Page 57 of Command

“…Five… four…” Threxin flicked his eyes to the observation seats. Orion Halen was expressionless, clutching his female’s hand so hard that her skin blanched. The female’s eyes spewed pure hate. She had to be dealt with.

“…Three… two… one… authorize.” When Threxin pressed the jump trigger, his eyes weren’t on the statistics displays, nor Orion Halen, nor the humans at their controls. It was not any of his cohort. The mahogany flecks in her eyes shined in the flickering lights of the command center as the ship shuddered and jerked. Her mouth parted slightly as gravity was deactivated, her hair coming up to waft around her face. His apertures widened, and then everything dissolved into black noise.

The ship was shaking violently when Threxin came back to himself. Equipment, though previously bolted down, was strewn through the space. A wordless alarm blared a repeated warning through the nearly pitch black space, illuminated only by flickering overhead lights and the faint projection of barebones statistics on the thermaview.

Orion Halen appeared from the darkness and dragged himself into the copilot’s seat, strapping in before the violently angling ship threw him across the space.

“You need to plug in.” His eyes flashed in Threxin’s direction, and Threxin looked down, squinting at the outline of his arm. He was unplugged. Threxin turned his hand downward and waited for the several moments it took for the sampler to eject and find its home. The electric charge in his head was back as he and his ship reconnected.

“It is frightened,” Threxin said.

“I know. Bring it down. Check the oxygen first, and power. Down in the CRD—last time oxygen was out. They would’ve suffocated.”

Threxin looked sideways to his kin then, considering. A knowing look hardened in the glint of Orion Halen’s eye. “If you want your planet, you will check the oxygen in the CRD.”

Threxin’s spikes flattened as he flicked his talons in dismissive resignation. “Fine.”

He spoke his commands, but it was almost as though the ship deduced what he was about to say before he said it. Oxygen in the CRD was confirmed operational, then in various parts of the utility areas, herbology deck, command deck, and—finally—the brig. Power was rerouted to the most critical areas, stabilizing first the outer shields, gravity wells, and thrusters, then the medbay.

It had taken two hours to bring the ship back to a semblance of order after the jump, and Threxin was on his last stim. They had ended up relatively close to their target—just several hundred lightyears from their intended coordinates, which was as close to perfect as one could apparently expect. By the time it was done and a shift change handover initiated, everyone in the command center was exhausted.

Threxin glanced over to the observation seating yet again. Alina Argoud had been gone when lighting came on, and she had not returned. Had she been injured? Had she been thrown out of her harness, hit her head? He scanned the floor for any sign of an unconscious body yet again, but saw nothing. He considered asking Orion Halen’s female, but that would draw unneeded attention to his curiosity.

Threxin pushed the female to the back of his mind andfocused on his work when Renza approached, ousting Orion Halen from the seat next to him.

“Will you be able to do the jump next time?” Threxin asked, eyeing the thermaview projections.

“Yes. With a year of simulations to go, we will be prepared.”

His brother was the perfect tool for Threxin’s command. A generalist who never specialized in anything in particular except for the talent of being good at everything. Just as Koruth had put Threxin through his paces to learn all he could about the running of a colony ship in preparation for takeover of hisColossal, Renza had been taught to support Threxin in any and every way possible. His brother could be an aid and a mechanic. An assassin and a healer. A punisher and a jump director.

“Good,” Threxin said.

“We are one day from known human space. You should rest. Tomorrow will be an even longer day than this one.”

Threxin lifted his chin in distracted acknowledgment, attention drawn again to Alina’s empty seat. If Renza noticed, he made no comment.

CHAPTER 27

ALINA

“Are you okay?” Alina felt for Kaia next to her in the post-jump blackness. She was there, moving. Assured Kaia was alive, Alina squinted toward the center of the space. It was too dark to see Threxin. She supposed if he were dead, the ship would announce it. But just because he wasn’t dead didn’t mean he might not be dying or gravely injured. Besides, his wound was still pretty fresh. What if it had opened up?

Kaia’s low voice in her ear drew her attention.

“Go to the rear docking bay,” she instructed as quietly as she could over the roar of the ship. “Tell Isabelle we’re ready.”

“Now? You want me to go now?” The question was punctuated by the sudden angling of the ship, throwing Alina forward into her harness. They had just come out of the jump, which Alina knew was the most dangerous time to be unstrapped in the ship. Plus Alina had no idea how she was meant to get all the way to the rear dock in this darkness, with equipment flying like that in the turbulence. “Kaia… I’m not registered for Upload yet.” If she got hit by a flying projectile, she was fucked.

“You’ll be fine. Go.”

It was a bad idea, but if Kaia was asking her to do something, there had to be a reason for it.

Ready for what though? What was “we’re ready” even supposed to mean?

Alina worked to unstrap her harness, hands still trembling with the residual sensation of dissolution and subsequent reformation.

She fell out of her seat as soon as the harness was off, mouth gaping in a silent scream as her knee cracked against the floor. Alina forced herself up through the searing pain in her kneecap. Damn, she had only just begun and she was already hurt.

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