“RTIFIS, please increase HUD visibility,” Nic requested timidly.

the AI answered him neutrally.

There is simply nothing to see.

Those words echoed in Nic’s mind as he led the descent into the deep ocean trench below the icebergs of Planet Nereus. There is simply nothing to see. They dove and dove and dove deeper in their proxybots—not even in the heat of Wargame combat was he quite this grateful to be physically safe and sound in the Corvette. That didn’t stop his SimSuit from transmitting the sensation of water sloshing all around him, of the decreasing temperature chilling his nerves, the suit tightening against his skin to simulate the increasing pressure.

The worst part of it all was that the abyss kept on stretching below, even as the already muted light of the surface grew dimmer and dimmer above them by the minute. It got to the point where they were practically in total darkness. It was just like the void one experienced in a Wargame after being killed and before respawning. Emptiness in every direction.

This time, though, the clock wouldn’t save him. He wouldn’t be whisked away to safety in a matter of seconds. He wasn’t getting out of this until he and his squadmates found what they’d been sent to retrieve.

“The black box should be close now,” said Nic. “Couple hundred... more meters...”

“You good, man?” Jarek asked him.

Nic didn’t answer right away—he regretted it instantly. “Yeah, of course. I’m fine.”

“Well, I’m not.” Jarek’s honesty stunned him. “Wouldn’t be down here in a million years if it wasn’t a direct order from you.”

All at once, Nic felt proud, an ego boost, and also pity, remorse, embarrassment, and a bit hurt. Jarek was always his eager go-getter second in command. This mission was the most Scarlet 2 had ever complained in the entire history of Team Scarlet.

But Nic couldn’t blame him, nor any of his other squadmates. This mission had asked more of them than any mission they’d experienced so far, even the free-for-all Final Exam. If Final Exam Nic knew he’d be doing this within a year, Nic thought, he’d throw up in his helmet. They’d been in the Simnasium for hours at this point, piloting their proxybots and their secondary vehicles all over Planet Nereus, across landmasses and icebergs alike.

He took solace in the fact that they were finally, actually closing in on their goal, and that there was now virtually zero chance that the rug could be pulled out from under them again. All they had to do was retrieve the astrosteel-lined cube that contained the precious data on Planet Nereus—planetary stats, instrument data, preliminary topography, and everything else required for Red Terraforming, Inc to stake a terraforming claim. WorldGov, the galactic governing body in the Sol system, would never authorize a Wargame without it.

“Keep your eyes peeled,” Nic advised his squadmates, his voice shaky. “I guess, to the best of your ability...”

“I spy, with my little eye, something black,” quipped Maqsud. “Oh, it’s all around us, is it? I meant the other black thing, the half-meter black cube surrounded by blackness. Mea culpa...”

“I’ll have to take your word for that, RTIFIS,” Nic told the AI, and then he looked up and instantly wished that he hadn’t. He could no longer see the light of the surface; he had no frame of reference, other than his HUD’s navigational arrows, to tell which direction was up and which was down.

But a much worse problem then presented itself.

“You guys seein’ that?” Jarek asked. “Holy... Whoa.”

Nic began to understand why the trench was so dark—it was murky with upturned sand and sediment, but as they neared the very bottom, almost three kilometers below the ocean’s surface, they were treated with a faint but steadily intensifying glow. It was coming from a crack at the bottom of the trench, one that spat bubbles and jets of superheated water.

A red-orange slit of magma lacerated the length of the trench.

“[I’m afraid,]” said Shanti. “[Will the black box withstand this?]”

“It’s astrosteel,” Jarek assured her, but the shakiness in his voice suggested he was reassuring himself in the same breath. “It ain’t gonna melt in some magma. Even somethin’ weak as titanium could survive that. Right, Nic?”

“The black box will survive, but we won’t be able to get to it,” Nic explained. “Not with proxybots.”

“I thought they were designed to withstand high temperature fluctuations?”

“In emergencies, yeah, but not for that long. They’re not even bulletproof!” Nic panicked, his robotic head darting back and forth, searching desperately for any sign of the black box. “RTIFIS, send those scan pulses, please!”

“Of course not.” Nic dove deeper, resisting the temptation to close his eyes as he did so. He half wanted to pretend the whole thing was an adventurous nightmare of his, that if he closed his eyes hard enough and then opened them, he’d wake up in Bedroom 1 on the Corvette to tell his squadmates all about his imagined mission to an oceanic planet. But it was all too real.

