All of the Interception and Extraction Teams had been killed, she explained. She was the only survivor.
"I had been in communication with Gombrovich to tell him we had the cargo secured in the Plastiflex. He told me to wait out for transport," Norma continued, pointing at Gombrovich for emphasis, "but once we'd engaged the compulsion-specialist in combat, I called Gombrovich again to ask for the drill-rigs to surface."
"Uhuh, uhuh," Rolf snorted, stuffing his face with overlarge pieces of meat and chewing with loud, smacking sounds. "Sounds to me like you're accusin' him of something. Gombyboy, you got anything to say?"
"As I already said, Palir* was having some difficulty locating the area," Gombrovich interjected, glancing across the table at Rolf and Melk and adopting an indignant expression. "It was suffering some unexpected subsidence and Palir had to navigate some difficult terrain. And I distinctly remember telling Norma to convey the cargo down to the Mining Tunnels. If she'd done so more quickly maybe she wouldn't have been caught flat-footed, yes?"
*[Palir Durant, Extraction Team commander.]
"It's not my damn fault Gom—"
"Your explanations don't interest me," Melk said, cutting Norma's riposte short, his dark eyes flashing with terrible purpose.
The room spun; even Rolf stopped chewing. Melk was in complete control.
"Let's circle back to the… blue-robed man," Melk continued. "You mentioned he quote unquote appeared out of nowhere. Please continue."
"You mean the… ah… spacetime-manipulator?" Norma glanced furtively at Melk and thinking not for the first time about how out-of-place his dress looked. Suits hearkened to a pre-Old Empire aesthetic Norma always associated with the Church of Theli.
… Where did that come from?
A flash of memory. Suddenly, Norma was back in her hometown of Agni. She was at church with her mother and stepfather, admiring the decorative bas-reliefs that ran down the strip of corridor many meters tall. Her stepfather had introduced them to the parish, and 10-year-old Norma remembered feeling unsettled about that whole situation. It was the first time they visited the Saints' Wing of the church, and Norma couldn't help but find the whole place large and intimidating. She remembered wondering if all Thelic churches were like this.
"Speak," Melk said, jolting her from her reverie.
His dark eyes intimidated her greatly. He was very like the figures depicted in the Saints' Wing.
'How is he on Gombrovich's side?' thought Norma, her heart jumping. She corrected herself: Melk was on no one's side. The problematic thing was that Norma didn't even know what his goals were.
"I'm sorry," Norma replied, clearing her throat. The room lightened almost immediately. Rolf frowned, unhappy about something but unable to articulate the feeling.
"So I was in the Stonediver, engaging... the other one—"
"The one with the compulsion affinity?" Rolf interjected.
"Yes," Norma nodded, "there was some brief chatter with Palir—"
"Fast-forward," Rolf interrupted again, this time more brusquely. He was obviously playing it up for Melk. "You call Gombrovich, then drill-rigs surface and then?"
"... Then Palir came out," Norma replied, attempting to remain meek but feeling torn between irritation and guilt. "With the cannon we got from Arroyo, I mean. He managed to get off one shot before the blue-robed man appeared and…"
She hesitated. Melk watched her impassively. Gombrovich's expression had become unaccountably pleasant.
"Well, spit it out!" Rolf said aggressively.
"... Palir was… dematerialized. Disappeared. Gone. Just like that," Norma said, snapping her fingers to punctuate her words.
"At first I couldn't quite process what was happening… I mean, I couldn't tell exactly what had happened to Palir because I was trying my best to endure the compulsion, which only increased in severity. But I saw a blue-robed man standing where Palir had been, squatting—and around him people were just disappearing. I swear I ain't see anything so goddamn strange in my life. Parts of them, I should say. Torsos, limbs, heads… and he destroyed the drill-rigs in seconds. I think the he wrecked their engines."
Norma fell silent.
"What the hell happened next?" Rolf pressed after several seconds had passed, almost as if he was afraid that Melk would be left unsatisfied by the account.
'Since when was Rolf afraid of anything?' Norma thought, and she thought also that this particular question had occurred to her before.
"He ripped everything to shreds… metal, flesh… everything. So I… I went underground," Norma said, her voice wavering slightly. She ran. She saved herself.
