His shoulders slumped slightly. “Not yet. But I’ve been making progress. I’m going to work on it through the night and make a bunch of prototypes. We could test them while we scout out the other two shelters. What’s the status with the shuttle’s cells?”

Nori grimaced. “Sixty-four percent. Flying it inside the atmosphere drains them more quickly, it seems.”

“If we’re out of other options, we can drain the ship and recharge them using the emergency power. Alright, I’m going back to work.”

Lana furrowed her brow. “You’ll be alright staying up all night?”

Bulco chuckled. “I’m not a kid anymore, kid. My growth won’t suffer if I miss a night’s sleep. See you all in the morning.”

The three remaining companions looked at each other with weary eyes. They spread out, each claiming a bunk.

“Hey, it’s pretty comfortable,” Lana said. “They don’t know chairs, but at least these aliens know how to build a proper bed.”

Nathan smiled and his eyes started closing almost as soon as he lay on his own bunk.

“I’m going to sleep so well tonight,” Lana continued. “I mean, OK, yeah, it’s an alien bed, in an alien ship, but we know for a fact the Warped can’t get in, so it’s safe. Oh, hey, Nori, I forgot to tell you, I went over the data Alzigo gave us, you wouldn’t believe the weird aliens that exist out there. There are little green men, space vampires, and even--”

“Lana,” Nori’s voice cut her off. “Good night.”

“Right, sorry.” Lana yawned loudly. “Good night.”

***

Nathan’s sleep was haunted, as always.

He looked on, impotent to help, as again and again men and women were torn apart by the vicious monsters. He felt their helplessness. The horror in their eyes stalked him.

As he watched the Warped exterminate humanity, some small part of him reached out to them. To the monsters. He could feel them moving, hear the voice that drove them as they answered their basic calling. A calling he felt as well.

Something inside him screamed at him to surrender, to allow a force greater than his own to take control. To take his fear and pain away.

But Nathan resisted.

He would not become a monster.

He would not surrender to the Tec.

9 - Diamond

“Morning, sleepy heads!”

Nori jumped up from her bed, her right arm pointing forward with a dart ready to launch from her bracer.

“Woah, easy there!” Bulco raised both hands and took a step back.

“Oh, it’s you.” Nori rubbed her eyes with one hand, the other one still pointing at the large Engineer.

“What’s going on?” Lana sat up in her bed and rubbed her own eyes.