Her speech didn’t stop the continued complaints, but it did reduce them to some colorful mutterings as the scavengers headed off to sleep. Even Kyso left, cradling his new sculpture.

Althea finished her bowl, got up to look over the micronic scraps, picked up one of the least damaged plates. Things weren’t looking good at all; if the rest of the city was like this – there would only be one choice left.

“No luck today either,” Traejan told her, had come up on her suddenly in her reverie. “Can’t say I didn’t warn you.”

His tone was surprisingly apologetic. She scrutinized the piece. It was useless. She dropped the plate back onto the pile, looked back over at him. He smiled sadly, offered a gesture of helplessness.

“We’re going to have to leave,” he told her. “Soon. I’m just letting you know.”

She felt her resolve giving way.

“How many more days,” she needed to know, “before they are demanding it?”

He shrugged.

“Two, maybe,” he decided. “If we don’t find something pretty impressive.”

“Two days then,” she finished, turning away from him. “Then we go.”

The frustration, the despair filled her as she lifted her bowl off the table. It still stank from the stew. Consumed with anger, she threw it at the lifter’s power block and it shattered, pieces ricocheting, rattling around the back of the vehicle. She grabbed her coat and ran out into the cold, dead city.

The sight stopped her in her tracks. All around, puffs of white were floating lazily on the breeze, like the forest blossoms, white petals filling the sky. For a moment she was a girl again, running out into fields, to catch them all.

She heard clanking of the lifter’s gates behind her; Traejan had followed her out.

“It’s delightful.” She turned, watched them floating around him.

“It’s just snow,” he told her, not understanding.

She shook her head, turned to catch his gaze, hoping she could share her hope.

“It’s like spring,” she replied. “Like the trees shedding their flowers. You remember trees, blossoms, spring… You want it to come back, don’t you?”

He stared at her, then up at the huge flakes drifting all around. He looked back at her, offered a tentative smile.

“Yeah… Of course I do.”

The next afternoon, her transceiver buzzed with excited shouting.

“It’s intact,” Nur bek Nur yelled over her transceiver. “A whole plant. It’s like they just left it.”

A short time later, she was staring at a small-scale material fabrication facility. From the looks of it, it had probably produced simple micronic devices. Not enough to help, she realized, but enough to get the scavengers excited. Even Traejan seemed happy.

“Is it enough?” he asked her. “Will it make what you need?”

She looked over the sample plates, widgets scattered in the chamber around it. It wouldn’t do what she needed, but it offered hope. Althea nodded to him.

“It’s a start,” she told him. “And it means that the constructs haven’t taken everything. There are few signs of their stripping tech in that sector of the city. This may be the first glimpse of the treasure trove we’ve been looking for!”