“Please, enlighten me,” Commander Mahlo purred.

I gave a tight laugh. “It’s not going to be quick.”

“As you can see, I have the time. Otherwise, I would’ve left you out there on the lunar surface.”

I shrugged, glancing back at the rest of my group. They all wore encouraging expressions, spurring me on. After all, this was what we’d come here for. If I didn’t tell her everything, there was no way we were going to get the lycans on our side, and, right now, we needed all the help we could get.

“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Steeling myself, I gave her a rundown of everything we had endured and were about to face, with the others chiming in where I’d skipped over something that might be important. I told her of Orion, Ezra, and the elixir, and how they were likely to be gaining ground with it as we spoke, following it up with a detailed account of the imminent threat headed our way—Queen Gianne would be arriving any day now, given her advanced deep-space technology, and we had to be ready for her when she did.

I explained what we planned to do with the nudus, as a means of defending Earth against the aerial onslaught of Queen Gianne, while Navan reminded her that we would need help combatting the rebels on the ground. It was going to be a battle from all angles, which meant we were going to need the lycans’ cooperation, especially where the human population was concerned. Something would need to be done to cover up the sudden appearance of a bright blue light in the sky.

Commander Mahlo looked at me as I came to the end of my rapid relay of intel. She had said nothing the entire time, her nostrils flaring subtly. I peered at her, listening to the sound of her sniff, my brain recalling a lycan skill from the last time I found myself in the Fed HQ—it appeared that Commander Mahlo was a veritas, or truth-smeller. I guessed that, even though the trait was a rare one, the Feds had enlisted a few veritas to their ranks. Realizing what she was, I grimaced, hoping she hadn’t scented anything she didn’t like in what I’d said.

“What you tell me is true,” she said, at last. “Indeed, I should’ve known to trust you. You were a friend of Galo’s, were you not?”

I nodded. “He was kind to me, though I didn’t know him very well.” I paused, unsure whether to continue. “Orion used him, Commander Mahlo… and he died trying to help us. I’m sorry, but we were forced to bury him on Vysanthe. I know it’s not what he would have wanted, but it was the only place we could lay him to rest.”

A sadness flickered across Commander Mahlo’s face. “I suspected something terrible might have happened to him,” she said with a sigh. “He disappeared some time ago, and nobody heard any word of him. We presumed the worst… and it seems we were right. I was promoted in the absence of Commander Sylvan. Galo should have been the one promoted, but when he disappeared too, I took on both their jobs. Truly, it ought to be him sitting here instead of me, but such is the way of the universe.”

“I really am sorry, Commander Mahlo. I’m sorry about Commander Sylvan, too. I didn’t see what happened to them, but they were captured trying to help us. He was a brave man, just as Galo was.”

“At least you had the decency to bury my friend. As for Commander Sylvan, what happened to him was a travesty, though we could do nothing to free him,” she replied. “Now, we must look to greater things than mere revenge. Remind me of your plan for Earth? I’m not certain I understood what it is you wish to do.”

Gesturing for Stone to lift his hand and show Commander Mahlo the nudus around his wrist, I explained again what we planned to do with the curious creatures. I could see she wasn’t convinced, but there was no turning back from this now. This was the only way of keeping Earth safe, no matter how risky it might sound.

“There must be more to it than a simple shield?” Commander Mahlo said, frowning.

I nodded. “Absolutely. Stone here—the guy with the nudus—he also happens to be our secret weapon.”

“He doesn’t look very impressive,” she muttered, turning to him. “No offense.”

He shrugged casually. “None taken.”

“He’s an ambaka. While we put up the shield across the globe, to prevent Queen Gianne from landing on Earth, Stone here will lead the attack on the rebels.”

A gasp rose from her throat. “An… ambaka, did you say?”

“Bit more impressive now, eh?” Stone joked, winking at the lycan leader.

“If we split our resources, I’m sure we can take on both sides,” I urged, trying to keep the desperation from creeping into my voice.

Commander Mahlo said nothing for a long time, her orange eyes fixed on Stone. He didn’t seem to mind too much, lolling in his chair, but her silence troubled me. What if we’d come all this way and she nixed the whole thing in one fell swoop? Behind me, anxious looks drifted between the rest of my friends and crewmates, with Alfa and Dio getting antsy at the back of the room.

“I suppose I must be honest with you now, as you’ve been so honest with me. I wasn’t sure whether I could trust you, at first, but you have proven yourselves worthy allies of our mutual cause,” she said slowly, as if picking her words carefully. “You see, we’ve known about the rebel coldbloods for a while, as you’re aware. No doubt you’re wondering why we haven’t done anything about them.”

We all nodded.

“Well, it pains me to admit it, but it was easier to let them be, as they seemed to be keeping to themselves. A few humans were disappearing, that is true, but fighting coldbloods is no easy task. It’s why the Fed have kept out of Vysanthean troubles for decades.”

