Two million dead. A world destroyed.

  The headline seen across every wallscreen, hand terminal, and portable device haunted the halls of Belltower’s Alpha level concourse. The families in the park had gone, the vendors closed up shop, and everywhere Nora looked, scenes of widespread destruction rocked the world of Bordeaux’s Folly.

  The bloodshed was inescapable and otherworldly. Ships collided with buildings, citizens fled, and then there were the shots of the gutted sepak stadium. Nor knew Bordeaux was exceedingly far away from her, but she could feel the suffering in her bones.

  On a wide wallscreen above the park, a feed from an atmospheric buoy above Bordeaux’s central city recounted the moments before the sky fell down on a loop. Each person in the concourse stayed and stared as people they never knew, or would have never likely heard of, were now gone; their world wiped clean.

  Before the bulletins opened and the news poured in, Nora had been on her way to open the lab early. She had been anxious ever since receiving the last cryptic message from The Director. It in itself wasn’t cryptic, though Nora knew the timing of the message following her only successful round of tests to date was something far short of coincidence.

  “Can you believe it?” Corine asked, materialising behind her as she joined in, staring at the overhead screen.

  “I really can’t,” Nora admitted.

  “I can’t imagine living through something so–” Corine said, cutting herself off.

  “So raw,” Nora finished. “It’s chaos.”

  “Chaos always excites me. As a scientist, I mean. But this is unbelievable.“

  The feed before them finished and began again, lining up a cohort of familiar-looking ships as they collected themselves in a salvo directed at some unknown foe. The separate groups collided, and each of them, wreckage and all, were sent descending into the planet’s surface. Though only visible for a split-second of the feed, the city beneath them annihilated as quickly as it was buried. After several moments of ejecta spewing spaceward, the buoy the feed was run through was hit, and the feed ended, only to be reset.

  “I can’t see this anymore,” Nora said, turning to Corine.

  “I suppose you’re right,” she said, “Come then.”

  “Where are we going at a time like this?”

  “To work,” said Corine, “Come, you’ll need the distraction.”

  Trudging behind Corine, she nearly reached the double doors of the lab before a bulletin opened on her terminal. Without looking, Nora knew precisely who was on the other end.

  “Tim. Hi,” she said before bringing the terminal up to eye level. Her eyes widened with the sudden realisation of who she was actually speaking to. “Director Smythe, I–”

  He raised a hand, “I can see by now you have been made aware of certain events outside the Belltower sphere.”

  “So has everyone else on the station,” Nora said. She motioned to Corine to go on ahead.

  “Yes, that is unfortunate. I might have hoped not to involve them,” he said, “No matter.”

  “Can I help you with something, sir?”

  “I have been following your progress closely, and despite your recent success, I have seen a lack of acceleration that I had hoped you might achieve before now. To remedy this, I have unlocked your budget. Whatever you need, it’s yours.”

  “Thank you, sir, I don’t know what to say,” she said, apprehensive with the double meaning in his words. “However, I must ask for something more.”

  “Yes, of course,” he said, tapping a command on his terminal, “Your personal salary has been raised by forty percent. See to it that it is not frivolous spending.”

  “Thank you, really,” she said, shocked by his sudden cavalierity with money. “But what I really need is more samples.”

  “I already thought as much. The samples will be waiting for you in your lab. Anything else?”

  “I did have one question,” she said, considering her words, “The samples exhibit a sequence previously unseen in any extraterrestrial DNA to date – what I mean to ask is, where did it come from?”

  “What I can say is that your assumption that the samples are unknown is flawed, Doctor,” he said, “I am afraid, however, that the records on this matter are closed.”

  “Closed, sir?”

  “Doctor Gaul, I don’t have to remind you of the virtues of the work you and your team are doing here. I would not have asked you here to lead this study had I not believed you capable,” he said, before adding, “I have authorised the influx of new personnel to join your team shortly, though it may take some time for them to become available to you. In the meantime, I have sent you an assistant.”

