Six-Hour Rescue

The signal was still there.

Chen Linhai watched the countdown tick down to three hours and fourteen minutes when Xuanwu Three's forward sensor array began to sound alarms.

"Captain, the Rubble Belt's density exceeds projections. More than fourteen hundred floating debris pieces over one meter in diameter have been detected within three hundred kilometers ahead. Some possess rotational angular momentum. Collision risk is extremely high."

Chen Linhai walked over to the star map and drew a line across the Rubble Belt's three-dimensional projection with his finger.

Dense red dots covered the flight path, while the green signal source at the center lay buried deep within the field of debris.

"Where's the engineering craft?"

The navigator shook his head.

"The standard engineering craft's hull plating can't withstand repeated impacts from high-speed debris. If we enter at low speed, the round trip will take at least another forty minutes. The oxygen won't last that long."

Chen Linhai activated the encrypted channel.

"Director, the Rubble Belt is denser than expected. The engineering craft can't complete docking within the safe time window."

Lin Yuan's voice came through the channel, with keyboard tapping audible in the background.

"Is Han Zheng's Black Iron aboard?"

"In the hangar bay. Its right knee joint received temporary repairs after the desert battle, but Xu Yanqiu's cooling modification hasn't been installed yet."

"How much impact can the Ceramic Steel armor take?"

Chen Linhai turned to the technical officer. The officer spent more than ten seconds pulling up the data on his terminal.

"Based on the average fragment velocity inside the Rubble Belt, Black Iron's Ceramic Steel chest and shoulder armor can withstand continuous impacts from small debris for forty minutes. Large fragments will need to be actively avoided."

"Is forty minutes enough?"

Chen Linhai calculated it in his head.

"Barely. It's around twelve kilometers from the edge of the Rubble Belt to the signal source. Twenty minutes at low thrust to reach it, then at least another twenty minutes to secure the passage and recover. That's exactly the forty-minute limit."

"Han Zheng."

Han Zheng's voice came from the hangar communications. He had already put on his pilot suit.

"Director."

"You heard everything?"

"I did. Black Iron will sortie, cross the Rubble Belt, hold down the escape gangway at that facility's entrance, and let the rescue team go in."

"Your right knee still doesn't have the new cooling pipe. The joint load will be lower in zero gravity than it was in the desert, but you'll need both legs braced against impacts. Are you sure you can hold out?"

Han Zheng swept Black Iron's status display in the cockpit. The yellow warning light for the right knee joint was still on.

"Director, I used my knee as bait in the desert and it still didn't break. Rocks floating in space have to be gentler than Andrew Waltfeld's Beam Rifle."

Sheng Lan's voice came through the channel from a remote frequency connected through the 811 Institute.

"Han Zheng, don't push yourself. If the joint temperature exceeds one hundred and twenty degrees, withdraw immediately."

"Understood."

As Black Iron launched from the hangar catapult, Chen Linhai stood by the CIC viewport and watched the dark gray heavy MS slowly adjust its posture in the vacuum, its back thrusters releasing brief blue-white plumes.

Lacus stood at the observation station behind the CIC, her fingers resting on the handrail.

She watched the edge of the Rubble Belt spread out ahead. Countless metal and rock fragments of varying sizes rotated slowly, their surfaces divided into sharp light and shadow by the sunlight.

"Captain Chen, there are remnants of building structures among those fragments."

Chen Linhai followed her gaze. A curved metal plate roughly ten meters long drifted past the port side. Its paint had been battered into mottled patches by micrometeorites, but the pale blue primer of a PLANT civilian residential sector was still recognizable.

Lacus's hand tightened slightly on the railing.

"That's the kind of residential level I visited when I was little. The walls were pale blue, and the corridors had sunflowers painted for children."

Chen Linhai said nothing.

Han Zheng's voice came through the comms, mixed with faint metallic impacts.

