Kala, and her group, were 'back on schedule’, however loose her interpretation of that was. She had made plenty of detours, one of them being long enough to take the group through two cycles of sleeping and waking. That had been to her old meeting point, with their slow pace Mikey had finally made it out of his Pod and clearly found the note she left him. He was waiting there with the goods they had hastily stored before heading to the Core.

At one point the Clan Members mumbled something about meeting in the 'Lower 3rd Quadrant’s terminus' or whatever as they split off from the group. She roughly knew where that was. Mikey definitely knew where that was. He uploaded some directions on her portable before he left to follow the Clan Members. She had figured that they were going back to their Clan Headquarters. When Mikey had rejoined Kala, Eilien, and Uller he had managed to return basically empty handed. Well, as far as Kala was concerned, he was empty handed.

Mikey had produced a discarded Clan portable and a few unknown grenades. There had been some interesting things regarding the Clan’s history on the portable. Worthless. She didn’t care about the Clan’s history so she let Mikey keep that. He liked history. The grenades were also worthless to her. She hadn’t survived the Run to blow herself up nor would she risk her life using unknown explosives. That was Uller’s job. A little wake up present.

That was only the biggest detour, there were plenty of other opportunities to take advantage of the weak and dispirit dregs of Humanity that didn’t participate in the Run. As far as she was concerned, if you weren’t bold, you were prey. Making a successful Run was the metric, anyone who had chickened out or missed claiming the legendary feat was less than Human. Less than a worm. She’d never seen a worm but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the expression fit well.

The cowardly dregs of Humanity were stalked or raided as she continued her winding path, sometimes both. The Clan Members seemed to share her thoughts, they didn’t especially protest as she spread her prey’s insides across the Labs’ walls.

Eilien was a strange one to Kala. She stayed near the minicannon-toting raider and she had quick eyes and a quick mind. Kala liked her, she was pretty and quiet. She didn’t like when people made noise when she was the one who was supposed to make noise.

Kala stopped before taking in a deep breath and letting it out before saying, “Holeeeeeey fuck that took a while.”

Speaking of noise, the Monitor and Guard glared at her, “You took your sweet time.”

She turned toward the two, “Looks like you two gained a mouth eh?”

They passed a terminus, the last one before the corridor straightened and widened out as they made their approach towards what was surely the Southern passage. They hadn’t been traveling on the Southern Run for quite some time. Keeping track of time wasn’t a concern for Kala. Unless she was coordinating an ambush, was hungry or tired it had little impact on her.

They filed into a final hallway. This one was wide and strewn with miscellaneous detritus. Perhaps a couple thousand cycles ago they could have made out what the detritus had been. Now? Random bits and small piles of crap.

Kala stopped before a door. Likely the final one before entering the Southern Door.

“Well? You gonna do something or should I hop into a Cryo-Pod and wait for you?” Eilien giggled at that. Kala looked back at her skeptically. She wasn’t sure if Eilien was laughing at her joke or at her. She was cute though, so she gave her the benefit of the doubt.

The Monitor scowled at her as he had already been on approach to the door Terminal.

He jacked in his portable and started to type. He kept typing.

“Sweet fuck, what is taking so long? The SI’s dead right? So what’s the holdup?”

She said that to spurn the Monitor, maybe she’d hurry up. Maybe she’d just piss her off. She was fine with either. Kala wasn’t fine with her just ignoring her. When they were able to crack Uller open she’d crack open this Monitor and her ‘Guardian’.

She had decided that sometime earlier, she wasn’t sure exactly when, but she liked the look of some of the tools she’d seen them use. She’d use those tools to arm a new crew.

It wouldn’t be the first time. She caught Mikey staring at her and slowly shaking his head, she flashed him a wicked grin.

“A Primary Threat Security Protocol was initiated and forcibly suspended? That should be impossible with the SI gone.” The Monitor stared at her portable long enough that even her shield-bearing Guardian approached to question the delay.

“Monitor Elra, is there a delay? Do we need to find another access point?”

“Oh! Uh, no we don’t Guardian Gurey. This alert. It’s about the Southern Door’s status.”

The Guardian looked it over.

He was a focused, honest individual. He had wanted to be a Guardian because of his name, he had liked the alliterative quality of it. It was embarrassing and he had never told anyone that secret, not even his Monitor. It would have made him a joke in the Clan and even worse he worried it would have affected his relationship with his Monitor. It’s not that he ‘cared’ about the insults of other Clan Members per say, but why put yourself in a position to be made fun of? Just because he didn’t have the same deep motivations as some of the other Guardians didn’t mean that he wasn’t damn good at being one.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Regardless of his motivations, his dedication to being a Guardian was among the best of his fellow Guardians. He did care about his Monitor, it was a Guardian’s job to protect them. She was a prickly person and didn’t get along with many other Monitors or even prior Guardians she had been paired with, but he believed that was because most didn’t ‘get’ her. She respected his input and that was definitely not the case with all Monitor/Guardian combinations; they made a good team.

“A Primary Threat Security Protocol? Elra, shouldn’t that generated alert be expected from making the Run?”

“Yes, that’s not what this log is though, this Primary Threat Alert came from the other side of the Door.”

“Outside the Labs.”