  “Right, you said that in your message,” she said, recalling the final line of the text she received last night, “Can you tell me more about them?”

  “Secrecy, Doctor,” he derisively reminded her.

  Nora nodded as The Director closed the bulletin. With little else other than the anticipation of her employer’s expectations and the hushed gasps of citizens still glued to the tragedy on the wallscreens behind her, Nora went to work.

  As Nora entered the lab, she could make out several muffled voices.

  “You’re not supposed to be down here, miss,” said Harold. Though to whom, Nora couldn’t see. Whoever Harold and now Corine was facing was obscured behind one of the instruments.

  “Harold, who is intruding in–?” Nora said, pausing as the woman came into view. She was thin, with wavy hair and dark skin, a rarity amongst the population of her own homeworld.

  “Harold?” Nora asked as she assessed the stranger.

  “Oh, Doctor Gaul. I was just trying to shoo this young woman out of the lab,” he said, flustered, “I’m not even sure how she got in, to be honest.”

  “Is this our surprise?” Corine astutely asked Nora.

  “Harold, stop. This woman is your new colleague,” Nora said, recognizing her new assistant.

  “Oh– oh!” Harold said, dropping his lunch bag on the floor to shake the woman’s hand. She shook his back shyly. Nora stepped up to her, taking her hand as well.

  “Glad to meet you, miss–?” Nora asked.

  “Tolly,” Tolly answered, “Captain Tolly Ignacio.

  “Captain?” Harold said, “what does she mean, captain?”

  Nora eyed the woman, considering her demeanour, her shy smile, and her crisp accent.

  “You’re not from the Sovereignty, are you, Tolly?” Nora asked, “Federation?”

  “I– yes,” Tolly said, abashedly, “It’s nice to meet you, Doctor Gaul.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t know much else about you, Captain Ignacio,” Nora mused, “how long have you been on Belltower?”

  “Two weeks,” answered Tolly, “It’s my first place anywhere outside the Herd. And please, call me Tolly.”

  “Welcome, Tolly,” said Corine.

  Nora looked over the woman’s shoulder to the crate that had arrived with her.

  “And what have you brought us?” Nora asked, walking toward the crate.

  “Oh, they said that you would know what it was,” Tolly said.

  “Corine, Harold, get these samples unpacked and stowed,” Nora said. Corine and Harold nodded, busying themselves.

  “Can I speak to you for a moment, Tolly– in my office?” she asked, gesturing for the young woman to follow. Then, entering the office, she closed the door behind them.

  “Did I do something wrong?” Tolly asked, taking the seat across from Nora.

  “No, of course not,” Nora said, “unless you count The Director assigning you here erroneous.”

  “I’m not supposed to talk about–” Tolly started.

  “Sorry,” Nora apologised, “You are right. If it’s alright, might I ask how old you are?”

  “I’m twenty-six.”

  “Pretty young for a captain.”

  “You’re telling me,” said Tolly restlessly. “Though, I’m about as much a captain as I am a medic.”

  “You’re a medic?”

  “Oh, right. The Director said you called them doctors,” Tolly said. Nora raised an eyebrow. “I never did finish my training, though.”

  Her foreign status not in question; her grasp of procedure was concerningly inconsistent. No matter, Nora thought, she knew and I knew The Director existed. What use is there in keeping the pretence?

  “How long were you a captain before The Director sent you down here?”

  “Six hours,” Tolly said, noticeably ashamed.

  Pushing back her initial consternation at the young woman and her lack of experience, she could see some sort of deep sadness in her.

  “Tolly,” Nora said, frankly, “what are you doing here?”

  “I was told to come here.”

  “No, sorry. Not how you got here. Why do you think you are here, now, with me?”

  Tolly paused to consider this, grappling with some sort of inner turmoil. Finally, and as an answer bubbled to the surface, she said, “The Director seemed to think my experience would benefit you in some way.”

  “Your experience– would you mind if I asked what that might be?”

  “I can’t say. They asked me not to.”

