The warning bell began before the sun rose.
Reno woke with one hand already reaching for the instrument panel, his fingers striking the metal housing hard enough to split the skin beside his thumb. The observation station trembled beneath him. Somewhere below the floor, a pump coughed, recovered, and coughed again. The bell continued its thin, urgent ringing through the sleeping quarters, through the storage room, through the narrow passage where yellow dust had gathered in the seams.
“Atmospheric alarm,” Raeh said from the doorway.