Page 13 of Command

“It is calledApth,” the uhyre corrected for the fifth time, and at that point Alina felt the urge to say it with him because how many repetitions does it take to remember? Orion clenched his jaw.

“To reach Apth, we had to get to the edge of our known space and make a jump to a location we’d tunneled for years. Then drift in this direction for two more years, because we couldn’t tunnel far enough.”

So far, so good.The alien didn’t seem to take issue with this part of the reasoning.

“To reach… the new planet, we have to get to theotherside of human-explored space. Because we’ve already plotted the route, we can jump straight to our closest edge soon as the drive’s prepped in half a month.”

“Then why you cannot jump to the other edge of your human territory directly? You plotted that as well.”

Orion shook his head. “Too much interference, like I said. It’s not safe to jump through inhabited space. We’ll collide withsomethingin subspace and never come out.”

“Something.”

“Other ships. Manmade habitats. Anything emitting an electronic signal is like a magnet—or rather,Colossalis the bigger magnet. This ship will attract all that junk in subspace.”

The two uhyre exchanged looks that Alina interpreted as skeptical.

“So,” Orion continued, agitated, “we jump to the edge of human space. Then navigate manually.”

The red one piped up with a series of guttural intonations. Traeggsin grunted and turned to Orion. “Can you jump not several times around edges of human territory, to other side?”

Alina had wondered the same thing, but she didn’t know anything about any of this.

Orion looked like he was going to lose his cool any second. His hand clapped to the spikes at the back of his neck—shorter and more subtle than those of the full-blooded uhyre—for the tenth time, smoothing them furiously.

He’d had enough, and Kaia, standing behind him, was right there with him. Someone needed to de-escalate this situation or it would go nowhere. And considering the skeleton crew at the panels all around was busy pretending they weren’t listening to every word of the exchange, that someone would have to be her.

Alina cleared her throat and stepped out of her shadow. “Umm, excuse me. Mr. Traeggsin?”

She regretted her decision just as soon as the uhyre’s glowing spikes twitched atop his scalp as he turned to face her. His ears drew back a few millimeters, hooded brows lifting slightly with the movement. His gaze was unnerving as he looked at her. “What did you call me?”

“Sorry, I thought… Isn’t that your name?”

“My name is Traeggsin.”

Alina blinked.

“That’s what I said. Traeggsin.”

The red one coughed, and though it was by no stretch human to Alina, the sound resembled a chortle.

The alien’s canines flashed as he exaggerated his mouth movements. “Thr-aekhhs-in.”

“Threkhthin?”

“Cease hissing,” the uhyre snapped, and Alina realized this was the first time she’d seen any real emotion from one of them at all. This was notable, considering uhyre were supposed to beveryemotional—undesirably, uncontrollably so. What was up with them?

She persevered and tried again. “Threksin. Thr—Threxin?”

The red one perked up, slapping a huge hand on his brother’s shoulder and emitting a series of bubbling gurgles.

“I say,” Threxin said, though whether to the red one or to her, Alina wasn’t sure. Either way, he looked pleased enough with that last effort.

“Now that you’ve got introductions out of the way, do you want me to get you to your goddamn planet or what?” Orion snapped from his seat, where he’d been observing the exchange. His palpable fury was a contrast to that of his alien relative. Howwerethey related anyway?

Alina winced at the glare Orion threw toward her. “I just wanted to suggest that… that I can fetch some material of ours about subspace jumps. Old data that couldn’t have been tampered with. And it can prove to Trae… Threxin that what you’re saying is true.”

The cyan uhyre didn’ttrustOrion Halen, and why would he? Orion had every reason to mislead the invaders. Existing material on the technicalities of subspace drives might placate his suspicions.

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