"Over here!"
The girl pulled her along, running deeper into the factory. Behind them, the sound of tiny insects crawling grew closer, like a rain of metal.
They navigated through rows of abandoned machinery, finally stopping in front of a massive furnace. The door was open, revealing a dark hollow inside.
"Jump!"
Without time to think, Ye Mi threw herself forward and leapt inside.
The fall lasted only two seconds before she hit a soft cushion. She heard the girl land behind her, then a muffled thud— the furnace door had closed.
Darkness.
Complete darkness.
Then, a light— the girl turned on a flashlight.
They were in a narrow passageway, with metallic walls and a soft pad underfoot. The corridor sloped downward, leading somewhere unknown.
"Where are we?"
"An old mine shaft," the girl stood up, brushing dust off herself. "Before the colony was built, the earliest miners on Mars dug this. It was abandoned later, then repurposed by us as an escape route."
She took a few steps forward, then looked back at Ye Mi. "My name is Su Nian. A Tie told me about you."
"What did he say?"
"That you came from Europa, carrying things you shouldn't have." Su Nian's gaze fixed on her pocket—where the shard of the stone slab was hidden. "And that you might be a trap."
Ye Mi's heart tightened. "I'm not—"
"I know," Su Nian interrupted. "If you were a trap, you would have summoned more bugs just now. Let's go."
They walked through the mine for ten minutes. The passage grew wider, eventually leading into a natural cave—an underground lava tube on Mars, modified with lights, simple furniture, and about a dozen people.
Those people saw Su Nian and relaxed slightly. But when they looked at Ye Mi, their eyes grew wary again.
"Is she the person A Tie mentioned?" a middle-aged man approached, bearing a deep scar running from his left cheek to his chin.
"Yes," Su Nian replied. "The biomorphic insect suddenly attacked the D District contact point just now. She arrived just in time."
The man's gaze lingered on Ye Mi for a long moment.
"I'm Lao Zhou," he finally extended his hand. "Welcome to the underground."
Ye Mi took his rough, strong hand—like A Tie's.
"Where's A Tie?"
Lao Zhou's expression changed.
"Follow me."
He led her through the cave into a smaller room. Inside was a bed, and lying on it was a person.
A Tie.
But his eyes were closed, and his face was pale. A thick bandage wrapped around his chest, with blood seeping through.
"What happened?"
"Three days ago, he went to support someone else," Lao Zhou's voice was low. "He was discovered by the biomorphic insect. He killed a dozen, but one crawled into his chest."
Ye Mi approached the bed, looking at A Tie's face. She had seen that face only twice—once on the Pelican, and once on Europa's ice plains. But she remembered the smile on that face very clearly.
"Can he be saved?"
Lao Zhou shook his head.
Silence.
Then, A Tie's eyes opened.
He looked at her, vacant but with a slight smile at the corners of his mouth.
"Little girl," his voice was faint, like the wind. "You're here."
"I'm here."
"Gu Zhou..." He coughed, blood spilling from his mouth. "Did Gu Zhou give you the thing?"
Ye Mi took out the shard.
A Tie looked at it, something flickering in his eyes.
"Good," he said. "Good."
His gaze shifted to Ye Mi's face. "Do you know what this is?"
"A fragment of the stone slab."
"It's more than just a fragment," A Tie's voice grew weaker. "It's... a key. Gu Zhou said... it can reveal the truth... let everyone see..."
His trembling hand pointed toward Ye Mi.
"Live... and take it out..."
His hand fell.
His eyes were still open, but there was no light left.
Ye Mi stood silently beside the bed.
Behind her, Lao Zhou's voice came: "He's the best person I've ever met. Twenty-three years ago, in the exploration team of seven, he was the communicator and the only one not 'optimized' by the main brain. Because on the day he found the stone slab, he took leave to buy a birthday gift for his daughter."
Ye Mi turned to look at him.
"And his daughter?"
Lao Zhou didn't answer.
But his gaze shifted toward another part of the cave—where Su Nian was distributing food to several children.
Ye Mi understood.