  As interesting as the girl’s sordid past seemed to hint at, Nora was growing tired of the game. That’s when Corine opened the door, a concerning look across her face.

  “Doctor, you may want to come see this,” Corine said.

  “Did we get anything good in our gift basket?” asked Nora.

  “More fluid samples,” she said, “and a few more trophies, it seems.”

  “Don’t tell me it’s another foot,” said Nora, triggering a look of confusion from Tolly.

  “Just come,” said Corine, leaving the door open behind her. Nora sighed and stood, motioning for Tolly to follow. She would have to save her questions for Tolly for later.

  Nora followed Corine over to the exam room, where she found the foot still in its enclosure, unchanged from the day before, now wheeled off into the corner. In a new enclosure, at the centre of the room. Harold was manipulating several of the new arrivals. Out of several sachets, he removed patches of clean-cut skin and arranged them around an unopened tube containing a human index finger, each matching the foot’s original skin tone.

  “That’s morbid,” Tolly said, having suited up and entered the room just behind Nora, “are those human?”

  “From what we’ve seen, no,” Nora admitted.

  “Looks human to me,” said Tolly. “Where is it from?”

  “I was hoping you could tell us,” said Corine, before leaning over to Nora and saying, “she’s got your approval?”

  Nora nodded.

  “Then she has mine,” Corine said.

  “Harold, after you're finished here, I want you and Doctor Wannen to take Tolly and get her up to speed. There’s a lot here that needs some explaining if she’s going to join the team. Then get her helping out with the mice.”

  “You’ve got it, Doctor Gaul,” he said, placing the last of the skin cuttings. “Sorry for mistaking you for an intruder, Captain.”

  “What do we have planned for them?” Corine asked after Tolly and Harold had left.

  “For the samples?” Nora asked, “I’m really not sure; I only asked for more of the fluid. We might be able to cook up more of the sludge and test whether our trichotomy of brains-plus-fluid-plus-biomass hypothesis holds.”

  “That’s a good idea. However, I was talking more about the girl. What’s she doing here?”

  “Upstairs sent her, so I gather there’s a reason.”

  “She seems genuine enough,” said Corine.

  “Maybe,” said Nora, “she’s hiding something.”

  “Anything we need to worry about?”

  “Too early to say for certain. I suspect she’s got a story to tell.”

  “Want me to put the screws to her?” asked Corine, sardonically.

  “No, but I do want you to keep an eye. Have her lend a hand in your trials. If she is here for some malicious reason, I want you to catch it before there’s any harm.”

  Nora finished the rest of her day in her office, trying her best not to check the bulletins and force the tragedy that swept the concourse to the back of her mind. And, over the next week, she kept up her policy of avoidance, retreating home as quickly as she could each night.

  Corine did what Nora had asked and had taken Tolly under her wing, and from what little Corine was able to gather about the girl, which wasn’t much, was her innate skill. Harold, and even Qio Wannen, expressed similar sentiments. It seemed to Nora that the girl was going to fit in after all.

  That was until one evening when Nora and Corine had found a quiet corner of the bar free from view of the wallscreens still plastered with tragedy that Tolly interrupted their drinking.

  “Doctors,” Tolly said, arriving in a mild sort of panic.

  “Here for a drink, Captain?” Corine asked, motioning to the bartender.

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  “No,” she said, squeezing into the booth beside them. “I think I’ve held my tongue long enough.”

  Both Nora and Corine exhibited the same level of shock and confusion at this.

  “Do you have something you want to tell us, Tolly?” Nora asked, resting her glass on the bartop. With a wave of her hand, she dismissed the bartender as quickly as he arrived. “Go on.”

  “Well, as you know, I have been here for several weeks now.”

  Nora nodded.

  “I just feel like my time is wearing thin.”

  “Are you not enjoying yourself?” asked Nora.

  “It’s not that, though I’ll admit I’m still a little overwhelmed,” said the young woman, shifting in her seat. “No, what I need is for things to move quicker. I’m responsible for someone back home, you see.”

  “A lover?” asked Corine, “if it’s that you want, you’ll find plenty of that on the station.”

