***Tirnanog, Hochberg***

***Astra***

“This thing looks like it hasn’t gotten any attention for a century,” Magnus complained while he wiped off the dusty touch-screen with a cleaning rag. The device flickered to announce its displeasure, switching back and forth between displaying two messages. 'Power Saving' and 'Maintenance Mode'.

My partner shook his head. “A little more power would be nice.”

One of the technicians went to adjust a power generator which rattled softly in the hallway outside. It was a cobbled-together machine which ran on plant oil, far less sophisticated than what we had in Aerie.

I took a look around the room while Magnus mumbled his complaints and tapped the screen.

Sarah had picked us up early in the morning. Protected by an entire detachment of guards, our delegation had enjoyed a short tour of the surface settlement.

Magnus was very interested in Hochberg's architectural style. He mentioned Egyptians and Incans several times while we passed through the impressive fortress city. The Hochberg had inadvertently copied the building styles of two ancient cultures from Earth. As far as I understood, their defining feature was layering huge and precisely cut rocks on top of each other.

My partner immediately came up with a conspiracy theory of someone trying to revive the past.

The possibility existed, but I would rather believe in a more practical explanation – owed to the lack of other building materials.

What do you do when you have nothing but rocks to build your house? You pile up rocks.

What do you do to make it stable and durable? You take big rocks.

What do you do when you have a population of super-strong people? You take even bigger rocks.

And let's be honest here, there were only so many ways to pile up rocks without having them crumble on top of you. It wasn't necessary to explain the similarities any other way.

Thankfully, we went over one of the bridges to the other mountain fortress before Magnus's theories could get too wild.

Then the Hochberg took us deep down into the bedrock on which their fortress city was built. The narrow corridors immediately reminded me of Mount Aerie.

What Magnus called Incan architecture gave way to walls lined with rusty sheets of metal and degraded plastic. It was the old, original settlement which had given rise to Clan Hochberg.

Unlike at Mount Aerie, where the old colony had turned into the settlement’s heart, Hochberg had abandoned most of the old facilities and built their colony on top of the twin rocks. Now, the old facilities lay largely abandoned except for the parts which were used as storage spaces and cellars.

Down here, we entered a room which reminded me strongly of the Hall of Law in form and size. But the computer wasn’t being used as a podium, nor was there a half-circle of tables for the elders.

Instead, there had been several cubicles which housed offices in the past and a thick layer of dust covered everything. It looked like the people had just picked up everything of use and left.

In their efforts to get power down here, Hochberg technicians had cleaned up most of the half-withered furniture, only to find out that the computer still had an old power line supplying it with just enough energy for standby operation. This wasn’t enough to get the big screen running.

“There was never a reason to maintain the old tech down here,” Tianna explained. She was standing to the side, so she wouldn't get in the way of the technicians who busied themselves with tidying up the place while Magnus gave orders. “Which makes me wonder why the computer still had power. Someone must have been maintaining it.”

“Another indication that there are Forgotten operatives within our ranks,” Vanya commented. “I’ll urge our people to find out why this thing was left untouched down here. The whole matter reeks of someone playing for the other side. At least it looks like they don’t have a lot of manpower.”

“Why do you say that?” Tianna asked.

Vanya gestured at the computer. “If they had the influence, they would have done a better job at maintaining the power supply. It would have also been prudent to wage a campaign to make us forget about the computer’s existence. Like it happened at Aerie. The fact that it didn’t happen makes me think there are fewer Forgotten operatives in Hochberg.”

She looked at me with a grin, but I didn’t fall for the insinuation of Aerie lacking the necessary vigilance to prevent insurgence.

The matriarch was surrounded by a group of guards who felt like elders if I was any judge of power.

Our hosts had upped the security at this meeting, so I had no intention of causing an incident because of pride.

“I suppose it will be the same with all the clans,” Magnus commented happily. Whatever the technician outside had done, it worked. The console showed now the same login screen as the computer back at Aerie.

Magnus inserted the data stick into the intended slot and typed in his password. “Earth is using these systems to monitor the former colonies.”

He hit ‘enter’ and was greeted by… an error message.

ERROR!

Please try again. You have two more attempts before the system is locked down!