Twenty minutes.

  Luca stared at the dim corridor, weighing his options. His scout suit with its [Ghost Protocol] could level the playing field, but getting to the armory would cost precious minutes Emily and Danny didn't have.

  No time. Emily needs me now.

  He was going in with just his bodysuit, his enhanced abilities, and Pixel. No armor. No advanced equipment. Just raw skill against an impossibly enhanced opponent.

  "Chris," he said into his comm. "Prep the sedative. I'm going after her."

  "Copy that. Pod power at forty percent and dropping. Maybe fifteen minutes left."

  Fifteen minutes. Christ.

  Luca headed for the engineering deck, the heart of the ship's power systems and the most likely place Zoe would go to cause maximum damage.

  The corridors had never felt this narrow.

  Without main power, the Triumph had become a maze of shadows and emergency lighting. Red strips along the floor cast everything in hellish hues, and the familiar hum of life support had dropped to an ominous whisper. The air recycling systems were running on minimal power, and already the atmosphere felt stale, oppressive.

  Luca moved through passages he knew by heart, but they felt alien now. The walls seemed closer in the dim light. Every doorway was a black mouth that could hide death. His boots echoed too loudly in the silence, announcing his presence to whatever Zoe had become.

  She knows this ship as well as I do. Every corridor, every hiding spot, every advantage I might think I have.

  Pixel trotted beside him, her purple markings providing the only cheerful light in the darkness. But her fur remained on end, and she kept looking over her shoulder at shadows that followed them down the corridor.

  The staircase to the engineering deck was a black pit. Without power to the lifts, he'd have to go down the manual way. Luca gripped the handrail and started his descent, each step taking him deeper into the ship's mechanical heart.

  Deck Three.

  The air grew thicker as he descended. The emergency ventilation had already turned off, disconnected from backup power. By the time he reached the engineering level, he could taste the metallic tang of recycled air that had been breathed too many times.

  Deck Four. Engineering.

  The doors to the engineering bay stood open like the entrance to a cave. Beyond them, red emergency lighting revealed glimpses of machinery, but most of the massive space was swallowed in darkness. The normal background noises of humming equipment had been reduced to the occasional clicks and low hums of systems cycling on minimal power, keeping the ship alive.

  The engineering deck, normally a zone of 'organized chaos,' looked sinister in the emergency lighting. Spare parts became hidden traps, and coiled cables hung like snares between the massive, silent power conduits.

  Come on Ryan... what the hell.

  Open access panels revealed nests of wiring like electronic intestines, and in the dim red light, everything looked organic, alien.

  Luca activated [Heightened Awareness], and his senses flooded with information. The deep hum of power conduits running on emergency power. The rhythmic drip of a coolant line somewhere in the darkness. The sharp scent of ozone and heated metal, mixed with the stale air of failing ventilation. Beneath it all, he searched for the sound of breathing, the faint heat signature of a human body, anything that didn't belong in his ship's mechanical hum.

  The temperature was rising. Without full climate control, the engineering bay was beginning to heat up from the equipment that still ran. Sweat beaded on Luca's forehead as he moved between towering machinery, each shadow a potential death trap.

  Pixel was his only reliable sensor, her fur standing on end as she hissed at the upper gantries and the dark spaces between machinery. Her purple markings pulsed erratic patterns, tracking movement Luca couldn't see somewhere in the maze of metal and shadow above them.

  "Pod power at thirty percent and dropping fast," Chris's voice crackled over the radio, urgent and strained. "Luca, we're down to maybe ten minutes."

  She's drawing this out. Bleeding my time.

  A sound echoed to his left, metal scraping against metal, coming from everywhere and nowhere. In the darkness, with the emergency lighting throwing wild shadows, every piece of equipment looked like it was moving.

  Luca moved deeper into the engineering bay, using [Proximity Threat Map] to scan for any sign of Zoe's presence. But the ability showed nothing, as if she'd become a complete void in his enhanced perception.

  The air was getting warmer, harder to breathe. His shirt stuck to his back with sweat, and he could hear his own breathing too loudly in the oppressive silence.

  Then Pixel's hissing intensified, her small body backing away from something above them in the darkness.

  A drop of moisture hit Luca's shoulder. He looked up.

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  The attack came without warning.

  A plasma dagger bloomed to life, six inches of white-hot death, casting harsh shadows across the engineering bay. Zoe dropped from the gantry, fully visible for a heartbeat. Naked, slick with fever-sweat. Veins glowing green-black under translucent skin. Eyes glassy, pupils blown wide.

  She lunged.

  She struck for his temple. Luca jerked his head back, feeling the heat from the blade sear past his cheek. The smell of burned air filled his nostrils.

  The emergency lights flickered and died, plunging them into darkness. Only the dagger's glow remained, a deadly star in the black.

  Zoe phased. Her blade arcing toward his throat. Then, the blade vanished, only to reappear behind him in a lethal, impossible trick of motion.

  Luca fought blind, relying on the weapon's glow and his enhanced reflexes. He dodged left as the blade materialized inches from his ribs, the superheated edge cauterizing fabric as it grazed his shirt.

  Her next attack went for his throat. He threw himself sideways, but her palm caught his shoulder anyway. The impact sent him stumbling into a stack of spare parts crates, metal components clattering to the deck around him.

  Zoe. Naked. Fighting me.

  The thought hit him harder than her blow. This was his childhood friend, the girl who'd grown up with him in Sandworth. He'd seen her laugh, cry, argue with Emily about navigation routes. Now she was trying to kill him with nothing but a weapon and her enhanced skin.

  She materialized again three feet away, raising the dagger. Luca activated [Reflex Shot] and rolled left as the blade slashed down, carving a molten line through the deck plating where he'd been.

