1: Breaking the Surface

Zaki’s heart starts racing, the blood pounding in his ears as he closes the airlock behind Lobos and starts flipping through the station’s security feeds, looking for anything. If he’s going to try anything he needs to actually find the ship and see if it’s interfacing with any of Prometheus’ unsecure networks, of which there are many.

Okay Matar, he thinks. Tenye wa breath. To keng depelésh da lahmu unte depelésh to ta vedi imalowda ultim.

He pulls up a repair interface and starts triangulating the ambusher’s trajectory.He flips through the security feeds, but there’s nothing there. Was Lobos right? Martian stealth tech? Everyone’s heard about it, but if that’s what this is the ship’s practically invisible.

"Pashang..."

*

Claire and Hector are bickering over what to do with Hinkley and Cas when her handheld, still clutched in front of her, pings silently from Lobos. She glances down, her eyes narrow and she looks up at Hector.

"Deal na ere," she snarls, her head snapping back and forth, eyes darting around the corridors.

"To pagal, ke?" Hector takes a couple of steps back away from her, his hand going to his pistol…

… when Lobos sails through the ether and smashes into him. The axe kick sends Hector reeling, droplets of blood ribboning out of his nose, spinning into little scarlet globules that fly wide. Lobos pins Hector in front of him easily, and the pirates all draw their weapons, everyone except for Sharma, Hinkley and Cas–the latter two both unarmed.

Sharma takes a couple of steps forward, holding up her hands. "Im kowl gut, kowmang. Let’s–"

Her head snaps to the left, down the darkened corridor, and she spins around and leaps towards Claire. "Get down!"

Hinkley turns to grab Cas, but the Belter spins around and attacks one of their pirate escorts, bare handed. The Belter is in a frenzy, snarling like an animal and the pirate simply has to hold up his arm to fend off the attack, fumbling for his own weapon.

"Oh crap," Hinkley mutters as the pirate Cas is attacking swears in surprise. His training kicks in and he drops low, rushing towards Cas to try and pull him off and take cover. "Lobos! Behind you!"Then things explode into utter chaos.

The ambushers appear at the mouth of the darkened hallway to the west, opening fire, a spray of small arm fire. They sail silently down the dark hall and take positions in the tunnel mouth, magnetizing themselves to the metal grating laid down over the ice and rock. Lobos’ HUD reads five attackers, well outfitted in flat-black security armor VAC suits, with thrusters, like him. These are clearly professionals. Two in front with standard zero-G assault rifles acting as their spear, three behind them laying down suppressing pistol fire.Lobos feels stinging pops against his armor as the PHEG registers rifle fire coming from behind him, down the west tunnel. Hector falls limp crushed against him, small globules of blood leaking from fresh holes in his torso and legs, torn up by the rifle fire meant for the power-armored man. Lobos hears Claire cry out as a bullet wings her, but she’s still up and moving, no sign of injury. Luck of the Irish. Hinkley as well, rushing over to Cas, gets nicked in the calf, but doesn’t seem injured. One of the OPA thugs, however, is not so lucky, blood blossoming out from a hip wound.

"Hector det!" one of the pirates cries out, barely audible over the noise.

"Pashang!" Claire cries, ducking behind a wall with Sharma and drawing her pistol. "Kill imalowda!"

Claire fires at the ambushers, aiming for one of the attackers with a rifle, while her backup follows suit. The man being attacked by Cas draws his pistol and attempts to clock the Belter across the face as Hinkley tries to wrestle Cas away to safety.

Hector’s OPA crew, on the other hand, have drawn their pistols and are firing indiscriminately, trying to take down anyone in sight, crying to one another that they’ve been set up.The tunnels echo with the exchange of small arm fire, utter chaos. Claire and Sharma are pinned down in a small nook in the ice wall, Claire attempting to return fire against the ambushers, while the other pirates, both on her side and the OPA, seem to shoot at whoever they can see. Cas gets hit with the butt of the Bonny pirate’s pistol, a sickening crunch as his nose is bloodied and he stumbles away, although Hinkley manages to fend off some the attack as the pirate tries to batter his attacker. Small spheres of blood start to fill the hall, splattering on the walls in every direction.*

All Zaki can see from the security feed are small pops of light and a mad scramble of figures. The audio has gone fuzzy with the sound of weapons fire and screaming.