  “No. A friend of mine, Soren, is very sick,” she corrected. “I owe it to him to do all I can do here to show results.”

  “I don’t mean to be rude,” Corine interjected, “If he’s sick, what good will being all the way out here do him?”

  “I was told not to tell you any of this,” Tolly said.

  “If you want us to help, you’re going to have to level with us,” said Nora. She, Corine, Tolly and the rest of the team were all bound by secrecy after all, and she knew just asking was breaking several dozen rules, but she found in that moment that her curiosity out-weighed her sense of caution.

  “I know you’re right,” admitted Tolly, “and to be honest, I’m not used to all this Sovvo secrecy.”

  “Are you sure you want to open this box?” Corine asked Nora but Nora gestured for Tolly to continue.

  “Okay, well. To start, my friend Soren– those skin samples are his.”

  Both Corine and Nora sat forward in their seats at this. Corine neglected her glass hand, slamming it down on the bartop.

  “And the foot– the finger?”

  “Not his. I can’t say for certain where those came from.”

  “Interesting,” said Nora, “I hadn’t considered there were multiple infected.”

  “Okay, so. We have some of Soren’s skin, some stranger’s foot, and another’s finger. How does that change anything?”

  “I have been thinking about that,” said Tolly, “more to the fluid samples. The rate that they are coming to you is not sitting right with me. They have to be from a localised source.”

  “You think there’s an infected person stowed away on the station somewhere?” asked Corine.

  “Or close by,” said Nora.

  “Exactly,” said Tolly. “It makes me itch. It makes me itch in such a way I haven’t felt since– since back there….”

  “Back where?” asked Nora.

  “It’s not important,” Tolly said, shutting down that line of questioning.

  “Tolly, help us out here,” pressed Nora.

  “I can’t, really. And I didn’t come here for an interrogation.”

  “Fair enough,” said Nora. “What did you come here for?”

  “I need your help, and I thought this information might help,” said Tolly as she slid a datachip over to Nora.

  “What’s this?”

  “This is everything I have on my friend Soren. He was in a pale state when I left them on Ganon. I’m worried it’s almost too late for him,” said Tolly.

  Nora handed the chip to Corine; “Take this home and check it out.”

  “Now?” asked Corine, a ravenous look on her face.

  “We need to take any advantage we can get on this,” Nora explained, “And make sure it doesn't get uploaded to the lab servers.”

  “Don’t trust upstairs anymore?” Corine asked. Nora declined to answer, and instead, she waved her off.

  After Corine had downed her last drink and left, Tolly turned back to Nora.

  “I don’t know where those other samples are from,” she said, “really.”

  “I think I believe you,” said Nora. “Something has been bothering me about the samples for a while. It’s starting to worry me too.”

  “What should we do about it?”

  “Nothing,” said Nora, bluntly, “at least not until we know more.”

  “How do we go about that?”

  Nora considered that. The fluid samples, the foot, and finger hadn’t arrived on Belltower with Tolly, she knew. The glaring question was how did Saturnus – how did Director Smythe – get their hands on them, and why did these samples necessitate such an impossible level of secrecy?

  “We go to the source of all this,” Nora said. “The samples, the funding, and now you, all came from The Director’s supply. Simple deduction would show he must know more.”

  “We can’t just ask him,” Tolly said, concern returning to her face, “He can’t know what I’ve told you.”

  “Of course not,” Nora said, “The Director spends most of his day glued to his office terminal. That might be a place to start.”

  “How do we get access to his office?”

  “I may have a guy,” Nora said, “though, it will require a favour being fulfilled.”

  A day later, Nora had her man.

  After nearly a full day and night of digging, Nora managed to track down a replacement part for the recreation facility pool on a freighter that happened to be passing through Belltower system. Though in-system on some unrelated cargo run, the freighter just so happened to have an unsold, near ancient, part registered in some backwood of its manifest. Having to convince the freighter crew personally – and then their captain – of the part’s existence aboard their own ship, as well as convince them to turn around on their way out of the system, they managed to find the part in some tucked-away corner in a disused portion of their machine level. All of this meant getting the part was costly, though Nora didn’t mind and barely saw a dent in her personal wealth as a result following her recent raise.

