Ravens of Eternity

Chapter 197

197 Ice Queen, Pt The moment Amal, Miko, and Claire stepped out the Spirit of Amelia, they were immediately hit by strong winds and icy rain. The frigid weather pelted their environmental suits and helmets, which Claire imagined they would have been frozen on the spot if they were without them.

“Okay, now I’m kinda envying Freya,” said Claire. “At least, the part where she doesn’t have to deal with all this.”

They walked down the ramp onto the landing pad below, which had cracked ice all over its surface.

Miko tsk’d as she slipped a little bit, then waved her baton at the landing pad itself. She saw that it was heated, but poorly. It simply couldn’t keep up with the weather all around it. So she waved at it again and went into its operating intelligence.

Inside, she bypassed a number of temperature and operational safeties, and increased its power request. As soon as she did that, the landing pad began to heat up beyond its normal limits, which caused the ice that coated it to begin to melt.

She waved at it one last time and added a snippet of code to its intelligence, so that it automatically adjusted itself depending on its average surface temperature.

Why didn’t it have this functionality in the first place? she asked herself. Such lazy design.

While the three waited for things to clear up, Max came out of the airlock and ran down to meet them.

“What’re you doing here?” asked Claire. “I thought you hated going on excursions with us.”

.....

“Only ‘coz I’m not getting paid like you all are,” he replied. “Anyway, Freya gave me a gun and kicked me off the ship. Told me that I was to look out for everyone in her stead.”

Miko smirked playfully.

“We should stop by a clothing shop,” she said, “and get you a red shirt to wear. It will help designate you as our... security specialist.”

“For some reason, I’m getting the impression that you’re all making fun of me,” said Max.

Amal nudged him with an elbow.

“If you’re gonna hang out with a buncha women like us,” she said, “you’re gonna have to get used to getting teased a lot. A whooole lot. Seriously.”

The quartet laughed a bit as they proceeded to travel to the settlement. Miko’s adjustments had pretty much melted down most of the ice and prevented more from forming up.

“I highly doubt anything’s gonna happen here though,” said Claire. “I mean, who would make trouble in a place like this anyway?”

Miko pressed a finger to her lips in thought. She wondered if Eva’s trait was at play by sending Max in her stead. Even though he certainly wasn’t nearly as capable, his training alone could help in various ways.

“We should keep our guard up regardless,” she said.

The four of them found the main thoroughfare and followed it as it wove its way through the settlement itself. They wowed at the cobble bricks laid out across them.

“The pattern’s beautiful,” said Amal.

This appeared to be heated as well, slightly better than the landing pad itself. When Miko waved her baton at it, she realized the cobblestone preserved more heat than the synthetic printed materials the landing pad was made of.

“And it is heat efficient,” added Miko.

Because of this, they were easily able to make their way through town. Though the ground was wet and a little slippery, it certainly wasn’t icy. At least, not along the road itself.

Claire looked up all around the settlement itself. Layers of it was nestled into the mountain side. Their landing pad was literally on a precipice that seemingly led straight to the bottom. And all around them were the sheer rock faces of the mountain itself.

No doubt, it’s what they used to build everything.

“Plus it’s everywhere,” said Claire.

They went past the large warehouses and small hangars that were persistent near the landing pads, where a number of workers seemed to be busy loading and transporting cargo crates. Past that was the settlement’s commercial district, where the majority of shops sold a variety of sundries.

Amal frowned as she looked at each of the people they passed. All were a pallid grey, whose faces were etched with a grim emptiness.

“Something’s wrong with these people,” she said. “I can feel it. Or more like, I can hardly feel anything from them at all.”

“Perhaps if you lived out here like this all the time,” replied Miko, “you would be, too. I cannot imagine dealing with icy blizzards cycle after cycle.”

“Everywhere we go, even the wartorn places, people still felt a smidge of happiness, you know? But here, I don’t feel the same from them. I mean, just look at that poor guy.”

Amal pointed to a man wearing a thick waterproof environmental suit. Except instead of a helmet, he had goggles to protect his eyes. For heat, he pulled up a fur-lined hood around his head.

He painstakingly scraped up ice that had gathered up around the sidewalks, and dumped them into the street where they could melt.

His face was like all the others, even as ice beat on him relentlessly.

“He looks way beyond miserable,” continued Amal. “Like he’s experiencing two lifetimes of loss.”

“He is also cleaning ice during an ice storm,” replied Miko. “I am miserable watching him. My question is: why does he not wait until the storm subsides?”

“Maybe it’s just how they live,” piped in Max. “I’ve been a few places, and seen lots of people with expressions just like theirs. It’s usually the people above them who cause this sort of despair. Another reason why your precious Federation needs to get taken down. All they do is make colonies filled with people like them.”

Max continued trudging up the mountain, though this time he stopped looking around, and kept his gaze on the road in front of him.

Miko watched as he kept walking, and absorbed his and Amal’s words as best she could. She looked up at the settlement itself, and her DI pointed out the mayor’s mansion at the top.

Then she looked around at all the people around them and noticed a certain robotic nature to their movements. As though the ice-scraper’s arm movements were exact, each and every time.

This robotic perfection nagged at Miko – this wasn’t something that humans could perform. Not with their chaotic biological bodies.

And she began to understand Amal’s worries.

“You three go ahead,” she said. “I am curious about something, and will be performing some tests.”