"Anne Bonny, Anne Bonny, Lahmu xiya, ground team under attack," Zaki’s flipping through the security feeds, checking the station’s airlock logs. He can see which airlock the ambushers entered through, but all he can see outside it is the dusty surface of Prometheus.

"Pashang!" he growls through gritted teeth. "Anne Bonny, Anne Bonny, ground team under attack, respond fodagut!"

What can he do? He feels helpless just sitting there. Maybe he can give them a couple of extra minutes to get out of there, at least. He pulls up a feed to station security, glancing at a map of the tunnels. "Xep! Under attack ere tunnel faf! Xep! Fodagut!"Zaki’s voice cracks, he feels desperate, and station security’s confirmation means they believe him. Good, security is probably already on their way and, that’d give everyone an extra couple of minutes with the misdirection, and put security behind the ambushers. Zaki doesn’t want to get innocent Belters killed, even if they are bullying other Belters for an Earth corp, but he needs to give the others a fighting chance.

*

Sharma hunkers down besides Claire, glancing out around the corner. She draws a hefty combat knife from her boot, feels the weight in her hand, and whips it expertly at one of the rifle-wielding ambushers.Sharma watches the dagger stick into the shoulder pad of the attacker and wobble impotently, stopped by the armor.

"Fuck," she mutters as Claire reloads her pistol and prepares to fire.

Lobos charges the ambushers, machine pistol spraying back and forth as they attempt to take cover, make themselves as small a target as possible. The gun spits bullets strafing back and forth across the mouth of the tunnel.One of the ambushers wielding a rifle takes the worst of it–blood spatters out from his right arm, a chunk from his tricep that passed through and took a little with it, but even while his blood splatters the pitch black armor of his backup, he turns his gun back on the pirates.

Cas continues to struggle against Hinkley, thrashing wildly despite his bloodied nose, the bullets soaring around them and the pirate who’s aiming his pistol at him.Hinkley swings Cas around against the wall, putting himself between the pirate and the Belter. In one swift motion he grabs Cas’ collar, pushes him back, then pulls the Belter forward and brings his head into Cas’. Hard. Stars dance in Hinkley’s vision as he feels the Belter go still, pushing them both forward against the wall. When his vision stops popping with lights, Hinkley sees that Cas is standing stock still, arms floating, blood trickling out of his nose strangely in microgravity.

That, at least, gets the Bonny pirate focused on the real enemy. Now he just has to hope Cas doesn’t get hit by a stray bullet… and himself, Hinkley needs to get through this alive too. He pushes himself and Cas against the wall as best he can, shielding the two of them, his eyes darting around looking for a weapon.

One of the attackers with the rifle holds up an arm and motions at Lobos, directing the other rifle wielder to concentrate fire on that mass of power-armor that’s firing on them.While Lobos only feels the minor stings of bullets bouncing off the PHEG–the armor built to withstand much more than small arms fire–the others aren’t faring as well as the ambushers continue to lay down fire. Hinkley is pinned down, trying to protect Cas, his eyes searching desperately for a weapon. Claire leans out from cover slightly to assess the enemy’s location and is winged. Bad. She cries out and stumbles back into the nook, an explosion of bloody little globules leaking out of her side where her jumpsuit been torn and bloodied.

"Gush imalowda pashangwala!" she screams through gritted teeth. The OPA thugs, meanwhile, don’t seem to care who they’re firing at.Claire lines up a shot and takes down the wounded gunman, while one of her crew rushes to her defenses and gets a bullet into the stomach of the other riflemen, a steady stream of epithets out of his mouth.

The OPA thugs have hunkered down in their own tunnel, firing at anything that moves.

**

"Anne Bonny, Anne Bonny, Lahmu, respond," the pit of anxiety in Zaki’s stomach roils. The fact that the pirates aren’t responding or telling him to shut the fuck up gets his hackles up.

Zaki flips through the security feeds in the docks, trying to see if he can figure out what’s going on.Zaki watches it from the old, grainy docks cameras from a couple of different angles. Four black-armoured soldiers walk out of the Bonny carrying something large between them, easy because of the negligible gravity. They leap off the side of the docks and float out into the darkness of space.

