The Ring of Acies

Chapter Seven: Waiting for the Elevator

The crown jewels of Initium Station are its twelve massive space elevators. There is one in every Planetary Operations module in every duodecant. Were it not for the gigantic air-tight doors on its four walls and ceiling, the elevator's compartment could easily be mistaken for a massive warehouse.

Tonnes of various supplies and equipment are loaded into the elevator each day and are brought up and down to the surface. While multiple floors, rooms and hallways connect to the space elevator, a primary chasm runs from the top of the module down to the bottom of the module through the space elevator connecting two massive hangars on either side of the module. This chasm is the primary roadway for heavy terraforming equipment and Initium's fleet of treaded load transporting vehicles. As one of the vehicles passes into the elevator, the Aciin appears. It is floating along what could be called the ceiling of the chasm.

Unlike in the previous appearances of the Aciin, it appears to be wounded. One of its two horn-like features seems to have been torn off its head. It also appears to have several large scars across its body and two bullet wounds, which it desperately tries to shield as its body flattens itself into a uniform hexagonal-like pad along with the ceiling of the chasm. It slowly floats down towards the space elevator along the walls of the chasm. As it gets closer, its body begins to condense into the more organic and muscular form it had when it first appeared. As it continues in the shadows towards the space elevator, it also regrows the limbs it grew in its first appearance. However, its new limbs have a slightly more organic appearance than the first limbs it grew did. The square ends of its new limbs begin to grow geometrical, claw-like endings that grip the walls of the chasm. As the Aciin starts to use its new limbs, it adapts the endings and limbs themselves by changing their shape and adding new joints to assist its movement through the chasm better.

As the Aciin catches up with the vehicle, it floats down behind it and gently grabs the rear bumper with two of its tentacles. It flattens itself out into a rectangular pad as it pulls itself under the vehicle. It resorbs its limbs back into its body. It is careful to ensure it does not hit its injured, coffin-shaped head on the bottom of the vehicle as it slides underneath. While underneath, it works its tentacles around various vehicle's undercarriage assembly components to hold itself in place and account for the gravity shift when the elevator enters Acies' gravity.

The vehicle enters the space elevator compartment and parks in its designated spot. Then all staff and non-surface-bound drones leave the compartment, and the four massive airtight doors close. Then something the Aciin did not expect happens. A plane of blue light floats down through the compartment. It touches every container, every piece of equipment, every drone, and every vehicle in the compartment. As the plane of light reaches the Aciin, it stops mid-air. Mere centimetres off of the floor of the compartment. The plane turns red, and an alarm sounds throughout the compartment. An announcement plays over the alarm:

"Alert! Unauthorized life-form detected in the compartment! Alert..."

The primary chasm doors quickly re-open, and a group of workers enter. One of the workers punches something into a console by the door, and another announcement comes on.

"Unauthorized life form detected on level zero underneath surface transport Terrorem."

One of the compartment's internal ceiling cranes activates and moves towards the vehicle as the workers approach it. The crane locks onto the vehicle and automatically deactivates the transport's magnetic treads. The vehicle is lifted off the floor as the workers arrive. None of them know what to expect, but none expect to see the feared 'Acies-UC-101'. The workers are startled, and so is the Aciin. The Aciin transforms back into its more natural state while also regrowing its limbs faster than it did the previous two times. As the Aciin detaches itself from the undercarriage of the transport, one of the workers calls Station Security.