Breaking and Entering - 10

"You can't give me the silent treatment forever, you know," I said, giving Clank a sideways glance as I followed Max's ship.

He said nothing, glaring furiously ahead of himself, a trick I was sorry to say he'd learned from me.

I gave a sigh. "C'mon, pal. I said I was sorry I didn't tell you about the blood thing. But it gave everyone what they wanted, and I still think it was a good idea."

"Oh you do, do you?" His head spun around to give me an accusing glare.

"Well yeah," I gave a shrug, keeping my hands on the wheel. "Max and I wouldn't need to work on the lock any more, but research would still be done on it and I'd still be helping Max without giving up my own time."

"And you thought putting your genetic matrix in the hands of people you do not know, and can not monitor, was a good idea because of all this, did you?" He snapped.

I gripped the wheel a little tighter. I could feel the rough texture of it through my gloves. "It's the Polaris government, Clank. I don't think they're gonna do anything weird with it. Besides, I made it pretty clear that if they started screwing around with it, I was gonna show up on their doorsteps with five different kinds of rocket launchers."

"If you are so convinced that this was a good solution, then why did you not tell me that you had done this earlier?" He continued to glare at me, arms crossed tightly.

"I didn't want you to be mad," I shot him a frown, "And you're not really proving me wrong, by the way."

"And why did you think I would be mad?" His glare darkened.

I adjusted my hands. My palms felt hot but I couldn't relax my grip any further. "I dunno," I mumbled.

"That is not true." He kept his eyes on me. "Why would I be mad to hear you sent off a blood sample, Ratchet?"

"I dunno!" I snapped. "You already told me you don't like Max, right? I dunno, maybe I was worried you were gonna be mad at him for getting me into something like this!"

"Which I am!" He answered. "I am furious with him! But I am also angry at you for allowing yourself to be used! Have you no sense of self-value at all?!"

"It's not that big a deal, Clank." I glared ahead of myself again. "It just seemed like the best idea to make everyone happy."

"But you can not always make everyone happy!" He continued to argue. "And I can not believe you would do something so potentially dangerous! What if someone somewhere comes across that biological sample and puts it to ill use? Who knows what they could do with it! Have you learned nothing from what happened with the Dimensionator?! I thought you understood the seriousness of such matters by now!"

"Hey, don't you dare bring that up!" I twisted to face him again. "What the heck does that have to do with anything?! And what right do you have to tell me what to do with my own blood anyway?!"

"I thought I was your friend!"

"You are!" I yelled.

"Then why did you not trust me enough to tell me about this?!"

His accusation shut me up and I felt my ears flatten. I turned to glare out the cockpit again but I didn't answer him. We travelled the rest of the way in silence. I tried my best to stay mad, but whatever anger I had was being replaced more and more by guilt. 'Why didn't you just tell him, you idiot?!' the voice in my head yelled at me, directing all the anger I'd had earlier back onto myself. 'Why didn't you ask him about this before you did anything?! Why don't you ever listen to him?!'

By the time we reached our next location I was in a very bad mood. I almost considered asking Max if Clank and I could just go home. I decided against this, though. This was the second last planet we were gonna visit and I was hoping with some fresh air and a little time Clank would settle down and maybe decide to forgive me.

The next location wasn't a planet like I expected. Instead, a derelict space station came into view, first on my navigation screen and then visually through the cockpit window. It was huge, easily the size of a small city. It had a large central control station, circled by a hoop. Or what was once a hoop. The structure had heavy damage on one side and debris was still floating motionlessly beside the hole it'd come from. There were no signs of ships around and most of its windows were dark. It'd obviously been abandoned, and by the looks of the damage, not recently.

I circled around and followed Max as he led me to a docking bay. We set down inside it and I did a quick atmosphere check. When Aphelion's readouts came back as breathable, I opened the cockpit to get out.

"I'm gonna take the O2 mask, just in case," I said as I climbed out.

"I am not going," Clank said in response.

I looked up to stare at him. "Are you serious?"