"Stealth kapawu…" Zaki mutters to himself, disturbed by the sight of four people disappearing into nothingness. "Pashang…"

He curls up in the cockpit seat, listening to the shouts and gunfire on the other end. "Pashang…"

*

Sharma presses Claire against the wall of the tunnel as the Belter woman gasps in pain and shock, hands shaking as she struggles to reload her gun. She doesn’t seem confident, but she tries to staunch the flow of blood.Claire pushes her away, pressing a gun into Sharma’s hands, "Na! Xep milowda mang!"

Sharma steps around Claire, putting herself between the captain and the attackers as best she can.

Lobos’ fresh attack with his power-suited acrobatics tears through the wounded ambusher, who flips over backwards, slamming against the metal grating, a mess of torn up armor and viscera.

In the same mechanical, methodical way when the first ambusher dropped, one of the others moves forward and trades her pistol for the dead man’s rifle. Their helmets, tinted black from the outside, betray no fear or worry that the battle seems to be turning against them.Hinkley gasps as he feels a bullet tug at his Krystal Kleer jumpsuit leg, but when he looks down all he can see is a hole in the cloth. Small miracles, but he is not feeling good about his chances as Lobos, the attackers and the OPA trade fire, blasting chunks of ice and rock, globules of blood colouring the walls.

He practically hugs his body against Cas and pulls the Belter down into the jagged crevice, making them as small a target as they can for now. "I’ve got you, buddy," he whispers, his own voice oddly calm in his ears, barely audible over the raging battle. In spite of himself, he begins to whisper a prayer, eyes still glancing back and forth for a weapon. He’s going to get them through this. He’s not going to lose another crew member.

The three remaining attackers appear to recognize that standard weapons’ fire won’t win against Lobos, so they turn their guns on the others.Claire reels backwards against the tunnel wall, groaning in pain, clutching her stomach, as she takes a bullet straight to the gut.

With two of their numbers injured, adding to the clouds of bloody globules filling the tunnel, one of the OPA pirates, an older woman, starts to scream at the others to fall back. As the OPA fall back down the north tunnel they lose their line of sight on the dark armored soldiers, so their only targets are the Bonny’s crew and the Bounty’s survivors. Claire’s pirates realize she’s wounded and close around her, with Sharma crouched over Claire.One of the Bonny pirates is thrown backwards, bouncing down the hallway, bloody and limp, while the other one takes a bad hit in the shoulder."Zaki--" the spit of bullets is muted by Lobos’ armor over comms. "Shit is getting real down here."

Zaki’s head snaps up and his body unfurls. In one graceful motion he kicks up out of the pilot’s chair and pushes off the ceiling, down into the hold. He double checks his VAC suit, emblazoned with the Krystal Kleer logo, is good and he floats over to the airlock.

"Mi ge da emergency tube out, ready tu dust xosh," Zaki barks back at Lobos, his voice cracking as he fumbled with the airlock controls. He resisted the urge to ask if anyone is dead.

*

In spite of every fiber of muscle in his body trying to freeze him in place, Hinkley throws himself off of Cas, pushing off to grab the dead pirate’s pistol. He’s not going to die cowering.The pistol feels familiar in his hands. Hinkley extends his arms, lines up a shot on the closest gunner. He clocks a slight separation in the armor whenever the shooter lifts her arm. A simple squeeze and she stumbles sideways as he ducks back against the wall beside Cas.

"Lobos," Sharma’s voice comes over comms, the first time she’s directly addressed him. "Claire’s hit. Bad."

Her finger twitches on the trigger and the wall behind one of the riflemen explodes, showering them with dust. "Goddamnit! We need to get out of here!"

"Go!" Hinkley cries at Sharma as Zaki’s voice crackles in their earpieces, maneuvering Cas’ body low and sliding him across the floor, down the hallway. "I’ll cover you!"Hinkley fires off a few shots and sends one of the attackers stumbling clumsily sideways in their mag boots, just as Lobos collides into them, punching them once, again and continues to beat them until it isn’t clear what parts are their combat helmet and what’s the crown of their skull.

Sharma pushes Claire’s hand against the wound to keep pressure on it, even while the pirate fumbles with her handheld, gasping for breath. Sharma uses all of her strength in a hard kick off the wall as Lobos begins to bash in the head of one of the surviving attackers. She and Claire soar awkwardly alongside Cas, launching themselves away from the OPA fire.

