Shadow Slave

Sunny had no particular reason for this visit, apart from simply wanting to check on how the old man had settled in. From his first impression, the dormitory apartment was too small and bare-bones for someone of Professor Obel's stature.

There were five compact bedrooms connected to a shared living room, kitchen, and bathroom, with three of the bedrooms occupied by other people. He could hear a child's voice behind one door, which meant that there might have been entire families of refugees living here. In that regard, maybe the fact that the Professor and Beth each received an entire room for themselves was already a privilege.

'Still... what the hell...'

Maybe he should not have been surprised. Professor Obel was indeed a distinguished scientist who had made great contributions to humanity, but the Antarctic Center was the administrative center of the whole Quadrant. With two hundred million people concentrated in Falcon Scott, there must have been a whole lot of distinguished people waiting for their turn to be evacuated.

Beth led him to the kitchen and put a kettle on the stove. Now that they were not busy trying to keep the caravan from falling apart, Sunny noticed that the young woman looked a bit haggard in comparison to how she had been at LO49.

There were dark circles under her eyes, a slight uncertainty to her movements, and a grim slant to her brow. Beth's temper, however, had not changed one bit.

"Tell me straight... is the wall going to hold?"

Sunny lingered for a bit, stumped by the frank question.

"How should I know? Sure, it is going to hold... until it doesn't."

Beth scoffed, pouring synthetic tea into three cheap alloy cups.

"And yet you seem to be terribly calm."

Sunny scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"Do I seem calm? Well, I guess I am. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?"

The young woman stared at him with outrage.

"Death! You can die!"

thought about it

course. But death is definitely way better than some other things. Believe

had been subjected to by his

course, his aloofness would look strange to a mundane

Beth, somehow, but at that moment, Professor Obel finally appeared - sparing them both a moment of

Sunless! How nice of you to spare time for this old

them settled behind a small dining table, enjoying tea. At

are in good condition for now. Ah, but we expect a big assault tomorrow. Make sure to remain inside, and don't go to the surface levels of the building, no matter

glance. For some reason, the young

to behave when an air attack alert is

then hesitated for a while. Eventually, he asked in

sorry to ask, Professor... but why are you still here? I would think that you would be put on the priority list for

city was designated as a member of

be ferried across the strait first, with all the rest placed in a long queue by a randomized algorithm. Various factors could affect one's "weight" in

that non-citizens from the local version of the outskirts

'Figures...1

of it had anything to do with Professor Obel. By all accounts, he should have been on one of the first ships out of the harbor. The giant vessels had been coursing between

old man a

Professor. Why are you

say anything, the young woman turned to Sunny and said

it or not, the old f... the Professor gave up his position on the priority list, saying that he wouldn't leave without his assistant. And since I have nothing to do with the high-value group, we are both stuck in the standard selection group now. Gods only know when we'll be assigned a placement in the queue, let

blinked a couple

"Is that true, Professor?"

man looked down in

you know? My bones still hurt from the long weeks spent on the road.

time, Sunny was inclined to

bullcrap reason

to leave Beth behind...

at that moment, the kid he had heard earlier barged into the kitchen, holding a makeshift toy in