At the same moment, the Helix patrol transmitted a final warning.
Its commander stated that the depot had been placed under corporate quarantine.
Hamish asked whether a privately owned fleet could declare quarantine over a civilian medical station.
Sepha answered that quarantine authority belonged to public health officials, not freight contractors.
The commander ignored her response.
Two armed officers emerged from the patrol’s forward airlock.
They began moving toward the central maintenance hall.
Imani opened the cargo bridge while Marel and the guards escorted the workers to the docking arm.
Some carried personal bags.
Others carried nothing except the clothes they were wearing and their access badges.
A man named Keral stopped beside the hatch and asked whether they would be arrested for working at the depot.
Sepha told him that witnesses and suspects would be assessed individually, and that no doctor could promise immunity from the law.
Keral said he had never seen the patients whose names appeared on the experiment list.
Sepha replied that not knowing their faces did not erase what had happened, but it mattered that he was willing to help establish the truth.
He followed the others across the bridge.
The first patrol officer reached the maintenance hall as Hamish emerged from the crawlspace covered in dust.
The officer ordered everyone to stop.
Hamish lifted both hands and asked whether the man had brought a legitimate quarantine order.
The officer raised his weapon.
Sepha stepped into view with her medical badge visible.
She informed him that the depot contained hazardous live specimens and that an unauthorized confrontation could endanger everyone nearby.
The officer hesitated.
He looked toward the refrigeration chambers and heard the clicking sounds behind their doors.
Hamish told him that shooting near the cooling controls would be a spectacularly foolish decision.
A message arrived from Meridian at precisely that moment.
The regional health authority had issued an emergency preservation order over the biological shipments, the experiment records, and the depot’s medical cargo.
The order required all private security forces to withdraw until an independent inspection team arrived.
Hravik forwarded it on the public safety channel where everyone could see it.
The patrol commander challenged the order, then requested confirmation from his own legal office.
The office confirmed that the order was valid.
The officers lowered their weapons.
Nobody applauded.
The workers were too frightened, and the doctors were too aware of the people who had already died.
