Page 29 of Marked By the Bounty Hunter

“Can’t we-”

“He’s dying.” Tyrix’s words cut through my hesitation. “But we can still help the others. If we move now.”

I knew he was right. The readouts told the story in brutal clarity - multiple organ failure, massive cellular deterioration. Nothing we could do would save him now.

But leaving him here...

Jevik’s eyes cleared one final time. “Go.” His voice was almost his own again. “Stop them. Use... the codes...”

His hand fell away from my wrist. A series of numbers scrolled weakly across one monitor - access codes that might lead us deeper into whatever horror the Consortium had created.

Boot steps echoed through the maintenance shafts. Multiple teams converging.

“Nalina.” Tyrix’s hand found my shoulder. “We have to go.”

“Wait.” I spotted something half-hidden under the main console - a medical data core, its housing modified with unfamiliar tech. The kind of black-market neural interface components that didn’t officially exist. “This isn’t standard medical equipment.”

I yanked it free, ignoring the angry spark of disconnected cables. Whatever data it contained might help us understand what they were trying to create.

We fled through maintenance tunnels, evading patrols by instinct and luck. My mind spun with Jevik’s broken warnings.

Where light doesn’t reach.

I knew these tunnels, knew this station’s guts like my own body. And I knew exactly where he meant.

“The Deep Dark.” I caught Tyrix’s arm as we paused to catch our breath. “That’s what he was trying to tell us. The abandoned sections below the reactor core - where even maintenance crews won’t go.”

His expression darkened. “Makes sense. Perfect place to conceal something they don’t want found.”

“The access codes he gave us...” I pulled up the sequence on my tablet. “They’re for the old emergency systems. The ones that predate current station infrastructure.”

“Then we know where we’re going next.”

I nodded, though my stomach twisted at the thought. The Deep Dark had earned its name. Even the station’s most desperate residents avoided those levels.

A patrol passed overhead. We pressed against the wall, barely breathing, until the boots faded.

“The Deep Dark won’t have working life support,” I whispered, mind racing through practicalities. “We’ll need breathers, light sources that won’t fail.”

“I have gear in a secure drop.” Tyrix checked the station time. “Basic survival equipment. But we’ll need more than that to navigate those levels.”

I thought of the purple-black corruption spreading through Jevik’s flesh, the way his body had fought against the control even as it destroyed him. Whatever waited in the Deep Dark had to explain this horror - had to give us a way to stop it.

“Two hours,” I said. “That’s enough time to gather what we need and make it to the lower access point before shift change.”

He nodded, already plotting our route. “The security patterns will shift then. Give us better coverage.”

“They won’t get away with this,” I promised the empty tunnel, remembering Jevik’s final moments of clarity. “Whatever they’re doing, whatever they’re creating - we’ll stop them.”

The Deep Dark waited below. And somewhere in that lightless realm, answers lurked.

But first, we had a few ghosts to lay to rest.

TYRIX

Imoved silently through the darkness, tracking the faint chemical traces that marked the cache I’d placed when I first arrived on Nova’s Edge. Behind me, Nalina’s footsteps whispered against the deck plates - so quiet for a human. The thought nagged at me, along with Jevik’s broken warnings about human test subjects.

I pushed the thought aside. Focus on the mission.

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