“And that’s what you went to my mom, the one on Dakura, to find out about? How to make them?” Molly cherished the conversation, hoping it would continue. Her body tingled with the absence of pain.

“No. I went to her to determine which door to reopen.”

The game show. Her mother’s words came back to her, the innocuous analogy made deadly.

“One of these doors will open and end your galaxy, along with the threat it poses. My people will move in and systematically destroy this . . . mutation.” Byrne looked over Molly’s head. “The other door would have led you to your damned father . . . ” He peered down at her, his eyes narrowing as Molly felt her own widen. “But don’t waste your time hoping, I’ve already sealed that one forever. And soon, the other door will open . . . ”

His voice trailed off. “Wait,” he said. “Your mother. What do you mean by the one on Dakura?”

Oh, crap, Molly thought, grimacing at the slip. She could see how tortured criminals were broken, how the pressure of layered lies smothered until desperation forced you to tear them off, exposing the truth underneath, forgetting the consequences.

In the glow of the work light, Byrne’s face smoothed out, the bunched muscles disappearing. His grin grew into a menacing smile.

“Your father made a copy, didn’t he?” The nasally laugh returned, which scared Molly more than his rage.

Byrne peered over Molly’s shoulder, into the darkness of the commons. “How ironic,” he chuckled. “To think that the answer was under my nose all these years!” His laughter swelled as his hands came away from Molly’s armpits. One of them slid up her chest to her neck. She tried to pull away, but the other hand tangled itself in her hair, balling into a fist around a thick clump of her locks. The two sides of the vise worked together to squeeze off her air supply. She clawed at them, but they were made of steel. Indestructible.

“All these years, I had the hyperdrive under my feet! This galaxy and more could already be ours!” The hysterical laughter ceased as he looked away. Molly gurgled for air, arching her back and digging her heels into the dirt. She could feel her eyes bulging out; she looked up at Byrne with tears streaming down her face, wondering where Cole was, why he wasn’t there to rescue her—

Byrne smiled down at her, as if calmly waiting for her to die.

When her esophagus closed completely, her ability to even gurgle was taken away. The world became silent, and the last of Molly’s consciousness marveled at how quiet death could be. She teetered on the edge of life, peering over the other side, when—in the scary vacuum, the eerie silence that had ensued—a loud metallic click rang out. The release of something mechanical.

Byrne squinted into the darkness, his fingers relaxing. Molly wheezed a large gulp of crisp air past her burning neck, a temporary reprieve from the suffocation. Her captor leaned farther over her, peering toward the commons.

Molly turned her head as far as she could and looked back to her ship; Byrne grabbed the work light and shone it in Parsona’s direction. A dark shape fell from one of the wings and into the tall grass.

“What was that?” Byrne asked.

Molly remained silent, save for her rapid pants for more air.

She had no idea.

Byrne scanned the commons with the work light, keeping a hand on Molly. “Who goes there?” he called out, playing the beam across the hull of the ship.

Another object fell from the wing, flashing briefly in the cone of light. It disappeared in the grass and clanged loudly against something else.

“Were those missiles?” Byrne asked Molly.

Molly clung to a fresh lungful of oxygen and pursed her lips. As the fingers dug back into her hair and neck, she asked her own silent question:

Walter—what in hyperspace are you doing?

••••

“Walter, what are you doing?” Parsona asked.

“Firing the missssilesss,” he spat.

“You have to arm them first! I told you not to jump ahead, just follow my instructions.”

“But—”

“Listen to me. We don’t have much time, and it’s very important. We need to stop a man from opening a door, and the readings on my sensors say he’s already trying.”

“But—”

“Those were our only two missiles, so you’re going to need to get in one of the escape pods and eject into the grass. I don’t care what you have to do to stop this, we’re all going to be dead either way, do you understand me?”

“But what about this wirelesss menu for the misssiless?”

