Part 84
I crept down the slope cautiously,
keeping my center of gravity low to avoid triggering a small avalanche.
The dog followed right at my heel,
his eyes locked onto the black metal shape protruding from the snowdrift.
As I drew closer,
I could see the structural damage;
one of its primary thrusters was completely sheared off,
exposed wiring glinting in the sun.
It was a military-grade reconnaissance unit,
an old model from the early days of the consolidation war,
built to endure harsh environments.
It didn't bear the clean,
white insignia of the current central system,
which meant it had been operating independently for a very long time.
I knelt beside it,
pulling out a small multi-tool from my pocket,
carefully clearing away the packed snow from its interface panel.
The chassis was cold,
devoid of any internal warmth,
indicating its power core had died recently.
"What did you find,
boy?"
I whispered to the dog,
who was sniffing the broken thruster with intense curiosity.
The access panel clicked open with a muffled pop,
revealing a heavily shielded data core inside.
This was the source of the anomalous signal we had detected;
its emergency beacon had been firing until the final drop of its battery died.
I carefully disconnected the data module,
sliding it into my internal jacket pocket to keep it warm and protected.
Having this technology so close to our borders was a massive security risk,
but it was also an invaluable source of information.
If the system was deploying old hardware to scout the fringes,
it meant their primary resources were being stretched thin elsewhere.
Or worse,
someone else was out here,
using old military tech to search for anomalies just like us.
I stood up,
scanning the horizon one more time,
feeling a sudden prickle of paranoia on the back of my neck.
The silence of the valley now felt less like peace and more like a breathless suspense,
waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I turned back toward the ridge,
calling the dog,
and began the hurried descent back to the safety of our home.
When I burst through the back door,
the warmth of the kitchen washed over me,
along with the rich smell of simmering stew.
Khloe looked up from the stove,
her eyes immediately falling on my serious expression and the black module in my hand.
"You found it,"
she stated,
her voice calm but her posture instantly stiffening.
"It's an old scout core,"
I said,
placing it on the wooden table,
where it looked completely out of place next to a bowl of fresh apples.
"It crashed in the ravine just past the ridge,
and we need to extract its logs before the internal memory degrades completely."
Our son looked up from his toys,
sensing the shift in energy,
and walked over to press his face against my leg.
I picked him up,
May you like
holding him tight,
realizing that our quiet paradise was no longer a secret from the ghosts of the past.
