Free Dark Star by Lara Morgan

tables, the only illumination from moonlight shining through the windows. The vestibule beyond was lit by the glow of the lock on the iris that led to the operatives’ wing. To the left of it were the doors that accessed the yard, and further along on the right was the hallway and iris that led to the medibay corridor.
    She’d reached the iris when she heard the first sounds of trouble. From the other side of the iris came the clump of heavy footsteps and a raised voice. It couldn’t be coincidence. They must have been alerted to the surveillance changes.
    Trying not to panic, she suspended the surveillance on the other side of the iris for five minutes then opened it and sprinted down the hall past the closed doors she’d seen with Sulawayo. She figured she had a few minutes before the operatives came this way. Hopefully. With any luck, they might see the suspended surveillance as a glitch. There were four more doors between her and the medibay. She might get a clean run.
    No. There were more voices in the corridor up ahead. She swiped the opener of the closest door and slipped in. It was dark and empty. A desk or table pressed against her hip. She waited, listening, desperately counting down the minutes of surveillance suspension left. Barely two.
    Booted footsteps walked past and a man spoke. “You check the caf. It’s probably some goddamn lizard. Crawled into the system and got stuck. Remember what happened last time? I’ll see if there’s–” His voice cut off at the beeping of a com.
    “That’ll be Pria,” a woman said. “I’ll see you later.”
    Footsteps passed the door, then the man spoke again, so close, Rosie jumped. “Pria, what’s the report?”
    Rosie faintly heard a mumbled reply, then the operative said, “Right, yeah. No. I’ll check the hub here, force it back on if it’s off. Yep, out.” His footsteps continued past her door and back the way she’d come. As soon as he got to the surveillance hub, he’d know it wasn’t a lizard. Rosie forced herself to wait for a count of twenty then opened the door. She glimpsed his back as he rounded a corner, and as soon as he’d gone she was out and running. Three doors, two, one. Frantic, she shoved the stylus into the lock by the medibay doors, her fingers shaking as she swiped the controls to the surveillance and suspended them inside, then activated the lock.
    It felt like her lungs were in her throat by the time the doors swished open.
    She almost couldn’t believe she’d made it. The ambient light from the equipment provided enough illumination for her to see. And there was the machine that might be able to download the files from her implant. Its glinting orb hung over the operating bed like an enormous flower. She wanted to go to that first. If the implant degraded and she lost the information stored on it she’d be screwed, probably in more ways than one, what with the possibility of death and all. And the machine might allow her to save the information to a chit. But then again, it might not and people were counting on her to find out what she could about Helios.
    She’d given herself fifteen minutes in here, but with the operatives alerted, she couldn’t count on it. She had to work fast. She ran to the holo on the back wall. It hadn’t been powered down but it was locked. She inserted the stylus.
    Welcome, Doctor
, the screen lit blue with the message and Rosie’s breath came a little easier.
    She tapped straight into the prime Enclave grid. It was sectioned. She selected Alpha’s sector, but a message came up:
Authorisation Denied
. She swore. Of course, it couldn’t be that simple. The top operatives’ sections were out of the doctor’s authorisation. Becoming increasingly frustrated, Rosie was forced to reduce her search to the doctor’s communications, orders and projects.
    She scanned for any mention of the MalX, or Pantheon, Riley or even Sulawayo and other key phrases. The doctor had been busy, streams of messages