Ravi kept his apprehension off his face while he got his first good look at Opalina. He stood in the middle of a tunnel blasted right through the bowels of the mountain. It looked half-finished, like a construction project everyone had given up on long before it was complete. The walls were raw, bare stone, poorly lit by long bundles of cord lights anchored to the curved ceiling. No windows anywhere. The only half-hopeful thing he could think of was that the heat was kept at bay, the air cooled by perpetual shade. The entry door rumbled shut, sealing him in.

Jossen shuffled up to his shoulder. "I'll show you your quarters. But no one's readied them."

"That's fine," Ravi said, following him. The floor was perfectly flat, but the tunnel seemed to be constantly listing to the right.

"It's not hard to find your way around here," Jossen said. "It's just one big loop. Private quarters off the outer wall, common rooms are on the inner wall."

"How many levels are there?" Ravi asked.

"Just the one."

That didn't match what he'd seen in the blueprints. "What about the storerooms? Isn't there a pretty extensive storage area below this?"

"It isn't accessible anymore. The stairs caved in during one of the storms, and nobody bothered to clear it. Don't need a floor's worth of storage for such a small crew."

Ravi shot a look up at the ceiling, toothy with jagged rock. "There was a cave-in?"

"Sure. But it was ages ago, before any of us were here. And the rest of the outpost is solid as the mountain. Nothing to worry about."

This place needed an inspection right fucking now. Ravi loosened his grip on the strap of his bag, and made a mental note to request an Enlightenment crew come out to test for structural integrity. Jossen stopped at a door set into the rock and gestured at a metal square in the center. "I wiped the old biometrics after the last com left. The scanner is ready for you."

Ravi pressed his palm flat against the cool metal, and the scanner glowed as it processed. It took longer than it should have, but at this point he couldn't be surprised by old tech. When the scanner finally finished, the door hissed aside.

"Here," Jossen said, thrusting something at him. It was a bit of twine, with a pair of ancient metal keys attached. "You'll need that. When the weather gets really bad, the tech gets spotty and malfunctions."

"Can't the ziggurat fix—"

Jossen rolled his eyes. "It's never a question of can't they, and always a question of why should they. Archcom Huseda doesn't have credit to throw into this bottomless pit." He turned away abruptly, pacing further down the tunnel.

"Hang on," Ravi called after him, one foot in the door of his new room and one foot still in the tunnel. "I'm just going to drop my stuff, and then I'd appreciate it if you'd show me the rest of the loop."

Jossen grimaced, but he stopped. Ravi ducked back into the room. It felt like a cave, but he didn't spend any time exploring. He pitched his bag and the water cannisters to the ground and located his slate for notetaking before dipping back into the main passage to catch up with his subal. Jossen resumed his march while Ravi was still trying to figure out how to get the door to his room closed.

The subal pointed as they approached another door, this time set into the opposite wall. "Closest room to you is the muster hall. You go through there to get to the com's office." He moved past the door without opening it.

"Can we take a look?" Ravi was already touching the metal pane on the door, and it rattled aside. The muster hall was smaller than the one he'd had with his old crew, but a similar set up. A dust smeared table surrounded by forlorn chairs dominated the space, and he spotted an old projecter style imager on a cart in one corner. On the far wall was another door, leading to the shittiest office Ravi had ever seen. He leaned in the office doorway, staring.

Files were stacked everywhere in the windowless room, spilling out of bins and rising in leaning towers like stalagmites. Everything was shrouded in a layer of dust and smelled like mold. He thought he saw a desk somewhere beneath all the garbage, but it was hard to be sure.

If he'd been alone, he would've cursed all the coms before him and the goddesses for good measure, but Jossen was watching him. He gave the subal a grim smile. "Well. As I said, work to be done."

They continued, passing more doors set closer together on the outer wall, which Jossen indicated as his own quarters, and then the crew's quarters. Everyone had their own rooms at least, which was the first bright spot Ravi could see for the recruits stationed here. Although he wasn't sure it made up for the rest of it. Jossen showed him another common room, by far the largest space in the outpost.

"The crew calls this the lounge. Bit of a joke," Jossen grunted. It was huge, but cluttered with plywood crates, junk that belonged in a hov garage, and some very sad-looking fake plants. None of the game simulators or recliners he was used to.

