The two girls finally reached the aerospace terminal, feeling prepared to deal with what they had come to do. Everything certainly was going to remain fairly simple from here, there was nothing to worry about.

Of course, first Kori and Rosa would have to deal with a sizable problem. The terminal itself was bustling with people. Kori was again back in the seat of being in a transit center as a conduit once again, which brought with it the usual typical concerns. She could feel the glares all around her, people wishing she wouldn’t get in her way. Certainly, she had no inclination to get in anyone’s way, as long as they minded their own. Making their way eventually towards the main lobby, the two of them fell into a bit of a small scene. There, they found a conduit woman being picked on by a couple of humans, a woman with a HT emblem on her uniform. It wasn’t her problem, Kori just kept going, not wanting to make a scene when they already had some fairly significant responsibilities. It should be okay, Kori had been in those shoes frequently, the woman would be fine. They were all used to this.

“Oww, my arm, that’s too tight.” “Bitch, you have no right to complain. You’re just some lowly trash of an air head. Even worse, you’re also one of those jerks from HyperTech. Isn’t that why flights are all so delayed? So I’m sitting here waiting for a flight because you can’t do your work? This is why airheads like you need to get out of the tech business, you’re making things worse for all of us. HyperTech is just a nobody business compared to a governmental organization like Aerotech, especially having airheads like you around trying to get stuff done. If you can’t get things done the way they are supposed to be done, then stop wasting everyone’s time.” The woman was thrown across the hall once again violently, to again be lifted to her feet suddenly by her arm. This was incredibly violent, and was starting to make a scene. The claims that such a conduit was to blame for everyone’s wait times certainly wasn’t making anything better, this could honestly turn into a full on riot. Kori herself wasn’t taking things very well, feeling such shoes even more keenly, also being in the tech industry. Even so, stepping in would only make things worse then, right?

Kori felt Rosa stop, inspiring her to glance at Rosa as she almost felt the heat of Rosa’s fury from where she stood. Rosa was also not taking things kindly, having seen how the humans here treat such poor conduits. Elves had earned proper treatment from humans, but here it remained denied. She had personally seen Rosa attacked repeatedly as a result, a thing that also remained exceptionally troubling for her. But the thing that struck the biggest nerve was hearing someone claim that little businesses need to get out of the way of bigger companies. She had herself personally suffered in such beliefs, it was a problem her world had taken to extremes, a lesson this world should not take an example of. Her attempts to get work done were thus fruitless, herself unable to do anything. Even the academy was starting to suffer under such strong beliefs. Her world has made countless mistakes, but in turn tries to learn the proper way from the mythos. In turn, this world makes their own mistakes, and remains oblivious to the consequences her own had already endured. It was too much for her, she needed to do something. They were already here suffering because of the foundry, she had no patience for more of the same in this world too. Her only reservation was memories about what happened the last time she got into such a conflict.. and her arm was unleashed. That was the only thing she could not afford to do. It especially sucked, because her own marked arm was her dominant hand. This was thus leaving her especially torn. Quickly though, it wasn’t becoming a question of if she should act, it was only a matter of how.

Kori saw where this was going in turn. It was all too obvious, if she didn’t step in, Rosa would instead. This was not Rosa’s problem, Kori would have to deal with it first. Kori was already tired of Rosa beating her in the race of exchanges they had held before, and as is, Rosa had now stood up for Kori twice. This time, it would be her turn to step in instead. Kori thus stepped forward and grasped the human’s arm with her own right hand, a glare of indignification stemming from her. This was unheard of, conduits haven’t stood up for themselves like this for generations, and even Kori was getting the feeling that she might have gotten a bit too used to her blood on the other side. Being treated as an equal so much had left quite the impact on her. The guy then dropped his previous victim and turned on her first, intent on showing her the error of her ways. In that moment, she saw a familiar flow of green hair appear and vanish into the crowd, a holo display forming upon her glasses. ‘Augmenting holo kinetic factor.’ The guy then abruptly came down hard on her right arm with a pull and elbow drop, a move which would have certainly broken bones.. if she had any there. Instead, on impact, the arm rippled with a slight luminescence, the impact with the floor leaving a massive indent. When the guy’s arm itself came down on it, the crunch was not from her own arm.

