Althea

When she woke up on the third morning, the first thing she did was turn over under the blanket, reach for Dorian.

“Are they still silent?”

There has been no signal.

She rose from her bed, stretched and collected herself. She could already noises outside, stepped out to see the greggas already at work. The day was darker than the one before, clouds rolling over the city again. They might be rain clouds; it was warm enough.

Obe and Teffa noticed her – turned away – hurried to the lifter. She followed. They didn’t appreciate her joining them on the search the day before, but she decided someone needed to keep an eye on the two, doubted they would try anything if she were watching. The teams had cleared the central towers – they’d need to start checking out the radial sub-centers.

“What makes you think the sub-centers aren’t going to be as empty as what we found here?” Traejan wanted to know.

“The main center here would be an obvious choice for the mechs to strip first,” she told him, the others. “It had the greatest quantity, quality of tech. In outlying areas, there would be much more ground to cover, less reward for energy expended, and still plenty for us to carry back.”

The scavengers seemed satisfied with that. They packed up into the lifter, then took the journey to the southern sector of the city. Unlike the day before, she enjoyed the trip. To her relief, there was still no Macro sign, no trace of construct sightings at all to disrupt their search. All they needed was a few working pieces of the proper technology – that was all they needed – and she would be able to convince them, and Traejan, to continue searching.

In the reddish light of the setting sun they ate Kyso’s food over the lifter’s table, the measure of the day filled another small crate. The greggas weren’t playing along anymore.

“This city has been scraped clean,” Abek Goa complained. “We’re not going to find anything useful here.”

“We aren’t finished searching,” Kyso countered. He’d happily shown her another sculpture Traejan had found him – not exactly what she she’d been hoping for, but she gave him a smile anyways. “The city is still plenty large.”

“Large enough to keep us busy until the constructs come,” Obe started.

“We haven’t seen any of them, nor any recent trace,” Althea spoke up, not wanting the discussion to go any further.

“They don’t always call in their approach,” Teffa offered sarcastically.

“I’m paying you to find tech,” she snapped at the woman. “That is what you are going to do!”

Amek Goa pointed back at the crate.

“And what if that is all we find?” he wanted to know. “Are we still gonna get the tril you promised?”

The group stared at her. Althea glared at Traejan, who glared right back. She looked back at the rest, let out a long breath.

“I said you would be paid – and you will – regardless of what we find here.”

They were still staring at her.

“Is there anything else?”

“Where are we going to go tomorrow?”

She relaxed a little, relieved at the Peca’s cheerful query. Althea leaned over the map, pointed towards an outer sector.

“We’re going to check the facilities over here. Hopefully we’ll find something useful in the lower levels. We’ll have better luck tomorrow, we’re certainly due.”