Page 129 of Command

Alina slinked toward the pit, ignoring Threxin’s subcomm demands for her to get to safety.

What safety?She dismissed, increasing her pace.

“Hydra Company Goliath X, this is Orion Halen, Commander of Colony ShipColossal. Explain yourself,” Orion demanded.

For several long seconds, there was nothing but the faint hum of an open link. Then a rugged face appeared on the thermaview display. The woman had sharp eyes, hair slicked back along her scalp. Her neck was covered by a rigid collar that wrapped all the way to her throat, a golden pin glistening at the corner.

“Colony ShipColossal. We have received credible information that you require assistance.”

“You were mistaken,” Orion said flatly. “We require no assistance. We are preparing for a jump and demand you withdraw all craft from our radius immediately.”

“Our information has been verified. Are you under duress?”

Orion clenched the armrests, knuckles white, and Alina knew what he must be thinking.

What answer would help his people… hiswife… make it out of this alive?

“Renza…” Alina choked out when she came to stand next to him, but the look in his eye when he turned his attention to her was hard, his finger tensing on the trigger.

There was no getting out of this. He was making a rational decision. The only rational decision for his kind, because it was his kind that he cared about. Alina shuddered, looking to Threxin, who watched Orion Halen intently as he spoke. Her legs took her to his side without her mind having evendecided, her lungs having trouble getting air. As he grabbed her hand and squeezed, Alina noted a sampler in his port—he had plugged into a peripheral gene reader so as to stay out of sight of the human transmission.

“Warning shot fired byColossal,” the weapons officer announced, eyes wide. “I… wasn’t aware of this.”

Threxin shot him a dark look and Alina realized he’d issued the shots bypassing standard controls.

“Who… who’s out there?” Alina whispered the question out loud.

Threxin’s apertures narrowed. “Everyone.”

She glanced at the thermaview again, where the radar view had now displayed labels over some of the larger dots.Zenith…Icatha…Olympus…

Colonies. By the look of it, maybeallthe colonies, plus thousands of peripheral craft.

Shit.

A transmission came through again.

“We have visual confirmation that you have uhyre on board the ship,” the woman on the thermaview declared. “As you presently appear to be collaborating with the creatures, you leave us no choice. The threat to humanity must be eradicated.”

The comms link closed without bothering to give Orion time to protest, and before the weapons officer even got a chance to announce anything, the ship did it for him:Multiple missiles incoming. One thousand seventy-five.

The ship shuddered with the first impact.

Shields compromised.

Orion sprang up from the commander’s seat and was already halfway to Kaia, whom Renza had allowed to wrench out of his grip upon seeing Orion had not betrayed them. Threxin was no longer at her side but striding to take his place.

“Reroute power to weapons. Cover fire targeting colonyships, enable nuclear cannon,” he commanded as soon as the sampler socketed itself in his wrist.

All those people.

All our people, Alina Argoud,he chided in her head, and he was right.

“It’s no use!” Orion yelled from the pit, crushing Kaia Halena close.

“Quiet, human,” Threxin snarled.

“You have to jump. Now. That’s every colony ship in the known universe out there,” he gestured to the radar display. “We cannot beat that. Threxin, you have to fucking jump if you want to live.” He jerked his head toward Alina. “If you wantherto live.”

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