I Choose the Skills Everyone Else Rejects

Darek was waiting at Western Access when Nate arrived.

His eyes went to Nate’s shoulder before anything else.

"Cleared?"

Nate handed him the medical authorization.

Darek read it.

PATHWAY STRESS: REDUCED

ACTIVE CIRCULATION: RESTRICTED

FIELD EXPOSURE: APPROVED

He gave it back.

"We’re recovering the recorder."

Nate had expected that.

"Olan?"

"Still in medical."

A woman stood near the suit lockers checking a sensor rig against a portable terminal. She looked older than Olan and wore her dark hair shaved short above one ear.

Darek nodded toward her.

"Tessa Marr. Survey."

Tessa glanced over.

"Temporary survey."

"Until Olan’s hand works."

"Exactly."

Nate took a suit from the locker.

Tessa watched him secure the throat seal.

"You were there yesterday?"

"Yes."

"You’re Calder."

Nate looked at her.

"Apparently."

"Darek said you started losing your right leg."

"Only a little."

She returned to the sensor rig.

"That’s not how legs are supposed to work."

Darek came over and checked Nate’s seals.

"Today you keep the Circuit closed."

"I will."

"You said you could follow instructions yesterday."

Nate had no useful answer to that.

Darek pulled once on the fastening beneath his arm and moved on.

Tessa checked the time.

"Current window looks stable."

"How long?"

"I’d want us out in thirty."

Darek opened the inner gate.

"Then we leave in twenty-five."

Nate felt the Colossus before they reached the shaft.

The ache beneath his shoulder faded first.

By the time the passage widened, his body felt better than it had outside.

Yesterday he’d enjoyed that.

Today he noticed it and kept walking.

Darek did not use his Circuit.

Neither did Nate.

The recorder waited across the same metal walkway, its housing scorched around the opening where Olan had been caught.

Tessa stopped at the edge of the shaft and checked her monitor.

"Quiet."

Darek looked down into the darkness.

"Quiet enough?"

"For now."

They crossed.

The pale channels far below were barely visible.

Tessa set her equipment beside the recorder and opened the damaged housing.

"Olan got most of the work done."

"Can you get the core?" Darek asked.

"Unless he melted the release."

Nate moved beside her.

"Need anything?"

She passed him an insulated clamp.

"Hold that steady."

He gripped the outer casing.

Tessa cut through the first warped fastening.

The recorder vibrated faintly under Nate’s hand.

He looked toward her monitor.

She noticed.

"That’s the housing."

"You sure?"

"No."

Nate waited.

Tessa glanced up at him.

"Did you want me to lie?"

"No."

"Good."

She went back to work.

Darek stood several metres away, watching the chamber rather than the recorder.

The first fastening came free.

Tessa changed tools.

Nate adjusted his grip.

The plates around Graveshare felt warmer than they had a minute ago.

He looked down.

Nothing had changed visibly.

"Tessa."

"Hm?"

"Check the local reading."

She looked at the sensor rig across her chest.

"Why?"

"Graveshare’s warm."

That got Darek’s attention.

He came closer while Tessa pressed a handheld sensor against the wall beside the recorder.

The reading took several seconds.

"It’s higher."

"How much?" Darek asked.

"Not enough for the warning."

"Was it rising before?"

Tessa checked the previous sample.

"Maybe."

Darek looked at Nate.

"Anything else?"

"No."

"Keep it closed."

"It is."

Tessa left the sensor against the wall and returned to the recorder.

"Core’s almost loose."

"One minute," Darek said.

"I need two."

"You have one."

She muttered something Nate didn’t catch.

The second fastening snapped.

Tessa reached deeper into the housing.

Nate kept the clamp steady.

Graveshare remained warm.

Nothing entered his Circuit.

At least nothing he could feel.

His Core continued its slow familiar rotation, closed down as far as he could comfortably keep it.

Tessa pulled.

The recorder core came free.

"Got it."

Darek was already moving.

"Pack."

She slid the core into a padded case and left the rest of the tools.

Nate released the clamp.

A faint glow had appeared in one of the channels behind the recorder.

"Tessa."

She saw it.

Her monitor sounded a second later.

Darek pointed toward the walkway.

"Out."

They moved.

Nate stayed behind Tessa as they crossed.

The chamber below no longer looked completely dark.

One pale line had brightened enough to follow through the shaft.

Tessa checked the monitor while walking.

"This wasn’t in the forecast."

"Pulse?" Nate asked.

"Too early."

Darek didn’t stop.

"Doesn’t matter."

The warning changed pitch.

They reached the opposite side.

Nate’s body still felt loose and strong.

His shoulder no longer hurt at all.

He checked Graveshare again.

The plates were hotter.

One of the six marks had become faintly visible.

Nate slowed.

Darek noticed immediately.

"What?"

Nate raised his arm.

The mark was barely there, dark grey against black metal.

Tessa held the sensor near it without touching.

