Page 120 of Command

Threxin began at the jump drive.

“Is everything nominal?” he asked Stharn.

“Yes. I’ve run one thousand simulations.”

“And the results?”

“We die in four of them.”

Good enough.

“Timeframe?”

“Thirteen ship days,” Stharn confirmed.

Threxin lifted his chin in assent.

His next stop was the medbay, where he checked in with Lesthin. Preparations for the upcoming limiter removal operations were progressing, though they would not start until after the jump. The stream of humans from the CRD had somewhat slowed now that they had additional medicinal and food rations assigned to them. Threxin had Renza inspect their living conditions himself.

“I should examine you,” Lesthin said.

“Later.”

“Have there been any symptoms?” The medic eyed him carefully.

There had. Of course there had. Just because Threxin had unlocked a new modality of experience didn’t mean his base instincts simply went away. In fact, he often wanted to hurt someone—anyone—other than Alina Argoud.

But he had been able to grasp for her in those moments. He drank her stabilizing warmth even in her unconsciousness and brought himself back. He thought he was getting better at it.

“None that cannot be managed,” he said, and Lesthin appeared satisfied with that.

His biogineer was next. He had read the latest trial observation reports on the vaccine in bed while lying next to his Alina, but his attention wasn’t really in it.

“I thought I spotted some discrepancies in the numbers. A spike in the immune response?” Threxin recalled the report on Prisoner 22.

Tetha nodded. “The vaccine appears to be gaining efficacy with time, past what the body even requires.”

That was promising.

In the command center, Renza sat in the copilot’s seat looking bored.

“This ship practically runs itself,” he complained when Threxin entered.

Threxin sat. “The jump drive is prepared.”

“So I hear.”

Threxin eyed the human crew members. There were fewer of them now, more of the positions having been taken over by his cohort as they learned to work hisColossal.

“You have to tell him to get the coordinates,” Renza read his mind.

Threxin tilted his chin. He did not want to give the humans any additional time to prepare. The less they knew the better.

Orion Halen required some convincing to provide his promised planet’s coordinates, but not much. Since Threxin’s NS implant he had grown more amenable, not that it mattered much either way. Threxin made it clear that if coordinates were not provided, Threxin would dispose of the common residential deck en masse.

But it took compromise in the form of informing Orion about the upcoming jump.

“Before the jump, you will have your coordinates,” Orion said.

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