Jove was determined to find his sister, but his resolve didn't smoothly equate to confidence in a hostile environment. The wind had died down somewhat, but it'd begun to snow. The quiet was eerie, rather than reassuring, all sound dampened by the acoustics of the falling flakes.
He tensed at every imagined movement in his peripheral vision and thought he could hear noises in the distance as his feet crunched against the ice. Eve couldn't have gone far. He put himself into her mindset, eager to ski above all else, but still wary of crevasses. He had to think that she would have been sensible enough to stay near the base.
"Eve!" he shouted. "Eve!"
He was already getting flashbacks to earlier that morning and swore under his breath, understanding his mother's anger. The idea of having to go back to the station without her, to have to tell his mother and see her disappointment, was enough to make him wonder if he should just stay out in the cold if his sister was also lost.
Something moved on the edge of his vision, and this time it did have a source. He caught sight of Eve skiing in the distance, weaving her way down and along a slope to the east of the base.
She was an incredible skier. He'd forgotten that somehow, or at least downplayed the significance of her ability for his own ego's sake. She was graceful and powerful, an athlete retired from injury but still otherwise in her prime.
It was like watching a bird in the air or a fish in the water - beautiful and aligned with its element. Jove sucked in a freezing breath and shouted her name again. She slowly began to turn and headed his way a few seconds later.
"Did something happen?" she called, as she slowed to a stop near him.
"Ryan's dead."
"Oh. Fuck."
She stepped out of her skis and they both headed back to the base.
Jove and Eve hurriedly shed their winter gear as they stepped into the warmth of the base, the heavy layers falling to the floor along with bits of lingering snow. Eve's eyes were wide, her breaths coming in rapid succession as she bombarded Jove with questions.
"How did it happen? Was it an accident? Did you see it?" Her words tumbled out, each one more frantic than the last.
Jove did his best to answer, his voice steady despite the unsettling news he was delivering. "We found him in the snow. I think he was killed by one of the ice drones that Termina apparently uses, or used, for research."
"Jesus Christ," muttered Eve.
Her shirt rode up a bit as she pulled off a sweater she'd been wearing under her jacket, exposing her pale navel. Jove found his attention drawn to the way her clothing clung to her body, damp with sweat from her exertion in the cold. He couldn't make himself avert his gaze, a strange tension filling the air between them. It was an awkward mix of concern, exhaustion, and lingering excitement from their time in the sauna.
"Eve?" Kira's quick footsteps sounded from the other end of the hall. "Oh, Eve!"
Jove watched his mother sweep Eve into a tight hug. His usual feelings of mild jealousy toward his mother and sister's relationship were eclipsed by raw relief. They were all still in a horrible situation, but at least they were within the station, safe for the moment.
"I'm fine, Mother," said Eve, with a sigh. "What's going on?"
"I need to show you something," said Kira. "Come on. Everyone."
Aster had been watching from the door of her bunk and came out to walk alongside Jove as the four of them headed for the command center.
"How's the cheek?" he asked. He could see an obvious red mark on her face, though it wasn't a perfect outline.
"Shut up," muttered Aster.
"I was asking out of concern, not to mock you," he said.
His aunt shook her head, looking tired and emotionally exhausted. Jove pulled her chair out for her as they found places in the command center. Kira sat down at her desk and began typing something on her keyboard. Ryan's phone sat next to her mouse, already plugged in.
"I don't want to panic any of you, but you have to understand all of the situation that we're in," said Kira. "As far as I can tell, the terminators have gone rogue."
"The… wait, what?" Jove shook his head. "You mean the ice drones? Are you seriously going to call them that?"
"Ah." Kira cleared her throat, looking oddly embarrassed. "Termina, terminators. It seemed humorous when we first came up with it."
"Mother, are you seriously telling me that you jinxed your drones into becoming unstoppable killers?" asked Eve.
"I'll call them drones as much as possible, but forgive me if I ever lapse into the old nickname," said Kira. "It was a running joke between… Ryan and I. Hard habit to break."
She looked at the phone. Nobody else said anything. Jove could sense the depths of his mother's loss, but only on the surface, like looking into a lake with murky water, the bottom obscured by a hidden world.
"Ryan's dying message was, in essence, the lock code to his phone," said Kira. "I've already scanned through his media gallery. It's mostly videos and photos he sent to a friend, or maybe a girlfriend back home. He didn't talk much about his personal life, but… anyway. The last video he filmed is relevant to our situation."
She brought it up on the command center's largest screen. Ryan's head immediately popped into view, framed selfie style with Port Sirius's interior in the background behind him. People were shouting and the general ambience was far more chaotic than what Jove had experienced in his brief time there.
"Hey, Director Faremont!" said Ryan, smiling but clearly nervous. "Um. I'm going to try to send you this video as soon as I finish filming it, but I'm guessing the communications are down at Termina Station since I got an error when I just tried to call. Still feel like I need to do something. Anything. Things are getting a little crazy. A lot crazy."
He switched to his phone's back camera and took a sweeping shot of Port Sirius's sprawling common area. Groups of people were hurrying about, some carrying bags, others with their phones out, though it seemed like the few attempting to make calls were also struggling with their connections.
A group of two men rushed from one of the shops Jove had remembered walking by, arms laden with food, moving with the urgency of looters. A brawl broke out between another pair of men over a case of water, the plastic holding the bottles together tearing open in the mayhem and spilling half of them across the floor.
"The news has apparently been coming in all night," said Ryan. "New York City has been nuked. Chicago, London, Tokyo, Moscow… Um, might be easier if I just… there we go."
He zoomed his camera in on the massive display screen hanging on one wall above Port Sirius's food court. The sight of a news broadcast showing disaster footage came into view, along with scrolling text underneath that listed more of the major casualties. Seoul, Toronto, Sao Paulo, Paris, Lagos… Jove felt each location moving by too fast for his imagination to keep up.
"It's not just nukes, which is why I'm trying to get ahold of you as soon as possible," said Ryan. "The news is saying that any drone with basic network capabilities has been compromised by some kind of virus. They're attacking people, crashing into people, the military ones are shooting people, it's insane. The terminators are networked, so… yeah. Really hoping I can get ahold of you!"
The camera's viewpoint swung around amidst the chaos. Jove couldn't tell if Ryan was yelling or if someone else nearby was. He shifted back to his phone's front camera. The view was of a crowd now, people jostling Ryan from both sides. He tried to say something, but his voice was lost in the chaos until he shouldered his way past people and off to the side.
"Somebody just said that they watched a livestream of people being… exterminated by drones in Iowa," said Ryan. "There's a rumor that a rogue AI is behind this, behind all of this. I don't know what to think. There was an announcement just now that the last plane out of Port Sirius is about to leave and it's like a riot is breaking out to get in line."
Ryan glanced away from the camera. Jove read his expression easily enough, the conflict clear in his eyes as he tried to decide whether to stay or to go. The viewpoint shifted to the back camera again, revealing a pair of flight attendants desperately trying to hold a surging crowd from racing out onto the landing strip.
"I'm starting to think that I might be safer back at Termina Station," said Ryan, shaking his head. "Hopefully I will see you soon, Director Faremont. Fuck… what has the world come to?"
The video ended. The only sound in the silence that followed was Kira's mouse click as she closed the media player.