Aimee’s non-stop commentary was setting Ethan’s teeth on edge. She was making random observations on the failing life support and her voice kept speeding up, then slowing down as if she were on an old-fashioned tape loop that kept stretching and contracting. Still, it gave him a modicum of satisfaction to hear it over the shriek of the collapsing habitat.

Small victories.

Becca was working through the holo-map, her eyes serious under her blood smeared forehead. He wanted to wipe her skin clean, but that would have to wait till later. Once he’d gotten her out of this hellhole.

“Life support here. The two subs were in the docking bay. Lady’s gone and Dora’s access was crushed by the depth charges. Okay.” Becca exhaled. “Tell me I’m missing something, there must be something I’m just not seeing. There has to be.” Her knuckles were white as she gripped the edge of the desk.

Ethan scanned the flickering image. The flashes made his head ache, adding to the band of pain knotted between his shoulder blades. His arms were rigid as if they could snap off from the tension humming through his muscles. Becca had covered everything in the starfish-shaped habitat. The lower service level, the occupied middle floor, and the conduits that ran above and below them, supplying essential life support.

He pointed at a small outlined box in the lower right-hand corner. “You haven’t mentioned this. What is it?"

“The old Geo-lab.”

“Is it linked?”

“Yes, by a flooded service conduit.” She looked up at him, something dawning in her eyes as if she didn’t quite trust herself to say the words out loud. “The Geo-labs were the original installation here. They were built in the early 2020s for marine ecology research.”

Becca expanded the view of the small box on the screen with a twist of her fingers. “When Triton built the habitat, the Geo-lab was used by the finishing engineers as a base while construction was completed. When Ceto was finished, the link was closed. It’s flooded now.”

Ethan focused on the detail of the square. The Geo-lab was small. Little more than a research lab with a tiny living area and crew quarters for two people. He peered closer. “According to this plan, there’s a docked emergency escape submersible.” Hope rose in his gut. He was familiar with this craft, even if it was dated. “Looks like an old LR5. Is it still there?”

Becca looked him directly in the eye. The dazed expression that had been there only a short while ago was gone, replaced by a wide grin and a gleam in her eye. “I think so. The building’s right next to the dig site. I’ve seen it, but I’ve never been inside. It’s a relic.”

Above their heads, ceiling panels protested loudly, announcing their imminent demise.

A fresh wave of adrenalin blazed through him. “A relic that might just save us. How do we get over there? All the dive equipment is in the docking bay.”

“Not all of it.” Excitement tinged her voice. “The moon pool in Redd’s lab has hard suits.”

Ethan took a step back from the map. “That’s settled then. We walk to the Geo-lab.”

As Ethan approached the exit out of Operations, another depth charge pounded through the habitat, forcing him to grab the doorframe. Metal dug into the meat of his palm. “We’re running out of time.”

“Habitat integrity approaching critical limits,” Aimee recited over groaning metal. Her voice was too slow and deep. Ethan hoped she was dying. Very slowly. And painfully.

“Closing access hatches to maintain habitat integrity,” Aimee continued.

A pipe on the wall burst, showering Ethan in bone-numbing water. He grabbed Becca’s chilled fingers, mentally calculating how many doorways they needed to make it through before they got to the moon pool. Too many.

He ran straight ahead for the exit, blanking the stabbing ache in his lacerated foot. There wasn’t time to be injured.

Becca’s feet barely skimmed the door frame as she jumped through after him, the emergency panels rolling shut behind her.

“Aimee. Keep the route to Dr. Redd’s moon pool open,” Becca shouted as they sprinted for the next door, which marked the boundary between the research labs and the rest of the habitat.

“I’m sorry, Dr. Johnson, I am unable to comply. Habitat integrity is compromised and approaching sixty percent. Continuing with emergency protocol.”

Ethan gritted his teeth. Fuck. This AI is on a mission.

The habitat shuddered, the floor under Ethan’s feet warping. He teetered, striving to regain his balance as books, papers, pens, and electrical equipment blasted him from high shelves. He sidestepped falling detritus, searching for a safe path. “Watch your feet!”

The floor abruptly tilted, and everything slid to his left. Only his wide stance stopped him from doing the same. He shifted his grip on Becca, catching her forearm, and locking their bodies together with an audible grunt. Another detonation and the floor jerked, flinging them forward.

Ethan staggered, desperate to maintain his momentum as the next hatch began to close. He put on a spurt of speed and wedged his body in the gap, bracing it open between his back and feet. Agony lanced up from his cut foot and above his head, pipes ruptured, pummeling him with more glacial water that made his head pound.

“Hurry,” he screamed as Becca pitched toward him.

The door mechanism whined in his ear, fighting him, the sharp edge scraping skin from the knobs of his spine. He bore down, grinding his teeth as Becca squirreled through the gap over the top of his lap.

“I swear, I’m going to kill her,” Becca gasped as she escaped onto the other side.

Ethan jumped free and the door closed, cutting off the acrid tang of solvents from the ruptured cooling systems. He calculated it was a shorter sprint to the next one which was the entrance to the lab. Ethan bolted, scooped a fallen wrench from the floor and used it to block the door runner.

“Come on. Come on.” Ethan stepped to the side and hustled Becca through the gap as the door hit the wrench and stalled in loud ticking protest. The wrench twitched against its restraint as Ethan launched himself through the doorway in pursuit, his feet just clearing when the wrench sprang free. He landed on the cold, sterile floor, winded, agony throbbing through the shoulder that’d absorbed the brunt of the impact. Behind him the door crunched home, isolating them in the lab.

Becca was on her hands and knees. She grunted and heaved back up to her feet. Her nose was bleeding and she was soaked through but when she looked at him, survival burned in her eyes. She wiped the blood from her face with the cuff of her sleeve and gesturing at the final door, limped toward it.

Ethan dug deep and powered upward, overtaking Becca in a few strides. The moon pool and escape beckoned on the other side of the final door but the door was rapidly narrowing, cutting off their only chance of escape. Desperate, he snared Becca under her arms and took her with him as he threw himself headlong through the doorway. He collided with the floor on his back, Becca wrapped in his arms.

The final door slid home. Thunk.