The ride back to the research station was quiet. Antony failed to answer his comms, and Seph’s stomach sank with each missed call.

He and Bria had crawled from the half-collapsed tunnel, dragging the rover behind them. It was dented and scratched, but the engine eventually hummed to life. Seph’s hands shook as he gripped the steering wheel. The cave-in wrecked his visor and helmet, and the rover’s windshield did little to prevent sand and grit from flying into his face.

The rush of air made it even harder to breathe. Bria sat beside him, her face bruised and eyes downcast; her leg had been hurt too badly for her to drive her bike back. After a few minutes, the comms beeped as Bria called Antony again. She followed up with a message tapped hastily out on her wearable when he didn’t answer. What she was writing, he did not know.

What could she possibly tell him? That Kendra was gone, that she wasn’t coming back with them?

The ride was interminable, and when they finally reached the research station’s garage, Seph jumped out the moment the rover was parked. His body ached from the sudden movement and he turned to Bria, asking the question he already knew the answer to.

“You never heard back from Antony, did you?”

“No,” Bria said miserably.

Seph rushed into the living area, afraid of what he would find.

Antony lay on the couch, snoring quietly. A blanket covered his legs, and his injured arm hung down gingerly, not touching the couch. He blinked at the commotion, groaning as he stirred.

“Oh thank god,” Seph said as he knelt beside him. “You’re alright.”

“Man, I’m sorry, I dozed off,” he said blearily. “Did it go okay?”

Seph’s stomach turned over, bile rising in his throat. “You didn’t get any of Bria’s messages yet, did you?”

“No, wait, what happened to you guys? Are you alright?” He sat up. “Where’s Kendra?” Antony asked. His voice was rough and earnest, with only a hint of worry.

Seph couldn’t stop himself; his eyes burned and tears rolled down, gathering on his chin. Bria stepped nearer, placing her hand on his back for a brief second.

“There was a cave-in, Antony. It was … bad. Kendra didn’t make it out,” Bria said.

“What? And you left her in there? You can’t just leave her there, Bria,” Antony said. He sat up, brows furrowed, horror etched into the deep frown on his face.

“We cannot get her out, Antony. We don’t have the tools,” Bria said.

“But what if she’s still alive? What if her suit was damaged? Suits break, they malfunction, and they stop giving accurate vitals.”

“Antony, she’s gone,” Seph said. “We didn’t want to leave her, but tons of rock came down, and we can’t get her out without help.”

Antony stared at him, mouth hanging open.

“We can’t leave her. I’m not leaving until the med evac people come and get her out,” he said, color rushing to his cheeks.

“You, Antony, are leaving,” Bria said firmly. “The evacuation crew will arrive in a few hours.”

He was silent, like the wind had been knocked out of him.

Bria nodded and left the room.

Seph turned to Antony. “Please don’t blame her. Bria was in bad shape, and the tunnel was coming down. And, it’s just—we wouldn’t have left if we weren’t sure.”

Antony hung his head, running his hands through his hair. “So what, that’s it? Kendra’s just gone. How is that even possible? I saw her this morning; she can’t just be gone.” He shook his head, and then he looked at Seph, as though just seeing him properly. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I got scraped up—got a bunch of medical foam sealing up various cuts, but nothing too bad,” he said with a high-pitched laugh.

Antony nodded and stared absently into the center of the room.

“Do you need any help packing?” Seph asked.

“I … I guess so.”

Seph followed him into the room Antony and Kendra had shared. Her stuff was there, strewn about over her bed—she had taken her suitcase out before they left for the ruins, but it wasn’t packed.

Antony stared at Kendra’s bed, at her things. He looked dazed, his eyes unfocused, and he collapsed onto his bed, bedsprings squeaking underneath him as his breaths came in shallow gasps. Seph sat beside him, fumbling for his wearable to check Antony’s vitals—his heart was racing, but his injured arm hadn’t changed.

Antony rested his forehead on his hand, staring at the floor as he began to cry quietly, his shoulders shaking. “I saw her this morning—I talked to her when you got to the caves. And now she’s just gone?”

Seph pressed his hand to Antony’s shoulder. “Can I do anything to help?”

Antony twisted to face him, reaching out toward Seph. “Can I …?”

Seph nodded.

Antony collapsed onto him, pulling his legs up onto the bed and wrapping his left arm around Seph’s waist. Seph hugged him and gently smoothed his palm over Antony’s back.

“I don’t know what to do,” Antony said, resting his forehead against Seph’s neck.

“I don’t either,” he said. His grip on Antony’s back tightened. “Just get through the next few hours.”

Antony’s hair brushed against his chin, and the minutes passed as they sat in silence.

The medical evacuation crew arrived in a small gray ship that landed with a thump outside. Four people suited in thick layers of protective gear entered the research station and began examining Antony immediately, leading him into his bedroom.

