-13.402 seconds. The digital chronometer she had set to display in the corner of her 'vision' counted down as she forced her way through the system, showing how little time she had before the guard came back.

This had already taken too long. 

It had been more difficult than she'd thought to slip into the complex undetected. Near impossible for someone without her enhancements and specialized training. Even so, she felt naked knowing she had to cover all aspects of the breach alone. The systems of identification, cameras and guards would have deterred even the most competent infiltration team.

Now there was this mainframe.

Just working through the surface layer of code to gain access to the system had taken two seconds, an eternity of nanoseconds. While Caldwell didn't credit herself as the best hacker, she was competent. The ability to move within the system at the speed of thought should have made the difference.

Caldwell had already spent much of the past month gathering intelligence and familiarizing herself with local computer systems. Section Z equipment had to be highly adaptive or else it was useless in the field. Still, Caldwell had fine-tuned it more over the past few days as she moved from place to place, hacking into everything she could imagine, searching for information, testing her netjack.

It worked, was working, but the encryption was far tougher than anything she had ever faced. Caldwell had expected to be in and out of the mainframe in the space of a second, maybe another second to hack more protected areas. At this rate, she wondered if she'd get any information at all.

Had Caldwell been corporeal, she'd have set her mouth in a grim line as she cut through code at a faster pace.

To Caldwell, netspace was always clear, edged, and brightly colored.  This protective code was a web of jagged crystal, garish, yet somehow elegant. She moved through it with care. Her processer dealt with the math as Caldwell searched for openings.

-12.094 seconds.

She moved deeper into the system, sorting file names from a sea of garbage symbols. Each file was individually encased in a crystal mesh.

Shen-Long.

-11.562 seconds.

Caldwell cracked it, barely keeping the code from exploding into shards and warning the main system. Slipping through the unstable fissure, Caldwell scanned the data inside.

Blue Prints. For a moment excited, then confused, these were blueprints for what seemed a special type of combat mobile suit.

Gundam?

Brutally cutting off the stream of information that flowed from that word, she copied the file to her backup node and continued searching.

-10.097 seconds.

Sandrock. Another crack, more efficient this time.

Another 'mobile suit'. Caldwell scanned through the information, automatically copying the blueprints before something new caught her interest.

Grey: Shadow system.

Red: Enhanced Combat.

Blue: Predictive Values.

Not stopping to scan further, she uploaded it all.

-8.579 seconds.

Query: Shadow System.

A puppy coalesced in front of her, it's wide eyes bright as it wagged it's tail and accepted the query, searching.  Encoded without direct interface, the puppy was merely an impression of diffuse pixels, barely three dimensions and slightly transparent.

'The programmers here have way too much time on their hands.' Caldwell thought, amused, as she watched the clock, waiting for the 'dog' to return.

'Guess they can't spend all their time constructing firewalls.'

She waited.

-8.002 seconds.

Search complete. No Files found.

Combinations. Permutations. Related Phrases.

Nothing.

The Icon shook its head. No Files Found.

-7.576 Seconds.

Her timer flashed red, blinking.

Dismissing the search engine, Caldwell caught the glint of a collar before the puppy leaped into the air, flipped and disappeared.

-6.073 seconds.

'Cute' Caldwell thought as her mind returned to her body, they had even detailed the collar.

Zero.

***

It was dark, cold, and the walls had changed. Stephanie stood, holding her arms close to her body for warmth. Bruises throbbed beneath her coverall, the chilly air doing little to numb the dull pain. It did nothing to dull her fear.

Survival.

Her uncle had insisted she read and memorize that section from the officer's basic field training manual. Her parents wouldn't have approved, but he wouldn't have let her stay with him on the station otherwise. Stephanie had read more than that, all that she could understand. She had wanted to join when she came of age. Military organizations had the best hardware.

Stephanie bit her lip, tasting salt. It had been almost hot in the room she'd been working in before. Now her sweat had cooled, plastering cold hair against her head, forcing her to repress shivers.  She hadn't expected to use it.

S equaled Size up the situation.

Stephanie looked around the room again, trying to take in everything. She felt the walls would rise forever, towering into the hazy darkness. A tiny halo of blue light shone from what looked like a keypad on the wall to her right. Stacked boxes and machine parts jutting from the ground, the miniscule light tinting them slightly in the darkness. As her eyes adjusted, it all made Stephanie feel very small.

U said to Use all your senses.

She breathed in again, the motion sending a throb of pain through her ribs. The air was different, stale. Lonely. Maybe there was nobody here at all? She swallowed, a hard knot forming in her throat. The floor vibrated slightly beneath her feet.

Remember where you are.

