Another minute passed. Isaac held course to the east, scanning the area ahead and below for a place to land that wouldn’t be painfully exposed. He jerked a little when the speakers on the bridge let out a short squawk, warning he and Nathan about the incoming ships—as if they had yet to notice.

  Isaac glanced up. The closest Relyeh ship was dropping about a hundred klicks in front of them, a white-hot streak across the clearer skies ahead. He was finally able to get a better look at the vessel, coming away unimpressed with what he saw. The ship was almond-shaped, the hull composed of dark, purplish material. It had no visible guns to speak of. No visible thrusters either. It was smooth and sleek and otherwise ordinary, more like a seed sinking to the earth than the initiation of a new planetary assault. He spared a glance back at Nathan, raising a questioning eyebrow.

  “Looks can be deceiving,” Nathan replied, reading his mind. “Those ships are anything but showy, and they aren’t treating us like any kind of threat.”

  “I noticed that too,” Isaac said.

  Hayden had ordered him to bug out of the city when the ships were first spotted, expecting they would focus some amount of their energy on destroying the small pockets of resistance. The feeling was mutual, and he agreed with the premise then and now. But that wasn’t what was happening. While the ships had taken some pot shots into the atmosphere hoping for a random hit, they hadn’t altered their vectors significantly, remaining on target for their original inception zones.

  According to the dropship’s computer, the enemy craft would touch down within the next three minutes.

  And then what?

  “It looks like there’s another city up ahead,” Nathan said, marking a spot next to a lake on the situation map. “Bring us down there.”

  “It’s pretty open, General,” Isaac countered.

  “Understood, but unconcerned,” Nathan replied. “Like you said, those ships could catch up to us without a problem if they wanted. It clearly isn’t part of their orders.”

  “Which doesn’t make any sense, does it, General? Why ignore us and give us a chance to catch up to the interlink? With the number of ships they have, they could have blasted us out of the air a dozen times already.”

  “Unless the interlink is long gone,” Nathan said. “Unless we’ve already lost, and we just don’t know it yet.”

  It was the thought Isaac was sure they all had, but none of them wanted to admit to thinking. What if everything they had done and everyone they had lost was for nothing? What if the fight was already done? They might be playing out an already unchangeable fate.

  “If it isn’t gone, it probably will be soon,” Isaac said. “Ship touches down, they load it up—boom, back into space.” He glanced back at Nathan again. “What if we lose it, General? Then what?”

  “Then we start planning our further resistance,” Nathan replied somberly. “Just because the Hunger is here doesn’t mean I’m going to let them start using humans as cattle without a fight.”

  “Pozz. I’m with you all the way, sir.”

  “Good. But we’re not done with this mission yet. There’s still a chance we can recover the interlink. And even if we can’t, Sheriff Duke and Caleb are one step closer to Vyte. If they catch up to him, maybe they can end this war all on their own.”

  Isaac laughed. It sounded far-fetched, but having spent time with Hayden and Caleb the idea probably wasn’t as crazy as it seemed.

  Isaac began his descent, vectoring the Parabellum toward the small city ahead. He spotted an old football field near the far end of the settlement. The grass was overgrown, but the backwash of the landing thrusters would clear it well enough.

  Someone knocked on the door of the bridge. Nathan opened it without hesitation, and Max hurried into the space. He had Krake’s head tucked under his arm, twin spears of hardened gel piercing the Axon’s eyes. It was the first look Isaac had gotten at an Axon's face, even though it was fleeting as Max carried the head to the navigator’s station and sat down.

  Isaac had expected the advanced race to look almost ethereal, or at the very least somehow evolved from the current state of humankind. But in the quick glimpse he got the impression Krake had more of an appearance of an oversized rat.

  “Permission to access this craft’s computer,” Max said, settling in the seat and leaning his free hand toward the control pad.

  “Granted,” Nathan said. “What are you doing?”

  “Preliminary results are positive,” Max replied, the Skin over his hand splitting open to release snake-like tendrils of gel from his fingers, the tendrils reaching into the seals behind the panel. “The cortex suffered major damage, but I have repaired it,” he continued, using his head to motion toward the spikes coming out of Krake’s eyes. “Requirement. Enhanced audio-visual output capabilities.”

  “Can you break that down for me?” Isaac asked.

  “Compliance. A means to share what I’ve discovered. Hahaha. Haha.”

  “What have you discovered?”

  Max turned his head to face them, twisting it unnaturally while his body remained seated. “Krake attempted to erase the history from his data store, but he doesn’t have full permissions. I was able to recover and restitch this image.”

  Isaac stared at the screen. It was as if someone had taken a photograph through the Skin over Krake’s head. It was slightly pixelated and blurred with noise, but the contents were unmistakable. The duffel they had recovered in Seattle sat open on the ground in front of the Axon. Behind it, two humans in combat armor marked with Ranger paint carried the interlink toward a helicopter waiting a dozen meters away while a man in a flight suit hauled an armful of scrap to the open bag.

  “Shit,” Isaac said.

  “Affirmation,” Max replied. “Hahaha. Haha.”