  His shoulder throbbed where she'd hit him. Something warm trickled down his arm, blood from where her dagger had raked across his skin.

  Luca scrambled to his feet and lunged forward, trying to get inside the dagger's reach. His arms wrapped around her waist, and the contact shocked him.

  Her skin burned against his hands. Not feverish, it was a dry, searing heat that radiated through his palms. Sweat made her slippery, impossible to grip. Her breathing was a rapid, mechanical hiss.

  This thing wearing Zoe's face... What if I can't get her back?

  He tried to pin her arms, using his weight advantage, but her muscles had unnatural strength. She twisted in his grip, her elbow driving into his ribs. Air whooshed out of his lungs.

  Then her body started to fade.

  The sensation was nauseating. His hands didn't lose their grip, they passed through her flesh, as if grasping at warm static. For a split second he was holding nothing, then she solidified again behind him.

  Luca threw himself forward, rolling across the deck. The blade missed by inches, but he felt his skin tighten from the radiant heat.

  A wrench flew out of the darkness, spinning end over end toward his head. He ducked, and it clattered against the far bulkhead. Another tool whipped past his ear; a hyperspanner, thrown hard enough to dent metal.

  She's moving too fast. I can't see where the attacks are coming from.

  A coiled power cable snaked out from between two machines, wrapping around his ankle. Luca yanked his leg free, but the motion sent him off-balance. His knee hit the deck hard, sending a spike of pain up his thigh.

  Can't fight her. Can't restrain her.

  As he struggled to stand, his injured knee nearly buckled. Blood from the scratches on his arm was making his grip slippery. Every breath tasted of overheated metal and stale air.

  Emily. Danny. They're dying while I'm getting beaten by my best friend.

  Luca turned, squinting into the darkness. The emergency lighting cast wild shadows between the machinery, but he couldn't see her anywhere. She'd gone invisible again, Zoe with her long black dreadlocks, melting into the red-lit maze of the engineering bay.

  Where are you?

  She's using the environment as a weapon. The whole room is trying to kill me.

  "Five minutes, Luca!" Chris's voice crackled over the radio. "Five minutes!"

  I can't fight her. Can't restrain her. Have to get past her.

  Luca realized his objective wasn't to defeat Zoe, rather, it was to reach the environmental control room at the far end of engineering. If he could restore main power from there, the medical pods would have the time they needed.

  Zoe charged, phasing mid-tackle, her body becoming a heat shimmer in the emergency lighting. Luca dropped low and swept her legs as she rematerialized, sending her crashing into a toolbox. Wrenches exploded outward, clattering across the deck.

  From somewhere in the darkness, Pixel yowled and leaped onto Zoe's shoulder, claws digging deep enough to draw blood. The distraction was all Luca needed. He locked Zoe's arm behind her back and drove her face-first into a console.

  CRACK.

  Her nose broke, blood streaming down her face. She phased free and reappeared above him, driving her knee into his spine.

  Pain exploded through Luca's back. He stumbled forward, his vision going white for a second. When it cleared, Zoe was already moving, her invisible form just a heat shimmer in the darkness.

  He sprinted. A desperate dash across the engineering bay, using the chaos for cover. He dodged flying debris. Vaulted a workbench. Weaved between massive power conduits as invisible attacks hammered the air around him.

  Something heavy slammed into his back, a tool with inhuman force. He stumbled forward, momentum carrying him into a towering stack of spare parts containers. The impact sent the entire pile toppling.

  Luca threw his arms over his head as metal components rained down around him. A heavy conduit section caught his shoulder, driving him to his knees. More debris piled on top, spare plating, coiled cables, and a deadly scatter of tools.

  His radio crackled, the signal breaking up. "Luca... ksshhh... pod power critical... ksshhh... I'm coming down to help with... ksshhh..." Chris's voice cut out entirely as the unit sparked and died under the weight of fallen equipment.

  Shit. Chris is on his way. She'll ambush him.

  The weight pinned him down, trapping his legs under a tangle of equipment. His radio, clipped to his belt, sparked once as a falling wrench struck it, then went dead.

  Fuck.

  Luca fought to free himself, pushing against the debris pile. His injured shoulder screamed in protest, and his knee throbbed where it had struck the deck earlier. He fought his way out from under the avalanche of spare parts, every second a countdown to Emily and Danny's deaths.

  When he finally struggled free, the engineering bay had gone silent again. Emergency lighting flickered across empty machinery. No sign of Zoe.

  Luca's stomach lurched as his feet lifted off the deck. A wrench floated past his face, spinning slowly. Gravity was gone.

  The control room door was twenty meters away. Fifteen. Ten.

  He slammed his hand on the access panel and dove through as the door slid open, expecting to seal it behind him.

  But the room wasn't empty.

  Chris was slumped against the main console, a dark bruise on his temple where he'd been ambushed and knocked unconscious. He was breathing, but completely out.

  And Zoe was standing over him.

  She was no longer invisible, no longer a shimmering ghost. She stood in plain, terrifying view, her body radiating heat that made the air shimmer around her. The green-black tendrils under her skin pulsed with faint bioluminescence, creating patterns that looked almost like circuitry.

  The plasma dagger rested against Chris's throat.

  In Chris's lap, where it had fallen from his hand, was the sedative injector.

  Zoe looked at Luca with eyes that weren't her own, cold, with a purple sheen that reflected no humanity. She didn't speak, but her message was clear in every line of her posture. The hand resting gently on Chris's shoulder. The blade at his throat. The injector just out of reach.

  Checkmate.

  The timer was counting down the last few minutes of Emily and Danny's lives. Luca couldn't move toward Zoe without risking Chris's death, but if he did nothing, everyone else would die.

  He was trapped in a perfect, impossible choice.

  Who do I save? Who do I let die?