“Is this like the warning about the stowaways?” Wren asks. “Is this another glitch?”

“Maybe,” I say. “But it looks legitimate. There’s movement on the station.”

A survivor. A desperate survivor. Looking for a way off. Their one chance.

“Someone make sure the safety protocols are disengaged,” Skylar says. “I don’t want anyone else getting ejected from the ship. And I especially don’t want anyone getting ejected into the vacuum of space.”

“Can’t be ejected unless we’re in flight mode,” I say.

To be ejected, you had to be strapped in, locked in, to one of the flight chairs. The bridge had to be locked down as well. But I guess, if the ship is glitching, if there is something wrong with its systems, if it’s infected with malware, a virus, then maybe anything is possible.

It would be very bad if the ship had a virus.

“I’m not taking any chances,” Skylar says.

Luke says, “I’ve got it!”

“Got what?” I ask. “What is it? Is it dangerous?”

The motion sensor tells us that whatever the thing on the station is, it is getting closer, moving faster.

“I don’t know what that thing is,” he says, pointing at the display. “But I’ve fixed the ship’s speech center. It can now talk to us. Watch this. Ah, Ship? What tripped the proximity alarm?”

“It is unclear at this point,” the ship says.

Mason pats Luke on the back. “Thank you, Luke. That was very helpful.”

The ship says, “I am unclear on what it is. However, it is coming this way. It is getting closer. It is mostly like a security drone.”

The ship is rocked. There’s huge clunking noise. I am almost knocked to my feet. Were we hit? Has the hull been breached? “What the hell just happened?!”

“We have docked with the derelict station,” the ship says. “We are now in orbital decay.”

Luke gets to his feet and checks the main console. “Can we stop it? Can you stop it?”

“I can try.”

“Yes, please try.”

“Also, I must inform you, the unknown entity has crossed the threshold of…” The ship stops mid-sentence. “It is coming. It is a security drone. Left behind. It is coming.”

“Can you talk to it?” Wren asks. “Can you stop it? Tell it to stand down.”

“I can try.”

Wren says, “Play conversation out loud.”

>>Stop, please. We are a non-threat. We are lost. We mean you and your station no harm. Repeat. We mean you no harm.

>>You are trespassing. No code. No access. No access code. You must be eliminated.

“Well, that doesn’t sound good,” Mason says.

“No, it does not,” Luke agrees. “We are so screwed.”

“Yes,” the ship says. “It is a simple piece of code. It is a simple order. But it is remarkably effective.”

“So we are screwed?” Ethan asks.

“You must disarm it before it kills you,” the ship says. “Before it tears you apart. Or tears me apart. Or both.”

Wren jumps into action. She arms her weapon. Pieces it together. The receiver. The barrel. The stock. This weapon is not just a sidearm. This is a heavy-duty military grade weapon that I was not even aware she had brought aboard the ship. “Everyone get down! Take cover. Mason, can we lock this room? Can we board this up?”

“Won’t keep a seccy out. Like the ship said, it is going to tear this place apart.”

“Have you seen one before?” Wren asks. “Have you dealt with one?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you stop it?”

“We had a lot of guns. Big guns. Huge. And we had our own Sentinel drones. Our drones were able to hack into it. Slow it down. We were able to flank it. Take it apart.”

“Can we do that now?”

“With these weapons? I’m not sure. Can the ship hack into its commander chip? It’s CPU?”

“I am trying. I am failing.”

“So, what the hell do we do?” Skylar asks. “We have to hide. We have to take cover, right?”

“No,” Mason says. “We have to disarm it. Disable it. Failing that, we have to evade it.”

“There is no time for evasion,” the ship says. “It is here.”

We can hear running footsteps. It is moving fast. It is coming straight down the corridor that leads from airlock to the bridge. The door to the bridge is closed. But I have a feeling the door won’t slow the security drone down one bit.

The drone slams into the door, bending it completely out of shape, folding it inwards. But the door holds.

This does not deter the drone one bit.

Wren takes up a defensive position and aims her weapon directly at the door. Mason stays perfectly still.

The drone slams into the door repeatedly, until the metal tears like paper.

Wren takes a shot. She misses.

The drone runs into the room. It fires a shot at Wren and heads straight for Mason. It knows who the biggest threats are.

Wren is hit. In the shoulder. She stumbles back, dropping her weapon.

Mason steps forward and grabs both of the sec drone’s arms. Holds it at bay.

The drone says out loud, “No code. No access. NO ACCESS CODE.”

“Yeah,” Mason says. “You said that already.”

“You are trespassing on company property. I am duly authorized to eliminate any trespassers. Any threats. I am ordered to tear you apart.”

Mason holds firm. “Wren! A little help!”

Wren’s arm is hanging by her side. She is trying to figure out if she’s been shot, or if her shoulder is dislocated.

“Wren!”

She reaches for her sidearm, her movements are slow.

I’ve still got the weapon from our first jump. It has been slowly recharging since I last used it. It is an electrical based weapon. Energy based. It emits a powerful charge. If I use it in this room, there’s a chance it’ll knock out the ship’s guidance system. I might kill the AI, the CPU. I might turn the the ship into a derelict, into a very expensive floating tin can. If that happens, we will join the derelict station in orbital decay and we will burn up in the planet’s atmosphere.