  6

  Hayden

  Sheriff Hayden Duke stood in a small compartment nearly five light-years away from where he had been only a second earlier. The space was barely large enough to hold both himself and Space Force Marine Colonel Caleb Card at the same time. Caleb’s shoulder pressed into Hayden’s, the sensation like electrical discharges pulsing through the damaged control ring of his broken arm. The intensity of the hot throbbing between man and machine was more than most people would be able to take.

  But Hayden wasn’t most people.

  His body was trying to heal the unhealable damage, leading to a constant tug of war between degradation and repair, which fortunately leveled out the overall pain. The last couple of years had served to toughen him up in other ways he had never imagined, the scars that crossed his face testament to what he had put his body through in the name of protecting the peace.

  He had stepped through the portal bloody and broken. His leg was burning almost as much as his arm, and he still felt the strain when putting too much weight on it. He wasn’t convinced the small confines weren’t the only thing keeping him upright.

  He might have turned to look back through the portal, but the portal shut down a few seconds after they came through, the entire Axon system vanishing seamlessly into the back wall. Whoever had put the portal here had known exactly what it was and how it might be used. They had hidden it perfectly, going as far as to alter the color of the frame from the matte black alloy the Axon used to something more akin to the duller steel gray of a generation ship’s bulkhead.

  However, he wasn’t altogether convinced they had come to Proxima. They had determined Krake had led them north to Hanson. Wouldn’t it make sense for Hanson to change the coordinates of the portal and send them somewhere else? Would Max have known the difference?

  But if this wasn’t a generation ship on Proxima, it was a damn good replica. Everything about it was decidedly ordinary. Decidedly human. But that almost made more sense. If this was a ship on Proxima, where the hell had the portal come from? Who had put it there? It was embedded in the wall, which meant it had likely been placed there during the ship’s construction. But how could that be? Had the Axon tried to keep tabs on humankind’s escape from Earth by adding the portal? Why a door instead of a beacon? And was this the only portal on this ship?

  Was there one on every ship?

  That thought sent a chill down Hayden’s spine. He couldn’t wrap his mind around a nascent Axon portal secretly embedded into every generation ship. The implications were too big, the questions too many. He understood from what Rico had said that the Axon were on Earth long before the trife. How deeply enmeshed with human society had they become? Did the Organization have anything to do with the portal?

  “I can’t figure it out either,” Caleb said softly, breaking the thick silence. “And from what I understand of Axon portals, they don’t work on ships. They need to be in a fixed position.”

  “Until the ship lands,” Hayden replied in a whisper.

  “Right. Even then, either the landing place has to be known and plottable, or the portal has to be initialized from this side. Our best guess is that even if Vyte knew the portal was on one of the ships, he couldn’t use it without the location of the ship.” He paused for a moment, shaking his head. “Which he learned through the Relyeh Collective after Valentine gave it up to them.”

  “Gave it up?”

  “Indirectly, yes. I’m still not sure whose side Doctor Riley Valentine was on. She revealed the location of the settlement on Proxima, but she also gave us a chance to defeat the enemy.”

  “Forcing the fight.”

  “Yeah. She brought the two sides onto this collision course. And she put it in my hands to do something about it.”

  “Smart move.”

  “Are you being sarcastic?”

  “Rarely. If Valentine had developed a promising weapon, doesn’t it make sense to put us in a position to use it right away? The Hunger absorbs races. They integrate their genetics. Even the trife have shown the ability to evolve rapidly. Given another hundred years, whatever weakness she discovered might be flushed out of the genome.” Hayden stopped and smirked.

  “What?” Caleb asked.

  “I sounded just like Nat there. The point is, I think this is a fight that needed to happen when it did.”

  “Even if we can’t win?”

  “If we can’t win now, we’ll never get it done.”

  “I’m not convinced of that. We got the Relyeh off Essex. We helped free the Inahri from the Axon. With their technology and assistance, my friend Washington and the others might be able to build a fleet to rival the Hunger.”

  “Or get squashed in the process. No offense, Colonel. But what you’re talking about takes time. A lot of it. I don’t know about Proxima, but the people on Earth don’t have time.”

  “I’m not disagreeing with you there, Sheriff. I want to succeed as much as you do. But we have to face reality. This is a longshot at best. That doesn’t mean humanity is doomed. The universe doesn’t end if we lose here.”

  “Fair enough. But I don’t intend to lose.”

  “Roger that, Sheriff.” Caleb tapped the wall in front of them. “Of course, we have to get out of this room first.”

  It wasn’t enough that the portal was embedded in the bulkhead. The small compartment appeared to be sealed off as well. It was probably for the best. It wouldn’t help them to come out of the portal and immediately be taken into custody.

  Or maybe it would. Both he and Caleb had rightful claims to citizenship on the planet, and probably hadn’t broken any laws coming here through the portal. They needed to contact General Haeri, and the best way to do that was probably to let the authorities bring them to him, or for him to come to them through law enforcement.

  The idea wasn’t without complications. He already knew Vyte had infiltrated some part of the Centurion military. The enemy had altered the cloning replicators, embedding new programming in the Centurion fighters coming out of the section and making them ultimately loyal to their cause.

