“What do you mean? They called for an evac; the station is probably completely empty.”

He closed his eyes and shivered, his hand falling slowly over the manual lock lever. “No, you have to listen to me. The station isn’t empty. It isn’t. I can feel them, Roz, and they’re everywhere.”

40

Half of a Servitor’s body lay slumped on the ground just beyond the mobile terminal. Rosalyn hurried to inspect it, crouching and poking at its lifeless husk.

“Look at this,” she whispered. Even her own voice, filtered as it was through her suit, was startling in the dense silence. She could swear it echoed.

Edison joined her after securing the ship, and she could hear movement from inside as Misato cut the boosters and engine, powering down the Brigantine. He knelt and pushed over the Servitor, then pointed to the joint where the main chassis had been severed from the lower half of the machine’s body.

“It’s like it was pulled clean in half,” he said, then turned and looked down the walkway leading to the customs platform and the control tower. “Rosalyn, I think you should get back on the ship and stay there. Coming here was a terrible idea.”

“What? No! No, we’re finally here and I’m not going to just hide.”

“Something’s not right,” Edison continued, taking her hand and pulling it close to his chest. He flattened her palm over his heart and waited until she stopped arguing. “There is Foxfire everywhere but it’s . . . it’s like they’re dormant. Sleeping. I can sense them, but they’re not moving or communicating. Misato and I can go deeper and have a look around, then come back for you. This way, if anything happens, you can at least autopilot back to campus.”

“I agree.” Misato stood with arms crossed at the end of the ramp.

“Not you, too! This is ridiculous. I survived this long and I can survive this, whatever it is!” Edison opened his mouth to fight her but she clapped her hand over his visor. “I’m the way you keep it together now, Edison. You can use that song, but you know I’m the stronger anchor. I can keep you in yourself, you know I can.”

He pulled her hand away, breathing heavily. His shoulders slumped. “She’s right, Misato, but first thing’s first: We need to find her a weapon. And we should move fast; I don’t like the sound of that reactor breach.”

“We need to get to the maintenance hub for diagnostics. None of the ordinary terminals would allow access to that kind of information. I’m sure I can . . .”

She trailed off mid-thought, staring straight through Rosalyn. That wasn’t good. They watched Misato’s eyes flicker once, twice, and then blaze into pure, blistering white.

“Oh, shit,” Rosalyn whispered.