“Let’s find them, and we can leave all this behind,” Callie said.

“Want me to close this up, cap?” Ashok said from the panel.

“Are you worried a bird is going to fly inside and crap everywhere? I’m happy to leave our exit unobstructed. Just because the switch worked once doesn’t mean it will again. Besides, when the door’s shut, we lose radio contact. The walls of this place block every transmission.” She toggled her comms to loop in the White Raven. “Stephen, are you there?”

His voice in her helmet was clear and crisp. “Where else would I be?”

“We’re sending over a patient.”

“Shall told me. We’re ready. Good work. At this rate you’ll be done in twenty minutes.”

“We’ll keep in contact as long as we can,” Callie said. “I’m not sure if our connection will hold once we start moving around in here, though. Stick to the plan.”

“Understood.”

Callie turned to the repair drone. “Shall? Our guns?”

A cargo hatch opened on Shall’s underside, and a tray slid out with a complicated ratcheting motion. The drawer was full of curved bits of complicated machinery. “Anti-personnel weapons on the left, lethal on the right,” Shall said. “Chief Warwick thought we might have to fight hand-to-hand in the tunnels of Glauketas, and outfitted us accordingly.”

Ashok broke off looking at the door to come peer at the weapons. He picked up a blunt-looking black shotgun on a strap and slung it over his back. “I have terrible aim,” he said. “Better for me to have a weapon that doesn’t care if I miss.”

“You have a targeting computer stuck on your face,” Callie said.

“Which is great for my integrated defenses, but when it comes to pointing a weapon actually held in my hand, like some kind of old-timey gunslinger? It’s better if I get something idiot-proof.”

“Everyone make sure to stand behind Ashok.” Callie slipped on a wrist-mounted, multi-barreled device with various non-lethal options on her left arm, then a more deadly version of the gauntlet on her right. She strapped a second sidearm to her hip, and took a black serrated blade and found a spot for it on her belt.

“What should I use?” Elena said.

“You ever shoot a gun before?” Callie said.

“A few times, as part of my training, but not extensively.”

“Hmm. I’ll teach you how to shoot sometime, but for now it’s better if you aren’t armed with anything deadly. Here.” She removed a rectangular jewelry box that held three oversized rings, seemingly made of plain brushed titanium. “Slip these on over your glove, on three adjacent fingers. If anything gets too close to you, and you don’t like it, give them a punch. A hard impact will make the rings produce a powerful electric shock, which isn’t pleasant for enemies biological or mechanical.”