Well, crap. They weren’t my humans, I hadn’t done a head count. I checked Hirune’s feed, feeling Abene, Wilken, Gerth, Brais, and Ejiro all in there, too, calling for her. Her feed was still online, but it was inactive. That meant she was alive, but unconscious. I wasn’t getting anything on my limited range scan, and neither was Miki.

On the comm from the shuttle, I heard Vibol cursing and Kader telling her to shut up and listen.

Abene’s expression turned horrified. In the general feed, Miki replayed the last seconds before I got here. Breaking the images down, I saw a fast-moving shadowy shape approach from the main bio pod access corridor, just a sensor ghost in Miki’s vision when Miki had hit the release to close the hatch. Then Miki had turned to go to the corridor that led toward the central facility, but was too late. All it had was a glimpse of the pinlights on Hirune’s suit disappearing into the dark as she was dragged away, then Wilken and Gerth firing down the corridor after her. It had happened so fast, I don’t think Wilken and Gerth had realized the hostile had taken Hirune.

As the humans reviewed the video in the team feed, Ejiro looked like he might be sick, and Brais swore softly. Abene turned to Gerth and Wilken. “We have to go after her. What were those things that— Why are you pointing that at me?”

They weren’t pointing their weapons at her, but at me, just behind her. Wilken said, “That’s a SecUnit, Don Abene, you need to step away from it until we sort this out. Where’s this Rin? On the facility somewhere? It doesn’t mesh with our brief from GI.”

Abene had been in shock but I could practically see her brain slam back online. Her jaw set and her expression turned hard. She countered, “Where’s Hirune? What took her? You’re supposed to be our security.”

Wilken held her ground. “Before we can look for her, I need to know why there’s a SecUnit here. It’s a fair question.”

Miki sent into Abene’s feed, Please Don Abene, Rin is my friend. Please say you knew Rin was here.

I thought there was no way Abene would take the word of her pet robot. (And granted, her pet robot was being loose with the facts, and phrasing the plea in a way that made it unclear that Consultant Rin and the SecUnit were actually the same, so its word wasn’t worth much.)

Abene’s angry gaze went from Wilken to Gerth. She said, “I didn’t know Rin would be on the facility. GI informed me before we left. The oversight division was sending Rin to provide additional security—” She threw an opaque glance back at me. “Consultant Rin sent you?”