"Most definitely." He glowered at me. "I will stay in the ship until you return."

My last nerve was being worked and I returned his expression. "Fine! Then stay here by yourself and sulk!"

"Then I will!"

We glared at each other for a few moments. Eventually I gave a huff, climbing down to the ground.

"You... gimme a call on my nav-unit if anything comes up, ok?" I grumbled at him in defeat.

He said nothing but broke eye-contact, fuming at Aphelion's dashboard as if it had insulted him. The cockpit closed and I sighed, pinching the corners of my eyes. I gave my head a shake and turned to walk towards Max's ship.

"Do me one favour." The nav-unit on my chest flickered suddenly.

"Oh yeah? What?" I answered stiffly.

"...be careful."

I said nothing for a few minutes before I answered. "I'm sorry, pal."

He didn't reply.

"Hey, where's your robot?" Max asked when I came close enough.

"He doesn't wanna come," I grumbled. "He's really mad at me for not telling him about the blood sample thing."

Max scoffed at this as he turned to lead the way. "It's not really any of his business, is it? It's your DNA, you can do what you want with it. It's not like it affects him in any way. Don't really see what his problem is, to be honest."

I made a passive noise that was neither agreeing nor disagreeing with him as I followed.

'Why didn't I listen to him? Clank is right.' a memory floated back to me from almost two years ago. 'Clank is always right.'

I gave another sigh. I was gonna have to make some phone calls once we left this station. I'm sure if I asked him, Clank would help me with the legal side of stopping them from using my DNA in further tests.

We hadn't walked very far before my Nav-unit flashed again.

"Wait..."

I stopped, tapping the button on my chest. "What's wrong?"

There wasn't a reply but I heard Aphelion's cockpit open behind us. Turning around, I saw Clank running to catch up with us. He slowed down when he got close, although from the look he gave me it was clear he was still mad. I stared at him for a moment before I offered him a hand. He pulled a face but took it as I put him on my back.

"You two all set?" Max cocked a brow at us.

"I think so," I said, picking up the pace again

-

"Soooo, what exactly is this place?" I asked as we walked through the halls.

They were dark and Max had to use his belt-mounted flashlight. The air had a strange smell to it and it tasted stale. It made me feel like we were wading through it as we walked. Our footsteps echoed all along the steel passageways. Large circular doors lined the walls we passed, almost all of them accompanied by large sections of the wall covered in glass or something similar so you could see into the room beyond. Inside stood clinical looking desks and swivel chairs, as well as various computer consoles and screens. Now and then a room would also have some large, complicated looking machinery and steel shelves that stood mostly empty. Everything was still, as if it nothing had been moved in years. And it was cold. Not the wet cold of snow or rain but the dry, empty cold that came from space and seeped in through the steel and platinum of the station.

"Refuelling station," Max answered as he walked ahead.

"It's er... a little big for that, isn't it?" I sped up so I could walk beside him.

"Well yeah, but a refuelling station is what the lombaxes told everyone it was." He turned to me with a smirk. "No-one had any proof they were lying, but then again what else could it be, right?"

I wasn't sure what kind of response he was looking for. I didn't feel like trying to guess. "Ok but, what exactly are we doing here?"

"What's the matter, kid?" He chuckled. "You're not interested in seeing what a Lombax space station looks like?"

"No, it's not that." I turned to look through one of the glass walls as we passed it. Inside I could see a metallic slab, a large machine with prongs suspended above it. "It's just I don't really know what we could find here that'd be worthwhile."

Max laughed. It bounced all around the metallic walls and ceiling, making the noise uncomfortable. "No sense of adventure, kid? From what I've heard you're suppose to be the type of guy to thrive on stuff like that."

"Yeah, but I don't usually go looking for it. I'd rather relax until it decides to come find me instead," I argued. "Besides, walking around a station that's not in the best shape without anyone knowing where we are isn't the smartest thing I've done this week."