  Had they penetrated law enforcement that deeply as well?

  Hayden glanced down at his leg, and then at his arm, his eyes crossing his bloody and filthy clothes as he did. He was going out there no matter what, but it was probably worth the risk to let someone take him in.

  He looked over at Caleb. The Marine was still wearing the Intellect Skin, cowl pulled up and over his head. Hayden knew what kind of technological magic the Skin could work.

  There was no reason they both had to expose themselves to the enemy.

  “I’ve got an idea,” Hayden said.

  Caleb smiled and nodded. “I figured you would, Sheriff.”

  7

  Hayden

  Hayden and Caleb decided the best approach was to treat this side of the portal as if they were indeed inside one of the generation ships on Proxima, but at the same time do their best to be prepared for anything.

  To that end, Hayden was grateful to Spot for tossing him the revolver. He still had two ammo bandoliers around his chest, and he reloaded the weapon before letting his glasses hang around his neck from their leather strap and examining the wall in front of them. He squinted his eye, holding it steady for a few seconds to activate it.

  “What are you doing?” Caleb asked.

  “It’s an augment,” Hayden replied. “Lost the original in Edenrise. I don’t like using the extra features too much. For some reason, it makes me feel less human than my arms.”

  “I have a Relyeh symbiote attached to me,” Caleb replied. “I understand what you mean by not always feeling human.”

  “Pozz.”

  Hayden blinked the eye a couple of times. Whoever had put the compartment and portal here didn’t want the hidden space in front of it to open too easily, which meant there had to be a control hidden somewhere on both sides. Caleb had suggested searching the Collective for the answer, but Hayden wasn’t comfortable accessing the Hunger’s network. Not when Vyte also had access. Not when either side might use it to track them. Caleb didn’t argue the point.

  Hayden switched the filter on the augment’s optics to infrared and scanned the front of the wall. It only took a second to identify the fingerprints against the left side about halfway up.

  “There it is,” he said, quickly deactivating the filter and returning the eye to normal function as he put his working hand above the spot. “You ready?”

  “Ready, Sheriff,” Caleb said.

  “Stay close, don’t let them see you.”

  “I’ve done this sort of thing before.”

  Hayden smiled. “Right.”

  Then he pressed the hidden control. The door shifted toward them and slid aside, leaving a narrow exit just large enough for Hayden to slip through sideways.

  He came out into a long, unremarkable corridor that curved slightly as it continued in both directions. The dull metal bulkheads, floor, and ceiling reminded him of the Pilgrim. Either they were on Proxima, or someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make them think they were.

  Hayden looked down the corridor in both directions. If this was a generation ship, the length of the passage suggested he was either above or below the main hold where the vessel’s Metro had been built. The arc in the corridor followed the shape of the slight dome at the top of the city. The dome wasn’t visible from inside. Instead, the atmospheric generators once sat in the concave shell, producing faux weather patterns to keep the settlers inside sane.

  “It’s a ship,” Hayden said. “We’re on Proxima. I’m almost positive.”

  Caleb nodded in silence. The statement was both a relief and a concern. The link between Seattle and the four light-years distant human world confirmed Vyte’s Relyeh were here and likely hidden in plain sight.

  Hayden pulled his sunglasses over his eyes again before tapping the wall control to close the door. It sealed so tightly he couldn’t spot the seam.

  “Comms check,” Hayden whispered. “You copy, Colonel?”

  “Roger,” Caleb replied. “I’ve got you, Sheriff.”

  “I’m going to head to the right, going aft, which will lead me toward the central lifts.”

  “Roger. Be careful. Anyone you see out there could be Relyeh.”

  Hayden holstered the revolver and grabbed the microspear from his belt instead. The weapon would be ineffective at range but infinitely more useful in a melee against one of the Hunger. He wished he had the use of his other hand so he could carry both, but wishing doesn't change reality. He needed to work with what he had.

  Hopefully, he wouldn’t need to use either weapon.

  He started walking down the corridor, the situation and location bringing back a lot of bittersweet memories. He recalled his first excursion into the depths of a massive generation ship and everything he had gone through for Natalia. It hurt to think it was all for nothing because she hadn’t survived in the end. He couldn’t accept that. This had already changed him and would see him change more before it was over. But would it be for the best?

  Only time would tell.

  He barely noticed the pain from his leg as he limped along the passage. His arm hurt more, the destruction at the base of the control ring unable to heal like the muscle and tissue of his calf would. The serum that had improved his healing factor had been in development during the first war. For the United States Space Force, it was supposed to be a solution to the problem of too few people to fight the millions of trife on the planet. If a Marine could come home wounded and go back out the next day, it would effectively double or triple their efficiency.

  It sounded great in theory. Miraculous. Except the serum was never perfected. It had a fifty percent mortality rate, effectively canceling out the intended benefit. While the USSF had shelved it, doses still existed.

  Hayden had used one of them as a desperate solution to a severe problem. He was fortunate because it had worked out okay for him. Better than okay. His survival came down to dumb luck, not because he was special in any way. He was hardly a superman. He ranked his stamina and healing factor somewhere between a standard human and a modern Centurion clone.