ROGUE’S RETURN

ROGUE STAR: BOOK TEN

AVA YORK

CONTENTS

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Epilogue: Skadi

Letter from Ava

VIANNE

If there was one part of working security that I hated more than anything else, it was dealing with fake IDs. Now I was helping make them to spy on the Dominion.

I loved every damn second of it.

Back in the main government building on Mars where Kalyn’s mother, Adastria, and the rest of the Martian governmental honchos did their work, I used to be head of security. My job was to create the security protocols and systems there, and how to beat them.

I ensured that each security team was where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there, and ran numerous scenarios regarding attacks on the offices to test each team’s readiness. Which included making sure that there were numerous ways out for each politician, each council member, each participant in Martian government.

People used to call me paranoid, and I didn’t really give a damn. Paranoia kept people alive. That’s what I was supposed to do.

Unfortunately, one minor slip in my paranoia cost me and I was sent to Persephone on a “temporary” assignment. I was there over two years.

The “bright” side to things was that I was still in contact with Mars, and even Earth. I had been commissioned by certain business leaders on Earth to keep them apprised of some of the experiments at Persephone. Meanwhile, I kept in contact with Adastria, who fed me bullshit about people on Pluto that were actually traitors and I was needed there to give her any and all information that I deemed necessary for her to figure out who it was.

I took the bait and did what she wanted me to do.

The lying bitch played me for a fool.

Now I was sitting on a foreign planet, way out in a part of the universe that was beyond any place that I could have ever imagined, working on finding a way to take down a corrupt government that had decided it was okay to take women, experiment on them, and steal DNA from them in order to find a way to create a so-called “perfect” race.

The problem that I had with the whole thing, besides the buying and selling of women—I mean, who does that?—was how were they going to create a “perfect” race? Whose definition of perfect were they using? How did they know that whatever concoction they came up with was actually going to be perfect?

I mean, the human race was a mystery of cells, blood, DNA profiles, and personalities that have studied themselves since the beginning of its existence, and we still didn’t have a solid clue as to how we worked. Okay, we did, but we also still struggled to find out why people were born with blue eyes instead of brown when both parents had brown. We still struggled to figure out why people were born with Down Syndrome, or ADHD, or why people succumbed to the urge to take drugs.

“Whoa.”

I was broken out of the recesses of my mind by Emmery’s little shout of dismay, or was it shock?

“What’s up?” I asked as I snapped back to reality and looked at her.

“I’m picking up a lot of chatter on Dominion comm traffic,” Emmery answered as her fingers flew over the keyboard, the clickety-clack of the keys drumming into my head like a tap-dancer’s routine.

“Like what?”

“Lots of talk coming out of various non-military channels regarding ship movement, medicinal shipments, and—well, this is weird—bulk paperfilm orders.”

“Wait, what? ‘Bulk film orders’? What’s that about?”

“Not sure.”

We stared at one another in confusion. The idea that the Dominion would be ordering bulk amounts of film seemed odd. “So, based on some experience of my own, if an organization is going to make an odd purchase, most of the time it means that it certainly isn’t that odd purchase, it’s code for something else.”

“Like what?” Emmery asked.

“If I was running the show, paper would be code for either weapons or munitions. Do we know where from and where to?”

“No. They’re pretty good at keeping locations quiet unless it’s something that is meant to be public.”

“Okay. We need to look into…what’s that?” I pointed at something blinking on the screen.

“That’s a message coming in on a secure frequency.”

“Can you open it?”

“Do you really think I should? What if it’s some sort of spyware from the Dominion to see what we’re up to?”

I smiled at her, a little smug—my paranoia was rubbing off on some people. “Good catch. Call Valtic.” She got on the comm, asking him to come up to the communications room. Within minutes, he was there.

“What can I do for you ladies?” he asked as he walked into the room.

I turned to greet him, a small nod of the head that he returned in perfect imitation. “We’ve just received a message on a secure frequency, but we’re a little wary of it. You mind running some of your software on it to make sure it’s safe?”

“Sure,” he said as he walked over to where we sat.

Emmery rose from her chair to let Valtic take her place. She pointed at the unopened message and he took a look at it. After a few minutes of pointing and clicking, typing, and sitting, he finally pushed back from the desk. “You’re all clear. You can open it and see what was sent.”

I wheeled my chair over, taking Emmery’s place at the computer as she sat down. “Hey.”

I glanced at her and smirked. “Sorry,” I said as I clicked on the file to open it.

“Bullshit,” she coughed.

What could I say, I was curious. Suddenly, dread replaced curiosity. It was a message from Wyann and Paila, and it was not good. Emmery gasped and even Valtic let out a small string of curses.

“What is it?” I asked.

“These files,” Emmery said. “Wyann and Paila say it relates to an invasion. But the coordinates don’t make sense. They’re not in the known star charts for Dominion or surrounding space.”

“That’s because the target is outside of Dominion space,” Valtic said, expression grim. “Look at the coordinates.”

I took a look again and placed them on the chart.

This was a detailed battle plan.

Pointed right at the Terran System.

Shit.

The Dominion was going after humans and they were going to send a big-ass fleet to tear them up. While it hadn’t been my home for a year, and for a couple of years I’d been on the far outskirts away from everything I knew, it was still home.

“They’re going to destroy everything,” Emmery said through a choked whisper.

“Does the Terran System have any way of protecting themselves?” Valtic asked, his voice muffled and hollow. It barely registered in my mind as I kept thinking about those billions of lives between Mars, Earth, and the numerous space stations that filled our system.

Someone shook me and I looked up at this obscenely tall man with shiny skin. I didn’t know who he was at first, then reality started to take back over. It was Valtic.

“What?” I asked, finally clearing my head.

“Does the Terran System have any way of protecting themselves?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “They have some ships and they have weapons, but if this report is even a quarter correct, we’re still getting blown out of the cosmos. We just don’t have the technology.”

“I see. We need to bring this to Dejar’s attention.”

I nodded in understanding, but I didn’t understand anything at all. There was, if the report could be believed, going to be a fleet larger than anyone had ever seen coming for us and wiping us out of existence, leaving us, the few humans that were sitting on the Rogue Star as the last of our kind, and with no males, the human race would die with us.

Within ten minutes, we were all in a conference room explaining what the message said. After I finished talking, I looked around the room at the different faces and their reactions. The women in the room ranged from tears and fear to anger and fury. The men, they were displaying a range of emotions that extended from shock to a need for action.

“Well,” Dejar started. “This puts us into a situation where we need to decide if we sit back or if we act. Do we try to save the Terran System?”

The chorus of shouts, threats, and yelling—almost entirely from the human females, but a little from the other men—answered Dejar’s question. He held up his hands to quiet us all down.

“Ask a stupid question,” he muttered, bringing out some nervous laughter from a few of us. He looked over at a quartet of people that I hadn’t paid much attention to when we started the meeting. “Shar, Zayne, Morgan, Siran, the four of you were originally tasked with trying to bring some extra allies to our rebellion. I need you to do something else now.”

Zayne looked like a younger version of Dejar, just copper-toned instead of gold-skinned. The young medic had been bad at his job when we first joined the crew, a temperamental, slightly spoiled boy that hadn’t grown into his body yet. He’d since matured in form and competence. Shar was a big man that had a pudge when we joined, and still had a pudge now, but he was a beast of a man and powerful as hell. They both stood behind Morgan and Siran, and each of them nodded.

“Whatever you need of us, sir,” Shar said.

“Good,” Dejar said. “Then I need the four of you to investigate this fleet and let us know if it’s real. Do nothing but find and report, that is all. Clear?” They nodded. “Good. Go. The faster you go, the faster we get the information we need.”

The four of them nodded again, in unison, then left the conference room.

“We still have more to talk about,” Dejar said. “Everyone settle in. This is going to take a while.”

COLM

“I just don’t see evacuation as a realistic option.” Valtic’s creased face was set in a scowl as we surveyed the holomap of the Terran System. A three-dimensional representation of the human females’ home system floated above the command console in the security headquarters of the Star.

“I agree, but what else can we do? From what we know, I don’t think the humans’ technology will be much use against a coordinated Dominion attack of the scale we’re expecting.” I stroked my chin absentmindedly as I analyzed the chart.

I instructed the computer to highlight all of the high-risk targets based on the projected entry point of the Dominion attack fleet. Red dots popped up all over the system, too many to count.

“There’s no way we can evacuate a significant portion of those targets in time. We don’t know when the fleet will deploy, but even if we had a full year, there wouldn’t be time.” Valtic shook his head, the corners of his thin mouth pulled down into a frown. “Even with a full fleet of Rogue Stars, it’d be a challenge to square up against the Dominion, and we’ve only got the one.”

“You’re not wrong.” I turned away from the display, pacing to the back of the room and turning around, my frustration simmering just below the surface. My irritation mounted despite my struggle to control my emotions.

My anger finally burst. “You know who does have a whole fleet of Rogue Stars? The Gaed. This would be so much easier if they would just get off their pedestals already and join the fight. They’re the only ones with enough fire power to challenge the Dominion, and yet they cower behind their defenses in their home system.” I kicked the bottom of the command console, furious at the timid, cautious nature of our allies. “How much longer can they allow the Dominion free rein to torment the galaxy?”

Although the Gaed had been helpful as covert allies, their refusal to confront the Dominion openly frustrated me. I couldn’t understand how they could sit back and watch as the corrupt empire exploited world after world.

Valtic nodded, his face hard but calm. “That would certainly simplify things. But they’ve made their position clear. The Gaed leadership won’t risk the lives of their civilians by engaging in open war with the Dominion. It’s taken them too long to negotiate the current tenuous peace, and they won’t jeopardize it for an uncertain rebellion.”

“Well, the umbba rebellion wouldn’t be so uncertain if they would join in already. If they threw their full support behind us, we’d actually have a chance.” I seethed with anger. “How can they justify this? How many lives will be lost because of Gaed cowardice?”

Valtic clapped me on the shoulder. “I’m sure I don’t have to remind you who harbors us right now. The Gaed have already offered us tremendous help, and I’m certain they will have still more to offer before this rebellion is finished. You can’t entirely blame them for their hesitance. Their people are left in peace through their treaty with the Dominion. How many Gaed lives were lost to secure that agreement? How many Gaed lives would be lost in the breaking of it? It’s simple for us, we had little choice. But the Gaed have a prosperous, peaceful existence. It would be a lot to sacrifice.”

“And what about us? What about the rest of the galaxy? We have risked everything. Not just for ourselves, but for everyone.” My anger subsided, reduced to a resentment at the challenges before us. But I had always relished a strategic challenge, and I was determined to solve this one.

“You can’t expect everyone to act as we do. We were thrust into unique circumstances.” Valtic flashed me a wicked smile.

I was still trying to get used to seeing the hardened, severe man smile. I didn’t think it had ever happened before he and Lynna started spending so much time together. It was still far from a common occurrence, but no longer unheard of. There could be no doubt that the man’s demeanor had improved immeasurably since he had paired off with the human.

“Speaking of those unique circumstances, do we know if any of the human females have any knowledge of their system’s defenses?”

“Not sure, but that would probably be useful.” Valtic sent out a ship-wide alert that asked anyone with knowledge of the Terran defense network to report to the security center immediately. “Hopefully, one of them will be able to provide some insight.”

“If they do, they will have proved more useful to this particular operation than the whole of the Gaed empire.” Obviously, I hadn’t completely let go of my anger.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Colm. The Gaed have provided us ships, shield technology, covert reconnaissance information, and most importantly, safe harbor. They’ve done plenty to assist this rebellion already. We owe them a debt of gratitude.”

I grunted dismissively, my face set in a hard scowl as I stared at the holomap. Valtic frowned at me and, seeing that no further response was forthcoming, continued.

“And if we succeed in striking a decisive blow against the Dominion, I have no doubt that they will join in our cause directly. They’re waiting to see if this is a real rebellion, or just the ravings of one aggravated band of fugitives. They’ve shown tremendous faith in us up to this point. I think you expect too much from them.”

I scoffed. “I expect a little courage. Is that really too much?”

“For some, yes. Not for a couple of grizzled veterans like us, of course. But it doesn’t come so easy to others, throwing themselves into open conflict. It’s up to us to show them that we can win, brother.” Valtic’s face was still severe, but his features were alight with hope.

I couldn’t stop a wide grin from spreading across my face. “Oh, you have changed, Valtic. That human girl’s got you believing in stuff, doesn’t she?”

He shot me a dirty look, but his bronze eyes still glittered with passion.

“Yes, I see it clearly. It’s love. You’re in love, and it’s made you soft, my friend. You’re full of hope now.”

He scowled, his eyes boring into mine, and I thought for a moment that it might come to blows. But he relented, his expression softening.

“Ah, scro.” He sighed as a soft, wistful smile played across his lips. “You know, you might be right.” He shook his head, looking down at the floor.

I clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s good. I’m glad to see you happy. You deserve it.”

“You know, there are many other fine women on the ship. Maybe one of them can stir the hope within you, as well.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Oh, I don’t think so, friend. Besides, we have too much work to focus on right now. Frankly, I don’t understand how so many have found the time for romance, but I’m certain that there couldn’t be a worse time for it.”

He raised his brow, smiling doubtfully. But before he could respond, the door chimed the approach of a visitor.

I buzzed the door open, and a human female strode confidently into the room with her shoulders pulled back and chin held high. I was pretty sure I’d met her briefly before, and that her name was Vianne.

Her chin-length black hair was as straight as her rigid posture, and it shone like polished obsidian. Her stormy blue eyes sparkled with intense intelligence as she shifted her gaze between Valtic and me.

“You guys asked for anyone with a knowledge of the Terran defense systems, right?”

Valtic nodded as he spoke. “We did. We’re trying to map out a rough plan with the little information we have, and we were hoping one of your group could provide us with some information about security and defense technology, that sort of thing.”

She laughed, but her eyes remained hard. “Well, I’m definitely the woman for that job.”

“And why is that?” I regarded the woman curiously, intrigued by her intense demeanor.

She met my gaze. “I used to be the head of security for the Mars Assembly’s capitol building. I pretty much managed all of the personnel responsible for the safety of the most important figures in the whole system. Including Adastria Askvig.”

Valtic and I exchanged surprised looks, rendered speechless. I found my voice after a moment, turning to address this fascinating woman.

“Uh, well, sounds like that should be pretty helpful.” I extended my hand toward her in what I had learned was a courteous human gesture. “Welcome to the security team. Vianne, right?”

She gripped my hand with surprising strength and shook it professionally, but the huge smile on her lips reached all the way to her brilliant blue eyes. “Glad to be here. Colm, isn’t it?”

I nodded, a smile spreading across my own face. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Valtic was grinning wider than either of us.

VIANNE

I wasn’t entirely sure what had crossed between the two men that would put such a large grin on Valtic’s face and make Colm glare at him, but I decided that none of it was my business.

“So, what did you want to know?” I asked.

“Well,” Colm said as he finally let go of my hand, “come take a look at this.” He led me over to an impressive three-dimensional display of the Milky Way.

“This is really in depth and impressive. What are the red dots?”

“High-risk targets based on where we think the Dominion will fold into the galaxy,” Colm answered.

“That bad, huh?” I asked rhetorically. “Okay. Well, first thing I need to know is, how old is this map?”

Colm looked a bit embarrassed when he answered. “In honesty, we haven’t updated it since the last time we were near the system.”

“So, when you accidentally broke the station and had to rescue us?”

Both he and Valtic nodded.

“Any idea if the Gaed have an updated map?” I asked. “Or maybe Qal?”

“Qal’s the one that gave us this map,” Colm responded. “Since we haven’t been back near your system, we’re missing some information.”

I nodded again. I felt like a damn bobblehead, nodding so much. “Well, while one of you talks to the Gaed about an updated map, I’ll put in what information I can.”

I played with the map, learning the controls of how to zoom in, zoom out, move things around, and how to add things and take things away. I started looking at it like it was one of the war games the commanders back in the Space Force liked to play, and I was able to pick up on things quickly.

“Hey, Colm, come here,” I called back over my shoulder as I added space stations, ship patrols from my last bit of knowledge, and defense satellites.

“What can I do for you, Vianne?” Colm asked in a voice that had me wondering what he was trying to accomplish. It was flirty, but it didn’t sound intentional. Was he trying to flirt with me? Was he just trying to be nonchalant and failing miserably?

“Hey, I need to know where you think the Dominion is going to come in. I want to see if you have better instincts about it than I do.” While we hadn’t been around one another much over the year we’ve been on a ship together, I did know a little bit about him and I knew he had a good head on his shoulders.

“If I were running things and wanted to make the best entry point to cause the most damage with the least amount of danger to my own people, I would,” he stopped talking to study the map a little more. After nearly a minute of study, he finally pointed to a spot just outside of Saturn’s orbit. “I would come in there. It’s close enough to give the Dominion the element of surprise while keeping them out of a potential pincer attack.”

I nodded. He had done what everyone back on Earth and Mars had done, he had fallen for the trap, only thinking linearly since the orbits of all of our planets were linear.

“Why not up here or down here?” I asked, putting two yellow dots into the map.

“Because…kout,” he cursed, chuckling. “I fell for the trap of looking at the orbits as the only direction to go.”

“You think the Dominion will do the same?” I asked, a tiny spark of hope in my voice.

He looked at me, then back to the map, then back to me. “Well, there is a chance. Psychologically speaking, most people go with what is simplest and are usually easily influenced by what they see. They tend to not look beyond what they see.”

“So, again, I ask you, do you think the Dominion will do the same?”

“I’ll answer the same way. There’s a chance. They have some smart people in command of their military forces, but they just might take the Terrans for granted and believe that they don’t stand a chance.”

Colm was right, unfortunately we Terrans weren’t known for an overabundance of intelligence, and when compared to what I’ve seen over the past year, we definitely didn’t have the technology. The only thing that I would say humans had over the Dominion forces would be simple tenacity.

We were a race of survivors that knew how to find a way through whatever shit was thrown at us, even if we were the ones throwing it.

We were also a race of insane bastards that were more than willing to do some seriously crazy shit in order to make stuff happen. I mean, we were willing to launch ourselves in a tiny-ass tube to Pluto knowing that there was a twenty-five percent chance we wouldn’t make it in one piece or alive.

“What are you thinking about?”

I snapped back to reality and looked at Colm. “I was thinking that if the Dominion pulls the same thing you did, we stand a chance. What if we end up placing Earth defenses here, here, here, and,” I touched three different spots on the map, then a fourth, “here.”

“That would allow Earth forces to have the Dominion surrounded on three sides. Even with inferior technology, they can do some damage. If your ships are strong enough and your captains are good at their jobs, they may even be able to drive them away, if only for a little time.”

“You think so? I mean. . .” I looked up at him as he stood over me looking at the map. His muscles stretched the fabric of his sleeves whenever he moved his arms. His reddish-gold skin caught the lights of the map and the room and seemed to glow. There was a certain muskiness about him that filled my nostrils, and I found myself liking it. I quickly brought myself back to the point I had been trying to make. “If this fleet is as big and bad as the report claims it’s going to be, I wonder if we would be able to evacuate people instead.”

“The thought came up. Is that what you want to do? Run? And how?”

I folded my arms. “Hey, sometimes it’s better to run so you can fight again.”

“Perhaps.”

We spent the next few hours looking over the map, trying to come up with new plans based on our best guesses. Even after Valtic returned with a slightly updated map, we kept at it.

Colm was fun to be around, and I discovered that he pronounced his name just like the word “calm.” He lived up to his name. He was exceedingly calm as we played mini-war games against one another in order to test the validity of the plans we were trying to come up with. He was good, but so was I. Between the two of us, we managed to come up with some pretty decent plans.

“Why haven’t the so-called head-honchos put us together before this?” I wondered out loud as we finalized one final defense plan. “I mean, we work together so unbelievably well.”

“I agree,” he said with an intoxicating smile. “You and I seem like such a natural team, it seems as though our connection should have been made long ago.”

“Yeah. Well,” I said as I stood up and stretched, making sure he got a good show in the process. I knew he was looking at me and I made sure to make the stretch last as long as I could. “I’m starving. You wanna grab a bite to eat?”

“No, thank you,” he said with a shake of his head.

That sucked. “Why not?”

“I have some more work to attend to. But, go. Eat. Don’t ignore your stomach on my account.”

Well, if he was going to practically shove me away, fine. I bid him a good night and headed off to the dining hall. Several of the women, well, truthfully, everyone was talking about the reports we had gotten from Paila and Wyann. But it was the women doing most of the talking about whether or not we should go back.

“What about what they did to us? What about our so-called ‘punishments’?” One of the ladies, one of the older ones named Sheryl, asked the table. The ladies had pushed about four tables together so they could all talk about the same subject, sometimes at the same time. A few of the men sat with them, but it was mostly the women. “Some of us were ‘punished’ for things that wouldn’t have gotten more than a warning or a night in jail in the old days. Why do we want to go back for them now?”

“Because,” Maris answered with a roll of her eyes. “They’re humans, like us. Do you want the entire human race to be obliterated? I don’t see any other men around here, so if we let the Dominion stroll in and kill everyone, we’re all that’s left. The human race will die out with us.”

“And?” Sheryl demanded. “You’re telling me we should risk our lives for the same people that betrayed us?”

“Not everyone betrayed us,” Aryn countered. “Not everyone was involved with Adastria’s little plan.”

“Besides,” I cut in before Sheryl could run her old-ass mouth again. “Most of us still have family back there. I’m not about to let my family die for something we’re partially responsible for.”

That shut Sheryl up, although Aryn looked at me. “How are we partially responsible for anything?”

“I’m not saying we are, but the Dominion damn sure thinks we are,” I answered. “So, I want to stop them.”

That brought about a lot of voices echoing my own, but a few still questioned. Not the fight, but the likelihood of us winning and if evacuation was a better option. At least we were talking civilly.

COLM

I sat at the command console in the Star’s security node, still surveying the holomap of Vianne’s home system. Valtic had already retired to the quarters he shared with Lynna, giving me a tired clap on my shoulder on his way out and suggesting that I get some sleep before we began our fold out of Gaed space tomorrow. I had nodded and said that I would, but I knew I wouldn’t get much.

Tomorrow we crossed the threshold into Terran space into an unknown situation. Nerves had my mind working tirelessly, even if my body felt the fatigue.

The Terran System’s defenses had turned out to be worse than I thought. Their technology was light years behind that of the more advanced systems. Kopa, they didn’t even have reliable fold technology yet. I learned from Vianne that the only option for long-distance space travel was some barbaric technology they called a ‘flosh drive’, which killed one in four humans it transported. Granted, the humans were a bit more delicately assembled than us, but that was still an atrociously high fatality rate for such a simple concept.

Naturally, it would follow that their ships, shields, missile systems, tracking sensors, and just about every other piece of technology of use for the defense of an entire system were equally primitive.

I told the console to highlight the defensive edifices in place throughout the Terran System. A few dozen green dots appeared on the map, most of them clustered around Mars. The digital representation looked pitiful compared to the image of the Dominion fleet stationed menacingly at their anticipated fold-point.

The Terrans were too outdated and too few. The crude battleships and networked space stations of the humans would serve as little more than asteroid debris to be cast aside by the Dominion fleet. By all appearances, a full Dominion assault spelled disaster for the Terrans.

If they had reliable fold technology, a full-scale evacuation might be possible. It would be the best choice, given the alternatives. The shields of the best human ships would be shattered by one strike from the Rogue Star’s most powerful cannon. It wouldn’t surprise me if a single strike from a Dominion cruiser completely vaporized their flagship destroyer. Especially if the initial reports that the Dominion had developed even more advanced deadly weaponry turned out to be accurate.

When we crossed the threshold tomorrow, the Rogue Star would likely be the only fold-capable ship in the whole of the Terran System. There were enough skimmers to evacuate the whole crew, twice that if we ran them at maximum efficiency and cut oxygen levels down to a minimum. Not a pleasant way to travel, but doable.

That wouldn’t do much good for most of the Terrans. We could absorb the crew of one, maybe two, of their destroyers if they ran into trouble. But after that we would be at capacity, and everyone else would be left to face the onslaught of the Dominion fleet. It was a grim prospect.

Nevertheless, I went about adjusting the settings for our little fleet of skimmers, programming escape protocols so that all excess resources could be easily directed to the skiffs in an emergency. I reduced the life-support parameters on all the vessels to the lowest possible levels that would still guarantee ninety-nine percent survival for average human physiology. I used the command console’s guidance software to plot out potential courses for the skimmers that would allow them to skirt past the Dominion fleet to safety. Some wouldn’t make it, of course, but that was unavoidable. There would need to be some casualties in order for the majority to survive.

After I’d prepared everything I could think of, I sat for a long while, staring at the display of the Terran System and the battle to come. From what I could see, it wouldn’t turn out to be much of a battle. But long odds weren’t no odds. I guessed the female humans wouldn’t be too fond of the idea of fleeing while the Dominion destroyed their home system, and honestly, I didn’t think much of running, either. Dejar wasn’t the type to back down from a challenge just because the odds weren’t in his favor, and most of the crew of the Star were the same way. The more I thought about it, the more our trip to the Terran System started to feel like a last stand.

My thoughts were getting fuzzy, my mind blurring as fatigue finally took its toll. I waved the holomap away and swiped open the door of the security center. I locked it behind me with a press of my palm on the pad outside, and started down the hall toward my quarters.

The ship seemed empty, most of the crew having already bedded down for the night. My footsteps echoed off the walls of the narrow hall, the only audible sound aside from the background hum of the Star’s life-support systems. Most of the time I didn’t even notice it anymore, the low rumble having faded out of perception as it became one of life’s many unheard constants.

Routine could be pleasant that way, providing a certain comfort in ceaseless repetition. There was plenty of that to be had on a spaceship, and I suspected that a predilection toward some degree of monotony was something of a prerequisite for those that chose careers involving consistent interplanetary travel.

My stomach growled, snapping me out of my reverie. Fatigue was really causing my mind to wander, and I also realized I hadn’t eaten since the midday meal. I needed to get some sleep. I couldn’t afford to be operating at anything less than one hundred percent tomorrow. I doubted that I’d be able to sleep without putting something in my stomach, however, so I turned down the corridor toward the dining hall.

When I rounded the corner, I nearly bowled over one of the human women.

“Sorry.” I caught her around the shoulders, steadying her.

“No, I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” She brushed her short black hair out of her blue eyes and looked up at me.

“Oh, hey, Vianne.” I released my grip on her shoulders and stepped back, aware of the closeness of our bodies. “What are you doing up so late?”

“I could ask you the same thing?” She smiled at me, deflecting my question.

“I had some stuff to finish up in the security room. You know, last minute preparations for tomorrow. Just wanted to make sure we’re ready for whatever happens.”

“Yeah, we better be. It makes me nervous to have basically no idea what we’re walking into. I think that’s why I can’t sleep.”

“Well, I was just about to head to the galley to get a little food. I got so distracted with the planning that I accidentally skipped dinner. Want to come have a pot of tea or something?”

She looked away thoughtfully for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, sure.” She turned around and we walked side by side toward the hall. “Maybe some chamomile will help me sleep.”

I laughed. “What’s chamomile?”

She smiled ruefully, shaking her head and chuckling. “Dang it, I guess I forgot where I was for a second. It’s a type of plant from earth. It’s pretty common for people to make tea out of the dried flowers. They’re supposed to have a calming effect that’s good for relieving headaches and promoting sleep and relaxation.”

“Hmm, I see what you mean then. We could definitely use some of that right now. But you know, it sounds pretty similar to hildarook from our home planet. Every Shein mother gives it to their child when they get sick and need to rest. It’s kind of our cure-all.”

“Oh, neat. Do we have it onboard?”

I laughed. “Of course we do. No self-respecting Shein crew would ship out without a solid supply. I’m surprised nobody has told you about it yet. Maybe they’re trying to keep it a Shein secret.” I smiled down at her mischievously.

She laughed. “Well, I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“Deal.”

We entered the dining hall and found it empty except for two night-shift maintenance workers talking quietly over steaming pots of coffee.

“You sit. I’ll get the tea.”

I filled two pots from the multi-spenser in the front of the room and pulled a bowl of curried gruel from the food port. I carried the gruel in one hand and balanced the pots of tea in my other as I returned to the table Vianne had selected and sat across from her.

