The escape from Dock 9 - a mediocre tale

Zoey's deck stays tethered as the scorched console spits sparks. The hidden data stream blooms wider, and the relay signature resolves into a physical node above the freight spine. Not a ghost in the wire, a place. A target.

Heavy mechanical footsteps hammer up from the lower levels, shaking dust loose from the red warning strips. Kaelen staggers near the relay stack, staring at the exposed feed as if it has named him personally.

Zoey rips the data into her portable deck. The console gutters, then hard-flickers, dumping a clean packet before the connection starts to burn hot. The core lights jump from red to white for one sharp second.

Zoey severs the tether. The screen dies, the footsteps grow louder, and Mara snaps toward the stairwell while the stolen proof sits safe in Zoey's deck. The station remembers her escape route, and so does the thing waiting above the freight spine.

Zoey hooks Mara by the shoulder and pulls her off the console line, angling both of them toward the freight spine access. The core shudders under fresh impacts from below, but the route stays open.

The side passage yawns ahead, lit by red warning strips and the sting of burned circuitry. Behind them, the dead screen still leaks a faint, burning halo where the handler link was exposed.

Zoey gets Mara into the freight-spine maintenance lane and seals the listening post feed behind them with a hard manual cut. The core doors lock down with a metallic slam, cutting off the open chamber.

Ahead, the industrial node above the freight spine glows on a crusted service map, now cached in Zoey's deck. The listening post is still live behind them, but its mouth is closed.