When I woke up, I screamed.

  "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed. It's instinct, really.

  But I quickly realized that I was not in the reanimation chamber, and I was happy about that. It meant I still had my memories.

  Frustrated?

  Yes, because I remembered the snake woman beating me up. I checked for the quantum keys. They were gone. I also remembered that I was in a creepy lab full of zombies, a lab that, in stark contrast to being creepy, was blindingly bright. I had no weapon, I was offline, and I was alone with no idea what happened to the rest of the Firesquad.

  On the positive side, the starlab was still empty in this part of the facility. I sat up and listened for aberrations between the repeated noises the starlab was blasting to overwhelm our senses. Nothing. I picked myself off the cold tiled floor, sitting up and rubbing my head.

  The sensation of being injured while offline was nothing new to me, but it had been a long time. Not since the fractal burn on asteroid 1356b. Catching fire isn't fun. Or it might have been that time I suffocated in the ion cloud outside of Ceres. That also sucked. And those were just the times I remembered.

  I couldn't run a diagnostic, but I didn't need one to realize my head hurt. I probably had a concussion. Regardless, I could walk. I could see. I could think. And I could run from zombies. Most importantly, I could run off to catch up with my snakeskin frenemy and get my gun back.

  When I reached the door, I was surprised to see that she had activated the inner lock before closing me inside. She couldn't trap me in the room. This wasn't a prison cell with a lock on the outside. But she could lock people out. I took some comfort in knowing that she had locked the door to make it harder for the overtaken to enter while I was unconscious.

  I unlocked it, listening as best I could, and slowly opened the door, ready to slam it shut again if needed. The hall was empty. Good. Snake woman probably didn't go back the way we came, which meant she went the other direction. Her injury would slow her down, so I had a good chance of catching up.

  I turned left and skipped, because I prefer skipping and can cover a lot of ground quickly and joyfully, heading off toward where my offline human intuition told me she would go. Not as great as futurecasting, but still pretty great. Sometimes I really love how my brain works. I maybe don't have as great a human memory as other people, but when it comes to thinking about the future, assembling bits of information, pure thought, I'm all over it.

  Navigating by intuition is freeing in many ways. I reached an intersection, and instead of pausing to think about which way to go, second-guessing myself, rethinking the problem, and nervously wasting time, I simply skipped off to my left without giving it a second thought. Skip, skip, skip. I passed through a few halls, picking up nothing interesting amidst the sonorous booms and white light.

  And then I found her.

  I skipped up just as she was closing a door to another wing of the starlab, noticing only because of what looked like a pixilated line, a glitch, in the steady rays attacking my pupils. I slowed so as not to draw her attention, approaching carefully. As the door swung back, I jammed my fingers slightly through to prevent it from closing.

  The booming noises and blinding lights from the starlab's sensory overload would make me harder to see and hear. I had the advantage this time. I paused, waiting for my moment to rush through and tackle her. Then the door opened slightly and closed again, too fast for me to react, slamming down on my fingers.

  "Motherfucker!" I shouted, wincing and grabbing at my hand. Thank @3Beak, it was my left hand.

  Angry Kitty mode activated.

  I was pissed. I rage-flung the door open and was greeted by a left punch to my nose. My eyes teared, and I stumbled, but I kept moving forward, undeterred. She had tried to retreat after punching me, but she wasn't faster than my anger. I managed to trip her up, and I pushed her forward, sending her toppling to the ground.

  But she was spry. In the bright light, I lost sight of her as she repositioned. Then, through watery eyes, I spotted her several paces away, down on one knee with the glen10 raised.

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  "Get down!" she shouted.

  I was utterly confused, but the good thing about being in a military unit is that, despite what my superiors say, I can and do follow orders - even from a Burner, apparently. I dropped to the floor immediately, or at least after screaming while a few shots flew past my face.

  I looked back toward the door as I crawled toward her. An overtaken was lodged in the doorway, a gunshot mark through its right hand where it had been holding a qwire, and more importantly, two nifty holes through its head. If she hadn't done anything, I'm pretty sure I would have been zombified.

  "Fuck," I muttered, holding my most likely broken nose. "Did you have to punch me?"

  "The noise will attract more of them," she said quickly. She noted me in her peripheral vision, lying on the floor next to her, and took in a deep breath, her focus still on the door. Then she shrugged. "Thought you were the overtaken."

