Lena Voss's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Lena Voss had one docking cycle left to save every soul on Gallows Orbit. She pinned the sunflower to her white jumpsuit and practiced her smile in the dark airlock window. A ship had just docked. New arrivals meant new members for her congregation. If she greeted them at the hatch, she could invite them before the doors sealed for the long dark. But the arrivals list was blank. The station's screen showed only static where the passenger roster should scroll. No names. No faces. No count. She could not welcome people she could not find, and the docking clock read twelve minutes. Lena pressed the intercom. "Dockmaster, I need the roster for the new ship." Silence answered. She tried again. Nothing. The system had failed, or someone had wiped it. Either way, she had no list. She would not lose a single soul to a broken screen. Lena walked the corridor toward the docking ring, planning to greet each arrival by hand. If the computer would not name them, she would meet them herself. The corridor lights flickered. Then she heard claws on metal. A lizard the size of a large dog rounded the corner. Its scales shone deep red. Its eyes glowed like hot coals, and two long fangs curved past its jaw. It hissed and blocked the path between Lena and the docking ring. Lena stopped. The creature had escaped from somewhere on the arriving ship. That was why the roster showed static. The animal had chewed through a cable panel. Wires hung loose and sparking behind it. Most people would have run. Lena knelt instead. She kept her voice soft, the same voice she used for frightened newcomers. "Easy now. You're lost too, aren't you?" The lizard snapped. She jerked back. Its fangs missed her hand by inches. Behind it, she saw the docking ring doors begin to slide shut. The clock had run down. She had six minutes, and a monster stood between her and everyone she meant to save. Lena spotted a maintenance hatch on the wall beside her. She yanked it open. Cold air rushed out. The lizard turned toward the new smell. Lena grabbed a coolant canister from the hatch and cracked the valve. White vapor hissed across the floor. The creature flinched from the cold and skittered backward into the open hatch. Lena slammed the panel shut and locked it. The lizard thumped against the metal, trapped. She ran for the docking ring. The doors sealed with a heavy clunk just as she reached them. Lena pressed her hands flat against the cold seam. Behind that door stood the new arrivals, whoever they were. She had cleared the beast but lost her window. The roster screen still showed static. But the sparking wires told her one thing. Somewhere inside the sealed dock, the person who had smuggled that creature aboard was now trapped on the station with her.