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She must have fallen asleep.
Pirra sat up in the command chair, blinking and looking about blearily.
The room was dark. Wait, what room was this?
It was the bridge of the Monitor Station, she realized. Right, she was stationed here for a few days while Iago took the rest of the team . . .
She remembered the whole thing, rubbing her forehead. They were in the outer reaches of the Terris system.
It was so dark. Why were the lights off?
“Computer, lights,” she ordered.
They increased – but just slightly.
“Computer, why are the lights dim?”
“Operating on emergency power, due to primary reactor being offline.”
Offline? “Why is the primary reactor off?”
“The Primary Reactor has been taken offline for a Level 12 diagnostic.”
Damn it! She hadn’t realized that that’s what Tred’s diagnostic entailed.
Looking at the time, her system helpfully informed her that she’d been asleep for nearly an hour. “Where is Tred?” she asked.
“Engineer Tred is in the engine room. His condition is normal.”
She almost forced a laugh. The system had read her so well that it knew she was concerned. Damn her if the AIs were almost too smart.
“All right,” she said, realizing that there wasn’t a deep problem here. As long as the reactor would come back on in time for Iago’s return all would be well.
Unless something went wrong . . .
“Computer, do we have external communications?”
“We can receive messages but we cannot send messages,” the AI told her.
That would be okay . . . If they got a message from Iago then they could interrupt the scan and be ready to help them.
That settled that. The system would have awoken her if there was a message – and she double-checked to be safe – so there was no issue with having fallen asleep. She hadn’t even felt tired before.
It felt so claustrophobic on the bridge. She reached for her drink, fumbling as it wasn’t where she thought she’d left it. Finding it, she took a sip-
And spat out the nasty stuff in there.
“What the hell?!” she asked. This wasn’t her drink! She’d been drinking salt water, but this was . . .
She looked down into the cup. It was coffee in there. She never drank coffee.
It wasn’t her cup, either. Putting it back, she looked around for her own.
But she couldn’t find it. This wasn’t right.
“Computer, has Engineer Tred left the fusion reactor area?”
“He has not,” the computer replied.
“. . . Has he been asleep?”
“Yes. Engineer Tred’s sleep coincided with your own.”
Something was wrong here. “Computer, why did-“
A blood-curdling scream came over the comm.
Pirra lept to her feet, hand going to the spot her sidearm should have been. But those hadn’t been issued for this mission, she realized.
“Tred! Tred, come in!”
“Lieutenant! Are you all right?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she replied. “Was that you?” It hadn’t sounded like Tred, but she couldn’t be sure.
“No! I thought it was you, but it sounded human . . .”
It certainly hadn’t sounded like a Dessei. “Scan the station. Confirm we’re alone-“
The door to the bridge opened, and a man she had never met before stepped on.
She stared at him, and he stared back, shock making them both pause.
“Who are you?” she demanded, snapping back to reality.
The man said nothing, taking a hesitant step back. His uniform was SU, but her system provided no information on him.
“Identify yourself,” she said, taking a step towards him.
The man panicked and ran.
“Stop!” she ordered, chasing after him.
She thought she could catch him, but as she followed him down the curving tunnel everything distorted.
It felt like the air was knocked out of her. She staggered – but the other man kept going, opening a hatch and jumping through.
Trying to get back into stride, she stumbled to the last point she’d seen him. He’d gone deeper into the station, where the gravity was lower.
The room was almost empty, with just a glass meeting table in the center. There was nowhere to hide.
She queried the system to give her data on the opening and closing of doors to hopefully track the man.
“The door across the room has not been opened for six years,” the system informed her.
But the man had come in here, and there was no other way out. Yet he was not here.
“Locate all individuals on the station,” she ordered.
A list came up. It was just her and Tred.
Other Terrestrial 