The sound of snapping bone was quickly followed by a human scream, her assailant writhing on the floor in pain. Another human stepped in to the rescue of the first, escalating matters with a thermite rifle, herself actually being armed. Rosa rushed in at this point, intercepting the energy bullet almost by instinct alone. She was, in turn, also unharmed, the air around her glistening as her ear covers were fully alight. The crowd was meanwhile terrified, though they didn’t seem convinced who scared them more. Kori knew she had to look like the saviour in this situation, it was the only way to save face. While her attacker was otherwise left flustered, she set another holo, giving her nanites instructions. Quickly after, the thermite rifle started sparking and overheating, the unit having a meltdown. The human dropped the rifle in a turn of panic, fleeing away from it. The rifle then completely went dead instead, making it safe for Kori to use her cybernetic arm to crush right through the core chamber of the weapon. With her weapon ultimately destroyed, the human turned her terror directly at Kori. Kori however had no inspiration to cause any more trouble.

“If you are done, I would kindly ask the both of you to stop causing trouble for the people of this terminal. There is enough stress as is, we don’t need open firearms used around here. Instead, I would ask for you to take this opportunity to seek medical aid for your companion. I suspect his arm is broken.” “You... What kind of monster are you?” “I’m just here keeping the peace, nothing more.” “But.. no person can just do this sort of thing, your arm even left a dent in the floor.” “Ah, I see the grounds for your confusion. I apologize for the confusion my metal arm has presented.” “Met-al? What? Wait, you’re not a real person? Are you like a robot?” “Ah, something like that I guess.” Kori adjusted the holo to momentarily make her metal arm appear before it vanished again, getting a gasp from the human she had disarmed. The crowd around was likewise appearing rather stunned. Actually, Kori realized she could do better. “Holi, can you please come here for extra support.” “I’m here. What do we need.” “Contact medical support, get some first aid rushed here quickly, we’ve got a broken arm here when a human made a rushed impact on metal.” “Alright. They are on their way, ETA is ten. Anything else? No, that’s fine for now, thank you.” Kori quickly slipped a compliment to Holi over a holo for her excellent performance there. Everyone around meanwhile was only barely taking in what had just happened. A person had just appeared from nowhere, actually transparent, handled a few requests, and then vanished. Sure, holos do that all the time, but that holo had showed up because it was verbally asked for, like the recipient could hear. None of them were getting in her way at least, which was good because they had a flight that would be showing up soon.

With everything resolved, Kori took Rosa’s hand and guided her from the lobby, bringing things to a close. Rosa in turn noticed at least that the conduit who had been harassed earlier had met up with someone else sporting the same logo, a human male who was making sure the conduit was taken care of. That same male however met her own gaze, clearly fascinated and curious, but was consumed by the crowd as they left. Rosa thus turned to look ahead instead, taking back her own wrist to walk for herself. That really was quite the mess, not the best start to things, but certainly things could have gone worse. They arrived thus at the loading dock right on time, although they found their transport already waiting for them. Kori confirmed the time, she was still a minute early, so clearly Nick had just gotten ahead of schedule. He motioned for his two customers to enter before following towards his own seat.

“Hey Kori, long time no see. Where are we going this time?” “ATA-LS. We had enough cold from our last journey, might as well check out the warmest place around here, right?” “Up? That’s a first for you. Weird, I had just come from there too, the place is a bit of a mess right now, but it's up to you.” “Mess? Anything of note?” “I heard it was a workplace dispute. Aerospace has their nose in things pretty hot right now. You can tell something is about to happen, though I don’t have the details.” Nick sat down in his seat, Kori shrugging at the news as she looked to the private passenger bay. Once again, if it wasn’t her business, she wasn’t going to worry about it. This time, it certainly wouldn’t be her problem, she had very little to do with aerospace’s ventures, beyond using their services like the average person. The two of them sat down quietly as the shuttle took off, flying towards orbit.

