It was sunset when Lakma Nivas reached the impact site, the bright white on the horizon contrasted the deep purple of the sky, darkening as the star Garant orbited disappeared beyond the distant, currently obscured, ocean. It was raining now, cutting short the almost pleasant day that had been occurring during the light hours. Now, the regular and persistent showers had began again, it made Nivas cold, irritable and reluctant to perform his duties (more than he usually would, anyway).

  “So, she definitely survived the fall.” He commented to Tae, observing the empty escape pod that had embedded itself into the concrete. Water dripped from the inside, the bottom of it having been already filled with rainwater before they had arrived.

  She raised her eyebrows in the most obviously mocking way her apathetic features could muster, “We’ll make a Primary of you yet, Nivas, any other kernels of wisdom to share?”

  Lakma had never seen an escape pod up close before, it was built with the same function over form as most space faring objects were, and most things on Garant, come to think of it. The only thing he could glean was that it wasn’t from a fancy ship, something they knew already. He rolled his tired eyes, shivering under his windbreaker as a cold gust of wind passed through him, he pulled it tighter to his body, still refusing to zip it up and obscure the badge pinned to the shirt he wore underneath.

  “Do we have any cam footage? There should be at least one on each of these streets that would’ve seen her run off. I submitted a report back at HQ so we should’ve heard back by now” He glanced at the corners to see if he could spot one.

  “You of all people should know technology rarely works when you need it to.” She jabbed.

  “Har har, very funny, is that a no then?”

  “Yeah, cameras in this neighbourhood are on the fritz since the last big storm. Those lazy fucks in Facilities still haven’t gotten off their asses to do their job yet.”

  Lakma grimaced slightly, but was happy to concede the point, the lack of infrastructural maintenance on Garant was one of the rare things him and Tae could agree on.

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  “Witnesses?” He asked next.

  Tae scoffed and smirked, “Good luck getting any witnesses in this side of the bulkhead.”

  Lakma was taken aback by her comment, witnesses who assisted the PEA were always well compensated, and the people here were almost always on tough times. He grumbled; one day they would realise what they were missing out on.

  “So, we have a pod, and we don’t know what direction to go?” He sighed.

  Tae looked down at him with a look of entertained bewilderment. “You really don’t know what you are doing, do you?”

  He shrugged, “Report me.”

  He could see her hold back a response, then reconsider. She was obviously more annoyed at his constant goading than she tried to appear, she attempted to appear interested in the pod to avoid looking back at him.

  “One day I may actually take you up on that offer, it might be a good idea to stop tempting me.”

  She walked up under the pod, Lakma kept a generous distance away, making sure he wasn’t in the way in case it decided to come loose from where it was lodged. Despite being there for hours now, it still didn’t appear at all stable, and being out on the street in the flesh had made him all the more cautious. Another benefit of viewing everything through a monitor.

  Tae pulled a device out from one of her belt pouches, Lakma knew he would have the same device, and probably more, but he never bothered to learn what most of them did. All aside from the Narcotics Scanner, that is. He needed to make sure his office wouldn’t set one off when he wasn’t occupying it after all. The device Tae has withdrawn was similar to some kind of datapad, except shorter and thicker, most of the body was made up of a small keyboard, most of the keys being symbols Lakma didn’t recognise, the top of the device was bannered with an almost unreadably small screen. As he was inspecting it from behind her, standing on his toes to see over her shoulder, she sighed and shook her head.

  “Pheromone and Haemato Detector, this is academy level tech Nivas you really should know what these are.”

  “I do actually!” He defended, a bit too passionately for his liking, “The Automatons have them built in, even shows up on their HUD.”

  Tae shook her head again, “Remind me again why I asked you to take the lead on this?”

  He shrugged, “You have an emotional attachment to your office?”

  And the other guy said no and was executed.

  She was silent for a moment, pushing inputs into the PHD, “If I wasn’t guaranteeing another demotion, I would break your nose.”

  Lakma raised his eyebrows and blinked. At least she’s being honest. He raised his hands defensively and allowed her to concentrate on the device.

  “Got her.” Tae spoke after a few minutes of fidgeting. She sighed in satisfaction, despite her insistence that he should know what the device is, it seemed unintuitive.

  “Alright, let’s get this done. I’m surprised this was so easy.” He laughed to himself shortly.

  Tae sighed, “Why. Why did you have to say that?”