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with Squid Two and me.”
    At some stage the reason would have to come out. Mach wondered if letting Babcock break the news might be a good way to do it. He could feign surprise and the crew would already be committed.  
    “What about the security feeds?” Adira said, gazing up at the blank screens. “Can you find one for outside the transport door? See if we can see who or what caused those pools of blood?”
    “One job at a time,” Babcock said.  
    Data stopped streaming across the holographic display. Squid Two descended back to the height of Babcock’s shoulder and its silver tentacles drooped. Mach raised his eyebrows at the speed the older man continued to tap the pad.  
    Babcock input a long command, spun in his chair, and extravagantly raised his index finger. “Just say the word and the deed is done.”
    “Do it,” Mach said. “Start a planet-wide scan next. See if we can locate Voyager .”
    A 3D image of the planet flashed up and slowly rotated. Markers lit up around the sphere, joined by lines to form a grid system.  
    “It might take thirty minutes,” Babcock said. “I’ve input parameters to search for anything that’s appeared in the last two months.”
    Mach raised his smart-screen. “Lassea, Tulula, you can bring the drone in. We’ve started a search from here.”
    “Roger that,” Lassea instantly replied.  
    “What about the security feeds?” Adira said.  
    “Coming right up,” Babcock said.  
    The five screens on the wall blinked to life. One displayed the Intrepid ’s vague outline on the dark strip of land in front of the facility. Three showed locations inside the facility. The final one focused on a murky area.  
    “There’s thirty cameras and they last recorded two weeks ago,” Babcock said. “I’ll load the last few minutes of the footage outside the transport door.”
    The first screen switched from the Intrepid. A running clock in the top right corner displayed local date and time from two weeks ago. The open transport door threw out a shaft of artificial light. Two figures dressed in bulky atmosphere suits stood at the edge of the shot, looking skyward.  
    Mach stepped closer and pointed at them. “Is that where you saw the blood?”
    Adira sharply inhaled.  
    A large claw or talon pierced through both bodies at chest height. Both figures were raised off the floor and pulled off-screen to the right. A flash of light erupted over the warehouse and the feed cut to static.  
    “Play it again,” Mach said.
    Sanchez jumped to his feet and joined Mach at the screen. Babcock ran the last thirty seconds of footage. Mach squinted at the screen but couldn’t recognize what attacked the facility staff. The flash of light explained the hole in the roof. They must’ve been looking at a ship and maybe didn’t realize some of its deadly passengers were already on the ground.  
    “Can you zoom in, Babs?” Sanchez asked.
    The resolution blurred when Babcock attempted it. “It’ll only work on live feeds. We don’t have auto-focus on historical captures.”
    “What’s to the right?” Adira asked.  
    “A quarry,” Babcock said. “That’s the dark screen on the end. I’ll see if the floodlights still work.”
    Babcock pushed back in his chair and wheeled to the end of the console. He ran his finger over a shiny glass plate before tapping his finger around the top right corner.
    One by one, bright white lights thumped on around a hundred-meter-square quarry, brightening the right-hand screen. It dropped to a depth of fifty meters with an uneven mottled surface at the bottom.  
    “Focus in on the ground,” Mach said. “There’s something down there.”
    The feed panned in.  
    A mix of frost-covered clothing, suits, and bones filled the surface, piling toward the center of the quarry. The team stared in silence at the screen.
    Mach unslung his Stinger. “Get yourself prepared, Sanchez. We’re going down there to take a closer look.”

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