The reading shifted.

She frowned.

"What?"

"I don’t know yet."

Darek looked toward the exit.

"Then you can not know outside."

They kept moving.

Nate watched the mark as they walked.

It did not grow brighter.

No second mark appeared.

Good.

Or meaningless.

He had no idea which.

The passage ahead brightened slightly as another buried channel came alive beneath the wall.

Tessa’s monitor sounded again.

"Conduction’s still climbing."

"How long to the gate?"

"Four minutes."

Darek increased the pace.

He did not tell them to run.

Nate understood why.

His body wanted help from the Circuit every time he pushed harder.

He kept it shut.

A field team appeared ahead of them coming the other way.

Four workers in pale suits.

Their lead raised a hand.

"We were cleared ten minutes ago."

"Turn around," Darek said.

The man looked at Tessa.

She held up the monitor.

"Window changed."

He swore.

Nobody argued after that.

The two teams reached the gate together.

Western Access had it open before they arrived.

Nate crossed the threshold.

The inner door sealed behind them.

Only then did Darek stop.

Tessa opened the recorder case and checked the core.

"Still intact."

Darek looked at Nate.

"Arm."

Nate raised it.

The faint mark was already disappearing.

Tessa ran the handheld sensor over Graveshare, then over Nate’s chest.

"What are you looking for?" Nate asked.

"Anything I can blame on you."

"Helpful."

"It usually is."

She checked the readings again.

Darek ignored both of them.

"Did you feel anything enter your Circuit?"

"No."

"Pressure?"

"No."

"Metal taste?"

"No."

"Numbness?"

Nate flexed his right hand.

"Nothing."

A medic arrived with a larger scanner.

The first pass took less than a minute.

"No new pathway injury."

Darek looked at the screen.

"None?"

"Nothing above the existing stress."

Tessa removed her gloves.

"His arm reacted before my threshold warning."

"How long before?"

She checked the timestamps.

"Thirty-eight seconds."

Darek looked at Nate.

"Did Graveshare react before the wall reading changed?"

"I don’t know."

Tessa answered for him.

"First sensor increase was already there. Small enough I wasn’t watching it."

Nate looked at Graveshare.

"So it didn’t predict anything."

Tessa shrugged.

"It noticed something. Maybe."

That was as far as anyone seemed willing to go.

Darek picked up the recorder case.

"Good."

Nate looked at him.

"Good?"

"You followed instructions."

Darek started toward the analysis wing.

"Don’t ruin it tomorrow."

Varo reviewed the new scan after lunch.

Nate sat opposite the terminal while the examiner compared it with yesterday’s results.

The pathway beneath his shoulder looked almost unchanged.

Varo enlarged another section.

"Closed the entire time?"

"Yes."

"Even when the local rise started?"

"Yes."

Varo read Tessa’s report.

"And Graveshare warmed."

"Then one mark showed."

"Briefly."

"Yes."

Varo looked at the scan again.

Nate waited.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"What did it do?"

"I don’t know."

Nate stared at him.

Varo continued reading.

"There is a minor response around the armament."

"Energy?"

"Maybe."

"From the Colossus?"

"You’re in the Colossus district. That would be my first guess."

"Did it enter my Circuit?"

Varo looked at him now.

"I don’t see evidence that it did."

That mattered more than Nate expected.

Yesterday he’d opened the route and the Colossus had filled the space Graveshare gave him almost immediately.

Today he had kept it closed.

Something had still made the armament react, but his pathways had not paid for it.

Varo closed one of the scans.

"Don’t build a theory from one reading."

"I wasn’t."

"You were."

Nate leaned back.

"What about the recorder?"

"Analysis is running."

"Did it catch the rise?"

"That’s what they’re checking."

Varo entered something into Nate’s file.

"Same restriction for the rest of today."

"No circulation."

"Correct."

"Tomorrow?"

"Maybe."

Nate stood.

He was halfway to the door when someone outside said his name.

"Nate?"

He stopped.

The voice was too familiar to mistake.

Nate stepped into the corridor.

Ethan stood on the other side of the glass partition.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Ethan wore a white Talent Exchange field coat over fitted armour. The equipment was new enough that the edges still looked stiff.

Mara stood beside him.

Her coat carried the same crest.

Behind them waited eight other candidates with instructors and equipment cases.

A sign above the group read:

COLOSSUS ORIENTATION — TALENT EXCHANGE

Ethan’s eyes moved over Nate’s field suit.

Then the Western Access badge clipped near his chest.

Then Graveshare.

"What happened to your arm?"

Nate looked down.

"Long story."

Mara had already noticed the medical room behind him.

"You were injured?"

"Yesterday."

Ethan’s expression changed.

"In the Colossus?"

Nate nodded.

Ethan glanced toward the sealed access gates farther down the corridor.

Then back at him.

"You’re going inside?"

Nate looked at the clean equipment waiting behind Ethan.

"Already did."

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