“Thanks,” she said I set down one of the pots on the table in front of her, the expression in her eyes warm.

“No problem.” I shoveled some warm gruel into my mouth, ravenous now that food was in front of me. “So, what are you so worried about tomorrow for?” I spoke around the food in my mouth, but realized it was probably rude and swallowed before I continued. “Anything in particular, or just general ‘annihilation of my home system’ jitters?”

She laughed and sipped at her tea, shifting in her chair. “Yeah, pretty much that. I’m not sure we’re going to be so welcome, back in Terran space. Most of the women on Persephone weren’t in good standing before leaving. We all pretty much ended up there because we were cast out from somewhere.”

“Yeah, I get that.” I shoveled more gruel down.

She sipped at her tea again before continuing. “Well, I’m pretty sure that Adastria knows that we exposed her treachery in Dominion-controlled space, and like I said, most of us weren’t in good standing with her before that. So I’m worried about how she’s going to react to our return. She’s one of the most powerful people in the system. She sent her own daughter out to Persephone just for being a disappointment. So what will she do to us if she thinks we’re a threat to her control?”

I swallowed the last bit of food, nodding while I washed it down with a long pull from my pot. “Good point. You think she’ll resort to outright violence?”

“I don’t know. I think she’ll do just about anything to keep her power.”

“Well, she may be powerful, but don’t forget, you told me all about the Terran defense systems and military technology. As long as you’ve got the Rogue Star on your side, I wouldn’t be too worried.”

She half-smiled, her eyes crinkled with concern. “Yeah, but the Star is only one ship.”

I fixed her with an earnest stare, holding her gaze. “Yeah, but it’s our ship. You ladies are part of the family now, and we’re sure as scro not going to let anything happen to you. Not while the Star still flies.”

Her smile widened, and some of the concern dissipated from her face as she nodded.

“Think we ought to try and get some sleep now, huh? Got to be on our toes tomorrow, if we’re going to make sure this Adastria doesn’t try any funny business.”

Vianne nodded her head, her smile fading a bit as we dumped our waste into the recycler and headed off toward our respective rooms.

VIANNE

I stayed in bed longer than I should have. In my previous life, I was notorious for getting up at 4 A.M. Now I was always up early, ship-time. Today, though, I couldn’t talk myself into a way to get out of bed.

I had slept better than I had thought I would, thanks to Colm. He had helped me calm down and get over my jitters.

After multiple folds, today was the day we entered the Terran System, or Sol System for those of us that had lived there and had known no better. The journey took roughly five folds and a total of ten days. Today was the day we made our return and tried to warn the system of the impending Dominion attack. As long as it wasn’t today.

We still hadn’t heard anything from Shar and company, so we were hopeful that the attack was still some time away, but a ball of nervous energy was still lodged in the pit of my stomach. We were coming home, and for some of us, that wasn’t a good thing. There had been a reason many of us ended up on Persephone, away from civilization.

Yet here we were, about to re-enter the system, and I had no idea how we were going to be received.

Someone knocked on my door. I forced myself out of bed and padded over. Opening the door, I was a little surprised to see Colm waiting for me.

“I was wondering where you were hiding,” he said coyly. “Come on, we’re about to get you back home.”

Home. That was a word that I didn’t have a definition for anymore. Home had been several places. Back on Earth in the country that was called Norway but had none of the Norwegian nationality after the last war. Then I had gone to Mars and that had been home, or a reasonable facsimile. After that, I had called Pluto home, and then the Rogue Star became home. What was ‘home’ to me?

I nodded. “Just a little nervous, I guess. Give me a couple of minutes to get ready.”

He nodded and I closed the door. Less than five minutes later, I was exiting my room, running my fingers through my hair to make it look semi-presentable.

“You look good,” Colm said as we traversed the hallways of the Star on our way to the bridge.

“Say what?” I was thrown a little off by his sudden compliment.

He smiled. “You look fine,” he repeated. “I think you can stop running your fingers through your hair.”

“Oh,” I chuckled lightly. It had been a nervous habit of mine when I was teenager. Whenever something made me nervous or anxious, I would run my hand through my hair. “I guess coming back has me a little stressed.”

“I understand that,” he said as he pushed the button for the elevator. The doors opened and he let me step in first. Once inside, he pushed the button for the bridge and the doors closed. The light jerk that every elevator had gave me that momentary feeling of queasiness as Colm continued what he was saying. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been to my home. I think I would be a little nervous, as well.”

“Were you sent away to what was essentially a prison as punishment for something that was beyond the call of normalcy?” I asked, a bit snap in my tone.

“No. No, I wasn’t. My apologies.”

“No, I should be the one to apologize.”

He just smiled at me. The doors opened and he motioned for me to exit first. I felt like shit for snapping at him that way. It figured that I would go stupid as soon as I got home.

Qal was in the process of answering a question when we stepped onto the bridge. “—just invited us in. Guess that message was received nicely.”

“Apparently so,” Dejar responded. “Take us in.”

“What’s happening?” I whispered to Colm.

He gently led me over to the side and leaned down to whisper back to me. “I’m going to guess that Dejar sent a preemptive message to the Terrans to let them know we were coming and that we were coming on good terms.”

“Nice work,” I commented more to myself than to Colm. From my periphery, I saw him nod. We’re a bunch of damn bobbleheads. We all nodded too damn much. We entered Terran space and were ‘welcomed’ by three battlecruisers, each one of them nearly seven times the size of the Rogue Star.

I let out a small gasp when I saw them.

“What is it?” Colm whispered.

“I didn’t know they had those anywhere near completion,” I whispered back. “Those are Viscount-class battlecruisers. They were supposedly only in the planning stage when Kalyn was put in charge of Persephone Station.”

“Wasn’t her first official day in charge the day we arrived?”

I nodded, just like a bobblehead.

“They built those in only one year?” Even his whisper was filled with awe, and doubt.

I shook my head. this time. “I doubt it. There’s no way they could have built three of those in only one year, not unless they got a massive amount of people to jump in and contribute. I’m going to guess that both Earth and Mars have been working on those for a while.”

“Not to burst your bubble,” Qal said from his station in hushed tones. “But I’m running scans on them now and those ships may be traversing space, but that’s all they’re doing. Weapons are nonexistent—probably not assembled yet. They can’t fold or even travel for long distances. If they’ve been assigned to guard us, we could probably just ram them and watch them fall apart. I think they’ve been sent as a show of force because the Terrans don’t realize the power of our scanners.”

While we talked, Dejar and Qal dealt with the Admiral of the lead ship. I was confused as to why a man would hold such a prestigious position, especially since most men were placed into protective custody and used for breeding to try to rebuild the male population.

Maybe they’d rustled up a male just to talk with the other, alien, men.

Ridiculous, but for whatever reason, he was there.

He led us to Mars, where we were directed to land on the planet at a massive landing pad. As Qal set us down, I looked out and spotted the city. We had landed just outside the capital city of Redgate, established a couple of decades ago when they first terraformed the planet. Redgate was supposed to be the launch point of humanity into the cosmos, but all of that had stalled when bureaucratic jackasses started complaining about the money.

“Let’s get to it,” Qal said enthusiastically after we landed.

“Not so fast, Qal,” Kalyn said, catching everyone by surprise.

Even Dejar looked a bit shocked that Kalyn had shot Qal down. “This should be just us, the women. The humans. If we walk into the capital with a bunch of massive Shein, we could throw the citizens into a panic. Most of them still don’t believe that there are other species in the cosmos. Have you been trying to get the footage Manda copied of my mother to the Martian government?”

“They seem to be ignoring it,” Qal said.

“She gave me a copy of the chip. I’ll see if I can force the issue,” Kalyn said through gritted teeth.

Before any more dissent could begin, Dejar held up his hand and agreed with Kalyn, saying that the women should be the ones to go and present the information they had. If the men were needed, they would come.

Of the nearly thirty human women, ten stayed behind, claiming they wanted nothing to do with the people that had screwed them over in the first place.

Kalyn didn’t argue and led the rest of us off the Star.

They might be ignoring Qal’s message, but no one could ignore the landing of an alien spaceship.

We were greeted by a camera crew, several delegates, and two hovercrafts that were big enough to take us all.

We got on the crafts and eventually arrived in the massive city center square where crowds of humans were cheering us.

Not exactly how any of us had left. This was… disturbing.

The hovercrafts parked close to the massive dais that stood in the center of the square and we were directed to sit on a large podium just to the right of it.

Then, as the cheers started to die down, Adastria came out of the capitol building, relishing the long walk from the prominent front steps of the building to the dais. I had seen her do this several times before. She used the walk to take everything in and size up exactly what kind of crowd she was facing. It was her way to make any last-minute changes to what she was doing.

What she was planning.

She was smiling, walking with confidence, and doing her best not to look at us.

“My fellow Martian citizens both here in person and at home watching onscreen,” Adastria said loudly, letting just a hint of excitement enter her voice as she made it to her favorite spot on the dais. She stood just in front of the fountain, allowing the shimmering fall of water to play backdrop to her scene. “Join me in welcoming back our sisters, daughters, and friends that we believed lost to us a year ago.”

The crowd erupted.

After nearly two minutes of cheers, Adastria calmed the crowd down. She looked flush with emotion and even sniffed. “First of all, I want to express my deepest joy at the return of my daughter. I thought that I had lost her a year ago, just like many of you had lost your own family members, your friends. To know that,” she paused to wipe away a tear and catch her breath, “to know that she’s alive and well, I just want to thank the galaxy and those responsible for bringing my precious diamond back to me.”

I had been keeping an eye on Kalyn during this short speech and she had sat there, clenching her fists over and over. At the word ‘diamond’, she jumped to her feet and rushed towards the dais. Many in the crowd started cheering, fully expecting a heartwarming reunion.

When Kalyn pulled up short, there was a collective gasp. She snatched the mic away from Adastria and went off.

“This woman,” Kalyn’s lip curled into a sneer, “my mother, couldn’t give a shit about her darling daughter or the rest of us that disappeared a year ago. We’ve been trying to send proof to the government that she’s corrupt and a traitor to her race, but it’s gone unheeded! This woman is working with an alien government known as the Dominion and she fucking sold us to them for a seat at the bargaining table. She sold us out and left us out there to die. We were supposed to be experimented on. We have the evidence.”

I turned my attention to Adastria as Kalyn spelled out everything that had happened to us, including the video of her mother’s betrayal. During this whole thing, Adastria called for another mic and after she got it, she started to ‘get emotional’. There were many moments of her covering her mouth, placing her hand on her heart, and even looking angry. She was playing this to the hilt and people were biting.

“How could you say those things to me, Kalyn?” Adastria finally asked, her voice husky and shaky.

I knew she was faking. Hell, I had orchestrated one of these moments back when I was running security. It worked like a charm back then, and seemed to be doing the same today.

“I’m your mother. I love you. I’ve missed you and been worried about you.”

“Bullshit!” Kalyn yelled at her.

Adastria turned towards the crowd. “My daughter and her friends have been brainwashed by the aliens that landed outside our city. They’ve turned them against us, turned my own daughter against me. What can I do?”

The Space Force guards began moving in. “Quickly,” Adastria ordered. “Put them into protective custody before they can be harmed further!”

Chaos broke out as many of us took off running, tearing out of the seats we’d been arranged in.

Because I knew the lay of the land, so to speak, I was lucky. I managed to get away, but I watched as many of my friends were arrested as the crowd broke around us.

And on the big screens, I watched Adastria smile and knew right then and there that she had betrayed us all. I’ve never wanted to hit someone so badly.

COLM

“Well, so much for them not being welcome back home.” Valtic and I strapped on our hand blasters as we descended the ramp out of the Rogue Star. The burly man squinted into the harsh Martian sun as we carefully stepped onto the rocky red surface.

“It does seem like a strange reaction to the return of women that they didn’t seem to want in the first place.” I bent and picked up some of the loose gravel, rubbing it between my fingers and letting it fall back to the ground.

We had parked the Star a ways outside the city, having finally agreed with Kalyn that it might not be the smartest course of action for the ladies to immediately show up with massive aliens. They said it might spook the public some, seeing as most humans did not think aliens really existed.

Funny species, the humans.

“I don’t like it. Why feign excitement?” Valtic wore his usual scowl as we walked a wide perimeter around the ship to ensure we were undisturbed out here.

The Star had plenty of sensors that would likely pick up any suspicious activity, but there really was no substitute for a good old-fashioned patrol. Besides, it made us feel a little bit less useless while we waited to hear from the women.

“I’m not sure. I don’t like it either, though, especially what I’ve heard about this Askvig woman. She sounds devious.” I shielded my eyes from the bright sun as I scanned the horizon, wishing I had thought to bring the digi-shades.

Valtic let out a harsh laugh. “Sending her own daughter to an isolated outpost at the edge of the system using a flawed technology that had a twenty-five percent chance of killing her? I’d say devious is generous.”

“You’re right, maybe more like cruel.”

He held up a finger. “Let’s not forget that she also risked her daughter’s life, along with the lives of the rest of the women on Persephone, to use them to pay her way into the Dominion. We’ve both known some pretty hardcore, cold-hearted players in our day, but that is some kind of harsh.”

“Okay, so psychotic, then. She’s psychotic.”

“Yes, I think psychotic is accurate. I can accept that.”

We were completing our visual perimeter check, coming back around to the Star, when I spotted three figures running toward the ship from the direction of the city. Valtic and I exchanged confused looks before taking off toward the entry ramp at a sprint.

We beat the figures there by a long shot, and Valtic jumped on the comm box just inside the entryway.

“All personnel be aware, we have three unidentified individuals incoming. They appear to be on foot. Species unknown, intentions unknown. No weapons immediately apparent, but be alert. Ready the anti-personnel artillery, but do not fire unless fired upon. The Star doesn’t have much to fear from human weaponry, but I don’t want to give the impression that we’re weak.”

“The artillery?” I looked at Valtic skeptically.

He shrugged. “You never know.”

The progress of the three tiny figures was painfully slow across the Martian expanse, and I had time to run inside and grab the nearsights out of the little cubby near the entrance. I held the device up to my eyes and trained it on the small figures. It took a moment for the nearsight to calibrate and bring the picture into focus, but as soon as it did, I knew something had gone wrong.

“It’s Vianne and two of the others. They’re running. Or trying to run, anyway. They look tired.”

“What? Who are the others? Is Lynna there?” Valtic’s gravelly voice was tense with anxiety. “Let me see.”

“Lynna’s not there. Hang on.” I focused in on the woman to the left of Vianne. “I think that one is Indira.” I zoomed the focus in on the woman on Vianne’s other side. “The other one is Faline.”

“Is anyone following them?”

I scanned the horizon behind the three women, but saw only red dirt and rocks, and the faint outline of a skyline in the distance. “Doesn’t look like it, no. Just them.”

“You’re sure there’s no one else with them?” Valtic’s voice faltered, his worry evident in the desperate, hopeful tone.

“I am. It’s just them. Something must be wrong.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Valtic muttered, his tone gone hard.

I pulled the nearsight away from my face and saw him opening a hatch that held one of the mag-gliders we kept for on-planet travel.

“You going to get them?”

“Damn right I am. I want to know where the rest of the women are, and I want to know now.” He released the glider from its cradle and straddled the helm, kicking it on. It jumped to life with an efficient hum and he took off in the direction of the three women.

I watched him through the nearsight as he raced toward the women. He came to a sudden halt an arm’s breadth from them, gestured for them climb on board, then turned and raced back toward the ship. He sped straight under the Star, bringing the glider to a halt right under its hatch.

The three women stumbled off. It was impossible to tell whether they were unstable from their run or Valtic’s angry driving, but either way, the effect was the same. I rushed over to Vianne, steadying her with my hand on her shoulder.

She struggled to regain her breath, and I thought to wait until she had to ask her what had happened, but Valtic had no such plans.

“Where’s Lynna and the rest of the women?” His tone was harsh, though I knew it was only out of concern for his woman.

Vianne spoke angrily between ragged breaths. “Fucking Adastria. Bullshit. Said we’re brainwashed. Aliens taking over planet. Everyone arrested. Space Force.” She shook her head, visibly frustrated. “Fucking Adastria.”

It was hard to follow her disjointed words, but the part about everyone getting arrested seemed clear enough. I was inclined to let the women catch their breath before getting the full story, but Valtic again had other ideas.

His severe face was stoic, but I knew the man well enough to see the rage bubbling just under the surface. I could hear the fury in his flat tone. “Where did they take them?”

“Give them a second, Valtic. Let them catch their breath for a minute. We’ve got to call this in.”

Rage flashed across his face as he grunted and fixed me with an intense stare, but it was nothing compared to the swearing that came over the comm unit when I told Dejar, Aavat and Kovor what was happening.

I held Valtic’s gaze, raising my eyebrows and lifting my palms. “They can’t talk if they can barely breathe, yeah?” He grunted again, his intense eyes trained on me. I gave him a placating look. “Listen, we’re going to find Lynna and the others, and we’re going to get them back. The captain and commander aren’t going to leave anyone behind.” I tried to match his intensity. “And we’re going to punish whoever is responsible for this. Adastria, from the sounds of it. Right?” I looked to Vianne, raising my eyebrows in question.

She nodded, her breathing slowly returning to normal. “Yes. Kalyn told everyone about her deal with the Dominion, how Adastria tried to use us to pay the Dominion Empire’s membership fee. Adastria denied it, of course, and said that we’d been brainwashed by aliens who’d come here to take over this system.”

“Well, that’s ironic.” I almost laughed, but was too angry and shocked. Valtic and I exchanged incredulous looks. I turned back to Vianne. “Did people really believe that?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. But Askvig is a very powerful woman. She ordered the Space Force to detain us, so they did. I slipped away before that, though. I kind of saw something like this coming when Kalyn started talking. Met up with Indira and Faline just outside the city square where it all went down, and we ran all the way back here. Not easy, you know. It’s been a while since I did genuine cardio on a planet with full gravity.” She smiled, but her eyes couldn’t hide her concern.

Valtic’s fists were clenched at his side, his knuckles turning white from the pressure. “How do we find them?”

Vianne grinned wide. “Well, it’s lucky that I’m the one who got away, because I just happen to know exactly where those Space Force chumps will take them. Got a pretty good idea of the layout and everything, too.”

I smiled at her, impressed by her composure. “That is lucky, isn’t it? I’m glad you made it out.” She returned my smile and opened her mouth to speak. But Valtic cut her off.

“Great. How soon can we be ready to move?” He had already drawn his hand blaster, and wore a look of grim determination.

Indira laughed and shook her head. “Look, I know we’re basically professional jail-breakers at this point, but isn’t there another way we could do this?” She gestured at Valtic’s gun. “Shouldn’t we try something else before we turn straight to violence and law-breaking?”

Faline stepped forward, nodding her head. “Indira’s right. We have enough trouble with galactic governments as it is. We came here to help our home system. I’m not sure that engaging in open conflict and breaking into secure facilities is the best way to go about that.”

“They started it. We’re only responding to their actions.” Valtic’s expression was hard as ever.

Faline continued. “You’re right, it’s not our fault. But this whole situation is Adastria’s doing. It’s basically just her who’s manipulating everyone in the system, so maybe we can get someone else in power to see reason.”

“So, what are you suggesting?” Vianne looked at her fellow human with curiosity.

“I’m suggesting that we go straight to the Space Force and present our case. We’ll bring evidence of Adastria’s treachery, and demand that they release our friends who they have detained under false pretenses.”

Valtic, Vianne, and I exchanged skeptical looks.

Indira stepped into the center of the group. “C’mon, gang. It’ll be fun. We can pretend like we’re delegates from another galaxy come to make peace with the primitive humans. It will be easy, because we basically are.”

We looked around at each other again, our faces screwed up in amusement, then we all burst out laughing. Well, everyone except for Valtic. But he almost smiled, which was pretty good for him.

VIANNE

Aavat had been the strongest argument against my plan. I’d always heard that the commander was slightly insane when it came to his mate, but never had seen it.

Apparently even Captain Dejar and laid-back Kovor lost their minds when their mates were captured.

I could sympathize, but going in guns blazing wouldn’t get us any closer to finding a way to earn the Terrans trust.

And if we didn’t have that, if we couldn’t make them listen to the facts of the oncoming attack, then our entire trip here was pointless.

I had one day to try to make this work. While the rest of the Star prepared to invade.

Try number one: It was decided that we would go try to get the women out peacefully, but that didn’t mean we were going to be stupid enough to go in unarmed or emptyhanded. The men of the ship, at least twenty of them, escorted Indira, Faline, myself, and three other women back to Redgate.

Each of us was armed, but the only ones of us that had our hands on our weapons were the women. I didn’t trust Adastria as far as I could throw her, and believe me, I wanted to throw her lying ass off a cliff and watch her fall.

“Calm down,” Colm whispered to me as we entered the city. We had been smart, we were riding on a few of the six-wheelers that I couldn’t remember the name of. I looked at him and he jutted his chin out towards my hand.

I looked down. My knuckles were white from their death grip on the butt of my weapon. Chuckling nervously, I relaxed my grip, took my hand off the weapon, and laid it in my lap.

I looked at the faces of the people that we passed on the streets, and many of them were staring at us. They had never seen a Shein before, and I was positive that most of them had never believed in alien life, still holding onto the asinine belief that humans were the only intelligent race in the entire universe.

Not to make fun of them for that, but I always figured we couldn’t be alone. Space had always been way too big to leave humanity as the only so-called intelligent species. I had known from the beginning that we couldn’t be alone.

Now that I had brought proof, I felt a little smug looking at their shock and awe. I was also pissed off because some of the faces I looked at had been people I had worked with, people that had sworn they would come to my defense, and then hadn’t.

“Seriously, calm down,” Colm said again. I hadn’t realized that I had run my hand over the butt of my gun again.

We came up to the city square and parked the vehicles right in front of the capitol building. “Everyone move easy, no threatening gestures,” Dejar ordered as we all got off and stood up. “Vianne, if you would?”

I didn’t want to lead nicely, but I had to keep my calm or I would ruin our chances of getting the other women out. I nodded and started towards the front steps. I managed to walk a mere two yards before the doors of the capitol building opened and I heard the stomp-stomp of synchronized boots. Two dozen soldiers marched down the steps, weapons at the ready.

We all drew our weapons and we ended up in a stand-off, everyone standing quietly with their weapons pointed at someone on the other side. Tensions were high; sweat started to bead on the back of my neck as I kept my weapon trained on a particularly burly female with a nastily crooked nose.

“At ease!” came a voice from my past. My trigger finger itched badly as I looked past the burly woman. Captain Krilling strode down the stairs.

A hard woman, not in looks, but in attitude and personality, she could pass for beautiful, depending on view point. But she was the epitome of the phrase ‘fucking bitch’—she could make you hate her in less than a few seconds, and she liked it that way.

“Vianne,” she said with the smallest hint of a growl in her voice. “Why am I not surprised to find you here, betraying your kind?”

“Fuck you,” I said. “I’m here to get my friends out of jail, and I would prefer to do it peacefully.”

“And yet, here you are pointing a weapon at my Sergeant-at-Arms,” she sneered.

I shrugged. “Yeah, well, seemed the thing to do when she had her weapon trained on my chest. Figured that if she’s gonna shoot me, I’ll shoot her ass, too.”

“And you think this is productive how?”

“You’re the one that has your people trained with the mentality of hostile shutdown instead of diagnose,” I shot back, ignoring her sarcasm. “You want to order them to back off, or do we create some job openings for you?”

Colm shuffled behind me and I heard a little bit of mumbling from the men. They weren’t sure where I was going with all of this, and frankly, I wasn’t either. I just knew that I needed Krilling to get her people to back the hell off.

“I can still fill those positions,” Krilling snapped back. “What will your people do when mine start shooting and killing them all?”

“You’ll never know,” I said as I switched my aim to her, right square on her chest. “I’ll make sure your ass is breathing through a few extra holes first. Now, tell your people to stand down so we can talk.”

I fixed her with a stern gaze. I didn’t move, flinch, or even swallow hard when four of her soldiers shifted their aim to me, their laser sights slowly moving and converging over my heart. I even smiled at her.

“Stand down,” Krilling ordered. “I’m curious as to what this woman thinks might be so important she’s willing to risk coming back here. And with such interesting friends.”

Her soldiers lowered their weapons, but no one put anything away. My people did the same, all except me. I left mine pointed at Krilling for another few seconds. When Colm placed his hand on my shoulder, I smiled and shrugged at Krilling, then holstered my weapon.

“Thank you,” I said. I took a deep breath, then another. It was harder being back than I’d expected.

“What do you want?”

“I want my friends released. They’ve done nothing wrong and don’t deserve to be locked away. We don’t want your ‘protective custody’. Let them out.”

“They challenged and threatened our leader.”

“Bullshit. I was there. There was no threat. Adastria is a lying bitch and you know it. We have proof that she set us up and that she’s the reason why those of us on Persephone have been gone for a year.”

“You have proof?”

I nodded.

“Tell me.”

I did. I told her everything, except for the rebellion part. I told her about Outpost Nine. I told her about the experiments at the hidden planet. I told her about the attacks from The Terror and the women that had died so far. I also told her about the video of Adastria talking to the Dominion and demanding to be allowed in because she had done her part. It wasn’t her fault that Outpost Nine and The Terror were unable to do their jobs.

The entire time I spoke and explained, I glanced around at some of the security. They were all decked out, head to toe, in protective gear, but I could still see faces and eyes. I had several of them believing me. Others were wavering.

Krilling, however, couldn’t be read. “Why should I trust the word of a traitor?”

I dropped my head and shook it. “You’re so fucking stupid, it hurts. You know it was proven that I had nothing to do with that, right?”

She shook her head. “You had information on you that you weren’t supposed to have. Just because you convinced a bunch of morons that you weren’t responsible doesn’t mean you weren’t. You betrayed our government.”

“I betrayed no one! That fat bitch wasn’t going to be a viable candidate anyway. Besides, didn’t she eat herself to death at her own birthday party a week or two later anyway after she found out that she was never going to make it in the polls?”

“That’s beside the point,” Krilling snapped. “You violated protocol, and I’m of the firm belief that you did so purposefully. You’re a traitor and a liar. You might have been right in your statements that we weren’t alone in the universe, but we’re still going to stop you and your new friends from hurting us.”

“Oh, my fucking lord,” I cried out. “You really are stupid, aren’t you? We’re not here to hurt you, we’re here to help. The Dominion is coming to attack, and they won’t stop until every last human in the system has been obliterated. Or maybe they’ll decide to take another batch of human women for their sick experiments. We’re here to try to save you all.”

A few of the guards looked at one another and shifted from foot to foot. I was getting through to a few of them, and that was an encouraging sign.

“You have no proof of this attack.” She looked over us, our Shein companions. “How do I know this isn’t some way of getting back into our security, and then your new friends can take over Mars for themselves?”

Colm laughed. “Ma’am, we don’t want it. We’ve got enough problems of our own. But our crewmates wanted to try to help you. Would you just watch the video, make up your own mind?”

“Crewmates.” Krilling shook her head. “You already admit you’re working for the other side. Traitor.”

My hand shot down to my holstered weapon, but Colm’s hand landed on top of mine and stopped me. I looked at him and he shook his head. “Now is not the time. Our deaths would not be good for our friends,” he whispered. “We’ll get them out later, have no worries.”

“Fine,” I said as I looked back at Krilling. “We’ll leave. But we’ll be back. We’ll make you see that Adastria is betraying the human race and that we’re all in danger. So get ready.”

I turned my back on her and started walking.

COLM

Vianne and I sat across from each other at a table in a corner of the Star’s dining hall, a pot of tea in front of each of us. I watched her as I shoveled the last few bites of mush into my mouth. She stared blankly down at the tea between her hands.

“So, uh, that didn’t work out too well, I guess.”

She spat out a joyless laugh without taking her eyes off her tea. “Yeah, could’ve gone better.”

“Not like we really expected them to just voluntarily hand our people over though, right?”

“No. It was definitely a long shot.” She finally looked up from her tea and gave me a weak smile. “Would’ve been nice, though.”

“Yep, definitely would’ve been nice. Might be more fun this way, though.” I smiled back at her.

