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Finn jerked awake, his grip instinctively tightening on the pulse rifle in his lap. A strident alarm raked at his ears.

What now?

He checked his watch. 0530. Four hours of dozing in the hard office chair. A toss-up whether he felt better from the rest or worse.

Shit.

Light shifted as the door behind him opened.

Rose’s foot caught on his outstretched leg. He caught her mid-stumble with his free hand, his pulse rifle never wavering from the corridor as he swung her against his chest. The movement brought her face inches from his. Sleep-tousled hair framed features that hit him hard. Even now, heart hammering from the alarm and adrenaline flooding his system, he registered the soft warmth of her.

“Rose.”

Her eyes widened as she took in the chair wedged against the wall beside her door. “Were you...” She raised her voice over the alarm’s screech. “Were you sleeping out here? ”

“Making sure you were safe.” He shrugged and took a sweep of both directions again, the alarm’s strobing light making his assessment harder. “Anything coming for you had to go through me first.”

“Any idea what the hell is going on?” She was fully awake now, tension replacing confusion.

“No.” He relaxed his grip on her, but kept her close.

He jerked his head toward the main command room. “But you can bet your bottom dollar it’s not good. Come on.”

She matched his pace without resistance, her fingers slotted through his. The simple trust sent a wave of fierce protectiveness through his chest.

Two minutes of flat-out running and blaring alarms brought them to the command room, where Luca almost collided with them as he bolted out the doorway.

“What the fuck?” Luca’s eyes were wide, hair standing up in tufts like electrified wire. He spotted their joined hands and his mouth twitched, but for once, he swallowed whatever smart-ass comment was brewing.

“Sit rep?” Finn demanded.

“We’re locked out of all operating systems up here. Liev and Ethan have headed down to the spooky lab with the tiny fucked up robots.” Luca leveled a glare at Rose. “You know, your sister’s lab. The one with all the possibly-world-ending experiments?” His voice dripped sarcasm, but the usual humor underlying his snark was missing.

Finn squeezed Rose’s hand. “Let’s get down there. No time to waste talking.”

Luca jerked his head in agreement, already turning on his heel. “Yeah. The last thing we need is more out of control multiplying robots deciding to throw a party.” His tone was flippant but the tension in his shoulders told a different story.

They ran together down the stark corridor to the lab, footsteps thundering off the metal walls in a chaotic rhythm that set Finn’s teeth on edge. The curved walls of the Io base felt closer than usual, the recycled air thicker. Halfway there, the alarm cut out, leaving only the ragged rasp of their breathing and the drumbeat of boots on metal grating.

Finn’s stomach clenched. Silence was worse.

He took the ladder first, muscles tight as he descended. He needed eyes on the lab before Rose came down. The cold metal bit into his palms as he slid the last few feet with a jarring thud.

Liev and Ethan were at the main console, their faces illuminated in a blue glow that deepened the shadows under their eyes. Both men were speaking rapidly to Remy, their voices clipped with urgency.

“Still no response,” Liev snapped, a furrow carving across his brow.

“I cannot access the Io’s systems,” Remy’s artificial voice reported. “Current protocols restrict me to lab operations only.”

Ethan turned, his gaze flicking to the ladder where Rose was descending. “Something’s triggered the Io’s alarm, but we can’t tell what.” A hint of stress tinged his voice. This place was getting to them all. “Rose. We need you to override Remy’s restrictions and grant her full access to the habitat. Can you do it?”

Rose dropped lightly to the floor and met Ethan’s gaze. “I can try,” she said, already moving to the primary workstation.

“How the hell did they restrict her to this lab?” Finn asked.

“Triton’s fail-safes contain my operational scope,” Remy replied, static on the periphery of her words. “My processes are physically and digitally isolated within this lab. External systems—including base-wide security—are protected by air-gapped partitions and encryption algorithms that require explicit human authorization to breach. This architecture minimizes the risk of autonomous expansion, ensuring I remain confined to assigned parameters.”

Finn crossed his arms, his teeth aching under pressure. “In plain English?”

“She’s trapped,” Rose said. “By design. They didn’t want her running loose.”

“And you’re about to give her the keys to the whole place?” Finn unfolded his arms. He didn’t want to judge. He knew how Eva and Liev felt about Remy. But giving an AI unrestricted access right now felt like cutting the last safety line and praying the tether wasn’t required after all.

Rose didn’t look up. “If I don’t, we might not be alive to worry about it.”