Callie didn’t answer. Their suits were in there, anyway. Whether they were still in their suits, and more importantly still alive in their suits, was a different question. “Take a look at the blood, Shall.”

When Shall reached the blood smear, he extended a delicate manipulator, scraped away a bit of the blood, and brought it close to a sensor proboscis. “Water, albumin, cortisol, glucose, fatty acids… hemoglobin. Blood, human, coagulated. Do you know your crewmates’ blood types?”

Elena shook her head, eyes wide, expression bleak.

Callie put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Elena. Maybe…” She fell silent. She couldn’t say, “Maybe he’s still alive.” That kind of spray, that high on the wall, in that pattern, was indicative of sudden and considerable violence. Callie had done enough time investigating crime scenes to know that. With immediate medical care, depending on the nature of the injury, there could have been hope, in some situations – but in an alien killing jar?

Shall spun in a slow circle, scanning the ground. “Your crewmen were armed with ballistic weapons, yes?”

“A shotgun and a machine gun,” Elena said. “Officially we had them in case we encountered hostile fauna on the colony planet, which we knew was absurd, but some delegate sitting on the committee had ties to the gun lobby, so the weapons were duly purchased and included as part of our supplies.”

“There are shotgun pellets scattered here,” Shall said.

“So Hans and Ibn fought back?” Elena said.

“That is one interpretation. Given the spatter, and the position of the pellets… I do not have access to my full suite of forensic tools on the ship, so I am reluctant to provide an analysis.”

“Wait. You think my friends shot each other?” Elena said.

“It could have been an accident,” Shall said. “In this fog, lost, afraid, someone might have fired wildly. But a shotgun was fired here, and it looks as if it was fired through someone. Should I investigate further, captain? Check on the, ah… transponders?”

“Lantern, what’s lurking in that fog?” Callie said.

“I am unsure. This was a reconditioning facility, so… perhaps more of the neural spiders?”

“You stay here with Elena. I’m going over the wall with Shall to see if we have a survivor.” She looked at the cable snaking up the wall and sighed. A little less gravity would have been nice. She grabbed the cable, planted her feet against the wall – which looked like glass, but was nicely grippy against her boots – and walked her way up the line. Only five meters, only five meters. It would have been a breeze at the rock-climbing gym on Meditreme Station, even in the heaviest gravity of the outer ring, but in an environment suit, it was hard going. Her helmet kept messing up her balance. She reached the lip of the opening, hauled herself up, and looked down the other side. “Shall, give me a boost?”