“Might be.” Her smile faded, and her gaze returned to her tea.

“Hey, so, uh, I don’t really like to pry, but I couldn’t help noticing that lady back there was pretty insistent on calling you a traitor and a liar.”

She kept her blank stare fixed down on her tea, but her jaw muscles tensed as she involuntarily lowered her brow, her expression intensifying.

“Listen, I only ask because, from what I’ve seen, you don’t seem like a traitor or a liar, at all. I mean, you seem like a good, honest person.”

She let out another grim laugh, but made no other response.

“Pretty much everyone on board the Star’s got some unsavory seasoning or another in the soup of their life, so it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m not so clean and pure myself. I’m just curious is all.”

She looked up and tilted her head, considering me through narrowed eyes. After a few seconds of that, I thought she might go back to staring silently down at her tea. But then she let out a sigh as she relaxed her posture.

“Well, that lady back there used to be my boss, when I was head of security in the capitol building. She was pretty much the only person I reported to. She wasn’t the best person to work for, but not the worst, either. She was okay. I was in line for her position, actually. Before I fucked everything up.” She hesitated, the recollection of her past evidently still painful for her, and shook her head, staring back down into her tea.

I nodded, encouraging her to continue. “It’s all right. I can understand not wanting to relive the past. What’s done is done, anyway. We are where we are. All that matters is what we do now.”

She nodded and lifted her head, her eyes filled with both sadness and determination.

“Everything was fine, until fucking Eretrea.” She looked thoughtfully across the room before returning her intense gaze to me. “My best friend, and pretty much the whole reason I ended up on Persephone. We were like sisters, inseparable basically since we were born. Neither of us really fit in that well, and she was the one person I felt like I could really be myself around. Everything was so competitive where we grew up, everyone throwing everyone else under the bus just to get ahead. There’s only so many posts, you know? Too many people, not enough resources. Or jobs.”

I nodded, not wanting to interrupt her.

“Eretrea never really bought into the whole competition thing. She never wanted to live by anyone else’s rules. It got her into some trouble growing up, but she was so pretty and charming that she always got away with it.” She smiled wistfully. Then her eyes narrowed and her expression hardened. “Not me, though. I had to work twice as hard for half the recognition. I didn’t mind, really. I never held it against her. But I wanted a nice life. I wanted to be something. To succeed. I didn’t want to end up some nobody cleaning out toilets on a nothing station. Ironic, I guess, considering where I ended up.”

“Hey, nobody makes you clean toilets on the Star, do they? Because our toilets are self-sanitizing. If anyone ever tries to make you clean a toilet, you better shove their head into it and tell them to lick it clean themselves, because they’re definitely fucking with you.”

She laughed, her sadness momentarily burned away. “I’ll be sure to do that.” Her sad expression returned as she continued with her story.

“She fell in with some bad bitches. They branded themselves some kind of underground anarchists network, set on bringing down corrupt governments and mega-corporations. But they were really just a bunch of thieves and conwomen. They acted like they had some lofty ideals guiding their crimes, claimed they were serving ‘the will of the people’. Some of them might have even believed it. I know Eretrea did. But anyone could see that they only helped themselves. They stole from the huge corporations and justified it with their altruism-bullshit, but nobody outside of their little circle ever saw a dime of that money.”

“So how did Eretrea’s poor choice of friends turn you into a liar and a traitor?”

“Well, while she was playing Robin Hood with the anarchists, I was busting my ass at school and then the academy. I was the youngest woman ever named head of security for the capitol building.” She smiled, a prideful gleam in her eyes. “I still don’t know if she told them or what, but somehow the leaders of her little syndicate found out that she was in good with the head of security at the place where the most powerful people in the system conducted business. I guess it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.” She frowned and shook her head.

“She came to my place in high spirits one night, saying we had to celebrate. Said she’d stumbled into some high-paying gig out near Io or something, I don’t know. I didn’t really bother with the details too much. I just figured it was a cover for some lucrative job she’d helped put together or something. She seemed happy, so I didn’t pry. We pretty much kept out of each other’s professional lives. She knew I wasn’t big on her crew, knew that I wouldn’t hesitate to nail them, including her, if they ever crossed the line in my jurisdiction. She made sure they stayed out of my way, and I never went looking for trouble with them. But that night was different, I guess.” She laughed ruefully.

“Man, we got wicked drunk. Like, wrecked. Whatever Trea’s faults, me and her used to have a damn good time together. We hit all our old hangouts. Sang karaoke, threw digi-darts, shot some holopool, danced ’till we sweated out all the booze, then drank some more. It was one hell of a night. Some of the details are a bit fuzzy, honestly, but I know that we passed out at my place, and when I woke up the next day, she was gone. Like, no trace of her. I messaged and called her, but I just figured she went to finish sleeping it off somewhere else. I didn’t think anything of it until I got to work the next day.”

“Everyone was freaking out because a bunch of highly classified personnel files had been hacked, including the deeply confidential campaign finance records of some of the most influential senators in the system. The Space Force got called in to investigate immediately, of course.” She flashed a broad smile.

I raised my eyebrows, confused by her amusement.

“You know what the funny thing is? I actually helped them to secure my own conviction.” She laughed raucously, eliciting funny looks from a few of the other crewmembers in the room. I smiled uncomfortably. “I was the head security liaison for my own investigation. Because it turns out, Eretrea had copied my access key, stolen my passwords, and given them to her anarchist-hacker buddies so they could access the files.”

“Kout. Are you serious? That is some scro.”

“Yeah, no kidding. The Space Force concluded that I had sold the information. Which fact was corroborated by my altered financial records, which all of a sudden showed a massive gambling debt, courtesy of Trea’s hacker pals.”

“Couldn’t you have just told them about Eretrea and her crew? If you solved the case, maybe they would’ve taken it easy on you.”

She shook her head. “Nah. The damage was already done. Can’t really un-disclose the records, you know? I knew my career was beyond fucked. Who’s going to trust a security head who can’t even keep her own shit secure? Wouldn’t have done much good to turn her in, really. Even though she would’ve absolutely fucking deserved it. I wanted to, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Despite everything, she was still the best friend I’d ever had. I did give them dirt on all the leaders of her crew, though. I told them everything I could without naming her. That’s why they sent me out to Persephone instead of to the Pit. Of course, they were pretty suspicious as to why I knew so much about that little band of anarchists. Hence the ‘liar and traitor’ thing.”

I shook my head, enraged at the injustice of it. “If it was me, I would’ve found her and killed her myself. Or at least beat her some.”

She smiled. “Oh, trust me. I thought about it. A lot. Kind of hard to do from Pluto, though, you know?”

“True.” I looked into her eyes and saw a strong, confident woman. Loyal and tough. A worthy ally. “Well, for what it’s worth, I think you’re too good for the Space Force. If those fools are so easily fooled by Adastria’s stories and some simple hacking, they don’t deserve a leader like you. Your talents would be wasted on them. I’m glad you’re here, with us.” I smiled, blushing a little as I wondered if I’d spoken too strongly. But she returned my smile with a laugh and a broad grin of her own.

“Thanks, Colm. Actually, I’m glad I’m here, too. The tech is better.” Her earnest grin turned mischievous.

We turned as Valtic, Indira, and Faline approached our table. Indira grinned, spreading her arms wide as she spoke.

“Who’s ready to plan a jailbreak?”

VIANNE

It had been a tediously long night, but we’d gotten there in the end.

Even though I’d known to expect a lot of back and forth while planning, to still be awake come 5 A.M. wasn’t what I’d had in mind. By the time we’d all agreed that we had a solid, working plan that we could stick to—that I’d stick to—I’d gotten no more than an hour’s sleep before having to get up again. To say I was tired was a grotesque understatement; after this was done, I planned to take a long week off.

Damn straight, and if anyone even thought about stopping me, I’d bury my boot heel in their face. Screw being diplomatic, that sort of thinking was how I’d gotten stung too many times before; never again, Vi, never again.

Knocking back the last dregs of my bitter coffee, the kind that was better at stripping paint than providing a much-needed caffeine hit, I felt far from perky. The eagerness Colm and I had shared the night before had deserted me, and I just hoped Colm was faring better than me.

“Well, you look like crap!” Indira laughed, her lips hardly suppressing her dirty smirk. I rolled my eyes, knowing mine lacked her bright twinkle of mischief. “You know what helps with lack of sleep?”

“I get the feeling you’re gonna tell me.” I just knew she’d have to get another wisecrack in before we left, and her answer was the perfect opportunity.

“Being a badass bitch who saves a station full of women.” Indira patted my back as both of us fell into genuine laughter, the grumpiness I’d been feeling already fading away—it wasn’t possible to feel low when she was around. I probably should have mentioned that, but I didn’t want anyone’s head getting big, at least not before we’d pulled this off. After that, people could be as goddamn cocky as they wished. “Finish up your coffee and we’ll head out, yeah?” she added.

“If I do that, you’re gonna be a girl down.” Exchanging a wink and a disparaging look at my cup of sludge, I turned my thoughts to less frivolous fun: security protocols.

There was no way they hadn’t changed their systems since the last time I was there. They couldn’t be that stupid, could they?

It wasn’t a huge issue; however, I wasn’t fond of being caught behind enemy lines if it all went to shit. There was thinking on the fly and then there was committing suicide while taking everyone else down with you.

“I’ve gotten into the Terran systems,” Emmery said through the comm from her station a few decks away. “You’ll have temporary biometric passes that will give you false identities. All you need to do is slip in unnoticed and get the uniforms.”

“How long will the identities hold up?” I asked.

“At most, maybe a few hours till the next security sweep. If not earlier. I have no way of knowing.”

I grimaced. Nothing like flying in blind.

Once our gear was in place, with Colm’s keen eyes watching over us, I figured we’d be able to tackle any unexpected problems head on.

Assuming that some of the security protocols had remained the same, I’d be able to con the systems into thinking nothing was amiss. Glitch? What glitch? We’d be in and out quicker than they’d blink an eye.

Giving the final playthrough of the security pass sequencing of green, amber, amber, green in my head, I begrudgingly shuffled my cup away and headed off to find Indira and Faline. There was something exciting about it being just us girls, not to mention extremely fitting, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the guys would be missed. I totally understood why they couldn’t come, seeing as how that stunning metallic sheen of theirs would give them away. And not to overlook certain assets of theirs, too.

But I couldn’t help but feel it would have been good to have Colm by my side through all of this.

I was getting used to him. That was all.

Our little trio united and as ready as we’d ever be, we started to make our way to the uniform supply terminal. This was going to be the easy bit. We just needed to go in wide-eyed, looking ready to roll over at the first sign of a mistake, and they’d believe we were newbie recruits in seconds flat. Any scan would back us up. Nice and simple. However, when we drew near to the pickup point just down from the first terminal, we were greeted by a snotty nosed officer who had a stick up her ass bigger than this station.

“Three new ones, already?” she sneered, her beady eyes looking us over, scrutinizing every inch of us; I hated the intrusion of it all. Faline stole the quickest of glazes, her eyes dangerously close to looking nervous. If this asshole noticed that, we’d never get free of her small, probing eyes.

“I guess more hands on deck never hurts,” I cheerfully replied, my cheeks in agony from having to hold such a painfully wide smile for this long. Our interrogator looked less than amused, the miserable ass. “Well, we’d better grab those uniforms—don’t wanna be late on the first day!”

Seizing the chance to hightail it out of there, we nudged past as politely as we could without breaking into a run, and then headed along. Just as we got to the doorway, however, her sniveling voice called to us.

“Make sure you attach the correct pins on your collar, we need to know who’s new and who isn’t.”

I nodded with a rough smile, Indira stifling her giggles as I herded them into the room. As pleased as I was that we were having fun, I didn’t want to engage that jerk again with more conversation. It wasn’t like she had anything good to say.

The pickup point or, as it was unofficially named by me, the glorified closet, was a tight fit for the three of us to change. To me it seemed like a poor design feature to have such massive, roaming passages, large recreational areas, and then a poxy hole for recruits to change in. But what did I know!

Bundling our own clothes onto the floor while yanking the uniforms on as fast as we could, it wasn’t long before we looked the part. Careful to remember the wise words of earlier, I fixed the rank pin on my collar. See? I could take orders from time to time. Satisfied with how we looked, even if the material felt way too coarse and itchy against my skin, I set about attaching our cameras and connecting our mics to Colm’s main hub back on the Rogue Star.

I gave the mic a couple of quick taps before blowing down it, just to make sure it was connected; slipping the little earpiece into my right ear, I heard Colm moan about my overzealous tapping.

“I needed to be sure, don’t be grumpy,” I explained while rolling my eyes at the girls. They laughed while fixing their own tech into place.

“Vianne, you do remember that I can see you all, right?” We mirrored one another’s expressions of mock embarrassment, although Faline’s looked a bit too convincing. It wasn’t as if she needed to feel bad about Colm hearing us joking around, he was a big boy. He could take it.

Moreover, given the severity of the situation, a little lightheartedness seemed appropriate. Confident we were all up and running, for this part at least, we cut comms with Colm and left in search of the cells.

This part of the plan proved to be just as simple as the first, if not more so, as the guards we were pretending to relieve of their duties barely blinked when they saw us. They were so bored from having to stand around doing nothing while feigning interest in their job that they’d become tired of everything else. Even living. They looked like regimented zombies.

Happy to be away from their monotonous tones and blank faces, I stroked a hand down an alcove in the wall and fastened a heat signature scanner as I went. That little baby would give Colm an overview of who was moving where. It was arguably one of my favorite pieces of kit to have when on a job like this. The slightest change in heat signature and he’d see it, therefore allowing him to give us a heads up if we needed to split.

Not wanting to risk anyone overhearing me checking in with him, I mentally crossed my fingers and prayed it was working fine on his end.

Confident in every bug we’d planted on both ourselves and the station so far, I felt it was time to head off in search of the women. Nodding to Indira and Faline, I smiled nervously before leaving. I didn’t want them to worry, but it wasn’t wise of me to pretend to be overconfident about this when I knew all too well that this was where it could go horribly wrong. One, it could take me hours to find the women, and two, if anyone caught me along the way, we were fucked. Or, at the very least, I was fucked.

The gods must have been looking down on me this time, though. While I had to weave and dodge the occasional official as they went about their business, after a couple of false starts I finally hit the jackpot. I’d found the ladies of Persephone.

Each of their puzzled faces peered at me as I entered the room, my presence clearly one they hadn’t banked on. Puzzlement quickly gave way to relief, and I stepped across to the control panel, the rest of the crew shifting position, moving to shield my actions from any passersby.

As quietly as I could, I prized the top layer of the control panel away from its base and got down into its gut of wires below. The poor lighting made it difficult for me to see, but before long my groping fingers connected with the main security hub of the room. Removing another one of my trusty bugs from my jacket pocket, I thrust my hand into the mainframe’s innards once more; this time when I connected with the main hub, I planted the device and waited.

“I’m in.” Colm confirmed. The seconds I’d waited to hear Colm say that had seemed agonizingly slow, with my heart seemingly ceasing to beat. I was going to get him back for that when I got back!

“Right then, let’s get these ladies out of here. Colm, guide the way.”

COLM

Vianne’s plan had gone off without a single hiccup so far. I was impressed. It was no wonder she had been the head of security for the human’s parliamentary building. She had already proven herself an extremely capable operative, and incredibly cool under pressure. Her leadership skills were remarkable. Indira and Faline were capable women in their own right, no doubt.

But it was clear that Vianne’s confidence and composure were the main factor holding the operation together. Not to mention her skills as a strategist.

And that alluring smile, that one that did things to me she wasn’t even aware of.

Not going to mention that at all.

“All right, let’s get you ladies back to the Star. Valtic here’s getting pretty grumpy without Lynna to keep him occupied.” I glanced over at Valtic seated next to me in the Star’s security node. It was impossible to determine if the jab registered, since the same scowl that he’d sported since finding out Lynna was taken prisoner remained unchanged.

“Yeah, definitely need to get you all back before his face gets stuck like that.”

Indira laughed. “You mean it wasn’t already? Well, I guess there was that one time he smiled.”

Lynna bent down to the camera on Vianne’s chest, her smiling face looming large on one of our feed monitors. “I’m coming, Val. Don’t worry, we’ll be back soon.”

“Let’s get on with it. We’re wasting time.” His scowl intensified as he clutched the arms of his chair like it was trying to buck him off.

“Right. Okay, I’ve got a feed up showing everyone in the facility, so just follow my directions and you should be able to avoid pretty much all the guards. It’s actually surprisingly sparsely staffed, considering it’s the main prison for the most powerful region of your system.” I scanned the thermal display, plotting the best possible course out of the building.

“Yeah, we rely pretty heavily on technology for this sort of thing.” Vianne muttered. “They figure computers and programs are less likely to fraternize, smuggle contraband, or take bribes. Plus, it cuts down on cost.”

“No wonder there’s a job shortage. You know, some things are best done by sentient, organic beings. There really is no substitute in some cases. Okay, head left down the hallway and hold at the first corridor on your right. Wait for my signal.”

I tracked their movement on the thermal readout as I watched them bounce down the narrow passage on Vianne’s feed. They reached the other corridor and stopped. I waited while two red figures passed by at the other end of the corridor.

“Okay, move now, and quickly. Go all the way down to the end and take another right. Don’t stop, just keep moving.” I tracked their movements on both of the displays as they raced down the hall and swung right at the end.

“Okay, keep moving, you’re clear. Take the hall on your left, now.” They swung into the corridor without breaking stride. “Okay, hold position when you reach the end of this hall. I want you to go right, but there’s a warm body that way. Impossible to say which way they’ll go, but if they turn toward you, you’ll have to backtrack.”

“Copy that.”

I watched the thermal display as the red figure of a guard moved up a hallway adjacent to the one Vianne and the others had just moved up. The figure was approaching a four-way intersection. A left would lead her toward the junction that the human women were waiting at. “Come on, go right, you fool. Go right. Or straight, just do not go—kout.”

Heat spread throughout my body as the red figure on the map turned left down the corridor that would take her straight to Vianne.

“Problem?” Vianne’s voice came through the security node’s speakers so crisply it sounded as if she was in the room with us. But the predicament playing out on the screens in front of me was proof that she most definitely was not. Not yet.

“Yeah, change of plans. Guard headed your way. Head back down the hall you just came from and—ah, scro. Uh, little problem.” Another red figure was headed toward the other end of the hallway that Vianne and the others were holding in. They couldn’t go back, and they couldn’t go forward. “You’re pinned. There’s one headed from the way you just came, and one coming at you down the hall you need to take to get to the exit. Looks like you’re going to have to take one of them out. Your choice.”

“Shit. Do they know the prisoners have escaped? What’s the status of the place?”

I looked over the displays. “No alarms triggered. No unusual chatter on the security waves. No, everything seems normal. I don’t think anybody knows anything is happening.”

“Okay, give me a second.” She whispered something to one of the girls that I couldn’t make out, and the video screen showed them shuffling around, whispering amongst themselves.

“Time’s up. Make a move soon or they’ll both be on top of you at the same time.” She made no response, just continued whispering and shuffling people around. Every muscle in my body tensed as the two red figures converged on opposite ends of their hallway. “Vianne, move! Just make a choice!”

“Just shut the fuck up for a second, will you? We got this.”

They moved toward the exit, taking a left down the hallway they had been waiting near and heading straight toward the approaching red figure. The uniformed guard came into view on Vianne’s video feed. I silently wished for the guard to just pass them by, but they had no such luck.

“Hey, what’s going on here? Where are you taking these prisoners?”

“We’re transporting them to a secure location outside the city for reconditioning. Going to take a while to undo all that alien brainwashing. Those golden bastards really did a number on these poor gals.”

“I was never made aware of any scheduled transports.” She consulted her hand terminal. “The schedule doesn’t show anything about moving any prisoners.” The woman frowned at Vianne suspiciously. “Who gave this order?”

Vianne’s voice took on an indignant, impatient tone. “The orders came straight from Captain Krilling herself, deputy. Of course you weren’t made aware, what are you, level three clearance? You think they’re going to trust you with this kind of information?” She scoffed. “And no kidding the schedule doesn’t show the transport. Do you realize the kind of technology that these aliens have? And you think we’re going to broadcast—across our comparatively primitive network, mind you—exactly when and where we’re moving their valuable, brainwashed pawns? Jesus, kid.” She clicked her tongue against her teeth disapprovingly. “What’s your name and identification code? I’m going to need to write this up. We can’t have people this deficient around here compromising sensitive operations at a time like this.”

The guard stared at her, wide-eyed. She hesitated for a moment, confused, before shaking her head. “No, no. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have interfered. Of course, it makes sense. Please, continue on. No need to report anything.”

I couldn’t see Vianne’s face, but I could tell from the withered look on the face of the young guard that she was staring at her with those intense eyes, pretending to decide her fate.

“Fine. Get out of here, and pretend you never saw us. You know what they say. Loose lips sink spaceships.”

The guard gave a serious nod and snapped Vianne a crisp salute before moving quickly down the hallway past them. Vianne’s relieved exhale came loudly through the speakers above me, echoing my own exaggerated sigh. I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding my breath for the entire exchange.

“Smooth talking, soldier, well done. The coast is clear, you’re good to go. Head down the hall and take the first left and you’ll be at the exit.”

“Copy that.” They moved down the hall and arrived at the door leading out the back of the facility.

“All right. You’re flying blind from here. That sensor only gives me the locations of the warm bodies inside the building. No way of telling what’s on the other side of that door, so be careful.”

“Will do.”

This was the riskiest part of the whole operation. Without any way to know what awaited them outside of the building, they could be walking into a whole Space Force platoon, for all we knew. According to our information, there should be a few prison transport shuttles in an unattended lot through the exit. But there was no way to account for some random inventory check, or maintenance, or a whole host of other unpredictable things that could derail the operation.

Vianne placed the remote access bug on the door’s security panel, and I told the Star’s computer to open the door. I held my breath as Vianne’s feed showed her pushing open the door and stepping into the harsh Martian sunlight.

“Status?”

Vianne’s feed scanned back and forth across the lot. Everything seemed quiet and deserted, as expected. “Looks clear. Approaching a transport now.”

I watched on her feed as she jogged over to a simple transport shuttle and slapped the remote access bug on the side.

“All right, Colm. All on you. Love to get out of this exposed lot, if you don’t mind.”

“On it.” I told the Star to unseal the hatch. Vianne and the others climbed on board, and I gathered from Vianne’s feed that she was seated in the pilot’s chair. “You know how to fly that thing?”

“Well, no. But I figure someone’s got to, so it might as well be me, right? How hard could it be?”

I laughed. “Well, you’re welcome to try if you want. But I could always have the Star’s nav system just fly you back here. That way there might be less chance of, you know, crashing and dying.”

“Yes, good. The one with no crashing and dying. Let’s do that one.” She laughed, but her voice was tense.

“All right. You ladies just hang tight and you’ll be home in no time.”

DEJAR, Valtic, and I watched from the bottom of the ramp as the transport shuttle touched gently down around one hundred meters away from us. Valtic ran out to embrace Lynna as soon as they came into view. Dejar wrapped Kalyn in his arms and she leaned her head into his chest.

Other couples reunited while the rest of the women left them there and headed back toward the Star, with Vianne at the front of the group, of course.

She stopped a few feet away from me and grinned, snapping me a salute. “Permission to come aboard?”

Without thinking, I closed the distance between us and pulled her into a kiss. She wrapped her arms tightly around me, and we held each other like that for a few moments as our tongues began the delicate task of exploring each other.

Her lips tasted like the sweetest of wines, her skin soft and silken over taut muscles and…

Void.

What the hell was I doing?

VIANNE

Well, that had been… unexpected.

And as much as I wanted to talk to Colm about our heated embrace, now didn’t feel like the right time. If I knew the Space Force well, which I damn well did, they’d be coming for the Rogue Star sooner rather than later; that bust-out had our names written all over it.

The hurdle we had to overcome now was finding the time to expose Adastria’s lies before the Dominion popped out of a fold and tore apart the entire Terran System. We were already public enemy number one to them, so I wasn’t concerned with our fates. Nothing would change for us. But saving a whole system? That was going to be a new one.

So, no biggie whatsoever.

Giving myself a small mental pep talk, I fell into stride with the others as we walked further into the bowels of the ship, every one of us hurriedly discussing where our plans should take us next. Amazingly, no one seemed to recognize the imminent threat of the Terran System being blown to all hell if we didn’t act now.

Dejar and Aavat had both taken their mates away and returned, and while I could understand the desire for some alone time… my cheeks heated, just thinking about Colm’s kiss.

And he wasn’t even my mate. Whatever that meant.

I shoved the thought away.

It was a terrible time for our leadership to be missing.

Stopping dead on the spot, much to Colm’s curiosity, I waved my hands in their faces while I exasperatedly made a point of reminding them what was at stake. What we’d done just now had only been a tiny victory. There was still loads more to accomplish before we could rest.

“Hello, but have we all forgotten about how vital it is we get Adastria’s admission broadcast?”

“Vianne, calm—”

“I won’t be calm, okay?! If they figure out it’s us—which they will—and they do it as soon as I suspect—which, again, they will—they’re gonna make a big powerplay. Bye bye, Terran System.”

“Nobody is ignoring that, but after this, it has to be asked if it’s worth saving…” Colm left his voice to trail off, my wild expression all the proof he needed to know he was crossing a line. A big fucking line. The corridor we occupied instantly became quiet, too quiet, with all eyes flitting between Colm and me. It was a guessing game as who was going to blow first; my money, as always, was on me.

Emmery opened her mouth, but I was there to jump into the gap she’d left.

“You can’t be serious, Colm. Not worth saving?” My question was met by his sigh before I’d even finished, with Emmery’s open mouth flapping about as she stood mute. She wasn’t sure whether to act or remain a spectator.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t worth saving, just that it was a topic up for debate.”

“It fucking isn’t,” came my snappish rely, my pupils so dilated I’d be amazed if my eyeballs hadn’t turned completely black, their swimming pool coolness gone in an instant. He was testing me, and having just been tested to the max over at the prison complex, I was far from feeling agreeable.

If it ruffled some feathers, then it would damn well have to, because I wasn’t going to back down from this. A fact that Faline seemed acutely aware of, and one she felt strongly about, too, given how close to home Colm was hitting.

“We can’t stand back and watch a whole system burn, we just can’t… that’s… that’s where we came from.” She looked all around, first to me then to Indira then to Emmery, before finally coming to rest on Colm’s tense face. I could see his jaw clenching, his cheek muscles flexing.

“I never said we wouldn’t save it, I was just putting it out there that the Terran System didn’t need to be saved for us to still hit the Dominion where it hurts.” His voice was almost unrecognizable through gritted teeth, his tones gravelly and raw.

“Well, we’ve all agreed that your idea is a shit one, so back to exposing Adastria.”

“If I may—” Emmery sheepishly gave us both a forced smile, though there was an annoyance behind her eyes that spoke volumes; she was pissed that both of us were wasting valuable time. “What the Gaed rebels collected when back in the Ya-Sin System helped, but it won’t be enough. It doesn’t prove Adastria was the one who sold all of those women out, we need more to really drive that home.”

“We have the video but no one seems to want to watch it! It’s being ignored by all official channels.”

“We need to get it in front of people’s faces so they have no choice!”

She was right. Of course, she was right. However, that didn’t make it any easier for me to take as I stood there. I was a ball of fiery, erupting rage, my mind racing at the notion of the Terran System exploding into dust. The Dominion would play dumb far too convincingly, and while murmurs would spread throughout space that they could have been behind it, no one would dare go beyond that. Except us. But then questions would be asked as to why such devoted rebels, ones who fought for justice, had sat on their asses and allowed it to happen.

I didn’t want that future. Not now, not ever.

“Isn’t there anything we can do, Emmery?” Indira asked, her speech still colored with the hope I’d just allowed to seep out of my feet and into the deck; she warmed my heart through with her determination. Indira wasn’t quite as sassy as me, but she had a quiet focus that caused others to act even when they felt hope was lost. She suited the Rogue Star and everything it stood for.

Emmery chewed on her bottom lip. “We need to get Manda’s chip and just format it for human playback on human devices and play it for everyone whether they like it or not—show humanity where Adastria divulged all her dirty, little secrets—we may be able to bring this back from the brink.”

