Blood Debt at the Uplink Station

K'hark cuts through the jungle into a narrow ravine. The canopy thins here, and a cold sheet of vapor breathes up from cracks in the black stone. Behind him, the wreck glow vanishes.

The Auditor stumbles into the basin after him, suit torn at the hem, one hand braced to his ribs. He looks from the slick stone walls to the faint shimmer of mineral pools below, trying to catch his breath.

A low electronic chirp pulses from a half-buried field marker ahead. Its surface is old and weathered, but the display still flickers with a pale route tag toward an uplink station deeper inland.

Wind threads through the ravine and carries the scent of wet metal. K'hark and the Auditor stand at the fork, with the route marker glowing between them and the dark jungle beyond.

K'hark pads ahead without a sound, leaving the Auditor at the fork. The ravine narrows, and the vapor thickens over the black stone like breath over a wound.

At the edge of the moss, K'hark finds the first sign, a smeared boot print cut through the damp, then three lighter impressions crossing it.

A sliver of synthetic thread clings to a basalt shard. Nearby, a child-sized handprint is pressed into mineral dust, half-smeared by a recent stop.

The trail bends toward the uplink route marker, then breaks again where something was hauled or hurried along the stone.

K'hark reaches back and grips the edge of the marker housing, using it to check the trail line farther inland. From this angle, the uplink route is clear, and the signs point past the fork, not away from it.

The ravine stays empty, but the prints say someone has been here recently. The next stretch of path waits in silence.

K'hark rises from the marker and glides into the ravine line, each step measured to match the dark stone. The synthetic thread he found trails from the route as he passes it, snagged and fluttering once in the damp air.

Ahead, the uplink station's outer seam breaks the basalt with a thin band of pale metal. Its access ridge sits low and half-swallowed by moss, but the route marker points straight to it.

K'hark keeps moving. From the shadow at his heel, a compact xenomorph slips into view, low to the ground, tail swishing in quick, eager arcs as it follows his pace.

The Auditor freezes at the sight, then forces himself to move again, eyes fixed on the narrow station approach. His relief sharpens into wary focus.

The ravine stays quiet for one more breath, then a faint mechanical chime leaks from inside the station seam, as if something there has just woken and noticed them.