She whispered that she had never intended for anyone to die.
Sepha asked who had approved the experiment.
The supervisor stared at the door instead of answering.
Hamish stepped closer and said that his patience for secrets was beginning to run out.
Marel told them the project had been called Second Threshold.
Its directors wanted to discover whether controlled exposure to skithra toxins could produce the same resistance in other species that Hamish’s body had demonstrated.
The public research program required informed volunteers and strict supervision.
The secret program used patients who believed they were receiving ordinary treatment.
Sepha asked how the project could possibly be justified.
Marel said the directors had promised that the altered medicine would cause only temporary symptoms and would reveal which bodies could learn to resist.
The promise had been false.
The dead patients had never agreed to any experiment.
Imani carefully copied the records to a secure drive and checked their time stamps against the logs.
The data were internally consistent, but she warned that investigators would still need to establish their origin and authenticity.
Sepha said that would happen through an independent inquiry.
Marel looked at the open file and began to cry.
She said Nerin had threatened to expose the project after the first deaths.
Then the laboratory fire had destroyed her communications equipment and killed several workers.
Hamish asked whether the fire had been an accident.
Marel said she did not know.
She said the order to evacuate had come after the smoke was already visible.
Sepha asked whether Nerin had been inside the laboratory when the fire began.
Marel hesitated.
She had seen Nerin leave the laboratory with a small group of workers, but the official casualty list still named her among the dead.
Sepha stared at her.
Where did she go, she asked.
Marel whispered that a transport had taken the survivors to an unregistered research platform beyond the preserve.
She did not know whether Nerin was still alive.
Outside the depot, a patrol ship appeared on Hamish’s navigation display.
It broadcast an order for all visitors to remain where they were until corporate security arrived.
The ship’s registration belonged to Helix.
Marel said that the inspection had triggered an internal alert.
Hamish looked at Sepha and Imani.
He had once joked that the galaxy was full of surprises, most of which wanted to eat him.
Now he understood that the creatures were not the most dangerous things hiding behind the cargo doors.