  It’s funny, she thought; the Director had just paid for his own office to be broken into.

  When she presented the part to Oseto the next morning, he was baffled. It was clear to Nora that the vass had been part complaining, part blustering that a human wouldn’t be able to solve the issue. But here he stood, corrected.

  “What can I offer in exchange for such a gift?” Oseto had said, grasping hold of the part.

  “I have something in mind,” Nora said, “I need your help getting access to somewhere. Somewhere difficult.”

  “Dear Doctor Gaul,” Oseto fluttered, “I am your procurement officer. You ask, and I procure.”

  Nora then explained to Oseto her plan, leaving out the bits about the samples, the suspect nature of their research, and any mention of Tolly. All he needed to know was what her target was. Expecting Oseto to somehow get a hold of the office door codes and to the subsystems, Nora was surprised when he said, “everything will be unlocked when you arrive, Dear Doctor.”

  Without pushing anymore, Nora had left it at that. And later that afternoon, Tolly and herself left Nora’s quarters to head for the Saturnus campus and the Director’s office.

  While Nora and Tolly were out on their subterfuge, Corine had offered to cover for them and run the lab in their absence. Corine kept Harold, Qio, and the other researchers notably busy studying the new samples, running a few of them through the rigours of the mouse sludge test. Corine had shown little interest in either the new samples or the sneaking around. Instead, she had offered to stay behind, critically anxious to dig into the files in Tolly’s datachip. Nora felt it might have also had a little to do with her loss of Sam and an unwillingness to expose herself to the truth surrounding his disappearance.

  “You ready?” Nora asked Tolly as they stood on the docking level outside the corridor leading to the Saturnus campus near the same docking bay Nora had arrived through on her first day aboard Belltower.

  “I am,” said Tolly before pausing, “...You remind me of someone.”

  “Oh yeah? Who might that be?”

  Tolly considered what she had said, notably unsure whether she should elaborate. Nora was glad she did when Tolly said, “Matriarch Miran-Yi Nagoya.”

  “I remind you of a queen?” Nora said part shocked, part flattered.

  “Matriarchs aren’t queens. Or maybe they are. The Sov still confuses me,” Tolly said.

  “And I remind you of this Matriarch?” asked Nora, as the two of them neared the lift entrance to The Director’s office, “You must have been close with her to say that.”

  “She saved my life,” Tolly said, “She’s an amazing woman despite the hand she was dealt.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment, then,” said Nora. Nora tapped a command on her terminal and opened a secure bulletin to Oseto.

  “Oseto, come in,” she said, “we’re here.”

  “The way will open,” said Oseto, “Good day, Dear Doctor.”

  He terminated the connection, and as the doors to the lift opened, Nora ushered Tolly inside.

  “What now?” asked Tolly.

  “Now we hope the key’s in the door, and Director Smythe’s terminal is unlocked.”

  “And that he’s out of the office,” Tolly proffered.

  “I sure hope Oseto comes through on that,” Nora admitted, “Or this is going to be one awkward visit.”

  Tolly nodded, and as the lift slowed to a stop, Nora had a thought cross her mind.

  “That Matriarch of yours,” she started, “I might be getting my nations mixed up, but wasn’t Nagoya the current head of The Cattleheart?”

  “The very same,” Tolly confirmed, though Nora couldn’t quite place the significance of that bit of information.

  Just as she felt herself grasping at an inkling, the lift doors opened and in front of them stood Assistant to The Director, Tim Deinain, hands on his hips.

  “Took your time,” he said, indignant.

  “Tim, lovely to see you. We were just–” Nora started as she tried to summon a reason for their impromptu visit before she registered what the man had said. “Wait. You’re not here to give us access, are you?”

  “Oseto said someone would be along,” Tim said, “Didn’t say it was you.”

