Hanging less than a meter over the ground, Althea helped the first kids disembark by lowering herself slowly to the ground, extending her arms and legs as she did. Once the last of her four lower passengers got off, she shifted her legs back into human leg shape and let herself fall the rest of the short drop.

  Althea crouched down so Betty and Joseph could jump down and then let her body return to her human configuration. Until she reset her parts, Althea had not recognized the tension and vague discomfort in her limbs. Akin to walking on a sleeping foot, Althea felt a need to flex her knees and jump about swinging her arms once she returned.

  Pontikos reenabled her peripheral nervous response and Althea felt how cold the air seemed down below the shelf. Looking up at the shelf, she could see that even almost thirty minutes later, battle still continued up above.

  “Hey guys, we need to get moving in case they come looking for us.”

  Mentioning that the whole space ship overhead could explode might not be the best thing for reassuring the kids right then.

  The dilapidated factory that had seemed so close when hanging overhead now seemed much further away, especially considering how uneven the terrain was.

  When she tried to decide how to organize the kids for the trek, Althea froze.

  Should I be out front in case someone attacks us there or behind to make sure that no one attacks us from the back?

  Althea refrained from vocalizing her question, but she asked Pontikos anyway,

  “Which is tactically more sound? Walking in front of or behind them?”

  Pontikos grinned and said,

  “I believe you would want to be in front of them, assuming you think you can trust them not to run away behind you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you need to see any potential threats ahead of you more than behind. In theory, you could catch rear threats, assuming they wrap around or otherwise have to work to escape your sight. But as a practical matter, do you want children checking for mines or other traps as you advance?”

  Althea nodded and made her decision based on Pontikos’s advice.

  “Joseph, you’re walking the rear. You have the most important job of all, okay?”

  The little boy nodded as Althea bent her knees and brought herself face to face with him.

  “We’re using the buddy system. Betty and I are your buddies, okay? That means you watch us to make sure we’re okay and that we don’t run off. But since you’re in the back, you also have to watch everyone. Do you think you can do that?”

  Joseph nodded silently at her and Althea said,

  “What?”

  He nodded again and wiped his nose,

  “Yes Ms Thompson.”

  “Good. Then the rest of you pair up too and make sure you never, ever leave your buddy, okay?”

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  The others nodded and followed suit.

  Althea ranged ahead of her small group, leading by less than a body length. That might not stop a mine or proximity explosive from hurting them, but it would give her a chance to spot it before it did. Still, her head swirled like a wind sock in a hurricane. Every few seconds, she automatically counted all six kids and then recounted in case she got the number wrong the first time.

  Every few steps, she paused and used the full suite of sensors offered by her cybernetics to sweep for explosives or other forms of danger. Nothing seemed to crop up, which worked just fine for Althea.

  An hour later, the explosions and sounds of battle on the shelf had ended. Erie still did not respond to comms and the ship had not yet exploded. Althea considered that a positive thing since she could not convince herself they’d walked far enough away from the ship to avoid dying when it went up.

  Another fifteen minutes later, Althea discovered how wrong she was.

  The foreign sound started up like the whistle from fireworks rising into the heavens. Then it shifted into a metallic grinding and debris started falling far behind her group as portions of the shelf failed. Looking up at the ship, it seems to collapse partially starting from the top. Black smoke gushed from the side of the vessel as the grinding noise reached an incredible volume.

  All seven of her group froze as six of them covered their ears. In seconds, Althea watched as the ship collapsed in on itself while large pieces of stone and rock fell from the shelf onto the ground below. Rather than a cacophonous blast, the ship seemed to fade with an anticlimactic pop.

  Then the whole side of the shelf collapsed.

  Tons of stone, dirt, and metal cascaded down the cliffs behind her group. The avalanche justified her decision to escape the lee of the cliff and rush for the factory as a cloud of dust rose and settled over the landscape around them. Light faded as the dust covered the sun in a false dusk.

  Around her the kids covered their faces with their shirts and Althea noticed for the first time that only Joseph and Betty carried the backpacks Damon had insisted they bring and checked for them. Hustling through near-zero visibility clouds of dust would get them all hurt or lost, so Althea had the group stop and hunker down in a small depression.

  “What happened to your bags?”

  Joseph answered for the group, his voice muffled by the cloth of his shirt,

  “They lost them when during the tunnel collapse.”

  Althea considered that. Her own food demands were actually quite low now. A good deal of her caloric intake had been supplanted by electronic power systems that relied on the charge block in her chest. But the kids would not have the same needs.

  Between Betty and Joseph, their group had enough food for six people for two or three days. A return trip to civilization might take at least that long based on her maps. Althea sighed and waited for the clouds of dust to settle so she could continue walking.

  The children chattered among themselves, oddly unaffected by the destruction of the city behind them. Stopping like this scared Althea because she worried that this would give panic and uncertainty time to set in. Nothing like that seemed likely until Betty said,

  “Wait, if you don’t have your bags, that means we only have two VR rigs, right?”

  She started out looking at the others, but ended her question staring at Althea. Rather than answer right away, Althea looked up to find the sky only mostly tan now, rather than blotted out.

  “Okay, it’s time to get moving people. Let’s find a place to hide and stay safe for the night!”

  Around her, the kids looked forlorn as they contemplated a future without their favorite pastime. Althea felt a good deal of sympathy for their loss. Without her own VR kit at home, Althea would have gone insane years before.

  Maybe she could scare up something to replace it given time.

  Half an hour later, more than two hours after dropping onto the ground at the base of the cliffs, Althea saw the factory come into view. When she flattened herself, the kids behind followed along. She did not even have to tell them to do that.

  “What’s going on?”

  Joseph crawled up to Althea’s position and whispered his question.

  Althea pointed to the factory windows where flickering lights danced and waved as if beckoning them closer.

  “Someone is in there. Do you remember anyone talking about a settlement or group of people down there?”

  Joseph shook his head while the other clambered over to stare. In the distance, Althea spotted thin, short figures moving about the front of the factory hauling things and generally working. The fact that light work commenced and that nothing obvious like hanging skeletal bodies warned intruders away made Althea feel hopeful that they could safely rest there overnight.

  She ordered Joseph to watch the other kids with Betty’s help while Althea moved ahead to check out the area.