Arlen did not approach Graveshare.
The display remained above Rell’s arm.
SUCCESSION TRIAL AVAILABLE
Cade looked toward the damaged development-wing door.
"Can this wait until we’re outside?"
"No."
Arlen kept his eyes on the armament.
"Succession belongs to Malvern."
"What does that mean?"
"If you’re taking Graveshare, it happens here."
Varek stepped closer to the platform.
"Rell’s dead. You’re the last one from the old roster. Choose someone."
Arlen looked at him.
"If it were that easy, Vale would have left with it years ago."
That stopped Varek.
Cade glanced toward the wounded intruder. Lysa had stopped most of the bleeding, but the man was barely conscious.
"Explain."
Arlen approached Rell.
The last black strand released the corpse’s wrist.
Rell tipped sideways.
Arlen caught him before he hit the floor.
For several seconds, he simply held him.
Then Cade came over and helped lower the body beside the platform.
Arlen removed what remained of Rell’s identification tag and put it in his pocket.
Graveshare stayed wrapped around the dead man’s forearm.
"Rell was the bearer when our deployment began," Arlen said. "When he died, Vale and I were the only linked members left."
Kellan looked toward the grooves.
"Either of you could succeed him?"
"Either of us could present a candidate. The old deployment was still active, so the surviving roster retained succession authority."
"And Vale tried."
"Yes."
"What happened?"
Arlen looked toward the platform.
"He started the trial."
Varek waited.
"And?"
"He forced his way out before it finished."
"He ran."
Arlen looked at him.
"You didn’t see him afterward."
"Neither did you."
"I saw enough."
Nate looked at the six marks across Graveshare.
"What does the trial do?"
Arlen took a moment before answering.
"It tests whether Graveshare can use you as a bearer without destroying your Circuit."
Nate frowned.
"The reserve stays in the armament."
"Yes."
"So why does my Circuit matter?"
"Because Graveshare needs one to control what comes out."
Arlen pointed toward Rell’s arm.
"The bearer isn’t another battery. He’s the regulator."
Kellan understood first.
"The energy leaves Graveshare through him."
"Through the interface with his Circuit."
"Meaning his pathways."
"Yes."
Nate looked at his right hand.
That was worse than simply holding more energy.
His pathways already had limits. He had learned those limits through numb fingers, a damaged shoulder and weeks spent rebuilding circulation.
"What happens during the trial?"
"Graveshare opens the reserve in stages."
"How much?"
"I don’t know."
"Vale?"
"Second Circuit."
Arlen’s eyes moved toward the marks.
"He lasted less than five minutes."
Nobody spoke.
Varek looked at Graveshare again.
"How does stored energy kill someone if it stays inside the weapon?"
Arlen gave him a tired look.
"You’ve used Conductive equipment."
"Obviously."
"Then you’ve felt feedback."
Varek’s expression changed slightly.
"Yes."
"Imagine the equipment has more energy waiting behind it than you can safely control. The trial removes the limiter and watches what you do."
Nate understood.
Too much energy through a bad route would not make him stronger.
It would burn the route.
His Core did not need to change.
Neither did his Nodes.
Graveshare only needed to push harder than his pathways could handle.
"And Vale escaped?" Nate asked.
"He broke the connection."
"The Supervisor killed him?"
"Before he reached the surface."
Cade looked at Graveshare.
"Then we leave it here."
Arlen said nothing.
Cade noticed.
"What?"
"The old deployment is still open."
The emergency lights flickered above them.
Arlen pointed toward the glowing marks.
"Malvern sent seven people into the field. It never recorded a completed extraction. Rell died as bearer, but I’m still alive."
"So the link stays active," Nate said.
"Yes."
"Even now."
"Malvern doesn’t care how long it’s been."
Cade looked toward the freight route.
"And if you die?"
"With no bearer and no surviving succession authority, Graveshare seals with the old deployment."
"Permanently?"
"Maybe."
Arlen glanced at Rell.
"Nobody ever tested it."
Varek looked toward the entrance.
"And whoever reopened C-19 came here looking for it."
Nobody argued.
Someone knew what Malvern contained.
Leaving Graveshare behind would only mean waiting for them to try again.
"Can we move it like this?" Cade asked.
"No."
Varek looked at Arlen.