The ambushers take Lobos turning their colleague’s head into space coolly. Almost simultaneously the two remaining attackers, one clutching a wound in their side, pull fresh pistols from off their hips and aim them at Lobos’ head.The bullets slam into the PHEG’s hood and face shield, crumple and float away harmlessly, kinetic absorption lowers the danger of ricocheting bullets. But he feels it even as a halo of crumpled real metal bullets float away without causing a nick on the armor.

The OPA thugs lay down cover fire as the surviving Bonny pirate scrambles for cover, but takes a bullet in the head that causes them to go limp and slap against the wall, more globes of blood splattering.

*Zaki hears the hissing seal of the emergency airlock between the Lahmu and the station’s old mining tunnel. He glances through the old, circular, scratched-up window, then wrestles the old manual release. If Lobos hadn’t already loosened the mechanism it would probably take more strength than Zaki has in his body.

As the crackle of Lobos calling for a retreat comes over the radio, Zaki presses himself against the wall of the inner airlock and inches his way into the darkness. The limited sensors on his suit don’t show anyone nearby.

"​​Kowl gut xiya, pampa. Send imalowda."

After a few gut clenching moments Zaki sees a suitlight glow getting closer. He grabs his flashlight and begins flickering it, Belta and universal sign for, "Get the fuck over here now, idiot."

Sharma guides Claire and Cas as best she can.

Gideon doesn’t hesitate a second and clumsily kicks off the wall, trying to strafe along with his pistol. "I’ll help the captain!"Gideon doesn’t look back as he crashes and scrapes across the wall down the hallway, then kicks off again. He grabs Cas from Sharma, which helps her get Claire to the airlock.

"Pashang…" Zaki mutters when he catches sight of the wound in Claire’s gut. She slaps her handheld against his chest as Sharma manoeuvers them through the airlock.

"Gif deting fo Lobos," she barks at him, and he glances down at the blood smeared screen in his vac suit’s palm.

He kicks over to Hinkley and helps maneuver him into the doorway. "Ta ge imalowda, Pampa. Gut fo go. Vamanos."

Zaki soars through the emergency seal and keys the Lahmu’s airlock closed behind him. Sharma and Hinkley have switched casualties, the woman straps Cas into a seat while Hinkley is murmuring quietly to O’Rourke.

Back at the cross section tunnel, the ambusher empties the clip of their pistol against Lobos’ visor and suddenly they’re right next to the power armored warrior, coming at him with an extendable baton, which would tickle slightly less than the gunfire. Whoever this is, they know they’re not surviving this encounter. They don’t care.

The Lahmu banks gently, a slight lurch as Zaki eases onto the thrusters. Gideon turns away, out of respect for this moment. Sharma sits on the corner of the foldout seat she’s strapped Cas into. She’s watching… but not, a stricken, distant look on her face as Claire dies, cradled by Lobos’ gauntlets.

Claire actually smiles up at Lobos, blinking sleepily. Gideon’s clearly given her something for the pain. Even though she’s gone deathly pale, her golden-blonde hair sticking to the cold sweat on her forehead, Lobos can’t help but think of the expression on her face waking up next to her.

"Oye Blue…" she says, a trembling whisper, amusement colouring her old world-turned Belta accent, her breath rapid and fluttering, sharp little nervous, shallow intakes. "Oye Blue… Oye…"

She’s too cold, the skin, sweat and blood-soaked jumpsuit against the armour. Blood’s not supposed to feel that cool. Lobos has seen this before, a bullet’s passed right through her stomach and side, severe blood-loss, late hypovolemic shock, hypoxia, he doesn’t even need to access the medical feedout from his suit. Her blood has soaked through her suit and the metal grating underneath her, it’d take an entire medical team and a massive blood transfusion to give her even a chance of surviving.

She reaches a hand up weakly, as if she wants to run it across his face, but even in microgravity she’s too weak, her hand just waves slowly and lazily. Her breathing picks up, and she frowns a little, confused. "Blue… Oye Blue… Mi shelaf fo wang ere tumotim… ke? Im kowl gut, milowda ye tenye tim fo fo du da meet. Mi ámolof to, bik Blue. Sweet dreams."

Her breathing goes fast and shallow, the rest of the skiff gone quiet except for the occasional muted hum of the vessel’s thrusters. She blinks slowly, confused, and gives Lobos a sleepy smile before closing her eyes. It’s gentle, as far as deaths can go.

