For the longest time, all he could do was stare down into the chasm. When the quake finally subsided he had scrambled his way over the mountains of debris, past gaping black rents in the floor and finally over the enormous collapsed support. All he found was a bottomless abyss where Amber had been hanging only moments before. Darien sank into a crouch at the edge, his hands tightening into fists as he looked into the dark. Not like this. Please not like this.

He silently cursed the twists of fate that had brought the operatives to this dank, deadly corner of space. At the very least, the only other time he'd lost an operative he'd known what they were walking into. Here, with so many unknowns, it seemed like he'd been cheated. No commander in Blink could have done anything differently, and that stung most of all.

"Darien! Are you..."

Idas voice trailed off as he hauled himself up over the hulk of the fallen support. Darien glanced back at his friend.

"Where...where's Amber?" he asked, his usual bravado gone.

Darien nodded toward the chasm. Idas's eyes widened and he walked slowly over to the edge of the collapse as though in a daze, like he didn't quite believe what he'd just been told. One look over the edge and he seemed to visibly deflate. A moment later Hekket, too, came clambering over the ruins of the supporting pillar. Fortunately it was the only one that had been brought down by the quake. The sheer mass of the underwater city had been enough to withstand the shocks this time.

Hekket joined them at the precipice and after a moment he looked to Darien. "She fell?"

"Yes."

"Space."

"We don't know anything for certain," Darien grated, although even he didn't believe that. He tried to reach her on the radio, but his earpiece just crackled with static.

Hekket shook his head. "Darien, I...that looks bottomless. There's no way-,"

"That's enough!" he snapped, standing up and facing the medic. "I'm not about to write her off until I'm looking at her damned corpse! Do you understand?" Before the other boy could reply Darien's earpiece buzzed with an incoming message and he knew full well who would be calling.

"This is Hammerhead," he said icily.

"Hammerhead, this is Link," said the sub pilot, and her voice lacked all trace of its usual levity. "We just recorded a huge quake emanating from the base of the complex – and we've lost Operative Garret's feed from her mono-rig. Can you give us a status update?"

"Operative Garret," Darien replied, fighting to control his voice. "Just went over a cliff edge thanks to that quake." For a moment the comm simply buzzed with faint static as his words filtered through to the crew back on the Manitta-Vanna.

"Acknowledged, Hammerhead," this time it was Lieutenant Tyndall who spoke, and his tone was that of one military man to another. "Are you able to contact your missing operative?"

"Not yet."

"Do you believe there's a chance she survived the fall?"

Darien hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "I do."

"Very well," Tyndall continued. "Then we must assume she is incapacitated and unable to contact us. Can you reach her location?"

"At this point we're not sure exactly how far down she fell."

"Then listen to me, Operative." Tyndall's voice took on a hard edge. "You won't want to do this, but right now you need to focus on your main mission. Get down to the Coring Well at the city base and figure out just what is causing those quakes. We've been running constant scans of the tectonic plates beneath the city and they haven't so much as quivered in the entire time you've been down there. There is something, however, that's causing the area immediately around the city structure to become unstable. It seems like there's some sort of large, loose object that is shifting its position. We have no real idea where the main power generator for the complex is, but it would follow that it's in a central location. Something that could power a complex of this size would have to be immense, and if it's been damaged or started malfunctioning over the years, it may account for what's happening down there. Whether this has been inadvertently caused by your arrival, or simply bad timing, we just don't know."

"Lieutenant," Darien said. "I'm not about to leave one of my people at the bottom of a damned cave-in. We're going to find her, whether she's alive or not. I'm not leaving her body in this place."

"If you waste time on grave-digging duty and don't find the cause of these tremors it won't matter," Tyndall snapped back. "Believe me, son, I don't relish the thought of abandoning one of your squad-mates, but if we don't get to the bottom of this then it won't make a difference. We'll be digging all of you out with explosives if this goes on. Find the cause of the quakes, stop it, then find your missing operative."

The sense behind the marine lieutenant's words only served to make him feel more frustrated. Darien looked down into the darkness that had swallowed up his team-mate, his friend and tried to control his anger. Think rationally. Be an operative. Have faith.