On the other hand, if I don’t use it, this drone will definitely kill everyone in this room.

I decide to get nice and close. I jam the weapon against the security drone’s back. I pull the trigger. The charge ignites. Mason screams in pain and he spasms uncontrollably.

The drone and Mason fall to the floor at the same time. They both twitch. And then, they are both still.

Smoke fills the room. A burning acrid smell fills the room.

“I think you just killed Mason,” Luke says, coughing.

He coughs again. Coughs up blood.

The sec drone had taken a shot at Luke as well. He must’ve analyzed everyone in the room, on the bridge. It knew Mason and Wren were enhanced. So it targeted them. It probably figured that Luke was in charge of operating the ship, as he was situated in front of the main console, so it targeted him as well.

It damn near took out three people at once.

If we all hadn’t been wearing our ExoSuits, if Mason and Wren weren’t enhanced super soldiers, it would’ve succeeded.

Wren gets to her feet. Her arm still swinging by her side. “Okay, that hurt. A lot.”

“Are you shot?” I ask. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Wouldn’t be standing if I wasn’t.”

I panic. “Skylar?”

“I’m fine. I’m here..”

Skylar is hiding behind another console. Hiding amongst the backup Exo-suits. Smart.

I turn my attention back to Luke. “Are you okay? Are you hit?”

“I… I don’t know. Is Mason dead?”

“No,” I say, completely in denial, not wanting to think about losing another crew member. “He can’t be dead.”

He is too strong. I’ve seen what these guys can do in action, in the heat of battle. It’ll take more than a shot of pure energy to take this guy down.

His ExoSuit says, “Please stand back. Stand clear. Defib charging.”

“What’s that now?”

“Okay, maybe he is dead,” Skylar says. “I think his heart has stopped.”

“5 seconds.”

“What the hell is his suit doing?” I ask.

“It’s going to restart his heart,” Wren answers.

“4 seconds.”

“His suit is going to bring him back to life.”

Three.

Because Mason is dead.

Two.

This is all your fault.

One.

Mason’s chest heaves off the ground, his back arches, damn near breaks in two. His eyes snap open. He takes a huge gasping breath.

He’s alive.

It’ll take more than a few thousand volts of electricity to kill this guy.

Wren has fixed her dislocated shoulder. She put it back in place without complaint. Without so much as a muffled cry of pain.

Mason gets to his knees and catches his breath. “What the hell kind of weapon is that?” he asks me.

“I’m not sure,” I say. “I got it from the first planet we visited.”

“I’ve never seen a handheld weapon pack such a punch.”

Skylar and I check on Luke. “What happened,” Skylar asks. “Where did you get hit?”

“In the chest. Dead center. That thing wasn’t messing around.”

It said it would eliminate us. It was not lying.

Wren comes over and takes a visual scan with whatever enhancements she has. “You’ve got a cracked sternum. Busted ribs. You’ll live.”

The ship says, “I have some bad news. There is another security drone on board the derelict station. It is coming this way.”

“Another one?” Skylar says, “We’re not going to survive another one.”

“Is it close?” Wren asks.

“Hard to say. Its movements suggest a holding pattern. However, if it comes any closer, it’s protocol will force it to investigate how an unknown ship has docked with the station. Furthermore, in a matter of minutes, or seconds, if it has not heard from this security drone, again it’s protocol will force it to leave its holding pattern and investigate.”

“And eliminate us.”

Destroy us.

“Yes. Correct.”

“We need to shut it down before it does that,” I say.

“Or we need to get out of here,” Skylar offers.

“We can’t get out of here,” Luke says, struggling to talk, struggling to breathe. “We haven’t fixed the AutoDrive.”

“He’s right,” I say. “We don’t know where we are. Our only chance of not getting lost in the far edges of the goddamn universe is to fix the AutoDrive so it takes us back to Earth.”

Skylar nods. “Point taken. “So what do we do? Do we sit here and hope the other security drone stays on the derelict station? Or do we go over there and kill it, or disable it, or whatever.”

“Maybe this one can help us?” Luke says.

“How?” Mason asks. “It’s been disabled. It’s toast.”

“I can bring it back online.”

“Bring it back online?” Skylar says. “You want to bring it back online? It just tried to murder us!”

“I can disable it’s motor functions. I can talk to its command center. The command center will have info on its model, its series, its whole design. Plus, we’ll be able to access a map of the station. We can use it.”

“Could we reprogram it to kill the other security drone?” I ask.

“Not sure.”

“I could try,” the ship says. “I’ve done it before.”

“You’ve reprogrammed a seccy?” Mason asks.

“Yes.”

Mason shakes his head in disbelief.

“When?” I ask. Had this thing served in the Empire?

“Our first jump,” the ship answers. “The first planet we visited. When you were lost. You had entered a facility. It was also patrolled by a drone. By multiple drones. I was able to talk to them. Told them to stand down.”

“Why didn’t you do it with this one?”

“Different orders. Different programming. And there was no time.”

“Okay, so we turn this thing back on,” Wren says. “Ask it some questions. See if we can reprogram it. See if it wants to fight for us.”

“Yeah,” Skylar says. “And hope it doesn’t kill us.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I say.

“Wait,” Mason says. “Before we start re-programming enemy drones, has anyone seen Ethan?”