Page 9 of Command

“You,” Threxin called to her. “To me.”

He realized a few ticks too late that he did not issue his command in Universal, yet the human nudged herself upright and shuffled forward, anyway. Humans seemed perceptive to vocal tone.

To his surprise, she spoke first. “These people have children that are waiting.”

Behind her, someone groaned.

“Children?” Threxin glanced at Renza.

“Offspring,” his brother grunted in Apthian.

“Yes.” The female brushed a tuft of shorter hair from her eyes, only for it to fall right back in her vision. Did it not grow properly there, to conceal her line of sight like that? “They’re hungry and alone. Hell, all…” she quieted a little when she appeared to realize her own volume, “all of these people are hungry and alone.”

This self-sacrificial tone grated on Threxin’s nerves, but not enough to kick in his limiter. She spoke for the others as if she herself were not as hungry or tired as the rest of them.

Threxin failed to see the urgency. Soon enough the offsprings’ lonely hunger may not matter, if he decided to dispose of the humans.

“How many habitats on this deck?” Threxin changed the subject to more important matters.

“Habitats… You mean cabins? Five hundred on the command deck.” The female looked immediately to the uhyre behind him, eyes counting, deducing his meaning. She was shrewder than Threxin liked. “Of which about ninety are free, I think,” she hastened to add.

So there were more than four hundred humans on his command deck.

“I require two hundred cabins for my cohort.”

“Two hundred?” The human’s face fell, but she recovered quickly. “You’ll… There’s a little room down at the Common Residence Deck. Some of us can move there.”

“All of you will move. Except those required to operate this deck.”

He would not permit so many humans to remain in the same space as his cohort. Humans were weak, but he did not like their numbers. Besides, if he chose to reject Orion Halen’s proposal, it would be easier to vent them if they were congregated in one location.

“They’re allrequired,” the female frowned. “That’s why they got cabin assignments up at the command deck in the first place. Handling all the shifts for each position, it’s?—”

“Lengthen the shifts,” Threxin interrupted. “Only fifty of those most critical to operations remain. You will tell me who they are.”

“Fifty?Wait,me?” The female balked, her head jerking back toward her people, who were looking various degrees of displeased. “I… I don’t know that. I’m just Kaia’s assistant. You should ask Orion, or…”

She glanced again at the group, but clamped her mouth shut, turning back to stare straight ahead, which landed her gaze just under Threxin’s chest.

Threxin’s limiter kicked in then to bring him down before he could finish clenching his fist. Nearly two hundred uhyre had arrived to follow him from the remnants of Apth. They were waiting, uprooted, in this foreign ship’s docks to be assigned their living quarters. It would be far easier to simply count off the cabins they needed and kill their occupants, or herd them down to the lower deck. He was giving this pest, who was so concerned with the lives of her human cohort, more choice than any of them deserved. And here she was—complaining about it.

The frustration lasted not even a tick, but the female hadnoticed it with that unnerving shrewdness, staring at his hand where it had twitched. Threxin wondered if all her clueless floundering was an act.

He grasped her by the throat and lifted her into the air, glancing over her shoulder at the others. Her gasp was cut off as his fist tightened around the fragile windpipe, her pulse pounding frantic protests into his palm. “You will tell me who of your kind behind you can provide a list of essential humans. There is someone.”

Her bony fingers found purchase in his wrist. She did not even try to fight—she simply dug useless blunt fingertips into his skin, attempting to relieve the pressure on her throat with impressive futility.

“I’ll do it,” a familiar voice made Threxin look behind him. The red-headed female approached, trailed by Orion Halen and Pteron behind them. “I’ll get you a list.”

“Kaia,” the useless one managed to squeak. Threxin released his hold and let her stumble back, wheezing and rubbing her red-marked throat.

He had sent for them ticks ago.

“What took you so long?” Threxin asked Pteron in Apthian.

“Got lost,” he grumbled.

Threxin sighed, raking his talons down the side of his neck.

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