“I hope your night service is treating you well, Nick.” “Oh, Velvet, of course things are going well. I do not plan to leave you disappointed.” “Very good, I like your cooperation. In fact, your enthusiasm is absolutely addictive, maybe I can help make things a bit easier for you. Working for Aerospace Control, I can try and get you a smooth landing at your destination. Could you confirm for me where your current passengers are flying to?” “Oh, the two of them have requested to be brought to ATA-LS.” “Oh, that is such a coincidence, I’ve actually personally looked into some very appropriate arrangements for a shuttle dock there. Please proceed to shuttle bay TR-4-9. We’ve got a hot scan of your arrival, and you are clear for docking as soon as you arrive. You have no traffic on-route, just clear skies giving way to a clear atmosphere into open space.” It was a recording between the voices of Nick and another strange woman named Velvet. Rosa was quickly cluing into what was going on as she listened to the recording playback in her ears as the flame of the atmosphere gave way to open darkness. Holi was everywhere around them, including watching their pilot. Holi had thus found the conversation alarming for some reason. At that moment, a holo opened in front of her, nothing more than a picture. It played off as an open doorway, large enough for a shuttle, with a hazy blur similar to the same barrier protecting cities of this world placed instead of a door. In the same room however were a collective of individuals in metal uniforms carrying obvious weapons hiding behind cover. The image vanished as quickly as it had occurred.

Rosa knew what Holi was trying to let her know. They were flying into a trap, though that made little sense at all. Why would these people have any trouble with them? Her gaze then drifted to her white glove, not far from where the image had appeared. Of course, she had caused casualties in one of their crafts before, had she just gotten caught in the process? Kori perked over at her sudden movements, a bit alarmed. She didn’t know about it yet? Oh, of course, Holi was worried about being watched then. Such is why random pictures vanished so quickly, and there had been no time for a visual report. Holi then wasn’t exactly certain what to do either. Her trappers expected that they had a measure of surprise, an expectation that then gave them an advantage if they kept up a feint of ignorance. The moment the shuttle did something strange, this advantage would be lost. Worse, if they turned away, they would only move into further uncertainty. They needed to reach that citadel. She could try to surprise such guards with her new barrier, but she knew it only worked on a select few things.. the odds of finding something it did not work with was far too high. Her latest cybernetics were designed to protect her from the weather, they weren't designed for outright combat.

However, such weren’t her only cybernetics. Her knee joints had held out under normal performance for a while, much like Kori’s arm. Kori’s arm however had demonstrated that it could be quite surprising. This would be Rosa’s turn. She needed to provide enough of a distraction that Kori could do that thing she had done before to everyone’s weapons. Fitness, for sitting in a workshop so long, she was actually far more apt with her arms over her legs. However, that was also her thinking like an elf, someone with horrible stamina. Right now, she wasn’t just some elf, she has been gifted with a human’s stamina. Not only that, but she had been gifted with cybernetic agility. Instrumentation had been her life, and in her world or another, she could work with such kinds of implements. With movements that looked simply bored, she started to exercise her legs.

Kori visibly was about to ask questions, but Rosa shook her head and tapped the empty space of her own face which would be where her glasses would have been if she had needed any. Kori sat back down, certain she was then missing something. She called up a holo.. which didn’t respond. Okay, so both Rosa and Holi knew something was going on, but there was reason to be hush about it. She really didn’t like feeling ignorant, but knew she could trust those involved. She might not have known Rosa for very long, but at the very least Holi was something she had devoted herself to for an eternity now, her trust there could not be better placed. In turn, they were probably trusting her. Of course, the information analyst of the group was feeling horrible for being slow to figure stuff out, that made things rough, but she was skilled enough to start from less and still come out on top. The silence remained the biggest clue, the simple fact that nothing could be shared implied that they were being watched. Her companions' distrust of their observer made it clear they had cause to worry about their observer. This however was confusing, they were in an aerospace shuttle, the only possible observer was.. the whole problem. If they couldn’t trust aerospace for any reason, then they were already in trouble. That made no sense though, this was Nick’s shuttle, it’s not like he would make trouble for her.

