The airlock popped open casting out a small hush of air that shot past her into the void. She swung herself around, legs shooting into the chamber. Once they were firmly secured to the floor she pulled the door shut. She ran her infiltration protocols, letting her suit’s internal systems work to ensure the message never reached the primary command center. She waited as the chamber re-pressurize. An anxious energy bubbled up within her. She licked her lips. She wanted to pace yet she stayed still. Rooted in place as her eyes remained focused upon the door. Giving in, she inched over to the doorway, leaned up and peered into the hallways beyond.

Empty.

She gritted her teeth. She wished she could just slip one of her spirits through the wall like they did in the holo-vids. Yet for some strange reason artificial structures seemed to block most spirits from passing through. Though she’d seen some that had been able to pass through walls they were few and far between. An anomaly within a system nobody fully understood.

A bright light bathed the chamber green. She was clear. Tapping the door controls, she listened to the door pop open. Her heart raced. If anyone had been nearby they’d have heard it. Pressing herself against the frame, she peered into the hall. Still empty. The hallway was uniform. Metal panels pressed together to create a manageable passageway that boxed in the bland ceiling and grated floor. To her relief it was flooded with shadows. Her brow furrowed as she tried to make sense as to why that was the case. There were plenty of lights, yet the place was mostly obscured.

Fortunately, the shadows seemed to be one long interconnected piece. It would allow her to use her suit’s primary infiltration abilities. Sending power into the three jewels set into the back of her armor, she watched the world shift around her. The colors bleeding away until only black-and-white remained. Her body and armor seemed to dissolve, slipping into the shadows like a puddle. She swam through the darkness, like a serpent through water. She traveled along the floor and then up onto the wall. She traveled for some time until she reached an adjoining hallway. Here there was light. Though still not at full force.

Why would the lights be off? It didn't make any sense. This place should have been flooded with light. It was as if they were running on partial power. Was there something else within this facility that was drawing that power? What was her master doing here? Was there an emergency? That thought bothered her. She wouldn’t know until she tapped into the database and saw the facilities status. For now it was a low concern and she wasn't about to judge a gift bird's feathers.

She released her moths. They scattered before her like a billowing storm cloud. She traveled behind, following them in their wake. She reached another corner. Stopped. Watched the moths. They broke into two primary groups. Both traveled without problem. She went left, slipping down onto the metal grated floor and then back up onto the wall. As she ventured further into the facility she noted the walls were starting to have access panels and she could feel the faint vibration of pipes within the walls. As she traveled forward the distant rumbling of machinery entered her awareness.

As she traveled she’d stop periodically. One to watch her moths but also to concentrate. If she cleared her mind, pushing everything away until only the shadows within her remained she could make out the hushed cadence of conversation. Not the words but the sounds. They had an intelligible quality to them that separated them from gibberish but she still couldn’t make them out. After several tries she came upon two guards. Their conversation was nothing meaningful but she could catch snatches of words. It was like catching falling puzzle pieces and then trying to fit them together.

This skill, drawn from a mix of spirit magic and her own power fueling it, was one she hadn’t mastered. She wasn’t confident in it. Especially in urban environments where shadows were dissected and segregated. All it would take is a light to expose her and slam her back into a physical form. An experience she wasn’t keen on repeating.

She remembered hearing legends, most of which would been told to her by Deidra, about shadow mages that had the ability to merge with the shadows and could hear and see everything the shadows touched. She doubted that could ever be true. Such a tool would be incredibly powerful with little in the way of countermeasures. Her eyes drifted back to a beam of light that cut her off from and forced her to divert her course and follow only a few moths who saw potential in this path’s possibility. She noted that each intersection had a light set into it. If it was like the one she’d just seen then it was more than enough to force her from the shadows each time.

That still left her with that one aggravating and nagging question.

Korsha paused as footsteps approached. She tried to press herself deeper into the shallow ocean of shadows she now waded in. The figure rounded the corner. She was allusv by the shape of her dagger tipped ears, red-skin and white hair tied into a headache inducing tight bun. A long ashen cloak was draped over her body, the bottom swaying around her calves. She was coming straight for Korsha.

Coiled up tight, Korsha was ready to surge forward if necessary. The person stopped. Had she sensed Korsha’s presence? Then the woman shook her head, a yawn widening her mouth to exaggerated proportions before shutting. The woman smacked her lips as she stretched. After rubbing her face, the scientist continued down the hall. Before the woman left the hall another person appeared. Korsha hesitated. Grimacing, she stayed rooted in place. Focusing, she magnified her hearing, pouring every ounce of her attention into amplifying it.

“...command… the power…”

“I just… here… Take it… with”

Korsha could make out the tone but she got the sense that they were complaining. She traveled across the wall before slipping into the shadow of the allusv.

“Orders came down from the top. It’s all a part of some plan the higher ups have going on.”

The other person shrugged and then sighed. Seconds later the two departed down the hall in the direction the allusv woman had been headed. Korsha lingered, unsure if she should pursue them and see if they said anything else. There was a plan in place. Did higher ups mean the facility directors or did that also include her master? She had to know.

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She called her moths back for the moment as she continued to follow the scientists. She listened to their pandering conversation, cringing as each second of useless dribble dripped from their lips. Korsha, who’d been so preoccupied on their conversation, hadn't realized that she’d followed them into a small room. In dawning horror, she shot towards the door that was now closing. This was a decontamination chamber. She slid out, sliding across the grated floor shadows as the door sealed shut behind her. She could see the crisscrossing of orange lasers filling the room through the window on the door.