Another chuckle. "And here I had you pegged as an archaeologist in the making! Son, if you're afraid to go places or to do things just because they seem dangerous, you're never gonna accomplish anything. If you want to discover something. you're gonna have to take a few risks. That's what Archaeology is, lad! It's going into the deepest, darkest pits there are, grabbing the most terrifying thing you can find and dragging it by the neck out into the light for the universe to see and study. No matter what mass grave, ancient prison, or mummified remains you find staring back at you in the dark."

I felt the bristles stand up all along my spine and gave a shudder. "Can we change the subject?"

Max burst out laughing again, "Alright alright. So I'm guessing your next question is gonna be what happened here, right?"

I gave something like a shrug. "Judging by the track record? It's gonna be either Cragmites, the Great War, or both."

"And you'd be right." Max almost literally flashed me a grin in the poor light. "Most people didn't really buy the whole 'refuelling station' story, least of all the Cragmites. They might've been a race of bloodthristy monsters but they weren't stupid. They didn't even bother trying to inspect the place first before they launched a surprise attack and bombed the main engines. Then they merely had to wait for the escape pods and ships to start leaving before they blew them to smithereens. Not that the lombaxes didn't put up a good fight of course, but the surprise attack and the superior numbers did the trick unfortunately. We're not sure how many lives were lost during the fight. Lombax and Cragmite records aren't the easiest things to find, you know."

"Yeah, I kinda gathered." I nodded.

As we walked deeper into the station I found myself getting more paranoid and twitchy. I was pretty sure it was just the little picture Max had decided to draw and colour for me with his talk, but something in my gut told me that something here wasn't right. I'm not exactly a person that gets spooked easily. I've clambered around haunted pirate ships in the darkest bowels of caves, but this was different. Something felt wrong, and I couldn't put my finger on what.

We walked passed another room, Max's flashlight only making the most basic shapes visible and leaving the rest up to my imagination, which wasn't in the best place right now. I imagined dry skin wrapped around cold bodies, with leathery, eyeless faces gazing back at me from the dark somewhere. Faces that looked far too much like the one I saw in the mirror. I gave another shiver.

"Your pulse is very rapid," A voice behind me said.

I jumped, half-turning to look behind me before realising it was just Clank who'd spoken.

"Sorry," He added when I relaxed.

I frowned, partly in embarrassment as I turned back to the front. "Don't read my pulse, will ya? It's creepy."

"Your heart beats against my back," He grumbled. "It is not something I can just stop feeling."

"It's still creepy," I sped up again, not wanting to lose sight of Max's flashlight.

"Well, forgive me for making an observation," he muttered to himself.

"Max, how long are we gonna walk, exactly?" I said to the explorer instead. I wasn't in the mood to argue and I was already sick of this place.

"We're almost there, kid, just relax." He gave me a look as if I was an impatient toddler on a shopping trip.

"We're almost where?" I asked, exasperated by the lack of a clear answer.

"There's a part of the ship I want to check out while you're with me. I figured I could use some fresh eyes on it and see what your opinion is. Plus, some of your mechanic skills might come in handy. And before you ask no, I'm not gonna make you fix the whole station." He laughed again.

I couldn't appreciate the humour, what little there was. I just followed him as we kept going. I was starting to lose my patience. After about 10 minutes of walking I was just about ready to tell him I was turning around and going back to the ship before he spoke, almost as if he'd anticipated what I was going to say.

"Ah! Here we go!"

He'd led us into a spacious room. Against one wall was a long computer console, on the opposite wall a very large, circular doorway sealed shut by two inter-linking doors. The rest of the room was empty, the two remaining walls bare apart from the doorway we'd walked through. The circular doors had red lines painted across them as well as more lombax script. Next to them were also two or three signs bolted to the wall that looked like caution signs or safety instructions.

"What is this place?" I asked, hoping I wasn't gonna hate what I was about to hear.

"We wanna get on the other side of this door." Max said, patting it with a hand as he grinned at me. "We've mostly been walking through the basic offices so far, but beyond this is where all the interesting stuff was done. The more er... mechanical things."

"Another lock?" I asked, a light frown already forming on my face.

