The sinking feeling that had opened in Andy’s gut was turning into a gaping maw of ‘what in the stars is going on here?’ Their lights swung from one wall to the other, moving in sequence to light up most of the corridor ahead as they left the storage room and moved further down the hall.

It was another long stretch without any door on either side, but now they were also without any viewports. Even though the vastness of space and spattering of stars didn’t do much to provide light, there was some comfort in being able to see them. A space station could be particularly claustrophobic in the inner sanctum, both without sight of the stars and the lack of movement beneath the deck plates.

Andy wasn’t going to let it get to her. She was there because they had a job to do, and she was going to make sure they did it.

They came to another junction and she brought them to a halt. She looked both directions, seeing as far as her light let her. She saw more doors to the left so she ordered them to continue that way.

At the next door, Andy nodded at Dan to open this door like he had the last.

While waiting for that, Andy looked at the fifth member of her five-man squad: Private, First Class Jade Martin, the third human on the team. It was a quick look, at first, but then she noticed how Jade kept snapping her head from side to side, and it didn’t look like she was just keeping an eye on their surroundings. Her eyes never focused on either side of the hallway; they looked like they were looking at things that...weren’t there?

“Martin,” Andy called in a low voice just as the micro jack completed its job and dropped the floor with a thud. Jade’s head snapped in her direction, and Andy could see that her eyes were dilated and she was breathing harder than any exertion on their part could explain. She frowned slightly. “What is it?”

“Nothing, Sergeant,” Jade said with a short shake of her head.

Andy wasn’t convinced, but the door was open to another room that needed to be searched. She decided not to push the issue...for the moment.