Raina hardly noticed the pinprick. She was still reeling from everything Nick had just shown her.

She had headed into space fully expecting to meet aliens. She was prepared for tentacles and horns, puddles of ooze and gaseous masses.

She wasn’t ready to look into her own eyes.

And when the relief from that was to be faced again with a man who wasn’t a man, but still looked like he had just escaped from a Calvin Klein underwear ad photo shoot… well, it left her feeling rocked to the core.

It wasn’t just that he was attractive. From the second she’d laid eyes on him, she’d felt inexplicably drawn to him. And there was something about the way he looked at her that made her forget herself.

You went to space for an adventure, she chided herself. You can’t be bowled over by the first unexpected thing you see.

The light on the lever turned green and she moved to open it.

“Wait,” he said softly, that big hand on her shoulder again. “We don’t know why the door sealed in the first place.”

“Why do you think it sealed?” Raina asked, pulling her hand back.

“During almost any emergency a door to cargo this valuable might seal,” Nick said carefully. “Something as simple as a stowaway alert or a power outage elsewhere on the ship could do it.”

“Okay,” Raina said.

“Or there could be a breach in the hull,” he added.

Holy shit.

“A breach?” she echoed.

“The ship compartmentalizes like a submarine when that kind of thing happens,” Nick explained.

“Sure, I knew that, it’s just…” she struggled to find a way to articulate her shock.

“Different to think about in real life, isn’t it?” Nick asked sympathetically.

“Yeah,” she agreed.

“If it were something that dangerous, the door wouldn’t open again for any reason,” he explained. “But it never hurts to be cautious. Maybe your little drone could try to analyze what’s beyond the door.”

“I have already attempted a scan,” BFF20 said in a tone that could only be described as haughty. “The door is shielded. I can’t get much through it. But the oxygen levels are adequate. The environment supports human life. And yours as well, I suppose.”

Raina stared at the drone in disbelief. Was he insulting Nick?

“So then I guess we’re ready to go in,” Nick said.

Raina noticed that he hadn’t even blinked at the droid’s remark.

“Sure, okay,” she said.

“Get behind me, just in case,” Nick said.

“I’m no damsel in distress,” Raina retorted, reaching for the door.

“Humor me?” he asked. There was an anxious note in his usually deep voice.

She shrugged and he slipped in front of her and pushed the lever to open the door.

There was a hiss as the seal released.

The door opened to reveal a hallway that was much like the one they were standing in, except it was cold and dark.

“Power must be out,” Nick said.

BFF20 activated his night mode. A cool beam of light swept the corridor.

The same rugs ran the length of the hallway and the same opulent light fixtures graced the ceiling in measured intervals. But here a thin layer of dust frosted the woodwork.

Nick headed down the hallway after BFF20 and Raina followed.

She turned on the light in her wrist plate so she could see her surroundings.

Each door they passed was framed in walnut and had a golden number on a placard. This had definitely been the nicer residential wing of the ship.

It occurred to her that this area might have been sealed off to protect from something wrong in the larger part of the ship. Maybe the VIPs in this area had wanted to insulate themselves from whatever was happening to the masses.

Visions of the Titanic appeared in her head and she had to fight to focus. That was nonsense. There was no sign of anyone in this section either. At least, nothing that she could see.

“BFF20, can you scan for lifeforms again?” she asked.

The little drone made a low humming sound.

“The only identifiable lifeforms on the ship are yours, your companion’s, and the plant-life inside the biodome.”

Identifiable?

A whoosh of cold air lifted Raina’s hair as the door back to the main corridor slammed shut behind them.