Kori didn’t even know that Holi had accounted for this reluctance, and was why Holi had not even bothered trying to convince Kori so directly.

As the shuttle drifted towards the relay, Rosa slipped outside the private room, aiming to be as close to the main door as possible. Kori followed, her concerns mounting as she turned back towards the driving seat. Rosa however motioned for the door, clearly hoping Kori could get it open for her early. None of this made sense, but the only way to prove that would be to follow along and show that there was nothing to worry about. However, she was already having her head spin wondering what she would do if it was actually her who was wrong. Of course, if Nick had betrayed her, things were going to get rough. She knew her priorities though, if they could get into position, they could shift over and be out of the picture. Rosa was clearly aiming to make a dash for it, something she certainly wouldn’t be as capable of. These orbital stations had reduced oxygen levels, conditions suitable for humans, but were a bit harder on someone so much more reliant on oxygen as a conduit. She wouldn’t be capable of running for long before oxygen deprivation hit her hard. Oh well, it wasn’t like this was a race or anything, she would simply deal with her circumstances progressively and make her own way forward. What mattered was not wasting time on what was before her and instead moving on as soon as possible. As the shuttle passed into the shuttle bay, she took a deep breath, Rosa opting into a sprint ready pose. This was stupid, but at one point stupid had became her life. A couple of seconds later, the shuttle pulled off a landing and went still.

As if that was the signal, Kori disengaged the door’s lock, the shuttle door bursting open. At that Rosa was gone, a full dash forward. Catching wind of the ruse, the security present popped out of cover, Rosa bursting straight past a pair of them. The two of them turned around in alarm, but she was already around the corner. Kori had a holo up that measured running speed, seeing that such would have broken records if cybernetic usage would have been allowed in setting records. 65km/h was nothing to scoff at. Rosa however had quickly found she couldn’t keep up such speeds for long, the natural side of her legs wearing down really quickly at that speed. It didn’t matter, she was just a distraction, Kori still needed to catch up. All that matters was that she didn’t get caught while waiting.

“Are you guys incompetant or something? That was just one woman, and you’ve already lost her.” “Sorry, mi’lady.” “Which one was it? Please don’t tell me that it was a human.. it was, wasn’t it? Shit. Okay, whatever, we’re still gold if you can hold the conduit here. Sedate her now.” It was another recording, this time of a holo call held by someone from aerospace control calling in to check on the security guards stationed here. This time, it was Kori getting to see a video recording of the event almost live. So yeah, this was a trap, the others were right. She was going to have some choice words with Nick later, but now really wasn’t the time. Kori was finding it especially perplexing how this didn’t seem like a normal operation either. There were a few ways to explain the situation, either that somehow they were finally caught for their accident with that previous shuttle, or that this was their blame for making a scene back at the terminal.. more than once actually. This could even be attributed to a half dozen different infractions based upon Conduit hate. Where things stopped adding up was where it was sounding like this was a barricade. Aerospace had absolutely nothing to worry about in their entering this place, but the way things looked, they were trying to keep them away. More confusing, the fact that such guards felt there would be no problem if she herself was detained here, even sedated here. Alarming was how.. that was actually exactly against her personal goals. Kori couldn’t shift them if she was still out here. She wasn’t even aware how there was exasperation that Rosa had run by, like the woman had expected such should have been easier to predict. This was more than just alarming.

However, as she had promised herself, what would matter was not what she found here, but what would be waiting for her ahead. This was a problem she could come back to, she had other stuff to worry about first. She made a few motions on her holo for basic instructions as she heard Nick begin to approach her from behind. She needed to move, but she wasn’t yet ready, she still needed time. At that consideration, her glove glinted again, but she ignored it, suppressed such ideas. This would not be a good time for that either. Wait, sedative? The rifles weren’t armed to harm, they were tranq rounds. A quick review with her holo confirmed that. Well then, that was far less alarming. Sure, she knew it would be a problem to go down to one, but that was the only concern remaining.

