I Choose the Skills Everyone Else Rejects

The maintenance cart rattled over every joint in the rail.

Nate pushed from the rear while Iris guided the front handle. Holt lay between them beneath two thermal blankets, held to the platform by straps taken from the train.

Milo’s black cases rested near her feet.

Neither of them had opened them.

Fog swallowed the track ahead and everything behind them. Nate kept expecting movement between the trees, but the forest remained quiet enough for him to hear the damaged left wheel grind through each turn.

His shoulders burned.

Whenever exhaustion pulled his posture apart, the movement borrowed from Rovan’s Echo returned through his body. Nate loosened his arms, leaned into the cart and let his legs carry more of the strain.

It still hurt.

But it allowed him to keep pushing.

The left wheel struck another rail joint.

Holt shifted beneath the blankets.

Iris stopped immediately and pressed two fingers to her neck.

Nate released the handle.

"What changed?"

"Her pulse."

A pale current entered Holt’s chest. It returned to Iris in weak, uneven fragments.

She removed her hand.

"She’s still breathing."

"You stopped like she wasn’t."

"I stopped to make sure."

Iris returned to the front of the cart.

They pushed on.

After several minutes, she spoke without looking back.

"Did Milo say anything else?"

Nate watched the rail disappear beneath the wheels.

"He told me where his name was."

"In the cases?"

"Yes."

Iris was quiet for a few steps.

"He asked you?"

Nate’s hands tightened around the handle.

"Yes."

She nodded once.

The cart continued east.

Holt woke when they crossed a damaged junction.

Her eyes opened without focus. One hand moved beneath the blanket, searching near her hip.

Her weapon was no longer there.

"Holt," Nate said.

She turned toward him.

"Calder?"

"Yes."

"Where are we?"

"Following the eastern rail."

She tried to raise her head. Pain stopped her before her shoulders left the platform.

Iris moved beside the cart.

"Stay down."

"The coaches?"

"Behind us."

Holt’s gaze reached the two black cases near her feet.

"Where is Kern?"

Nate looked toward the fog.

Iris answered.

"He died at the train."

Holt closed her eyes for a moment. Her fingers tightened weakly around the blanket.

Nate opened their last bottle of water.

Holt tried to drink, but the first mouthful made her cough. Most of it ran down her chin.

Iris took the bottle away.

"Small amounts."

Holt pushed her hand aside.

"How far have we gone?"

"Less than three kilometres," Nate said. "You mentioned Marker Seventeen."

"Track sign after the south bend."

"What’s there?"

"Emergency relay. Medical storage. Maintenance shelter."

"Enough to treat your Circuit?"

"Enough to keep it from collapsing."

Her breathing caught midway through the sentence.

Iris adjusted the dressing around her side.

"The stabilizer is fading."

Holt looked along the eastern rail.

"The relay battery may be disconnected."

"Can we reconnect it?" Nate asked.

"Instructions inside the console."

Her eyes began to close.

"Holt."

"South bend," she murmured.

Then her body went slack again.

Iris checked her pulse.

"Keep moving."

The south bend appeared twenty minutes later.

A sign stood beside the track.

M17 — 0.8 KM

The relay emerged slowly from the fog.

It was a low concrete structure built into the slope beside the railway. A narrow platform crossed its front, with a storage shed attached to one side.

The outer door stood open.

Nate stopped the cart several metres away.

A dark smear crossed the concrete beside the entrance.

Iris saw it too.

"Blood."

Nate took the mercenary’s rifle from the side of the cart.

The magazine still held several rounds. He checked the chamber and approached the relay.

"Stay with Holt."

"You’re bleeding through your sleeve."

"I can still hold the rifle."

"That wasn’t my concern."

He entered before she could continue.

The main room was narrow and crowded with railway equipment. Several cabinets had been forced open. Thermal packs, empty water containers and torn medical packaging covered the floor.

The transmitter console was dark.

A railway employee lay behind it.

His uniform had been cut open near the stomach. A dressing covered the wound, held in place by strips of silver tape.

Nate raised the rifle.

The man’s eyes opened.

"Don’t."

His voice was barely audible.

Nate lowered the barrel.

"Who attacked you?"

"Men from the train."

"Mercenaries?"

The employee nodded.

"How many?"

"Four inside."

"Where did they go?"

His eyes shifted toward the western wall.

"Back the way they came."

Iris entered behind Nate.

"I told you to stay outside."

"Holt is beside the door."

She noticed the wounded man and crouched near him.

"Can I see the wound?"

He did not answer.

