Deep underground.
The cannon fire outside filtered down through layer after layer, reduced to a muffled rumble like distant thunder.
Boom...
The walls trembled faintly, and dust sifted from the ceiling.
The alarm lights along the corridor flashed red, then dimmed, casting the entire laboratory complex in shifting light and shadow.
York slumped in front of the control console, crunching on half a cookie she had found in some storage locker.
While Saint Saturn was outside taking a beating, she had dismantled all dozen or so core devices in front of her. Data cables lay tangled across the floor.
Click.
A crack suddenly opened in the air behind her.
Bruno poked his head through first. After checking that the area was safe, he stepped aside to let Lucci out.
York glanced back. Her first words were, "Why isn't Rock here?"
Lucci's face remained blank. "They're fighting at Mary Geoise. He couldn't get away."
"That's no excuse for being late."
York pointed to the towering pile of equipment beside her, then patted the palm-sized data core in her arms. "If you'd come any later, all this really would've been buried here."
"You could lose the people, but not this."
Lucci looked at her for two seconds, then turned to leave. "Then stay and guard it."
York instantly clutched the data core tight. "Forget I said anything!"
Bruno's mouth twitched, but he didn't dare laugh.
"Open the door."
The air door opened again. On the other side was a temporary research ship stationed off the outer edge of the Red Line.
Without looking back, Lucci said, "Send the data first. People go last."
York's eyes went wide. "Why do I have to go last?!"
Inside the research ship's laboratory.
The moment the equipment connected to the main computer, a flood of