"That's it?" Rolf asked, raising his eyebrow.
Norma nodded. There was nothing more to say.
"Told you she was a damn coward," Gombrovich muttered, folding his long and muscled arms over his chest and looking over emphatically at Rolf.
Rolf held up a hand. Melk had yet to give his opinion.
Melk sat back and simply stared. The stillness transitioned from awkward to unnerving. No one dared to say a word.
Eventually, Melk took to his feet and paced the room, his path taking him from the table to the double doors at the far end. He made a round and then came back beside Norma. She felt his eyes on her and shivered. .
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Melk Ayerstein's presence always gave her a bad feeling. His attention was like an oppressive poison.
She turned her gaze toward Melk, reaching for her blessings to analyze him—but they faltered. No matter how she focused, her gift for discerning cultural ties yielded nothing. He was a blank.
It's the drive that obscures everything… like the Sun obscures all stars. Melk Ayerstein's drive derives from something within his ego or maybe something even more fundamental. It's as though the drive was woven into his skin.
Promulgate, proliferate, metastasize…
What exactly was Melk spreading? It was impossible to tell. No matter how much hard she tried, Norma simply could not connect. Melk was a tomb and a mystery that spiralled away into a dark and secret past, too far back and too convoluted for her to even begin to intuit.
"I've no choice but to scan the entire city," Melk declared, turning on his heels sharply. "If this blue-robed man is really a space-time manipulator, all of us are in danger no matter the time or place. We must uncover their location at all costs."
Norma blinked. Scanning the entire city? Did he mean—that he wanted to do the same thing that he did in Arroyo*?
*[Settlement east of Saltilla.]
That incident, almost a month and a half ago now, was still fresh in her mind. They had met Melk outside the walls of Arroyo, right after the Sylvan Protectorate had liberated it from the occupation of the Chimerae. By then, half the settlement's population already been exterminated by the aliens, and Rolf planned to take advantage of the post-battle chaos to kidnap and convert to his use several platoons' worth of Arroyans, so as to replenish the men lost against the savage Bejana tribes.
Melk had been searching for something. Norma wasn’t sure what exactly had passed between him and Rolf, but suddenly, he was part of them—pulling the strings from the shadows. She would never have guessed that someone like Rolf would take orders from anyone but himself. And yet, here they were.
Could it be? Melk is using the compul—
Mental block. Her mind emptied. Norma frowned, wondering what it was she had been thinking about. Too late: the train of thought had traveled beyond her grasp.
Anyway, Melk was trying to find someone or something, and when they'd gotten into Arroyo the first thing Melk did was to lead them to the local hospital and commandeer a Power Magnifier, which he then used to 'scan' the settlement.
Norma wasn't very clear what happened next, only that her perception of time had warped. Within the span of a few seconds, she was on the ground and staring blankly up at the ceiling of the hospital ward she had been looting.
The next moment, the entire settlement had been rocked by a great explosion. Later on, they found that the local missile silos had been inadvertently detonated, cratering a large chunk of area and killing tens of thousands of civilians.
Why am I thinking about that incident now?
Because of Melk. Who is he? Who is he, really?
Norma knew that Melk Ayerstein had the power to control electric charge, even believed in it. But she couldn't shake the feeling that he was hiding something. In any case, for Melk to use his power here—in Gehen—the consequences would be catastrophic!
"What are you waiting for? Get the Power Magnifier ready," Melk reiterated. Norma refocused her attention on him.
Rolf narrowed his eyes and glared at Gombrovich. Realizing what Rolf was asking him to do, Gombrovich sighed. A crony's first duty was to be the scapegoat. He would make the points Rolf could not, thereby insulating Rolf from Melk's ire.
"Mr. Ayerstein," Gombrovich whined. "That's gonna set us back… A 'scan' might fuck up the breeding pools… which means we're going to fail the contract with Rifiq. We've already failed the interception, you see..."
"Chalk it up to Frustration of Contract, Mr. Hrodwulf Granger," Melk said, addressing Rolf directly. "I don't think you quite understand the danger we're facing. Now get the Power Magnifiers ready. I want them ready for use within the hour."
Rolf snorted.
***
[Half hour later]
"Attention, all personnel: Please return to your stations," the PA sounded. "Attention, all personnel: Please return to your stations."