That was close, Korsha told herself as she crept up the door and peered inside. She winced at the light, having to pull back and wait until they scientists had finished and were disappearing into the corridor beyond the contamination chamber. She hoped that there wasn’t such protocols around the servers. If so she'd have to go to the command center. Surely there they wouldn't have such protocols there as it would congest such a vital station.

She glanced up and down the passage. She sent her moths back out and followed them to the end of the hall. She continued to follow them for several minutes until she could feel the air cooling around her. She was close. It only took three more corridors before she found herself standing on the hallway that led to the server entrance. So thoughtful that they even marked it for me. She thought with wry amusement at the sign glowing in the dark hallway beyond.

Taking a moment, she made sure the hallway was empty. Calling back her moths one last time, she prepared herself to plunge back into the light. Taking a deep breath she stepped out. The shadows clung to her like webbing as her body re-consolidated. There was a nauseating feeling in the pit of her stomach as though her guts had been doing back flips. She opened her mouth and her tongue pressed out as if she were going to gag. She swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

It was such a useful tool but it came with such a terrible cost.

Pushing through the sickening feeling, she pressed against the wall as she sidled up to the door controls. She lifted her hand and pressed the side of her fist against the edge of the door frame. She lifted her index finger and propped it against the edge of the frame. With her free hand she tapped the door controls and listened as it hissed open. A display appeared in her HUD over her right eye. The interior of the room was organized into rows of servers. She moved her index finger back and forth, taking in more servers and empty space. Satisfied, she slid inside and shut the door behind her.

Korsha crouched as she inched forward, fully aware of the blue glow that glinted off her armor. She had to rely on her suit’s surveillance countermeasures to ensure she remained hidden to the cameras in the room. How that worked was beyond her. Something to do with manipulating the feeds and pixelations and a bunch of other technobabble. All she knew was that it would be perceived as a typical glitch in a system. Something irritating but not worth getting up to investigate.

Reaching the central processor she searched for a place to insert the data spike. Her fingers found the circular grooved port. She retrieved the spike from her hip and slid it into the slot. The device pushed itself in, and turned clicking into place. The hexagonal spike at the top darted back and forth as it lowered itself into the port. It had nearly a third to go when she heard the door hissed open.

Korsha dropped back into the rows of servers off to the side of where the doorway was. It gave her a clear line of sight on the data spike. She cursed herself for not having synced it up with her omnivice and so she could know what percentage it had left. She heard footsteps coming towards the central processor. Her heart pounded in her chest as she saw a woman in light armor, the patch on her shoulder signified that she was a technician.

Korsha watched as they dropped into the chair right next to the data spike. They brought up a series of displays. There was a click as the data spike finished. In the silence it was like thunder. Korsha's heart dropped and she saw the technician's head snapped down.

"What in the hell?"

He was reaching down when the door hissed open again.

"Sarchek. Gear up. We have an inbound ship."

Sarchek groaned, her hand which had been inches away from the data spike shot up into the air in exasperation.

"Inspection’s supposed to be next month."

"Not an inspection."

There was a long silence. Korsha’s brow furrowed. What was going on?

"Oh Shite."

"Exactly."

The technician jumped up and joined whoever had been talking. The door hissed and Korsha listened to their heavy steps fade away. Korsha rushed over and grabbed the data spike. Her eyes flicked up to the display the technician had left. The command console was unlocked. Seizing hold of the opportunity, Korsha grabbed a map of the installation. If she was going to get out of the system she needed to get a ship with an acrena on board. She could either tether her own ship to it or use her fabrication deck to install the new acrena. Either way an acrena was necessary.

With the map in hand, she made her way back out of the room and down the hallway. There was far more activity this time, hampering her progress. Though everyone who crossed her path seemed preoccupied with being somewhere else. Part way through her retreat the halls lit up, bathed in a bloody glow of emergency lights. The change had been so sudden it had made her jump. Good thing I wasn’t merged with shadows. Korsha thought, her stomach knotting up by the memory of how sick it had made her.

Before long Korsha found herself at the large doors to the hanger bay. It was a side passage that had been abandoned. She tapped the control, letting the door slide open to reveal a large pallet of cargo situated before the door. Smiling, she ducked inside. She inched to the edge of the cargo and found that she was on a second story loading platform. Her gaze dropped to the people gathered below.

Military personnel had formed into two divisions, three people deep. They were stacked in such a way that each person had the ability to shoot. It gave the appearance of respect while concealing a cold practicality. This facility was private property though that didn’t mean it wasn’t under obligations to surrender to an inspection should the right, or in this case, wrong people came a calling. With them distracted, Korsha made her way down a ramp along the far side wall. She’d never heard a hangerbay so quiet before. It set within her an anxious carefulness that ensured each step was as soundless as possible.

The hangar bay doors split. Then parted. Korsha stopped behind another pallet as the ship entered into the hangar bay. A cold tremor shot through her entire body, causing gooseflesh to prick her skin. Her mind raced, eyes darting from the neatly lined up ships to the exits that lined the three walls of the hanger. In the end all she could do was curse as the technomancer’s ship glided into the hanger like a hawk onto its hunting perch.

Ina had caught up to her.