Peeples picked up the injured crewmember and cuddled him against his chest. The pill droid’s stretcher attachment snapped together and refolded itself in some ingenious way before disappearing back inside its carapace.

“Blast it, Peeples, that’s not a baby. Get him to the medical bay, and make sure everyone’s strapped in and ready to go. We need to fly, and it might get rough.”

Peeples blinked his eyes, all nineteen of them, and Bright’s tentacles told him the ensign was frustrated, presumably at his fun being ruined. But he turned, taking the Anzellan with him.

Then he turned back.

“By the by, an order came through, from the Third Horizon,” Peeples said. “Full system evac. All rescue efforts are supposed to end, and all vessels are to head to hyperspace access zones and leave Hetzal immediately.”

“They say why? Lotta people gonna get left behind.”

Peeples shrugged, or performed the odd spasm that passed for a shrug with him, and walked away, crooning to the unconscious little being in his arms.

Another rumble from the station, and a blast of flame rushed down the corridor. Bright barely registered what was happening before the pill droid moved with a speed belying its usual languid grace. It inserted itself between the inferno and Bright. One of its side panels opened, and a nozzle emerged. Suppressor foam shot from it, intersecting with the flames, knocking them down, and only the merest wash of heat reached Bright.

He released the breath he’d been holding, then drew in another, realizing how close he’d just come to being cooked alive. He patted the top of the pill droid’s cylinder.

“Thanks, pal,” he said.

The pill droid emitted two short beeps. Bright couldn’t understand Binary without a translator, but he took the sound to convey a sort of “just doing my job, sir” type of stoicism, which he liked.

He lifted his comlink again. “Innamin! Where the hell are you? If you don’t get up here I’ll leave you behind!”

“About that,” came the reply. No longer annoyed, no longer panicked. Just…resigned.

That, Bright did not like. “What’s the problem, Petty Officer?”

“I can’t leave. I have to run a sequence on the reactor’s control console, injecting coolant every few seconds, and if I stop, it’ll blow right away. I was trying to set up some sort of automation, but the processors are damaged. I…” His voice cracked.

“No, we’ll get you out,” Bright said. “I’ll bring the pill droid. We can show it the sequence. It’ll run it for us while we get out and away.”

“Captain…you should go. Coming down to save me will take time, and—”

“Shut up, Innamin,” Bright said.

He gestured at the pill droid’s ocular sensor, giving it the command to follow, and then he started sprinting toward the nearest set of deck ladders.