The Promethead

Slowly, carefully, Traejan climbed down, diligently testing the beams and dislodged wall panels beneath him, squeezing and slipping through the gaps in the wreckage that blocked his way.

"How's the descent?" Kyso asked, for the fifth time since he'd started.

What did he think? Traejan bit his tongue.

"Difficult," he replied tersely.

The building shook as he reached the portal level. For a long nervous moment he swung in the darkness, stared upwards as frost, bits of ice, fell from above. It was just another shake, he told himself. The structure was still settling, but remained solid. There had been half a dozen since he'd started down – and as before – the latest tremor stopped. Hanging on the taut rope, Traejan began the work to open the lift doors.

Straining, he jerked the squealing sliders a few centimeters, then a few more. After an interminable struggle, he pulled himself through the narrow gap. Past the doors, a strong, acrid odor hit him, not the clear harsh scent of cold and frost – the heavier smell of burnt carbon. Passing his light over the area, he could see why; thick scorch marks were scrawled all over the passage walls beyond.

The floor bucked, then again, more violently than ever. Traejan grabbed hold of the elevator's doorframe, his feet skidding on the slippery floor as it lurched. Ice smashed onto the floor in front of him; debris tumbled down the shaft behind him.

He was gasping with fear long after the shaking stopped. A frantic call by Kyso followed.

"I'm all right!" he shouted.

"You have to come out. The next one could collapse the whole structure!"

"I'm not coming out – not till I find what's down here! Streck, Kyso, I'm so close I can taste it!"

No fear of being buried would keep him from the portal chamber. Gingerly pulling his stiff fingers from the cold metal frame, Traejan steadied himself, began moving tentatively down the corridor.

"Please watch yourself," Kyso warned. "Tell me, how extensive is the electrical damage?"

"I'm seeing some burn scoring from the surge." Traejan scratched off the carbonization streaks, his scrubbing revealing the metallic silver underneath. "The circuits must have failed right here."

"Avoid them," Kyso ordered. "My scans suggest there may be still some undischarged power."

Traejan jerked his fingers back from the wall.

"Couldn't you have started with that," he demanded, exasperated. He turned from the wall, scanned the corridor ahead, then began making his way over and through the debris and ice to the archway leading into the portal chamber. By the time he reached the rubble-strewn entrance, he couldn't tell if he was shivering with cold or anticipation.

"I've reached the main entrance… oh hell."

Traejan's eyes widened at the sight.

"What do you see?" Kyso wanted to know. He repeated the question stridently.

Traejan shined his light around at the disaster area laid out before him.

"The interior dome has totally collapsed… took most of the support structure with it. There are huge blocks of ice and support members piled on top of each other."

Kyso acknowledged his report. They fell into silence. Then Traejan remembered what he was there for. He crawled over the blocks, zeroing in on the thermal signature.

"I'm picking up the heat source…" It was close, just beyond a pile of smaller man-sized debris; just meters away…

Carefully, he stepped through, over, bend under, watching his scans, making sure he was closing in – but couldn't see anything yet through the ice – just the rubble and the twinkling frost drifting down from above. He glanced back at the scanner's screen. Heat was streaming through a break just ahead: orange, red and purple through the blue and white.

Just ahead!

"Ah, I'm at the source," he announced, pushed the smaller blocks aside. "Oh!"

"What is it?" Kyso demanded to know.

"A hand – attached to an arm! It's a human being!" Traejan forced out the words excitedly. "A human being, Kyso! A woman!"

She lay under the blocks of ice, dark hair frosted with white, dark-skinned face, eyes closed, shivering; her breath visible in brief white plumes.

"Kyso," he shouted. "She's alive!"