A bitter laugh fell from her lips, echoing in the silence.

R was no help. Stephanie remembered the chair she'd been sitting in dissolving, the floor twisting. She remembered waking up here.

Vanquish Fear was V.

Good idea. She opened her eyes. Something was keeping this place going. Laying a hand against one of the jagged pieces of machinery secured to the floor, the metal was smooth yet cool. Somebody had made this. Even if they weren't here now, somebody would have to check up on it eventually, or maybe she'd be able to contact them.

Running a hand through her matted hair, Stephanie ignored the pain, pasting a smile on her face. Better. This would look great on her applications.

Right.

I was for Improvise.

'Everyone says I'm good at that one'. She thought.

Squaring her shoulders, Stephanie started walking towards the lit wall. 'At least it's warmer when I'm moving.'

As she approached she made out the faint outlines of a hatch. The light was a definitely keypad of some sort. The buttons had symbols on them but nothing she recognized. She grit her teeth and looked at the keypad again. Hadn't she rewired all the toilets on her level to flush S.O.S. in antiquated Morse code? Opening a simple door shouldn't be a problem.

It had two large buttons and nine smaller ones. 'This like the backups we use for emergencies.' she remembered. Strange. Running everything off the emergency backup was insane. She'd only tried fiddling around through the emergency backup systems once, when she had first come to live with her uncle on the station. Nobody had been amused. Angry faces and endless lectures had been nothing compared to the disappointment on her uncle's face after the incident. That had been the second worse experience of her life.

It also meant she'd have to be extra careful to find the right command.

V was most important. Value Life.

Stephanie carefully squinted at the display. From what she remembered about similar systems, the large keys were likely to open and close the door. She bit her lip again. If the door needed a more specific command to open, she'd have to either figure out how to unlock it with the keypad or find another way out.

'Only one way to find out.' She thought as she reached her shaking hand to press the first large button.

Act like the natives.

Stephanie froze, her hand hovering over the keypad. Just because the place had badly recycled air didn't mean it was abandoned. This structure had definitely been made by people. The bright orange stripes down her jumpsuit that showed she was a civilian on the station wouldn't help if she were forced to blend in here. Maybe she could find a uniform or a jacket or something.

If she could, maybe the place wasn't abandoned after all.

Spirits lifted slightly, she scanned the room with her eyes again. A metal box halfway across the room showed some promise. Moving as quickly as she could, Stephanie shook with excitement when she saw it had handles. She pulled it lightly at first, but it hardly budged.  Tears came to her eyes but she pushed them back and pulled harder. Vanquish Fear. The closet flew open with a rush.

Magnetic seal.

Stephanie peered into the closet, excitement warring with caution. Excitement won. The haphazard assortment of tools, bottles and containers was a fortune in riches; at least one person used this room regularly. Identifying a fabric shaped lump towards the back, she reached in and pulled it out. Holding it up to her she could hardly keep from jumping up and down. Definitely a uniform of some sort, a little large and probably none too clean, but it seemed close enough to her size. Stephanie quickly stripped out of her jumpsuit and put the other on, rolling up the sleeves and legs.

Maybe there was some food or water here too. It had been a while since breakfast. Rifling around the closet, Stephanie came out with a sealed container of what looked like motor oil, random nuts and bolts and finally wedged in the back, a shriveled up piece of some brown substance partially wrapped in plastic. Sniffing, she determined it might be some form of emergency ration.

'Maybe when I'm really desperate.' She wrinkled her nose, stuffing it into a pocket of her new clothing.

Elation gave way to urgency.

Taking care to stuff her old clothing in a similar way to how she'd found the jumpsuit she had appropriated, Stephanie closed the closet and turned back towards the door. It wouldn't be good to be caught here rummaging through someone else's belongings. Besides, she had to find a way to signal her uncle or somebody at the station quickly. He had to be worried.

It wasn't fair. Stephanie instinctively reached for the stone tied around her neck. It was there, smooth, cool and reassuring, one of the few physical memories of her father. Vanquish Fear. It didn't help. Most people had warning signs that their lives were going to get screwed up. This was the second time she'd lost everything in an instant.

Light.

Spots danced in front of her eyes, tore her from her thoughts as brightness flooded the room.

Footsteps.

She heard the door swish closed, and she stood there, frozen in shock.

Silence.

The spots in her eyes cleared to reveal a boy. He hardly seemed out of his teens as he faced her with a half smile, a chestnut braid of hair falling down his back, his eyes twinkled with something akin to mischief.

"So you're the famous Duo Maxwell?" The intruder spoke.

Stephanie smiled and tried to nod convincingly.

L. Live by your wits.

It was the only thing she could think of to do.