Read Chapter 24: Payoff: Liang's Truth

The blackened crater edge of the base loomed against the star field, smoke curling from the main lab module like a dirty ribbon. Elena killed the rover's thrusters and let momentum carry them the last fifty meters, dust ghosting past the canopy. The med-bay dome stood dark and silent behind the admin ring, its emergency beacons dead.

"No response to our hails," Jack said, cycling the comm panel with one hand while the other braced his leg against the cabin frame. His jaw was tight. "Main airlock shows exterior seal engaged from the inside."

"Kessler," Liang rasped from the cot behind them. Elena twisted in her seat. The geologist had been fading in and out for the past hour, his breathing shallow, but his eyes were open now, burning with a fevered clarity. "He sealed it. He's in there."

"Then we go through an auxiliary lock." Elena killed the engine. "There's a cargo hatch on the eastern ring—"

"No." Liang pushed himself up on one elbow, wheezing. "That's the reactor access tube. It's compromised."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "Compromised how?"

"I did it." Liang's voice cracked. "Three hours after you left the base, I ran the reactor scrubbers dry and drove the coolant loop into overpressure. The AI flagged it as a catastrophic excursion and initiated a full-station evacuation protocol."

Elena felt the blood drain from her face. "You triggered the containment alarm."

"To force everyone out. Kessler had killed Marcus and taken the relay control board. He was erasing the evidence files. I figured if the station went into lockdown, I could purge the physical backups and get to the emergency shelter before the lockout sealed me inside." Liang coughed, a wet sound. "But the AI never advanced the protocol past phase one. No evacuation. No alarm. The pressure relief valves blew first."

"The explosion," Jack said, his voice flat. "The one that killed the maintenance crew at the south hab."

"Five people." Liang's eyes squeezed shut. "I told myself the reactor would vent clean. I was the system engineer. I knew the margins. But Kessler had already rewired the relief manifold to redirect pressure into the hab corridor. I didn't see it until the logs came up. By then, it was too late."

Elena's throat tightened. She thought of the casualties, the families Earth-side who'd gotten the sealed casket notices. Liang had made the choice, but Kessler had made it deadly.

"Why didn't you send this to Earth?" Jack said. "You had access."

"Kessler had the backup comms link routed through his own credentials. The only channel I could trust was the emergency relay out on Ridge Seven. You found it. You found me." Liang's hand trembled as he reached for Elena's arm. "The service airlock. Under the geology cargo bay, left of the main pressurization pump. Access code: 7-echo-uniform-44."

"But the bay flooded with foam when the reactor tripped," Elena said. "It'll be locked from the override—"

"I bypassed the override the night before the explosion." Liang's breathing was ragged now. "It's the only way in that Kessler doesn't know about. He'll be watching the main ring and the med-bay approach."

Jack looked at Elena. A question. She nodded.

They moved fast. Suiting up took three minutes, both of them silent, hands working from muscle memory. Liang stayed in the rover, propped against the oxygen monitor, his eyes half-closed but his grip tight on the emergency beacon Jack had slotted into his palm.

The service airlock was exactly where Liang said it would be: a recessed maintenance hatch half-buried in the regolith drift, its exterior panel painted with faded radiation warnings. Elena keyed the code. The lock cycled with a wheeze, dust venting from the seals.

Inside, the geology bay was dark and cold. Racking that had once held core samples stood empty, scorch marks along the walls where the foam suppressors had vented. Their bootprints were the only sound as they made for the interior door.

"No footprints but ours," Jack murmured. "He's not in this section."

The door slid open onto the admin corridor. Emergency lights stuttered along the ceiling, casting long shadows across the deck plating. Elena took a step forward—

And froze.

Raymond Kessler stood at the far end of the corridor, his EVA suit unzipped to the waist, a base-issue sidearm aimed squarely at Jack's chest. His face was calm, almost bored.

"Hell of a detour you two took," he said. "The AI flagged your signal re-acquisition the second you pinged Relay 7. You want to tell me where Liang is, or do I just put a round through the pilot and let you watch him bleed out on the deck?"

Elena's hand twitched toward her hip, but there was nothing there but a rock hammer. Kessler's finger tightened on the trigger.

"Saw that," he said. "Step away from the door. Both of you. Hands where I can see them."

She raised her hands. Jack did the same, but his weight shifted, and she saw the limp he'd been hiding catch his balance a half-second too late.

Kessler smiled.

"Good. Now we're going to have a talk about what you found out there."