There was activity down the corridor, just a door opening and closing, and she only heard it softly but still . . . She checked the onboard monitoring systems. The security cameras were still turned off. That was good. Her first step in the duct was cutting the cameras. It had caused an unexpected power surge, but just a short one, and Rosalyn hoped the crew had mistaken it for routine during the ship’s emergency state. She had sealed the hatch back up behind her to make it look like nothing was out of the ordinary in engineering; if the monitoring systems were on, it would be easy to spot her in the ducts.

It was time to make the call. She scrolled and scrolled through the systems menu and stopped. Solar panels. She could do it, cut them manually and without warning, and hope the abrupt loss of power would trigger a deadly chain reaction. Rosalyn took a deep breath and nodded, her finger trembling as she pushed it toward the display.

A single footstep sounded on the cold metal floors of engineering. Then another. The steps were definitive and echoed. She froze, listening as the person came closer with a heavy tread. Thunk, thunk, thunk. Had she left any sign of her whereabouts outside the hatch? She had been so careful to seal everything up so it would look completely normal. The monitoring functions were off.

They must have swept the whole ship looking for her and finally gotten around to engineering. Well, that was fine. She had pulled up the solar panel readouts and she had her plan.

“Rosalyn?”

It was Edison. God, she was an idiot. She had turned off her AR display to concentrate, and if she hadn’t, she might have seen the little indicator telling her he was approaching her location. She didn’t creep back down the duct to peer out of the screw slots to check if he had white or blue eyes. It didn’t matter. The second he realized what she was up to, the Foxfire would take over and she would be assimilated. Forcefully. Sweat beaded on her forehead, dripping down over her brow and into the valley along her nose.

“I know you’re there,” he said calmly. Just a trick, he’s trying to get you to drop your guard and engage. “I know you’re there, I just don’t know what you’re trying to do.”

There was no point in staying silent. His AR was probably flashing with the indicator, telling him she was right above his head.

“Go away,” Rosalyn said flatly. “I just want to be alone.”