It was all locked into place and looked secure.
As she moved back to the module, she grabbed a handhold and then tapped the small tablet attached to the forearm of her suit. She keyed in a request for maintenance to come and check it.
She looked up and realized she was right near another window. Through the reinforced glass, a pretty, curvy blonde woman looked up and spotted Harper. She smiled and waved. Harper couldn’t help but smile and lifted her gloved hand in greeting.
Dr. Regan Forrest was a botanist and a few years younger than Harper. The young woman was so open and friendly, and had befriended Harper from her first day on the station. Harper had never had a lot of friends—mainly because she’d been too busy raising her younger sister and working. She’d never had time for girly nights out or gossip.
But Regan was friendly, smart, and had the heart of a steamroller under her pretty exterior. Harper always had trouble saying no to her. Maybe the woman reminded her a little of Brianna. At the thought of her sister, something twisted painfully in Harper’s chest.
Regan floated over to the window and held up a small tablet. She’d typed in some words.
Cards tonight?
Harper had been teaching Regan how to play poker. The woman was terrible at it, and Harper beat her all the time. But Regan never gave up.
Harper nodded and held up two fingers to indicate a couple of hours. She was off-shift shortly, and then she had a sparring match with Regan’s cousin, Rory—one of the station engineers—in the gym. Aurora “Call me Rory or I’ll hit you” Fraser had been trained in mixed martial arts, and Harper found the female engineer a hell of a sparring partner. Rory was teaching Harper some martial arts moves and Harper was showing the woman some basic sword moves. Since she was little, Harper had been a keen fencer.
Regan grinned back and nodded. Then the woman’s wide smile disappeared. She spun around, and through the glass Harper could see the other scientists all looking around, concerned. One scientist was spinning around, green plants floating in the air around him, along with fat droplets of water and some other green fluid. He’d clearly screwed up and let his experiment get free.
“Lieutenant Adams?” The captain’s voice came through her helmet again. “Harper?”
There was a sense of urgency that made Harper’s belly tighten. “Go ahead, Captain.”
“We have an alarm sounding in the botany module. The computer says there is a risk of decompression.”
Dammit. “I just checked the security panels. The locking mechanism on the exterior door is showing red. I did a visual inspection and it’s closed up tight.”
“Okay, we talked with the scientist in charge. Looks like one of her team let something loose in there. It isn’t dangerous, but it must be messing with the alarm sensors. System’s locked them all in there.” She made an annoyed sound. “Idiots will have to stay there until engineering can get down there and free them.”
Harper studied the room through the glass again. Some of the green liquid had floated over to another bench that contained various frothing cylinders on it. A second later, the cylinders shattered, their contents bubbling upward.
The scientists all moved to the back exit of the module, banging on the locked door. Damn. They were trapped.
Harper met Regan’s gaze. Her friend’s face was pale, and wisps of her blonde hair had escaped her ponytail, floating around her face.
“Captain,” Harper said. “Something’s wrong. The experiments have overflowed their containment.” She could see the scientists were all coughing.
“Engineering is on the way,” the captain said.
Harper pushed herself off, flying over the surface of the module. She reached the control panel and saw that several other lights had turned red. They needed to get this under control and they needed to do it now.
“Harper!” The captain’s panicked voice. “Decompression in progress!”
What the hell? The module jerked beneath Harper. She looked up and saw the exterior door blow off, flying away from the station.
Her heart stopped. That meant all the scientists were exposed to the vacuum of space.
Fuck. Harper pushed off again, sending herself flying toward the end of the module. She put her arms by her sides to help increase her speed. Through the window, she saw that most of the scientists had grabbed on to whatever they could hold on to. A few were pulling emergency breathers over their heads.
She reached the end of the pod and saw the damage. There was torn metal where the door had been ripped off. Inside the door, she knew there would be a temporary repair kit containing a sheet of high-tech nano fabric that could be stretched across the opening to reestablish pressure. But it needed to be put in place manually. Harper reached for the latch to release the repair kit.
Suddenly, a slim body shot out of the pod, her arms and legs kicking. Her mouth was wide open in a silent scream.
Regan. Harper didn’t let herself think. She turned, pushed off and fired her propulsion system, arrowing after her friend.
“Security Team to the botany module,” she yelled through her comm system. “Security Team to botany module. We have decompression. One scientist has been expelled. I’m going after her. I need someone that can help calm the others and get the module sealed again.”
“Acknowledged, Lieutenant,” Captain Santos answered. “I’m on my way.”
Harper focused on reaching Regan. She was gaining on her. She saw that the woman had lost consciousness. She also knew that Regan had only a couple of minutes to survive out here. Harper let her training take over. She tapped the propulsion system controls, trying for more speed, as she maneuvered her way toward Regan.
As she got close, Harper reached out and wrapped her arm around the scientist. “I’ve got you.”
Harper turned, at the same time clipping a safety line to the loops on Regan’s jumpsuit. Then, she touched the controls and propelled them straight back towards the module. She kept her friend pulled tightly toward her chest. Hold on, Regan.
She was so still. It reminded Harper of holding Brianna’s dead body in her arms. Harper’s jaw tightened. She wouldn’t let Regan die out here. The woman had dreamed of working in space, and worked her entire career to get here, even defying her family. Harper wasn’t going to fail her.
As the module got closer, she saw that the security team had arrived. She saw the captain’s long, muscled body as she and another man put up the nano fabric.
“Incoming. Keep the door open.”
“Can’t keep it open much longer, Adams,” the captain replied. “Make it snappy.”
Harper adjusted her course, and, a second later, she shot through the door with Regan in her arms. Behind her, the captain and another huge security marine, Lieutenant Blaine Strong, pulled the stretchy fabric across the opening.
“Decompression contained,” the computer intoned.
Harper released a breath. On the panel beside the door, she saw the lights turning green. The nano fabric wouldn’t hold forever, but it would do until they got everyone out of here, and then got a maintenance team in here to fix the door.
“Oxygen levels at required levels,” the computer said again.
“Good work, Lieutenant.” Captain Sam Santos floated over. She was a tall woman with a strong face and brown hair she kept pulled back in a tight ponytail. She had curves she kept ruthlessly toned, and golden skin she always said was thanks to her Puerto Rican heritage.