After White Level, he entered the one called Wheat. The tile floor had an earthy, golden color to it.
A large mural on the entryway hall depicted a cutaway view of one of the giant agriculture platforms, carpeted with hundreds of crop sections in every shade of green and gold.
Skyler couldn’t help but be impressed by the quality of the artwork, and the engineering marvel it depicted. The Platz Space-Ag logo took prominent position on the side.
He continued on, not stopping again until he entered Black Level.
He went to the nearest door in the curved hall and turned the handle. It clicked as the lock disengaged.
“Hello?” Skyler pushed the door in slightly.
A man sat on a bunk, wearing a T-shirt and underwear. He looked ill, staring at Skyler with tired eyes.
“I’m on your side,” Skyler said in a quiet voice.
The man’s expression turned slowly to hope, like a light turning on.
“Are you okay? Can you walk?”
His voice cracked as he spoke. “Do you have any food?”
“Sorry,” Skyler said.
“Are you part of the resistance?”
Whatever that meant, it held promise, and fell near enough the mark. “Yes. I’m looking for Tania Sharma.”
The man stared toward some vague point near Skyler. Dark bags hung under his unfocused eyes. “I heard Blackfield strangled her.”
Skyler felt a pulse of dread rip through him and fought to control it. The words rang like rumor, and they didn’t match what the administrator had said.
“Do you know where her room is?”
“Two-ten, I think. Take me with you,” he said.
“How many other guards patrol this level?”
“Take me with you!”
Skyler put a hand on the man’s shoulder. “I will, but not yet. I can’t afford for an alert to be raised.”
The feeble man searched Skyler’s face. He dipped his head, and nodded slowly.
The door had “210” on a plaque next it. Skyler swiped the card he’d stolen, and heard the lock disengage.
“Tania?” he asked. The room was dark. “It’s Skyler. Remember, from Hawaii?” His voice sounded stupid to his ears.
Tania Sharma turned on a light next to the bed. Eyes like saucers, she stood on shaking legs. Her lower lip quivered as tears began to run freely down her cheeks.
Skyler caught her just as she started to collapse. She gripped his shirtsleeves fiercely and sobbed into his chest. Skyler gathered her into a fierce embrace, easing her to a sitting position on the floor in front of the bed.
“I’m so glad to see a friendly face,” she said between sobs and sharp breaths.
“Likewise.”
“Your uniform,” she said with sudden numbness.
“I’ll burn it the first chance I get,” he said. “For now it’s proving pretty useful.”
“You’re the last person I thought … how did you …?”
“Where there’s a will,” he said, leaving the cliché unfinished.
“That’s some will …”
“It’s about all I have left.”
She smiled. A feeble smile, but so full of gratitude that Skyler felt an instant and overwhelming love for her. “Thank you,” she managed.
Skyler wiped a tear from her cheek. “We need to get out of here, Tania. Quickly. I have a ship—”
“No,” she said.
Skyler frowned, puzzled.
Her face had a sudden expression of determination. “We can’t leave; we need to retake the station. It’s critical. Don’t worry, I have a plan.”
Skyler peaked into the hallway outside her cabin and saw no one. “Where to?”
“I need to use the restroom,” Tania said. “It’s to the left.”
He moved out into the hall, taking her by the arm as if escorting her as a prisoner, hoping his guise as a Nightcliff guard would continue to hold.
“Wait,” she said.
He let her go, and she jogged a short distance to a door down the hall, knocking forcefully. “Nat? Natalie?”
Skyler could hear the depth of her concern. He watched as she knocked again, then moved to stand next to her. “Let me,” he said. He swiped the key card again and pushed the door open after the lock released.
The bed was made, unused. A pair of night slippers rested on the floor in perfect alignment.
“Who are we looking for?” Skyler asked.
“My assistant, Natalie. She was with Blackfield when I last saw her.”
“He left, Tania. For Gateway. Took most of his men, too.”
“Then our lie worked better than expected.”
Skyler arched an eyebrow at that.
“I’ll explain later.”
He nodded and took her arm once again, gently clasping her elbow with his hand. They walked a short distance to the communal restrooms.
A minute later she emerged looking refreshed: face clean, black hair pulled into a severe bun, and no sign of tears on her cheeks.
She went straight to Skyler and kissed him.
“I’m finished crying,” she said when their lips parted. “I’m finished feeling weak. Thank you, again, for finding me.”
Skyler had no response. He simply smiled. “Where to?”
“First,” she said, “if I don’t eat something, I’m going to faint.”
“Where’s the cafeteria?”
She shook her head. “Too far. Too dangerous. We keep snacks in the observatory.”
“Lead the way,” he said.
Despite the hallway being empty, Skyler kept his voice low. “Tania, did they … did Russell hurt you? Or …”
“No,” she said, “not directly.”
Her choice of words filled him with dread. “What do you mean?”
“Natalie. He made allusions to mistreating her, because of my silence. Lies, I think, meant to encourage me to cooperate.”
“Are you sure? Blackfield has a reputation …”
Tania’s face grew still, her eyes unfocused. “Lies of a different sort. Natalie was duty-bound to cooperate. Turns out she’s been working for Alex Warthen for some time.”
“God,” Skyler whispered. He tried to imagine one of his own crew turning out to be on Blackfield’s payroll. The very idea made his blood boil. “How did you find out?”
Tania grew quiet for a while. “She wanted to explain, but they never left us alone. My imagination ran wild, of course. To be honest, I was ready to give him whatever he wanted in exchange for her safety.”
“I can understand that.”
The woman nodded. “Then she got the idea to tell Russell that she and I were lovers. Turned his perversion against him.”