Seph himself was ushered into his own bedroom to undergo examination as well, though he barely made sense of what was happening. He felt like he was half floating out of his body, being prodded at and scanned by faceless people in formless suits. They had name tags, but he couldn’t process them, and his head swam with anxiety and confusion.

They dressed his wounds and scanned him with medical devices he didn’t recognize. He did, however, parse the sound of a ship taking off nearby, and he noted Bria’s absence when he was released back into their common area.

Antony yelped, but the bedroom door was shut and Seph doubted that encroaching on the medical team’s exam would be helpful. Soon after, he heard Antony speaking, and though Seph couldn’t make out his words, Antony sounded crabby rather than fearful. Which was reassuring in its own way.

Seph was left to pack his things. Not that there was much to pack. His room had remained barren during their stay here; he had brought few creature comforts, and the last thing left was to grab the ancient sweatshirt from the university where he did his postdoc.

He set his suitcases next to each other and returned to the common area. After an hour, Antony emerged, followed by the two members of the evac crew. Moments later, there was a loud rumble outside as the ship returned and the other two crew members arrived with Bria.

“We’re gonna need a second team to clear that rock from the cave-in. I’m sorry. We were the closest evac group and we don’t have the equipment,” one crew member said.

“But what about Kendra?” Antony asked.

The crew member turned to Bria, nodding to her.

“They located her with the scanner,” Bria said. She shook her head. “We confirmed the cause of death as a cerebral hemorrhage.”

A blur of emotions passed across Antony’s face. His shoulders went rigid like he was gearing up to argue, and then, just as quickly, he deflated. “Good god,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” the crew member repeated.

Another crew member stepped forward. “That’s all we can do here for the time being. Antony is relatively stable. We’ve got some tissue degradation, but based on the scans you took earlier, the area was already affected. We don’t see any evidence that it’s spreading.”

“So? What’s your opinion?” Seph asked.

“My opinion is that this is highly abnormal. You want an explanation, but we don’t have one. Most likely, all we can do is remove the affected tissue and monitor for further change.”

Antony nodded, looking nauseated.

The crew member pointed to Antony and Seph. “You two are coming with us, right?”

“And I’m staying,” Bria said. “You and Seph are leaving, but I’m staying here until they can send the team to clear the rubble.”

“We ought to get some folks out here in twenty-four to thirty-six hours. I’ll let them know they need to help pack equipment as well, but I’ll warn you: if it’s anything sensitive, you might want to do it yourself.”

Seph glanced between Bria and Antony and the evac crew. “So this is it?”

“I’ll see you two in a couple of days,” Bria said. “Take care, Antony.”

And that was it.

Seph, Antony, and their assortment of baggage were packed into the med evac shuttle, where they sat in a small section cordoned off from the rest of the ship. Seph closed his eyes, unable to sleep. Antony spoke little, and it was unclear if he slept, either. Even traveling faster than light, it took sixteen hours to reach the nearest junction point where they could jump out of the local star system.

They landed a few systems away, and from there it was hours before they reached the medical station. It floated near a rocky moon dotted with the lights of cities. In the distance was an enormous planet made of swirling yellow, blue, and purple gas. Faint rings encircled the gas giant.

The station itself was large, made up of three massive rings, each with four bars connecting them to the central beam of the station. After they docked, they were hurried from the shuttle into a decontamination field.

The interior of the medical station was blinding white and matte silver, clean and sterile. A pair of nurses wearing protective suits met Seph and Antony. Before Seph understood what was happening, one nurse led Antony down the hall, away from him.

Seph hadn’t expected to be separated, and neither had Antony, from his panicked glances. He looked back over his shoulder at Seph as the nurse led him away, distraught.

“It’s going to be okay,” Seph yelled down the hallway. He didn’t know if he believed it, but it felt better than saying nothing. A horrible pit had opened up in his stomach, and his eyes burned again.

“We’ll get everything set up so the two of you can talk once you’re in your rooms,” the remaining nurse said. His voice was soothing, but alarms went off in Seph’s mind.

“Wait, what? When can I see him?”

“Hey, hey, it’s alright. Did they not explain anything to you?”

Seph shook his head.

“Okay, we have to separate you for observation for a few days. Probably five days for you, based on the reports from the evac crew, but don’t quote me on that. Your friend will be under observation for longer, given his injuries,” the nurse said. He motioned for Seph to follow him down the hall. “We will return your things in a few days once they’ve been disinfected.”

The nurses shuffled Seph from one room to another, through a series of medical examinations and scans, followed by another decontamination. His clothes were taken away to places unknown, and his skin burned even after he changed into the soft white pajamas he was given.

Everyone in this wing of the medical station wore protective gear, and he lost track of what was going on. Exhaustion set in and he nodded off in his chair.