“Do it,” I ordered. “We can’t play this softly-softly; time is of the essence and we’re running out of it.” If this plan could work, Emmery needed to get her ass over to the archive node and work her magic. I didn’t care about how long she’d have to slave away to do it, it just needed to get done.

“Okay, but Shein tech doesn’t play well with our own, so expect some lag while I do this.”

Waving a quick goodbye, her face stony but resolved, Emmery rushed off ahead of us. After an awkward look towards Colm, I shot a glance to the others. It was meant as a quiet suggestion for them to leave us while Colm and I tried to smooth things over; Indira and Faline understood implicitly. Without a word, they, too, marched off in the same direction Emmery had, all while Colm watched on with uneasy confusion.

“Colm,” I began, although I wasn’t sure even as I spoke where I was going with this. He raised a hand to stop me, his eyes not quite meeting mine.

“Vi, don’t worry about it. Tensions are high and we’re all in need of a big win. Scro, I know I am. So, let’s not worry about our disagreement and focus on how we’re going to get this broadcast out there.” His grimace told me everything I needed to know, and what I already knew deep down in my bones: this was going to be a tough one.

Even with evidence, getting it out there was going to prove just as tricky, if not more so. Too many officials wanted to sit on their laurels, too immobilized by their own personal woes to take the fight to the rotten core of the Dominion. Oh, they wanted to, you could see it written on so many faces; their government had failed them and they wanted retribution. However, it was always easier to think on than to act on. And despite never having been one to sit on my ass, I understood how they’d chosen that path because it was the one of least resistance.

As we thought it over in our own heads, both of us suddenly raised our eyes and looked at each other. There was a creepily fluid synchronicity to our movements. I liked it.

“What cunning plan has hatched in that brain of yours?”

“You go first.” Colm offered, his eyes ablaze like mine, both of us waiting to hear what the other had come up with.

I grinned. “I’m thinking we walk up to the Mars governmental seat and insist they play the vid.”

“Why not just wait for the next council meeting to start and then play the video on all screens?”

“Because by the time the next council meeting starts, Adastria will have found a way to delay it. She’ll use that time to blow the Rogue Star up to bits.”

“She’s that ruthless?”

“She’s backed into a corner.”

“I see.” Colm and I grinned at each other, both in an act of lunacy and because of our mutual understanding. Adastria would order us locked up on sight for inciting such demands, her fear of being caught her main and only driving force. That was, if we didn’t get shot to shit by the Space Force first. “You know they could just kill us outright anyways.” Colm stated, more than aware I knew this already.

“They could,” I agreed, my eyes crinkling through my wicked expression. “But they won’t, because our arrival is going to throw them off. It smacks of intimidation. And if they refuse, we comment on how weird it looks for them to be so hesitant. We’ll have them by the balls.” I winked. “So to speak.”

Colm laughed, the two of us back into our groove with one another; it felt good to joke around with him once more. It always did, though. Ever since we’d met, I’d felt at ease around him, our personalities well matched in spite of our differences.

But now a new undercurrent ran through our words. Our movements. And it all came down to that kiss.

“You have a way with words, Vi.”

“Not just words!” I quipped, relieved to back away from this new tension, get back to the usual chaos. Gladdened that we had another plan to work from, though one that screamed of suicidal tendencies, we walked to the dining hall.

Might as well get a last meal before heading into the maw of the dragon.

COLM

With our next move decided, Vianne and I headed to the Star’s communications node to check on Emmery’s progress. We were both eager to get moving before the Space Force had time to organize and confront us. We hadn’t picked up any chatter about the jailbreak from their networks, but they had to know by now. Maybe the humans had taken a hint from Vianne’s bluff and were only communicating sensitive information person-to-person.

“So how likely do we think it is that Krilling orders us executed as soon as we show up?” I looked over at Vianne as we walked side by side through the corridor.

“Hmm.” She scrunched her face up in contemplation. “It’s definitely not out of the question. But I think Adastria will want to use us for some public relations work if she can. If we approach peacefully and they just kill us outright with no cause, it’ll make it harder for her to deal with the public. I think she’d rather capture us, so she can work her spin-magic and make it seem like we were the aggressors.”

“Well, we’re not walking in unarmed. If they try to take us, there’s going to be blood.”

She stopped abruptly just outside the security node and hit me with a hard glare. “If we walk in there with weapons, we’ll make it that much easier for her to justify any action she wants to take. If she can paint us to the public and the council as a threat that she had no choice but to eliminate, we’re that much more likely to be shot before we get a chance to speak.” Her mouth twisted into a scowl. “The only way this will work is if we maintain the moral high ground. She’s desperate for a reason to shut us up, because she knows that the best weapon we have against her is our knowledge of her deal with the Dominion. That’s why she’s so scared of us. If we win over the public and the Space Force by convincing them that Adastria is to blame for what happened to Persephone, then it’s all over for her.”

I frowned at the thought of walking into enemy territory empty-handed, but Vianne’s logic was unassailable. She had already proven herself an adept strategist, and her intelligence continued to impress me.

“Yeah, you’re right. I just hate feeling vulnerable. We’re placing a lot of faith in the ability of others to see reason and logic as well as we do, and the people we’re hoping to convince haven’t exactly proven themselves as super-intelligent or open to suggestion.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded her head. “I know. I don’t love it, either. Unfortunately, it’s the best plan we have to save the system. But honestly, despite my personal history with Krilling, she’s actually a pretty intelligent person. Her job is hard. She’s got Adastria and a hundred other senators and diplomats constantly on her case about one thing or another. She’s got to balance politics and public safety and a thousand other things, and I can’t fully blame her for her suspicion and hard-ass approach.” She shrugged. “I might be inclined to act the same way, put in her position. Bunch of women I thought were long dead show up literally out of the blue, accompanied by some massive golden aliens that possess incredibly advanced technology far superior to my own? I’d be wary, too.”

“Another good point. So, you think she’ll buy what we’re selling?”

“I think if we can get the footage in front of her, she’ll see it for what it is. And that means she’ll see Adastria for the heartless, conniving bitch that she is, which I suspect won’t require too large of a leap of the imagination on Krilling’s part. Pretty much everyone who’s ever worked with Adastria already knows what a raging bitch she can be. We just have to show them that she’s gone over the edge.”

“How exactly did such an awful woman become the most powerful person in the system?”

“She’s a bitch, sure. But she’s smart, in an evil, monstrous kind of way. What, politicians are all saints where you come from?”

“You’re just full of good points today, aren’t you?”

“Per usual.” She flashed me a wicked smile as she waved open the door to the comm node.

Dejar was hunched over the command console when we entered, Emmery leaning forward from the high-backed swivel chair right next to him. They both appeared to be listening intently to something I couldn’t hear.

“How’s that transfer coming?” I trailed off, rendered silent by a curt wave and shake of the head from Dejar. His face was stern, screwed up in concentration.

I raised my eyebrows at Vianne, who shrugged and cocked her head. We stepped quietly over to join Dejar and Emmery. As we approached, I realized they were concentrating on a barely audible incoming transmission.

“…tracked them to an isolated system just a short fold outside of Terran space.” I recognized the voice of Zayne, part of the small recon team Dejar had sent to locate the Dominion fleet.

“Good. And you’ve avoided detection?”

“Probably wouldn’t be talking to you if we hadn’t, yeah?”

“True.”

“We did chance a bit of a closer look than you might’ve liked, sir. Couldn’t help ourselves. Come all this way and only log the location? Just wouldn’t be very Shein of us, you know? We were able to discern the size and general composition of the fleet.”

“And?” Dejar’s voice, anxious and hopeful.

“Well, it’s not good, sir. Our best estimate puts the fleet at somewhere around two hundred ships. They’ve got a few dozen massive cruisers, and well over a hundred destroyers to accompany them.”

“Kout.” Dejar dropped his head, shaking it from side to side.

Vianne and Emmery looked at each other uncertainly, not fully comprehending the destructive capability, the imperviousness of such a fleet. Even with a matching fleet of Rogue Stars, we would be hard-pressed to match up with that kind of firepower.

“That’s not all, sir. Their flagship is a Behemoth-class Warmonger. It’s the biggest ship I’ve ever seen, sir.” The awe in Zayne’s voice was chilling.

“Double-kout.” Dejar slammed his fist against the console.

“Isn’t that overkill for an attack on the Terran System?” I smiled apologetically at Emmery and Vianne. “I mean, no offense, ladies, but the humans aren’t exactly what we’d call an ‘advanced species’. They can’t even fold properly. Why the hell would the Dominion feel the need to bring a Warmonger along?”

“I don’t know.” Dejar shook his head, his face screwed up in contemplation. “I do know we’re going to have our work cut out for us, going up against a fleet like that. Might be an exercise in futility, if I’m honest. From what I’ve seen of the Terran defenses, they’ll be just about useless against that kind of firepower.”

I raised my eyebrows, echoing his doubt. “And that’s if we can even convince them that the threat is real. They might still think we’re trying to trick them to brainwash more of their young ladies, in which case they won’t even be willing to cooperate with what little defenses they have. In which case, they might even try to kill us.”

“True.” Dejar turned back to the comm panel, addressing Zayne and his crew. “Zayne, can you get us any evidence of the amassed fleet? Something we can show to the Terran officials that will convince them that the threat is real?”

Some quiet talking issued from the comm speaker, Zayne discussing something with his little recon crew. “We could, sir. But it would take at least a week to transmit photo-evidence at this light-distance, so I’m not sure how much good that would do you. Fleet looks like they’re almost ready to go, so I suspect we don’t have that much time.”

“No, wouldn’t do much good at all.”

“Should we head to the Terran System, sir? We could probably make it in time to join the fight if we left now.”

Dejar considered for a moment before shaking his head. “No, you and your team stay there. Stay out of detection range, but keep monitoring the fleet. I want to know the second you see movement.”

“Copy that, sir. I’ll contact you as soon as I have anything.”

“Good luck, Zayne, and be careful.”

“Likewise, sir.”

At that, the wave went dead, only a faint static sound trickling from the speaker. The room was eerily quiet as we all digested the severity of the news.

I look over at Vianne, who returned my uneasy expression with a doubtful, wide-eyed look of her own.

Emmery spoke first, cutting through the silent tension. “Well, the broadcast is ready. Not sure how much good it’ll do, but we’re all set to move on with the previous plan.”

Dejar looked around the room at all of us, his jaw set in determination. “Don’t have much of a choice, do we? Hey, if they don’t buy our story, at least we can leave with our dignity and avoid the impending massacre, right?”

I laughed. “Unless they kill us first.”

We all smiled and nodded weakly, giving each other concerned looks out the corners of our eyes.

VIANNE

I hadn’t pictured a red-carpet welcome after the debacle in the public square, but the expressions we were greeted with were even less favorable than I’d envisioned.

For the most part, the humans looked shaken by our presence. There were some who seemed vexed about it more than anything else, but they didn’t pose enough of a risk to us for me to give them much of my attention. Luckily for us, despite their displeasure, no one had given the order to fire on us just yet, which was progress in itself. Even if we were to get our asses handed to us later, we’d have made it further than Colm and I had soberly joked about.

Gathered at the base of their wondrously ornate building, the steps that stretched on before us some of the most finely carved I’d ever seen, we waited. The leaders would come soon, and with them Adastria would saunter alongside them, her deceit disguised as worry. I hated how well she played the crowds.

I also wondered how she’d managed to do it for so long, for I’d always found there was something about her that made me wary of her intentions. Her personality was sweet enough, but there was a sickliness to it, a deadness behind her eyes; she knew more than she let on. And she’d given some dark orders to get to where she was today. We all knew it, now it was a case of waiting for the rest of the universe to catch up with us.

Examining our surroundings, I noted how Kalyn was the most apprehensive of us all. We’d all felt it was best for her to lead this meeting, and she’d agreed when we’d suggested it. However, now that we were here, she looked less sure of her decision. I got the impression she wanted to stick it to her mother like the rest of us, but at the same time was hoping that we’d somehow gotten it all wrong. I couldn’t blame her unsteady footing on this—if I’d have learned of my mother’s immoral dealings, I’d have been conflicted, too. It was an internal, emotional battle I didn’t wish on anyone. Not even Eretrea, and that bitch had it coming.

Absentmindedly tapping my foot against the ground, its feverish rhythm annoying to me without having to ask if it irritated anyone else, we were finally granted an audience. Each of the council members made their way down to us, their feelings on our being here difficult to read; they were surprised, confused, and uncomfortable. All save for Adastria. She, on the other hand, seemed to be silently intrigued by our arrival. I’d have preferred her to be overwrought with dread, that would have been more fitting.

A deep breath and a prayer later, Kalyn stepped out from the group and to the front, her mother’s eyes trained on her like a hawk. There was a charged tension bubbling all around us, its potency tangible for all to see, touch, and smell.

“We have a broadcast we want to play, one that proves that the destruction of Persephone Station was part of an elaborate plan. And,” she gave her mother a sorrowful shake of her head, “there’s proof that Adastria ordered it. You need to play this video.” Kalyn’s chin went up and she met each set of wary eyes, accusing. “By refusing to even look at the evidence, I can only assume she wasn’t alone.”

Gasps raised up were like a breathy chorus of horror; one of them, a traitor? Never. How could it be! I’d have rolled my eyes if I wasn’t worried they’d never roll back into place, such was the theatrical nature of it all.

This performance, however, was only getting started. As soon as Adastria heard her daughter’s words, a truth she had to quickly spin as a lie, she succumbed to woeful despair. Thinking of Paila’s love of the dramatic, I knew she’d have been impressed to see such skills at work.

Maybe Emmery was recording this for her.

“My own daughter, my own flesh and blood, has been lost to me yet again—first she was snatched away from me by unforgiving forces, and now she’s been taken over by alien mind control.” The crocodile tears started to pour, the way she could will them into existence a credit to her wickedness.

I loathed to admire such a heartless woman, but I had to give Adastria her due, she was exceptionally good at playing the game. Seeing her so convincingly traumatized by her daughter’s accusation, I worried none of the other leaders would indulge our request. The natures of humans were tough to gauge when they were threatened. Sometimes we’d save our own, even if it meant we had to overlook their flaws.

“We can’t allow her poor, poisoned mind to incite fear like this—Kalyn, you need help, you need to come home.” Adastria urged, her eyes flushing out more briny tears. Damn, she was good.

“Enough.” Another of the leaders cried out, a thin, older woman who I believed was named Asriel. It was evident she wasn’t assured by Adastria’s claims, the way she cast a doubtful glance her way demonstrating that there was some bad blood among the officials.

To our contained elation, it appeared that Adastria had made some enemies.

Not really a surprise. Anyone who played the game as rough as she did must have stepped over plenty of bodies on the way to the top.

I guessed it had been a long time coming. Her constant reliance upon wailing sobs, doe-eyed sincerity, and feigned empathy could only take any one person so far. Eventually, especially when the chips were down, people would see the filth that slithered beneath the facade.

Adastria’s eyes bored into Asriel’s, though she didn’t seem remotely fazed by how Adastria seethed. It was remarkable to witness her coming undone in such a public setting. However, her shock at being silenced, although surprising, hadn’t painted her a wrong-doer just yet.

“Play the broadcast. Let’s see if there’s weight to these claims,” Asriel ordered. “We can’t have it said that we’re afraid of knowing the truth.”

At Kalyn’s signal, Emmery patched into every screen surrounding the square, broadcasting the video Manda had found back on the hidden research base.

Where Dominion scientists had tried to use us. Test us.

Where Adastria had sold us.

The entire square stood with bated breath, their eyes flickering through the images that played out before them, Adastria’s words echoing off every surface. If they hadn’t believed it was her speaking through voice alone, they soon did when she came into view on the recording, the way she boasted of her involvement, of her plan.

I was pleased the officials had listened. But in doing so, I could tell they were throwing themselves into unknown waters, some of which were incredibly deep. We’d been swimming them for months now, but them?

They were just getting started. I didn’t envy them this harsh reality at all.

When the last frame of the video faded to black and our transmission was complete, the stillness that had managed to cling on all the way through immediately imploded. It was a goddamn riot.

People were baying for her blood, outraged that someone they trusted could have done something like this, and to their own people! A small portion of the crowd seemed too horrified by this revelation to accept it, instead choosing to find comfort in denial. Fortunately, though, they were few in number. The vast majority who encircled our group were jostling against one another, every pair of eyes fixed on one person and one alone: Adastria.

Just before Asriel turned to address her true nature, Kalyn gave her mother one final glance, the two sharing the briefest of connections. But as Adastria allowed the gravity of her predicament to sink in, Kalyn turned away and closed her eyes.

I couldn’t blame her at all.

“Apprehend Adastria!” Asriel ordered, her eyes narrowed, glaring at her as she motioned for the authorities to take her in.

She didn’t move, though, she just tilted her head to the side as if she had all the time in the world.

“You insolent fools. Do you really think this will change anything?” She turned to Kalyn, those dishonest eyes of hers lingering over the rest of us standing behind her daughter. “You’ve stopped nothing, and you never will.” The way she spat at Kalyn, the hatred she aimed at her own child, was disgusting to see.

The guards were just about to grab her when Adastria’s bodyguards rushed out, pushing and shoving.

Chaos ensued.

I tried to keep my eyes on Adastria, but her bodyguards obscured my view. By the time order was nominally restored, Adastria was gone.

Vanished.

COLM

Vianne and I stepped forward, separating ourselves from the rest of the crew to address the Terran dignitaries. They argued amongst themselves, frenzied shouts following the exposed betrayal of one of their most powerful figures.

A team of Space Force officials had already been dispatched to locate and apprehend Adastria. If she was as smart and devious as Vianne claimed, I expected she would have anticipated and prepared for the possibility that we would expose her, and had an escape plan already in place.

Some people just didn’t know when to quit.

I hoped that we didn’t fall into that category with our intended resistance against the incoming fleet.

There was always a chance, however slim.

Vianne spoke first, attempting to capture the attention of the bickering, disorganized Terrans. “Excuse me, people.” No one seemed to notice as she waved her hands above her to get their attention.

She tried again, louder this time. “Hey, listen up! We’ve got some really important information that you need to hear.” She sighed and looked at me, visibly frustrated. “They’re like little children who can’t decide what to do now that mommy’s gone.”

I laughed quietly and shrugged. “Hey, they’re your people.”

“Are they? I don’t know, seeing them like this, I’m glad I’m over here.”

“They do seem a bit uncivilized, don’t they? When you put us side by side like this?”

“I was going to say stupid. They seem fucking stupid, and petty, and juvenile. They don’t even deserve our help, the damn fools. We should just leave them to face the Dominion on their own.”

“Well, I do understand where you’re coming from. But I feel obligated to point out you’ve reminded me, fairly pointedly, that leaving them to fend for themselves would most likely result in the complete annihilation of the entire Terran System, and thus the extinction of your species. I know they might seem a bit primitive, especially after spending so much time aboard the Star with us extremely advanced, intelligent, and attractive Shein. But I still think that would be an outcome best avoided. Extinction is an unfortunate occurrence no matter the significance of the species.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, communicating her displeasure at my taunting, but the hint of a smirk played across her lips. “Yes, of course it would be horrible for humans to go extinct, you ass. Don’t make it sound so mundane and irrelevant. God, I never realized what a cocky bastard you are. Are all Shein this full of themselves? I hadn’t picked up on that. You must be an especially conceited golden giant.”

I held up my hands innocently. “Hey, I’m not saying humans are primitive and inconsequential. Wouldn’t be here if I thought that. I’m just saying, I mean, compared to the Shein? We’ve had fold technology for literally hundreds of years. We’ve successfully colonized every planet in our whole system, which is a heck of a lot bigger than Terra. And you guys have the flosh drive.” I grinned down at her.

She held my gaze with her eyes still narrowed disapprovingly. Then her expression softened, and she laughed. “Okay, big man. Do a useless human a favor and get the attention of these dimwits, will you? So we can try and save their damn lives.”

I looked at her earnestly, my mocking tone and expression gone. “Hey, I am not talking about you when I say ‘humans.’ You are anything but useless, inconsequential, or primitive. Frankly, I find it hard to believe you don’t have any Shein blood in you, the way you strategize and handle yourself under pressure. You sure you don’t have some distant Shein relative somewhere in the ancestral line?”

She smiled and blushed, laughing as she spoke. “Pretty sure that’s impossible, actually. Will you just get their attention, please?”

“Of course.” I nodded to her and turned toward the group of squabbling human officials. I took a long breath in and amplified my words so that they rumbled through the group of humans and echoed off the front of the massive stone building behind them.

“Humans, hear me!” Every person stopped their quarreling and turned their attention to Vianne and me. “There is a terrible threat bearing down on your system. We have come to help you. Please listen to perhaps the finest member of your species as she explains your peril.” I smiled at Vianne as I bowed and gestured for her to step forward and speak.

Her neck and face were turning red again as she smiled up at me. “Thanks.” She stepped forward to address the gathered Terrans.

“It’s true. The people that Adastria sold us out to? The Dominion? Well, they’re the most powerful empire in the known systems. And they don’t play nice. They’re pissed off because we exposed some of their most repulsive practices and policies, and they plan to take it out on our whole system. They’ve put together a huge fleet of something like two hundred ships, and they’ll be coming here soon.”

An outraged murmur swept through the room, a voice in the back started shouting questions. Vianne ignored them and continued.

“They’re not coming to conquer and rule or anything so civilized. They’re coming to destroy us, to destroy the whole system. They want to wipe Terra out completely, and they’ve got the power to do it. Two hundred ships, all light-years ahead of our human technology. If you don’t take us seriously and choose to refuse our help, you will all die. It’s as simple as that. We can leave anytime. Our friends, the Shein?” She waved her hand over to me and the rest of the crew behind us. “They don’t have a dog in this fight, really. They’re here because they want to be. They want to help. We want to help.”

She smiled briefly at me before turning back to the group of humans.

The humans whispered amongst themselves, some of them shaking their heads, others gesturing passionately with their hands, but I couldn’t make out anything they were saying. I didn’t see what there was to discuss, really. They didn’t seem to me to have much of a choice. Why would they even consider refusing help when they were so hopelessly outmatched?

I looked back toward Dejar and Kalyn. Kalyn seemed detached, as if she had divested herself of the situation after exposing her mother’s misdeeds. Dejar had his arm around her, his massive figure dwarfing her diminutive one. They differed so greatly in size, and yet they looked a fine pair. He shrugged and raised his eyebrows, indicating that he shared my confusion as to what the humans could possibly be debating.

I turned back to face the crowd. Captain Krilling was stepping forward, three other women I had never seen before trailing close behind her. She came close to Vianne and me, fixing Vianne with a cold stare.

“You have proof of this fleet?” Her voice was icy and doubtful.

“We have the intercepted plans. We sent a team monitoring them, but they’re too far out to transmit data. Beyond the plans, you’ll just have to take our word for it.” Vianne didn’t flinch or back down, her voice steady and confident.

“And why should we trust the word of a traitor and a liar?”

“Because we don’t stand to gain anything from this. Like I said, we don’t have to be here. All of us Persephone women? We all started out as outcasts. Why the hell would we come back, knowing it would only lead to trouble? We came back to help. To save the system.” Her flat, easy tone became more emotional.

“And what about your big golden friends, here? What do they get out of this?”

I stepped forward, looking down on Krilling with a hard look. “We get to fuck with the Dominion, that’s what. They might be new to you, but those assholes have been terrorizing other systems for a long time. We’re damn sick of it, and whatever they want, we want to stop them from having it. So, they want the destruction of the Terran System? We want to save it.”

Krilling considered us for a while, scrutinizing us through narrowed eyes as if she could discern our true intentions by the sheer intensity of her scowl.

Then she nodded sharply. “Okay. I believe you. You spoke the truth about Adastria, so let’s say we’re willing to buy into this whole ‘Dominion Invasion’ theory. But if the fleet is as big and advanced as you say it is, what can we do?”

The tension in Vianne’s shoulders relaxed as she let out the breath she’d been holding. “Well, we’re still working on that. We’ve only got one advanced alien ship, and they’ve got two hundred, so we’ve got a way to go plan-wise.”

Krilling nodded her head, taking it in stride. “All right.” She gestured at two of the three women behind her. “These are Garza and Hillman, my lieutenants. Aside from myself, they have the most in-depth knowledge of our planetary and intra-space defenses. They can give you all the information you need on the remote defensive outposts and our current fleet capabilities.” She gestured at the third woman behind her. “This is Singh. She’s in charge of research and development for Terra’s top weapons and defense technology lab. Don’t know if there’s anything that can hurt these Dominion fuckers, but she’s the one to talk to about that. She’s got access to shit that I never even dreamed of, never mind heard of, and from the sound of it, we’re going to need everything we’ve got.”

Vianne nodded, her expression grave. “You got that right.”

I smiled at Krilling, impressed with the woman’s tenacity. “You know what? I like you.”

She did not disappoint, responding with only a withering scowl before turning back to Vianne. “You can set your people up in the Space Force barracks. We’ll reconvene after you’re settled.” She turned and strode confidently off toward the capitol building. The three women nodded curtly to us before following her.

“I think we made a pretty good team, there, don’t you think.” I smiled down at Vianne, who was breathing easier now that her old boss was gone, Adastria had been exposed, and the council seemed to be on our side.

“We do.” She looked up at me with a broad smile of her own. “Finest member of my species, huh?”

It had been meant as a bit of fluff, flattery to gently poke her with.

But as I met her gaze, something unexpected twisted in my chest. “I spoke truly.” Her eyes widened, and for a moment I was afraid she’d step back, retreat into professional distance.

The easy teasing of soldiers. Comrades.

And that wasn’t what I wanted. Not anymore.

Reaching for her hand, my heart leapt, just a bit, when she stepped closer, and twined her fingers with mine.

VIANNE

Krilling, as ever, had been unwavering in the face of a newly emerging crisis.

And for me? A new crisis was becoming a bit too predictable now, I mused. When one danger was averted, another sprang up in its place—would we ever get any respite?

The answer was no, obviously.

With Dejar leading the majority of the crew back to the ship, we’d been instructed to stay and make ourselves useful at the Space Force barracks. I appreciated the logic of our needing to be there.

But to be back in the heart of my old stomping grounds, to be among that lifestyle once more… it was jarring. Right now, I couldn’t tell if I was elated to be back or petrified of it. I wasn’t one to give into fear, no matter how reasonable it was to feel, but to be within the walls of a place I’d called home, to remember all the trouble I’d gotten myself into before shit had hit the fan.

It was a lot to process, even for me.

A small chuckle snaked from my lips, causing Colm to knit his eyebrows at me. I shook my head with a wry smile by way of explaining I was fine. Although I couldn’t tell him that, I knew I just needed to stop making myself out to be so goddamn amazing.

Then again, hadn’t he referred to me as the finest of my species earlier? If that was true, I could afford an increase in self-confidence.

Hell, I could even be smug.

We filtered into a forbidding-looking room, one which must have been newly erected since I’d left. It smelled too freshly of paint, and of a careless expense of money, to be anything but new. We each took a position around the table, all of us crewmembers feeling a little out of place within the four walls of the room; it seemed a little too stuffy.

In contrast to the displays we’d put up with outside, much of it because of our own involvement, this was expressly official.

I’d been away too long. It didn’t agree with me anymore to be so disciplined in this way.

Captain Krilling claimed the head of the table as her own, while her lieutenants and the weapons expert, Singh, sat on either side of her. All four of them regarded us with ready expressions. It was if they anticipated us to hand over copious amounts of knowledge on how best to defeat the Dominion’s attack.

Well, they were going to be disappointed.

We’d given most of our intel to them already, not to mention far more blood, sweat, and tears than they’d worked for in years—it was their turn to do the dirty work, not us.

So why did I get the impression we were going to be thrust into the limelight again? Just the thought of having to organize these people made my body sag. It wasn’t out of lack of respect, but out of remembering how I’d been cast out without so much as a fair trial; they could be too assured in their own actions, and it usually ended up with someone getting hurt. I didn’t want to fall prey to misunderstanding again.

