, but it's impossible to relax. I should be there. I should be somewhere I can intervene if Huckens gets in trouble.

Movement at the end of the hallway. I freeze, ready to spring into action. My heart pounds like a drum.

Huckens walks back around the corner, tablet in his hands. As soon as he clears the line of sight of whatever lays beyond, he drops the nonchalant facade and hustles over. I let myself finally unclench, then grab his arms, trying not to shake him.

"What took so long? I thought they might have killed you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Sky." He wriggles out of my grip, looking at me oddly. "I was only gone for two minutes. Like I said I was going to be."

"It's..." I clench my fists uselessly, missing finger stumps twitching. "...the waiting. Was tough."

"Well, I guess get used to it? Because we're going to have to do this again after you clear that room. Look."

He taps the glass pane and a selection of lines and circles appear. I try to make sense of what he's showing me, but can't.

"What is that?"

"Schematic of the ship. We're here." He hovers a finger over a green dot. "This is the passageway." He traces a pair of lines that turn sharply, then open into a larger square filled with crosshatchings. "That's repair bay one. There's three integrators in there - here, here, and here." He indicates three red dots. "They're not watching the entrance, and there's half walls between the vehicle bays, so if you stay low, you can sneak up on them. I acted like I was doing maintenance and they stayed in those spots the entire time. I don't know what's in the next room, though - took all my time to check the corners in this one properly. It's supposed to be a maintenance cubby between the repair bays, so it should be empty, but I can't say for sure."

I stare at the maze of lines and squiggles and dots, then look up at Huckens.

"I'm supposed to remember all that?"

That's my job, Sky. Just follow the waypoints and I'll guide you into position. We need to stay quiet to avoid drawing attention, so we'll have to approach close enough to use the kukri.

"...oh. Never mind. Box says it can do it."

Huckens closes his mouth and nods.

"Okay. Come back and get me when you're done." He swallows. "And, you know, be careful, okay?"

I return the nod, then make my way down the passage, Box adjusting my vision to make up for the lack of light. Everything looks pale and washed out, as if the life of the ship has been leeched away. I turn the corner, almost lying flat against the ground, my limbs picking my way forward like some strange three-legged spider.

The corridor keeps its current width for another eight meters before opening onto a cavernous room filled with a twisting maze of incomprehensible machinery. Chains rattle softly high overhead, stirred by some slight breeze, and the floor is a mess of broken parts and unmoving bodies. A green waypoint appears in my vision and I slowly creep towards it, trying not to gag at the smell of voided bowels and rotting flesh. My limbs carefully prod several of the closest bodies, silently ingesting them, and my two lost fingers itch as they grow back.

A hand clamps down on my wrist and I draw in breath to scream, but the muscles in my throat freeze. Next to me, what I thought was a corpse is staring at me with vacant eyes, both legs shattered beneath a slab of metal, one arm missing, hair lank and skin sallow. My kukri slices in, cutting off its remaining arm at the elbow, then beheads the silently gaping face. I scrabble to peel the iron grip from my flesh but it's already gone, absorbed by one of my other limbs.

Sky, I'm going to release your vocal chords, but you can't make any noise, okay?

Air starts flowing into my lungs again in short, panting breaths, buzzing grey filling the edges of my vision. Everything narrows down until it feels like I'm looking down a tunnel. I don't know if I can do this.

It was an integrator, Sky. Probably one specialized in durability. It can take a long time for us to run out of biomass once the host is gone and critical systems are still functioning. Huckens wouldn't have noticed it because it wouldn't see him as a threat.

I continue sucking in shallow gasps of air, iron bands constricting across my chest. This... is horrific. How many more of these pulverized remains are still alive, wasting away in these ruins?

I told you, they're not alive. Their integrators are following standard preservation protocols. There's nothing human left in there. It's just a meat husk for a dying program.

Shudders pass through my body, and I deliberately shift my thoughts to Huckens. I need to get through this so I can get him back to the village. He's counting on me. Gradually the tightness in my chest loosens, though it doesn't disappear completely. Finally I feel stable enough to continue moving on.

I reach the first waypoint after what feels like an eternity, a small intersection in the maze of parts and walls. I look around for a target, but there's nothing there.

We need to sneak up on them, Sky. Head towards the next one.

Grimacing, I continue following Box's instructions. I don't like how exposed I feel so close to the floor, limbs focused on movement instead of ready with weapons, but I can't afford to make any noise and I trust them to maneuver me better than my hands and feet. After several more twists and turns, and thankfully no more surprise corpse attacks, I halt at the current glowing green arrow.

An integrator is around this corner. Move fast in case they're looking this way.

I steel my nerve, then command my limbs into action, slipping around the wall in a scuttling rush. A body in armor appears in front of me, staring in the opposite direction at sights unseen, and in the blink of an eye I'm close enough for my kukri to chop into the gap at the base of its neck with a meaty thunk that sounds entirely too loud. Box quickly disposes of the evidence and I scurry towards the next waypoint.

I follow the flashing arrows once again, neither of the remaining integrators aware that I'm present until I snuff them from existence, and a short time later I'm back with Huckens in the initial hallway, the dim rays of sunlight not enough to warm my chilled skin.

"Is the room clear?" he whispers, and I nod, clenching my teeth behind pressed lips. "Okay. Let's move up and I'll scout out the next one."

