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His brow rose as he saw a red light flashing by the doors. He grabbed hold of a Koob who hurried out of the docking bay. “What’s with the alarm?”

The Koob glanced over his shoulder. “There’s a problem with the doors. They’re jammed open. No one can figure out the problem. None of the passwords work, and the controls won’t operate.”

“Someone was spotted outside tampering with the doors,” a passing Draxdan in a red engineer’s jumpsuit said. “We’ve got a team going out to take a look.”

“I saw someone outside,” Rane said. “They passed by the living quarters not half an hour ago. I was surprised to see them out on their own, given what’s happening.”

The Draxdan doubled back. “What did you see?”

“They were alone and heading in the direction of the docking bays doors.”

“That must be the bastard who messed with the doors,” the Draxdan engineer said.

“They must have come back into Prodigy. Ask them what they were up to.”

“They haven’t. The last sighting was of them drifting into space. Maybe they’ve got a ship waiting for them. They’re out of tractor beam range, so we can’t even grab hold of them and bring them back.”

Rane nodded as he watched the Draxdan and Koob hurry away.

He stepped to one side, out of everyone’s way, and closed his eyes. Rane tuned out the noise and distraction and felt around for Nell’s energy. He could always detect her faint electromagnetic waves, even if she wasn’t close by. He’d gotten so used to sensing it that it felt a part of him.

Rane took a deep breath and concentrated. There was nothing. She was absent from Prodigy. It felt like she wasn’t on the station.

He tried again. He was running on empty and hadn’t had a chance to do any meditation to bring himself back to full strength since his encounter with the Tolong.

Nell must be here. He just wasn’t picking up her signature.

Rane opened his eyes and headed to the My Single Alien office. She could be with her work colleagues. It made sense they’d all be leaving together on the same shuttle.

He opened the door of the office. Three pale-faced females stood around a table. None of them was Nell.

A sharp-faced woman with a cybernetic hand glared at him. “What is it?”

“I’m looking for Nell.”

“So are we,” a small redheaded female said. “Do you know her?”

Rane nodded. “We’re friends. I’ve been helping her with, well, some personal things. I wanted to make sure she got off Prodigy.”

“She messaged me to say she was sick.” A tall, attractive female stepped away from the table. “I’m Vegas, her boss. I went to check her room, and she’s not there.”

“Nell wasn’t sick the last time I saw her,” Rane said.

“Are you and Nell seeing each other?” Vegas’s eyes widened.

“In a way.” Rane studied each woman in turn. “I know she has some... worries when it comes to aliens.” He didn’t know how much her work colleagues knew about Nell’s situation.

“We don’t have the time to discuss anyone’s worries,” the woman with the cybernetic hand snapped. “Either you know where Nell is, or you don’t. If you don’t, you need to get out of here and stop wasting our time.”

Rane looked at Vegas. “I can’t detect Nell on the station. It’s like she’s already gone.”

“She wouldn’t leave without us,” Vegas said. “Let me check if her wrist comm is active. If she’s still on the station, we can track her location.” She hurried to the control panel on the wall. “Computer, search for the location of Nell Saunders.”

“Nell Saunders can be located in Quadrant Three.”

Vegas nodded. “That’s this quadrant.”

“She isn’t here,” Rane said. “I’m sure of it.”