He glanced down at a pair of wadded up grey socks that someone had left on the floor. "What are the access hours for the crew?"

"The last com got rid of access hours. Made the lounge open to the crew all hours. She said it was the least she could offer the crew, if they had to be stuck here."

"That's generous."

Jossen looked affronted, and his voice turned frosty. "It was foolish. A further breakdown in structure and order, and it only made the crew more entitled." He wheeled away with an aggrieved sniff.

Ravi kept his gaze on the subal's slope-shouldered frame. "How many coms have you worked with, Jossen?" he asked.

"Four." He gave Ravi half a look. "Five, now."

Not good. If Jossen had seen four coms arrive and then abandon this place, it made sense that he'd developed a terrible outlook. But it also didn't bode well that he seemed to have given up on improving anything.

More rooms stretched ahead, including a laundry, an empty gym with no equipment, the rest of the crew's quarters, and the storerooms. They had nearly circled around to one last door, almost back at the main entry. The scanning pane for this room was cracked, and Jossen forced the door aside with his shoulder. "Mess hall," he grunted as Ravi passed him.

The mess hall was aptly named. It looked disgusting and smelled worse. The appliances were grimy with soot and stains, stovetops crowded with caked pots and oily pans. Dirty dishes lay half-submerged in stagnant water, and the remains of the morning meal was still scattered across the tables.

There was a task chart stapled to one wall, and Ravi drew closer to read it. Someone had written all the individual prep and cleaning tasks to be done and assigned them in shifts, but it had been scrawled over in much larger print. TERES ON GARBAGE DUTY FOR ALL TIME, it read. And there were other addendums, neatly added to the original lists. Balls inspection, Aziri. Balls licking, Aziri. Eating shit, Aziri.

Ravi spun slowly on his heel to face the subal, who looked flatly back at him from the doorway. "Is there a daily schedule?" he asked.

"There used to be. Not for a while now." Jossen shrugged.

Unbelievable. He'd assumed the rest of the crew were on patrol already, or drilling, or managing whatever regional jobs fell under Opalina's purview. But it was clear that no one was in charge. "Where exactly are they right now?"

"Probably frittering away the day somewhere outside," Jossen said. Ravi glared at him, and for once, the subal looked a bit chagrined. "Best bet," he tacked on, "is that most will be at the Amphitheater."

He folded away his slate until it could fit into his back pocket. "Show me."

As soon as it came into view, he could see it wasn't really an amphitheater. Just a wide, shallow pit. But big. Very big. He might've called it a crater, except that the inside was too smooth. It looked as though a goddess had come along with a cosmic-sized spoon and scooped away a circle of mountain rock. From this distance, he could just make out a few figures scattered along the rim and in the middle of the so-called Amphitheater.

Jossen stumped toward the nearest of them, a woman sprawled flat on a silvery mat. A tripod mounted with a flat face camera stood directly above her, the lens angled down to reflect the blinding glare of her glossed lips and enormous sunshades. She continued to pose beneath the camera, tugging the zipper of a uniform jumpsuit down to display cleavage highlighted with glitter. Pridian had not exaggerated when she'd promised him a tough crew.

"Rosareen!" Jossen called. "What in the name of the First Goddess are you doing?"

"Making more credits than you've ever seen, old man." She pouted for the camera. "Move over, would you? You're blocking the light."

"Get up," Ravi said quietly. "And pack that shit away."

She started when he spoke and squirmed around on the mat to look at him, but he was already striding over the lip of the rock impression and toward the next three recruits. Jossen stayed on his heels.

The other three were playing a cheap version of a backyard game. They'd propped several empty cans atop a pile of rocks and were attempting to knock them off with the pebbles that littered the ground.

The man whose turn it was stood several paces back, squinting, his tongue poking out in concentration. He was at least as tall and broad as Ravi, but his movement was ungainly and off-balance, like he hadn't quite grown into his size. When he pitched the stone in his hand, it went wildly long, soaring over the line of cans and bouncing into the far edge of the Amphitheater. The two recruits who were watching burst out laughing, and the thrower cursed.

One of them, a lanky, dark skinned woman with her arm propped on her companion's shoulder, bellowed at the thrower. "Duhar, how the fuck is your aim so good in vids and so shit at cans?"

