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You don't know my name
You don't know my number
You don't know my face at all (at all at all at all)
We walk right past each other, every single day
Like cold machines, we're marching on and on and on and on and on
   —Alice Cooper

Events unfold on a space station that is used as a weapons development location, in Jupiter’s planetary system, far from Earth where accidental nuclear explosions won’t destroy prime real estate.

United Nations Weapons inspector Nathan Kane and Cold Harbor Commander Fadia Aziz have come to the Doors Corporation station to check on its efforts to retrieve weaponry and more from the unmapped ocean of Europa, Jupiter’s fourth largest moon.

This issue’s plot centers around the station manager and his hidden agenda. The visitors find out what is really going on and become imperiled in a quite familiar plot device. A major theme of this issue is the cold machines that people have turned into. The cover shows the washed out faces of station personnel, all hooked to a central processor, electronically and psychically. The nature of the controller is called into question as well.

The slow pace and extended exposition in this issue make it feel like an in-between chapter – which, I suppose, is appropriate in the third of six installments. The little bit of action is decisive, but long in coming. Also, if this is the first issue of the series you’ve picked up, you’ll find that Dunbier (the editor) has provided no background and no summary of previous issues. Thus, we are left to guess about what Cold Harbor is and what Doors is, while we are given no information or insight about the relationship between Kane and Aziz. The best part of the issue is the last two pages, where we are led up to the point of a major revelation to appear in the next issue.

If you’ve enjoyed the story up to now, it will make more sense; if not, go back and hunt up the previous issues before reading this one. For further information, please read the review of issue #1 in the archives on this site.

Best quote: “Tell me we’re not shooting our way out like American cowboys.”