The Spiral Quarantine

A hard biological countdown traps the remaining junior staff at an isolated extraterrestrial quarantine station after all upper management evacuates. The protagonist, a disgraced logistics expert who deserted a military operation for a reason long classified, is left in charge of a crumbling route known as the Spiral. Together, the mismatched, abandoned crew must manage shifting planetary seasons and an alien ecology that treats quarantine borders as suggestions. Every station along the Spiral holds unique metabolic dangers or distinct cultural enclaves for the desperate souls still housed there. They must find resources, parse lethal biological limits, and survive each checkpoint—one physical, unyielding problem at a time.