"Shut it, Teres." Duhar kicked up a puff of dust at his feet.

"My turn," announced the second man, sweeping black hair back from his face. He had the eagle-sharp features, thick eyebrows, and ochre skin of the true Fennec folk.

None of the three turned to look at Ravi and Jossen as they approached. Ravi swooped a hand down to the ground and shook the gravel away until he had four stones clacking in his palm. Still a good fifteen paces from where the Fennec man stood and much farther from the cans, he took aim and let fly.

Four sharp cracks echoed around the amphitheater, followed by the ringing clatter of the cans tumbling from their perch. All three of the recruits whirled toward him, and Ravi squared his shoulders. "Perfect," he said, loudly enough that it carried to their suspicious expressions. "Your game ended just in time for work."

The Fennec man collected himself and crossed his arms. "Look, if you want help with the supply delivery, there's no need to be a dick about it."

Ravi smiled. "That was level one dickishness, friend, and I can do better than that."

Jossen broke in. "This is our new com."

That shut them up. Even the Fennec man, who seemed to be the leader of the little gang, looked taken aback.

"Com Endessen," Jossen said, "This is—"

He waved aside the introductions. "I can learn their names when I thank them for leaving the mess hall immaculate."

"Where's the rest of the crew?" Jossen asked.

The Fennec man gave a stiff shrug. "Yorune is around, collecting rocks or something. And the twins are up by the trees." A sneer leaked into his voice. "Too delicate for the sun."

Ravi nodded. There was always at least one ringleader in a poorly functioning crew, and he had a feeling he was looking at Opalina's right now. He spoke to all of them but kept his gaze level with the Fennec man's hawkish yellow eyes. "The three of you, go get that woman"—he swung a hand in the tripod poser's direction— "and head straight to the mess hall. And start scrubbing."

Another figure appeared at the opposite edge of the Amphitheater. Jossen waved, and the figure scrambled toward them. Ravi shaded his eyes, watching a short, round woman jog closer. She wore her hair in a high puff on top her head, and a hopeful smile. A toolbelt around her waist clanked as she stopped in front of them, fanning her face. "Little Goddess preserve me, is it dinner time already? I spent the entire day and didn't find a single sand mushroom!"

"No, it's not dinner." Jossen sighed. "Yorune, this is Com Endessen."

She peered up at him, and then made some flourishing motion with her hand over her head that looked nothing like a salute. "Welcome to Opalina!"

"Thank you," Ravi said. "The search for the sand mushrooms will have to wait until your free hours. The outpost needs some work."

"You're right," she said, touching a forefinger to her chin. "They're more likely to pop up in the morning. Or perhaps evening, once the sun goes down. You know your fungus, I see, Com."

Ravi blinked. He couldn't tell if she was joking. "Well. Plenty of fungus for you to inspect and eradicate in the mess hall." He turned to scan the tangle of brush and spindly trees on the ridge above the amphitheater. "Are there more recruits up there?"

"The twins, I think," Yorune said.

"Good. Go get them, and all of you return to the mess hall."

She did the hand-flutter-wave-thing again, and sped off, directly across the amphitheater to climb up to wherever the remaining crew members were hidden.

Ravi watched her progress and spoke to Jossen at his side. "What's the Fennec man's name?"

"Aziri."

"He seems like he's going to be particularly unhappy with a new sense of discipline around here."

Jossen shook his head. "Aziri has a big mouth, but he's not the one you really have to watch out for. That's Alior."

"And which one was he?"

"He's not here. He was supposed to return from dispensation last night and still hasn't shown up."

His gaze jerked from the dust cloud of Yorune's trail. "You're sure he's alright?"

"He does this often enough. It's the third time he's been late. He gets more dispensations than anyone else because he's the son of some rich bigwig, and he waltzes in and out whenever he wants. The last com didn't give him a single write-up for anything."

Ravi nodded. He knew the type, although he'd never allowed anyone like that into his crew. But even the wealthy families had to send their children into a few years of branch service somewhere, and a place like Opalina must seem like a good place to hide away spawn too spoiled to cut it in an elite crew.

"When that recruit shows up, I want you to alert me immediately," Ravi said.

Finally, a tentative but genuine smile creased Jossen's face. "Yes, sir." He gave a proper salute. "About time we had someone willing to hold feet to the fire."