  "Do overtaken go around yelling motherfucker when their fingers get smashed?"

  The hint of a smile showed at the corner of her lips. "Couldn't take a chance." She stood up carefully, working her way to the wall so she could lean against it, still staring at the door. "We need to go."

  I scrambled to my feet. "Yeah, let's get out of here."

  We rushed as quietly as we could down the hall, meeting another long hallway that appeared to run along the edge of the outpost. It seemed like the Burners had carved halls through every bit of this tiny asteroid. It was much larger than I had thought.

  "You saved me," I finally said. It had been bothering me. She had left me in the lab room, locked away from interlopers, and then she saved me. I couldn't see the logic. "Why?"

  "I should have shot you both back there," she cursed at herself. "I'm losing my edge."

  "But you didn't."

  She paused, finding the words she wanted to share. "I realized it was an error, a tactical error, to leave a possible asset behind. Even if it's annoying."

  I huffed. "I don't think you think I'm annoying."

  She glared at me. "Do I need to beat you up again to prove it?"

  I shook my head. "I think you're frustrated that I'm a Darksider, so you feel like you have to beat me up. I think you secretly enjoy my company."

  She continued limping down the hall. "What in the world makes you think that?"

  "I've stared into your eyes," I said, cheesily.

  She made a barfy noise at me. "I've stared into your eyes," she repeated, mocking me. "Are you for real?"

  "You can learn a lot from staring back at someone. You're not just a pair of multi-colored irises. It's the focus of attention. The pace of breathing. The details of the surrounding face. Determination. Curiosity."

  She flicked her hand at me dismissively.

  "I know you were studying me too."

  "To determine the best way to take advantage of you, and beat you up, which I did."

  We stopped when we finally reached a set of stairs. The hall continued forward into the bright beyond, and I noticed another hall that would soon split off to the right.

  "You licked my face," I said. "Who in the world licks another person's face?"

  "I needed to distract you," she said, a little too defensively if you ask me.

  "And that's what you came up with? I'll lick his face."

  She glanced back at me. "It worked, didn't it?"

  I shrugged. Fair enough. She was clearly stubborn. "So which way do we go, @sparklepuss?"

  Her face wrinkled with anger, and she glared at me. "What did you call me?"

  I knew that would get a reaction. Clever me. "If you're not going to tell me who you are, then I'll just have to make something up." She started stalking up the stairs, and I trailed behind, making up a story about her. "You're @sparklepuss. You're an acrobat with the circus. You left the circus because you're deathly allergic to peanuts, and while you loved the elephants, being around them was hazardous to your health."

  "Because they eat so many peanuts," I continued. "Mimi was your favorite elephant. She was small and strong and fierce. You wanted to take her with you. After a tearful goodbye, you left, wandering the solar system, looking for a lab to cure your peanut allergy so that you could return to your elephants, which brought you here."

  "But it was a lie," I said emphatically. "They couldn't cure your allergy. Instead, they wanted to experiment on you. But, fierce like Mimi, you thwarted their plans and are making your escape."

  "Shhhh!!!" she hissed, turning toward me with a finger to her lips.

  I immediately opened up my senses, ready for danger, but I couldn't pick up anything. The curse of being offline. "What is it?"

  "Be quiet," she said, and continued rapidly up the stairs.

  After two flights, I realized she was just trying to shut me up.

  "Hey, @sparklepuss. Was I close?" I asked. "Are you an acrobat that loves elephants?"

  She stopped abruptly in mid-scramble and stood up as straight as she could. I didn't stop in time and ran into a firm, outstretched arm. She had a look of pent-up frustration that did actually make me think she might finally shoot me.

  "Do not call me @sparklepuss," she commanded, catching her breath. The curls of hair on her head bobbed along, in sync with her breathing. I noticed the shaved side of her head was shiny with sweat.

  "You first," she said.

  It took me a moment to realize she wanted to know who I was. This was progress at least. So, I made a snap decision to trust her. Because I'm an idiot.

  "@kittyboy. Alliance Starmada. Wavepilot," I fired in rapid succession. "Investigating creepy lab, in our part of space. Trying not to die. Because zombies." I gestured around us. "Zombies!"

  She nodded and brushed a mess of curls away from her face. "@auroraloon. Solar Union. I know a way out." She crossed her arms at me, like that was that. Then she climbed two more stairs and headed off down a hallway.

  "I do like elephants," her fading voice called back.