If Amber had survived the fall and could still move around she would be able to look after herself. While she'd only been with his squad for a year, she had proved her resourcefulness and her courage beyond any doubt. If she had a say in the matter, he knew she wouldn't just sit and wait to be rescued – she would take the initiative and try and find her own way out. That's what he'd have done. And if she were incapacitated or dead...then it wouldn't matter how quickly they found her.

Eventually he took a long, steadying breath and spoke into his earpiece. "Acknowledged, Lieutenant. Hammerhead will proceed on mission. In the meantime, two of my operatives are still in position in the control room with the mapping device. I want Churchwood and his people to focus on helping them use it. If there's a way to get a life-sign detector or some kind of motion sensing grid online from there, we'll need it."

"Consider it done," Tyndall answered immediately. He paused, then added. "Don't worry, Operative. No-one's getting left behind. Manitta-Vanna out."

"You're serious?" Idas asked after a moment. "We're just...moving on?"

"There's nothing else to do." Darien turned to face his friend. "What would you suggest? Climbing down the edge of a cliff that just collapsed? We'd all end up smashed to bits if another quake hits. We're not giving up on Amber, but if we can't put a stop to whatever it is that's shaking this place apart then it won't make any difference. Now come on."

His hulking companion frowned but gave him a small nod of acceptance. He glanced at Hekket who was still staring down into the darkness. The boy's face was blank, as though he was still figuring out what had happened. Darien stepped over to him.

"Hekket?"

"Yeah...yeah I know," he murmured, shaking his head. "Just, doesn't seem fair, right?"

"I know what you mean." Darien clapped the medic lightly on the shoulder. "C'mon, we need to keep moving." He tapped his earpiece again. "Niamh, this is Darien. Do you read?"

"We read you," she answered, her voice tinny and distorted by the distance between them. "Are you guys alright?"

"A few cuts and bruises, but nothing serious," he sighed. "I take it you...?"

"Yeah, we heard. I'm...I'm sorry."

"We don't know anything for sure yet." He motioned with his head for Idas and Hekket to follow as he started walking, eager to get away from the yawning black pit.

"Well, I might be able to help with that," she said and there was a hint of triumph in her voice. "There's still no way to track your movements, but we have made a little progress. The structural schematic works in real time, so Brannigan's been able to pinpoint exactly where you are in the complex after the quake. We've got the collapse in front of us. I can tell you more or less exactly where Amber would have ended up at the end of all that."

Darien's eyes lit up. "Lay it on me!"

"Darien, the shock wave knocked a hole twelve levels deep," Brannigan cut in. "And if I'm reading this right, it cut down into one of the flooded sections of the lower city. She might have hit water at the bottom. It's still a long shot but..."

"But it's a better chance than we have five seconds ago," he said. "Good work. But, first things first, if you've got our location pinpointed, give me the fastest route to the Coring Well, and then to Amber."

"Well, the quake has complicated things a bit – you'll need to take a bit of a detour around the collapsed sections. Follow your current path to the end and you'll hit one of the big stairwells. Take it down four levels, then get off. Follow the next passage to a crossroads – take the left exit. Follow that for...if I'm getting the measurements right it should take about a kilometre, then you'll find an elevator shaft. That can drop you down to the bottom level. By that point we'll probably lose you on the radios because you'll be too deep."

"And then?"

"Assuming everything goes according to plan, you'll need to swim another section – no dry routes to the Coring Well that I can find. It'll be just off the passage outside the elevator on the right. Follow it through and you'll come up into what I think is a big loading tunnel. That'll run you straight to the Coring Well. From there, you can take the exit that will be immediately to the right of your position. Climb two levels and keep true and you'll hit the section Amber should have fallen into."

Despite it all, Darien couldn't suppress a faint smile. Brannigan was certainly starting to make amends for her earlier inaction. "Good job, Kelsey," he said. "Keep it up. If you crack any kind of tracker on that gadget, let us know. Darien out."

With that, Darien squared his shoulders and clutched his carbine across his chest. With renewed purpose, and just a little bit of hope, he stood tall and led his remaining companions onward. He cast one last glance back at the collapse, and silently promised that no matter what, he would be bringing his operatives home again.