"Then choose."
Arlen’s attention moved toward the cutter in Varek’s hand.
"You want it."
"Obviously."
Lysa glanced at him.
"At least you’re honest."
Varek ignored her.
"We lose people every mission. If that thing gives the survivors more energy to work with, pretending it’s useless won’t bring anyone back."
Arlen did not become angry.
That bothered Nate more than if he had.
"Vale used to say the same thing."
Varek’s jaw tightened.
"I didn’t kill Hobb."
"No."
"I didn’t kill Nima."
"No."
"Dax chose to stay behind."
Arlen nodded.
"You’re right."
Varek looked surprised.
Arlen continued.
"Vale didn’t murder anyone either."
The chamber went quiet.
"He chose routes. Positions. Who entered first. Who held a corridor. Who drew a construct away while the rest moved."
Arlen looked toward the six grooves.
"Every choice could be defended."
Nate thought about Derren outside the closing door.
Nima disappearing behind the transport.
Dax holding the flood gate open.
None of them had required murder.
Arlen looked at Varek.
"That was the problem."
Varek said nothing more.
Cade stepped forward.
"Who can take the trial now?"
"The last surviving member of the deployment can nominate anyone physically present."
"Do they have to agree?"
"Yes."
Garr touched his suppression collar.
"I doubt command wants a condemned man wearing experimental Imperial hardware anyway."
Cade looked around the chamber.
"Nobody gets ordered into this."
Varek answered immediately.
"Then I volunteer."
"No."
Varek turned toward Arlen.
"You just said anyone."
"I said I can nominate anyone."
"Why not me?"
Arlen looked at the cutter in his hand.
"Because you’ve spent the last ten minutes deciding how useful the dead could make you."
"Why else would anyone take it?"
"That’s exactly why I’m not choosing you."
Varek’s expression hardened.
Arlen’s attention shifted toward Nate.
Nate noticed.
"So you’re considering me."
"I am."
"Why?"
Arlen pointed toward the ruined Supervisor.
"Your technique failed."
Nate waited.
"You tried to read the whole construct like a living opponent. It put you on the floor."
"That isn’t much of a recommendation."
"Then you changed the problem."
Arlen pointed toward Varek.
"You didn’t suddenly become strong enough to kill it. You stopped trying. One limb. A few centimetres. Enough to keep him alive."
Nate looked toward the small mark his field knife had left on the broken joint.
Almost no damage.
Arlen continued.
"Vale had the opposite problem. If something worked once, he wanted more from it."
His eyes moved toward Graveshare.
"More reserve. More endurance. Eventually, more people he could afford to lose."
"And you think I don’t?"
"I don’t know you well enough to answer that."
Nate preferred that to reassurance.
Arlen glanced toward the Supervisor.
"But I know what you did when your first answer failed."
Cade moved beside Nate.
"You don’t need this."
"I know."
"Then don’t take it because we’re standing in front of it."
Nate looked toward Graveshare.
Six deaths had fed the armament.
Some of that energy was probably gone.
Some remained.
The marks stayed either way.
He worked in Last Contact.
Hobb had survived nineteen missions before Greyhook.
Nima twelve.
Dax was dead.
Two replacements had appeared before Nate had finished processing it.
If Nate became Graveshare’s bearer, future casualties would gain another consequence.
Their deaths could leave fuel behind.
That should have made the decision easier.
It didn’t.
Nate looked toward the freight entrance.
"What happens if we leave?"
"We seal Malvern," Cade said.
"The last seal worked well."
Cade had no answer for that.
Nate turned to Arlen.
"The people who reopened the route know you’re alive now."
"Yes."
"They’ve already been looking for Graveshare."
"Probably."
"If succession works?"
"The old deployment closes. I’m released."
"And Graveshare?"
"You become the bearer."
Nate looked around the chamber.
"What happens to everyone standing here?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Succession doesn’t create a deployment link."
That mattered.
Arlen continued.
"Graveshare was military hardware. It reads deployment orders."
Cade’s expression hardened.
"Explain."
"When its bearer enters an official field deployment, the armament reads the active roster attached to that mission."
"Automatically?" Nate asked.
"Yes."
"And everyone on that roster becomes linked."
"Yes."
"Can the bearer refuse?"
"Not after deployment begins."