"Captain, I'm inside the Rubble Belt. Fragments under half a meter across don't even register against the Ceramic Steel. Bigger chunks need to be pushed aside manually now and then. Jiachen is marking high-risk debris trajectories in real time."

On Jiachen's tactical display, the Rubble Belt's three-dimensional distribution map updated frame by frame. Every fragment over one meter in diameter was marked with a movement vector and projected collision time.

Han Zheng moved through the debris for fourteen minutes. The temperature of his right knee joint slowly climbed from sixty-five to eighty degrees. It wasn't beam scorching, but friction heat from repeated braking and turns.

"Visual confirmation of the target facility."

The abandoned facility before him was a cylindrical module around thirty meters long and eight meters in diameter, its hull covered in impact craters. A broken docking arm extended from one side, its sealing ring warped beyond standard docking use.

"Captain, the docking port is wrecked. There's an emergency exit on the side of the facility, but the external manual release lever has been bent by debris."

Chen Linhai turned to the comms controls.

"Director, standard docking is impossible. Can Han Zheng use Black Iron's manipulator to force open the emergency exit?"

Lin Yuan's answer came two seconds later.

"Don't force it. Breaking open the hull will cause the emergency seal to fail, and the people inside will be exposed to vacuum instantly."

Han Zheng stared at the bent manual release lever as Jiachen projected a structural analysis of the facility onto his screen.

"Director, Jiachen suggests using Black Iron itself as an anchor. I can press the machine against the outside of the emergency exit, use the chest armor and both arms to form a temporary sealing frame, then stabilize the internal pressure with Black Iron's backup airtight sealant line."

"Who proposed that plan?"

"Jiachen."

The channel fell silent for a second.

"What triggered Jiachen to generate that recommendation?"

Han Zheng pulled up Jiachen's live log feed on the control panel. The latest trigger tag read: projected decline in life signs within facility; remaining sustainable time less than forty-seven minutes; standard solution exceeds time limit; initiating nonstandard solution search.

"It's working backward from the time."

"Execute. Chen Linhai, send two maintenance soldiers with portable airtight sealant and oxygen regeneration modules. Have them follow behind the engineering craft. They enter once Han Zheng has secured the position."

"Understood."

Black Iron slowly pressed against the facility hull, its Ceramic Steel chest armor braced against the metal around the emergency exit. Han Zheng maneuvered both arms around the exit frame while the MS's thrusters used minute bursts to maintain a stable posture.

The debris impacts grew denser. Every few seconds, a small fragment struck Black Iron's back armor, the sound entering the cockpit like a hammer striking the bottom of an oil drum.

"Right knee temperature?"

"Ninety-two degrees. Still under control."

The maintenance soldiers' engineering craft departed from Xuanwu Three, following the route Han Zheng had cleared through the Rubble Belt before slowing to dock in Black Iron's shadow.

Portable airtight sealant was applied to the gaps around the emergency exit, and the oxygen regeneration modules were connected to the facility's external ports.

"Internal pressure is recovering," a maintenance soldier reported over the work channel.

Lacus stood before the CIC communications console, having already tuned the broadcast frequency to the PLANT civilian emergency band.

Chen Linhai glanced at her.

"Miss Clyne, you can broadcast now."

Lacus pressed the communications key.

Her voice carried neither the gentleness of a songstress nor the political restraint she used in declarations.

"This is Lacus Clyne. Everyone inside the facility, the rescue ship outside is from the East Asian Republic. They are restoring your air pressure and oxygen supply. Please remain calm and do not crowd near the exit. Let the children and wounded leave first."

Silence lasted six seconds on the facility's internal channel.

Then a hoarse male voice came through.

"Miss Lacus?"

"It's me. How many are there?"

"Seventeen. Seventeen still alive. Three children, four seriously wounded."

Lacus's fingertips paused against the edge of the console.

"Gather the children and wounded near the exit. Once the maintenance soldiers enter, they'll take you to the docked engineering craft."

