ART said, Unidentified, which was its way of expressing relief that none of them were its crew members.

There was another body further up the corridor but I already knew what had killed that one.

What I wasn’t seeing was anywhere humans could be locked up. The dock hadn’t been anything but a temporary waystation while the colony was in development, so there were no cabins or facilities yet, just some minimal supply storage and waste disposal. There were interior hatches, but none were shut, suggesting the place had been searched earlier and left like this. I tagged some spots to check out more closely and then sent my drones down the wide corridors meant to transport cargo containers to the drop box loading entrance. It looked like the bigger modules were meant to be moved along the outside of the dock and attach directly to the box.

I forced DockSecSystem into a restart, hoping that would help, and climbed out of my EVAC suit. This time we were wearing the environmental suits under the EVAC units. The material felt thin, but it protected against a lot of toxic substances and had a closed breathing system attached, which we were using despite the fact that the dock’s life support was still working. The suits were really meant for planetary environments but it was a good precaution.

I signaled Overse and Thiago that they could leave their EVAC suits and told them, “We’ll start a physical evidence search here and work our way toward the control area and the drop box.” The drones were telling me the likelihood of Targets lying in wait was low to nil, and without a targetControlSystem installed, it seemed unlikely that there would be targetDrones. We still had to check for any evidence that ART’s crew might have been here. A note saying “help, etc.” was preferable to signs like body parts stuffed into maintenance cubbies or blood and/or viscera smears on walls and deck.

On the comm, Ratthi said, “That still looks like a lot of area to search. Maybe Arada and I should come over, too.”

For fuck’s sake, Ratthi. Amena immediately jumped in with, “Arada should stay with the ship. I could go.”

I started to answer (I don’t know what I was going to say but it was probably something I was going to feel bad about later). Overse and Thiago both took breaths to object. But ART got in before any of us (it helps to not actually need any air to talk) and said, No.

Ratthi tried to clarify, “No to Amena, or no to—”

No to all of you, ART said.

“Perihelion’s right,” Arada said, in a Mensah-like I’m-being-reasonable-but-you-should-all-shut-up voice, “Now let’s let them focus.”

Overse and Thiago had gotten out of their EVACs and did quick checks of their environment suits. Thiago said briskly, “Should we split up?”

I was facing the right-hand corridor and didn’t turn around. I don’t know what my back told him (possibly it was my shoulders, having a reaction to how my jaw hinge was grinding) but he added, “And that was a joke.”