PERSONAL RECORD: DESIGNATION ZETA4542910-9545E
PALLAS STATION
478.2.6.03
“I really don’t like this,” Alec muttered.
Someone grunted in agreement, and the weapons’ targeting beams lanced through the dark beyond the open door. Jordan sent a short communication to Jackson, but my heart thundered so loudly that if the marine responded, I did not hear him. I braced myself. The drone, however, either did not detect my elevated response or did not judge it worthy of discipline, for no reprimand shook me.
“Zhen—” Alec nodded to the right, then at the bearded marine. Without further communication, the three of them entered the room.
“Manual light switch not working,” the marine reported from inside the laboratory.
“Freddie used to tease me that I knew my way through that room blindfolded.” Kyleigh’s voice wobbled. “But I really don’t want to know if he’s right.”
The room was a maw of inky black, yawning to swallow us.
“Jordan?” I asked. “Regardless of power status, I believe it might be beneficial to utilize the drone’s lights and also scan for insectile intrusions.”
“Do it. We don’t know if there are bugs or not, but that kept them back in the hangar first time down here,” she replied. “Tim, keep an eye on that hall. Can’t have things creeping up on us.”
I pivoted to look behind me. Nothing.
Nate caught my eye and flashed a smile. “Got it, J,” he said.
The drone at my side, I stepped through the laboratory’s door. Our shadows left blotches on the uneven rectangle of light cast from the hall, and I squinted at the datapad while typing commands. The drone’s intense full-spectrum light flared.
“Hey!” the medic protested, and the bearded marine cursed.
Bright spots drifted over gathering dark. I blinked several times, but when my vision returned, the orange around the drone’s screen had deepened to dull red. Appendages spooled into interior pockets, and the drone drifted to the silty floor, blocking the doorway.
“That wasn’t helpful,” Zhen snapped.
“Just a miscalculation.” Jordan touched my shoulder. “Do what you can to get that back on.” She turned to the medic and indicated Kyleigh and me. “Keep an eye on them and keep the hall clear.”
With that order, Jordan dodged around the drone and disappeared into the laboratory.
I removed the rigged harness and lowered the remaining chargers to the floor. Shoving the green datapad back in my pocket, I dropped to my knees while Kyleigh disconnected the nearly depleted charger. To my left, four narrow rays of light pierced the dark. The hair on my arms rose uncomfortably inside my sleeves. Turning from the possibility of creatures I could not see, I plugged a new charger into the drone, hesitating but a moment before adding the second one.
The red encircling the drone’s screen brightened. Once the chargers were securely tied to the drone’s metallic upper half, I looped the empty one over my shoulders, then reentered my designation number and Lorik’s codes. It welcomed me back. I peered past it into the dark.
“What do you need me to do, Jordan?”
“Be ready to move. As soon as that thing is on, get it airborne and out of the doorway. Activate the scanners, if you can.”
My attention flickered from the drone to Nate and the dust-filled hall, then back to the laboratory, where targeting beams slid over the ceiling and walls. Askew desks and fallen chairs cast distorted, angular shapes before the rays moved on, and dark consumed the furniture again.
The drone remained stationary.
“We left it tidy.” Kyleigh edged closer and peeked around my shoulder. “And I don’t see how the roaches got in. Christine’s regular old insects were down the hall. Freddie’s were in another section.” Her voice lowered. “I should have killed them all before we went into stasis.”
The medic cautioned, “Later.”
A blast of light and sound from the far side of the laboratory startled me. Kyleigh jumped back, nearly knocking me off-balance. Dull orange smoke spiraled into a beam of light.
Salty saliva filled my mouth.
The bearded marine—Quincy—said, “Heard something over there.” The ray of light left the smoke and darted to the far corner, illuminating a dim, two-meter, oblong shape. Another burst, and it stilled.
“That it?” The medic’s voice seemed distant in my ears.
“Hard to tell,” the bearded marine responded. “Let’s get that equipment.”
“The far-right corner.” Kyleigh’s hand trembled when she pointed. “The bottom cabinet on the left.”
Light skimmed the cabinets, furniture, and walls.
The bearded marine said, “Looks clear.”
