Page 133 of Command

“I believe it is called wind. We had it not on Apth, but… I had heard of it.”

Wind.

And the whispering?

“The trees.”

Alinahadto look then. She cast her eyes further and saw it… Brown tree trunks with thousands of green leaves on each, flickering all around.Talking.

That was when she registered the people too. Human and uhyre, spread on the dirt-grass plane all around them. Most were injured, some were walking around.

Many seemed unsteady on their feet, the humans especially—glancing up at the sky only to cast their eyes back down to their feet.

Someone got sick.

Beyond them, far beyond, was the remains ofColossal. Her home was a smoking, smoldering heap in the distance.

“How many…”

“Five hundred humans dead by the count so far, but there will be more. Many were trapped in the common residence deck that ended up… somewhat flattened.”

Alina’s stomach dropped. God, they must’ve been terrified.They didn’t even know we were about to jump, much less crash land on… on…

“And the uhyre?”

“Mostly fine. But Renza is missing.”

Renza…

“Where are we?” Alina asked.

“Kann-01, by my account,” someone said behind her.

Alina recoiled with a near shriek when she first turned around to look at Orion Halen. He stood there with half his face burned off, his cheek splayed open and mangled. “The jump was… off. But at least it got us somewhere habitable.”

At the expense of over five hundred people… And maybe Renza.

But if Threxin hadn’t jumped, they’d all be dead. This was by all account a success, and now they were on…

“Is this New Earth?” Alina looked up at her old commander for an answer.

Orion glanced over his shoulder, where Alina noted Kaia already on her feet. She looked relatively undamaged and was hauling sacks of something into a pile on the ground.

“It’ll have to be, because we sure as hell aren’t getting off this planet as long as we live.”

The finality of the statement was both intimidating and weirdly relaxing. There was nothing to think about here. No more plotting or planning to find another place.

They were here, and the air was breathable.

Alina turned to Threxin, who was scanning the clusters of humans and uhyre all around them.

They were here in the dirt. Real dirt, with real trees.

She studied the hard lines of Threxin’s face as he assessed the situation.

They were here, and many people had died. But the one who mattered most was alive.

Threxin turned his attention back to her then, flooding her with an aggressive burst of possessive reassurance and a lightthat made her insides threaten to jump out of her skin as she reached toward him.

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