THE FALL OF ROSENROT STATION

OBSERVATION

Even landed heavy. He bent his knees into the impact then his knees gave way and a moment later caught himself on the length of his forearm the floor a hands-breadth from smashing his face. He hissed his pain through clenched teeth then lifted his head.

It was dark. Not quite completely dark. He could see the light from his needler where it lay a few enters away. He crawled over towards it and scooped it up. Then he clambered to his feet.

What's the damage. He called after a bit. He scanned his light about until he found her. She was sitting propped up on her elbows and looking up into his light eyes wide behind her faceplate. She lifted a hand and held a finger in front of where her mouth would be. Abruptly she looked past him and pointed.

Even panned the light to see and caught a glimpse of an alien shape and slashing claws and teeth as it launched at him. He put two needles into the creature and it fell head over heels then slid limp across the floor until it lay no more than a meter away.

Even scanned the room with his light. The floor was some dark steel, smooth and without panel or seam he could see. A bitter cold radiated up from the steel. There were pieces of glass everywhere. He shone the light briefly up to that distant aperture. It was perhaps five meters distant and he could see morphs crowded around its lower edge jostling for position. Some would edge closer then pull back. If they had wanted they could have jumped down. But for some reason they did not.

He shone his light back onto the synthetic. She held up two fingers.

There was a snarl. He spun around as a second morph sprung at him. He kicked out and knocked it aside then put a needle into its domed skull.

The synthetic held up one finger. One to go. He panned his light around the room again. It was a circular room about twenty meters in diameter. It was domed with steel, aside from the glass windows that clutched two thirds of its circumference. Lights, blank ones, were fixed about the dome. In the centre was some strange rock formation. He'd noticed it before and now he put his light on it and studied it. The rock was something over two meters high and perhaps half a meter across its widest point. It was pure red like iron oxide. Beneath it was a slightly raised dais of white ceramsteel, contrasting with the black floor. He did not think it was a made thing. It felt ancient. It had been hewn from some planetary quarry and hauled up here for an unknowable purpose. This did not frustrate him as it might some. His job was to find out those things unknown and unknowable and here was just one more piece of this particular puzzle. He guessed the piece came from Rubrum. Therefore it contained something. On one face he found drill holes. Three parallel holes each as thick as a finger and going deep into the rock. He examined the rock meticulously but found nothing else of note.

He turned from the rock and scanned about the room to see what else there was to see.

There were doors. That was important. Two of them. One was wide and high and some force had acted on it destructively, buckling the steel and causing a breach that opened out into some dark tunnel. The other was a normal sized personnel door with a scanner unit beside it. The odd thing was that the doors were side by side.

There was one more door he realised after a bit. It was a hatch in the floor across the other side from the two doors. The hatch was made of the same black steel as the floor with a fine circular seam about two meters in diameter. There were no obvious controls for it.

It's clear he said after a bit. He went over to where the synthetic sat.

I saw three morphs. She said.

I count two. He shone the light on their corpses. Blood pooled red about them.

The synthetic drew herself up.

Run a full system scan and report. He said.

She held still for a moment looking into that place where he could not see.

I am moderately damaged. She said after about a minute. My self repair functions need a few hours to restore me above 95 percent functionality. A source of hydraulic fluid would speed the process, and reduce what I need to cannibalise from other systems. Plus certain elements that I cannot synthesise in my reactor.

He shone his light on the busted door.

I don't like the look of that. He said. Is there any way of getting the other doors open.

That one. With power. She pointed at the smaller personnel door.

What about the hatch.

What hatch. There is no hatch on Morenos map.

He shone the light over to where he found the hatch. Then they limped over to it.

No. She said after a bit. No way that I know.

He shone his light back up the way they had come. Several morphs still remained there looking at them. But none would come down.

They're scared. He said after a bit. I don't think we should remain here.