"Miss Lacus, is that really an East Asian ship outside?"

"It is."

"Why did they come?"

Lacus withdrew her hand from the console and placed it over her chest.

"Because they came."

The emergency exit opened two minutes after the sealant hardened.

The first person carried out was a girl around seven years old, wrapped in a dismantled thermal blanket. Her skin had taken on a pale gray color from prolonged cold and oxygen deprivation.

When the maintenance soldiers passed her into the engineering craft, the girl kept clutching one corner of the thermal blanket without letting go.

The second was a middle-aged man with a severed left arm. A communications cable had been tied around the wound as a makeshift tourniquet, crookedly wrapped but tight enough to stop the bleeding.

As the ninth person emerged, the temperature of Han Zheng's right knee joint jumped to one hundred and ten degrees.

"Han Zheng, right knee at one hundred and ten." Sheng Lan's voice cut in over the remote channel.

"Eight more left."

"How long can the machine hold?"

"Jiachen says the right knee transmission gears will begin to jam from thermal expansion in twelve minutes."

"Will twelve minutes be enough?"

Han Zheng did not answer her.

He tightened Black Iron's arms by half a degree, making the sealing frame fit more closely against the facility hull.

As the fourteenth person crawled out, a metallic crash suddenly rang out from inside the facility.

Urgent breathing came over the maintenance soldiers' channel.

"Captain, there's a problem inside. One of the survivors smashed the hatch control panel, and the door to compartment three has been locked from within. There are still three people inside."

Chen Linhai pressed the communications key.

"What kind of person?"

"A middle-aged man. He appears mentally unstable. He's holding a dismantled metal support bar and says he won't accept rescue from a Natural military force. He changed the manual override code for the hatch. We can't open it."

Lacus stood at the CIC communications console, her fingers resting on the broadcast key.

"Let me speak to him."

She switched frequencies.

"Person inside, this is Lacus Clyne. Please open the hatch and let the remaining people out."

The hoarse voice came from behind the inner hatch. It was rougher than any voice they had heard before.

"The Clyne Family's young lady. The Natural military rescued you, so now you speak for them? Their hands are stained with our compatriots' blood. I'm not leaving. The two people behind me aren't leaving either."

Lacus's fingers paused on the broadcast key for two seconds.

"They came to save you. That fact will not change simply because you refuse to accept it."

"Save us? They're using us. The Clyne Family is best at that—using kindness as a cover and making us pay for the Naturals' conscience."

The channel carried the sound of the metal bar striking the bulkhead, dull and rhythmic.

Han Zheng's comms cut into the command channel.

"Director, nine minutes remaining. If the hatch to compartment three doesn't open, the three people inside will die when the oxygen runs out."

Lin Yuan's voice came from the 811 Institute eight thousand kilometers away.

"If Lacus's persuasion has no effect within two minutes, initiate the backup plan."

Lacus held down the broadcast key, lowering her voice slightly.

"Sir, what is your name?"

Silence followed behind the hatch for three seconds.

"My name? I've been here for fourteen days, and no one has asked me what my name is."

The metal bar stopped striking.

But another voice came through the channel, younger and trembling with tears.

"Please, let us out. I don't want to die here."

The metal bar slammed against the bulkhead again, harder this time.

"Shut up."

The temperature of Han Zheng's right knee jumped to one hundred and eighteen degrees.

A red warning appeared on Jiachen's tactical display: thermal expansion in right knee transmission gears entering critical range; jamming projected in four minutes.

Lin Yuan's voice cut into Lacus's frequency.

"Miss Clyne, are you still there?"

"I'm here."

"He won't be persuaded. Fourteen days in darkness have allowed fear and hatred to consume him completely. To him, your voice is the voice of the Clyne Family, not the voice of Lacus."

Lacus lifted her hand from the broadcast key.

"Then what do we do?"

"Does he have a weapon?"

"A metal support bar."