Iris removed the dressing carefully.

Her expression changed.

She still placed two fingers against his side and released a small pulse.

The man flinched.

"Medic?"

"Pulse Medic."

"Unlinked?"

"Yes."

He caught her wrist.

"Don’t empty yourself."

Iris looked down at his hand.

It had already lost most of its strength.

"The transmitter is dead," Nate said. "Did they destroy it?"

"Took the charged cells."

"Is there another power source?"

The employee’s gaze moved toward the console.

"Under the floor."

His breathing became shallow.

Then he looked toward the attached storage shed.

"Lower compartment."

Iris followed his gaze.

"Medical supplies?"

He closed his eyes.

"Maybe."

Nate checked his pulse.

Still present.

Barely.

Iris remained with him while Nate brought Holt inside. They placed her near the transmitter, away from the open doorway.

The storage shed had been searched.

Empty shelves lined the walls. Several cases had been opened and thrown aside.

Iris crouched near the lowest rack and ran her hand beneath it.

Her fingers found a recessed latch.

A narrow compartment opened near the floor.

Inside rested a long metal case.

The label across its lid read:

CLASS 1 FIELD — CIRCUIT SUSPENSION SUPPORT

Iris carried it to Holt.

The device unfolded into several curved sections. She fitted one around Holt’s chest and another beneath her damaged side, then joined them along her spine.

When Iris activated it, thin lines appeared across the frame.

Holt’s body tensed.

Her damaged circulation reached the broken section of her Circuit and diverted into the brace. The current travelled through the metal before returning on the opposite side.

Iris adjusted the contacts one at a time.

Nate waited beside her.

"She’s stable," Iris said.

He continued watching Holt’s chest.

"For how long?"

"A few hours."

Nate finally looked away.

The railway employee coughed behind them.

Iris returned to him while Nate opened the panel beneath the transmitter.

Printed instructions covered the inner surface.

An emergency battery sat beneath the floor, disconnected from the main system by a mechanical switch. A red hand crank extended from the charging housing.

Nate followed the numbered steps.

The switch moved into place.

The crank did not.

He pulled harder.

Rust scraped inside the housing, but the mechanism remained locked.

Iris looked over from the injured man.

"Is it broken?"

"Stuck."

A metal maintenance bar hung beside the console. Nate fitted it over the handle and pushed from a lower angle.

The crank moved slightly.

He reset the bar and forced it farther.

The mechanism broke free with a violent jerk.

Nate nearly struck the floor.

The railway employee made a sound that might have been a laugh.

"Graceful."

Nate looked back at him.

The man’s eyes remained closed.

Iris came to the console.

They turned the crank together.

The battery indicator rose slowly across the screen. Each rotation became harder as the charge increased.

A dim line appeared after several minutes.

The transmitter woke.

A warning covered the screen.

EMERGENCY POWER AVAILABLE

ONE LONG-RANGE BURST

TRANSMISSION WILL REVEAL RELAY LOCATION

Iris released the handle.

"The mercenaries could receive it."

"Royal recovery could too."

"They’re coming from the east. The mercenaries went west."

Nate looked at Holt.

The suspension brace continued carrying part of her circulation, but its own charge was already decreasing.

"Can we reach the next relay?" he asked.

"Not before that brace fails."

He remembered searching beneath the train while Milo waited for a second stabilizer.

There had been no second dose.

Nate placed his hand over the transmission control.

Iris watched him but did not object.

He activated the burst.

The lights dimmed.

A low vibration passed through the concrete floor and entered the rails outside.

BROADCASTING

The railway employee stopped breathing before the first response arrived.

Iris noticed.

She crossed the room and placed two fingers against his neck. After several seconds, she removed her hand and pulled a thermal blanket over his face.

The console sounded.

ROYAL RECOVERY SIGNAL RECEIVED

ESTIMATED ARRIVAL: 44 MINUTES

Iris leaned against the wall.

Another line appeared beneath the first.

SECOND RECEIVER DETECTED

8.1 KM — WESTERN LINE

Nate stared at the distance.

"Could it be another relay?" Iris asked.

The number changed.

7.8 KM

"It’s moving."

Nate took the rifle and went to the entrance.

Fog covered the track in both directions. The western line vanished behind the bend they had crossed less than an hour earlier.

He crouched and placed one hand against the rail.

A faint vibration passed through the metal.

Slow.

Regular.

Mechanical.

Iris stopped behind him.

"How long until it reaches us?"

The distance changed again on the console.

7.5 KM

Nate felt another pulse beneath his palm.

"Before the rescue team."

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