“I swear, there’s something in my suit. I can feel it, okay? You have to help me!” Ariana was grasping at her arm again and again, turning in a circle. Then her eyes widened suddenly, and she fell silent with a quick, sharp intake of breath.

“Ariana?” the other woman said. “What’s wrong?”

Ariana’s answer was a ragged whisper. “It’s moving.”

“She’s hallucinating,” Dag said. He pushed away from the machine console, one hand on the crew chairs to guide him, floating toward the girl. “Help me grab her.”

Henke rolled his eyes, but he holstered his gun and moved toward Ariana.

“Ari, there’s nothing there,” Nassar said. “It’s making you think there’s something there, but there isn’t. Don’t hurt her. Please, she’s sick. Don’t—”

“Get it out!” Ariana shouted. With both hands she unsnapped the clamps on her helmet and broke the seal. She pulled it off and sent it spinning away from her, then grabbed at the neck of her suit, tugging frantically at the collar. There were tears on her cheeks and snot glistening at the end of her nose, and her hair was stringy with sweat. “Get it out! Get it out, it’s moving, it’s here, I can feel it! Get it out!”

“Henke! Dag!” I snapped. “Stop fucking around!”

Henke caught Ariana’s arm and yanked her toward him, trying to seize both of her wrists behind her back. But before he could, Ariana shrieked and began batting at his arm and shoulder and face with her free hand. Dag reached for her flailing arm, but she kicked out with both legs and struck him square in the chest. He caught himself on a chair and pushed himself back toward her and Henke. Together they got her under control, Henke holding both arms behind her, and Dag catching her feet. She arched her back and kicked a few more times, making tight, scared animal noises. She was breathing heavily and shivering as the cold sapped her strength. A fine sheen of frost formed on her sweat-damp hair.

“You’re going to stop making a fuss now,” Henke said. “Okay?”

Ariana dropped her chin to her chest. The muscles of her arms were tense, the tendons in her neck standing out. Her jaw clenched and unclenched. Her breath was quick and ragged. I could not see her face.

“Okay,” she said. Her voice was flat, all the hysteria drained away. “Okay.”

Dag let go of her feet, and a second later Henke released her wrists to grab her upper arm. “You’re going to do what we say, okay?”

Ariana relaxed into his grip. “Okay,” she said.

Then, moving so swiftly I could barely track her motion, she spun around and lunged into Henke.

“Shit!” he shouted, bending away as she struck his helmet.