“It shouldn’t take long.” Kyleigh blew out a long breath. “Like I said, I know this room inside out.”
The urge to forbid Kyleigh from entering the laboratory swelled, but I said nothing as she and the medic edged into the gloom.
“Hall’s still clear,” Nate reported.
I turned back to the drone. Its screen flashed orange, and it rose into the air and blocked my view of the room. A tendril encircled my neck, but I did not flinch as I input the command to emit light.
>>Charging.
A clatter made my pulse accelerate.
“I tripped is all,” Kyleigh called. “I’m fine.”
I reiterated my order.
>>Inadequate power. Activating light endangers functionality.
“Comply,” I demanded.
“Is that thing going rogue?” Alec’s voice carried an edge I had not heard since our first trip underground.
“The drone is under control,” I replied, and he grumbled an indecipherable response.
>>Not rogue.
“Indeed,” I said, almost truthfully, though fear warned me of the potential falsehood.
>>Not rogue, it repeated. >>Situation?
A frisson of cold unrelated to my suit’s homeostatic controls crawled down my back. The drone had heard Alec’s comment. Nothing anyone said was secure, as I had warned my friends when the drone and I had first emerged from the storage closet. So why was I surprised—and why did it frighten me?
Wetting my lips, I reassured it. “I know.”
“You know what?” the medic snapped.
I ignored her and craned my neck to peer around the drone’s waving arms. Two beams still moved around the room, while the other two illuminated Kyleigh’s hands as her fingers danced over numerical locks.
“The locks aren’t responding.”
“Makes sense. No lights, no power,” the medic said, and her beam slid over the panel.
“Stop!” Kyleigh held up her hands. “Don’t try to shoot them out!”
“Give me some credit,” the medic protested. “Science lab. Probably flammable things all over the place.”
“Right. Though . . .” Kyleigh darted out of the light.
“Kyleigh!” Zhen exclaimed.
A sharp crack sounded, and metal clattered.
Two beams danced over surfaces until one found the young woman digging through a tall, evidently unlocked cabinet.
“Don’t you dare run off like that!” the medic ordered.
“Ha!” Kyleigh lofted a metallic canister with a thin nozzle.
“Oh,” the medic said. “Cryo gun? Is it full?”
“Yes and yes.” A hint of confidence and energy returned to Kyleigh’s voice. “If I freeze that lock, you can shatter it with a chair or something.”
“Worth a try,” Alec muttered.
The drone shifted to block my view again.
The canister hissed, then a targeting beam danced on the ceiling. Metal pinged on metal.
“Hurry up, Kye,” Zhen urged.
“Take this.” More shuffling noises sounded, and Kyleigh grunted. “I need the trolley in the corner—no, the one with three shelves.” A wheel squeaked. “Thanks.”
Jordan’s voice held steady, even as she reiterated the command to hurry.
“Think I’ve found where they’re coming in,” Alec growled. “Ventilation grate’s been chewed off. Upper left.”
The bearded marine swore with a fluency I had never heard before. “Without knowing which direction it runs, blasting could make it worse.”
“It’s just a lab. It doesn’t make sense why they’d gnaw their way in here,” Zhen put in as she helped Kyleigh with the trolley.
“Bugs, DuBois.” The medic huffed. “They don’t make sense.”
“We had a refrigeration unit with food and another with agar and things like that,” Kyleigh said. “Georgette was notorious for working through meals. I used to bring snacks, in case we worked late.”
“Maybe you could get a move on,” Nate suggested over the communications link. “I like my suspense in vids, not in—”
A heavy, organic thud interrupted him. The scritch of insectile feet on the floor carried through my helmet’s external speakers. Percussive sound echoed, and light flared inside the room, reflecting off the drone’s silver surface. Stunned by noise and lumens, I could not discern whose boots pounded through the subsequent darkness.
“Activate lights,” I barked like a marine. “Now!”
Immediately, red-spectrum light flooded the room, not enough to drive back any intrusion, only enough to gloss the surfaces with scarlet. I ducked past the dangling tendrils into the laboratory where two-meter, red-highlighted shapes hurtled across the floor toward the open cabinet.
Kyleigh screamed.