The fight seemed to leave Mir, and she slumped forward, looking unexpectedly vulnerable as she let her long hair fall down like screens in front of her face. “I didn’t think it would be like this.”

“No,” Mitzi said, remembering the pressure of the creatures as they’d tried to pull her suit apart. “Me, neither. What happened to your parents?”

For a minute, Mitzi thought the girl wasn’t going to answer, but then she said, “They were on one of the exo-stations. It was one of the earlier ones to go quiet, before anyone knew what the problem was. Their messages just stopped coming one day, and no one could tell me why or what had happened—only that a rescue ship had been sent. When the whole Cymic thing was announced… I kept hoping maybe they’d be one of the lucky ones. That they’d escaped in time.”

She wasn’t crying, but her voice was raw. Mitzi respectfully kept quiet while Skye leaned on the edge of the seat.

“I have dreams about them sometimes, that they’ve come back. They hug me a-and tell me they missed me—but of course, it’s not them. It’s the monsters. And that’s the worst thing of all.” Her voice was a whisper, so full of pain, longing, and revulsion that Mitzi’s heart ached for her. “They’re probably still out there, looking and talking and acting exactly like my mum and dad, except they’re not.”

“That sucks. I’m sorry.” Mitzi didn’t know what else to say.

Mir glanced at her and shrugged. “Lots of people are going through the same thing. I got invited to a support group. I couldn’t imagine anything more horrible.”

Skye chuckled. “Oh, yeah, I got an invite to a group, too.” At Mitzi’s questioning look, she wet her lips and shrugged. “Two of my best friends. They were on Station 333—you know, the one that exploded. I don’t know if they actually got turned before… well. They’re dead, either way.” She waved a hand about the room. “I’ll bet everyone here has lost someone. Maybe not a close family member or dear friend, but at least someone they know. What are the estimates, one in three humans are gone?”

Mitzi raised her eyebrows. “You’ve been keeping your ear to the ground, I see.”

“Yeah. A couple of my friends got accepted to be defence technicians, even though I wasn’t. They’ve been keeping me as up to date as they can.”

Mitzi thought of her own friends, their weekly meals together, and how they’d passed on as much information as they could. She might never see them again, she realised; there was a very real chance that she might not make it off the station…

She swallowed and squeezed her eyes closed. “Want to know why I was discharged?”

Skye was silent, but Mir said, “Yeah?”

“I killed my commanding officer, Captain Jones.” She exhaled and forced her voice to stay steady. “I’d suspected he was stealing intelligence for a civilian rebellion started by his cousin, but I couldn’t get anyone to believe me. He was really well liked. Charismatic, funny, friendly to everyone he met. Hell, even I liked him. When I figured out what he was doing, I was devastated. I cornered him in his office one night after the building had closed and confronted him about it. I’d brought a gun. Turns out, so had he.”