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He opened a comm link to her. “Where the hell are you?”

She didn’t respond.

“Daisy, the hounds have gone. You can come out.” She’d never left him to battle alone before, even though he’d wished dozens of times she would. She never once sat back and watched him fight. She’d always been by his side. He’d gotten used to that. He hated the way she’d abandoned him. It was as if she didn’t care if he lived or died.

It was easy enough to pick up Daisy’s trail. She wasn’t disguising where she was going. Again, that was odd behavior. She’d had the training, and he’d gone through drills with her to ensure they could move through these alien environments without being detected.

He opened a new comm link to the Apocalypse. “How far out are you, Cleo?”

“We’re almost there. Two minutes. What’s the situation with Daisy?”

“I’m managing it. But Angel will need to look at her the second we get back.”

“Angel’s here. She wants to talk to you,” Cleo said.

A cold ball of worry bloomed in Rexx’s stomach. “What is it, Angel?”

“It sounds like things have gone bad for Daisy,” Angel said.

“Just tell me. What’s going on?”

“I got back the rest of her test results.”

“She told me you’d given her a clean bill of health.”

“From the tests that were done, she seemed fine. But Daisy was pushing for the results, so I told her what I knew. She was all good. But...”

“But she’s not all good?”

“No, something showed on the scan. I didn’t pick it up when I did the basic investigation, because it’s hidden behind the translator chip in her neck.”

“What the hell are you talking about? What is it?”

“That’s just it. I don’t know,” Angel said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. And what’s worrying me the most is it looks like it’s spreading.”

Horror pinched around Rexx’s heart. He pressed his hand against his chest, trying to rub away the ache. “Spreading where? What’s it spreading?”

“Again, I can’t be certain. You said Daisy’s ill. What’s wrong with her?”

Rexx hesitated. It felt like a betrayal to tell them what was going on, but he was out of his depth. He had no clue how to help Daisy. “Her behavior’s weird. She’s not being rational. I thought it could be the fever messing with her thoughts, you know, getting her muddled. And she seems stronger and faster.”

“Whatever it is, it’s sophisticated alien technology lodged inside her. We need to get Daisy quarantined. We have to get her back here to see what’s going on.”

“You have to get that stuff out of her. It’s changing her.”

“That’s what I plan to do.”

“And we can’t risk the rest of the crew,” Cleo said.

“You think she’s infected other people?” Rexx asked.

“Not that we know of,” Cleo said.

“I’m running tests on everyone to see if there are any similar markers in their systems,” Angel said. “So far, nothing’s come back. It seems isolated to Daisy.”

“So she’s not a risk to others,” Rexx said.

“Hopefully not. Keep an eye on her until we get there,” Cleo said.