Page 70 of Command

Threxin flicked his fingers dismissively. “What made you believe I would?”

Per Halen shrugged. “Logic. I expected you to interrogate everyone associated with my son after boarding.”

Logic. Threxin encircled his wrist with his free hand, squeezing as he twisted the skin there, enjoying the raw burn of it skittering up his forearm. A good distraction from the continued throbbing in his gut and his brain.

“I needed nothing from any of you, except apparently coordinates.”

“Until now.”

“Now I need… verification.” Threxin narrowed his eyes, watching the micro movements of the human’s face. He had to be additionally observant, considering human faces all looked generally the same and were not easy to read. He’d gotten good at the base emotions: Fear. Anger. Lust. But lies? Threxin edged forward in his seat, ensuring he had a good view of Per Halen's canvas.

“Your son claims to know the coordinates of an Earthlike planet,” Threxin said.

Per Halen’s brow relaxed. This was apparently not a surprise. “So he does.”

“Do you know them as well?”

He watched Per Halen’s eyes carefully as the question was asked. Watched, and waited. And when he spotted a hint of uncertainty crease his brows, something inside him ignited into a sense of victory so acute, so carnal, that a bolt of lightning lodged itself in his head and would not let go.

Threxin ground his jaw against the limiter’s assault. The implant in his brain had clearly had enough of his stupidity.He clenched his hands into fists and sat through it as it brought him down, tamping his excitement.

“How curious.” The old man’s voice came faint, his lips moving in slow motion. Threxin glared but said nothing until the pain subsided.

Finally he refocused. “You will tell me where it is.”

One of Per Halen’s graying brows rose. “I think we have misunderstood each other, Commander.”

Threxin leaned forward once more, a fisted hand flexing as it dangled between his knees. “I would wish not to go through the trouble of extracting my information from you, human. But I will if need be.”

The man’s face lost some color, but still he shook his head. “Did my son tell you why his mother—my wife, now in Heaven—sentColossalto you?”

“Records indicated she considered it a likely habitable planet. YourNew Earth.” Threxin chuckled at the uselessness of their mission. Apth had not contained a New Earth in a very long time.

“So the records say,” Per Halen smiled thinly. “I suppose he wouldn’t tell you the real reason.”

“And you will,” Threxin surmised.

“I love my son, Commander,” Per Halen stated matter-of-factly. “He is the ideal to which humanity must strive. Mostly human, with just a touch of…” He smiled, gaze sliding to Threxin’s talons. “Just a touch of monster in him. This is where humanity is headed, Commander. This is whereColossalmust be headed. My wife recognized that. She was the ideal too…”

Threxin let him talk. Perhaps the human would let slip something useful about his destination.

“It is a practical matter too. Of this ship’s survival. My son shares nine percent of his blood with you.Colossalrequires at least five percent in its heir to function reliably. Even if the wife he dragged from the backwater of the universe were tobear him a child, it would be below the threshold of reliable authority with the ship. Consequences would be… uncertain. But certainly not good. Though Kaia has other uses…” he trailed off.

It was tugging at him now, the unspoken intention in Per Halen’s words. Threxin did not want to hear him say it. How, after all this time, after vilifying the uhyre for thousands of years, had these people managed to be so shoqing willing to crawl onto his cohort’s cocks?

“Mare Halena picked Apth not because she was deluded into thinking it was our New Earth,” Per Halen said quietly. “It was for you. We weren’t certain, but we had to try. It was her last gift to this ship and her people before her Upload. The hope that you will take a human mate. Hell, take many. Take them all. And continue the ship’s line of command in a way my son cannot. Help humanity not just survive, but evolve.”

They sat in silence for several ticks as Threxin mulled the delusional spark in the old man’s glassy eyes. Finally, with a small smile, he spoke. “What possibly made you think I care about helping humanity do anything?”

Per Halen’s gaze hardened. “This ship is your legacy, Commander. A symbolic and practical joining of uhyre and humanity. I had hoped you would be capable of appreciating that. Besides, your kind have done it before. You fucked your way through Old Earth like goddamn rabbits. That is why my son and all before him are alive today.”

“You humans blame us for your Old Earth,” Threxin barked a bitter laugh. “And now you want us as your saviors.”

Per Halen’s lip curled with what Threxin could only interpret as disdain. “My son is delusional if he thinks he doesn’t need you. He hedged his bets on his new planet, thinking he won’t needColossalonce they get there. Like my wife, he thinks he has his people’s best interests at heart. I know whatyou will do if I tell you the location. I love this ship, Commander, and the humans on it are my responsibility as much as they were my wife’s and my son’s. You can reject your duty to it, but I will not do the same by sending them to death.”

His duty! This fool thought Threxin’s duty was to fuck humans.

He could not help it. A guttural laugh tore from his chest, the tension in his spikes crumbling. He leaned back, relaxed, all his former arousal banished at the ridiculous delusion of this aging human male. They really were something, the humans. They truly thought they were the most important beings in the universe. That they had the right to live and others had the duty to save them.

---