“I roll around to see Rocky hovering over me. Not in his compartment. He's in the control room!

He has slashed my restraints and pulled the chair free. He shoves it to the side.

He stands over me, wobbling. I can feel the heat radiating from his body just inches away. Smoke billows out of the radiator slits atop his carapace.

His knees buckle and he collapses on to the screen next to me, destroying it. The LCD unit blacks out and the plastic bezel melts.

I see a trail of smoke leading up the tunnel to the lab and beyond.

'Rocky!' What have you done?'

The crazy bastard must have used the large airlock in the dormitory! He came in to my partition to save me. And he'll die because of it!

He shivers and folds his legs under himself.

'Save... Earth... save... Erid...' he quavers. Then he slumps down.

'Rocky!' I grab his carapace without thinking. It's like putting my hands on a burner. I jerk away. 'Rocky... no...'

But he is motionless.”