“Precisely, Gurey.”

“Shit.”

“Even worse, we shouldn’t even be able to access information from the other side. Apparently a Primary Threat Alert bypasses the Door restriction. That or the SI’s death broke open access. I believe it’s a little bit of both.”

An overly loud throat-clearing sounded from behind them. Guardian Gurey turned to shoot a glare at the infuriating woman who returned a mean-spirited smile. Truth be told, she didn’t bother him much but she annoyed Elra, but as she was his Monitor, in solidarity, she annoyed him too.

“It shows that the alert was suspended, so the threat passed? Does it give any further information?”

“I will inspect that element.”

Some more tapping and typing. “It was… due to damage to the Door defensive mechanisms.”

“Just open the door!” Kala loomed over the two crouched by the door Terminal.

“Why don’t you back up?” Gurey made a move to bring his shield up in her face but Kala had already pivoted away, towards the door. That shifting movement she did made her more slippery than the loudmouth would appear at first glance. He turned back to his Monitor.

“Elra, let's just open it, she’s standing in front of it, hopefully whatever happened beyond the door will get that woman first.”

Elra met Gurey’s eyes with a firm look in her eyes then nodded, “I’ll prepare to close it immediately after. Just in case.”

Gurey didn’t think that was necessary but he already knew that Elra was overly cautious. That had made her largely successful as a Monitor when the SI could fry you from across the Labs if you weren’t both careful, good, as well as lucky. But still, sometimes she needed some extra encouragement to get things moving.

He put his shield in ready position, detached his shield’s repeater gun and put himself between his Monitor both Kala and the door.

It slid open, hitched a few times then finally pulled all the way open with a metallic screech.

The room was a mess. Deep troughs were melted through sweeping portions of the metal floor. Scrapped machines showed clean cuts, laser or energetic reactions almost assuredly. There were massive, chunked pieces of wall that had been simply blown away.

“Disintegration too.” Gurey looked at Elra, she would recognize the energies used better than he.

“No degeneration though, right?” Gurey, like most that encountered it, held a kernel of fear from that energy. It was one of the most deadly energies that would easily punch through his shield.

“...No, I’m not picking up any traces of that.”

Elra, Gurey, Kala, Eilien, Mikey, and even Uller’s eyes settled on the Door. It had a massive hole blown through the center. The jagged edges pushed into the room which meant that the source had come from the Engine Department.

“Good thing we took our time eh? I’ll accept your thanks anytime.”

----------------------------------------

The group or greater Clan hadn’t talked much as they made their way through the Administration Section. Life in the Labs drilled the lesson into you; if you were walking, you shouldn’t be talking. Unless it was tactically important. That was a given.

Still, being in a relatively large group there were still small whispered conversations that popped up. Generally though, if the Clan Head wasn’t talking then the assumption was it was because it was a time to pay attention.

Humans who hadn’t incorporated these lessons didn’t last long enough to pass on their bad habits. Crabs, Cryo-sick cannibals, ‘regular’ starving cannibals, raiders. Sounds carried far in the sterile bare hallways of the Labs, one could bring swarms of crabs or an ambush down on their head because they wouldn’t consider that their voice traveled much further than one would think.

Korl looked over to his side. The Door at the end of the Administration Section was much smaller than the one at the exit of the Cryo-Labs, it was clean and trim, had a faux-wood trim and clean, unobtrusive lines. ‘Neat’ was a word he thought encapsulated it well. He depressed his hand on the HandPad.

Primary Threat Detected. Still Proceed with the Opening Process?

YES> NO>

Korl tapped ‘Yes>’ after a few moments of hesitation.

Are you sure?

He didn’t have much experience with portables or SI-shells. That was normally handled by… well that person had died. Even Telane or Cura were both at least passable with their tech skills. Any amount was more familiar with the process and technology than he was. His lack of tech experience was a perennial nag he received from Cura. He took a breath and tapped ‘Yes>’.

The Door creeped silently open. His hand was trapped against the Pad until the process finished. To his side was Cura, he could feel her thoughts, she was thinking about his lack of tech knowledge, he just knew it. Telane flanked Yuma set back from the middle of the Door. He looked back, the Clan was ready as well. He took a deep breath and looked into the black beyond the Door, ready to see another section of the ship.

Nothing.

Well, not nothing. Just nothing that he could see. The pitch black looked unreal, unnatural. Several Clan Members shined lights of varying degrees into the deep dark. The harshest of lights they shined through didn’t penetrate far at all.

The Clan Head stepped forward at the edge of the Door’s passage and several Clan Members scrambled to not leave him alone in the front.

“Yuma, tell me what you see.”

She was right next to the Clan Head. She felt twitchy. Whatever this was, it was not good.

“Not good, Clan Head. I have a bad feeling.”

Korl’s hand finally released as the Door finished its slide open to a silent stop, “Is there a different route?”

The Clan Head almost chuckled, “Not unless you care to inquire with the Administration SI?

Yosef hopping in, the Clan Head had filled him in on the walk, “This is the only Door the SI removed the security lock from. We’d have to fight her Authority on any other Door.”

Korl gulped, shook his head, and released the naked blade from his left hand. It floated to his right side, above his shoulder and he drew the other blade into his left grip.