Page 12 of Command

“Pakt asti kasth,” it barked.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” Alina whimpered, holding out the box. “I need to bring this to Kaia. It’s food. Do you know where she is?”

“Shoq asti t’tor,” the alien snarled.

Alina opened her mouth and closed it, trying to find words.

“Alina?”

Kaia.She turned toward the familiar voice. Kaia was walking down the hall with Orion beside her, two uhyre shadowing them.

“What are you doing?” Kaia asked.

Alina peered at the barrel of the gun still pressed flat across her chest.

“Just bringing you breakfast,” she tried to keep her voice level.

“I already ate.”

“Oh.”

Of course. She hadn’t shown up yesterday, so Kaia probably had to make other arrangements.Damn it.

Kaia started to turn into the command center, but Alina tried again. “Mrs. Halena, do you… do you need anything?”

“What do you mean?” Kaia frowned.

“Well, you kept me on the list of essentials. I thought…”

“Oh, right. You’ll be assigned to the rear dock. They’re down maintenance crew and need help degreasing the Ariels,” Kaia said.

A job.Alina’s shoulders slumped with relief. She hadn’t been on that particular post before, but she’d seen the workers scrubbing Ariel vessels with degreasing powder and then working it off. It looked like exactly the kind of task that would help take her mind off things. Things like the glowing uhyre monsters loitering all around them.

“Got it. I’ll report to the dockmaster right away,” Alina nodded.

“Not yet,” Kaia murmured, shooting a furtive look at Orion. “Come with me,” she jerked her head toward the entrance to the command center.

“In there?” Alina squeaked. She glanced at the uhyre guard looming over the conversation, its weapon still blocking her way.

“She’s with us.” Kaia craned her neck up at him. “My assistant. She brings food. See? Food.” She grabbed the box from Alina’s hand and waved it up at the alien, who bared his fangs but took a reluctant step back. Clearly Kaia and Orion still had some sort of say in things here, even with the uhyre… A good sign, Alina hoped.

Still, she hesitated. Alina was prepared to take on whatever it was that made her so essential. She’d just hoped it wouldn’t involve reentering the place where she just got knocked out and kicked around while witnessing a hostile alien takeover.

“We need to normalize your presence,” Kaia muttered low in her ear as they entered the command center and toward the observation pit.

Normalize?

What was that supposed to mean? Either way, it seemed like Kaia was finally including her in something, and Alina was not about to screw it up.

It had been an hour, and Alina learned some things as she listened to the conversation from a shadowy corner of the command center. Orion Halen sat in the copilot’s seat, debating the deal with the light blue uhyre that Alina deduced was named Traeggsin.

At least she thought that was his name. That was the wordthe alien’s red companion kept using when addressing him. They were talking in guttural intonations now, looking skeptical about the course Orion had plotted for them. They could not seem to believe thatColossalreally needed to jump back to known space before proceeding to Orion’s final destination: a new planet… a NewEarth, only not for them but for the aliens who snatched the opportunity from their hands.

Alina’s attention was drawn once more to the uhyre’s hands. They had no nails, the tips of their fingers morphing seamlessly into sharp talons that glinted in the dim overhead lights. A human throat would be no match for a slice with one of those things. A visceral shudder passed between Alina’s shoulder blades at the thought.

She focused instead on the ongoing debate. Alina wasn’t brushed up on all the intricacies of the ship’s subspace jump drive, but Orion’s explanation sounded confident enough, so it must make sense.

“Look,” Orion was saying, throwing schematics onto the thermaview projection, “to get to X1s?—”

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