Silence followed.
Nate looked at Graveshare differently.
The bearer did not select names one by one.
Command did that when it built the mission roster.
"What happens when the mission ends?" Cade asked.
"If the deployment is formally closed, the active link ends."
"And if somebody dies before that?"
Arlen looked toward the six marks.
"Graveshare takes what it can before their Circuit collapses."
"The mark stays?"
"Yes."
"The energy?"
"Until the armament spends it."
Kellan looked toward Rell.
"So those six marks don’t mean six full reserves are still sitting inside it."
"No."
"How much is left?"
Arlen shook his head.
"I don’t know."
Nate looked at the marks.
Six deaths.
One reserve.
No way to tell which of them had already been spent keeping Rell alive.
That was cleaner than the alternative.
It also meant future deaths would not make Nate permanently stronger.
They would give him something finite.
Something he could use up.
Varek spoke again.
"Does every death add the same amount?"
"No."
Nate looked at Arlen.
"What decides it?"
"What remains in the Circuit when it collapses."
"Development matters?"
"It can."
Arlen folded his arms.
"A developed First usually carries more than a new First. A Second can carry much more. But a Second who’s been fighting for an hour might leave less than a First killed before he spent anything."
Nate wished he had not asked.
Because now he could already see the calculation.
Strength.
Condition.
How long they had fought.
How much energy they were likely to have left.
A casualty had just gained another number.
"Can Graveshare be removed after succession?"
"If Malvern releases the bearer lock."
"And during deployment?"
"Not once the roster link is active."
Varek watched him.
"You’re seriously considering this."
Nate ignored him.
His third Node was still empty.
Graveshare would not fill it.
It was not a Skill, and Forsaken Claim had remained silent since they entered Malvern.
He was still waiting for the right rejected Skill.
Graveshare was different.
An armament.
A dangerous one.
An Imperial one.
But still an armament.
"What do I do?" Nate asked.
Arlen walked toward the empty groove.
"Stand there."
Nate stepped into it.
Thin black lines immediately spread from the six filled grooves.
They crossed the floor and stopped around his boots.
His Circuit reacted.
The current inside him accelerated for half a rotation before Nate forced it back down.
Kellan noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing yet."
"That’s reassuring."
Arlen moved beside Rell and placed his palm against Graveshare.
The black plates shifted beneath his hand.
Text appeared.
OLD DEPLOYMENT: ACTIVE
SURVIVING ROSTER MEMBER: ARLEN VOS
SUCCESSION AUTHORITY AVAILABLE
Then:
NOMINATE CANDIDATE
Arlen looked at Nate.
"Last chance."
Nate looked down at the black lines surrounding his feet.
Vale had not started by murdering his teammates.
He had learned that their deaths still had value.
Then he learned that value could be measured.
Energy.
Time.
Survival.
Eventually, the numbers had started influencing decisions made before anyone died.
Nate understood the reasoning far too easily.
He stayed inside the groove.
"Do it."
Arlen pressed his palm against the display.
NATE CALDER
CONFIRM SUCCESSION CANDIDATE
Arlen confirmed.
The lines around Nate’s boots climbed several centimetres above the floor.
They did not touch him.
His Circuit reacted anyway.
Graveshare loosened around Rell’s dead arm.
One plate lifted.
Then another.
Cade took a step forward.
"Nate."
"I’m fine."
"You haven’t started yet."
Nate looked down.
"Fair."
The six Mourning Marks lit.
A new display appeared.
FIRST MOURNING
MOURNING MARKS: 6
RESERVE STATUS: 61%
Nate stared at the number.
Sixty-one percent after all these years.
After everything Rell had spent.
Varek saw it too.
His expression changed.
Mechanical locks disengaged beneath Nate.
Another line appeared.
SUCCESSION TRIAL INITIATED
Then:
RESERVE CONTROL TEST
SAFETY LIMITER: ACTIVE
Nate had enough time to understand what that meant.
The limiter was currently protecting him.
First Mourning was going to remove it.
The platform split apart.
Cold air rose from below.
Graveshare peeled completely away from Rell’s arm and dropped with Nate.
The black plates closed around his forearm before the floor disappeared beneath his feet.
One final message remained in front of him.
INITIAL RELEASE: 10%
Then Nate fell.
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