  “A bright star every time I see you, Tim,” Nora lambasted.

  “And Captain Ignacio, I see you’re falling in with the wrong crowd,” said Tim.

  “It was my idea, Tim,” Tolly said, “sorry.”

  “Don’t apologise to me,” he said, “Come along then. And if The Director catches us, I’ll be the first to throw you to the wolves.”

  “Lovely,” said Nora, “shall we?”

  They followed Tim to the office door, which he opened, and entered. Thankfully, The Director was nowhere in sight.

  “I scheduled some downtime for The Director this afternoon. Even he has boundaries. You should be unhindered should you decide to take your time. Have fun,” Tim said, closing the door and leaving them alone.

  Nora didn’t waste any time. As quickly as the door closed behind Tim, she was at the desk terminal starting it up.

  “Let’s see,” she said, perusing the terminal’s local file contents.

  “Anything?”

  “This may take a spell. There’s a lot here,” Nora said, “Sit down, get comfortable.”

  Tolly took the invitation, pushing a chair in beside the desk and leaned over Nora’s shoulder.

  “Here we are,” Nora said after several minutes of searching, “There’s mention of the samples… record of some private seller – redacted of course… oh, this is interesting!”

  “What is it?” Tolly leaned in further.

  “Looks like we weren’t the only ones testing the samples. The Director had five other teams doing similar isolated experiments,” said Nora, “what’s nice is we seem to be the team that was furthest along. Accolades all round, I guess.”

  “Did it say what they were studying– more feet or fingers perhaps?”

  “No… just more of the fluid samples. We’re the only ones that tried pairing them with mice test subjects. It doesn’t even seem that any of them were on Belltower, which is interesting.”

  “Didn’t the Doctor before you get sent off to a lab somewhere outside of Belltower?”

  “How do you know about him?” Nora asked, barely surprised that all manner of secrecy was seemingly out the window now.

  “Doctor Lann told me,” Tolly said, “she seemed unhappy about that, come to think of it.”

  “They were together,” Nora explained, still engrossed with the data on the screen in front of her.

  “That explains it.”

  “Oh wow,” Nora said as she skimmed the contents of another file, “Have you ever heard of The Rys?”

  Tolly shook her head.

  “It’s a generation ship from way back during the early days of rift travel. Or, I might say, it was a generation ship. The whole thing went missing; the crew, a hundred-thousand passengers, and all. Never reached its colony destination.”

  “That’s so sad. All those people,” said Tolly, as she slumped back into her chair. A loss of that magnitude seemed to take its toll on her.

  “What’s more is they found it,” Nora said.

  “The Rys?”

  “The whole damned thing. Well, sort of,” said Nora, “No human life signs were found onboard.”

  “Empty…” said Tolly.

  “Until recently, that is,” Nora continued, “They went back. Saturnus funded an expedition under some contractor named Dusk.”

  “Is there anything in there about the samples?” Tolly asked.

  “Looking– yes, The Rys is the confirmed source of the fluid samples,” said Nora, pulling up a shipping document, “Here’s a manifest stamped with Dusk’s trade label– registering nearly nine hundred viscous litres of the stuff. And another, showing–”

  “Doctor Gaul?” Tolly said, catching Nora’s sudden stop.

  Nora opened another record and saw the timestamp showing delivery under The Director’s personal stamp only two months prior.

  “This is odd,” Nora said, “This last shipment from The Rys is registered as solid biomass, about seventy-five kilos, and packed in a long slender crate under refrigeration.”

  “A body?” asked Tolly.

  “Precisely,” Nora confirmed. She was close; she could feel it. All of The Director’s secrets were in front of her, unravelling as she watched. Following the same record, she clicked on a collection of images.

  “Oh gods,” Tolly said as Nora scrolled through them. They were images detailing the collection and packing of several flesh and tissue samples, from the foot and finger they received to more skin, fingernails, and a full hand, less a finger.

