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“You also lost power?”

“The lights went down, and the comm system failed. I was trying to reach engineering when the bots came in and started acting weird.”

“I experienced the same. There must be a system error.”

“My bot also malfunctioned.”

“You own one of the things that attacked you?”

“He’s different to them. Well, the station’s bots don’t usually attack people. Ernie is my friend.”

“He did not protect you when the others attacked?”

“Ernie was rebooting. I found a weird piece of code in our database algorithms. I asked Ernie to check it. He sort of imploded and shut down. I hope he’s okay. I should have brought him with me.”

“Most peculiar.” Loka turned the corner and stopped by his quarters. He ran a hand over the access panel. He had to do it several times before the door opened.

Once inside, it was almost pitch black. He knew his way around the room, so he strode to the couch and placed Heather on it. “Stay there. I have something to treat your injuries.”

“I’m not moving,” Heather whispered. “This is your place?”

“It is.” Loka returned from the bathroom, where he kept a medical kit. He flipped it open and tipped the contents on the table by the couch.

“Do you have a tablet?” Heather asked. “I used mine to help me see when the lights went out.”

“Good thinking.” He felt around under the table until he found his own tablet and lit the screen. He grabbed antiseptic cream and nano-med patches before turning the light to focus on Heather. Her face looked eerily pale in the glow of the screen, and her eyes were wide, indicating her caution.

“You are safe here.” He patted her knee, suddenly awkward that they were alone together. On his home planet, it was rare for an unmated male and female to be alone together. Loka still found it strange that, on other planets, unmated males and females mingled easily. It was a skill he had yet to acquire.

“Thanks for saving me. One more button on that airlock and I’d have been sucked into space.”

“That was what they had planned for you?” Loka placed Heather’s feet on his knees and pulled up the legs of her jumpsuit. There were several shallow cuts ringing her skin where the metal limbs of the bots had injured her.

“I think so. They came into my room, dragged me to the airlock, and were about to send me shooting out.” Heather shivered and rubbed her arms.

“Why are they behaving like this?” Loka inspected the cuts before wiping them with an antiseptic cloth.

Heather hissed. “I’ve no idea. Maybe they have a system glitch too. If something is messing with the lights and comm system, it could be glitching the bots. They all run through the same central system.”

Loka nodded as he unwrapped a nano-med patch.

Heather pushed his hand away. “I don’t need the patches. The cuts aren’t deep.”

“You should still use them. You don’t want an infection.”

“The bots are usually clean.”

“I expect they don’t usually attempt to drag people to air locks and shove them into space. You don’t know where they’ve been or how clean they are.”

“Point taken.” Heather’s eyes widened. “You don’t think they’ve been doing this with other people? Taking them to airlocks and throwing them out?”

“The station alarms would have sounded if an airlock had been breached.”

“You’re right. It makes no sense for them to act so strangely. We should let engineering know. All cybernetic life forms should be checked, just in case they also go all Terminator on us.”

“Terminator?” Loka carefully smoothed the patches onto her soft skin before rolling down the leg of her jumpsuit.

“Yes. You know, ‘I’ll be back.’ Skynet. John Conner. Judgment Day.”