Norma stood in the hangar, observing the Gehennite workers' frantic movements. They were like ants to her, as much ants to her as she was an ant to Melk. Always with him she would feel that something was missing, as though she was forgetting something.
No time to think about that now. Gotta get to safety.
The workers applied the finishing touches on the Stonediver. Descending a short flight of steps to the lower platform, Norma noticed the entire rear housing had been replaced with blacksteel. From a small, unsealed aperture, a faint purple glow pulsed outward.
The repairs were satisfactory.
Norma was meant to be in the basement with the others, where the Power Magnifier was located. But she had snuck away here simply because she couldn't trust Melk, even if she found it impossible to question his goals.
But why can't I question him? was the question that she asked herself. Is there something blocking my thoughts? Is it...
She thought hard about it, but found herself always returning back to square one. Sighing to herself, Norma gave up on trying to crack the mystery. Time enough for that later.
What I know is that Melk's power results in a loss of perception. During that time, I won't be protected. It's better to camp in the Stonediver than to be exposed to danger outside.
... I just don't have a good feeling about it. What the hell is Rolf doing, just going along with his ideas?
Shit, what else can he do?
Norma double-checked her gear—helmet secured, two spare oxygen canisters in place—then scaled the side of the Stonediver with practiced ease. She hauled herself into the cabin and sealed the mech’s head shut behind her like a hatch.
The overhead panel flashed:
Integrity-Calculation: 74%
Oxygen stores: 99.3%.
Satisfied, Norma settled into a watchful silence.
The seconds ticked down…
Eventually, she felt a pinprick of feeling invade her mind. She was roused to a state of alertness. Ahead of her, several of the workers slumped down to the floor where they stood. The lights went out, and the surroundings were plunged into darkness. Norma pulled on her helmet and made sure that the relevant oxygen canister was fitted properly into the exosuit's regulator.
Unlike the first time she had experienced it in Arroyo, the feeling started off slow and then grew inexorably in intensity.
Seconds later, the lighted overhead panel shut off. Norma herself felt all strength leave her body, and her limbs became leaden and nerveless things that twitched sporadically.
Complete darkness. The darkness swam.
***
Norma blinked furiously—or at least she tried to—fruitlessly attempting to purge the feeling from her mind. It was terrifying, being caught in the grip of a slow and surreal fall into nothingness. She was trapped. Existential uncertainty edged with insanity. The dissolution of the soul felt inevitable.
But her sense of self endured and eventually returned to her.
Norma tried to force open her eyes, but realized that her eyes were already open. Light was filtering into the tinted visor. The Stonediver's displays had returned to life.
What… happened?
Norma glanced at the overhead panel to see that a little less than an hour had passed.
Integrity-Calculation: 74%
Oxygen stores: 97.9%.
The ground trembled. Subsidence in the vicinity. The surroundings were eerily quiet.
Norma tore off her helmet and squinted out the visor. The ground lay strewn with rubble and the dead bodies of Gehennite workers. No signs of life.
What...?
The ground shook, more violently now. The Stonediver chassis tottered.
Engaging the comms, Norma yelled: "Come in! Anyone! Do you read!?"
The ceiling was crumbling to the ground over head, and a piece of concrete smashed hard into the visor of the Stonediver, causing a small crack to spider across its surface. Norma's hands shot to the control panel, resuming control of the Stonediver to prevent it from falling.
Integrity-Calculation: 72%
Hydraulics hissed. The Stonediver kept its balance.
The comms crackled to life: "*krrshk* Norma, where are you!? Tangos sighted in Smelting—we need you here ASAP!"
"Talia!" Norma blurted, a sense of relief washing over her. "Talia?"
Static noise. Talia wouldn't reply.
'She said there were Tangos?' thought Norma, surveying the immediate surroundings. Thick rubble prevented her from accessing the common hallways, whether or not she went on foot.
There was only one way out—the same path she’d taken in: through the loading bay doors.
With a few practiced motions, Norma swung the Stonediver into position. Then she drove the joystick forward. The mech lurched, shoulder-first, into the loading bay doors, ripping them open with a shriek of tearing metal, its momentum carrying its frame hurtling out into the red noon.