The translucent image splashed across her tarsus lenses highlighted the harvester’s internal walkways and small maintenance cubicles. Ninety percent of the interior was solid machinery. Of course, the explosive projectiles had opened up gashes big enough to shelter a human, but not many.
Kandara scattered a dozen microdrones and watched them scurry through the fissures. They’d be able to find her elusive target quickly enough.
“You were right,” Jessika said. “I’m looking at video of her going out to Bremble this morning. She was in a standard-issue space suit.”
“Did she bring it with her from Sol, or is it one of yours?”
“Ours.”
“Ping the beacon.”
Kandara held her breath, but the transponder didn’t respond.
“Sorry,” Jessika said. “She’s wiped the standard routines.”
“Kandara,” Tyle said. “Are you shooting at the harvester again?”
“No. Why?”
“I’m reviewing the telemetry—what’s left. Systems are going offline in the main power network. It looks like they’re being physically damaged.”
“Show me,” Kandara instructed.
The schematic splashed up the harvester’s power system. A tiny portal supplied power to the vehicle from Akitha’s solarwell electrical grid, but there were several quantum batteries distributed through the big machine as backups, keeping essential equipment active in the case of a power failure. If the harvester cooled below thirty Celsius, it would be a lot tougher for the maintenance teams to restore.
She saw the failures were all in the same section, around a quantum battery that supplied power to the rear caterpillar tracks.
“What systems are being hit?” she asked as she sent three microdrones racing to the location. “Is there a pattern?”
Zapata mapped a route to the section. She’d need to go back into the harvester through a hatchway on the left-hand side. But—inside was the last place she wanted to be. “Find me a target line the magrail can shoot through,” she told Zapata. From what she could see on the schematic, the section was almost completely surrounded by chunks of dense machinery.
“Er, Kandara,” Tyle said. “It’s the safety systems that are being taken out. Two more have just gone.”
A microdrone crawled into the tiny cubicle that provided access to the quantum battery and its cabling. Kandara felt her breath catch. Cancer was there, using a tool to work inside a high-voltage cabinet. The woman turned in a smooth motion, lining her right hand up on the microdrone. The connection vanished, but not before its radiation sensor spiked.
Maser, Kandara realized. Cancer was using a peripheral to shoot through her suit. The narrow beam would wreck any active systems in the fabric it passed through, but wouldn’t puncture it. Kandara opened her communications to an open broadcast.
“Cancer, there’s no way out. You know that. Every portal is closed to you.”
No answer.
“I’m authorized to offer you a deal. Tell us who hired you, and you’ll be renditioned to Zagreus. Refuse, and you’ll be terminated.”
“She just took out another voltage regulator,” Tyle said. “There’s only two left to limit the quantum battery’s output.”
Kandara looked at her own feet. The crumbled bodywork she was standing on was composite—non-conducting. But the frame underneath was boron fiber–reinforced aluminum.
It didn’t make much sense, but Kandara crouched down and jumped anyway. Her muscles were strong enough to propel her in a long arc, taking her over the side of the harvester. She landed hard in the mushy ice granules, but managed to keep upright as her boots slithered about. The ice came up over her ankles.
“Not far. Remember the ground underneath is ice, too. It should just travel straight down. She’d be better off rigging…Oh, Kandara, if she shorts out that quantum battery, it’ll explode—and trigger the others.”
Kandara stared at the harvester in growing panic. “How big an explosion?”
“Uh—get away! Kandara, she’s just taken out another voltage regulator. There’s only one left. Run! Get out of there. Move!”
Kandara brought her arm up and started firing armor-piercing projectiles. The magrail rifle slammed them through dense machinery. An overlapping series of explosions sent dazzling yellow vapor streaming out through the tears in the bodywork. The whole mass of the harvester shifted slightly, the profile distorting.
She turned and jumped. Soaring above the lustrous ground took an age. She landed, wobbling; jumped again, a lower trajectory this time, carrying her farther.