Miko then walked inside a general sundries shop, and began to wave her baton all around.

“She’s gonna be okay by herself, right?” asked Max. “Should I stick with her instead? Not sure I really like the idea of a kid walking around here all by herself.”

Claire physically turned Max around, and pushed him further up the mountain.

“You do remember the toad, yeah?” she countered. “She’s a whole lot more dangerous than you are, no offense. So I wouldn’t worry about her in the least bit.”

“...So doesn’t that mean we should stick by her instead?” said Max, a grin etched on his face.

Past the commercial district was the residential district, which Amal noted was mostly empty at this time. It made sense to her, since it was currently the cycle’s working hours. But she didn’t see that many people in the commercial district.

Did that mean that the majority of people were down closer to the landing pads? Did they mostly work at the warehouses for some reason?

A host of questions kept popping up in her mind, and she simply couldn’t shake them off.

The biggest was that they appeared to be invisible to the colonists. It didn’t seem to matter if they were right next to her, they didn’t seem to even acknowledge her. As though she didn’t even exist.

Not even when she waved and smiled at them – she received nothing in response.

All had the same grim and dour faces, and all felt emptied out. As though they had all worked ten days straight without stopping. As though they had all lost someone special to them and lost all their will to keep going.

Unlike with Eva, Amal felt absolutely no grief emanating from the colonists. It all utterly unnerved her.

When they got to the mayor’s mansion, that feeling drove home. Some kind of attendant greeted them inside. Although his movements and demeanor were welcoming, he had an utter lack of emotion in them.

Max was about to take off his helmet, but Amal stopped him.

“Miko advised we oughta keep these on,” she said. “And I think she’s right.”

“We might look rude to whoever we’re meeting though,” piped in Claire.

“Can always explain ourselves, I guess,” replied Amal.

They mutually agreed to keep their helmets on, but then shook off the ice that had gathered on their suits. Afterwards, they followed another dead-eyed colonist further into the mansion.

As they walked further in, up the double-steps to the second floor, and all around – everyone had the same faces. Inside in the warmth, outside in the snow, nothing.

Amal’s heart broke for them even as they were led to the mayor’s office.

She snapped out of her deepening detachment when their escort knocked on the heavy double doors in front of them. He then opened them up to a drastically different room from everything else they had seen.

They walked into a highly stylish room that looked as though it belonged to a luxurious apartment on Helios. Its walls were sleek and curved. Its single bay window spanned the entire width and height of the room itself.

The floor was a beautifully dark and rosy hardwood that felt wonderfully solid under their feet.

The mayor’s heavy metal desk was a beautiful wave-like design that evoked a feeling of movement. Hovering just above the desk was a top-of-the-line terminal typically found in top executives’ offices.

Along the right wall, a variety of weapons floated in a flat antigrav field. In it were various swords, spears, bows, and guns. All were sleek and beautiful to look at, as though they were more treasure than weapon.

Between everything in the room, there wasn’t a single centimeter of stone to be seen. Everything here was glass and metal and wood.

Seated at the desk with her feet up was Callie. She munched on a crisp fruit happily, but discarded the majority of it once the three came into view.

The synthetic glanced over Claire, completely ignored Amal, but brightened considerably when her eyes fell on Max. Particularly his dirty blond hair.

“Hi, I’m Azrael,” said Amal, “and we’re here to-”

“Yeah, yeah, blah, blah,” interrupted Callie. “This town isn’t accepting contractors at this time.”

“But we’ve already signed your contracts,” said Claire. “You should be expecting us. I mean, you are the mayor, right?”

Callie sighed with clear irritation in her tone. She turned towards Claire and gave her a condescending stare.

“The old mayor... quit,” she said. “Couldn’t handle the stress. So I had to take over for her.”

“That doesn’t-” Amal spoke, but was quickly interrupted again.

“I’ve taken charge of the settlement in her place,” said Callie. “And since I’m the mayor now, I say we don’t need contractors at this time. Especially contractors like you.”

“Sorry to have bothered you, then,” said Max.

He scratched the back of his head quizzically, then began to turn away from Callie.

.....

She jumped up in alarm and ran up behind them. Without hesitation, she grabbed Max’s wrist and yanked on him lightly.

“Wait!” she cried. “You can stay for dinner though, right? You can see how well I’ve taken care of the settlement in the meantime.”

“Thanks, but-” Max began.

He tried to pull himself away, but found that he couldn’t. Callie’s grip was far too strong.

“Uh,” he continued, “can you let go of me, please?”

Alarm quickly shot through Amal. She felt aggression pour out of Callie – physical and sexual. The domineering woman was a clear contrast to the subdued colonists in the settlement below.

“I think you need to let go of our companion,” she told Callie.

She then reached for her hand and prised it open, to Callie’s great surprise. No simple human could compete with her in strength – only her family was capable of that.

Callie quickly reached out and slapped Amal with the back of her hand. The slap was powerful enough that Amal was thrown back slightly. Her cheek burned with pain from the strike.

“Fucking refugees,” said Callie through gritted teeth. “You all need to die.”

She drew her pistol – a B-ranked Hellfire Handcannon just like Eva’s – and pointed it right at Amal’s head. But before she could squeeze the trigger, Max got right in front of it.

“Stop!” he cried out. “What the hell do you want?”

“I want everything,” she replied plainly.