Page 66 of A Mate For Matrix
Krac’s gaze sharpened at that, but Matrix ignored him, focusing on the others.
“The Hive Queen spoke to me,” he continued, his voice dropping into something low and dangerous. “She called me her ‘General’. I saw her plans. She said she wanted me to lead her armies against the Confederation. She knows what I am now. What I can do.” He paused, his jaw flexing. “And she knew about me. About Elaine Brim. About Gracie.”
Jana’s head snapped up. “Knew about you? From that long ago? You didn’t tell me that!”
Matrix nodded once. “She is old. She knew I’d been on Earth—knew I had been on your world when Gracie was a child.”
“She probably picked up my memory of meeting Gracie,” K-Nine said. “I shared with Matrix everything that happened after we were separated. My meeting with Gracie would’ve been there.”
Jana blinked, then leaned back in her chair, exhaling sharply. “This sounds like that old movie… what was it called? The one where the machines sent a robot back in time to kill the mother of the resistance leader?”
Gracie’s lips parted in recognition. “Terminator.” Kordon’s hand tightened on hers as she added softly, “In the movie, the machines thought if they killed Sarah Connor, they could stop the chain of events that led to their destruction.”
The table went silent.
Every eye shifted to Gracie.
Kordon’s jaw clenched, his muscles twitching as he stared at Gracie’s hand in his. When he finally looked up, his voice was low, deadly calm. “I’ll never let that happen.”
Rorrak released a low, vicious curse under his breath. “Then we’re already on the clock.” He shifted his hard gaze to Matrix. “What the hell were you doing on Earth in the first place?”
Matrix hesitated, his eyes finding Bran’s across the table. “Sir?”
Bran’s sharp nod was the only permission he needed.
Matrix straightened. “My assignment was black-level clearance. We were tracking a former Confederation scientist named Elaine Brim. She had been relieved of her research after intel flagged her movements off-grid. She had resources and funding the Confederation couldn’t trace. When we investigated, we discovered her research into unsanctioned biogenetics.” His voice hardened. “She developed a non-native species called Crawlers. Highly intelligent, adaptive, and deadly. One could wipe out a planet in a matter of months, and is—was—extremely difficult to kill.”
Seal swore under his breath. “Let’s add another deadly species to the mix, as if Krac and I aren’t bad enough.”
“Speak for yourself, Seal. My Skeeter loves Krac, and you two aren’t all that deadly. Do I have to remind you that my little girl put you on the floor?” Bulldog growled.
Krac snorted out a chuckle at that reminder.
Matrix’s gaze swept the table, meeting each set of eyes. “From what the Queen said… I believe Elaine Brim used Alluthan technology to create the Crawlers. If she succeeded once, she could succeed again. And the Queen…” He swallowed hard. “She’s building an army vast enough to burn entire systems to ash.”
Krac leaned back, his expression unreadable. “And if she figures out time manipulation…” He let the words hang, unspoken but heavy.
Gracie’s hand trembled in Kordon’s. Jana drew closer to Matrix, her touch grounding him.
K-Nine finally broke the silence. “Recommendation: we prepare contingencies. Multiple contingencies.”
For a moment, no one spoke.
Matrix glanced around the table, at the warriors, Alluthan half-breeds, leaders, and survivors gathered there—each tethered now to the same impossible thread of fate.
The Hive Queen wanted him.
She wanted Gracie.
She wanted control of time itself.
And for the first time since emerging from the rift, Matrix understood the gravity of what they faced.
The war wasn’t coming.
It had already begun—centuries before.
Jana leaned against the bulkhead, watching as Kordon and Bran spoke quietly with Matrix across the loading bay. Whatever Kordon said made Matrix’s shoulders stiffen. A flash of grief crossed his face—there and gone before she could name it—and then he nodded once.