He chuckled and waved his hands at me. "Don't give me that look, kid! And no, not this time." He walked to the other side of the room and placed a hand on the computer console. "No see, this one's just your regular, run of the mill security system. Trouble is, it had a few knocks when the place was attacked. Nothing to wedge the door shut it seems, but definitely enough to keep the damn thing shut. But I figured, if you're as good with machines as you say you are, you should be able to give it a few cranks and get it running again so we can get in."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, walking over to the controls. "Alright alright. Lemme look. But this'd better be worth it, Max."

"When have I ever let you down before, boy?" He grinned.

"Oh, I dunno. When you made me unlock a unicycle?" I knelt down, searching the bottom of the console before finding a panel I could screw loose.

"Hey, you were the one who said that was still worth something!" He waved a finger at me.

"True," I nodded, pulling the panel off and putting it down before peering inside the hole. "But I'm not gonna be impressed if you've dragged me all this was just to check out a lombax bicycle or something."

I felt Clank detach and turn to watch. Once he was off I lay down on my back, my head under the controls as I started going through the mess of wires and circuits in front of me. I pulled my gloves tighter and reached inside, setting to work.

"You might wanna make sure there's air on the other side too," Max's voice said from somewhere above me. "You know. Just in case."

"I would have to agree with that advice," Clank added.

"Alright I got it," I grumbled, reconnecting two frayed wires and fixing them to a new circuit panel. "No backseat repairing, please."

"Ok, but I don't really feel like breathing in a vacuum," Max's light-hearted voice replied.

I ignored him, focusing on what I was doing instead. It was tricky work. Most of the controls were still intact, but I had to find ways to create bypasses for sections of it that had been damaged by what looked to be a major power surge. It was more delicate work than an engine or starship, but thankfully a few years of breaking into security compounds as well as breaking out of security compounds had taught me a thing or two about wiring. After about half an hour I heard the controls power up above me. When nothing sparked or melted, I climbed out and started looking over the controls. I wasn't familiar with the design, but it looked pretty straightforward. I got a screen in front of me turned on and put in some commands to bring up the stats for the room beyond the door.

"Well, the good news is we got air on the other side," I said. I couldn't read the lombax characters but the bar showing the percentage was easy enough to understand.

"And... the bad news?" Clank asked, walking closer.

"What makes you think there'd be bad news?" I gave him a smirk.

"There is always bad news," He gave me a sideways glance.

"Yeah... well the bad news is the gravity generator seems to have been damaged. It should be ok, but it's gonna feel a little weird walking through there."

"And the door?" Max pushed himself off the wall he'd been leaning against. "Can you get it open?"

"I think so." I Put in a few more commands, finally getting to what looked like a command centre. "It's gotta be one of these. I just don't wanna flush out the air or something if I pick the wrong one."

Max's hand landed on my shoulder, pressing down heavily as he leaned over me to read the screen. He pointed to a heading. "It's this one."

"Right." I nodded, accessing it.

A graphic that could only indicate a lock appeared. After some tinkering it went from red to green. Behind us there was a hiss and the sound of metal shifting. The doors slid away from each other. I was relieved to see there seemed to be something lighting the other side as the three of us walked towards it. Although as I got closer and could see more of the room, I stopped.

Beyond the open door was what I could only describe as a wasteland. What the room had been originally I couldn't tell, but what was in front of me had been ripped apart. The floor had been torn out, as had the floor below it and the floor below that. Whole sections of wall were either completely missing or hanging semi-suspended in the air, the gravity too low to pull it down properly. Shreds of steel and wiring floated lazily past the doorway, disturbed by the movement of it opening. The light in the room came from the curved ceiling which was made of some transparent material I hoped wasn't glass. It stretched overhead to the far other side of the damage where I could see the floor resuming again into another dark tunnel of a hallway and further into the station. Whatever the transparent material was, it had cracks running along it. The air was still and breathable though, indicating that somehow, nothing had cracked between us and the void of space outside.

I took a deep breath, pulling myself together. "Sorry, Max. Looks like a dead-end."