Rushing out, she dashed towards one of the nearby guards, using him for cover. The guard himself shot her.. in the arm. Not even blinking, Kori then bashed into him with the same metal arm, causing him to stumble. She then took possession of his own weapon and dove behind cover. When the guard returned to his feet, she quickly gave him a dose of his own medicine, him falling to sleep right away. She propped the rifle up again to scout over cover, getting it shot at again. Of course, this was comical, it was like they just didn’t understand. However, it was Nick who came out from his shuttle at this point, a look of abstract horror on his face. Of course, this wasn’t funny at all, none of it was. No one thought this was funny at this point either.

“You idiots, not her arms, morons. Both of her arms are.. protected. Aim for anything else.” Another recording that provided undercover information of instructions from above, the same woman as before. Protected, that was one way to put it. Even so, it was alarming how much this woman knew. Underestimating her had cost her a sizable advantage, she was otherwise going to start baiting the others to see how much a sedative works on absolute zero. Notably, her biggest hesitation was that she wasn’t even certain how that would have worked. The woman effectively knew more than even she did, it was an information war she was losing. If she was going to lose one fight, she would just have to win another. The canisters in her rifle were gas injectors. Out of more than a little cleverness, she reverse loaded the ammunition and pulled out a new holo, building a trajectory mapping of the room. Without peeking over the box, she instead aimed for the roof, the rail of her rifle projecting her bullet against the top harmlessly, the pointy end then falling straight down onto a victim below. A quick volley of shots later, the room was clear. Trigonometry was her field too. Nick was meanwhile nowhere to be seen, obviously hiding in his shuttle. Kori went over to one of the guards and triggered a call.

“Please leave us alone, thank you.” “If you kindly turn back, sure. I’ll even ensure your pilot provides a safe landing to a location completely of your own choosing. Certainly then you could make your own escape.” “Ah yeah, I should go find my friend and get right on that then.” “You’re not going to, are you? Damn it, why are you always so stubborn? Hey, get back here!” Kori ignored the further requests from the woman in the call, not caring to waste any further time with that nonsense. The woman disconnected the call herself. Yeah, that was quite the concern, the woman seemed to know Kori far too well. Knowing her so well though put her at quite the uncomfortable disadvantage. She didn’t want to dwell in such a disadvantage any longer, she wanted to find Rosa and shift over successfully.

All of a sudden, she noticed the place starting to get uncomfortably hot. That was even saying something, being a conduit she wouldn’t get uncomfortably hot unless a person was scalding. Obviously this was another foolish attempt at slowing them down, her DRE had Rosa protected. However, as she proceeded, she noticed a slight hissing sound, a haze starting to obscure the halls. Her holo reported quickly that someone had just discharged the water cooling, which was all at burning temperatures. This in turn was over-humidifying the air, dramatically reducing oxygen qualities in the already oxygen poor environment. This was insane though, not only was it easy to assume she would not be the only one affected by this scale of a disaster, but this was the coolant for the plasma relay. Did she want to take the whole relay offline, was she really willing to go that far? This was aerospace control, they would never feel someone as insignificant as her was worth such drastic actions.

Rosa stumbled through the steam as she eventually stumbled over something.. or someone. Well, the good news was she had found Kori. The bad news was, Kori was now unconscious. She herself wasn’t doing so well either. As an elf, it was a novel experience to be caught the one winded last, but she knew this wasn’t quite the same thing. She wasn’t tired, she was just having problems breathing. The elements in this world were garbage, like mixing fire and water had a direct impact on wind for some odd reason. Specifically, a negative reaction to wind, which would be stone elemental? No sense at all. The only stone elements here were the metal, stuff which she had found warping under some of the heat. The laws of this world were a complete mess, but that wasn’t new to her, it was something she had adjusted to very quickly. What remained concerning was how she had then no idea how to deal with such nonsense. Kori did, but she was out. Well, there was one other she could turn to.