We move into the now empty repair bay and repeat the process. An agonizing wait. Slow maneuvering through the graveyard of the next room. An occasional body jerking to life despite what should be mortal wounds. Swift and merciless dispatch of what Box assures me are mere shells, yet their dying expressions are all too human. Crawling back across a carpet of loss, my limbs cleaning any trace of death from my flesh.

It feels like parts of me are flaking away, caught in an oven of regret.

"This should be the last one," Huckens informs me in a low voice, and I snap back to reality. We're between a pair of shattered shuttles in repair bay three, the echoing space of the chamber empty except for what we introduce. Everything is shades of monochromatic gray and black, the sun unwilling to shine its face this deep in the cruiser's bowels. "I'll go check out the forge room."

Another endless eternity that I can't alter, huddling amongst the bones of the fallen while I wait for his return. What if this is the time that Huckens gets caught? Footsteps ring out softly on the metal floor and I tense.

"Sky, it's me. Easy now."

My nightmares recede, the stolid reality of Huckens banishing them to my unwanted dreams, and I clasp his hands.

"That's it? The last one?"

"It is," his voice takes on a bit of MacWillie's rasping timbre, "but we've a problem. There's two integrators on the ground level, eyeing each other, and one in the gantries above eyeing them both."

"That's-"

"That's not all," he cuts me off, eyes narrowed. "The room beyond, repair bay four, it's packed full of troops and no, I don't know why. Maybe it was a staging ground. If the integrators sense anything out of the ordinary, they're going to come investigate."

"...so guns are still out?"

"Yeah."

"Is there any way for me to sneak to the one up top?"

"No. The two on the ground will see you as soon as you go through the door."

"Then what was the point?" I want to cry from frustration. "All that time we just spent was wasted."

"I think we can still take them out and get the forge," Huckens replies carefully. "Look." He holds out the tablet, pointing to the lines and dots I assume are the room beyond. "The ones on the ground, they've got vision of everywhere in the room, but they're standing near this wall." He points to a line - on one side are two red dots, on the other is the repair bay we're currently in. "Your dash, it goes more than four meters, right?"

"Five meters."

"Good." His expression grows intense. "So what you'll do, is dash through the wall here," he taps the screen, "and take them down before they can shoot."

"What about the one up top? You said he was watching the ones below. I won't be able to get to him in time."

"Which is why I'm going to take him out at the same time you hit the other two." His voice grows a little shaky at the end of the sentence, but his eyes are resolute. "Then we can disassemble the forge; the other integrators won't care about an engineer doing engineering things."

"...it's too dangerous. What if the two on the ground see you as a threat before I get there? They'll kill you!"

"We can make this work, Sky," Huckens says, almost pleading. "I know we can."

For what it's worth, the plan is sound. I give it a 98.4% chance of succeeding.

"But what if it doesn't?"

He fixes my gaze with his own, a burning intensity that leaves no room for doubt.

"It will. Trust me. I won't let you down."

I take a breath, then another, trying to settle my nerves. If both Box and Huckens say it will work...

I can't crawl through anymore graveyards.

"Okay. I trust you. Let's do this."

He nods sharply, then leads me over to the repair bay wall. After a quick consultation with his tablet, he positions me in front of an unremarkable section of scuffed metal plating.

"Set a timer for one minute from... now." Green numbers appear in my vision, ticking down from sixty. "Go on zero. After you dash, they'll be right in front of you." He gives me a wobbly smile. "See you on the other side." Tablet in one hand, spanner in the other, he walks over to the forge room entrance, then steps through.

I stand alone in the silence, watching the numbers fall. Am I doing the right thing? Is it fair to ask Huckens to risk his life like this for me and the village?

It will be fine, Sky. Thirty seconds. Focus.

The seconds fall to single digits, and I try to slow my breathing to match. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

dash

Two armored figures appear before me, guns already lifting with smooth precision but I'm striking fast and true.

Executing NothingPersonnel.exe

Current Energy: 187/210

A dull thud sounds from above me as I whirl away from the falling shapes. Huckens stands tall in the gantries, spanner clenched in both hands, an immobile figure at his feet. He flashes me a triumphant look and I let myself breathe out. We did it.

A dark shape reaches up from the floor behind him, one hand gripping the railing and pulling it far enough upright so the other hand can lift a curved axe. Its head lolls drunkenly to the side, half the face missing. I try to scream a warning, I try to fire my guns, but Box won't let me. The axe reaches its apex, then begins to fall.

Time seems to crystallize around me, my brain racing for a solution, but there's none to be found. Huckens is going to die. Just like Wires. I feel my heart cracking in half.

stupid

A shape ripples out of my shadow and then Pete is there, savaging the body with fang and claw and tail. The axe whips past Huckens' face, bouncing off the railing with a ringing clang, and he flinches back, eyes widening. Pete finishes mauling the corpse, then flips his tail at Huckens and jumps back down into non-existence.

naptime. later, fishes

I look around nervously, wondering if the sound was enough to draw the attention of the integrators in the next room, but after a tense minute of stillness, nothing continues to happen and I almost collapse in relief. Huckens makes his way down next to me on trembling legs, color drained from his face. His mouth opens and shuts several times, until finally he's able to speak.

"I was wrong, Sky. Your cat is definitely not shite."