*

Something’s happening on Prometheus… something that eclipses a three-way shootout in old mining tunnels. The couple dozen people on the station’s single public promenade are gathered around screens and terminals, or hunched over handhelds, speaking in hushed, furtive voices, if at all. Headlines in Inner and Belter Creole scroll across the news feeds, with graphics, simulations and talking heads on every channel.

EROS IMPACTS ON VENUS

There’s a stifled sob, a muttered curse. The news is too absurd to be believed, but every telescope and sensor in the system is now turned on the second planet, and initial readings confirm this. One and a half million people, the birthplace of Belter culture, now a crater beneath clouds of sulfuric acid on an alien planet.

Nothing could survive that.

*

There’s a gentle bump as the Lahmu connects with the Bonny’s starboard airlock on the freight level. A few of the crew can be glimpsed through the small airlock windows, standing across the hold by the port airlock.

On the way back to the pirate’s ship Hinkley let Lobos know, in a low and efficient report, that the captive was dead, likely self-inflicted through a mod or even a suit function since most of his injuries were superficial. But there’s still plenty to be learned from the body and suit, he’ll store it, take a look at it if they get the chance.

Hinkley has secured the captive’s body and revived a sullen Cas, who stares down in a daze, unfocused. Sharma is taking a look to see who’s in the hold, and assess the airlock panel and contact the crew, since only the Captain and XO can override the security lockout during the exchange.

After a moment, she walks back over and crouches down beside Lobos. He notices how she reaches out and touches Claire’s arm out of respect, even reverently.

"Something’s not right in the hold," she murmurs, eyes still on the airlock window. "The crew have their backs to us and they’re limp, unconscious or…"

She glances down at Claire, and the stricken look has been replaced with a practiced coolness, but Lobos recognizes something in Sharma’s eyes. An intense fury, hatred at the people who have done this.

"Dead. That doesn’t give me hope for the rest of the crew, and the XO. Uthys, Pol and Xen in there are the best guns on board. That makes getting in complicated."

"Na deting complicated."

Zaki floats down and lands with a soft thunk as his boots magnetize. He’s clutching something to his stomach, it’s smeared with blood, as are his hands and the front of his VAC suit. He holds Claire’s handheld out to Lobos, carefully, and the soldier watches as the Anne Bonny’s command codes transfer to him. With little fanfare, Caiden Lobos is now captain of pirate’s modified freighter.

*

Three pirates stand dead just inside the port airlock, boots still locked to the deck, clearly taken by surprise. There was a small shootout at the door into the armory leaving four more pirates, including the XO, gored with heavy rifle fire, making strange, gruesome wraiths standing amidst whisps remaining from a smoke grenade. Inside the armory it looks like two of the pirates surrendered, opened the vault for the boarders with the XO’s override and were promptly executed. Not a soul aboard left alive.

And the sample is gone.

Zaki is sitting with Cas in the Lahmu, while Gideon goes about the unpleasant but necessary task of dealing with the half-dozen dead bodies. After Sharma helps Gideon get Claire into the single mortuary compartment in the med bay she climbs up to the bridge to take stock of the ship’s condition and status in refueling, but there’s still the issue of clearing up their account with the docks.

Finishing the task of getting all of the corpses secured in the armory, Gideon climbs back up to the hold and sits against the wall near the airlock to the Lahmu looking numb, exhausted, staring out at nothing.

Zaki, who looks miserable, got Cas strapped into bed–the older Belter went quiet and docile back aboard the Bonny–and then checked on flight controls. Zaki’s sure of serí things: that they can take control with Lobos’ new permissions, that he can pilot the Bonny, and that they’ll never get out with the outstanding docking and resupply fees, as well as a security lockdown on the docks–likely caused by the discovery of a shootout in the old mining tunnels… Not unless they want to blast their way out, and that might be pushing their luck.

Zaki’s perched on the upper catwalk of the cargo hold, where he and Hinkley were waiting to see what happens next. Sharma is up on the bridge, Zaki says, and it’s clear he’s avoiding her. Or maybe just sticking close to Hinkley and Lobos. Lobos has seen it before, survivors bound together, anxious to not let one another out of their sight.

Hinkley gulps when Lobos mentions recycling Claire’s body, although Zaki isn’t phased a bit.

"Right, I guess that… right…"

At that moment, Sharma slides down the crew ladder that runs through the center of the hold, flipping around on the caging protecting the entrance to the upper levels. She’s holding out her handheld, a grim look on her face.

