Precipice

Then he realized the fire was directly above the classified laboratory known to its resident scientists as the Vault. “Seklir, deploy additional security teams to Cargo Deck A, in sections one-ninety through one-ninety-eight.”

“Aye, sir,” Seklir said.

As the Vulcan ensign relayed Jackson’s order to the deck officer on the lowest occupied level of the station, the image from Cargo Deck B went dark on the master display screen.

“What just happened?” demanded Jackson.

Seklir worked at his terminal for a moment. “The fire has spread into the security node at juncture CB/one-ninety-two.” He looked up at Jackson. “We have lost surveillance video and internal sensors on Cargo Decks A and B.”

Jackson had a feeling something bad was about to happen. And this day started off so well,he thought. He turned and snapped to his deputy, “Signal ops to sound Yellow Alert.”

Heihachiro Nogura smiled at his yeoman as she set a tray bearing his lunch on his desk. “Thank you, Ensign.”

“You’re welcome, Admiral,” said Ensign Toby Greenfield. The diminutive brown-haired young woman asked, “Is there anything else I can get for you, sir?”

“No,” said Nogura. “But I’d like to move the meeting with the department heads back to sixteen thirty hours.”

Greenfield nodded. “I’ll let them know, sir.”

Nogura nodded his acknowledgment, and Greenfield left. The admiral picked up a spoon and began enjoying his chicken noodle soup.

The Yellow Alert klaxon whooped once, and the comm signal on his desk buzzed. Spoon still in hand, he reached over and opened the cha

“Admiral,”replied executive officer Commander Jon Cooper, “we’re receiving an emergency report from Doctor Marcus.”

“Details,” Nogura demanded.

“She says toxic gas is flooding the Vault. Security informs me the fumes might be a byproduct of a plasma fire on Cargo Deck B.”

Pushing aside his lunch, Nogura said, “Evacuate the Vault.”

“Yes, sir. Engineering is deploying a hazmat unit.”

“Belay that,” Nogura said, wary of sending perso

“Aye, sir,”Cooper replied. “Evacuating the Vault now.”

Blue fog gave every light source in the lab a pale halo as Carol Marcus fought for breath and waved her people toward the Vault’s exit. “Move it, people!” she shouted.

Hot, hacking coughs wracked her chest with pain. Fumes stung her eyes, which watered and blurred her vision. Through her hazy veil of sight she struggled to identify and account for all her people. They stampeded past her, toward the bright-white tube tu

She spotted Ming Xiong easily—he was the only person not ru

Dr. Tarcoh, a middle-aged Deltan theoretical physicist, collapsed a few meters shy of the door. Marcus staggered out of the line of escaping perso

As she passed Xiong, she asked him in a hoarse voice, “Is that everyone?”

“I think so,” he said, slipping under Tarcoh’s other arm so he could help Marcus carry the man out.

They exited the brightly lit tu

Marcus and Xiong nodded at the security officer, who waved them past, ushering them out the door. In the corridor, the other scientists cleared the center of the passage and stood with their backs to the walls.

Looking back to ask the security officer how soon the medical teams would arrive, she didn’t see him anywhere. Then she saw the door to CA/194–6 was closed. For a moment she wondered whether the security officer had sealed the compartment from the inside or from the outside, but there was no time to ask questions. She already had her hands full.

Lieutenant Jackson reached Cargo Deck A and sprinted out of the turbolift. He was several sections away from the Vault because the turbolift shaft closest to the lab had lost power when the fire had started on Cargo Deck B.

His every step echoed off the metal deck plates as he ran through the corridors. He saw people standing outside the lab as he passed the junction for section one-ninety-eight. Many of them were dressed like civilians; he guessed they were the scientists who worked in the Vault. Mingled with them were members of the security detail he had sent down to secure the area. Everyone stood aside and let him pass. He kept ru

“Doctor Marcus!” exclaimed Jackson. “Is everyone all right?”

Marcus waved at Jackson as if signaling him to slow down. “We’re fine,” she said. “The lab’s been evacuated and sealed.” Throwing a nervous look back toward the Vault’s cover location, she added, “I think one of your men might have locked himself in trying to seal it, though.”

Suspicion raised the hackles on Jackson’s neck. “One of my men is inside?” He looked at Xiong. “Which one?”

Xiong shrugged. “No idea. Never saw him before.”

Jackson started walking toward CA/194–6. He stopped at a wall panel and opened a comm cha

“Checking, sir,”the Vulcan said. A moment later he added, “None of our people has reported sealing that compartment.”

“Is anyone in the Vault right now?”

“Internal sensors in that section are still offline, sir.”

“Retask some from adja—”

Something shook the station as if an earthquake had struck. Jackson and the others in the corridor were thrown to the deck as the lights went out. When emergency illumination flickered on, Jackson pushed himself back to his feet and opened an emergency-equipment panel. “Seklir, do you copy?”

“Aye, sir. What is happening?”“Something just blew up inside the Vault,” Jackson said, retrieving a pair of goggles and a breathing mask with an air canister. “I’m going in to see what it was. Send everyone you can. I want this deck sealed. Got it?”

“Understood, sir.”

Jackson ran back to the door and keyed in his security override code. With an asthmatic hiss the door slid open. Heat and fumes gusted into his face. He put on the goggles and strapped on the breathing mask. As he entered the smoky office, he secured the air canister to his belt and opened its valve.

The concealed door to the lab had been shattered into millions of tiny fragments, which lay scattered both inside and outside the cylindrical tu