"Oh nonsense." He walked passed me, looking over the edge of the missing floor to the decks somewhere far below.

"Excuse me?" I followed, coming to a stop beside him. "Max, we're not gonna get across this thing."

He laughed at me, looking up to the various debris floating ahead of us. "Oh sure, if you're looking for a nice footpath. You don't always get your way with exploring, kid. Sure, it'll take us a little longer but we'll get across. Last time I was here we had to go the other way around to reach that part of the ship and lemme tell you, that wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do either! Of course, we had a good team with us at the time, but with the two of us we're just gonna have to improvise with what we got."

I stared at him wide-eyed, not believing what I was hearing. "You can't be serious. Max, we can't get across this thing! Oh, ok sure, we probably can if you wanna be technical about it, but I don't really feel like breaking my neck today!"

He turned his gaze to me, the smile fading. "There's no other way to that side, kid. With no team and no equipment? It's either this or nothing."

"What exactly is so important that side that you wanna get to?" I frowned at him.

"Aw, well now you're asking me to spoil the surprise." The grin returned but I was in no mood.

"I mean it, Max. What are you so eager to get to you're willing to do something stupid like try and get across a gaping void with a compromised hull?"

The grin faded again, this time replaced with a light frown of his own. "Well if you're gonna be difficult, I might as well tell you." He turned to face me head-on. "When I was here about 12 years ago we came across a passageway leading to the control hub in the centre of the station. The hub seems to have escaped most of the damage, although how exactly it managed that we're not sure. The popular theory goes there's some kind of shield generator that protected it. I told you not many records exist of what exactly happened here, but one thing we do know is that when the station's engines were taken out, those in the control hub did all they could to keep the station from falling apart and occupied the Cragmite's time with their turrets, giving a few of the other ships time to flee. Of course, this meant those in the hub had no way to escape themselves. However, from our research we know they managed to ward off direct Cragmite fire as well as prevent any invading parties from setting foot in the hub itself."

I felt my frown deepened with a mixture of horror and fascination. "They died?"

Max gave a mirthless laugh. "It was war, kid. People die. You of all people should know that."

The remark stung and I felt my expression harden.

"Anyway, there was a very good reason no Cragmites could get into the hub. It was locked, which is also why none of my original research team could get in either." He dipped his head slightly, his eyes focusing on me again in that way that made me feel like he was trying to drill holes in me. "But... with you here-"

"Oh no!" I put up my hands. "No! No way!"

He gave something between a scoff and a laugh. "Oh come on, son. Surely you're not gonna let some old battle story from 40 years ago spook you?"

I gave him a hard, definite stare. "I'm not going through there. And even if I did, I'm not opening that door, Max."

Whatever amusement had been left on his face disappeared and the start of a glare could be seen in the corner of his eyes. "Ratchet, be reasonable. Do you know what we could learn from that place?"

"I don't care." I glared right back. "I am not gonna cross a potential death trap and then open a door to a tomb just to satisfy your curiosity. I'm sorry Max, I really am. But no. I'm not doing it."

His eyes hardened and I started feeling like I was talking with a different person, someone I didn't know and who had no room for humour or laughter in him. "My curiosity. You really think it's something as simple and selfish as that?"

"Ok then; the field of Lombax research! The combined scientific knowledge of Polaris! The historical records of the galaxy! Whatever you want it for, I don't care! I'm not gonna do it, Max."

"You realise that if you don't, no-one is going to be able to see what's inside that thing. Ever." The tone was quiet, but had a dangerous lining to it.

"Maybe that's just how it's gotta be, then," I said, refusing to back down.

"And you don't feel at all responsible?" Max went on, his eyes narrowing. "You have no problems just walking away from this and leaving the rest of the galaxy to forever wonder what kind of advances could've been made if you'd only put your hesitation aside and unlocked a door?"

