SHHH!
The pod doors hissed open, releasing a wave of cold vapor that poured out like mist. The air was sharp and metallic, heavy with sterilized chill.
A faint chime pulsed from the side screen.
Status: CRITICAL. Structural Damage Detected.
Something had gone wrong.
Inside, Salet stirred. His fingers twitched first, brushing against the frost lining the pod's edge. Then his eyes snapped open. Breath hitched in his chest as he gasped, the sudden rush of cold air burning his lungs.
For a few seconds, he couldn't tell where he was. Only the faint hum of failing systems and the red glow of emergency lights cutting through the mist surrounded him. His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
He sat up slowly. The glass surface of the pod dripped with condensation, streaked with cracks that spidered across the panel.
"How did I get here... What in the world happened?" he muttered, voice rough and dry.
He pressed a trembling hand against the inner seal, and the hatch groaned open with a dull scrape. Cold vapor spilled out, crawling across the rocky floor. Salet swung his legs over the edge and stepped out. His boots crunched against grit.
The chamber around him wasn't part of any ship. The walls were uneven, carved from dark stone, glistening faintly under the pale orange light leaking through a jagged opening above. Thin, dusty air scraped his throat with every breath. He looked up. In the rocky ceiling was a large hole; the pod must have fallen and crashed through that. How did he even survive?
He turned slowly in place, trying to piece together fragments — alarms, flashing lights, him running down a corridor, then the sudden cold of cryosleep. Nothing else.
The screen on the pod flickered one last time before dimming. A line of faint text appeared and froze:
CRYOPOD-22 // SALVAGE EVAC PROTOCOL – TERMINATED.
"Evac... from what?" he whispered.
He stepped toward the light at the end of the chamber. The ground sloped upward, and soon his boots met open air.
Outside stretched a vast, cracked plain under a rust-colored sky. Wind slid over the barren surface, whispering like dry breath across stone. The land was broken and colorless with no trees, no rivers, only ridges of clay and sharp black rock stretching as far as his eyes could see.
Two moons hovered in the haze. One fractured by long, dark scars, the other faint and pale like a dying ember. Something told him he wasn't on his home planet, Exon.
"This can't be a dangerous space…" he breathed. "It's too quiet."
He descended the ridge. The ground shifted beneath him, brittle and hollow. From where he stood, he couldn't sight any sign of life. Was this planet even inhabited?
Maybe there was a settlement. Maybe not.
He drew his lab coat close, feeling the dull ache in his lungs with every breath. He noticed something clutched in his hands, a vial of some sort. "Wherever this is... I'm not supposed to be here."
The wind answered in long, hollow tones, whistling through distant ravines like voices half-buried in the dust.
Salet turned toward the distant light over the horizon. "Guess that's where I start."
He walked, slow but steady, leaving behind the silent pod. Its red light blinked faintly once, then died completely, swallowed by the cold wind and the endless, lifeless plains of Iona.
____________________
The door slid open and Edin stepped out. His towering frame drew every eye in the street. He sighed and looked at his palm. It still felt like the blood was there, even though he had wiped it clean.
He hurried through the street into a narrow alley, trying not to draw more attention than necessary. Part one of his plan for coming to Rekov was done. Serhik had given him something to help with the coughing and the blood, but deep down, Edin knew it was probably useless.
Now came phase two.
He leaned against the cold wall, thinking, eyes fixed on the fading light above the alley. How was he supposed to pull this off now, when every step already felt heavier than the last?
He needed to find Sofo Labs.
He walked to a nearby substation. A shuttle stopped before him, its sleek surface glowing faint blue beneath the station lights. He stepped in, feeling the floor hum beneath his boots. Four hours remained before he was due to meet Greg.
The shuttle shot forward, gliding over the magnetic rails.
When it stopped, Edin stepped out of the terminal into the heart of Rekov Prime.
The city glittered beneath a translucent dome that filtered the pale-blue sky. Shuttles drifted above glass spires, their trails slicing across the mirror-streets. Everything here was controlled, from the movements to the sounds, even the air.
The Hilkor family's insignia shimmered on the horizon. Their mark was everywhere. Rekov didn't belong to any Exnec branch. It was private, owned down to its atmosphere processors. That also meant no oversight.
And no help.
Edin moved through the crowd, blending with the workers in lab coats, engineers in sleek gray uniforms, and drones gliding between towers. He kept his head low. No need to gather attention, though his height made it impossible to fully hide.
"Sofo Labs…" he muttered.
Alan Mends' words echoed faintly in his memory:
"If you ever find yourself on Rekov, look for the ringed spire at the city's edge. The one with no logo. That's where Sofo hides."
He followed the transit signs, their glowing lines bending in clean arcs through the city. The outer districts shifted around him, from pristine medical centers to quieter industrial sectors where testing towers rose in silence.
That was when he saw it.
A smooth, obsidian structure stood apart from the rest. Circular, with no insignia, only a faint blue pulse tracing around its top like a heartbeat.
As he approached, the air grew colder. The hum of the city thinned into a deeper vibration, a sound that came from beneath the streets.
He stepped forward. The glass door slid open soundlessly.
At the reception sat a Cadvian lady. "Welcome to Sofo Labs. How may I help you?" she said, not looking up.
Edin smiled faintly. "I'm looking for Sofo."
The young woman hesitated, then raised her eyes. Confusion shifted into recognition and fear at the sight of the giant before her.
"You mean Dr. Sofo?" she asked softly.
Edin's face remained expressionless. "Yes."
The floor beneath them gave a low hum, Edin knew that what he was about to start might spiral to his own doom.