A creative combination of fiction & profession. I like the idea a lot and how you built up the characters and the tension.
I stumbled over the first sentence and thought for a while, what in particular disturbed me on that. It was that I could sense you as an author behind the character. That produced a picture of you typing this story and took something from the quality of the female character itself. How about a little adjustment?
"Her bag was already packed and she was waiting for everyone to get out first. She knew that at another time in another transporter it could be her who rushed to get down the aisle first towards the exit. Not so this morning."
In addition, I would choose some paraphrases and picture worlds or even artistic expressions for what the Octopus do with their genetic material. ....Put it in other terms instead of "RNA". Like, for example, "genetic information transmitters" that someone had called "octo-codys." or so... That would give it some charm on top, in my view. Just an example of what I am after as a reader.
I would also like to read what the Octopus gang is up for. :))
I can somewhat agree with the first part, but still don't feel like changing it :P
As for the RNA: Part of my original "Branding" was, that my stories contained actual science. That has become less over time, mostly because it's really difficult to come up with good stories for interesting scientific things. But it requires me to stay as true to the facts as possible.
I think I'll give in to the overall pressure of everybody wanting me to continue this story :D Everyone wants to hear how it'll progress. Guess I'll have to think of something.