Frost vapor coils through the tunnel as Nahuli crawls into a junction chamber. Ahead, a service ladder rises to a maintenance ledge, and below it, a data spine flickers beside the station core feed.

The Botanist clings to the wall behind him, breathing hard. Zoya and Serafina squeeze through the hatch after him, while the thuds of Kaelen’s team grow louder in the shaft.

Nahuli drives his multi-tool into the access port. Blue status lines race across his scanner, and the station’s network map opens, showing a narrow outbound relay tucked beneath the greenhouse wing.

A heavy impact shudders the hatch behind them. The route is clear, but only for a moment. Nahuli now has a direct path to preserve the uncovered data and flee into the station’s outer transit network.

Nahuli’s scanner spits a clean transfer handshake, and the data spine flashes green. The file dumps into the clean shard in a burst of blue glyphs, then the station firewall bites down and starts chasing the wrong target.

Above the relay feed, a maintenance log unfurls. An auto-tag timestamps the coolant charges, traces the plant to Kaelen’s security channel, and stamps his clearance across the header.

Frost fog surges as the hatch shudders again. Kaelen’s team is still outside, but the relay link is already severed behind the copied file.

The Botanist grips the vent rim and looks back toward the dark corridor, waiting for Nahuli to choose the exit.