'Are you sure you're a doctor?' one of the Ghutarn soldiers asks.

'Are you questioning me?' returns the probably-doctor, Kykok.

'No, Sir. I didn't mean any disrespect, Sir. He was walking just a few minutes ago.'

'How? This is a fatal wound.'

The suit of armour we're hiding in is rocked as someone strikes it.

'And his core temperature is too low.'

'But he was walking.'

'You said that already.'

'...I'd better tell the commander.'

The door hisses open and closed, and we can hear the doctor and the other soldier moving around nearby.

'This isn't right,' Kykok states. The exoskeletal suit rocks again, causing the body to roll against us, and we make sure none of our arms are near the entry wound in the plating. There comes a succession of cracking noises and more light spills in, and we realise the doctor is opening the carapace.

'Yes. Yes. See that? He died within minutes of receiving this wound.'

'But I saw him walk. He walked between us. We didn't drag him.'

'This is standard-issue armour?'

'Not quite. The boarding party had their suits reformatted to factory settings in case the Mixcycli ship was able to interrogated them.'

'Maybe that's what happened. Maybe the ship...'

'No doctor, this model only augments. It can't walk on its own.'

'Help me get him into the scanner. We need to run a full diagnostic on this body.'

Further cracking noises sound as they break open more sections of the armour, and we slide downwards, underneath the corpse, into the left leg of the suit just as they start tugging the body out.

We pull our trailing arms in after us, slipping below the knee joint as the doctor pulls the leg from it, and through the open thigh-section we can see it peering down at the body.

The doctor is a tall and long-limbed Ghutarn, with mottled blue skin exposed on its double-pincered hands and four-eyed face. The rest of it is covered in a matt black film, but the shape suggests that under the suit heavy chitin around the chest and lower halves of its forearms.

The other Ghutarn comes into view too. It's similarly clad, but is notably larger than the doctor. There are scars on its face, made with deliberation, ugly and raised and descending vertically down the flesh under its eyes.

Together they heft their dead companion onto a shelf jutting from the wall, and a transparent cover slides out over it. It lights up with diagrams and glyphs and the doctor starts manipulating them with the tips of its pincers. Meanwhile, the other one comes over to the disassembled suit and begins examining the plate-like pieces of armour.

We realise we're about to be caught – and sure enough, the next thing it reaches for is the leg section in which we hide.

The leg lurches as the soldier lifts it, and, sensing its unusual weight, peers right in at us. Its polished black eyes oscillate between round and oval in shape.

'Hey...' it begins, but then Pokey shoots out and jab its upper-right eye, hard. It tries to cry out, but there is only a muffled noise of pain because Sneaky has somehow found its way into its mouth. It tries to drop the leg, but Chokey lashes out and wraps itself around its neck, constricting violently.

There comes a couple of quick cracks, and we feel the vibrations of cartilage giving way and vertebrae breaking. It slumps downward and Chokey lets go before we get dragged to the floor with it. We pull ourselves fully out of the leg armour in time to see the doctor turn round.

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Its mouth opens and its black eyes bulge to nearly twice their previous size.

'Oop!' comes a noise overhead. 'Oop! Unknown life-form detected in medical bay. Oop! Oop! Medical bay in quarantine lockdown. Oop!'

The doctor lunges at us – it's found a scalpel from somewhere – and it thrusts it towards our head. Fighty intervenes, punching it across the jaw and causing the blade to miss and strike the table to our left. Mighty coils around its wrist, pinning it there, while Fighty proceeds to hit it in the head again and again, until it goes limp and unconscious.

Time to get out of here.

We slide off the table while the 'Oop! Oop!' noise continues, and make our way to the door. It doesn't open, and no matter what Pokey and Feely do to the adjacent control panel it refuses to respond. There is a transparent panel in the door and we pull our way up to it, wondering if Mighty might be able to break it. But when we get there we see three figures running towards us down the corridor beyond. One is wearing a matt black film suit, like the doctor, but the other two are armoured in the heavy exoskeletal suits of the boarding party.

All three are holding weapons.

We drop away from the door and hurry back across the floor, looking for somewhere to hide.

Unfortunately, it's a very minimalist medical bay.

We consider hiding in part of the armour again, but dismiss the idea – it would just trap us. We pause beside the soldier that Chokey killed, looking at its mottled blue face, and get an idea.

All our arms get involved, swarming onto the Ghutarn body and tearing apart the black material. We fling the fragments away, exposing its wide torso. The thorax is covered in dark chitin, while its abdomen is more fleshy, softer, with the same tones and shades as its face. We spread ourselves on top of it, contouring ourselves, echoing the lines of the chitin plate, the cracks and curves, following the lines of muscle in its abdomen, coiling and bunching where the physique calls for a bulge and flattening ourselves where it remains lean.

Then we do what comes naturally, and a few seconds later the door hisses open and the three soldiers spill into the room, rifles moving to cover every corner.

'It got Kykok... and Rhujak...' one of them says.

'Careful... It could be anywhere...'

One of them closes the door behind them, and they advance further.

'I don't see it.'.

'Maybe Kykok had one of his hidden lockers open. Maybe it's trapped inside.'

The soldier with the filmic suit points its gun towards the table above us, where the disassembled sections of armour are scattered. 'Maybe. But it must have crept aboard inside your friend's suit. It could still be in one of these pieces.'

One of the others points its rifle directly at us. 'Or maybe it's under one of the bodies.'

It looms closer, and prods us with its weapon..

'Yhak. What the yjajach did it do to him? He's bloated. It must be venomous. Cover me, I'm going to flip him.'

Everything lurches as it upturns the body, flipping us onto the cold floor.

'Nothing. Let's check the doc.'

Their footsteps move away and we shift our head so we can peer out, under the body and the table, to where the doctor lies. The three Ghutarn surround its prone form, aiming their rifles at it. The one wearing the filmy uniform is closest to us, and as we watch, Cheeky stretches into view, reaching toward its rump.

Chokey tenses, ready to intercept Cheeky, but it's too late.

The Ghutarn jumps in shock as Cheeky whips back into cover.

'Something pinched me! Something pinched me!'

The soldiers spin around, eyes wide, guns searching for a target.

'Where? Where is it? There's nothing here!'

One crouches and peers under the table. 'It must be invisible.'

'There's no such thing as invisible!'

It turns away, continuing its sweep. 'Cloaked, then. You know what I mean.'

'Tell the ship to scan the room and pinpoint it for us.'

We notice that there's something new under the body with us. It's a handheld device that we seem to understand the function of, cradled in Stealy's grip. It’s a grenade.

Stealy passes it to Sneaky, and we realise this could get interesting.

'Forget the scan, let's get a flamethrower and toast the whole room.'

A groan comes from the doctor, and all three Ghutarn turn to look at it.

'Hey. Kykok. Wake up! Where's the intruder?'

At this point we notice that Sneaky no longer has the grenade. We're not sure where it went, but Sneaky seems to be trying to drag us, and the body of the dead Ghutarn, in the opposite direction.

Given that there is a grenade involved, and given that we somehow know what a grenade is, and can do, we decide the rest of us should join in, and we yank ourselves across the floor as fast as we can.

'He's moving!'

'What the yjajach are those things under him?'

'Tentacles! Shoot them!'

But the soldiers don't get the chance, because at that moment the missing grenade detonates.