Hillman was the first to offer insight into where we were all at with regards to organizing a strategy. “It’s not feasible to evacuate the Terran System,” she began her solemn speech, one I’d already anticipated. Of course there wasn’t any time, we’d been the only outsiders aware of what was going on, and now it was too late! I wanted to smack her for being so blasé about it.

Valtic cleared his throat. “Nobody is suggesting that, there isn’t enough time to do it, and you don’t have the ships to carry the population, anyway.” At a quick glance, I’d bet he was just as irritated as I was.

Good, I didn’t want to be the only one sitting here unhappy with our options. As gracious as the Space Force was being, it felt a little too late for my liking. The Space Force needed to be better than this—that was the reason I’d joined, why I’d excelled at every task they’d ordered me to carry out.

“We have some ideas,” Valtic interjected, much to Krilling’s obvious pleasure.

“Share them. We haven’t got time to stand on ceremony.” She wasn’t wrong there. Ah, Krilling, still as feisty as ever; it was good to see her still come out swinging.

“It’s a loose idea in all honesty,” Emmery said, “but a defense system of some kind would go a long way in cushioning the blast radius of an assault.”

“What are we talking here?” Singh asked, her face screwed up as she considered her own thoughts alongside those Emmery was putting forward. “Do you mean weapons or a shield of some kind, because the latter is more doable. Just about.”

As one, we exchanged a eureka moment. None of us needed to say anything further among ourselves because we already knew what the others were thinking.

It must have been an unusual wave of shared emotions to observe, because Krilling grinned. “I assume you have details of your plan?” she asked, the firm timbre of her voice softening with faint amusement—she’d been entertained at how we’d all shared a collective realization.

“The Gaed. They’ve got these shielding systems that would do the trick, or at least, I’m pretty darn sure they would.” Emmery raced on ahead, her enthusiasm getting the better of her. “If we can use their plans as a basis, we should have a strong means of blocking the explosions from an assault when it does come. To give us a chance to fight back.”

“Good work. Singh, I want you, Hillman, and Garza to go and start prepping for this. You, um—?”

“Emmery,” she offered.

“Would you join them on this—and you, Valtic, if you have the time?” Captain Krilling was all business now, the hint of goodwill I’d seen discarded, leaving only her battle-axe will of steel to guide us.

Colm was right to like her, she was a strong woman. There weren’t many like her left in the world.

With a curt nod, Valtic rose to join them, followed swiftly by Emmery. Despite no formal dismissal of the meeting, it was apparent that it was over for the remainder of us.

Those who couldn’t aid in the building of the shields were to go about their lives, maybe even take advantage of some much-needed shuteye. I felt I could do with sleeping for an entire year. Maybe even more than that.

Nevertheless, as I walked towards where we’d be resting tonight, my mind refused to wind down. The rest of the crew may have been desperate to unwind and chill out, but my mind wasn’t there yet.

Filled with nervous energy, I resolved myself to wandering the lonely halls of the Space Force center. It was growing later by the hour, so it wasn’t surprising to see the hallways empty as I strolled about, my mind running on fumes while my body begged to be taken back to bed.

As strange as it was to hear, another set of footsteps soon fell in line with my own. Turning to see who it was, I came face-to-face with Colm, his shoulders slumped with exhaustion, although his eyes were sparkling with interest.

He was trying to figure everything out in his head, just like me. Colm and I were creatures of the same habits, if there was a puzzle to be solved, we couldn’t just quit and return to it later. It had to be solved right that second.

Even if it was impossible, because we didn’t have all the pieces yet.

Rolling back my shoulders to loosen the fatigued muscles, I curled the corners of my lips up at him. “Can’t sleep, eh?”

“Not at all. I want to, but it just won’t come.”

“Same, same,” I admitted, the two of us walking side-by-side so closely that our hands kept intimately brushing whenever our arms swung back.

Until with one last swing, our fingers wrapped around each other, as if, without words, we’d come to a decision.

I froze mid-step, the shock of his touch somehow different than before. The weight of his presence, shifting from that of a trusted friend to something different.

Something more.

I turned to Colm now, my eyes peering through the darkening passage to get a good look at him. Even though it took my pupils a moment to adjust, once they did, all I could do was stare unblinkingly at his chiseled features.

“So, do you want to get some…” I stuttered out, the words mindlessly spilling from my lips.

I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t the adrenaline mixed with the impending possibility of death, but whatever the reason, I ached to be closer to him.

Stepping towards him, I fell silent. Waiting. Wondering if I was making a terrible mistake.

Until he wrapped his free arm around me and pulled me tight against his chest, his lips falling on mine with a sigh.

Oh.

COLM

Her mouth opened under mine, our lips moving against each other tentatively. Her salty-sweet taste revived memories of my home planet, of sneaking off behind the corcum-shucking shed with stolen treats.

I’d steal all her kisses, every touch, every taste she’d allow me.

Her courage and tenacity were what had first attracted me to her. Of course, she was also beautiful. She was delicate and gentle, completely unlike any Shein woman I had ever met before. Our lips seemed to melt together, moving in concert, as my hand wandered down her back.

Her pale skin was soft as a flower petal. I reached my hand underneath the back of her shirt and caressed the small of her back, smiling into her lips when I felt bumps rise on her flesh.

“I didn’t know humans got gorn pimples as well.”

“Is that what you call goosebumps?” She laughed as we stopped kissing, holding our heads so close together that I could’ve reached out with my tongue and licked her mouth. I longed to taste her again, but that was a treat that should be savored.

Cherished.

“Hmm, goosebumps. I wonder if goose is the same thing as gorn. What is your goose? Is it like a feathered lizard?” I continued to caress her back as we spoke.

She laughed again. “Close enough. Let’s go back to the part where we both shut up and you kiss me, yeah?”

This time, I held her gently behind the neck and pressed her mouth into mine, our lips dancing more aggressively with every moment.

Her mouth opened wider as she sighed into me. Her hot breath filled my mouth, causing my need for her, my hunger, to spike.

The urge to taste the tempting curve of her neck rose, but a public corridor of the humans’ Space Force barracks hardly seemed the place for such things.

I pressed her body against mine with the hand that was still on the small of her back, under her shirt. She groaned softly as she ground her hips against my groin.

Apparently, she was less worried about privacy than I was.

Fine. I’d be happy to meet her wants, wherever, whenever. Privileged.

My shafts were fully engorged, pressing against the front of my pants, threatening to burst through the thin fabric. Vianne didn’t seem to mind, moving her groin slowly over them.

She pulled away slightly, just enough to separate our searching mouths, and looked up at me. Her face was slack with pleasure, but she looked vaguely surprised.

“It’s true. The other girls have been talking, but I wasn’t sure. You really do have two?”

“Two what?”

She glanced down toward my erect sex organ.

“Ah, cocks? You mean humans only have one shaft?” She nodded, biting her lip and glancing down self-consciously. “We don’t really think of it as ‘two,’ I guess. It’s all part of us, the same thing, but I guess if you’re used to just one half of it, it would seem strange.”

Vianne shook her head. “I’m sure I can become accustomed.” She grabbed me behind the neck and pulled my face down to hers, kissing me more ferociously than before.

Her tongue pushed deep inside my mouth, dancing with my own. With her other hand, she reached down between us and caressed my cocks through my pants. I groaned with pleasure, aching with desire from my head to my toes. I grabbed two fistfuls of her luscious ass and pulled her hard against me, trapping her hand between us and working myself against it. She squealed, laughing and smiling into my mouth, gyrating her hips against me. She threw her head back, lips slack from pure delight.

I wanted to tear off her clothes and take her right there against the concrete wall. Just as I was about to suggest that we retire to one of our quarters for the night, footsteps echoed from down the hall behind us.

We sprang apart instantly, looking off in opposite directions just as a Space Force guard came into view on her nightly patrol.

“Evening,” we said to the guard simultaneously, our tones hurried and breathy.

The guard gave us a curt nod as she passed.

Vianne and I looked at each other after she was gone, then burst out laughing. I was about to make another attempt to suggest that we go back to my quarters, but Vianne spoke before I could work up to it.

“We should, uh, probably try and get some sleep. Lot of work to do tomorrow.” Her eyes lingered on mine as she bit her lower lip.

“Yeah, right. Sleep. We should.” All my blood must still have been in my groin because my brain did not seem to be functioning properly.

She smiled softly, her eyes warm. “I’m glad we ran into each other. Again. Seems like we always find each other wandering around late at night.”

I returned her smile. Ran into each other. That wasn’t exactly what we’d been doing, but if that’s what she wanted to call it, that was fine.

For now.

“That’s because we’re the only ones up this late. Curse of the security-obsessed, maybe. Can’t stop strategizing and hypothesizing. Always another problem to work out, another angle to analyze.”

“Always another threat to consider.” She laughed. “That’s what the fleet is, right? Just another threat. Not like we haven’t dealt with a thousand before. This one’s just bigger than most.”

“It’s true. I guess we’re not going to solve the whole thing tonight, though.”

She laughed again. “No, definitely not. Might seem easier after some sleep. I’ll see you first thing in the morning, though, right? I think they’ve got some chamomile tea in the dining hall here, so we can compare it to your, what was it called?”

“Hildarook.”

“Right, hildarook. Good, so I’ll see you in the morning, then.”

“Of course. We’ve got a system to save. Good night, Vianne.” I raised my hand and caressed her bottom lip briefly, wishing she would just come back to my room.

But she was right. We needed sleep. Planning our defense against the Dominion invasion would take sharp minds, not sex-drunk sleepy ones.

“G’night, Colm.” She flashed me a brilliant, lazy smile, and then turned and walked off toward her quarters.

I leaned against the wall until she rounded a corner and disappeared. The image of her swaying hips and the outline of her backside against her tight pants stayed with me as I returned to my own quarters.

I turned out the lights and lay down to rest, but sleep took a long time coming. I must have laid with my eyes closed for close to an hour before I finally drifted off. Before, I had been troubled by thoughts of the Dominion invasion. I couldn’t stop planning, thinking about all the different angles, envisioning the likelihood of success for each different strategy and scenario.

I had imagined their fleet arriving and catching us completely unprepared, cutting through the Terran defenses like fog, tearing apart the Rogue Star as we tried to help. At least my little walk had succeeded in supplanting that problem from my mind.

But now I couldn’t sleep for a different reason.

All I could think about as I lay there in the dark, cramped room was Vianne, and soft, delicate lips, and the fire she sparked through me.

The invasion was one thing.

Vianne was quite another.

VIANNE

I was trying to stay alert, my reflexes sharp—the mission called for it. But all I could do was look at Colm. At first, I gave into a few, quick stolen glances. But as the minutes passed, I found myself needing to watch him more and more.

What had come over me? I was pining for a man I’d never truly had, my body and mind working together to throw me off balance whenever I was in his presence.

Worried it was only me feeling this way, I nervously rubbed at the nape of my neck, my irises darting back and forth between the others and him. It was driving me insane how he hadn’t looked over at me yet—why hadn’t he? It wasn’t like he had anything better to do. Okay, so he did, but I was equally important… somewhat just as important after our time together last night. Thankfully, my increasing stress levels didn’t stay spiked for long. Our eyes met, and I knew instantly he was struggling, too.

Once we’d both noticed how the other was feeling, it made paying attention all the harder.

Captain Krilling snapped her fingers at one of her reporting officers and I jumped, thinking she was singling me out instead. Why she would, I couldn’t say, because neither Colm nor myself were doing anything wrong. Sure, we weren’t as focused as we could be, but we weren’t naughty school children who needed chastising. As I bit my lip while fluttering my lashes at him, I questioned myself about our not being schoolchildren all over again. I was acting like one.

Keeping our minds clean, however, soon became a priority when a gaggle of scientists and engineers flocked into the room, all of them sporting troubled lines on their faces. Did they only employ staff of a certain age, or had our suggestion of a shield indirectly aged the entire workforce overnight?

Either way, this didn’t bode well. As I shifted my gaze from Colm to this new development, I noted how he looked less spirited and more somber now.

They spoke with Krilling in low tones, the hushed whispering halting when she bleated out a string of curses.

“For fuck sake, this is a nightmare,” she snapped, looking uncharacteristically rattled. But then again, this wasn’t a typical shakedown operation—we were aiming to save a whole system. No small feat, regardless of how experienced and robust each player was.

“What’s the problem?” Valtic asked, his voice betraying his mounting tension.

Krilling wafted her hands at the arranged team of specialists and bid them to explain themselves; none of them relished having to do so, but one finally spoke.

“The problem is time. The shield installations are running smoothly, so that’s in our favor, but,” she cracked her neck before speaking further, “but there isn’t enough time to install them all. We’ve got too many ships out on missions, and although they’re coming back, they won’t make it in time.”

No wonder Krilling was pissed. That was grave news. We were going to get annihilated or, at least, some of us would. And all because we were too primitive in our technological advancements.

Fucking fabulous.

Colm approached me, no doubt sensing how prickly I was even from across the room. Placing a hand on my shoulder, his touch ignited the fires of passion inside me and I struggled to steady my mind.

It whirled with thoughts of him, thoughts of Earth, thoughts of death and destruction. I was a complete mess, overwhelmed by too much in too short a time. I privately dared anyone to hold it together better than I had, my eyes glaring around the room as I did so.

“Right. Well, instead of sitting about on our asses, let’s get some data on where the fleet is amassing as we speak. We can try to extrapolate, if possible, where they plan to fold into Terran space.”

Valtic was all action now, even in spite of his tension. Krilling nodded in approval. The two of them made a fine professional team, a force to be reckoned with.

In response to Valtic’s request, Emmery was fiddling around on a tablet she’d brought from the Rogue Star that was already connected to Dominion systems.

There was no end of sighs and aggravated cursing coming from Emmery as she worked, but nobody was brave enough to interrupt her. Someone would if she took too long, but as it stood, she was the only one fast and keen-sighted enough to read all of the data.

I swelled a bit with pride. The crew of the Star were a fascinating bunch of misfits.

“Got it! Best I can figure, these will be the coordinates!” Her narrowed eyes skimmed over the screen before returning back to us. “So, they’re aiming to be as close to the border of Dominion space as possible, likely so that the bastards can fold out as quickly as they showed up.”

“Then let’s use that to our advantage,” Colm commented from beside me. “If we move operations to that location and install the shields while on the go, we can tap into the Dominion’s monitors to keep an eye on them.” Even before he concluded his plan, I knew it was the best we were going to get. Krilling and Valtic agreed.

“Time to move on this, then—if the Dominion change their plans, we’ll be on site to act. Move out!” Krilling directed, half of the bodies in the room having already left, as if sensing that she was about to enforce a new law of tactics. Emmery, however, pulled one of the engineers to the side, eyes wildly searching hers as she rambled at her.

“I need access to your classified systems. If this is to work, I need to be able to start work on this now, well, actually about 10 seconds ago.” The poor woman was somewhat caught off guard by her bossiness, but that helped give Colm and me something to giggle about as we watched her stutter. As she led Emmery to where she needed to be, Colm and I were alone once more.

These small moments when we could forget about our woes were the only part of my days I looked forward to now.

Well, that and kissing Colm.

If we got the chance to do that again any time soon.

I hoped that we did, because my lips were feeling mightily neglected, and it had only been mere hours since we’d touched… And since I’d been given confirmation that the rumors about their sexual organs were more than true.

Snap out of it, Vi! There are more important matters than his two cocks. You know this, get a grip, woman! I wasn’t always stern with myself, but when the occasion called for it, I could be strict if it helped me refocus my efforts.

Despite Colm not being a mind reader, I still peeked from under my lashes to see what he was doing. To my horror, he was looking at me, that mischievous gleam in his eyes. He wasn’t just looking to see if I was okay, oh no, I was sure he was looking to try and coax me into revealing what naughty thoughts I was harboring for him.

He wouldn’t have to search hard to find them, they were there, but so was a need to live long enough to act on them.

“Hey, you two!” Valtic came from behind the door, his eyes semi-glaring at us as he noted that we were the only ones left in the room.

Shit, that didn’t look good. Colm and I bashfully looked in the opposite direction of each other, as if that would somehow make us less guilty.

“Enough fooling around, we need to get on the Star and get moving. That means you two, as well.”

Valtic gave us the biggest eye roll, one dramatic enough to challenge my own, and I was the queen of giving them.

Hell no, he wasn’t going to take that away from me.

But first, we had a system to save and a government to fuck up.

And then, well, we’d see what happened.

COLM

“Kout!” I shook my hand reflexively, my fingers tingling from the weak jolt of electricity that had zapped me when I ripped off the flimsy access panel of the Space Force ship. “This human tech is a bunch of junk.”

Vianne laughed and looked over at me from the other side of the ship’s engine room, where she was working on retrofitting new couplers on the old shield-generators to accommodate the new power core. “Maybe you should be more careful.”

“Maybe your species should just hurry up and evolve already.” I flashed her a wicked smile, and she tossed an oil-soaked rag at me.

“Some of us are more evolved than others, I like to think. I’m sure the Shein are no different. Besides, it was the Gaed that had to give us this new shield technology, wasn’t it?”

I grunted, ceding her point.

“So maybe you’re not as advanced as you like to think.” She flashed me a wicked smile of her own.

“Maybe not, but at least we have reliable fold technology and building materials. What is this stuff called again?” I held up the twisted remnants of the access panel, turning it in my hands and looking at it derisively. “Aluninul?”

She laughed and shook her head. “It’s a titanium-aluminum alloy. It has one of the best strength-to-weight ratios of any earthly material.”

I scoffed and tossed the ruined panel aside. “It’s scro, is what it is. This is what you use to build the ships that are supposed to protect you from the void of space? No wonder the notorious flosh drive is so deadly. You’re starting with bad materials. We have a saying, ‘gilt scro is still scro.’ You know what that means?”

She let out a hearty laugh. “I do! We say basically the same thing! ‘You can’t polish a turd’.”

“Well, humans must not take that saying very seriously, because that’s exactly what this is.” I kicked the panel with my boot. “Polished turd.”

“Oh, shut up. Let’s just focus on getting this shield installed, we have a lot more to get to after this one.”

I held up my hands in surrender before turning back to work on the exposed wiring. We had already refitted two other Space Force ships with the Gaed shield technology, but after seeing the construction of the human ships, I seriously wondered if it would make much difference.

The Rogue Star was solid. With our Shein-built hull of zadnium-silicate lace, it was as strong as any ship in the known galaxies. Our weapons were top-grade, and the ship’s computer was equipped with state-of-the-art battle intelligence, programs designed by the finest minds of the Shein military.

With our Gaed shield, I figured we could go toe-to-toe with any of the best Dominion destroyers. We might even be able to take on one of their Warmongers, with a little luck and some creative piloting. The superior maneuverability of the Star would create problems for such a massive, lumbering ship. That was assuming we could fend off its retinue of nimble destroyers, of course. Which would be near impossible with only the Space Force for support.

The human ships were another matter entirely. They were both small and slow, and their weapons were pathetically primitive. The payloads in their missiles would hardly dent the shields of the Dominion destroyers. It would probably take ten or twelve Space Force ships just to take out one destroyer, and that would be assuming incompetence on the part of the Dominion crew. Not a completely unrealistic assumption, given the attrition rate of their enlisted. But the ship commanders were usually competent enough. The Gaed shields would help some in protecting the human ships from the Dominion onslaught, but I feared they would do little to compensate for their inferior technology and building materials.

I ran the wires from the access panel over to the new power core, which was already bolted into place. I double checked the connections and inspected the breakers to be absolutely sure they were uncompromised. The Gaed shields wouldn’t be of much use if the improvised core setup overreacted and melted down the whole ship from the inside. We would be asking a lot of the crude Space Force ships to support the advanced Gaed technology, but the spare parts from the Star should be enough to keep the system intact. Or at least functional for the duration of the battle. I couldn’t shake the fear that the battle wouldn’t last long. Not for many of the human ships, anyway.

“How’s it going over here?” I came to stand near Vianne as she manipulated the shield couplers.

“Good, just about done. You get the core wired in to the ship’s system?” She continued to work with the shield generator as she spoke, her eyes locked on the job in front of her.

I admired her focus. I had found it difficult to concentrate on my part of the job with Vianne only a short distance behind me. The memory of her lips kept flooding back to me as I tried to work, how the bumps had risen on the smooth skin of her back, her nipples hardening against my chest as our tongues dueled inside each other’s mouths. The feel of her hand when she reached down and caressed my shafts through my pants.

She squatted down on her heels in front of the shield generator’s control console, and I found myself transfixed by the little patch of exposed skin that showed between the waistband of her pants and the bottom of her shirt.

“Colm?”

I snapped out of my trance and found her smiling up at me. “Yeah?”

She laughed. “Did you get the core wired in to the ship’s system?”

“Oh, uh, yeah. Yes. Wired. Wired in good.” There went my brain again.

She laughed again and shook her head, turning back to the console. “Great. Almost done here.”

“Great.” I turned away and pretended to examine something on the back of the power core to avoid staring at Vianne’s backside. The curve of her cheeks against her tight pants proved impossible to ignore, however, as I kept stealing glances over at her. All I could think about was pinning her against the wall and pressing myself against her. I wanted to taste her mouth again, for our tongues to once more dance their passionate dance.

She popped up to her feet and I quickly averted my gaze, glancing casually up into the corner of the room, like looking guiltily at a completely uninteresting spot wouldn’t immediately lead her to assume I had been staring at her.

She smiled at me when she turned around, though, seemingly entertained by my leering.

“All set here. You okay? Something interesting up there?” She followed my gaze up to the empty corner of the room.

“Nope, we’re good. On to the next one?” I smiled innocently at her, and she let out a soft laugh and nodded.

“Only what, five more to go?”

“Yeah, something like that. Better get moving.”

We made our way back to the skimmer and headed off to retrofit the next ship. The Space Force ships were stationed in formation near the anticipated fold entry-point of the Dominion fleet. Out in the vast emptiness of space, the Space Force fleet looked formidable. But I knew that was only an illusion.

Once the Dominion ships arrived and provided perspective and scale, I had no doubt that the human ships would look pitiful and woefully insufficient.

Vianne and I spent the next seven hours hopping from ship to ship, installing the Gaed shield systems and Dominion-designed power cores. I did my best to concentrate on the work, but found it increasingly difficult the more time we spent together.

My thoughts continued to return to last night’s encounter, and I knew that I had to try to get her alone when we returned to the Space Force barracks.

The whole crew dined together in the hall, everyone utterly exhausted after a long day of hard work. Vianne and I sat across from each other at a full table, but I hardly noticed anyone else. I couldn’t follow any of the conversational threads, and Vianne and I kept exchanging smiles when one of us would catch the other staring. After everyone finished their meals and the conversation died down, we all started back toward our bunks.

As we left the hall, I lingered and pulled Vianne away from the group.

“Hey, I need to talk to you about the system defenses.”

She gave me a confused look, but came with me willingly as I tugged her along by the hand. We rounded a corner into an isolated corridor.

“What about the defenses?” She smiled up at me, doubtful about the truth of my excuse.

Without answering, I pressed her up against the wall and slowly bent my head to meet her mouth. Her lips parted under mine and I drew her tongue against mine, my bulging shafts pressing into her. She sighed into my mouth, running her hand across my chest. I didn’t want to stop kissing her, but I also wanted much more.

And more time.

She deserved so much more than rushed fumblings in darkened hallways.

With great effort, I pulled myself away. She left her mouth hanging open, her eyes closed and her hand still resting on my chest.

“I want to do something special with you,” I managed. “Just the two of us. Somewhere quiet, secluded. Where we won’t be interrupted.”

Vianne opened her eyes and smiled up at me. “I’d like that.” She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. “But maybe we should slow down a little. We are trying to save a galaxy, after all.”

“That’s true. Obviously, that takes precedence. But I can’t stop thinking about you. All day today, I kept thinking about last night. All I wanted to do was to kiss you again.”

She laughed and looked down the hall. “Well, if we can find the time, I’d love to have some uninterrupted time with you.” Looking back to me, she bit her lower lip. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it, either.”

“So we’re agreed, then? As soon as we get a chance, we’ll spend some time together, just the two of us? No work?”

“Actually,” she grinned and leaned back against the corridor wall, “it’s not quite just the two of us, but I know a place that might work to spend some time together. Want to check it out with me after our first shift tomorrow?”

“Of course,” I agreed, curious.

What sort of plan was running through her mind now?

And why did I know that just thinking about the possibilities would keep me up all night?

VIANNE

This was a bad idea.

Yet here I was, leading Colm towards the old recreational hub of the Space Force during our shift break. I used to rely on this spot more than I did a stiff drink at the end of a long shift. This had been where I’d sunk a lot of personal hours, so it was good to be back.

But as I directed him by the hand, my own grew sweaty as I felt dozens of eyes judging me; a lot of my old coworkers were still here, and they didn’t know what to make of my return.

I’d held a position of responsibility, then been convicted, sent away.

Now I was back with new allies, new dangers.

I didn’t fit in here, not anymore.

Being so thick-skinned had enormous advantages, however, such as not giving a flying fuck what anyone else thought about me. I’d be lying if I said I never got upset about snap judgments being made about my character.

But generally, they could all go screw themselves before I’d give enough of a shit to say something. Not that they’d want me to say anything—I couldn’t hold a civilized conversation with myself, let alone other people. It was best all around if I remained quiet and kept my thoughts to myself.

Diving into a corner booth in the back of the room, I sat across from Colm and finally allowed us a few moments to catch our breaths. He seemed pretty entertained by my hasty pulling and tugging of him to get here.

“So, this is what you meant by slowing down?” Sarcasm, though annoying when used against me, was a sense of humor I thrived upon—the more sarcastic someone was, the more I warmed to them.

The only issue was that I couldn’t warm to Colm any further without starting an inferno.

“I lied. I thought it would be wiser to postpone things, but then I remembered how we could be dead tomorrow.”

“Oh, your mind is dark.”

“It’s pitch-black, buddy,” I teased, amused how comfortable we could be when alone in each other’s company, the rest of the universe going to hell. It must be through some deeper connection that I could bond with someone in such a way. But with that theory came far too many frightening outcomes: betrayal, hurt, anguish, rejection. I didn’t want to invite any of them inside, but I didn’t want to dismiss my feelings either. Not that I could have, even if I’d wanted to, Colm was too deeply under my skin for me to get away unscathed.

Giving the room a frown of appreciation, one I’d come to understand as Colm’s way of accepting that this was it, he reached a hand across the table to take mine.

I was taken aback, having not expected this level of public affection. It was stupid, really—we’d already been nearly caught frolicking about in the dead of night, why was holding hands in a recreational quarter going to cause a frenzy?

“You approve, I take it?” I grinned, teasingly tracing the lines of his palm without ever sliding my hand into his. He quickly grasped my hand and held it in place. Despite his strength, the way he was holding me was tentative and soft; he was a giant who could touch the finest of silks without ever causing a wrinkle. It was amazing for a man of his size. These Shein were the most interesting race, and I felt I still had way more to learn about them.

He squeezed my hand again before speaking. “I do approve, though I think we’d have had more fun going somewhere more… private.”

A quiver ran through my body in response to his lazily sensual stare. My temperature rose, my body succumbing to a fever only he could break.

“I’m sure you do.” I smirked in response, never missing the slightest dilation of his pupils; he was drinking me in just as I was him. “But a date seems way more fitting. It’s polite and civilized, anyhow.”

“I don’t care for those traits. I prefer someone to be bold.”

“How bold? Me climbing over this table and across to you bold, or just a quick flash of cleavage kinda bold?”

The reddish hue in Colm’s cheeks deepened. Was he blushing? It was hard to tell, thanks to the coppery undertone of his skin, but there was a flushness to his skin that proved I’d hit a nerve.

Someone walked by our table then, drawing our attention, the two of us vexed that someone had felt it okay to disturb our date.

How dare they be so rude! We were trying to have an hour of downtime, the least they could do was go elsewhere to enjoy their day. As I was wishing all manner of ailments to trouble them before the day was done, Colm chortled at my scowling face. He brought me back to him once more.

“You make me laugh, Vi.”

Well, that was something… “I make you laugh, is that all?” I tried to keep my tone light and humorous, but it was tough to do when all I wanted was for him to tell me I was the sexiest woman he’d ever met.

I had an inkling that he felt that way, but I wasn’t going to play all my cards just yet. You couldn’t win a game of poker without bringing your A-game, and I was dead set on bringing mine and then some.