“Do you hear what I’m saying? Very bad things are about to happen if you don’t get out there and stop that man. Destroy his machine. Do something. Now leave those wireless settings alone, they’re only for disarming missiles after they’ve been launched properly.”

“I can arm them,” Walter said flatly.

“No, you can’t. Trust me, it doesn’t work that way. It would take a quantum computer a dozen years to hack into—”

“I’m already in.”

Silence.

“That’s . . . that’s impossible.”

“No, it’ss the ssame key the Navy ussess on Palan for their mainframe. I ussed to log in and delete sstuff for fun.”

Walter shook his silvery head as he armed the missiles. “It’ss a sstupid passsword,” he added to himself.

••••

Bright lights popped in Molly’s vision as the choking resumed.

Flashes of pain. Explosions of misfiring, confused neurons. When another bright light erupted from the commons—the flash of a missile coming to life in the dewy grass—she could barely distinguish it from her own illusory fireworks. It wasn’t until the object sailed overhead, trailed by a cone of plasma, that Molly could actually tease it apart from her misery.

The missile flew over the remains of the house and slammed into Byrne’s ship, which exploded in a fury of twisted, glowing metal. The hyperdrive wasn’t destroyed immediately, however. As the shockwave from the blast expanded out into Lok’s atmosphere, the drive continued to hum on a low setting—still trying to unlock a gate through which armies were destined to spill.

The wave of compressed air hit the commons moments after the bright ball of fire. It slammed into the contraption behind Byrne, teetering it. The old agent almost had enough time to scream before the cross fell across his back and erupted in a glory of sparks.

The majority of him winked out of the universe, accompanied by a soft pop of air as it rushed in to fill the vacuum.

Beyond, in the engine room of Byrne’s ship, the hyperdrive erupted, coating the wreckage with burning fusion fuel. The smell of something dead, billions of charred carcasses, wafted out over the commons.

The odor drifted down to Molly, coating her in its foul tartness . . .

. . . as she finally drifted off to black.

36

Anlyn stepped over the wooden bridge, noting with horror the small flecks of charred ash her pyrotechnic display had created in the ancient wood.

She crossed the circle and entered the Light of Speak, which felt even warmer the second time around. There were fewer eyes upon her, but the intensity of each gaze had been multiplied.

Several of the Counselors had already left, the vote done and sealed. Only a few hundred spectators remained, likely those gossipers hoping some dollop of news would trump the Drenards that had escaped with the scoop. Anlyn saw that Bodi had remained, probably to gauge any potential threat.

She took a deep breath.

“I represent the Minority Position,” Anlyn said, “and I wish to have my doubts recorded, that they be our doubts in the cycle to come.” Several dissenters nodded, as well as a few who had voted “war” well after the issue had already been decided—swept up in the fury of the political mob.

Anlyn looked over the Circle and into the sparse crowd, directing her speech to them. “I am Anlyn Hooo of the Royal Tree. When I was born, my people believed in a great prophecy. In both song and rhyme, they celebrated the end of the Bern threat as foretold by the one we call the Light Seer but who our enemy refers to as the Bern Seer.

“There are many ways to read the Prophecy. Some have urged for peace with the Humans because it seems our combined power alone can end this grave threat. But there are those who walk the way of the cold and see the Prophecy as a promise for doom. For them, the flood spoken of puts an end to our galaxy, to our entire universe.

“A cycle ago, a human couple came to this planet, first as prisoners under suspicion, then as guests. When one of these became a Drenard, a new interpretation of the Prophecy was seized upon. Soon, this new method of reading grew and became known as ‘The One’ reading. And yet—like all other readings before—the proclamation failed. The difference was, this time . . . ”

Anlyn scanned the crowd through the glare of the cone of light. She took another deep breath and licked her dry lips. “The difference was that this time so many of you believed. And your faith devastated you as it was pulled away. It had become attached, and it took something with it as it was discarded. I watched it happen as a youth, not affected as I had not yet learned to believe. I watched what transpired, and I promised myself it would never happen to me. I would never believe in anything.”

