Spire - 5. The Hole

“So. Leviathan, huh?” Daiandra smirked as they made their way off the shuttle and onto the now-familiar dark glass of Uvnaethe’s surface.

“Shut it.” Tanis growled over comms, adjusting his pack.

“No, I just had no idea.”

“No idea regarding…” Caeto joined in.

“Just that the Adjunct was so fancy.”

“Fuck off.”

“You kiss your stock portfolio with that mouth?” Daiandra asked innocently.

“How’re we looking?” Tanis asked, ignoring her.

“Sensors up and running. It’ll be a couple of minutes for holistics.”

“Yep. Let me know. We’re wanting to see as near to identical as possible from the last time we were down here before we make a move.”

“Roger that.” Daiandra confirmed, tossing out a casual two-fingered salute. “Happy to ignore re-confirmation on Yaevran radiation?”

“My readings would take longer.” Caeto agreed.

“Mmm.” Tanis hummed. “Start them anyway, let them run.”

“And ancillary scans?”

“You know me too well.” Tanis confirmed. Caeto nodded, tapping away at the panel embedded in the upper left wrist of their four-armed suit. Daiandra followed their lead, before glancing back at the shuttle, lips tightening into a procedural smile as she clocked lights blinking and sensors clicking over on the array.

“We’ve never understood the concept of ‘stock’.” Caeto reflected, finishing his work. “It’s…theoretical currency?”

“Sort of.” Daiandra shrugged. “Why don’t you tell us about stock, Tanis? Educate us plebs.”

“You’re both fired.”

“Can’t do that.” She scoffed. “This is an Interstital operation. We have rights.”

“No ‘stock’ though.” Caeto noted.

“How does that work, anyway? You’re born on a Corpo colony and you just…get shares in the company?”

“You get options.” Tanis sighed.

“I’ll say.” Daiandra chuckled.

“No, stock options, on a qualified vesting schedule.”

“Was that English?” Daiandra glanced towards Caeto. The Quadrian shrugged.

“So an ‘option’ is a share you have the ‘option’ to buy from the company, at a reduced price and once certain conditions are met.”

“What conditions?”

“These days? Whatever the company decides those conditions are at the time.”

“Right. So they’re the carrot and the stick.”

“They’re a carrot. They’re a stick.”

“Well at least you got carrots.”

“At least you got rights.”

“Y’know what rights are without options, Tanis? Stasis. May as well be locked down in one of those old-timey generation ships.”

“I’ll say this much. Having lived in both worlds? Everyone thinks where they came from is worse and that the other side is luckier. Corporate citizens cover over it with economic superiority, Civic citizens cover over it with moral superiority, and there’s a thin strata at the top that keeps getting fatter and wealthier and a thick strata at the bottom that keeps getting poorer and angrier. The system’s a zombie, and sooner or later someone’s gonna realise just how many people on both sides would like nothing better than to cave its skull in and end this.”

“Yeah, maybe. But as someone who grew up Civic in a way you never knew, I’ll say this much. The zombie’s on a leash, and there’re people up top on both sides very invested in using the threat of it to make us hate each other so much that we don’t have the time or energy to hate them.”

“The Quadrian Mandate just ensures everyone is healthy and that communities have the resources they need to ensure all are able to live meaningful lives on their own terms. Could you not just do that?” Caeto weighed in.

“Fuck.” Daiandra hissed.

“Let’s just…get our shit and get moving.” Tanis growled.

“Did you bring the uh…” Daiandra looked back at Caeto, turning her hand in the air, eyes squeezed shut.

“The comms beacon?”

“No, the uh…”

“The field sampler?”

“No, um…”

“The…rope?”

“Yep. Thanks. Good.”

“Fuck, Daiandra…” Tanis muttered.

“Oh I’m sorry, my mind might be a little elsewhere. Like…oh, say, the impossible chasm we’re about to climb down on a slagged planet cause the fucking secret police strong armed us into it based on wanting to feed us to…” Daiandra huffed, pulling open the cargo hold hatch and starting to sort around: “Some…ancient super-species system-jeopardising bullshit? Mildly fucking distracting, yeah. I’m just some fucking…Civic kid from…the fucking…Immian Combine, and…” she grunted with exertion as she hauled the rope and bracers out of the cargo hold and across the dark glass. The rope was more of a cable, really, when she thought about it. Grippy, pliable fabric that was lighter than feathers...flexible as silk and tougher than steel: “This is utter fucking bullshit. We’re gonna die down here. And we’re at fucking work.” Silence. Daiandra chuckled. “Oh, so you’re allowed to take a minute for a panic attack, but I’m not? Fuck you, Adjunct. Say something reassuring.”

“What do you want me to say, Daiandra? ‘Suck it up’?”

“No, just…I don’t know. Pull me into line, or reassure me. Something.”

“Look, kid: I’ll tell you what I told my wife when I realised I was gonna have to leave Leviathan. I said: ‘If you decide to leave me, I’ll make it easy. But if you stay, you can trust me to do everything in my power to make it worth it.’”

“Didn’t know you had a wife?”

“I don’t. Not anymore. So what’ll it be?” Daiandra paused, shaking her head at no one in particular.

“Help me with the fucking bracers, old man.”

Caeto dragged the Tortoise out of the cargo hold: a rectangular flat bed, two metres wide by three long, that they dumped the rope and bracers into, piling the rest of the equipment on top.

“How’re your readings?” Caeto asked.

“As expected. Shaping up nice and smooth against baseline.” Daiandra hummed as she tapped at the screen on her wrist.

“Anything unexpected on your side of things, Caet?” Tanis queried.

“As previously mentioned: ours take longer.”

“Yeah, but red flags?”

“None. Excepting the obvious.”

“Okay, that’s good enough for me.”

Like a slow, old puppy, the Tortoise trailed them as they started to walk; its rudimentary AI brain well aware of its role in the team.

“Did you have other wives?” Caeto suggested, in that very Quadrian tone that indicated preparedness to pitch a comforting logical silver lining.

“Oh, I’m not wired that way.” Tanis shook his head. Their footfalls were almost in tandem - slow and cautious on the black glass; silent in the dead, windless air other than the occasional crunch of ash and pumice-like rock beneath their boots - as they trudged forward.

“Ahh The ‘monogamy’ thing.” Caeto murmured.

“Yeah. That thing.”

“Apologies, we forget - “

“ - No, it’s fine, Caet. It’s even passe for humans these days. Guess it’s just…what I prefer. We all have our preferences.”

“Personally…” Daiandra huffed: off in the distance, through the haze, was a slight incline. She regarded it warily. The hole. “I would prefer not to be doing this.”

“Yes, well…” Tanis glanced at her, catching her eyes: “As an insubordinate Team Member once told me: suck it up.”