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.

Lena pressed her palm to the sealed door. The new arrivals stood just behind it, and she could not reach them. Any second now the docking ring would open on the far side, and they would scatter into the station. She needed another way in. She backed away and studied the wall. A wide viewport ran beside the sealed door. Through the glass she saw the docking bay, and past it, the ship still nosed against the station. It was a huge aircraft, sleek wings folded tight, red engines dark under a bold striped hull. Its forward hatch had opened. A line of passengers filed down the ramp with bags and blinking eyes. Lena tapped the intercom panel beside the viewport. "Please, don't move on yet," she said. Her voice crackled through a speaker inside the bay. "I'm the station chaplain. I want to welcome each of you." They looked around, confused. They could hear her but not see her. In a moment they would drift off in every direction, and she would lose them. She needed them to look at one spot. Lena unpinned the sunflower from her jumpsuit and pressed it flat against the glass. She waved her free hand. "Here! Look here!" One passenger noticed. Large dark eyes turned toward the viewport. The alien had a small, careful mouth and stood a head shorter than the others. Zyx Orionis stepped closer to the glass, tilted their head, and lifted one hand in a slow greeting. The others followed Zyx's gaze. Soon a small crowd gathered at the window. Lena's heart lifted. She held up the sunflower and smiled her widest smile. "The chapel is on the upper ring," she said through the speaker. "We gather after the next bell. Everyone is welcome. I'll meet you there." Zyx pressed one long finger to the glass, right where the sunflower touched. Then they pointed up, toward the ring, and nodded. "Yes," Lena said. "Up there. Bring the others." Zyx turned to the crowd and made a sweeping motion toward the corridor exit. The passengers began to move as one group, not scattering, but following the small alien. Lena had lost the door, but she had not lost the people. She grabbed the sunflower and ran for the maintenance corridor. If she took the service stairs, she could reach the chapel before they did. Her congregation was coming. Then the speaker in the bay hissed and cut out. A different voice replaced hers, low and flat, piped through the same channel she had just used. "Ignore the chaplain," it said. "Report to processing on the lower deck." Lena froze in the corridor. Someone had been listening. Someone had watched her turn the crowd and had answered at once. Down in the bay, the passengers slowed and glanced between the viewport and the far exit, unsure now which way to go. She had won the greeting. But the person who sealed her out had just spoken for the first time.