The storm foundered and drew a ragged breath from my chest.
We were willingly heading into the abyss, willingly subjecting ourselves to likely annihilation.
The first time might have been nothing but a freakish fluke.
There was no guarantee the second time would render the same result.
Or allow us to return to our previous position and coordinates.
But if we wanted a chance to return to our own place and time, I could think of no other method.
Already, the storm’s pulsing heart failed to strike with the same regular rhythm it had during its peak period.
It wouldn’t be long before it collapsed in on itself completely.
I looked over at Ava.
“Are you ready for this?”
She strapped herself into her seat.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
So brave for such a little thing.
I raised my eyes to the main screen as we entered the swirling maelstrom and edged into position.
The lightning cracked and made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
Through the misty haze on the other side, buried deep against the darkness of space, I witnessed the approaching Shadow armada.
Thousands of war frigates descended upon this speck of a planet.
Virtually defenseless.
The solar storm would throw off all readouts of the Qyah’s rudimentary defensive turrets and jam their lines of communication between their limited military personnel.
It would be a bloodbath.
One moment, the solar storm would be there, and the next, it would wink out of existence.
In its place, a different wave of destruction in the form of the Shadow military.
Just as deadly, just as dangerous.
And without a single warning, it was coming.
We paused at our coordinates and I flicked the warp drive controls over as I had done a few short days ago.
We drifted forward, toward that empty shard of space.
Although the M’rora’s ship wasn’t there, I could picture it.
Sitting there, waiting for us to come out, to confront us.
If only the Shadow armada was present in our own time.
They could have extinguished the M’rora ship with ease and allowed me to escape.
But then, I never would have taken refuge in the storm and discovered how a Shadow could love.
We weren’t only driven by our animalistic tendencies as the Elders told us.
My hand floated over the warp drive button.
I would strike it the moment the lightning hit us…
If it ever did.
And if it didn’t work, we would be exposed to the Shadow armada.
They wouldn’t recognize my ship and blow us to hell.
The storm had to send us back to our own time.
It was the only way we could survive.
The storm clouds erupted in a final crescendo, the air filling with static.
The clouds blossomed with light, and a fraction of an instant later, the lightning struck.
I slapped my hand on the button.
The engine screamed.
The emergency lights flashed.
The alarm blared.
Sparks hissed from the consoles.
And the storm flashed a dozen more times, the purple and pink swirling mists giving one final death rattle before winking out of existence.
I was slow to fully open my eyes.
The storm was gone.
The Shadow armada was gone.
Our ship was still in one piece.
But my relief was only temporary.
The armada might have disappeared, but the M’rora ship was still there.
He was waiting for us.
Ava
I witnessed nature’s magic trick the same moment Kayal did.
One moment, there was an armada of approaching attack vessels, like giant hornets preparing to smash a wasp’s nest.
Only their intended target was Qyah’an’ka and wiping the Qyah from the face of the planet.
Their histories would be rewritten, the species forgetting everything they once were.
Hearing about it from Kayal’s lips was one thing, but to see the threat approaching like a tsunami without any means to slow it down or prevent it, was quite another.
Then they winked out of existence.
But I knew they weren’t really gone.
They had already caused havoc on the planet, bringing an entire civilization to its knees.
They had enslaved the kind Qyah people and recruited the youngest and strongest to train in their military academies and become their new foot soldiers.
Among them, a single boy carried a crushed flower in his pocket, the only thing he had to remind himself of his early life and the girl he’d met.
My heart ached at the thought that the hardship he would have to endure.
Until he met me.
But even then, would things get easier?
I didn’t have an answer for that.
There was too much I didn’t know.
When the armada winked out of existence, another appeared in its place.
This one consisted of a single ship—one I recognized.
Its gleaming hull was undamaged from its earlier assault and still sat there waiting for us outside the reach of the solar storm.
It’d been days to us, but how long had it been to the M’rora?
Instantaneous?
Or had it taken days for him too?
The storm surrounding us waxed and waned until it folded in on itself and disappeared.
We were a single shard of technology floating among the stars.
The alarms blared and the lights flashed.
Despite the threat of the enemy ship, I was relieved we had managed to return to our place and time.
A single ship was nothing compared to what might have happened.
“Computer, disable the alarm system,” Kayal said.
The alarm and flashing lights shut off immediately.
The consoles arranged around the outer edge of the bridge flashed with other warnings but there was no one there to deal with them.
Kayal just sat in his chair, peering out the front screen.
At the M’rora ship.
“We made it,” I said.
“Yes,” he said, nodding. “We made it.”
His tone was cold and distant.
Beneath it, I heard the absence of hope.
“If we tell him I don’t want to go with him, maybe he’ll let us go.”
Kayal’s chair squeaked as he peered over his shoulder at me.
He ran an eye over my face, exploring every inch.
I didn’t know what held his attention.
He’d spent so much time gazing at me there couldn’t possibly be anything new.
His eyes shifted to one side.
He didn’t start when Computer announced there was an incoming communication.
He’d been expecting it.
“Onscreen,” he said.
“You were lucky to survive the storm,” the M’rora said. “Don’t make the same mistake twice. Release her to