“Not just laugh, no. You also make me want to bang my head against a wall every now and again.” His eyebrows both flexed upwards; he was having fun with this.

“Nothing else?”

“That and some other things, but I’d better keep those to myself.” He was so comfortable, my tension eased. “Maybe I’ll tell you after the rest of our shift.”

Colm wasn’t as guarded as some of the Shein and so, by their standards, he was a laid-back kind of guy. For humans, he could still be painted as a hard nut to crack—you didn’t always see what you got with him. Take Wyann for comparison—he was a clinical, the mission always comes first kind of man. There wasn’t room for jokes because I had the feeling he just didn’t get them.

I was pleased that Colm was his polar opposite. I couldn’t be with someone who didn’t make me laugh or who I couldn’t make laugh.

I was just about to lean in for him to whisper those sweet nothings to me, when a buzzer sounded throughout the room, announcing that another hour had passed. The grating noise was shrill enough to set your hair on end.

Not only was it deafening to listen to, but it also meant that our time together was over and we needed to get back to work. As much as I knew our duty, I didn’t hide from him my reluctance to part so soon.

We stood as the room emptied and Colm gave me a quick kiss, followed by another and then another. With every touch of our mouths, the sensation deepened, our lips parting so that our tongues could collide. When I started to rake my fingers through his hair, I knew it was time to say goodbye, but my lips wouldn’t listen. They wanted him and it was now or never.

It took a lot of willpower, but I managed to push myself back.

My mouth angled back towards him just as his was angled towards me, both of us hungry for more. If we became this ravenous from a kiss, there was no telling the heights we’d climb together… once we were alone, naked, and uninhibited by the events of the outside world.

Both of us breathless, Colm took a large gulp of air.

“Save the system,” I murmured against his chest. “Save the rest of the humans.”

“Kout the rest of the humans,” Colm muttered.

Stretching to my toes, I kissed his cheek and pushed away. “Back to work, grumpy pants.”

His hand wrapped around my wrist, tethering me to him. “Tell me you’ll meet me outside my room tonight,” he growled, the question half a demand.

My breath caught, my belly tightened. I craved his touch, his kisses, his company. But was I sure?

Was he sure?

At my hesitation, his face shuttered. “Never mind. You’re right. We should take things slowly.”

One thing I was sure about, I never wanted to see that fleeting look of hurt cross his face again.

Stepping back into his embrace, I ran one hand up his arm, trailed my fingers down his neck. “I’ll be there.” I flashed my wickedest grin. “And then you can take me slowly.”

COLM

I paced around my room in anticipation of Vianne’s arrival.

She had agreed quickly enough earlier, but my nerves raised doubts within me. Maybe it was too much for her, the idea of sleeping with an alien. Some of the other woman had overcome any initial reservations they may have had. But I had learned during their time aboard the Star that humans had certain misgivings about inter-species relations. It was understandable, of course, given their complete lack of exposure to other sentient species.

I hoped my worries were unfounded. The way Vianne had melted in my arms, returning my kisses, hadn’t seemed at all hesitant. I hoped she felt as passionately as I did, because I wanted her so desperately, I could hardly stand it. My cocks stirred at the thought of her touch, and a shiver originating in my crotch made its way up my body.

I looked around the room, wanting everything to be perfect when she arrived. The bed was neatly made up, the simple quilt folded back from the pillows. I had managed to rustle up a few synthetic flowers from the market, and placed one of them on the middle of the bed.

I tilted my head and considered it, wondering if it was tacky and stupid, or if she would find it romantic, as I’d intended. My taste for romance was spotty at best, but I decided to trust my instincts and left the flower in place. If she was as into me as our previous kisses suggested she was, one flower wouldn’t make or break the evening.

Upon request, one of the Space Force women had been kind enough to assist me in procuring a supposedly fine bottle of fermented grapes, which she called their local wine. She had assured me that it had been the preferred intoxicant of almost every human woman in the galaxy for untold generations. I had no choice but to take her word for it, but I wondered if Vianne would agree.

As remarkable a woman as she was, I had a hard time believing that she was anything like all the other women of the galaxy.

To my mind, she was one of a kind.

The other women that had become part of the crew of the Star were all capable in their own right. But Vianne was a cut above, in my book.

The combination of her grit, intelligence, and beauty was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I had never before felt anything even approaching this level of attraction for a female of any species, and I had encountered many in my travels.

Even the legendary beauty of the graceful, lithe Gaed women proved no match for Vianne.

My Vianne.

My heart leapt as a knock sounded on my door. I took a deep, steadying breath and smoothed down the front of my shirt, checking myself quickly in the mirror. I willed myself to be calm as I walked toward the door, but my heart and mind were racing uncontrollably.

Everything went still when I opened the door and saw her smiling at me, her brilliant blue eyes glittering underneath her straight, shimmering, shoulder-length black hair. She was dressed in a simple black short-sleeved shirt and tight-fitting black pants with a gold stripe down the side. A modest, functional outfit, as usual, yet she looked absolutely stunning. The mounds of her breasts strained against the thin fabric of her shirt. I fought to keep my gaze focused on her eyes, but it wandered over her body nonetheless.

“Hi.” She gave a little wave and a shy smile as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“Hey.” My mouth spread into a wide, toothy grin. My body felt light and warm. I could hardly believe she was really standing in my doorway, smiling up at me expectantly. I stepped aside. “Please, come in.”

My eyes were drawn down to her plump, tight buttocks, curvaceous in the tight fabric of her pants. She was a finely crafted woman, and I longed to run my hands over the contours of her shapely body.

“I, uh, got us some refreshments.” I lifted the bottle of wine. “Would you like a glass?”

She laughed, and for a moment I felt foolish. But she surprised me by stepping close to me, taking the wine bottle out of my hands, and plopping it back down on the table. She leaned up on her toes and pulled my face to hers, kissing me deeply. She pulled back, gazing into my eyes.

“That’s very sweet of you. I love the effort you made.” She bit her lip, running her hands over my chest. “Maybe later. But to be honest, I only have one thing on my mind right now.”

She pulled on my neck and kissed me hard, forcing her tongue deep into my mouth. I responded in kind, dancing my tongue against hers, our passions already nearing desperation.

“Thank the Void,” I groaned against her.

She grabbed my crotch roughly, pulling me towards her and pressing herself against me. Her nipples beaded through the thin fabric of her shirt and brushed against my lower chest.

I slid my hand down her back and grasped both cheeks of her ass, pressing her groin hard into my thigh. She whined into my lips, grinding herself against me. I anticipated the slick warmth of her pussy, our clothing an aggravating barrier. A low, guttural sound escaped my lips as I pictured sliding one of my shafts into her.

But I worried that all of this was too much, too fast. I didn’t want our first time together to be only a product of the pre-battle adrenaline. Despite my overwhelming desire, I wanted it to be more than that. I gently pushed us apart. We rested our foreheads against each other, breathing heavily. I lifted my head and gazed earnestly into her blue eyes, luminous with passion.

She gave me a confused, slightly hurt look. “What’s wrong? Don’t you want this?”

“More than anything. Kout, I want it so bad it hurts.”

“Then why did you stop?”

“I just, I don’t want to move too fast. I really like you, Vianne. You’re brave and brilliant and funny. I don’t want this to just be some crazy, adrenaline-fueled fling. I don’t understand it, but I feel like our connection runs deep. I want this to be perfect.” I brushed her hair behind her ear. “Besides, I thought you wanted this slow.”

She laughed, and I worried that I had said the wrong thing and ruined the moment. But her smile was full of joy. “Too fast? I don’t think there’s such thing as ‘too fast’, not when a whole fleet of vindictive pricks could show up at any moment and kill us all.”

I laughed, my concerns put at ease by her casual nature. “That’s true. A good point, as always. I just wanted to make sure this was real. I know you must be dealing with a lot, facing the potential annihilation of your entire home system. I needed to know your judgment wasn’t clouded. That I was more than just an escape.”

She caressed my chest affectionately. “Well, I’d be lying if I told you it wasn’t nice to have a distraction from everything that’s going on. But that’s not why I’m here. I really like you, too, Colm. And I want this.” She moved her hand back down toward my crotch, slipping it inside my waistband and stroking one of my shafts. “I want you.”

Our lips met again, our tongues dancing more savagely than ever as we ran our hands all over each other. She gripped my shaft, stroking it with increasing speed before moving to the other one and doing the same.

I tugged at her shirt and Vianne released my cocks, raising her arms above her head to allow me to pull the shirt off her. Her perfect, pale breasts bounced gently, her nipples erect. I bent my head to her chest and took one in my mouth, flicking my tongue across the rosy tip while I gently fondled the other with my fingers. She pulled down her pants and shimmied out of them, then set to work on mine.

I stepped out of them when they were around my ankles, and she went to work on my primary shaft, both hands wrapped around its girth. Moving my free hand between her legs, I rubbed one finger up the length of her wet folds, finding the tight hooded nub at the top and worked the tip of my finger over it in slow circles.

Vianne cried out, a soft, high-pitched sound that intensified my passions.

“Now,” I insisted, then lifted her, carrying her across the small room and dropping her gently on the bed. Brushing the flower away, I kissed my way down her body, from her perfect breasts, down her long legs and back again to the apex of her thighs.

“Colm, please,” Vianne begged as I slid one finger into her wetness, teasing, taunting, coaxing her until she cried out in ecstatic surprise.

Flicking my tongue across her clit, I massaged the upper wall of her pussy with my finger and she rocked her hips, raising them off the bed and grinding herself harder into my mouth. I sucked her clit into my mouth, letting it brush gently against my front teeth, working my finger deeper into her impossibly tight pussy. She cried out, so I slid a second finger inside her and she groaned even louder, her hips vibrating with a desperate hunger as I fondled one of her taut nipples with my free hand.

She took my hand from her breast and slid my finger into her mouth, sucking at it and moaning, her hips gyrating faster against me.

“Oh my god, Colm. Oh my god. Fuck.” She spoke in a breathy, ragged whisper between passionate groans. “I need you inside me. Right now. Please, I need to feel you.”

There was nothing more I wanted. I pulled my fingers out of her and bent my mouth to hers, kissing her roughly. Kneeling over her, I lowered myself until my cocks rubbed against her mound, and she writhed below me. I pulled back until the thick head of my primary cock butted against her drenched opening.

Slowly, maddeningly slowly, I pushed into her.

Scro. How could she still be so tight?

“Colm!” she cried, placing her feet flat on the bed on either side of my hips, pushing up against me, until all control broke and I bucked into her, thrusting deeper and deeper until she became my entire world.

Her hands wrapped around my neck, eyes fixed on mine, and together we spiraled out of control.

She cried out even louder each time I drove myself inside her, pleasure shooting throughout my whole body with every pulse.

“Is this what you wanted, mate?”

She moaned, her cries of passion growing louder and more fervent as I thrust faster and harder. “Oh, I’m going to come, oh fuck me, I’m going to come.”

I thrust even harder, increasing my pace as her screams gathered toward a crescendo. I felt my cocks pulsing, building toward a release of their own.

She let out the loudest scream yet, her hips shaking as her sex contracted and convulsed around my hard cock. “Colm!”

I drove myself hard into her, as far as I could go, and rode out the waves of my own orgasm as my cock erupted deep within her pussy, my secondary shaft writhing against the nub of her pleasure. Our bodies shuddered, her hips still gyrating softly as my cock flexed and jolted the last bit of seed into her.

We collapsed onto each other, completely spent.

And in the back of my mind, I reeled. What had I said? And had she heard?

VIANNE

Wow. That had been… something else.

God, had it been something else. Never had I imagined anything as glorious as that coming out of all this madness, yet here I was, a massive grin on my face as I remembered back on the night before.

I should have been excited to test the shields, the installations finally, painstakingly, Emmery was going to shoot someone if they were wrong, complete. But while there was excitement, there was also trepidation. And then in among it all were my feelings for Colm. He’d taken me way past my limits, like no other man had done before, and it didn’t have anything to do with the size and thicknesses of his cocks.

They were some of my favorite parts of him, but they weren’t the only reason why my skin was flushed pink.

It was a combination of recalling how our skin had looked so tightly pressed together, the sheen of his coppery red against my pale, peachy tones. It was how he’d nudged my nose with his as we’d neared orgasm, both of us panting away as we struggled to take in enough air.

How I’d clawed at his back as he entered me, the depth of his touch taking me to places unimaginable in their pleasure.

That word.

Mate.

It was all there, in my head, playing out over and over. I’d have been a fool not to smile about it.

“What you are thinking Vi, you think it’s ready to test?” I blinked my eyes a couple of times to check I was awake and with the land of the living; Emmery peered at me, her brow so furrowed it left lines. Tapping at my chest while clearing my throat, I made an effort to appear casual when the dampness I could feel elsewhere was maddeningly distracting.

“I’d, I’d say so,” I stuttered, still trying to catch my breath. Damn Colm and his ability to wind me without being within 50 yards of me—he was a demon, a devil, something not of the natural world to have me like this! “We’re using the Rogue Star’s weapon system?” I was stating the obvious in asking, but Emmery humored me all the same.

Smiling Valtic’s way, Emmery and I watched as Dejar sidled up beside all three of us, his expression eager. He wanted to get this testing out of the way so that we knew where we stood. If it fucked up and didn’t work, we were going to be in a world of trouble; better to know the damage now and adapt to it.

“Are we ready to fire, Dejar?” Emmery asked.

“Yeah, just say the word and she’ll give it her all. I just hope these shields hold out.” I mirrored his concerns—we were a tough ship, and the humans didn’t exactly have a wealth of technology at their fingertips. If they had the Gaed’s expertise and know-how, things would be different, but as they’d had to rely on their own means, the end results were likely to be less impressive.

Emmery nodded and Dejar ordered the test strike. Everyone nearby froze in place and watched as a strong, pulsating beam of energy ripped from the Star and out at the shields. At first, I had my eyes half closed, too afraid to look, but as the pulse continued to rage on, the shields remained strong. I didn’t fear what I might see, and it was such a welcome relief.

We’d been successful—holy shit, we’d been successful! Beaming with pride, I pulled Emmery into an impromptu hug, her eyes widening as she adjusted to being pulled about. Soon, though, she was laughing alongside me, both of us happy to see something work out for a change.

Dejar swiftly raised two fingers to his left ear, his face indifferent as he listened to whoever was on the other end. That indifference finally gave way to quiet frustration when he gave them a curt signoff.

“Okay, we have a problem,” he began, all of us already sagging the moment he’d opened his mouth. Hearing him confirm our suspicions only made it worse.

“Something got through, really?” Emmery asked doubtfully, her face scrunched up in deep concentration.

“It’s not that. The shields held up just fine, it’s the amount of power they drain that’s causing a panic. The Space Force doesn’t have the same level of juice in their cores that the Gaed or we do, so they’re going to struggle if the Dominion keep the pressure on.” Dejar tried to end on a high, but it was clear he was only indulging us to try and save our feelings. “We’ll run more tests, but we have to be ready for this to go south.”

And the day had begun so well.

Now I was left standing in the wake of his departure, concerned that we’d still end up watching whole colonies of people eradicated. The idea of having to witness such devastation made me shiver, one too many ghosts crossing over my grave.

Desperate to look at anything to help cheer myself up, I scanned the room in search of something good and pure.

It didn’t take me long to find it, although it didn’t help soothe my mood any further once I did.

I should have been more specific.

One of the human women of the Rogue Star, some girl I’d never taken the time to know, was talking to another woman who was a relative of some kind. And judging by how similar they both were in appearance, it was her mother or an aunt.

My heart sank as I thought about my own mother—was she okay? Did she even know what was going on?

Ever since the scandal which had ended my life as I’d known, my mother had left me to my fate, feeling I was deserving of it. It had crushed me to see my own family turn their backs on me, believing me to be a traitor, instead of them realizing that it wasn’t in my nature to be anything of the sort.

Over the years since being sent to Persephone Station, I’d considered getting back in touch with her, even if to just say a strangled hello before she terminated the call.

But I’d never been brave enough to do it. Every time I’d dialed her number, the moment the receiver had clicked with her answering, I’d ended the transmission.

Just the memory of it caused me to break out in a hot sweat.

Was it worth reaching out to her now? It seemed like such a long shot, but looking at that other girl and her family member, I realized how much I wanted that to be me. I wanted what she had, and it was burning me up inside that I might never get that chance.

Crossing over to the other side of the room, past the talking women and their happy smiles, I gave Colm a nudge of his shoulder with my own.

He turned and smiled at me, but when he saw my expression, he soon leaned in to see if I was okay. “Something wrong, Vi? You look so sad.” He was trying to remain professional, given our company, but there was an intimacy between us all the same. It was so tangible now you couldn’t suppress it, not anymore.

I motioned for him to walk with me. Once out of earshot of others, I began to tell him my feelings. “I don’t know if there’s anything wrong, as such, but I feel like I should contact my mom. You know, to see if she’s okay…?” My offhandedness sounded so false, it pained me.

Colm gave me a stern look. “Vianne, if you’re thinking about your mother, it’s a sign you want to talk to her. Things have changed since you last spoke, I can’t see why you shouldn’t try to put things right now. Now’s as good a time as any, as you humans say.”

Ah. Look at him, using colloquialism. I wanted to pinch his cheeks and tell him how cute he was, how him being there for me had helped me regain some of the hope I’d lost. But that was too sappy for my liking.

And while I needed tenderness right now, I wasn’t about to change my entire personality over the good actions of one man. No matter how hot he looked when naked or when he was about to taste me… okay, maybe then I would.

Not sure what to do except give him a shrug of thanks, another crew member already desperate to take Colm away to ask his advice, I gave him a quiet farewell. We’d catch up again later, no doubt when I was racked with disappointment at my own mother rejecting me for the second time in my life.

But, who knew, maybe I’d be peppy and spry.

It could happen… it wouldn’t… but it damn well could.

COLM

When I’d nudged Vianne into contacting her mother, I hadn’t expected it to go down as well with her as it did. Although she hesitated, she’d been willing to try and reach out after years apart; it was a huge step for her to take, and I was proud to be a part of it.

But as we sat in her quarters, moments away from making the call, I could see her anxiety building. Her ethereal eyes, so mysterious and hypnotic, wouldn’t look at any particular object for longer than a few seconds.

I began to worry whether I’d suggested the right thing.

While smoothing my hands over her back in circular, flowing patterns to try and calm her, Vianne made the call. It took a few intrusive rings of the system while it tried to connect the other end, but eventually someone answered. A gravelly voice, one which revealed age and exhaustion, rasped a greeting to us both; it surprised me how a voice from such a fragile-sounding human could still exert sternness and authority at the same time. Vianne’s mother was growing older, but her bite wasn’t going to leave her any time soon. I’d never say it out loud to Vianne, but it wasn’t any wonder she was so determined, so unrelenting in her focus—her mother was exactly the same.

Or she at least sounded like she was.

As the second hello rang out, I planted a couple of kisses on Vianne’s temples, all while massaging her back still. She needed to speak, otherwise her mother was going to terminate the call and all this effort and panic would be for nothing.

Understanding why I was being more tenderhearted than usual, she took a large intake of breath, far more than her lungs could hope to hold. As she allowed the air to whoosh out of her, I wanted to laugh at how her body, including her cheeks, deflated as she did so.

Despite the tension of the moment, she was ever the comedian, even if she wasn’t aware of it herself.

“It’s me.”

“I’m sorry, but who is this?” The voice ventured back, clearly not satisfied with the information she’d been given.

Vexed, but more at herself than anything, Vianne tried again.

“It’s me… it’s Vianne, mother.”

There was the sharpest of gasps, then the line went dead. The call had been terminated. Before she turned around so that I could see her face for myself, I knew the sorrowful expression that would meet me; the way she’d slumped down had told me all that I needed to know.

As she shuffled her body so that we could be face-to-face, she tried to give off this air of not being bothered—maybe for an acquaintance it would have worked, but for me? No. I could see straight through it, so much so that I was almost offended that she’d thought I’d not recognize truth from lies.

“Are you okay?” I asked softly, allowing her control over how the conversation unfolded.

Vianne shrugged nonchalantly. It was so fake of her to do so—I’d seen her nonplussed before, so I knew that this wasn’t one of those times.

“I’m fine.” She forced a smile, the warmth of it never touching beyond the corners of her beautifully shaped lips. I couldn’t help but sigh, even though I knew she’d become defensive upon hearing it.

“Vianne, you don’t have to hide from me. I don’t want you to ever hide from me—are you okay?” I asked again, with more conviction.

Her eyes narrowed slightly to reveal her annoyance. What had been upset was now molding into anger, and all of it was aimed at me.

I was fine with that, I could handle it. It was better for Vianne to hate me for a short while than her trying to smother her emotions.

“I’m fine, Colm.” She tossed her arms up as she shrugged. “Plenty of daughters have poor relationships with their moms. It happens all the time. Maybe they didn’t want children in the first place, maybe they don’t like the same shows, maybe the mother was a bitch or maybe the daughter disappointed her in some way. At the end of it all, the relationship has gone to shit and the results are the same. I’m not unique.” She rambled, her mouth racing as incessantly as her mouth, neither of them truly listening to the words they were saying.

“No, you’re not, but pretending that a mother’s rejection is ever okay isn’t how you get over this, Vi.” I clutched her tightly to my chest; at first, she resisted, but within moments she was snuggling into my arms.

“Besides,” she continued, though the venom in her speech lessened as her anger dissipated somewhat. “I should be grateful—at least Adastria isn’t my mother, that would truly suck. Can you imagine! Poor Kalyn, it must blow to know your mother is that big a bitch.” Vianne sounded cheerier now, but I still wasn’t convinced, not for a second. She could play it cool, she could withdraw into herself, it didn’t matter how she expressed herself, because I could still see through the veiled lie she was selling me. She was hurt and in denial about that hurt, I didn’t need to know more beyond that.

For now, however, I remained quiet and allowed us to sit in silence.

While adrift on the current of my thoughts, Vianne nudged her head into my pectorals in a bid to get me to speak. I mentally smiled at how curious a creature she was; she could infuriate me and amaze me at the same time, but she made my heart swell in a way few others could.

“What are you thinking?” she asked eventually, breaking the extended silence, too deafening for her to deal with.

I looked down into her upturned face, her eyes searching mine while I spoke. “I’m thinking about how you’re right… and wrong.” Vianne’s face crinkled into numerous lines when I added that she was wrong. “It is awful that Kalyn has a mother like Adastria, and in that sense, you’re much better off. However, I still believe your mother shouldn’t reject you. She should at least hear you out.” I ran a hand through her hair. “Listen to the stories of the amazing places you’ve been.”

“It’s not that simple, Colm,” Vianne shot back, clearly not happy at my words. I got the impression she felt that I was attacking her mother, which only showed me how much this whole affair was affecting her. I grimaced at having to disagree with her right now, but she needed to hear my words, to hear their truth.

“Vianne, it is that simple. I know you want to protect your mother in spite of her faults, and I commend that, but she’s doing wrong by you. How would I be okay with that?” Placing my hands on her soft cheeks, I savored the way her skin felt against my own. It was a sensation I’d never tire of.

“Your mother might not be there for you right now, or ever, but I will always be there for you. As long as I live, you’ll never have to be alone again.” I watched as the tears threatened at her eyes but never fell; she was toughing out her emotions. It was commendable, but ultimately unnecessary. I was meant to help wipe her tears away, and so her hiding them from me was as pointless as questioning why my skin was copper and hers wasn’t. It was natural, the way of things. It didn’t need an explanation beyond that, and it never would.

After my promise, we sat for a long time, perhaps too long, both of us considering the others’ words. In spite of us not seeing the world in the same light, Vianne and I had a way of pushing past that so that we could enjoy our time together, regardless of our cultural differences. This hadn’t been a massive battle of opinions, nor were we unable to look each other in the eyes afterward. However, we’d met head on after a tense moment we’d never expected to face together. If that wasn’t a sign of our strength, I didn’t know what was.

I admired that about us, about Vianne specifically. She was tenacious, bold, quick witted, sassy, and she was one of the most gorgeous women I’d ever seen. Umbba was she gorgeous. Vianne was the full package.

Even when she needed to lean into me, nestled in my arms, trying to work through the pain her mother had caused.

She was the finest woman—human or otherwise—I’d had the pleasure of knowing.

And for all her bravado, she needed to come to that realization for herself.

VIANNE

After the last year of watching the Shein do everything that they could do in order to keep us safe and alive, I had nearly forgotten how absolutely goddamn amazing the human race could be.

Engineers, mechanics, construction workers, maintenance crew, anyone that knew how to handle a wrench, a plasma torch, and how to connect cables, coils, and wiring had come out of everywhere to learn how to install the new shielding.

Everyone knew that we didn’t have the proper power cells to run the shields for long. Everyone knew that we wouldn’t get them installed on every ship. But that didn’t matter. The sheer number of people that came out of the woodwork, out of hiding, out of whatever Earth, Moon, or Mars rock they were hiding under, was awe inspiring.

And no one argued, beyond reason.

I was sure there were some arguments, but not about the shielding. Everyone recognized that this was better shielding than they could have ever hoped for and that they needed it if there would be the most miniscule chance of survival. No one really even argued over installation or who was doing the work.

The only argument I heard about was in regard to where the ships without shields should be positioned. There was still argument for using the unshielded ships to evacuate as many humans as possible off the two inhabited planets and to get them “the hell outta Dodge”, as a few politicians were heard saying.

Not that they really had anywhere to go. Not on ships that didn’t have any type of proper fold technology.

The primary problem was that, depending on how much longer we had, we might get a quarter of the fleet shielded. That would be woefully not enough. Two hundred ships, most of them ranging from the same size as the Rogue Star to barely bigger, and we would get maybe fifty of them shielded.

Obviously the larger, more powerful ships were shielded first. Their firepower would be needed. Then, it looked as though it was a first-come, first-served sort of arrangement. I knew it wasn’t that, but it looked that way.

Then I started to realize that the shields were going to the captains and crews with the least experience. The idea was to give the least experienced ships the shields, trusting in the more experienced crews to use their wits and skills better in order to last longer. It made sense, while at the same time it didn’t.

“They should give the more experienced ships the shields,” Colm said quietly as we worked on the shield for a small frigate called the Spark. “Allow the more seasoned crews the ability to do more damage that way.”

“True,” I agreed. “But, this way, we keep more ships firing and fighting.”

He conceded my point, but I wasn’t sure if it was because he agreed with me or simply because we were too damn busy to fight about a decision we had no influence over anyway.

“Don’t forget to attach the shield emitter cabling to the intercooler interface instead of the plasma assembly like we would on the Star,” Colm reminded me.

I grunted in acknowledgement as I lifted the heavy titanium tube full of cabling and dragged it over, making sure I turned left instead of right. “I know,” I said as I not so gently set down the tube. “That shit’s heavy.”

Colm shook his head. “I will never understand why you humans refer to so many things as excrement when you’re talking.” His smile helped to lessen the criticism. Then again, his smile did lots of things besides lessen criticism. Too bad we didn’t have time for that.

“Yeah, well, it’s how we do things.”

He smiled at me as we returned to our work. After another twenty minutes, the Spark was outfitted. “You’re good to go, Cap,” I announced over the comm up to Captain Martins.

“Much appreciated, Vianne,” came the response. “You, too, Colm. Shuttle’s ready to get you back to the Star.”

“We appreciate it very much, Captain,” Colm responded. He looked at me. “Ready to go home?”

I nodded and smiled. We made our way back to the hangar bay that was currently loaded with as many fighters as they could stuff in it safely, and our shuttle, which had been lightly armed. They were in the process of adding extra armor to it.

“Hey, don’t take too long getting back to your ship,” one of the techs said to us as we were boarding. “We still need to finish the extra armor.”

“No stress,” I replied. “Enjoy your ten-minute break.” We loaded up, strapped ourselves down, and enjoyed our jaunt through space going from the Spark to the Rogue Star.

As we made our quick two-minute trip, I looked out the front screen. Dozens of ships were in the area, each one being worked on.

New weapons being quickly installed, extra armor plating being added, or ships simply sitting there as protection, just in case.

“Sort of intense, don’t you think?” the pilot asked me.

