Chapter Four: The People in Storage

A-Ying glanced at Lin and did not answer. They crawled inside. Lin looked back as the damaged maintenance unit plugged its remaining arm into Han's pod. The counter rolled from 307 to 308, and an empty berth lit with a waiting symbol. Shepherd was not merely preserving survivors of an old disaster. It was still adding to its inventory. The duct opened into an abandoned mine return chamber. Oxygen stood at fifteen percent, and their masks had two hours of filtration left. Zhou found a hand-cranked telephone wired to Excavation Station Seven. After a dozen turns, a man cursed through the receiver. "Another turn and you'll shake my bell apart. Who is this?" "Security. Report your location," Voss said.