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Her physio excuse wouldn’t fly this close to the command areas of the ship and the commander’s quarters. Threxin had said the uhyre had evolved past their highly volatile emotional states and now relied on logic alone. Everything, supposedly, was strategic. It didn’t seem strategic when Threxin got so mad at her for getting herself hurt after the jump, nor when he kissed her the night before. Had he just been acting? Or had he lied about his kind’s evolution?
Either way, an appeal to logic was going to be her best bet. When Alina turned the final corner toward the command center, she pulled out the eject-point nanofilters she’d grabbed from the dock and stashed in her pocket.
“Routine airflow maintenance,” she explained to the bored-looking uhyre guard who blocked her way. He’d pushed himself off the wall when he saw her coming, his apertures loose and spikes relaxed for the split second it took him to register her presence.
The uhyre’s breath was warm, moist, and pungent as he leaned in close, baring his fangs. He spoke slowly in heavily accented Universal. “Maintenance?”
Alina held the filters out for his inspection. “These nanofilters need to be changed every few months, placed in the air filtration system’s eject point. Command area’s due for a change, starting with residential. Look.”
She dug in her pocket for the air quality meter she’d taken. Blowing a few puffs of hak into the sensor earlier had made it flash orange in warning. The uhyre’s apertures narrowed as he cocked his head at the device, parsing the small screen showing all the right things.
“It’ll just take five minutes,” Alina said. “You can come watch me.”
Of course, she was counting on him doing no such thing.
It hadn’t been entirely a lie. The nanofilters consisted of millions of nanofibers honed to trap and neutralize viruses, bacteria, and other undesirable air particles through various parts of the ship. The entire ship was coated with layers of the stuff behind the walls and inner circuitry—all of it mostly obsolete, sinceColossalhad been upgraded over the years to generate and use biological filtering compounds.
Still, the eject-point nanofilters through which clean air would permeate were replaced regularly during expeditions, just in case the biofiltering system became compromised. And though Alina didn’t know anything about the system itself, she’d spent enough time around the command areas to remember that those filters were changed approximately twice a year and that it was just about time. If the uhyre decided to check ship records, he’d find her story checked out.
The guard turned the filters over a few times in his hand, spikes flattening slowly to his scalp.
“You think I am an idiot?” When his glowing silver eyes flicked back up to her, Alina’s stomach dropped.
“What? No, I?—”
Alina gasped as talons grabbed her throat and jerked her off her feet, slamming her back into the wall. The barrel of theuhyre’s gun was cold as he shoved it underneath her jaw, a click ringing in her ears. Alina gasped for breath that barely came.
“What business have you in this part of the ship, pest?” the uhyre hissed, tightening his hold until the air trickled in as if through a straw.
“Let her through.” The voice from somewhere in front and to her right was familiar. Over the guard’s shoulder, through the fuzzy edges of her pulsing vision, Alina saw Renza standing in the doorway to the command center.
She wheezed, chest jerking as the guard’s fist tightened around her neck. What was going to kill her first, Alina wondered, the lack of oxygen or the fact that he was surely about to break her windpipe?
“I said let her go through, Ptolin,” Renza said calmly in Apthian she was proud to have understood, even in her current predicament. In Universal, he added, “There is something she needs to see.”
Alina wheezed, her lungs on fire as the guard released her without ceremony. She slid to the floor in a coughing heap, wincing when her still-recovering knee issued a twinge of protest.
Was this a trap? Why was Renza letting her through? He must know what had been going on with her and Threxin, that much was clear… But what was it that he wanted her to see?
“Go on,” Renza commanded when Alina stumbled back to her feet, attempting to gather her wits through blotchy vision and recalibrate the plan.
“I think I’ll just head ba—” Her voice came barely above a hoarse whisper from her abused throat. Something was very off, and now instead of following her own plan, she was stepping right into whatever Renza had in store for her. All she’d wanted was to sneak into Threxin’s quarters and use whatever connection they’d built to convince him to restartUploads. Alina couldn’t afford to wait until he came to her again—who knew when that would be? People were dying while she delayed.
But this was all wrong. This was not on her terms, and something told her she was about to walk into a mess she couldn’t even begin to imagine.
“You got yourself into this, female.” The warning in Renza’s voice halted her attempt to retreat. “Go and see.”
Alina slinked close to the wall to the door across from Kaia’s and Orion’s. She shuffled her feet, every little hair on her body standing on alert. Alina rubbed her sore neck. This was a hell of an ordeal to go through just to see the alien commander, possibly wake him up, and try to seduce—or whatever—her way into a massive concession for her people. She considered the situation coolly, wisps of dread rising and puffing out before they triggered a chain reaction in her body.
Alina didn’t get a chance to gather herself and gesture a chime before the door opened. She stood and stared as Threxin appeared in the doorway, glowering.
“Hello.” The word barely left her mouth before he was dragging her into the cabin. The door closed behind them with a definitive hiss.
“You’re bleeding,” Alina said numbly, blinking at the crimson stain his hand left on her shirt when he released her. It bloomed into the white fabric.
Maybe that’s what Renza wanted me to see.His brother was hurt again, and he meant for her to take care of it.
“Why are you here?” Threxin did not sound happy to see her. His eyes flicked quickly to the room behind her before falling back to her.