“Yeah. Never thought I would ever see so many Terran ships in one place at one time,” I said.

“Hmm.”

We docked with the Star and Colm and I disembarked from the shuttle. We were two feet away from it when another crew of humans quickly loaded up with some supplies, the door shut, and the shuttle started to hover. We raced out of the hangar before the doors reopened and the shuttle left us.

“She was delightful,” Colm commented with a grin.

“She’s stressed. So much work to do and we don’t even know how long we have.”

“True.”

We made our way over to the dining hall for a bite to eat. I had forgotten how much time had passed since breakfast. My stomach growled, and as Colm opened his mouth to comment, his growled even louder.

I chuckled. “You were about to say something, weren’t you?”

He just shut his mouth and looked away from me. Damn, he was cute when he was slightly embarrassed. His reddish-gold, almost copper-colored skin darkened maybe a quarter of a shade as he held the door open for me.

“Thank you, my good sir,” I quipped as I walked through the door. We joined the line and with a start, I realized there were a lot of women that I hadn’t seen before.

They were cracking jokes and talking with our crew, all of them. Itair had his own little gathering.

Our few Gaed ‘recruits’ were busy talking with nearly a dozen engineers and techs, and the other human women were all talking with one another.

Forced laughter and smiles manifested the tension in the air, though. Not from awkward meetings and reunions, but due to the impending battle. The friendly reunions seemed to be the desperation of people trying to forgive one another for whatever, before they never had the chance again.

We got our food and ate quietly. I observed the room, watching the interactions between everyone. Colm observed me. Every time I turned my attention back to my food, I spotted him watching me.

“You okay?” I finally asked.

He nodded. “Just watching you watching them. You almost look like you’re jealous of the others.”

I thought about it for a brief moment, then nodded. “I am, a little. There are so many people that I used to call friends, used to consider as closer than family. I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again, and part of me wonders if I even want to.”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

“I’m not sure as to how I would react.” Colm reached across the table and took hold of my hand. I smiled at him. “There was a lot of anger when a few of them backed out of their promises to help me when I was being punished.”

“What about. . .?” Colm let the question hang.

I knew where he was going. “No. While I don’t wish for her death, if I see her, I’ll break her jaw. It’s that simple.”

He nodded, squeezed my hand, and we finished our meal. After eating, we headed to the bridge. We were going to be used as lookouts for the fleet.

We had tapped into several satellites that would allow us a full view of the battle, if the Dominion popped in where we thought they would. Our jobs were to call out positions and try to help coordinate the defense, even while Qal flew us around and shot up as many ships as we could.

We entered the bridge and Kalyn came over to us as the rest of the bridge crew fairly flew around in preparations. “We just heard from our team,” she said.

She was talking about Zayne, Shar, and the girls. “The Dominion fleet just left,” she continued. “If Shar’s calculations are right, they should be here in about six hours.”

Six hours.

The timing hung in the air like a bad omen.

Kalyn went back to what she had been doing, leaving Colm and me to stand there and try to process what she had told us.

Six hours.

Six hours until a fleet of several hundred Dominion ships arrived to attack us with the full intent of obliterating everything human out of the universe.

Six hours before we would be caught up in the fight of our lives, and if we somehow won, it would only be the first of many more before we beat the Dominion, or they beat us.

Six hours.

COLM

Vianne and I reviewed the plans relentlessly, trying to come up with tweaks and changes, even though there really wasn’t anything left to mess with. We were just trying to keep our minds off the imminent attack.

“Sprite, you’re drifting. Move back and readjust your positioning by three degrees.” Vianne was keeping her eye on everything that she could. “Dammit, Stingray, you’re supposed to be on the upper side so you can hit them from the top when they come through. Move it!”

I shook my head. She had taken to being in charge once again and I was enjoying seeing her in her element.

I watched as a tiny little ship readjusted their position and threw on their retro rockets to back up. Meanwhile, a massive destroyer-class ship started moving away from the Jupiter side of our positioning to the upper side.

We had positioned the Terran fleet, the ships that were here anyway, there were still a couple of dozen ships doing their best to come in as quick as they could, in a pentagon pattern, hoping that when the Dominion arrived, we would catch them in a deadly crossfire. It was the only option that we felt would give us the best chances.

“Easy,” I said quietly to Vianne as I put my hand on her shoulder. She was getting frustrated with the ships and the waiting. I couldn’t blame her. I was starting to get a little antsy myself. The six hours were up and they still weren’t here.

“Where the fuck are tho—” Vianne started to ask, then was interrupted by a flash as the fold opened and hundreds of ships of various sizes and designs suddenly popped into view.

“Attack!” came the unanimous order from across dozens of channels, as well as about nine different voices here on the bridge.

Dejar ordered Qal to move. Aavat took over his section of ships, Kovor his, and Vianne and I started calling out orders and suggestions to our own responsibilities.

As the humans attacked, I could see that the Dominion was caught by surprise, and had fallen under the same trap that I had of looking at the picture of the solar system and using that as a baseline for the attack.

All the ships had come in at once, and all faced the same way, which made it easy for our ships to hit them hard.

And we certainly did that.

Outnumbered nearly four to one, with too many of our ships being half the size or smaller than the Dominion ones, the captains of the Terran fleet went crazy.

“What the kout is section three doing?” I demanded as I watched seven ships get into a line and fly through the Dominion fleet like a spear, firing their weapons in every direction except forward or back.

Vianne laughed. “They’re doing what they can. It’s crazy out there.”

The word ‘crazy’ was quite possibly the least powerful of accurate words to use.

I watched the battle play out on my screen, blinking against the bright light of ships exploding and silently cursing every time I saw one of our ships go down. Soon the Terran captains and pilots began executing crazy maneuvers as suicidal-looking as sticking my hand in a blender seemed.

“I can see the insanity, but why are they adding to it?” I asked. “Get out of there, Ursus, you’re getting in too tight. Two to your starboard, Patriot. One on your belly, Sunder.”

“Move your ass, Argonaut. You got two coming up behind you. Activate your damn shield, Paladin,” Vianne called out before answering me. “It’s either add to the insanity in hopes that we catch them by surprise, or we sit there and take a pounding we can’t handle.”

I merely nodded as I went back to monitoring my group of ships. “Dinosaur, look to your port side. Launch missiles in two, one, now.”

The Dinosaur launched four missiles from its port-side launchers. Rockets flew with blinding speed, connecting with a Dominion ship that was around the same size as the behemoth Dinosaur. Six more missiles launched after, detonating further back on the Dominion ship.

The explosions were massive and I could see the power on the Dominion ship flicker before staying on. However, the engines stopped working, leaving it dead in the system.

“Nice work, Dino—” A compliment of missiles smashed into it, tearing the front corner of the ship off. A hundred bodies floated out into space before the emergency shields came on.

My teeth gritted. “Falcon, Dinosaur is hit bad. Two degrees to your right, that big bastard with the fighters swarming in and out of it.”

“Understood.” A smaller ship, roughly the size of the Rogue Star, but much more heavily armed and armored, zipped through the morass of ships and strafed the massive Dominion ship that had shot up the Dinosaur.

“That’s the command vessel,” Vianne yelled. “Unless they went with one of the smaller ones, that’s the boss.”

“You heard the lady,” I rapped into the comms. “The big ship is the lead ship. If you can hit it, hit it, but don’t focus on it. Too much happening.”

The Falcon came back around and strafed the big one again before being chased away by a small swarm of fighters. “We’re not making enough headway,” Kovor complained. “There are just too many of them and not enough of us.”

“We can’t give up,” Aavat admonished him. “You know as well as I do that this needs to be stopped.”

“I know that,” Kovor snapped back in return. “We’re just going to be badly hurt before we’re do—oh, scro.”

“What?”

“Three more incoming, from the far side.”

Vianne punched it up and threw it on the main screen we shared. As we looked, the ship rocked hard from the side, knocking us around a bit. As I helped Vianne back to her seat, Orrin’s voice came over the shipwide comm. “Can we not take another hit like that, please? Power core just fluxed a bit.”

“I’m trying, for kout’s sake,” Qal shot back. “Dammit. Go kout yourself, you kouting bastards.”

Apparently, that hit had messed with communications a bit and instead of individual communications with each part of the ship, it automatically broadcast shipwide.

The comm suddenly went quiet and I looked back at the screen. Three ships were indeed coming in, but they were of Terran make. Two massive destroyers and a small frigate. The frigate was flying much faster than the other two, and whoever was piloting was unloading everything it had into the Dominion carrier.

“What are they doing?” Vianne asked as she continued to give out orders and warnings to what remained of her part of the fleet.

I studied them a second too long then looked back at my portion of the fleet in time to watch two of mine be swarmed by fighters and shuttles and explode. “Scro. Bayonet, behind you. Fighters coming in hot.”

I looked back at the three newcomers in time to see the frigate launch everything it had at the carrier. “It’s not turning. It’s flying too fast to turn. What are they doing?”

The frigate plowed right into the carrier. It hit where it had unloaded its compliment of weapons and penetrated deep into the carrier’s side. The resulting explosion ripped a large hole in the side of the carrier.

More and more explosions began to erupt from the carrier, sending debris and bodies out into space.

The cheering from the bridge was echoed in the room we were using to monitor the battle, and from many of the other ships.

I simply wished that the cheering could have gone on longer.

That we could have hope for longer.

We were still outnumbered and outgunned, and now the fighters that were unable to land to refuel and reload aboard that particular carrier turned themselves into targeted missiles, flying themselves into the Terran fleet when their ammunition ran out.

“Holy shit, they’re fucking kamikaze’s,” Vianne cursed, a word that was echoed by many a captain across our ragtag fleet. “Oh, shit. Valiant, we got two ships making a break for Earth, chase those bastards down.”

“You as well, Lincoln,” I ordered. “Oh, come on, Spirit, you know better than to go head on with these ships. They’re weak from the underside. Get under them.”

I looked at Vianne, Aavat, and Kovor. The stress on all of their faces mirrored my own. This battle was beginning to turn out of our favor. The element of surprise and crossfire was wearing off as ships began to intermingle and fly where they could to escape various weapons fire.

A Dominion ship looped over a Terran battlecruiser and crashed headlong into a Terran corvette that had the same idea from the other side.

Meanwhile, Qal flew us in and out of different points of the battle, wreaking havoc wherever he took us, and somehow keeping the damage to us to a minimum.

“I wish all the Terran pilots were as good as Qal,” Vianne commented.

“We got lucky. Watch out, Lincoln. You got one chasing you.”

The Lincoln fired on the attacking ship while it chased the others heading further into the system. It drove away the ship chasing it, but not before it was hit in the engines.

“Lincoln is down. Repeat, Lincoln is down,” I called into the comms. “Engines are out of commission.”

This was going to be a long fight.

VIANNE

Holy fucking fuck. We were getting our asses handed to us on a platter, and that platter was covered in Dominion shit.

A plan that had started out as something close to possible was quickly exposing itself for the fraud it was.

We were losing.

We were just way too outnumbered.

“MOVE, Pegasus,” I yelled as three ships converged on one of our carriers. Men and women aboard the ship screamed just before the communications cut out as the ship broke apart into five different pieces, each one falling into the orbit of one of Jupiter’s many moons.

There was no time to cry. “Silverhawk, come in.”

“This is Ensign Wright of the Silverhawk. What can I do for you?”

“Where’s Captain Orgas?”

“Dead.”

Fuck. “Okay, Ensign, what do you have left?”

“We’re screwed sideways, ma’am. Weapons batteries are down. We might be able to get the rail gun back up in a few minutes, but I’m not banking on it.”

“Damage?”

“We can move, if that’s what you’re asking. A minor hull breach that resulted in the captain and first officer being sucked out before shielding kicked in,” Wright responded, her voice breaking as she spoke.

“Get it together, Wright,” I snapped. I felt bad for yelling at her, but we needed her. “Get your ass over to sector 48.275. Grab survivors from the Stallion and Bullshark, then get them the hell out of here.”

“You’re ordering a retreat, ma’am?”

“No. I’m ordering you to save human lives and get them out of danger. We’re going to need to regroup.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am.”

I switched away from my view of the Silverhawk and turned my attention to the rest of the battle. “Kovor. You got Dominion sneaking around Saturn and coming up from behind.”

“Got it,” he called back. “Thank you.”

It wouldn’t matter, though. We were already down a third of our forces and only a dozen or so Dominion ships were down. We’d taken down their massive carrier, and a few frigate-sized ships, but we just weren’t able to do enough damage to them.

We were going to die.

The human race was going to die and there wasn’t a damn thing we could do about it. I listened as Kovor, Aavat, and Colm did what they could to call out orders and positions to their ships, but I was frozen.

I couldn’t speak.

I couldn’t think.

I couldn’t even comprehend things anymore. There was debris everywhere, and bodies floating in the emptiness. There was so much carnage just filling in the space between Jupiter and Saturn, I wondered if it would ever be clean again.

A bright flash of light on my screen drew my attention to one of the floating space stations orbiting Io, one of Jupiter’s moons. The station had been massive, home to nearly twenty-thousand people. Now, even though a lot had been evacuated, there were still thousands of lives lost as the station exploded in a massive ball of light.

I looked at another screen as a pair of Terran cargo ships crashed into a Dominion battleship and pushed it into the orbit and atmosphere of Europa, another of Jupiter’s moons.

They had sacrificed themselves in order to take out one ship. Two ships died so one ship could die. That was a terrible trade off. We didn’t have the ships or the manpower to win this.

“Lightning, I need you to dart in and cover the Silverhawk,” I called out. “They’ve got some company coming.”

“We’ll do our best,” came the response. As I had been giving the order, the Lightning became engaged with two Dominion ships.

“Sprite, Spirit,” I heard Aavat call out. “Cover the Silverhawk, then help out the Lightning.”

I flashed Aavat a light smile that held no optimism. Things were quickly getting out of control, and I was no longer sure if anything I said or did was working or worth it. How many people had already died in this fight?

How many people were floating in space, their bodies just flotsam in the great sea of what will no longer be called the Milky Way? How many families destroyed in our attempt to save the human race? Would we even be able to save ourselves?

The Dominion had sent a fleet of ships that we were unable to conceive the size of. Even seeing it, I was still unsure of the numbers. I still didn’t believe everything that I was seeing.

It had to be a dream, a nightmare of my imagination.

“Vianne!”

I snapped my head up to look at Colm. He expression was stern with worry, and I suddenly felt how wet my cheeks were, how my eyes hurt. I had started crying and hadn’t even realized it.

“Are you okay?”

I shook my head. “No. We’re dying.”

“I know,” Colm said. “But we need to keep fighting. If we simply give up, then what will that say about the human race and about us?”

I felt my breath coming faster and faster, but I nodded. I turned my attention back to the fight. If we were going to die, then we were going to take as many of these bastards with us as we could. “Victory, I need you to get all of your fighters to do their best to concentrate on the three ships in sector eighteen. Back them up. Indiana, same thing. Move.”

I flipped my screen to another section of the battle. “Dauntless, take the Ranger, the Anvil, and the Dulche and concentrate your fire on the ships that are around the moons. Protect those stations. We may lose ground, but we won’t lose those moons or stations, do you understand me?”

Kovor and Colm must have caught on to my sudden strategy change. They began ordering their ships to do the same. The Dominion had us beat, but maybe they didn’t. If we could use the moons, if we could use the gravitational pull of the planets and their moons, maybe we could cause even more damage.

“Qal!” I called into the bridge. “You need to get us into the rings. We can use them as a makeshift shield and as cover.”

“Yeah, was thinking that, but too busy right now,” was his comeback.

I ordered as many ships as I could towards the rings of Saturn, and even told a few to make a break for Jupiter itself.

“What’s the plan?” Kovor asked.

“We need to get the Dominion ships within range of the planet’s gravity. Force them to fight the pull. I don’t know if it’ll work, but it might give us something. We’re running out of options here.”

I looked at the screens again. Most of the shields were gone, already burnt out and shut down before they sapped the power cells of the ships completely. The ships with no shields were directed towards the rings.

The ships that still had speed were playing chicken with the Dominion, dodging in and out of firing lanes. One ship in particular, the Hermes, looked as though it was ricocheting back and forth between the Dominion ships, drawing their fire, even getting one to shoot at it and hit one of its own instead.

Then, as soon as things were looking better, the Hermes found itself coming around a Dominion carrier, right into the fire line of a battlecruiser. The Hermes was lit up and obliterated in a matter of seconds.

“Get the fuck out of there, goddammit!” I yelled into my comms. It was useless. The ships that had been unable to make a break for the moons and planets were busy fighting for their lives, and for the lives of the ships trying to get away. I watched as two of our destroyers crashed into one another, their engines gone.

The explosion of the two ships crashing together was larger than it should have been, and I realized that someone inside one, or both, of the ships had blown the power cells. The explosion spread out and took down three Dominion ships, enveloping them in a powerful EMP wave filled with fire.

“What the hell are we going to do?” I asked the men.

They didn’t answer.

There wasn’t a need for one.

COLM

I was glad Vianne had been the one to break down because I was only a few seconds from doing it myself. We were losing, and badly.

As advanced as the Terrans thought they were, it was like fighting a fully armed Tutahn wearing armor, when you only had a club with a nail stuck in it.

Sure, I might have gotten in a couple of hits and maybe even have cut him, but it was almost certainly assured that I would lose that fight. My only hope in a fight like that would have been to hit it in the jugular.

Unfortunately, there was no jugular to hit here. For every ship we took down, it didn’t seem to have an effect. Each ship was their own individual entity, so when one went down, all it did was decrease the number of opponents. We weren’t fighting one opponent, we were fighting hundreds.

The Dominion had brought a fleet the size that had never been seen before. There had never been the need for a fleet this size, and the only reason we had lasted as long as we had was by sheer surprise and the fact that the Dominion had fallen for the linear trap.

It helped that Zayne and Shar had managed to find the coordinates and launch time, so we’d also had time to prepare as best as we could. Throw in the shield tech the Gaed had helped us develop thanks to the theft of the Dominion power core, and the Terrans had managed to last longer than any of us had thought possible.

The tenacity and insanity of the human race had also helped. They were unafraid to try things that were certifiably suicidal, and humanity, it seemed, was willing to straddle the line of suicidal tendencies if it meant the safety of others. That was something that I had not seen in other species, the open willingness to sacrifice themselves on a grand scale for the sake of the species.

Then again, if I looked back at my own people, we were spread out amongst hundreds of worlds. It would be nearly impossible to wipe out all the Shein. Pronarians were spread out even further than we were. Humans? Their only home was here, in this tiny little system and they were spread out between two planets and a few dozen space stations and ships.

Their zeal to sacrifice themselves in order to save their species was admirable. Not only impressive, but honorable. There was no greater honor that I could think of than to protect those around you, and that’s what these people were doing.

When Vianne broke down and started crying, I understood her sentiment. These weren’t my people, but thanks to the women that had joined us a year ago, and the sacrifices that these people were making now, I never wanted more to be part of something than this.

“Hades, slingshot around the moon and use your momentum to plow through the Dominion line,” I suggested.

“I’m sorry, but what now?” came the response.

“Use the moon’s gravity well to slingshot towards the Dominion ships. The extra speed will make you harder to hit, and while you’re flying through their lines, just unload on them.”

It was a terrible plan, for it would leave them alone on the other side of the Dominion line, but then they would be behind the line and able to cause some additional damage before they either got out of there, were given backup, or were destroyed.

“Ah, I get it. Understood.”

I watched the Hades while giving orders to other ships in an attempt to keep them alive. It dipped itself deep into the gravity well of the moon whose name I did not know, and came rocketing out at speeds that the Hades couldn’t normally achieve without folding.

They blasted out of the gravity well, weapons blazing, most of the Dominion shots missing as it flew through the line. The Hades plowed through, several Dominion fighters exploding as they collided with the hull. The captain had ordered every weapon to fire, and it was devastating. Four Dominion ships were incapacitated to go along with the six or seven fighters that were destroyed.

My stomach sank. The Hades lost speed quickly and caught a shot to the engines, knocking one of them out and slowing her down greatly. With only three engines left, there would be no way she would outrun the enemy.

Four more Terran ships copied the Hades and went flying through the lines, their weapons tearing through the Dominion. Three of the four made it through as one ship, a frigate called the Gray Spear, collided with a Dominion destroyer and bounced off into a cruiser, disabling both enemy ships while destroying itself.

Then, alarms.

“What the kopa is that?” Aavat exclaimed.

My eyes widened as I looked back at the others. “The Dominion sensors we hijacked when we arrived. The ones around your system. Something has set off the sensors.”

“But, what? And will it matter?”

“I don’t know and I don’t know. We need to start calling for a retreat.”

“There’s nowhere to retreat to,” Vianne said. “All that’s left are Mars and Earth, and there’s not enough defenses around them.”

“We need to do something. We’re getting taken apart out here,” I argued.

Vianne opened her mouth to respond, when suddenly, our screens filled with chaos as cheers of celebration filled our ears. There were new ships popping up all around the Dominion, opening fire on them with deadly accuracy.

“Those are Gaed ships!” I jumped from my chair and threw my fist in the air. “The Gaed are here!”

The Dominion fought on. They still outnumbered us, but with the arrival of the undamaged Gaed ships, with fully charged shields and undepleted ammunition supplies, the odds of the fight evened.

The Terrans, realizing that the newcomers were allies, started to find ways to contribute, even if they were out of ammunition. Several ships quickly docked with one another, moving personnel and munitions back and forth. There were several ships now, barely more than a skeleton crew on board, that were rejoining the fight with whatever munitions they could get.

Meanwhile, the other ships, either too damaged to fight on or completely empty of weaponry, were taking on injured personnel and getting them out of the battlefield.

“Hades,” I called, “I know you’re limping, but can you provide some coverage for our friends coming into the fray at the wrong angle? Take your three friends with you if they’re able.”

“You got it. Who are these newbies?”

I looked at Vianne. She rolled her eyes. “New people,” she mouthed to me then got back to shouting orders.

I nodded in understanding and turned back to my own comm. “They’re the Gaed, friends that are helping us start something against the Dominion.”

“Well, if they’re this good, I wouldn’t mind meeting them when we’re done and treating a few hundred of them to a beer,” the captain laughed as she clicked off the comm. The Hades somehow powered up their shields and used themselves as a battering ram to throw a Dominion ship off their line, making them fire into one of their own instead of the Gaed ship they were aiming at.

The fight continued on for what seemed like forever, but at least now the fight was fair. The Terrans were back to having hope, and so were those of us on the Star.

“How much longer?” I heard over the comm.

“How much longer for what?” Kovor asked.

“How much longer before the Dominion realizes that they’ve lost this and they disappear?” came the inhuman voice. The Gaed had tapped our frequencies and were talking to us.

“Hopefully soon,” Kovor answered. “Why? You have a plan to make it happen sooner?”

“Watch.” The Gaed ships retreated, calling for the Terran ships to also clear the field.

As many ships as were able to backed off before the Gaed began opening fire, raining hell—to borrow a phrase from the women—upon the Dominion. The attack caused so much damage that Dominion ships began running and disappearing before our eyes.

“They’re running! They’re folding out of here,” Qal yelled into the comms. “They’re running away.”

We surged from our seats, cheering, jumping into each other’s arms, and yelling at the top of our lungs.

Somehow, we managed to make not just one, but four miracles happen today.

We held off the Dominion fleet that was intended to not only decimate the entire human race, but meant to send a message to the cosmos. That had been miracle number one.

Miracle number two was saving the human race from extinction.

Miracle number three had been not only surviving, but bringing the Gaed out of their hole and getting them fully on board with this rebellion.

This would be a long fight, but now we had the ability to fight.

And miracle four?

She was in my arms, brilliant eyes shining.

VIANNE

Twelve hours later.

We were all still reeling, there was no question of that.

We’d been so close to losing, the look Colm and I had shared before the Gaed had shown up didn’t bear thinking about; he’d looked as terrified as I was. It had taken him longer to get there, but the fear had been real.

For all of us.

We’d lost many along the way, but we’d have been remembering a hell of a lot more if the Gaed hadn’t shown up when they did.

Twelve hours.

Had it really been that long already? I wasn’t sure if it was my own wariness that made me doubt it or just the habit of being a cynical bitch. To be honest, it was likely a bit of both. Joke as I might, though, the thoughts of nearly dying refused to leave me.

Whenever I closed my eyes, those epic fires, those ear-piercing screams, all came back to me as if I was living it all over again. I couldn’t stay still, I couldn’t sleep, and I didn’t know what else to do with myself except go to Colm.

The leaders of various factions were still in meetings. Would be there for days.

They were so diverse in species, creed, and number that I didn’t have a hope in hell of remembering all of their names. Nor did I care to.

Once the cheering had quieted down—which had taken some time, understandably so—they’d gone to discuss what was going to happen next. On top of that were the cleanup efforts we’d been trying to organize.

We were doing well, nobody could take that away from us, but there was still a lot of debris and space junk to clear away.

Holding back tears, I didn’t even want to think about all the intact bodies they’d still find floating out there. Some poor crewmembers had already been given that gruesome task, but there’d always be more dead to find. Always.

War didn’t stop to think about kindness, it destroyed all that it touched, even when you fought for the good guys.

Arriving at Colm’s quarters, I suddenly paused before knocking.

After all that, after this day, did I want to do this right now?

And if I did, was I wise to? The last time I’d been in this room, been in his arms...I thought I’d heard him call me his mate. But what did that mean? Had I even heard him right?

I had to admit, I’d been more than a little distracted at the time. I didn’t have any answers for myself, but I knocked on his door anyway.

Within a few beats of my heart, Colm opened the door, at first just a crack. Then he flung it open, dragged me inside and wrapped his arms around me.

Our mouths fell together, desperate to taste each other, to reassure each other we were here.

That we survived.

And then he pushed me away.

I froze. “Don’t—don’t you want to kiss me?” I finally managed.

Colm rubbed his forehead as he looked me in the eyes, his gaze intent as he searched my face—maybe he wasn’t finding it easy to resist me after all.

“You know that’s not true. You drive me insane, Vi. And after that battle… scro, I need you now more than ever.” He turned away. “But this thing between us, what is it, because kopa if I know!”

I couldn’t argue with that, but neither could I easily answer him.

To define our relationship wasn’t cut and dried; we’d been thrown together by fate, had bonded over our shared hatred of the Dominion, and over the course of that, had grown physically intimate.

Dare I say, even attached?

Shivering, I pulled back. To say more, to admit more. that was risking everything. It was what I’d come here to do, but now, facing him, I couldn’t.

“Vi, I’ve got to know.” His eyes were wild. “What is this to you?”

It would be so easy to lie. To insist this was nothing but physical release.

Curiosity.

Stress release.

Retreat into my protective, hard shell. Not let him in.

But it would hurt him. And that would hurt me more.

I raised my head up and stared him down, not out of spite, but to keep my resolve—if I looked at him, watched how he reacted, I’d know for certain what he felt.

“I, I think I’m in love with you.” I rushed the words. “But don’t get smug about it, because nobody likes a jackass, especially not after all the shit we’ve been through.”

“All that scro seems fitting for an ass.” His tone was light, but his eyes never looked away from mine.

“Yeah, well that’s not the only thing,” I shot back, equally in need of the tease. How had we gone from a serious discussion, or at least the attempt of one, and yet ended up flirting? We had a natural ability, I’d give us that. “Colm, all joking aside, I mean what I’m saying… I love you, and it’s goddamn terrifying.”

My mouth was dry and my lips in need of moistening, but my tongue was too devoid of saliva to help.

And he didn’t answer.

Instantly regretting my admission, I turned to leave. Before I got halfway through my turn, Colm spun me back around to face him. He looked so handsome thrown into the dappled shades of light and dark from his bedroom, the way his skin shone under the soft lighting almost hypnotic to behold.

I let a lingering breath shake out of me.

“Vianne, knowing you and knowing your smart mouth, you admitting that takes a lot of guts.”

I smiled; it was good he knew it had taken everything I was to admit my feelings.

“And as much as I want to wind you up, make you wonder if I feel the same, the short answer is that I do. I love you, too.” He kissed me softly. “For all these years, I never wanted to find a mate. Never worried about it.” He kissed me again, feather light. “And now, out of nowhere, here you are. And I’ll never be able to leave you. Never want to.”