"Lobos… you’re going to want to see this. All of you are."

She lands and magnetizes to the deck, and begins keying in commands. She looks spooked, even more so than could be expected, she’s kept a pretty calm head so far all things considered.She flips through the different protocols she’s run the message through.

"I’ve run everything I can think of and… It’s just a normal message." This is what seems to be disturbing her. The normalcy of the message she queues up. "Standard encryptions for a private message, went to the ships’ general comms. I listened to it up on the bridge, sorry. I wanted know what we’re dealing with. I… well, here…"

She holds her hand terminal up and it projects the message, enlarging the picture.

"Survivor’s of the Abzu’s Bounty… my name is Diana, I think we should talk."

The woman on the screen has light brown skin, pale green eyes and dark hair, tied up in a tight bun; an Earther or Martian from her appearance, pretty, if in a conventional sort of way, maybe in her late 30s or early 40s. From the shoulders up it’s clear she’s dressed simply, but well, maybe a corporate employee? A dark coat over a well tailored blouse, no jewelry–so she’s used to traveling in the Black. Her mannerisms are cool, even relaxed, and her speech is precise and direct, businesslike. She speaks for a living.

"I’ve kept my eye on your situation, I’m sorry for your losses, genuinely. But you’re in a precarious and unique situation, and I think we can help each other.

"The most polite term you could use for me is a ‘fixer’, fairly high level, not working, as you may have guessed, in the most legal of markets.

"You are a crew that finds themselves in possession of a ship. Unfortunately for you that ship is a registered pirate vessel, so on top of making getting off Prometheus difficult, running into any patrols or docking in legal ports will be doubly so.

"What I offer is this. I need to get to Mars. Quietly. I have some business there. I can pay, more than enough to cover my passage," she flicks at her handheld terminal, and a standard chartering contract appears on screen as an attachment. The terms are generous. "I can clear things up with station security, cover the docking and resupply fees and provide your ship with a clean bill of health. I’m happy to pay for repairs, although you’ll probably want to do that… well, not here.

"I may also be able to look into your situation. The Bounty being targeted, the attack in the tunnels, the Anne Bonny's crew, the sample… Like I said, I’ve been keeping an eye on your situation, and while you don’t have any reason to believe me–I understand that–I want to find the people who are responsible for all of this. I’m very happy to pool resources to that end.

"If we’re happy with the arrangement once we arrive, I may even have some future freelance work for you. Again, I hope we can help each other. I’m nearby, I’ll await your response."

The feed cuts.

Hinkley exhales a deep breath, exhausted. Zaki’s face scrunches up.

Sharma shakes her head. "It’s a helluva a message."

Zaki's eyes go wide, and he looks at the others like someone is going to challenge the appointment. Gideon gives him the first smile he’s managed since they last left the Bonny.

Sharma nods at Lobos, courteous, "Of course, Captain. I think that’d be good."

"I’ll go check on Cas," Gideon says as Zaki kicks off the wall and floats to the crew ladder. Once the pilot’s cleared the next deck he begins his climb. "And then I’ll catch some kip, if that’s alright."

"I’ll… go inform our client we’re taking the job," Sharma says, and then her expression turns grim as she looks at the bodies Gideon’s prepared. "I’ll forward the personnel files to command… let me know if I can help with the crew’s calls, I didn’t know them long, but Claire had a good crew."

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, bracing herself against the ladder.

"R-recycler and botany’s in engineering, the deck just below the cargo hold. I can get the bodies down there," she says to Lobos before starting the climb, tossing back in a dry tone. "I… actually have a bit of a green thumb."

*

The woman is dressed simply but smartly, a loose but well tailored, dark suit, business attire. Even her mag-boots are simultaneously stylish and high quality at a glance. She has dark hair, pale green eyes and light brown skin, an Inner from her height and build. Her mannerisms are cool, even relaxed, and her speech is precise and direct. Sensors register little more than some toiletries, a couple changes of clothes and her handheld–heavily encrypted, of course.

Sharma stands with Lobos inside the cargo deck as they open the airlock facing Prometheus to Diana, who nods graciously as her boots click smartly across the deck.

"Thank you," she stands just inside the airlock door. "Diana, but you know that."

"Tulsi Sharma," the other woman says. Diana nods and turns to Lobos.