Page 17

Heather noticed how Loka kept moving in front of her, keeping her shielded in case of an attack. From what she wasn’t certain. More demented bots? Other aliens? Maybe her own clumsy feet? She moved back alongside him and nudged him with her elbow.

“I like to see where I’m going.”

Loka looked down at her, his brows raised. “I will inform you if an attack is imminent.”

“Which is great. But if I see it, it gives me a better head start when I turn and run.” She was only half-joking. Despite feeling reassured by Loka’s belief they could fix whatever the problem was with the station, she had a bad feeling in her gut, and it was rarely wrong.

Loka slowed. His chin raised, and his eyes narrowed.

“What’s wrong?”

“More bots.” He caught her arm and tugged her toward another corridor. “This way. My lab is at the end of this corridor. We can hide out there.”

Heather glanced over her shoulder. She saw no sign of bots but knew Loka’s hearing was better than hers. Picars had angled Spock-like ears, giving them access to a wider range of pitch.

Loka slid an access card over the door scanner, ushered her into a dark room, and locked the door behind them. “We will be safe in here. I had increased security added to the door, so my experiments would not be tampered with.”

“I don’t suppose the comm system works in here?” Heather held her hands out in the gloom. She bashed a stool with her knee and bit down on a curse word before it came out.

“Careful. Some of my life’s work is sealed in these containers.”

“I didn’t deliberately bang my knee on the chair.” She rubbed her bruised knee. “I’m looking for the wall with the comm screen.”

“To your left.” Loka’s hands settled on her shoulders, and he twisted her around.

“Thanks.” She’d been heading in the wrong direction, disorientated by the darkness.

“The screen appears dead.”

“No harm in checking.” Heather pressed the screen with her fingers several times. It remained blank. “What next?”

“We wait.”

“We need to get to engineering.”

Loka appeared not to have heard her. He stood in front of a glass chiller cabinet, his hands behind his back as he studied the contents.

“Is something wrong?”

“If the power supply remains off for too long, my samples will be corrupted. I will have to begin my experimentations again.”

“Hopefully, it’ll be back online soon enough. Are the samples important?” She moved slowly until she stood next to Loka.

“My mother is in here.”

Heather opened her mouth. Did he just say mother? She peered into the cabinet, expecting to see a mummified corpse or a head resting on the shelf. Instead, there were rows of neatly labeled jars and glass vials.

“Is she small?”

Loka grunted. “In here.” He opened the door and tapped a claw on a large black glass jar.

Heather let out a relieved sigh. “Her ashes?”

“Why would her ashes be in here?”

“Because you had her cremated when she died?”

“We don’t do that. I retained her DNA. We do it with our ancestors. We store their DNA with the ambition of returning them to a new body one day.”