The spider tank is designed to travel through dangerous terrain, able to navigate across ice and up almost-vertical cliffs, but the four legs plod along in jerky motions that always sicken my stomach. Even after three years on Titan, I’m still not used to land vehicles, too accustomed to the smoother travel of hovercrafts that are common on every other planet. Here, the extreme winds and unpredictable weather make them too dangerous to operate.

It takes an hour to reach Fort Sketa. By the time we arrive, my stomach is revolting, my mood worse than before. The trip here, the incident last night, the battle before, my upcoming conversation with Altair… with all of it together, my nerves feel raw and exposed. I grind my teeth together, fighting the urge to smoke more. But the last of the Sanita hasn’t worn off yet, and my team is already giving me sidelong glances. Normally, they would be fighting like children over who gets to climb out the hatch first, but now they wait, tense and uncertain, for my order.

They must think I’ve gone soft, reacting so strongly to two deaths yesterday. They still don’t know that if this conversation with Altair goes the way I hope, I’ll be leaving them—and soon.

“Get some food, and medical attention if you need it,” I say, moving toward the hatch when none of them leave their seats. “I’ll meet you later.”

“Yes, sir,” Daniil says softly. Everyone else is silent, and I don’t look back as I climb out and head inside, clutching the bag with the power source tightly under my arm, though it jostles my injured ribs.

Fort Sketa is one of the larger bases of Interplanetist operations. Only one stout, windowless story of the building shows aboveground, but it continues far down beneath the surface. The hangar is crowded as I move through it, full of teams arriving and leaving, the air thick with shouted orders and clouds of breath in the chilly air. A few thousand soldiers occupy the fort at any given time, ready to be dispatched to the front or one of the nearby cities.

I ignore the busy noise and movement all around me and head straight to the elevators. The woman operating them salutes me as I approach. I speak Altair’s name like a passcode, and after confirming on her comm that he’s expecting me, she holds back the rest of the crowd and sends me down into the depths of the fort alone.

When the elevator doors open again, the air is several degrees warmer and more humid. My breath is no longer visible in front of me as I walk down the hall, past a number of locked doors and an even higher number of cameras, to the door bearing Altair’s name. I pause outside, taking a deep and painful breath to ground myself, and knock.

“Enter.”