DEMITRI TURNS TO ME with a sad smile. Oh, Yeos, no. “Demitri. It’s going to—ˮ

With a quick step, he pulls me close and wraps his huge arms around me. A pop precedes a blinding flash and a deafening sound like cannon fire. I flinch and hold tight to him. White-hot flames smother us, but Demitri takes the brunt.

The Leader just exploded. He just exploded, and I can’t hear. And ... Demitri—

We fall to the floor. “Demitri.” I roll his muscled torso to the side. Blood pools on the floor beneath him, but he’s still breathing.

“No ... no, hang on, Demitri.” I tear a section of my shirt and begin to pack the oozing wound in his lower back. This is bad, really bad. “Stay with me, Demitri. Don’t you dare die on me.” We’ve got to get out of here. From the floor of the disk, I peer through the chaos—strobing yellow emergency lights flash on the wall and wisps of smoke rise from the Leader’s flayed body.

Slowly the ringing subsides, but it’s replaced with the station’s blaring alarm. What do I do? Demitri’s been burned across the side of his face, his clothing scorched through to the skin of his back. I pat out the glowing embers and reassess his condition. The wounds are significant. Maybe I can stop the bleeding—

“Attention,” an automated voice echoes across the disk. “Explosion detected inside the command disk. Disk compromised, breach fissure detected, artificial gravity systems failing, oxygen levels failing, reactor compromised. You now have eight minutes, thirty-seven seconds to reach minimum extraction distance.”

“Eight minutes?” How in the name of Yeos am I supposed to move a seven-foot unconscious Gracile? I scan the disk for something I can roll him onto and drag him with, but there’s nothing.

“Attention,” the voice begins again.

Artificial gravity systems failing ... That means stuff seems lighter, right? I can feel it, a strange creeping sensation of weightlessness. I’ve got to move.

I stand, grab two handfuls of Demitri’s jacket, and give him a hard tug. His body slides a little. “We can do this, just stay with me.”

“You now have seven minutes, sixteen seconds to reach minimum extraction distance.”

I give him a pull and swing his body past me toward the portal. My grip on the floor is rapidly diminishing. Yeos help me.

Scanning the disk’s interior, my gaze falls on one of the Leader’s vanquished Creed leaning at an angle as the gravity fails—but its feet are stuck to the floor. Magboots. Pushing myself off the wall, I glide through the air to grab the Creed soldier.

“Attention. Explosion detected inside the command disk. Disk compromised, breach fissure detected, artificial gravity systems failed, oxygen levels failing, reactor failing. You now have six minutes, six seconds to reach minimum extraction distance.”

The side of the disk begins to buckle. I fumble with the Creed’s boots before hitting the glowing blue button on the side of each. The boots relax, and I yank the lifeless robot out of them. They’re big enough for me to put on over my footwear. I tuck my feet in and tab the button on the side, and the boots automatically cinch against my shins. Straining, I lift one foot up and step forward with a shunk-clunk, then the other, and again. Developing a rhythm, I approach the floating, unconscious Demitri.

I grab his jacket with one hand and drag him through the air toward the portal that leads out of the disk. We might be different. We might have nothing in common. We might not ever fully understand each other. But he’s my friend and I’m not going to leave him here to die.

I wait impatiently for the failing disk to rotate, then align with the exit. “Come on.”

“You now have four minutes, twenty-seven seconds to reach minimum extraction distance.”

The disk stops, and the last of the gravity fails, the alignment with the exit incomplete.

“Damnation.” The opening is just wide enough to squeeze through. I shove Demitri through the gap, then grip the bulkhead and pull myself through to the tunnel. Lights flicker. The station groans.

Demitri moans as I shove him down the cramped tunnel. A thin trail of red spheres leaks from his wound. Keep moving. Another tremor shudders through the station, and with the sound of steel tearing, I’m thrown against the wall. The air suddenly grows thin. I can’t breathe.

“Attention. Explosion detected inside the command disk. Disk integrity failure, breach fissure critical, artificial gravity systems failed, oxygen levels failed, reactor critical. You now have two minutes, forty seconds to reach minimum extraction distance.”

Straining, I seize Demitri and press off the wall toward the equalization chamber. We glide into the compartment, and I thump my fist against the red button on the wall. The hatch slams shut. There’s a hiss as the pressure equalizes.

“Open,” I shout to the opposite door.

“You now have one minute, thirty-eight seconds to reach minimum extraction distance.”

There’s another terrible quake and the distant sound of something collapsing. The door to the cockpit flies open. I shove Demitri inside and slam the hatch shut. “Now what?”

“Above you.” Demitri is conscious, but barely, his voice but a whisper.

A bright orange lever above my head reads, Emergency Disengage. No time for questions. I yank it down and feel the ship separate from the lock. The vessel floats, aimlessly bumping back into the crippled space station. Another shudder.

“You have thirty seconds to reach minimum extraction distance.”

“What am I supposed to do? How do we get home?”

“Return to point of origin?” An automated voice speaks from the glowing command panel before me.

“Yes.”

“The confirm key ...,” wheezes Demitri.

I scan the console. There. I jab at the key to initiate.

The boosters ignite, and we swing against the back wall of the cockpit. Directional thrusters fire as the ship spins away from the station. Through the glass of the cockpit, the stars whirl across the blackness of space as we plummet toward Earth.

The shuttle quakes violently. I pinch my eyes shut and swallow hard, struggling against the force of our descent. I force my eyes open to see Demitri already halfway into one of the rear seats. I shove him down and pull the locking harness over his head with a clunk. Then I strain to reach the adjoining seat and pull myself into it. With one swift downward movement, I yank the harness across my shoulders and torso and snap it into the locking plate between my thighs.

Demitri slowly lifts his arm and clasps my fingers. With a sickening jolt, there’s a flash of light through the cockpit window. The shockwave slams against the rocket and shoves it forward as we re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.

“Yeos is here with us. His good hands are upon us. There is nothing to fear.” I clamp my eyes shut and chant under my breath.

“Mila ... we’re going to die, aren’t we?” He sounds scared.

“Yeah, Demitri. I think that's a fair bet.”

The shuddering intensifies, rattling us down to our bones.

“I don’t believe in Yeos.” He swallows, his lips speckled with blood. “What does that mean for me?”

“I can’t judge your heart, friend. I can only offer you the truth and hope it’s enough—that Yeos will hear my prayers.”

He nods. “It’s all right with me. Maybe He’ll listen to you.”

“Warning,” the automated voice says from the cockpit. “Air brakes compromised, descent thrusters failing, recommended entry speed exceeded.”

Demitri screws his eyes shut. “I’m sorry, Mila.”

“We did the best we could, Demitri.”

The ship shudders, and the atmosphere burns bright orange through the cockpit window as we plummet through the sky. As we shake violently, the autopilot struggles to maintain a normal entry trajectory. Steel rivets holding everything together pop and pull apart under the force. Finally, the impact rips through the ship. The squeal of steel tearing against earth pierces the air for a brief, sickening moment.

Then, only darkness.