Title: "The Signal Room"
By the time the storm reached Concord Station, there were only two people left to notice it.
Technically, the station could run unmanned. It had before. But protocol demanded a human presence when conditions turned volatile—"for accountability," the manual said, though no one could recall what that really meant anymore. And so, Dr. Lena Korrin stayed.
She hadn't seen the sun in eighteen days.
"You know," said Halton, the only other soul inside the orbital science ring, "if I were a paranoid type, I'd think this storm was trying to erase us."
Lena glanced up from her console. Halton's voice came from the other end of the narrow corridor, through the open door of the hydroponics bay. He was waist-deep in tomato vines that had grown too wild without pruning.
"The storm doesn't care," she said.
"Exactly!" Halton's voice was overly cheerful. He was always like that when he was afraid.
