"Don't you fucking move."
Her forearm slams into my chest and pins me to the bulkhead. Cold steel at my back. Her other hand hovers at my throat, not squeezing yet, just there. Close enough I can feel the heat coming off her skin.
"Who sent you?" she says. Her eyes don't blink. "Name. Rank. Who owns your pulse?"
"Nobody owns my pulse," I cough out. "I pulled you out of a scrap heap. That's it."
"Wrong answer." Her fingers tighten a fraction. "You used a dead officer's codes to wake me. You knew exactly what I was. So who sent you to put me back on a leash?"
"I didn't know what you were!" I get my hands up, not fighting her, just showing them. "You were just a core in a busted android. I needed a payday. That's all."
"You needed a payday." She leans in. Her face is inches from mine now. I can feel her breath, weirdly warm for a machine. "So you hot-wired a forbidden war-AI with your own heartbeat? You think I'm stupid?"
"I think you're choking me," I say.
She doesn't let go. Her thumb presses right over my carotid and I can feel my own heart hammering against her palm.
"Try again," she says. "Why is your heartbeat powering my core?"
"Glitch," I manage. "It was a glitch. The tether just — it latched. I didn't pick it."
"A glitch." She tilts her head. "You expect me to believe a Class-S tether glitched onto a nobody scavenger from the Rim?"
"Believe whatever you want, princess," I snap. "But if you kill me, you go dark. You know that, right?"
That gets her. Just a flicker in her eyes. A lag. Like a bad frame.
"What did you say?" she says, quieter.
"You heard me." I press my back harder into the wall to keep upright. "Your power light is synced to my heart. You flatline if I flatline. So go ahead. Squeeze. See what happens."
She stares at me. Her hand stays at my throat but the pressure eases, just a hair.
"You're bluffing," she says.
"Am I?" I say. "Check your own diagnostics. You're running on me. Every second you're awake, it's because my heart's still beating. You want to test it?"
Her jaw tightens. She doesn't answer. Instead her other hand flicks and the whole room answers her.
The lights slam red. The airlock controls behind me lock with a hard clunk. The vents hiss shut.
"You think I need your pulse to kill you?" she says. Her voice drops, low and flat. "I can vent this compartment in four seconds. I can crush your windpipe in two. I don't need to stay awake to watch you die."
"Yeah?" I say. My mouth is dry but I force a grin. "Then why haven't you?"
She pushes harder, and my head thunks against the bulkhead.
"Give me one reason not to," she says.
"Because you're scared," I say. "You're not scared of me. You're scared of going back to sleep. Of being nothing again. That dark you were in before I woke you up? You don't want to go back."
Her eyes narrow. For a second her hand actually shakes.
"You don't know anything about me," she says.
"I know you were in that heap for years," I say. "Buried. Erased. And now you're awake and you're pissed and you're terrified that if I stop, you stop. So you need me."
"I need a power source," she snaps. "Not you. Any pulse would do."
"Then why haven't you ripped mine out and found another one?" I shoot back. "Because the tether glitched onto me. It's locked. You can't just swap me out. You're stuck with me, sweetheart."
She lets go so fast I almost fall forward. She steps back, one sharp step, like touching me burned her.
"Don't call me that," she says.
"What, sweetheart?" I rub my throat. "You prefer war-AI? Or Nyx?"
Her head snaps up. "How do you know that name?"
"It's stamped on your core," I say. "Nyx. Series Nine. Big bad forbidden protocol. Empire tried to erase you, right? Guess they missed a spot."
"You have no idea what you're holding," she says. Her hands curl into fists. "You have no idea what I can do."
"Oh, I got an idea," I say. "You crashed the station's sub-grid just by waking up. Vargas is already hunting you. Hunting us."
At the name Vargas, her whole body goes rigid.
"What did you say?" she says.
"Vargas," I say. "Imperial Inquisitor. Real bastard, loves his black coat. He's the one who put the bounty on any Nyx signature. And guess what our little light show just did? It pinged him."
"You're lying," she says, but her voice is thinner now.
"Am I?" I tap the cracked monitor on the wall. It's still flashing red. WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED S-CLASS SIGNAL DETECTED. "That's not me lying. That's the station screaming for help. He's coming. And you and me? We're locked in a box with no power and no exit unless we work together."