“No!” Mark screamed, shoving past Maren and pressing his hands to the screen as though he could help her through the camera. “Holly!”

“How?” Maren asked, dumbfounded. “The flare’s already started—”

“It hasn’t fully hit yet,” Saul said from the back of the room. He had his arms crossed over his chest as he watched the screen. “And she’s in the shaded part of the station. She’s got one, maybe two minutes.”

Mark turned on Gin and seized the front of her blouse. “Open the doors!”

“I can’t!” she yelled back, fresh tears running down her face. “We’re in lockdown, remember? I’m not able to override the system. No way in; no way out!”

Mark swore, staggered away from Gin, and grabbed Maren’s suit. His hands, clammy and shaking, clasped at her collar. “Please, there’s got to be something we can do. You can’t let her die out there. You can’t.”

Maren looked back at the screen. Holly was suffering; she gasped in thin, pained breaths as she continued to beat against the door, but it was clear she didn’t have long.

“There’s no way out during a lockdown. The whole station is watertight. You’d need to override the system’s settings, and to do that, you’d need the commander’s authorisation chip, and I don’t even know where to start looking for that—”

“And even if you did, I wouldn’t give it to you.” Suriya stood in the doorway. One bony hand was clamped tightly on a chip attached to a chain hung around her neck. Maren had seen it before but never assigned any significance to it.

Suriya was swaying slightly, her eyes fixed on the screen above the communication desk. A very strange smile spread over her face. “No. We’ll watch her burn.”

She’s lost it. Maren gaped at their supervisor. She was already on the edge, and those monsters out there pushed her over it.

Holly, outside the door, lost her balance and fell to her knees. She was still knocking at the door, but the motion was weak and erratic. Her eyes had glazed, and her mouth was open as she drew slow, pained breaths.

“You monster!” Mark lunged for their leader, snatching at the chip hung around her neck, but Suriya saw him coming and sidestepped.

“I’m not the monster,” she hissed, her demeanour turning cold and angry. “She’s a monster. She’s one of them. Oh, yes, she wears a pretty face, but inside, she’s just black, black, black.”

“Are you insane?” Mark screamed. “She’s nothing like those-those things. Something must have happened at her station, so she came back to us for shelter! Let her in!”

“She may be one of the creatures.” Saul watched the screen intently, his brow creased as he examined the woman’s face. “But I can’t tell… and I don’t want to lose one of our own. We should quarantine her in the airlock.”

“Yes,” Maren gasped, stretching a hand towards Suriya, begging her for the chip. “We’ll do that. Don’t let her die out there, Suriya. Please.”