  At the end of the collection of images, closeups of a man’s face, his eyes shut as he lay on an examination table. He bore the same complexion as the foot, and the other samples, with gauntly pulled skin and a facial structure Nora knew would have made the man handsome, were he still alive.

  “This must be him then,” Nora said, “our sample factory. He’s quite cute.”

  She kept skimming the images of the man gradually zoomed out as the examiner captured a more well-rounded view of the cadaver.

  “Was he dead when they found him?” asked Tolly.

  “These images were dated to just before Dusk sent the final shipment.”

  Nora reached the end of the file and found a video bulletin address. As her curiosity bested her, she tapped the screen opening a live feed onto the office’s wallscreen across from them. The feed depicted an immaculate room with a cot at its centre. On the cot, a handless, footless body laid pockmarked with bandages, splints and bleeding wounds and tied to an IV drip. The body lay dormant for several seconds as the feed continued to run, only to jostle itself in place as if trying to make itself comfortable.

  “Gods… that thing is still alive!” Nora spat.

  With the sudden realisation looming in her mind, Nora didn’t notice as Tolly lept out from her chair and tugged on her shoulder. She looked up from the terminal to see Director Smythe enter the room, flanked by Tim and a reluctant Harold.

  “Shit,” said Nora, standing and closing the terminal. She eyed Harold as he walked up, his uneasiness displacing any sympathy she might have had. Glancing down, she saw a terminal in his hand of the same make and model as the one The Director had sent down in her first delivery, the one she ordered Harold to destroy.

  “Doctor Gaul, you do surprise,” said Director Smythe. He pushed past them and retook his place behind his desk. “Tim, thank you.”

  With that, Tim left, leaving Harold alone standing near the doorway.

  “You too, Harold,” said Director Smythe, “you’ve done your company duty. You can go.”

  Harold turned to leave before stopping and turning to Nora.

  “I’m sorry Doctor Gaul, Captain Tolly,” he said behind sheepish eyes, “Doctor Lann’s an open book, and I knew I couldn’t allow a breach like this... I found The Director’s contact information in the terminal and–”

  “Harold,” Director Smythe reiterated, sending the man sullenly through the doorway.

  “There’s wolves everywhere in Saturnus,” Nora said indignantly.

  “It was a similar hunger in you that led to your appointment here, Doctor Gaul,” Director Smythe said, “Now, where were we?”

  “You were about to explain to me what we’re doing here,” Nora insisted.

  “You are breaking into my office,” he said.

  “What are we doing on Belltower– at Saturnus?” asked Nora, “What do my team and I have to do with the Rys samples or that poor tortured soul you keep locked up somewhere in your basement?”

  “You are here to prove a hypothesis of mine. I wanted to discern whether the measured best of humanity could handle intellectual exposure to The Transformative Power. Though, I’ll admit I did not expect you to reach this stage of incredulity with such haste. You have exceeded expectations, Doctor.”

  “You wanted us to fail?” Nora asked.

  “I wanted you to do what I hired you to do – to seek out answers,” he corrected, “and you have done so, though it did require a slight push from Tim.”

  “You had Tim let us in here,” she said, “of course you did.”

  “I may have also let a specific procurement officer know of certain vulnerabilities. But this is besides the meat of it,” he said, “You have sought out knowledge, craved to know more. As have I. Ever since the rediscovery of The Rys, I have pursued the meaning of such a find. I led the first team aboard, you see, and gathered the first samples of a mysterious fluid found aboard in ample quantities. I am happy to view the success you have had, following in my footsteps. You even chose mice as test subjects as we had.”

  “You must be a proud father,” Nora said.

  “Pride? No. Vindicated,” he corrected.

  “What does it matter– why bring me all the way out there, uproot my life on Pedi Mond, just to satisfy your inquiry?”

  “I uprooted you, as you say, to be an instrument. Nothing more,” he said callously.

  “To what end?”

  The Director remained seated and smiled through a hyena grin.

  “I wished only for you to seek out answers, to hunger for them,” he said, “and do so you have. You have exhausted your team and every avenue you knew how. And when that proved not enough, you came here to discover the truth of it.”

