THE FALL OF ROSENROT STATION

THE NOSALIS

As they approached the interlock a guard stepped forward from the wall and faced them.

Locus is inside. He said eventually.

Moreno held his gaze. Keep your head.

She turned back to a door about ten meters from the interlock.

Follow my lead. She looked back at Even. Locus is brilliant but difficult. Non-neurotypical.

She tapped a code into the lock. When the door opened they went inside.

It was dark inside. When his vision adjusted he peered around the cramped space. It was only dimly lit by a phosphor glow from by an overhead bank of monitors six of them three facing one way and three the other. They displayed no picture. He began to make out the shape of a bench on his right that spanned the length of the right hand wall and which was crammed with parts and pieces of heterogeneous technologies.

The left hand wall was wrapped by a console that extended down and along the back wall as well. Halfway down the console was cut back into an alcove for a workstation that contained a large terminal wired into the console.

There was a man there. The man sat with such unnatural stillness that Even had not immediately noticed that there was a man. He was thin with clothing that accentuated his thinness and he sat perched forward on the edge of his seat, intent on the lines of code that covered the screen and then after several seconds tapped the keyboard once and went back to his study and did not acknowledge them whatsoever.

Locus. Moreno said. She put out her hand hand as if to touch his shoulder then took her hand back.

Locus Gilead. She said again.

The man frowned. He let out a sigh then half turned in his seat and briefly examined each of them in turn.

They are about a hundred meters away. He said finally. Between here and the spindle.

Can you show me.

Locus turned to his terminal and with a few key taps the screen flickered and abruptly transitioned to a view from some camera. It was a top down view of a corridor in which a light flicked on and off. Locus picked up a lightpen and made a stroke across the screen. The view panned left to show the corridor from the other direction. This was blackness only there was a line of lights bobbing slightly up and down and moving closer. Soon forms and then faces resolved out of the darkness and then one after the other five or six figures passed beneath the camera. Two of them carried some crate between them. All carried weapons. They were dressed in black body armor.

They are making directly for the laboratory. Said Locus. The probability of that happening by chance is low. Therefore they know about us.

How could they.

Obviously someone told them.

There was silence for a minute.

Should we assume theyre hostile. Said Moreno eventually.

I have met them before. Said Even. They follow some man they call Lieutenant. Based out of level ten.

That is a transit hub. Moreno said. From ten you can take a tram over to hab two.

Locus interjected. Fifty meters out. Less than ten minutes.

Do you have any more cameras.

The next one is outside the interlock.

Bring it up.

Locus tapped in a command. The screen now showed a short length of blank corridor. They waited in silence. It was less than five minutes before they saw them. They came directly to the entrance and the two with the box set it down.