“It would take a while to compute,” Lyssa admitted, for she sat beside Lyth, wearing sunglasses and “eating” chicken pot pie.
“I want to know what these creatures are,” Jai said. “I want to know why they are here, in this time and place. And I want to know if humanity should brace itself for the fight of its life.”
“Again,” Kristiana said, with a sigh.
“And again and again,” Marlow told her. “We’ve got very good at it. You should read more history.”
Kristiana stuck her tongue out at him and went back to her lasagna.
But Jai wasn’t finished yet. “If these blue people are a threat, if we really are sliding on the short slope into an inter-species war, then Marlow and I might be the best placed of all of us here to alert the known worlds.”
“If you’re still alive to tell anyone,” Juliyana said darkly.
“That’s optimistic,” Fiori shot back.
“It’s realistic,” Juliyana replied, glaring at her.
Tensions were still spiking here and there. I stood up. “Dessert,” I declared.
Three days later, the blue ones descended upon us.
—29—
New recruits find it hard to sleep on the eve of battle because they’re all wound up wondering if they’re going to emerge on the other side with their hide intact and still breathing.
Old campaigners find it hard to sleep because they prefer to arrange the odds so they will emerge on the other side. They’re wary of being caught snoring if sudden, unexpected action breaks out, which shortens those odds.
Yet sleep is the very best thing a soldier can do before a battle.
I was yanked out of a very deep sleep by Lyssa’s shouting in my ear, while alarms throbbed and wailed everywhere on the ship. I could hear everyone else on the ship shouting at each other.
“Wake up, Danny!” Lyssa shouted again.
“Wake. I’m awake,” I croaked, pushing myself upright. My heart was spiking hard, which helped get rid of the last dregs of sleep. “Report when you can spare the bandwidth.”
For I could feel the ship moving beneath me. A clank and thud on the starboard side was probably the exit hatch closing tight, as promised.
While I waited, I dressed in the combat gear which had been sitting to one side, waiting for this moment.
“Blue guys. Two ships, this time,” Lyssa said. “Bearing directly for us.”
“How close?”
Another pause. She would be dealing with everyone else’s questions, too.
I picked up my shriver and blades and stashed them on various places about me, then headed for the bridge.
Dalton emerged from his room, in combat gear, at the same time as me. He picked up his pace to draw level. Behind us, I heard running boots and glanced over my shoulder. Yoan was trying to dress and run at the same time, while also holding a shiny new shriver.
“Check on Fiori!” I told Yoan. “Bring her to the bridge. Then check on the parawolves. Make sure they’re soothed.”
Yoan spun and headed in the other direction, still struggling to get his belt done up. Adrenaline tended to make you clumsy. He’d get used to it.
The ship lurched.
“Sorry!” Lyssa cried on all channels, as Dalton and I leaned against a wall each, to stay on our feet. Behind us, Yoan cursed.
I got going again and rounded the corner where the passage bent and headed to the center of the ship and the bridge ramp.
Lyth was coming from the other direction. He wasn’t wearing combat gear, but instead wore all black. The shriver on his hip was black, too.
I strode up the ramp to the bridge. Lyssa stood frozen at the front of the bridge, her gaze on the view through the windows.
I stopped by her side and looked at the red dwarf that had been glaring balefully at us for eight days.
Dalton moved straight over to the weapons console, and Lyth moved to navigation.
There was nothing to see but the flickering yellow edges of the sun and the pulsing red center.
“Behind us?” I asked Lyth.
He stared down at the small 3D tank formed on the navigation table. “Two ships, both the same size as the one you called the mothership.” He held up a hand. “No, wait…” He looked up at me. “Three ships of that size,” he said quietly.
“Is the Omia away?” I asked Lyssa.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Sauli said from the overheads. “You’ve got Yoan, and I’ve got a bone to pick with these dudes.”
“You haven’t got so much as a rail gun!” I cried. “This is not the plan!”
“It’s not your plan,” Sauli replied.
I looked up at the ceiling, rolling my eyes. “Juliyana, are you putting space between us?”
“I’m coming about. Take a run at the leading bastard,” she replied.
Lyth hung his head, with a heavy sigh.
That also wasn’t the plan, but she had maintained all along that her mission was to kill them. Period.
So far, everyone was disobeying their direct orders. Brilliant.
“Lyssa, pick the best strategy, given the current parameters, and execute.”
Lyssa spared time and attention to look at me. “Are you sure, Colonel?”
“They’ll be on top of us in moments. We need to do the unexpected. So do it.”
Lyssa turned her attention back to the window. I knew she wasn’t really staring through it. She didn’t live in this avatar standing beside me, but in the engineering compartments at the back of the ship. She had eyes throughout the ship and all over her exterior.
She was the