“Ah. The shower.”
Tania looked at him. “How did you …?”
Skyler sighed. “The rat currently in charge of the station mentioned it. Seems you’ve become quite famous on the local video circuit.”
“Oh, wonderful.”
“Think of it this way,” Skyler said: “At least it’s kept them away from you. Well, that and Blackfield’s orders.”
“Did, um, did you …”
“No,” Skyler said. “No, I’m not like that.”
She gave his arm a squeeze. “In here,” she said at a double door. It led to a large circular room dominated by the viewing apparatus of a telescope. Computer terminals lined one-half of the room, and metal cabinets the other. Tania went straight to one cabinet in particular. “Hungry?”
“I could eat,” Skyler said.
She popped it open and began to rummage through the contents. “See if those terminals will turn on, will you?”
Skyler tried each one, but the power button on each produced no result. “Dead.”
“That’s our next task.” She held a plastic container, filled with nutrition bars sealed in Preservall bags. She set the container down and tore one open. The bar vanished into her mouth with astonishing speed. Then she remembered herself and tossed one to Skyler.
He caught it, then motioned to the row of blank monitors. “Can we fix these?”
Tania went back to the cabinet, emerging with two stainless steel bottles. She handed one of these to him as well. The water inside had a metallic taste, but he felt grateful for it. He gulped half the bottle down before putting the cap back on.
“They’re probably locked out from the security center,” Tania said.
“Why do you have a stash of food and water in here?” Skyler asked.
She crooked an eyebrow at him. “It’s our shelter in the event of a solar storm. That and we’re all workaholics. People do research in here all night sometimes. It’s usually crowded.”
They both ate in silence for a time. He spoke first. “Tania, has there been any more subhumans up here recently? Power fluctuations on the cord?”
“No,” she said. “At least, none that I’m aware of. Why?”
Skyler told her about Neil’s request, and what happened in the pit below Nightcliff. “I have no idea how,” Skyler concluded, “but I think I fixed it. It’s like the thing just needed to … eat.”
She stared at him. Then her brow furrowed. “That might not be far from the truth. No, I mean it. Assume these subhumans had some new, rare strain of the disease. Cleary the Aura had trouble dealing with that, until your visit. Maybe all it needed was a …” She paused, searching for the right word. “Sample.”
He gave a grudging nod. “Whatever the case, it sure didn’t like how I tasted.”
“Which makes sense,” she said, and smiled at the objection on his face. “You’re immune. What need does it have of you?”
Skyler ate the rest of his bar. The water left a metallic taste in his mouth, but he finished it all the same. “What was on those data cubes, anyway?”
The energy drained from her face. “Evidence,” she said. “Neil and I thought the Builders would come back someday, and I realized if I knew where in the sky to look, I might be able to spot them early. For that I needed data from the prior events.”
“And you were right, I’m guessing?”
She nodded, and yet he saw a flash of doubt in her eyes. “I thought they’d be years away, but they were right on top of us. We’re lucky Neil decided to hire you when he did, or we would have missed them.”
From her tone, Skyler guessed she didn’t entirely believe that. The timing did seem uncanny. “They’re back, then? Another care package, or did they show up in person this time?”
“As far as we can tell,” Tania said, “the ship is building a new space elevator.”
He almost laughed. Humankind could barely keep one of the damned things running. What good would a second do?
The answer hit him instantly: Start again. Do it right.
“So, what’s our plan?”
“It’s critical I get to a terminal,” she said. “One that works, I mean.” She walked the rest of the way around the circular room and stopped in front of Skyler. “Platz made the plan. He sent it to me before he died.”
“Time to clue me in,” Skyler said. “To everything.”
She did. His eyes grew wider with each word.
“What in God’s name is she doing here?”
Skyler winced at the shrill voice of the station commander. He held Tania’s right arm behind her back, as if she was being moved against her will.
“You said … I thought you said to bring her to you?” Skyler scratched his ear.
“I never said anything of the sort, you imbecile!”
Skyler scratched his ear again. Sighed. “When I was leaving, you said ‘unless she can fix a terminal.’”
The man fumed. “I wasn’t talking about her, idiot, I … wait, can she? Can you?” he said to Tania.
“Can I what?”
“Fix a terminal.”
Tania paused. Skyler gave her arm a subtle squeeze, for reassurance. “I refuse,” she said.
The man leaned on his borrowed desk and absently crushed a piece of paper in his fist. “If you do not,” he said, “I will have you beaten.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Tania said.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh,” Skyler said, “I already explained we were not to lay a finger on her. Blackfield’s orders, as you said.”
The commander closed his eyes in frustration. “What else did you share with her?”
Skyler looked to the ceiling. “Hmm … Just that she was even lovelier than you described.”
“Which confused me,” Tania said. “Have we met before?”
Skyler spoke before the nervous man could. “He said he saw you in a video—”
“That’s enough, Nera.” He read the name off Skyler’s uniform. “I’m going to put you to work cleaning the waste containers.”
Tania coughed, politely. “I’ll make you a deal,” she said.
He turned his attention to her. “Go on.”
“Two things. As I understand it, the station crew has not been fed or allowed to the restrooms in nearly twenty-four hours.”
“I’m understaffed. Even with the relief squad that arrived yesterday. They sent me jackasses like this bloke—”
“I understand, but my people are all locked up, so your patrols are pointless.”
“Is that so?”
Tania ignored him and went on. “Release the janitorial crew so they can deliver food and perform basic services, under guard of course. Allow our people bathroom breaks, then return them to their rooms. Level by level, so you can have ample security on hand.”
