Opalina Outpost

Chapter 6 /Part 2/

Ravi kept his apprehension off his face while he got his first good look at Opalina. He stood in the middle of a tunnel blasted right through the bowels of the mountain. It looked half-finished, like a construction project everyone had given up on long before it was complete. The walls were raw, bare stone, poorly lit by long bundles of cord lights anchored to the curved ceiling. No windows anywhere. The only half-hopeful thing he could think of was that the heat was kept at bay, the air cooled by perpetual shade. The entry door rumbled shut, sealing him in.

Jossen shuffled up to his shoulder. "I'll show you your quarters. But no one's readied them."

"That's fine," Ravi said, following him. The floor was perfectly flat, but the tunnel seemed to be constantly listing to the right.

"It's not hard to find your way around here," Jossen said. "It's just one big loop. Private quarters off the outer wall, common rooms are on the inner wall."

"How many levels are there?" Ravi asked.

"Just the one."

That didn't match what he'd seen in the blueprints. "What about the storerooms? Isn't there a pretty extensive storage area below this?"

"It isn't accessible anymore. The stairs caved in during one of the storms, and nobody bothered to clear it. Don't need a floor's worth of storage for such a small crew."

Ravi shot a look up at the ceiling, toothy with jagged rock. "There was a cave-in?"

"Sure. But it was ages ago, before any of us were here. And the rest of the outpost is solid as the mountain. Nothing to worry about."

This place needed an inspection right fucking now. Ravi loosened his grip on the strap of his bag, and made a mental note to request an Enlightenment crew come out to test for structural integrity. Jossen stopped at a door set into the rock and gestured at a metal square in the center. "I wiped the old biometrics after the last com left. The scanner is ready for you."

Ravi pressed his palm flat against the cool metal, and the scanner glowed as it processed. It took longer than it should have, but at this point he couldn't be surprised by old tech. When the scanner finally finished, the door hissed aside.

"Here," Jossen said, thrusting something at him. It was a bit of twine, with a pair of ancient metal keys attached. "You'll need that. When the weather gets really bad, the tech gets spotty and malfunctions."

"Can't the ziggurat fix—"

Jossen rolled his eyes. "It's never a question of can't they, and always a question of why should they. Archcom Huseda doesn't have credit to throw into this bottomless pit." He turned away abruptly, pacing further down the tunnel.

"Hang on," Ravi called after him, one foot in the door of his new room and one foot still in the tunnel. "I'm just going to drop my stuff, and then I'd appreciate it if you'd show me the rest of the loop."

Jossen grimaced, but he stopped. Ravi ducked back into the room. It felt like a cave, but he didn't spend any time exploring. He pitched his bag and the water cannisters to the ground and located his slate for notetaking before dipping back into the main passage to catch up with his subal. Jossen resumed his march while Ravi was still trying to figure out how to get the door to his room closed.

The subal pointed as they approached another door, this time set into the opposite wall. "Closest room to you is the muster hall. You go through there to get to the com's office." He moved past the door without opening it.

"Can we take a look?" Ravi was already touching the metal pane on the door, and it rattled aside. The muster hall was smaller than the one he'd had with his old crew, but a similar set up. A dust smeared table surrounded by forlorn chairs dominated the space, and he spotted an old projecter style imager on a cart in one corner. On the far wall was another door, leading to the shittiest office Ravi had ever seen. He leaned in the office doorway, staring.