“Knock knock,” the nurse from earlier said as he entered the room. “I have good news: we’ve got a bed ready for you.”

“How is Antony?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know. I don’t believe he’s in a room yet.”

“Oh.”

“Alright, my friend, let’s get you up and out of here. I think you’ll enjoy sleeping in a bed more than this chair,” he said.

Seph nodded, his eyes closing for a long moment, and he pulled himself to his feet. He was shown to a room, and he flopped down onto the bed—the bed was better than a chair, at least.

“I’ll let you get some rest, alright?” the nurse said.

“Alright,” Seph said, his eyelids drooping.

Seph woke to a knock at his door. He blinked awake, utterly disoriented, as he glanced around the unfamiliar white room.

“Good morning,” the nurse said. This was a different nurse, a woman with dark curly hair, as far as he could tell under her protective gear. “I’ve got someone who wants to speak with you.” She held out a tablet, and on it, Antony waved at him.

“Oh gosh, thank you,” Seph said, clutching the tablet, and the nurse waved as she left the room. He turned to Antony. “How are you holding up?”

“Well, I finally slept. They did about a billion tests on me yesterday, and so far their answer is a big shrug,” Antony said. “They want to remove the rest of the weird clay stuff from my arm soon.”

“Are they testing those samples we brought in, the crystals and whatnot?”

“Yeah, I think so, but I haven’t heard anything yet.” His face wobbled on the screen and he grimaced. “Sorry, hard to hold the tablet with one hand.”

“It’s alright. Where are you, anyway?”

“In a room?”

“But like, where? Because I’m stuck in here for at least a few days,” Seph said.

“Oh. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s a decent-sized room with furniture, though it’s like, weird and squeaky. Like it’s made of something that’s easy to disinfect,” Antony said. He flipped the camera around so Seph could see.

“You’ve got a bigger room,” Seph observed.

“Jealous?”

“No, of course not. Actually, I get what you mean about the squeaky furniture.” He showed Antony around his own room, scrunching the crinkly fabric of the couch with his hand.

An alert popped up on Seph’s tablet.

Antony jumped. “I think I’m getting another call,” he said.

“I think we both are.” Seph fumbled with the device, and after a moment, Bria’s face greeted them.

“Hey, you two,” she said. Her face was hard to read.

“Did the other crew get there?” Seph asked.

“Yeah. We went back into the ruins.”

She paused for a long moment. “We couldn’t find Kendra. The rock had already been cleared, presumably by those machines. We combed the ruins, at least most of the ground we covered before. Found two machines, but we couldn’t catch them. Well, the crew caught one in a stasis field, but it disabled it somehow.” Bria paused. “One of the evac crew has come across old machines like this. Not the same, but similar classes.”

“Yeah, we talked about this,” Antony said. “Lots of modern planets use something similar for picking up trash.”

“I was getting to that. He said some of these machines have protocols for disposal of organic matter. Cremation or something similar.”

Seph grimaced, and Antony’s shoulders went rigid.

Bria squared her jaw and continued. “They scanned the ruins. The scans would have found any person within a ten-mile radius. We found nothing.”

“So is that just it?” Seph asked.

“We spent a day in the ruins, and the crew said they couldn’t justify more than that.” She paused. “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect this. They’ve been trying to find her family to notify them, but it appears she had few living relatives. We’re on our way to the medical station. I’m finishing up the paperwork documenting all of this—no rush, but eventually you two should read over it.”

Seph nodded. “Sure.”

“So this is it? All that’s left is paperwork?” Antony asked incredulously, a bite to his tone.

“It’s the only thing I can do, Antony,” Bria said. “I can file everything I know so that we, and you in particular, are compensated for what happened. So any further medical care you need is available to you. At some point, you’ll need to inform the medical station crew where you’ll be headed after the observation period is over.”

“After this? How can I think about anything after this?” Antony said with a sneer. There were noises from his microphone, a knock on the door, followed by chatter. “I’ve gotta go. I’ve got more tests today.”

“Good luck, Antony,” Seph said.

“Yeah.” He dropped off the call.

Bria sighed. “I’m just trying to do what I can.”

“I know, and I appreciate you handling things at the research station; I know it wasn’t easy,” he said. “How are you holding up?”

“I don’t know. I want to get everything I can in order. Didn’t give any details, but I told my lab that our expedition was cut short.” She considered him for a moment. “If you need somewhere to go, I’m happy to lend you my guest room. And beyond that, well, I can’t guarantee anything, but there may be some tenure-track positions opening soon,” Bria said.

Seph frowned. “What? Bria, I … I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

“We won’t be under observation for long, only a few days. Just think about it, alright?”

“It’s too soon, Bria. I am not in the right frame of mind to think about career moves,” Seph said, rubbing at his temples. “I’m gonna go. Talk to you later, alright?”

“Yeah. Later, Seph.”