A third kiss, and I melted against him, the final declaration I needed to give my body to him again.

We’d done this before, but somehow, I sensed that tonight would be different.

At first our touches were gentle, exploring, as if our declaration had somehow made everything new again.

Different.

And in a way, it was. His hands on my skin still sent sparks through me, but the fire burned hotter now, more intensely. I didn’t just feel him with my body. Colm had found a way to touch my very soul.

As I felt him stir against my belly, the hardness of his lengths demanding that I take hold of them, I found it harder not giving into urgent, primal needs.

Undoing his pants as frantically as he fingered at my top, we pulled at one another to make our way past the clothes and to the softness of flesh underneath. When I touched his throbbing shafts through his pants, Colm groaned into my neck, his hot breath sending prickles down my back.

He kissed and nipped at the exposed flesh just beneath my hair between his gasps, the sensation all the sweeter for it. I moaned at his touch, the gentle nibbles he gave me sending my body into light spasms. By the time he’d eased my bra away, its elastic pinging as it went, I savored every caress of his hands on my breasts, every slight pinch of his fingers on my tight nipples.

I slipped my hand into his pants and stroked both lengths in turn, both of them rock hard for me. The way their glans swelled under my touch was intoxicating. I ached between my thighs, my clit demanding—screaming—to be touched by his fingers, by his tongue, by the tip of his cock before he glided into me. I needed to have it all, no matter how long it took to get it.

Lost to the rhythmic stroking, Colm took his time to undress my lower half, his fingers fumbling about between his moans—he was trying to focus, but I was making it harder for him.

Quite literally.

His clothes joined my pants and panties on their descent to the floor, both our sexes waiting for each other.

Slipping his hands towards the back of my thighs, he lifted me up and put my full weight against the door. I hooked my legs around his waist and drew him in further. His thicker cock flexed at the slickness between my legs, the head lined up just at my entrance, the other one writhed against my clit. I was so ready for him to take me.

Words didn’t come. Couldn’t come. Right here, right now there was only touch. Only need.

Only us.

Our eyes locked into place, he pushed the tip past the first ridges and deep into my passage. The way he was filling me was as incredible as that very first time.

Once he was all the way in, my walls clenching all around him, he started to thrust into me. His movements were steady, but deep. Pushing my head back against the door so that my hair fanned out in a mass of strands, I moaned his name as he plunged into me again and again.

My thighs tightened, my toes curling as I murmured for more, ever willing him to push deeper inside of me.

I’d never been as whole as when I was with him.

We were complete.

COLM

My fingers flicked at the screen as I worked, my mind thinking on everything it shouldn’t be, mainly Vianne. We’d had the most incredible night in each other’s warm embrace once more.

Having resigned myself to not finding intimacy while on this journey, I’d been amazed when our romance had started to blossom. At first, I’d told myself it wasn’t anything more than the physical—I enjoyed the appreciation of a beautiful woman. The way her eyes had given me the once over, those deep blue pools of hers lingering over my groin as she’d examined me. She’d been curious, and if I was being honest, so had I.

But then the race to save the Terran System had begun, and we’d barely had time to think. Among all the chaos we shared stolen, but ultimately broken moments—a quick tryst here, a wildly passionate kiss there. We’ve even found time to spend the night together. However, it hadn’t been nearly as intense as when she’d come to me and told me she loved me.

That had been a new one, even for me.

As shocked as I was by her admission, I’d also been overjoyed because I felt the same way. And after the Gaed saved us from losing Terran space altogether, our union had been the perfect way to unwind from the insurmountable tension of the last few days.

A confirmation appeared onscreen, allowing me a small break from my whirling thoughts. I decided it was time to get moving.

So many other things were happening, but this was a duty that couldn’t be delayed.

A Gaed shuttle had been reserved for the trip, so as not to stretch the human’s resources any farther.

I tapped in the coordinates, my destination far from the reach of Dominion space. At least, that’s what I hoped. If I turned up and the others were in the thick of it, I’d be forced to jump back into the fray having left it behind not long ago. However, I didn’t want it to come to that, and so I relied on an old human custom and crossed my fingers. If I could avoid more combat for the next several hours, I’d be grateful; days and weeks were just a greedy, and unrealistic, wish at this point. Even in my dazed state, after what seemed like a lifetime of fervent fighting, I thought on how proud Vianne would be at me for relying on a human superstition.

When the rendezvous point loomed before me, after a couple of hours mindlessly trying to keep myself entertained, I spotted a group of joyous faces. All of them were happy to see me. It was good to be among more of my kind, as well as being able to embrace dear friends. Even more so having watched Vianne bear witness to losing so many of her own. A lot of humans had been saved, but far too many had perished. Looking at the men and women I called friends, even thought of as family, I felt relieved that I hadn’t suffered a similar fate… yet.

“Colm, it’s good to see you!” Zayne bellowed, his slight, boyish frame a sight for sore eyes.

“And you, all of you,” I added, looking from Zayne’s smiling face to Shar, his sturdy features another welcome sight. I looked between the fairer of my companions, to the pretty features of Morgan and Siran. Each of them had been sent on a secret mission—all designed to resist the Dominion.

“What’s been happening then, it sounds intense…?” Morgan asked while we all wedged ourselves back into the shuttle, its interior feeling much smaller with more bodies filling it.

I wanted to reply right away, to tell her that despite all the tribulations, we’d come out on top. In some respects, it was true. However, it would be a gross skimming over of a lot of vital, brutal, and generally distressing details. And although nobody enjoyed hearing the bad points, they couldn’t be ignored. They shouldn’t be. Not when we’d risked, and lost, so much.

I set the controls to autopilot before regarding Morgan and the others again; Shar and Zayne looked prepared for somber news, but the women less so. “It was… hard going. I honestly thought we were going to lose at one point, and if the Gaed hadn’t shown up, I think we would have. The Dominion would have succeeded in killing millions of Terran space citizens without anyone the wiser. And we still didn’t save them all. That weighs heavily on everyone back on the Star.”

“Kout.” Shar muttered, his eyes downcast.

“We clawed back, though, and there’s many alive who wouldn’t be if help hadn’t arrived—”

“But there’s still more to be done.” Siran grimaced, though she tried to give me a smile through her vexation. They’d been away from the brunt of it and even they realized that more blood would be spilled before the rebellion truly got underway. Sacrifices would come thick and fast over the coming weeks.

The rest of our journey we discussed more trivial topics, although none of us really had any interest in the conversation. It was great to hear of all their tales, and I could tell Shar, in particular, was curious about some of my own.

However, we weren’t high-spirited enough to overshare, all five of us weary from simply making small talk.

Perhaps that was one of the evils needing to be added to the Dominion’s growing list of offenses: the ability to break down your spirit.

My landing, having taken autopilot off, was less than graceful. Nonetheless, we’d made it there and back without any sign of Dominion activity.

I thought that alarming.

Given how we’d beaten them back, I’d have expected them to be coming for blood, not sulking over their defeat. But regardless of how peculiar it was, I was happy to have taken a trip that hadn’t ended in mass panic and fervid running for our lives.

Upon opening the shuttle door, Morgan and Siran whisked themselves into the hangar and off in search of friends; I imagined there’d be a lot of festivities now that they’d returned to us. Despite numerous human females living on this ship, they always had time for one another. Even when they knew little about their crewmates.

“Well, aren’t you two a sight for sore eyes!” Dejar chuckled, appearing from behind the hangar doors as I locked up the shuttle. I doubted anyone wanted to steal it, but protocol was protocol, as Wyann had always argued.

“I see you’re talking more like them every day,” Shar grumbled.

He didn’t mean anything by it, really—he, just like the rest of us, had a fondness for these humans. They were primitive, and unbelievably complex in their emotions, but at their cores, they meant well.

Being a young species, it seemed fair for them to be behind us on a lot of things. Apparently not mannerisms, though, an observation I’d have to tell Vianne about. Umbba, I missed her. I looked forward to visiting her later on, once she was back from visiting some of her home system sights. If she’d bothered to go. She’d been unsettled by the way her mother had reacted to her call, I could tell. Even after the battle, home probably didn’t feel as inviting as it would with the touch of a mother’s love.

Dejar took his time responding as he thought on what Shar had said. It had been meant as a jest, but it seemed to have touched upon a deeper set of emotions.

“Are you alright, Captain?” Zayne’s tentative nature helped address what was on all our minds as we watched our captain.

Dejar shook his head slightly before replying.

“It’s just been a hard one.” Turning his back on us so that he could wistfully look into the bowels of the ship, he spoke of the human females aboard the Rogue Star. “I felt it only fair to give them the rest of the day to connect with family, revisit memories—to just be at home. It feels like they’ll need it.”

“Yeah. Not to mention that some of them might not make it back again.” We avoided each other’s gazes, all of us knowing far too well the truth of Shar’s commentary.

We’d lose some of these women.

For them to have a day in their home system? It seemed the least we could do. Even in spite of more work needing to be done in the name of rebellion.

Thinking on that, my personal attention turned to Vianne; she was always close in my thoughts nowadays.

The idea of possibly losing her wasn’t worth thinking about, but having heard Dejar’s honesty just now, it was hard not to let those morbid thoughts creep in.

We weren’t just trying to make a change, we were attempting the impossible. The likelihood of us succeeding was already limited, but that number decreased further the more I considered the enormity of what we planned.

We’d take the Dominion down with the Gaed’s help, but they’d still be able to draw blood as they reached out from beyond the grave and dealt a final blow.

The Dominion, in a sick way, might have the last laugh.

VIANNE

When we’d regained consciousness in the cargo bay of the Rogue Star, all those months ago, it soon became apparent that our lives would never be the same again.

I’d been rescued from Persephone Station what seemed like a lifetime ago, and while I still loved being a part of the crew, the monumental amount of work left for us to do was daunting.

We’d saved the Terran System, with a lot of help from our friends. We were the victors and it felt great. But the Dominion wasn’t beaten yet, and the threat they posed was greater now than ever. We’d given them something to really think about, not forgetting a cause for fear when the Gaed had come to the rescue, however, it wasn’t enough to stop them. Not yet.

We had so much more to do.

For now, though, we had some time to put our bigger mission to the back of our minds, as we needed to bid farewell to a great many loved ones.

Well, the other women of the Rogue Star did. Me, on the other hand? I didn’t have any family members who loved me enough to care. I still had Krilling to see off, as well as a few of my old colleagues from back in the day, however it didn’t quite have the same ring to it as saying farewell to family.

Captain Krilling strode over, as if right on cue. Her face was etched with more lines than the last time we’d spoken, but she looked relieved for the first time in days.

“I guess this is goodbye, recruit.” Her eyes twinkled; it felt good for her to call me that again, even though my life was different now.

I was different.

“Still got it in me, don’t I?” I joked.

“It never left you, Vianne.” Krilling hesitated, her eyes betraying her emotions. “What happened… it was a damn shame. And while I can’t undo it, I’m glad you’re doing okay.”

“Oh, stop you. You’ll make me cry!” It sounded like a jest, but my eyes were burning from wanting to sob; it was so nice to have someone from my past praising me like this. Just like a mother should do.

As I waved Krilling off, my arms almost numb from the vigorous flailing, I allowed my facade to drop. I was so fucking jealous of everyone else here, and the funny thing was that they didn’t know it! All these women milling about, saying goodbye, wishing their loved ones well—they thought themselves lucky to have survived, for their families to have survived.

And they were lucky. But they’d been blessed with luck to begin with by having a family to say it to in the first place.

Not everyone aboard the Star had a good relationship to rejoice in, but there were more who were weeping with happiness than there were ones bitter and jaded.

Where the hell was Colm when I needed him?

A tap vibrated my shoulder. I spun round with full barrels loaded, ready to give him a piece of my mind—

“Mom?” I gasped, my heart stopping as I stared at her nervous face.

Her eyes searched mine, her anxiety coming off her in waves; it was suffocating but also wonderful to feel. Not sure why she was here, I went to ask her, but she cut me short before I got the chance to say a single word.

“Vianne, I’m so glad you’re okay!” She threw her arms around me and held me tighter than when she’d done when I was a child. There was warmth there, a deep love, one only a mother could have for her daughter. It was strange and new, but it was meant for me.

Clinging to her for dear life, in spite of my bitterness, I wondered what I’d done to deserve this change of fate. I’d helped the rebels’ efforts, but I was one woman—I didn’t deserve a reprieve like this.

“Mom, I—”

“I shouldn’t have disowned you like that, shunned you.” She stopped me again, her eyes as wet as mine, both of them gleaming under the flashing lights of departing ships. “A good mother doesn’t do that to her baby.”

She wasn’t wrong there. That being said, I hadn’t been the most angelic of daughters. I had my demons and my flaws, just as she did.

“It wasn’t just you in the wrong, I was, too.”

“Typical of you to try and take the best bits for yourself, Vianne,” she teased, the newness of this interaction jarring as I tried to navigate what she meant. She spoke with sincerity, but I was so used to thinking she hated me that it made recognizing her true meaning difficult. “I know you can’t right away, but will you visit me soon?” my mother continued, her look of desperation reminding me of how I’d once looked at her.

I could have been wicked right then. I had it in me. Just to be a jerk for all the grief she’d put me through. Nonetheless, as much as there was a part of me that wanted to be petty, there was more of me that wanted contentment. I’d spent so long in the dark, away from the light of love, it was time I got to bask under its glow.

Looking past my mother for but a second, I noticed Colm staring my way, his eyes fixed on me. His smile was big, close to a grin. Seeing that understanding and untamed affection made me want to be the person he believed me to be. And who’s to say that I wasn’t, deep down in the depths of my feisty soul? I mentally rolled my eyes at myself; it felt good to feel this light of heart.

“Mom, I’d love to visit. I just don’t know when, but I promise it’ll be as soon as I can.” I wanted to drive home how much I intended to keep my promise.

She stroked my cheek before holding it, a single tear of mine dampening her skin where it fell. “I know, I know.”

Giving my mom a final squeeze, our hug one filled with hope and promise, I gave her a smile while I walked over to Colm and the waiting crew. I’d had my moment, just like the others. I’d been able to hold a family member close and speak to them of love. And now back by Colm’s side, I could do it again, but in a different way.

Taking his outstretched hand, I slipped mine into his with comfortable familiarity. The two of us were joined now, I’d see to that. If he tried to run, I’d hunt him down…! Okay, maybe not, but I didn’t want to test that theory all the same. To love someone this madly, this deeply, was an affliction as much as it was a gift; it needed to be handled with care. Giving him a sneaky sideways glance, I felt confident that he’d handle me in the very best of ways. In some respects, he had already.

Up and along the ramp we filed, the journey like a poor excuse for a graduation ceremony—there were no funny hats, no awkward capes, and we didn’t get a diploma at the end of it. It was the worst event ever. When a burst of giggles bubbled from my lips, Colm shook his head at me.

“Lost in your own world again, Vi?” he taunted while Indira, Faline, and Emmery all eavesdropped.

“Aren’t I always?”

“Don’t forget to wave bye, it would be rude now you have someone to wave to.” His words could have stung then, far too easy for me to misinterpret their meaning.

But I knew Colm only meant what he said in the kindest of ways—he knew I’d pined for this moment, so he didn’t want to see me squander it.

I threw my mother a final wave over my shoulder as the doors began to close. It was good to see her, and I already missed her before she was out of view. Still, Earth wasn’t going anywhere, not now at least, so there’d be plenty of time to come back and do this distressing performance all over again.

Emotions were hard, why did I keep letting them in?!

It didn’t matter, really, I knew I wanted to feel their highs and lows every minute of my life.

More than my words could express.

Especially now that Colm was at my side.

COLM

I wished the final farewell Vianne had given her mother could have been how we ended our mission; on a high, and in good spirits.

However, that had been a fantasy I’d foolishly nurtured in a quest for something tender to hold onto. I had Vianne’s love, of course, but in these gloomy times, I’d gladly take as much heartwarming sincerity as I could bear.

And then more after that.

We were on our way back to the Ya-Sin System, after what felt like decades away. Funny how time could distort like that when you’d undergone so much turmoil, and I was one of the luckier crewmembers.

There were too many people on board who had lost something dear to them. Maybe it wasn’t family who’d died by Dominion hands, but they’d watched as their home system had been violated.

They had been subjugated, the Dominion unconcerned with what it tainted and how.

In our valiant rescue, we’d saved the majority of the human species. However, in doing so, we’d painted a massive target on our backs.

The Star had been a thorn in the Dominion’s side before doing this, but now they knew how seriously we intended to strike. Every time we’d come up against them now, it would be a fight to the bitter end. We’d essentially damaged our own safety and anonymity by saving Terran space. Looking at Vianne, I couldn’t say I was displeased with our decision; she was so happy in the good we’d accomplished. She was able to sit among friends, dazzle with that devilishly sexy smile of hers, and be that smart mouthed soldier I knew she was.

But that didn’t mean I wasn’t disillusioned. The Dominion was coming, and they were going to have their sights set on us before anyone else. Us and the Gaed.

I sighed just thinking about it. They’d had a turbulent truce, of sorts, with the Dominion. But it had managed to last through all kinds of ill feeling between the two of them.

The rebels stepping in so dramatically, having swooped out of the skies and to our rescue? That was going to cost them. They were strong in numbers, and they had evidence of the Dominion’s dirty hands in abundance. However, that wouldn’t save them from also being a target now.

We’d screwed ourselves.

For all the right reasons, mind, but we’d royally screwed ourselves nevertheless.

The positive to take away from all this, I kept reminding myself, was that we’d strengthened our partnership with the Gaed. There would still be much to discuss once we got back into familiar territory, but the last few days had demonstrated that we worked well together. So far. If we could keep that momentum up, we’d have a chance, our odds better with them at our sides than going this alone.

Although I didn’t think any member of the Star were so foolhardy to think we could organize a rebellion all by ourselves.

We might be idealistic. Maybe some of us even crossed the line into noble, but that was on another level.

I snuck a glance out of a side bay window, the stars and their infinite wonder still a beauty to me in spite of traveling among them on a daily basis. As I gazed, my eyes not focusing upon any one point, Vianne squeezed my hand.

I touched my nose to hers once I’d turned to face her, our lips close but never quite touching—it was part of the fun, Vianne promised me. If we refrained from overtly public displays of affection, the sex would be even more electrifying.

Her words, not mine. And thinking on all the times we’d been intimate before, I wasn’t sure more energy was needed in the bedroom. I’d never say no to Vianne, but I hoped she knew that we could cool off a little and I’d still hunger for her all the same.

It wasn’t about sex with her, it was about her.

“Are you doing okay, Colm? You’ve been so quiet today.”

She knew me far too well for me to even think about lying to her. I just didn’t know where to begin.

“Colm?” Vianne inquired, her speech more colored with concerned than before.

“Sorry, I just can’t stop thinking.” I felt arrogant, unworthy even of saying that—we all had problems to think upon as we hurtled through space. None of us could avoid them. It didn’t matter how far removed from the action you’d placed yourself, the woes of the Rogue Star affected everyone. Call it the burden of family, a dysfunctional family at that.

“Want to talk about?”

“Vi, why are you always so understanding—it’s like you know when I need you.”

“I’m always understanding?” she probed.

I already sensed I’d used a poor turn of phrase, one that she’d remind me of constantly. It was a good thing I enjoyed the art of the tease, in all senses of the word, as much as she did.

Just as I’d thought when we’d first paired up, we were a good fit.

I think I’d felt guilty enjoying myself ever since the comedown from battle had hit me. How could I be happy, have fun, when others had died?

It seemed wrong somehow, disrespectful. But then, wasn’t it worse to ignore what they’d given up and never celebrate life again?

If I’d have died, if I died during this ongoing plan to take down the Dominion, I never wanted anyone scared of being happy once I’d passed on. Life was for living, and with Vianne, I knew I’d be living every minute to the fullest.

“You’re not denying it, hmmmmm. I’m gonna remind you of this.” Her voice, the way she moved, that gentle aroma of her natural scent, it all worked to have me on the edge of arousal, despite my circling. In an open recreational spot on the ship such as this, it wasn’t a good idea to grow harder. However, there was a part of me that knew she’d relish trying to work me up further.

I smiled while I slightly readjusted myself; Vianne noticed, but she didn’t comment. Perhaps she could sense that as much as I loved her, I wasn’t quite prepared to go on a public romp all over the ship. “I’m not denying it, no. And yes, I know I’ll eventually come to regret admitting that, you don’t have to remind me.”

“All silliness aside, Colm, what’s going on inside that head of yours?”

“I’m worried, Vi,” I admitted. I wasn’t a proud man when it came to matters of strategy. “We’ve got a team not answering comms, so who knows if they’re okay. And then there’s Paila and Wyann! They’re MIA, and we can’t get hold of them to figure out why they’ve gone dark. And we don’t have nearly enough allies. How could anyone not be worried?”

My voice had increased in volume. However, I didn’t notice how much until others started peeking my way. Luckily, they hadn’t heard what my distraught words were about, but they’d recognized my stress levels were elevated.

Dejar started to make his way over, but I raised a hand to tell him to hang back.

I’d be alright, I had Vianne.

He smiled in understanding, but I could tell he would come back at a moment’s notice if I asked.

She gripped my hand tighter while resting her head on my shoulder. “I know it’s scary, and I know there’s so many questions we need answers to,” her chest heaved as she steadied her own nerves, “but we need to try and stay strong. That’s what they’d want us to do. And if I know Paila, there’s no way she’d roll over and submit to the Dominion—”

“Vi,” I interrupted.

“Colm, you need to relax. Even as shitty as it is to be in the dark, no amount of worrying is going to bring about a resolution.”

Vianne held my gaze, and while I wanted to look away, I instead returned it with my own intensity. Umbba, it was so annoying to admit she was right. Especially when she could see that I knew she was.

Not wishing to press these topics any further, I returned to staring out of the nearest window once more.

I’d retire to my quarters soon.

Our quarters now.

Whatever shadows the future held, they wouldn’t dim that brightness.

EPILOGUE: SKADI

“I cannot believe that this shit fucking happened to me,” the human woman named Adastria complained, again, for at least the fortieth, maybe fiftieth, time in the last two days since Skadi rescued her.

If it wasn’t for the fact that this Adastria woman had named Dominion council members by name, Skadi would have ripped her throat out and left her body floating in space a minute after rescuing her.

“Why aren’t you talking? Huh?”

Skadi looked at Adastria and imagined the human woman’s soft skin splitting between her fingers as she squeezed the bitch’s throat with her bare hands.

“Aren’t you going to answer me?” Adastria demanded.

“No,” Skadi said quietly. She turned away from the woman and made minor adjustments to their course headings. There was a particular planet she wanted to avoid at the moment, and coming too close to their orbital sensors would create a situation where she would be forced to fight.

While she was in the mood for a fight, she also was not in the mood to potentially lose someone with connections to the Dominion High Council.

If this woman had the connections that she claimed to have, and the High Council somehow knew that she was still alive and in Skadi’s possession, having her killed would certainly result in Skadi’s own death.

That was something she was determined to prevent.

“How dare you ignore me? Don’t you realize who I am?”

Skadi turned to the woman. “Yes. Your name is Adastria Askvig. You were the leader of the human colonies on Mars before you were recently overthrown by your own daughter. In your zeal for power, you negotiated a deal with the Dominion High Council to bring the Terran System into Dominion space. Payment was supposed to be the one hundred plus women aboard the Persephone Station on the small ice planet you humans have named Pluto. In your zeal, you stepped on some Dominion toes and got yourself into a disadvantageous position. How you managed to get yourself out of that predicament, I deign not to guess. However, your daughter and her friends returned to the Terran System and you were found out to be the lying whore that you are. Now you are demanding to be taken to the High Council and the only thing that is keeping you alive at the moment is that I do not know if you have actual contact with the High Council or not, and I would rather not risk it. However,” Skadi continued calmly, almost robotically as Adastria stared at her with her eyes wide, “if you continue to speak to me as though I was one of your underlings and continue to attempt to disrespect me aboard my own ship, I will tie your body to the engines and engage full thrusters, disintegrating every last atom of your measly little existence. Do not tempt me, human. Now, you have a choice to make. Sit down and stay quiet the remainder of our trip to Dominion High Council, or lose your tongue.”

Adastria’s mouth moved, but no sound came out as she stared at Skadi in a mixture of wonder and fear.

“I will take that as an agreement to shut your mouth. Get to the back, or should I carry your body back there?” Skadi asked calmly, her fingers flying across her console as she spoke.

The sound of the cockpit door opening and closing was all the answer Skadi needed, or wanted. As she enjoyed the peace of a quiet cockpit, she pondered what had happened in the Terran System.

The Dominion fleet had come in as planned. Despite the humans being prepared and outfitted with shielding that they didn’t have the technology for, the Dominion eventually gained control. If it hadn’t been for the Gaed’s interference, the Terran System and all the humans would have been exterminated like vermin.

As to how the Dominion had managed to mess up that operation, she could not fathom. She had reported that the Rogue Star was in the system, and she had reported that they knew of the invasion thanks to the ineptitude of that idiot major.

She wondered if the hotel staff had found his body yet. She shrugged it off and forgot about it. If they had, no word had come out and she didn’t expect there to be any news about it. The military was very tightlipped when it came to embarrassing incidents.

Thinking back to Adastria, Skadi looked behind her at the closed door.

After setting and finalizing the new coordinates, she turned on the autopilot and left the cockpit. She found Adastria sitting in the kitchen area. She had apparently found Skadi’s stash of Pronarian brandy.

“This is pretty damn good,” Adastria said as she poured another glass and slid it across the table. Skadi caught it and downed it in one smooth motion.

“Why do you hate your people so much?” Skadi asked.

Adastria nearly choked on her drink, then set down the glass. “I don’t hate my people.”

“You sold them out to the Dominion.”

“No, I sold off some dregs of our society in order to get my people into a better situation,” Adastria explained. “When the Dominion lost their payment, they tried to tell me some bullshit about how the deal was off because of it. You don’t break a deal with me. As for the attack on my system, that was a Dominion thing and I want answers.”

Skadi simply blinked, then reached for the bottle and poured them both another glass. “Don’t touch my drink again.” She downed her glass, then took the bottle with her as she left the kitchen and headed back to the cockpit.

This woman was nothing more than a power-hungry narcissist that believed that the Dominion had tried to cheat her. Her declaration that she simply wanted answers was a lie, Skadi knew that. Adastria did not seem the type to simply go searching for an answer. She seemed more the type to take advantage of the situation as best as she could.

Her anger at the Dominion trying to renege on their deal was obvious, but she also didn’t seem the type to force a situation in which she knew she was at a disadvantage, unless it was necessary.

She was at a disadvantage now, having been proven to be a traitor to her own people. She had lost her power, lost her control, and most importantly, lost any influence she could have had with the High Council. What was her plan?

Skadi spent a total of thirty more seconds thinking about it, then turned her attention back to the Rogue Star and her crew. They had somehow managed to survive the fight with the fleet and escaped her once again.

They were beginning to annoy her, even as they impressed her.

They were either the luckiest people she had ever known about, or they were good at what they did. It certainly wasn’t that she was losing her touch, there was still a long wake of dead bodies behind her, bodies that belonged to friends of the Star and would never be capable of providing safe port for them again.

Despite burning many of their bridges for them, they were building new ones, and that was frustrating. She had known that the humans were resilient, both from study and her own observation. What she had not counted on was the sheer level of dumb luck that the crew had been capable of displaying.

She received the notification that her ship was ready to fold. The faster the trip to drop off this annoying human female, the faster she would be able to return to her assignment and the faster the crew of the Rogue Star would all die.

Skadi buckled herself in and warned Adastria to buckle up as well. Waiting twenty seconds after notifying the human, she pushed the button to fold through space.

She took pleasure from listening to Adastria’s screams.

LETTER FROM AVA

One of my favorite movies is All About Eve.

And that fantastic quote? “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

Yeah. You may want to buckle up.

Up next?

Rogue’s Gambit. (yes. Yes, I did go there…)

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XOXO,

Ava

Copyright © 2019 by Ava York

All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Contents

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Vianne

Colm

Epilogue: Skadi

Letter from Ava

Copyright