  The man stood, hoisting his terminal like a conductor, ready to begin the first act. He tapped a command and redisplayed the same feed of the pale man on the cot that they had seen.

  “This video is not a live feed. It is several days old, in fact,” he said, tapping another command, “here he is this past hour.”

  The feed flickered and jumped forward in time to where the pale man, a handful of doctors in lab coats, and the unmistakable eyes of The Director from behind a mask poked and prodded at their captive. Nora sickened at first, leant in closer when she saw it,

  “His foot is nearly regrown!” she said, the exuberance in her voice veiling any irritation she was having. “How is this possible?”

  “One of them, Yes. You showed me the way, Doctor,” he said, shutting off the feed. “Your application of mice and fluid did wonders to accelerate the already rapid healing factor experienced by the subject.”

  Nora turned to the man, his pride brimming in a corona that shot across the room toward her. She knew it was wrong; all of it was wrong. Deep down inside of her, however, Nora wanted to know more; craved it. That’s when she looked at Tolly, the woman’s fear blanketing her face.

  “What do you expect me to do with this?” Nora asked The Director. Taking Tolly’s hand, she squeezed.

  “To get to work,” he said. “To discover our subject’s secrets with me.”

  “You want me to be party to torture?”

  “No. I want you to be a party to progress,” he said, “these things, creatures, they are an oracle waiting to be deciphered.”

  “How do you know that thing wants to share their secrets with you– or that it won’t just spring out of the lab and infect the whole of Belltower?” asked Nora.

  “How would you feel–” Tolly said, tears keeping her from talking clearly, “how would you feel to be locked up like that? To be turning into a monster, and no one’s trying to help you?”

  “My dear Captain,” said Director Smythe, “You are worried about your friend Soren. Fear not, this one is stable.”

  “You don’t know that!” Tolly spat, “You haven't seen what these things can do!”

  Nora was confused now, unsure what the girl meant.

  “You’ve seen them before?” Nora asked Tolly.

  “I see someone here still holds a modicum of secrecy,” Director Smythe said smugly. “Well. Go on, then. Tell the class what you have been hiding.”

  Tolly turned to Nora, who was still squeezing her hand. Squeezing back, she said, “I was there, Nora. I was on Bordeaux’s Folly.”

  This floored Nora. It was only a handful of days ago that she had witnessed the reports of the rampant destruction of that world. The hate, the carnage, the torment, but that was all from above.

  “And there it is,” Director Smythe said, “Our Captain Ignacio is a refugee from a dead world. The only refugee to have survived the attack on the surface and lived to tell about it, served up on a platter from my old friend Matriarch Nagoya. I do owe her big for this.”

  Nora, still reeling from the details of Tolly’s involvement, didn't know what to say.

  “I’m sorry,” Tolly said, “It’s hard to talk about.”

  “I get it,” Nora said. “What I don’t get is what this all means.”

  “A colony world on the edge of space being sacked, the sudden appearance of our guest in isolation, I have reason to believe that it is all related to the sudden emergence of this genetic material.”

  “You said you discovered it –the fluid– on The Rys,” Nora said, “Where is The Rys now?”

  “Gone.”

  “Gone?”

  “The Rys and the samples therein were converted to a research station. This was the same station that Sam Bowen helmed, now missing in action.”

  Nora sighed. “Great.”

  “Tim,” Director Smythe said over a new bulletin, “Can you come in here?”

  Tim entered the room and eyed Nora and Tolly, his regular nonchalance cracking to show signs of nerves.

  “Tim, can you take Doctor Gaul and Captain Ignacio back to the labs?”

  “You expect us just to get back to work?” Nora said fervently.

  “I expect you to do as you always have, Doctor. Seek out knowledge,” he said, “Now. Go.”

  “Will that be all, Director?” Tim asked shakily.

  “No. See to it that Harold Teth is discharged and removed from the station. His usefulness has run its course,” said The Director, dryly, “And walk yourself out with him while you’re at it.”