Dana
The alarm yanked me out of sleep at 0600, which meant I'd gotten exactly seven hours and forty-three minutes of rest instead of the eight Er'dox had mandated. Close enough.
I rolled out of the sleeping platform, my body protesting in ways that suggested yesterday's field mission had used muscles I'd forgotten existed. Lower gravity planet. Extended time in an environmental suit. Eight hours of post-mission analysis followed by algorithm development while running on fumes. My engineer brain cataloged the physical complaints with clinical detachment: manageable discomfort, nothing that would compromise performance.
Jalina was already awake, reviewing something on her datapad. She glanced up when I moved. "You're up early."
"Er'dox is implementing my detection algorithm this morning. I want to be there when it goes live."
"Of course you do." She set down the datapad. "How's Bail?"
"Stable. Talking. Alive." I grabbed the uniform Mothership had provided, trying to make myself look like someone who hadn't spent most of yesterday either terrified or exhausted."He wants to meet everyone. Zorn says maybe tomorrow if his recovery continues on track."
"Seventeen survivors." Jalina's voice carried wonder mixed with grief. "One more person who didn't have to die alone."
"One more person who gets to be part of this disaster we're calling integration." I finished dressing, checked my portable interface for messages. Nothing urgent. "How was your shift?"
"Fascinating. Zorn showed me their approach to xeno-pharmaceutical development. They synthesize compounds based on species-specific biochemistry rather than trial-and-error testing. Dana, they can create targeted treatments without experimentation that would take human medicine decades to develop."
"Decades ahead of us in most things," I observed. "Must be humbling."
"It's inspiring. All this knowledge, all these techniques, we get to learn it. Become part of it." She stood, moved to the facilities area. "You coming to breakfast? Elena said something about group meal before shifts."
"I need to get to Engineering. Tell everyone I'll catch up later."
Jalina gave me that look, the one that said she knew I was avoiding downtime but wasn't going to push. "Don't work yourself into collapse. Er'dox might actually lock you out of Engineering if you do."
"He wouldn't dare."
"Try him and find out."
I left before that conversation could spiral into actual concern for my wellbeing. The corridors were busier than usual, shift change, crew members moving to their assigned stations with practiced efficiency. I'd learned to navigate the foot traffic over the past two weeks, though getting around beings twicemy height still required spatial awareness that felt like advanced geometry.
Engineering was already active when I arrived. The day shift was settling in, checking systems, reviewing overnight reports. Er'dox stood at his central command station, his bronze skin seeming to glow under the console lights. He noticed my entrance immediately.
"Dana. Seven hours and forty-three minutes. That's not eight hours."
"That's functionally equivalent to eight hours for all practical purposes."
"Practical purposes require actual rest, not negotiated minimums." But he gestured to my station. "Your algorithm is configured. We're running final diagnostics before deployment."
I climbed into my seat, pulled up the system status. Everything looked clean, my code integrated smoothly into Mothership's monitoring architecture, the timing correlation analysis ready to activate on command.
"Diagnostics complete," Krev announced from his station. "Algorithm is stable across all test parameters. Ready for deployment."
Er'dox studied the readouts for a long moment, running calculations I couldn't see. Then he nodded. "Deploy it. Start passive monitoring. Dana, you're on primary analysis, any timing patterns that match command signal characteristics get flagged for immediate review."
"Understood."
The algorithm went live with barely a ripple across Engineering's displays. That was the point—invisible monitoring, undetectable surveillance, waiting for the saboteur to make their next move.
"Now we wait," Er'dox said.
Waiting was harder than working. Active problems I could solve. Passive monitoring meant watching data streams for hours, searching for patterns that might not exist, trying to catch someone who knew they were being hunted.
I settled into the rhythm of it. Scan the displays, check timing correlations, cross-reference against baseline parameters. Around me, Engineering moved through its usual controlled chaos. Power distribution adjustments. System maintenance. The constant work of keeping a city-sized vessel functional.
Two hours in, my algorithm flagged its first potential match.