"Is the external override port for the hatch control panel still intact?"

Chen Linhai checked the maintenance soldiers' report.

"It is. The inner panel was smashed, but the hardwired external override port is intact."

"Sheng Lan."

"I'm here."

"Have the maintenance soldiers connect through the external hardline and override the hatch controls. The moment the door opens, have Han Zheng shine Black Iron's inspection light into the compartment and briefly blind that man. The maintenance soldiers will go in and restrain him. Do not hurt him."

Lacus's voice came from the communications console.

"Mr. Lin Yuan, there are still two people inside. What if he harms the hostages when we force the door open?"

"If those two don't come out within three minutes, they'll pass out from lack of oxygen. Passing out is safer than taking a blow from that bar."

Lacus's hand paused on the edge of the console for a second, then relaxed.

As the metal support bar struck the bulkhead again, the external override port had already been wired.

The hatch slid open without any warning.

Black Iron's inspection light shone in from the emergency exit, flooding compartment three with harsh white light.

The metal bar swung down and struck a maintenance soldier's armored forearm. The soldier did not strike back. Two others seized the middle-aged man's arms from both sides.

The metal bar fell to the floor, bounced twice, and rolled into the corner.

The remaining two people in the compartment were carried out. One was already half-conscious, while the other was still crying.

Han Zheng's right knee temperature jumped to 121 degrees the moment the hatch closed.

Jiachen displayed a line on the screen: Immediate disengagement from fixed position recommended.

"All personnel have evacuated. Han Zheng, let go."

Black Iron's arms released the facility's outer shell, and the machine slowly backed away through the vacuum. Its right knee joint let out a dull metallic grinding sound. The transmission gears caught at the limit of thermal expansion, then froze solid.

Han Zheng's right leg lost the ability to move on its own.

But he no longer needed to stand.

When the engineering craft carried the seventeen survivors out of the Rubble Belt, Lacus stood before the CIC viewport and watched the dark gray heavy MS being pulled back into the hangar by a tow cable.

Black Iron's back armor was covered in dents from rubble impacts, and there was a scorched patch of heat discoloration around its right knee joint.

Chen Linhai walked over to her.

"Seventeen people. All survived."

Lacus did not take her eyes off Black Iron.

"What about the person who was under control?"

"The medic gave him a sedative. His mental state will need to be evaluated."

Lacus withdrew her hand from the viewport frame and let it fall to her side.

"Captain Chen, when I couldn't persuade him just now, Mr. Lin Yuan gave the order to force the hatch open."

"Yes."

"What if he hadn't been holding a metal rod, but a gun?"

Chen Linhai glanced at her but did not answer.

Lacus did not press the matter.

She turned and walked to the communications console, then activated an encrypted channel.

Lin Yuan's voice came through a second later.

"Did everyone get out?"

"They did. Seventeen."

"How's Han Zheng's machine?"

"His right knee is completely jammed. It'll need factory repairs."

Two seconds of silence came from Lin Yuan's end.

"This is the second time Han Zheng has paid with his knee today. When he gets back, Xu Yanqiu owes him a new joint."

Lacus did not respond to that.

Her voice paused on the channel for three beats before she said something Lin Yuan had not anticipated.

"Mr. Lin Yuan, when I was in that compartment just now, I realized I didn't know how to talk to that person."

"You did well enough."

"Not well enough. The people I've faced in the past, whether they supported me or opposed me, were at least still within the bounds of reason. That man wasn't being unreasonable. Fourteen days of fear and darkness had already devoured his ability to reason. To him, my voice was just another kind of threat."

Lin Yuan tapped a finger against the desk.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that if goodwill isn't backed by the ability to act, then in a moment like that, it's just empty words. When you ordered the hatch forced open, I opposed it in my heart. But those three people are alive now."

Only the low static of the equipment remained on the channel.

Lacus's voice rose above the static, half a note softer.

"I want to know what kind of order you intend to build."