"I am not your personal lockpick Max!" I burst out. "Look, I didn't mind helping you out with stuff, I really didn't. But You can't make me unlock a door that I know is only gonna lead to more dead consoles, broken machines, and old bones! Especially if you're willing to drag both me and yourself across a giant gaping hole with a viewing station that looks like it's gonna shatter if any of this debris so much as taps it! There's taking a few risks and then there's having a death wish! And frankly, I don't think a derelict space station is worth risking my neck over and it shouldn't be worth your's either!"

Max said nothing when I finished my rant. He just glared at me with hard, dark eyes. His hands were gripped tightly into fists the size of my head. His mouth was drawn tight. He stood silently, as if he was made of stone as he glared down at me with what almost looked like disdain. I expected him to be angry, or disappointed, but instead he glared at me with an emotion I couldn't quite place. It was cold, and it was scornful. Minutes dragged by and I stared back up at him, refusing to break eye contact.

"That is your decision then, is it?" He said with a soft voice, although the low volume did nothing to rob it of its venom.

"It is," I said, no hint of doubt in my voice.

He said nothing in response, he merely continued to stare down at me. He held me in his gaze for a while longer before he finally turned away, looking out over the destruction in front of us, folding his hands behind his back. His shoulders still held high, his frown dark. I watched him for a few minutes before I turned, walking through the door and back the way we'd come.

"C'mon, pal," I said to Clank as I went, "Let's get outta here."

I didn't look to see if he was following, but I heard the metallic click of his footsteps as he jogged after me.

The walk back through the dark was difficult, but I had a good mental compass and managed to backtrack. I glared ahead of myself, not giving anything we passed even a sideways glance as I marched. It felt like someone had lit a fire in my stomach and it was currently burning my insides to a crisp. Frustration, confusion, and an underlying sense of betrayal. I buried the last one with anger instead. Anger for what he'd asked me to do, anger for his lack of concern for anyone's safety, including his own, anger for his obsession, anger for bringing me to such a terrible place. I wanted to get away. I wanted to get as far away from this station, and Max, and the control hub as I could. How could he ask me to do this?! How could he ask me to open a door that I knew led to... to something I didn't even want to picture?! How could he try to make me face that?! Didn't he care?! Did he care about how this affected me at all?! Oh and let's not even get started on crossing a gaping hole in the ground! Oh sure, I probably could've crossed it if I put in the effort, but why would I?! What'd be the point?! So I could break an arm when I misjudged a jump due to the low gravity?! So I could fall to a lower deck and get lost?! So we could damage the viewport and get sucked into space?! And for what?! To open a door to a crypt?! How could he do this to me?!

"Ratchet!" The call was a few paces behind me and I realised I was walking too fast for Clank to keep up.

I came to a stop, listening to him catch up as I fumed to myself. He came to stand beside me and I could tell he was watching my face, trying to read my expression in the darkness, although I had no doubt his vision was better than mine in the low light. I said nothing to him, I didn't even look at him, but I held out my hand and felt him take it. I slung him onto my back, making sure he was in place before I fell back into pace.

"...I am proud of you," Came a rather quiet voice from my back.

I bit down on my tongue but didn't reply, speeding up a little bit. There was silence for a while as I walked, the only noise coming from my boots on the metallic floor.

"Are we going home?" Clank asked eventually.

I shook him head tightly. "We need to have a talk with Talwyn first."

"She is not home yet," Clank pointed out.

"Then we're gonna give her a call, but one way or another we're gonna have a talk."

There was another long pause as I kept going, although my energy was draining and I was starting to slow to a more normal pace, a frown still hard on my face. It remained where it was until Clank spoke again.

"I am sorry I accused you of taking these things too lightly."

My frown eased a little and I felt my fists relax.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the DNA thing."

"It is alright."

"Yeah," I gave a nod, "and thanks, pal."

"You are welcome, but for what exactly?"

"Looking out for me, even when I'm being an idiot."

"I find that those are the times one most needs someone else to watch their back," He replied.

I wanted to reply with something but I couldn't think of anything that didn't sound awkward or stupid. I focused on finding my way back to Aphelion instead, as well as trying to figure out how I was gonna explain to Tal what'd just happened between me and her father.