“Holi, I need help, I don’t understand what is going on here.” “The relay has jettisoned coolant to dispense with the extra heat. The steam is thus a thermal reaction. If there was less heat, there would be less reaction. The only ways to achieve that would be to turn down the plasma engine or to artificially freeze the environment.” Rosa herself felt frozen already by Holi’s voice in her ears. Discharging frost would fix this.. but could also ruin so much more. She had already caught on to how important this place was. Freeze up the system, countless people would suffer. She wasn’t willing to go to such lengths just for her own success.

“I can’t, though, the freeze I bring is too much.” “Oh, Rosa is referring to an Absolute Zero reaction. Please be aware that the outside of the vessel is wearing against vacuum conditions, a lack of atmosphere that sustains a temperature very close to zero. The hour outside is also nighttime, there is no solar inflection, the solar winds are very low. The side of the relay farthest from the planet then remains an area naturally capable of recovering from absolute zero conditions in speculation. Due to the cyclical nature of gravity in the relay, that would put your destination at the outer ring, an area not that far from here.” That confused Rosa further, that Holi claimed gravity could work differently here too, that down wasn’t just down. However, studies could be saved for later, she just needed to follow Holi’s guidance, carrying Kori along, and endure the thin air until then. This itself proved sensibly exhausting, a feat she knew her elven self couldn’t have possibly achieved. Then again, if this was her world, it would have been Kori doing the heavy lifting in the first place. They were each taking turns being human.

Nearing her destination, she found a few guards wearing strange masks. Oh, of course, the others here were actually prepared for these traps. One of them fired from their rifle, her barrier doing nothing, but her right arm taking the blow. The idiots wanted her right arm so much then, thinking they were in complete control. It was time to pull out a surprise of her own, her best card. Rosa set down Kori around the corner before returning to confront those chasing her. If they felt at home in this blistering heat, she would turn the tables in kind. Removing her white glove, she put a white flaring hand against a nearby air filtration pipe. Instantly later, the whole metal went stiff and cold, the circulating air venting freezing winds. The air cooled dramatically after the frost of the air freezing to the walls, leaving the floor a coated ice rink. In their heat protection gear, the three humans got extra cold, rushing to remove the unit.. which only exposed them to the open air. Rosa’s own protective coating had already compensated for the cold, but her hand was still a glimmer of white, she felt like it was alone enough to keep her safe from its own fury. Of course, that was a feeling she wasn’t willing to completely trust, such a fury of the veil could easily change its tune one day without any warning.

At the same time, Velvet perked up from her terminal. A singularity outbreak detected on the relay, frost conditions spreading wildly. No, one of them had actually unleashed on her. She really shouldn’t have provided temptation by turning up the heat. Not that she was worried about the relay getting too cold, though this was going to also cause problems. A temporal singularity was bringing them even closer to complete ruin, a far bigger problem. Velvet started working on quick adjustments to the conditions of the relay, to at least mitigate the thermal state of the place, but she knew this would cost her all of her remaining time. Considering the details, she suspected this was not Kori’s doing, she would have gone down. This was Rosa panicking, exactly what she should have ensured did not happen. She knew it was a problem right from the start when Rosa had managed to escape that easily, Rosa was always the one quicker to panic. The two of them had regrettably won this round, which was no insignificant loss, but things weren’t over yet. She still had a partner in this whole process, and even if that wasn’t enough, she would just need to make up for it in the next round. Her obvious problem was in not acting fast enough, not with opponents who react so quickly. Next time, she would have to have a solution ready that would work before the two could even blink.

Rosa walked back to Kori, her pursuit having fled in the treacherous conditions. It might have also had something to do with the demonic white arm, probably that. She slipped her white glove back on, the frost of her environment already declining. Kori at this point even woke up, the air having finally cleared up. Rosa had quickly determined that freezing the air actually had a poor effect on air conditions as well, but fortunately that hadn’t lasted very long in the blaze that was already ongoing. Holi really did have a pretty good backup plan. Kori however was taking account of the scenery, reasonably aware of what lengths Rosa had gone to. They really needed to stop depending on such a dangerous solution, especially ones with this much dramatic use. Who knew what kind of problems such risks could eventually lead to.

Fortunately, in the light of the frozen halls, the path deeper inside was open to them. The two girls walked further into the middle of an open room and began the shift once more.