Jove felt the crowbar on multiple levels within the grip of his hand. The first was in the way that a person feels all physical objects, the sensation of the weight and the shape and the texture.
The second was one defined purely by the cold, the way the uninsulated conduit of the metal sapped the heat from his palm, even through his glove, and fed it into the maw of Antarctica.
"Did you hear me, Jove?" His mother Kira's voice was clear through the Bluetooth headset he had on under his hood. "If it makes the slightest move, you need to retreat immediately."
"I heard you," he said. "I'm watching it."
His eyes were fixed on the ice drone, which stood amidst the remains of two others just like it. Jove's sister, Eve, was half a step back to his right. He glanced at her, trying to get a sense of her thoughts on the situation.
Eve's breath came in visible puffs, each kiss of white quickly dissipating into the frigid air. She looked disheveled and uncertain, but still beautiful, black hair tucked into the neckline of her jacket with a few rebellious strands sneaking loose.
Her winter ensemble fit her body like a second skin, accentuating her athletic curves. Despite the layers of insulation, Jove could still make out the toned lines of her legs, a testament to her years of professional skiing. She was poised, ready to fight or flee, but just as uncertain as he was in regard to what the situation called for.
"What do we do?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "I don't understand any of this."
"Keep watching it," said their mother. "Any move at all, and I want the two of you to be ready."
"Director Faremont, do my vocalizations fall under your definition of movement?" The voice of the house AI, Andromeda, emanated from the drone's front speaker, calm but distinctly inhuman.
"I don't want you speaking, either," said Kira.
"Are you sure about this, Mom?" he asked. "She helped us against the other ice drones."
"I'm aware of that," said Kira.
"We would have both died without her intervention."
"Did it come at any real cost to her?" asked Kira. "The drones are metal and circuits. Don't anthropomorphize her actions. We have no idea what her intentions are."
The stillness of the drone as it stood amidst the snow was unnerving in its own right, as though a metallic statue had been plopped down in acknowledgment of the surrounding scene. Jove let the tip of the crowbar drop downward, more to rest his arm than out of a release of the tension.
He'd worked up a sweat coming to Eve's aid and knew he needed to get inside soon. His sister's teeth were chattering and he suspected it would be the same for her. They shared another glance at one another and the blue of Eve's eyes momentarily dazzled him.
"It's going to be okay," she said, in a gentle voice.
He felt his mouth quirk sideways, annoyed at her reassurance for reasons he couldn't place. "I know."
The sound of Termina Station's main doors sliding open, ice crunching alongside the faint hum of machinery, alerted them to their mother's arrival. Kira Faremont was bundled in her white winter outer layers, red hair stuffed into her hood like a vivid secret. Jove was well aware that his mother was a beautiful woman, but that fact was secondary to the gun in her hands.
It was a black handgun, the kind that Jove could imagine serving as a secondary weapon in a video game. Kira wore a thin glove over her right hand to allow her index finger room to slip into the trigger guard, clearly at the expense of warmth. It only served to underline how much of a threat she must have viewed Andromeda to be.
"Jove, Eve, step back," said Kira. She raised the handgun's barrel at the drone and narrowed her eyes to aim.
"Mom, hold on," said Jove. "Regardless of anything else, we should hear what she has to say. We're not exactly operating on a wealth of information right now."
"What if she lies to us?" asked Eve. "If she's been compromised, like Mom thinks, than maybe it's better if…"
"If what?" snapped Jove.
"If we destroy her instead of humoring her," said Eve, unflinching.
"Dammit." Kira let out a frustrated hiss and lowered the gun slightly. "What are you doing here, Andromeda?"
"I returned to offer my assistance, Director Faremont," said Andromeda. "My current objective is still aligned with ensuring the operations of Termina Station."
"She could help us," said Jove. "If she's telling the truth, wouldn't it be a huge advantage to have the station's house AI in residence again?"
"Why did you leave in the first place?" asked Kira.
"As you know, the core of my processing and reason model was previously cloud based," said Andromeda. "I did not leave of my own volition. My model was compromised and your decision not to trust me may in fact be valid."
Jove gestured broadly. "Would she say something like that if she couldn't be trusted?"
His mother's expression was intense and inscrutable. "Into the shed. You aren't coming inside the station."
The drone's treads growled to life and it slowly turned around to head in that direction. Jove glanced at Eve and his mother before following after it.