The blank white walls of the medical ward kept Emanuel at ease, but they also made him drowsy. Sleep had become elusive ever since Sophie had left. He had kept himself occupied by turning a section of the medical ward into a laboratory, where he had begun dissecting the remains of one of the Spiders. He’d performed countless necropsies on animals in his career, but this was by far the most intriguing, and also the most risky. Who knew what unfamiliar contagions or viruses the aliens were carrying? Alexia had left a subset of her personality with the biosphere to monitor its conditions, and Emanuel had put her on standby to run constant scans for potentially harmful foreign substances before he was exposed.

Emanuel finished suiting up by covering the last of his bare skin with a pair of plastic gloves. The Biosphere had not come equipped with hazmat suits, so he had improvised and used one of the NTC suits he’d found in the decontamination chamber. Hopefully that would be enough.

He peeled back a layer of the Spider’s translucent skin with a scalpel, clamping it open. Then, with an artist’s precision, he used a laser to cut a tiny slit in one of the blue veins running the length of the creature’s dismembered torso.

Unfortunately, the rounds from the pulse rifles had made his work very difficult. The Organics’ defenses were clearly advanced, with their shields and supersonic shrieks, but without these weapons they were surprisingly fragile. Like jellyfish washed up on the beach, their skin and insides just seemed to melt away.

The specimen in front of him was the most intact he had been able to find. With half a head, a full torso, and two of six legs remaining, it was plenty for him to work with.

As he took a sample of the fluid from the vein, one of the creature’s eyeballs popped out of its socket and rolled across the table.

Emanuel couldn’t help but chuckle under his breath; there was something almost slapstick about the moment. The sight of gore had never bothered him. And even if it had, he wouldn’t let it stop him from performing the necropsy. After all, it wasn’t every day a brand-new alien species showed up.

It was delicate work, yielding more questions than answers. For example: How did the Spiders’ defenses work? He saw no indication of an energy source, nor any technology that would create their shields. In fact, he didn’t see a single hint of advanced biological functions, which meant they were more than likely just the grunts, conscripted to collect water and resources for their more intelligent commanders.