Anlyn looked to Edison, then turned slowly, taking in the whole of the darkness beyond the circle.

“We are a people that thrive on the edge, balanced between the passion of our burning hearts and the rationality of our cold thoughts. When I ran from here, from my home . . . ” she turned to Bodi. “When I ran from you, it was with a heart that had never been lit. It was with cold thought alone.

“Mortimor and Parsona Fyde came to Drenard a full cycle ago, and they were, neither of them, the One. But I believe . . . I believe they gave birth to the One. It’s insane to hear it, I know. But it’s not insane to know it. I have feared this burning in my heart, but not now. Now, I balance it with my cold, objective thoughts.

“Molly Fyde, the daughter of Mortimor and Parsona, rescued me from bondage. What are the chances of that? Born on Lok, and therefore more from that planet than either of her parents, she is Human and Drenard alike. And the Wadi, I know the rumors don’t agree, but take it from me—I’ve seen it! I’ve touched it! The Living Queen is real.”

Anlyn met Edison’s gaze, felt the tears streaking down her face. “The Prophecy is real. I don’t know how, but I know that it is. You have been burned before by false hope and the passion of faith, and I watched from a distance. I will not ask anyone to go with me, but go I must.

“While the rest of the great Drenard Empire prepares for war with our neighbors, I will go to the great Bern Rift as the Prophecy decrees. I will await whatever comes through to harm us, alone if need be.”

“You’ll do no such thing,” Bodi shouted. “The vote is over. You’re reciting superstition, not a Minority Position. I demand that—”

Anlyn whirled on him. “My going will have nothing to do with your insane war or your false vote. I’ll be going as an ambassador to the Bern people, as is my right as next in line to the throne.” She nodded to Edison. “And if the Counselor on Alien Relations will accompany me, we’ll take the full regiment of volunteers decreed for that purpose.”

“Alien Relations? Ambassador?” Bodi scoffed. “For the Bern?!”

“Ambassador, yes.” She paused, turning in the Light of Speak to address Bodi once more. “For the Bern? No.” She lowered her voice as the wave of panic and confusion returned to the Pinnacle, spectators pushing their way to the exit to trump the other news-bearers.

“Two can bend the rules, Bodi. For right as well as wrong. The Prophecy will not disappoint another generation, I know it.”

“You’re a fool,” he spat at her.

Anlyn turned, walking back to the wooden bridge dotted with tiny burns.

“Aye, a fool,” she murmured. “A happy, hopeful fool.”

••••

When Molly came to, Walter stood over her, prying Byrne’s fingers off her neck. She could feel the other severed hand still tangled in her hair; she reached back and touched it, a solid clutch of steel wrapped around a handful of her locks. It seemed the two arms were all that remained of Byrne in the galaxy.

Fighting for a breath, her throat burning, she croaked, “What happened?” as Walter pried the hand away.

“I ssaved you,” he said through his helmet’s open visor. He held Byrne’s arm up with one hand and waved it in the air like a sword. The fallen work light illuminated the scene with a dramatic glow, the batteries flickering for added effect.

Molly fumbled with the hand knotted in her hair, wondering if she’d have to cut it out to free the thing. “How?” She turned to look back toward the commons.

“Your friend called on the radio,” Walter said. He jabbed a finger against his helmet. “She taught me how to usse the SSADAR and fire the misssiless.” He stopped swinging the sword and took his helmet off, dropping it into the dirt and leaning in close to Molly.

“Doess thiss make me your navigator?” he asked. He bent down, his metallic face flickering in the light of the burning ship. “Sshould we kisss?” He pursed his thin lips, his eyes wide and begging.

“Ew, no!” Molly turned her head and brought her hands up to his chest.

It came out harsher than she’d intended.

“Fine,” Walter said, pouting. “The cargo door iss bussted, sso good luck getting back insside on your own.” He marched off toward the wreckage of Byrne’s ship, slicing the air with the severed arm and mumbling to himself.