That was where she was now, turning over her blackened feet and seeing that she had worn the skin off the soles.

“Oh, shit,” Makali said.

“We’re all this way, aren’t we?”

“Not all of us,” Dale said.

Makali was wearing the kind of durable footgear an experienced hiker or climber wore under boots. Zack had the soiled and torn footwear of his EVA undergarment. Even Dale still wore battered sneakers. “I wish I had something for you,” Makali said.

“Help me get her up,” Makali said. Zack was still closely following the Sentry.

“Fucking leave her,” Dale said.

“What are you talking about?” Makali said. “We don’t leave people.”

“She’s been dragging us down ever since we got out of Dash’s prison.”

Valya sat on the hard-packed ground, its texture like asbestos, and listened to this exchange with little interest. Even though she found Dale’s attitude unfriendly and even infuriating, she wasn’t sure she could get up and walk again.

But she was growing less happy with Makali, too, in spite of the fact that the woman was trying to help her. Why wouldn’t she just let her be!

And as for Zack…what had possessed him to go to the Beehive—

Valya stopped. “Zack,” she said, her voice a croak. “Zack!” she called.

But Zack had already turned back. “What is it now?” he said. In his impatience, Zack sounded just like Dale—or Zack talking to Dale. Which was exactly Valya’s worry. “How are you feeling?”

“Awful,” she said.

“Come on, Valya, Dale,” Makali said. “Can we just keep moving? Why does everything have to be a debate?” She, too, was uncharacteristically impatient.

“Listen to yourselves,” Valya said. “We’re all on edge.”

“Don’t we have every right to be on edge?” Dale said. God, he was annoying. She fought the urge to slap him—

Steady; remember your discovery. “This environment is doing it,” she said. “At best we’re starving for oxygen. At worst, poisoned.”

Zack, thank God, was quick to make the adjustment. “You’re right: I’ve been out of breath since we entered. And I’ve been…really, really angry and suspicious. I thought I was just worn out.”

“You are,” Valya said. “We all are.”

“Then it’s more important than ever that we get through this,” Makali said. She and Zack helped Valya to her feet….

Her feet were numb and aching. She felt that every step scraped more flesh from the soles. But she realized the truth of Makali’s statement. She had no choice but to go forward, as they had done ever since leaving the human habitat….

The forced march resumed, though it was more of a shamble. This end of the destroyed habitat was a mess, reminding Valya of Japan or Bangladesh after the big tsunamis of the past decade, where entire cities had been scraped off the face of the Earth, scrambled into tiny pieces, then crushed into a lumpy field of junk. There was nothing recognizable—not that Valya expected to recognize anything.

But it was still a horrifying reminder of the destructive power of whatever had wiped out this habitat.

Just as they closed in on Dash, the Sentry suddenly veered off to the right side, likely in search of the exit.

Valya was turned toward Makali when her peripheral vision lit up with a flash. A moment later, he and the others heard a cracking honk.

A ball of light rose to the high ceiling and floated there. The center of the habitat looked as though day had broken…revealing even more devastation than Valya had realized.

The improved lighting also revealed that some structures were intact here, rounded, irregular domes like termite mounds three or four stories tall.

“A flare,” Dale said. “Someone’s looking for someone.”

“Connate,” Dash said. “My pursuers.”

Zack could see big, mobile Sentry-like shapes at the north wall of the habitat.

“Shit,” Scott said, “we should have realized they’d get through that passage.”

Now the Sentry kicked into a higher gear, literally running away from Valya and the others, disappearing between the two nearest termite mounds.

“Why is it leaving us behind?” Dale said.

“Maybe Valya was right,” Makali said. “We got him out; he doesn’t need us anymore.”

“Let’s not get lost,” Zack said, though the exertion was wearing on him; his voice was growing weaker.

It had been painful for Valya to walk at a steady pace. Running was agony. She quickly lost the others as they entered the shadowy, debris-strewn alleys between the termite mounds.

Even though she tried to keep up with the others—and Makali, in particular, kept looking back for her—because of the lack of light, the rough surface, and the tight clearances between the structures, Valya found herself alone.

She stopped. They’re only a few meters away, she told herself. “Zack!” she shouted. “Makali!”

Her voice was weaker than Zack’s…the sound seemed muffled, inaudible, as if she’d been shouting inside a recording studio—

Then she heard a clear fluttering sound as the light changed, growing even darker.

She barely had time to look up as a shadow fell on her, ending her pain and curiosity.

PAV

“What’s Keanu’s diameter?” Zhao said.

Yvonne Hall looked up. “Ninety to a hundred kilometers, uncertainty due to its shape.”

“You mean, it isn’t round?” Rachel said.

“Not remotely,” the Revenant astronaut said. “More like an egg.”

“Like the Earth,” Pav said. He had heard his father talk about things like this for years. He still didn’t know why it mattered. Earth wasn’t perfectly round; big deal. It had never affected him when he lived there.

And Keanu was even less perfectly round. Again…what does it mean to me, Pav, right now?

“Correct,” Yvonne told him, then turned to Zhao. “Why do you ask?”

All four humans were sitting on the floor of the railcar, which had been moving smoothly, and at a steady rate, through a whole series of tunnels for the past hour. Rachel was next to Pav, resting her head on his shoulder and holding the Slate.

Cowboy was curled up at their feet. Zhao and Yvonne sat across from them…a considerable distance, given the size of the railcar.

“If we’ve been traveling for an hour, and our speed is thirty kilometers per hour, which is likely a low estimate, we should have traversed a third of the NEO, am I correct?”

“If we traveled in a straight line, sure,” Yvonne said. “But…have you ever been in any big metro? New York, London, Moscow—?”

“I’ve been in Moscow,” Pav said, not sure why he had to contribute to the conversation. It was either talk, or doze off.

“And I’ve been in Paris, London, New York, Beijing,” Zhao said. “What’s your point?”

“These aren’t necessarily linear systems.”

“You’re applying human reasoning to alien engineering.”

“Come on, there are certain concepts that are universal. These people are seriously more advanced than we are in almost every field…but look at this thing.” She waved a hand at the ceiling. “Call it a module or an alien transport vehicle or whatever you want…it’s a subway car.”

“Yes, and it’s moving through an alien subway system toward a habitat—”

“—We hope,” Yvonne said.”

“You’re in touch with the whole system,” Rachel said, rousing herself and looking alarmed. “Don’t you know?”

“Everything shut down when the car started moving,” Yvonne said. “It was kind of a relief, I have to say. Like having the noisy folks next door turning off the loud music.”

“It leaves us blind, however.” Zhao said. “Or, rather…deaf.”

“Maybe it will start up when we get wherever this is going,” Pav said. He sure hoped so. For a moment, he imagined them simply ping-ponging through the interior of Keanu forever…or until they starved or died of thirst.

“Look, everyone, the voices told me to get in the railcar, go with it. It’s taking us somewhere—”