“Erm, hang on a moment,” said Maqsud. “I believe I may have located it.” “Does that look cube-shaped to any of you?”

Nic followed to investigate. He found it harder to swim now than when he’d first taken the plunge off the iceberg; the pressure was more intense, and it squeezed him from all angles. He was grateful that the pain settings of his SimSuit were only calibrated to Tactile Minimal.

“That’s it!” Nic exclaimed. “That’s—” His words were cut off in a burst of more superheated water, steamy and distorted compared to the cold water around it. The sound of rushing, gurgling bubbles filled his ears through the audio sensors.

He saw why the trench was suddenly so full of activity: the crack was widening, exposing more of the glowing lava seeping out of it.

The black box teetered on the edge, threatening to be absorbed into the red-orange molten rock completely.

If that happens, then it could get sucked into the magma forever, he thought. It would take some seriously specialized equipment to fish it out—equipment we don’t have with us. Red Terraforming would have to send for it, and that’s another 40-plus days through a wormhole, and by that point... Nereus will be lost to somebody else.

“Do not let that black box out of your sight!” Nic barked into the team chat. “Get your hands right in that lava if you have to—retrieval is top priority!”

He and Maqsud were the closest ones to it. He made a lunge for it just as a chunk of rock broke loose and sank into the lava flow. Nic missed.

No!

The black box was caught in the molten ooze.

Until Maqsud rescued it.

“Ooh, ah, hot!” said Max, playing a game of hot potato with himself. The warm colors of the magma still clinging to the astrosteel cube faded from existence, replaced by the dull darkness of cold rock.

“Good work, Scarlet 4,” Nic congratulated him, breathing heavily. “Thanks for getting it done.”

“My pleasure, Nicolas. Shall we make our way topside and finally cap off this unduly grueling mission?”

“You read my mind. Perri!” Nic called up to her as he led their ascent to the surface. “We’ve got the target. Heading up now!”

“Music to my ears, boys!” she replied, the excitement apparent in her voice. “And Shanti! Can’t forget Shanti.”

“[Thank you,]” Shanti’s thought-to-speech cranial link responded.

Nic smiled.

***

“At long last,” Maqsud rejoiced, “after this tribulation, I can see the end of this contemptible aqueous abysm! This must be how the ancient Greeks imagined Elysium, or the Vikings Valhalla, the—”

“Don’t get too excited,” Nic chided him playfully. “We still have the long drive back to the Corvette. Unless you forgot.”

There was a silent beat as they approached the ocean’s surface. “In fact, I had, Nic. In fact, I had.”

Nic’s HUD highlighted Perri’s cable; he reached out and grabbed the hook to stabilize it. Maqsud swam up to the very top, above the water, and held on to the black box with one hand, holding the cable with the other. Then went Shanti, followed by Jarek, and Nic was at the bottom. Everyone but Max was able to hold onto the cable with both hands.

“Ready for me to reel you in?” Perri asked.

“Operation Hook, Line, and Sinker is a go,” Maqsud replied in his best hyperbolically-serious Nic impression. Everyone but Shanti laughed. “You liked that, did you? I’ve been practicing that impression for a few weeks now.”

The cable began retracting out of the ocean, pulling Team Scarlet up the side of the iceberg to the waiting Harpy overhead. It couldn’t hold them in its cabin, but she would be able to tow them a short distance onto land where the Centaur was still parked. Nic unintentionally held his breath during their perilous, dangling journey.

“Everybody good?” Jarek asked.

“I think—” Maqsud started to say, and then he cried out, “Wait!”

Nic looked up and saw the black box tumble out of his hands. His heart jumped into his throat.

Shanti, the second in line, reached out to grab the black box—with both hands, which sent her plummeting toward the ocean.

“[Afraid!]” her software said in an almost comically neutral tone.

“Gotcha!” Jarek grunted in the same breath.

Nic was ashamed to realize that he’d flinched, but when he opened his eyes again, he saw Jarek was still holding onto the cable with one hand, the other wrapped around Shanti’s midsection, and Scarlet 5 still had a tight, two-handed grip on the black box.

“[I am afraid,]” Shanti repeated.

“It’s okay, Shanti,” Jarek replied. “I got you. Sorry about the close quarters here, but you’re good now. You’re safe. Just don’t let go of that black box, okay? We’re almost outta here.”

“That’s right, Shanti,” Nic added. “Good catch. I’m proud of you. And I’m proud of this squad. We all have each other’s backs!”

A pause. “[Thank you,]” Shanti replied. “[Friends.]”