The spider was dead. Her blood still thumped in her ears, and her extremities tingled, but she’d slain the beast. She looked around – Callie was on her knees, checking on Ibn, just as Shall reappeared from the mist. “Did we get them all?” Elena said.

“Looks like it,” Callie said. “Good work. I’m just glad these spiders have some kind of hot little engine inside them, so they showed up on my heat vision. It might have been bad if they’d surprised us. Let’s hope we don’t get another wave.”

Elena took the gun’s strap off over her head and lowered the useless thing to the floor. “Now what?”

“Now we hope Ashok is figuring out a way to save our lives.” They all turned and looked through the glass. There was no sign of Ashok or Lantern. “We also hope the genocide squid hasn’t taken this opportunity to kill us all.”

“If the story Lantern told us was true, she’s sort of on our side,” Elena said. “Her superiors were the genocidal ones, not her.”

“I don’t care,” Callie said. “Her sect, her people, her responsibility. She should have argued better. Blowing up Meditreme Station isn’t something you can make right with an apology.”

“It’s not as if Lantern pulled the trigger herself. Is every soldier responsible for the decisions of their superiors?”

Callie scowled. “Not necessarily, but for all we know, Lantern did fire the shot that blew up Meditreme. She could be the head of her cult, playing on our sympathies and manipulating us. We only have her word to go on. I’m an investigator, among other things, and that means being skeptical, especially when you’re talking to a Liar.”

Elena nodded. “That’s fair. I just– I guess I want to believe there’s good in her.”

“I like that about you.” Callie smiled, and it briefly lit up her face. “Unfounded optimism can be good for morale.”

Ibn stirred and groaned, and Elena crouched beside him. She put her facemask up to his so he could see her clearly. “You’re all right,” she said. “We’ll get you food, medical care, we’ll take you–” She’d almost said “home”, but that was an absurd concept for her crew. “We’ll take you somewhere a lot nicer than this.”

“I still can’t believe you’re real.” Ibn’s eyes were red-rimmed and exhausted. “How did you find help? We’re millions of miles from anywhere. Did a ship just happen to pass by?”

“It’s a long story. And, as a scientist, it will annoy you, because it involves technologies we don’t even remotely understand. I can assure you the trip back to Earth will be a lot faster than the trip out here was.” Assuming they got out of this glass cage before they died of thirst, of course.

“Earth,” Ibn said. “It still exists?”