“But things have changed?” I asked.

“Yes, in the wake of my friend Galo’s disappearance, and my subsequent promotion, I ordered my taskforce to track all ships leaving Earth and all ships leaving Vysanthe. Our Fed radar is a sensitive thing, and can detect invisibility shields, such as yours,” the commander continued. “As such, I can tell you that Queen Gianne’s and Queen Brisha’s ships have already departed Vysanthe. I did not realize they were in possession of deep-space technology, but given a basic trajectory using these engines you spoke of, the queens’ ships will be here in a matter of days.”

With the queens’ ships on their way, the timeline was going to be a tight one. I paused as I replayed the words in my mind—Queen Gianne and Queen Brisha? That couldn’t be right.

“You’ve got to be mistaken, Commander Mahlo. Queen Brisha can’t have left Vysanthe. She was assassinated. I know any news coming from the South has to be taken with a pinch of salt, but I doubt they could make up Queen Brisha’s death.”

Commander Mahlo frowned in thought. “Has her army been decommissioned?”

“Her soldiers must still be fighting in their queen’s name,” Bashrik interjected.

Navan nodded. “Working alongside them, I’d never seen such loyal warriors before. I wouldn’t be surprised if they fight until there isn’t a single one of them left.”

“You realize that means both queens know about the deep-space tech and Earth, don’t you?” Lauren added grimly.

“From what you’ve all told me of these twin queens, that should not come as a surprise,” Xiphio mused. “I was not well-acquainted with them, the way most of you were, but I got the feeling they were constantly spying and stealing secrets from one another.”

“Always the way with fancy folk. Can’t help ‘emselves. Always wantin’ what someone else has got,” Stone added.

Commander Mahlo smiled, excitement flickering in her orange eyes. “The thing is, now that you’ve told me of your plans, you have granted us a glimmer of hope.” She took a nervous breath. “Ever since we discovered the rebels, we’ve had a plan of action in place, in case the queens ever came to exact punishment on their defectors. Now, with the ships leaving Vysanthe, we’ve had to put it in place as quickly as possible. We’ve been planning to launch a surprise attack on the queens’ ships before they can even land. It was set to be a suicide mission, but it was the only plan we had.”

“It still sounds like a suicide mission to me!” Alfa joked. Dio nudged him sharply in the ribs.

“What my friend means to say is, how have your plans changed?” he said.

“To be honest, my mind is still trying to figure that out. You have offered us some solutions that may take a fraction of the risk away,” she replied thoughtfully. “However, it still presents us with some problems, too. For one, although I think the nudus shields can be very useful, I’m not sure how we can avoid the mass panic that will follow if we forge them across the globe.”

Lauren nodded, tapping her chin. “If we put up the shield, humanity is going to figure out that aliens exist.”

“Precisely.”

“Yeah, but if we don’t put up the shield, then Gianne is going to land on Earth and capture—or worse, kill—massive numbers of humans for her elixir,” I protested. “She’ll harvest them like crops, and you can be sure as hell, when they’re being drained dry for their blood, they’ll know about aliens then.”

I was starting to wonder if it even mattered. Those who knew about us thought of Earth as an embryonic planet with a lesser species living on it. To them, we were backwater nobodies that had yet to branch out and join the rest of the universe. We weren’t advanced enough, by their standards, but maybe it was time for us to take that step. As a species, we’d been theorizing about the presence of aliens for decades, so why not reveal the truth? I mean, it was ridiculous to believe we could be the only sentient beings in a universe this large.

“You could be right,” Commander Mahlo mused. “We could always contact the world leaders and get the word out. They may be able to find a way to ease the panic better than we can.”

“The US might already be one step ahead of you there,” I said bluntly.

“How do you mean?”

“My friends and I came across the US president on a planet called the Junkyard. I imagine you’ve heard of it. Anyway, he was in the middle of a meeting with Ezra, Orion’s right-hand man. So, it’s pretty reasonable to guess he’s in cahoots with the rebels. I think they’d struck a deal of some kind, but it was hard to hear the full extent of what they were talking about.”

Commander Mahlo looked disappointed. “Yes, that does complicate matters somewhat. Do you think he’s allied the US with the rebels already?”

“I’m not sure how far it’s gone.”

Commander Mahlo sighed wearily. “Then I’m not sure what to suggest.”

“How about we find a way to get a global broadcast out ourselves?” Lauren suggested, her voice hopeful. It was the best idea we had, and I could tell everyone thought the same. A murmur of agreement ran around the room.

“Damn good idea, Ren,” Stone replied, before turning his attention to Commander Mahlo. “Don’t suppose ye heard of any weapons findin’ their way to the rebels, did ye?”

It was something that had been bothering me, too. If the Fed had special radar, they might’ve noticed some unusual activity in the days since Ezra had run from the Junkyard.

“I’m not sure about any weapons, but a ship did return a while ago—just the one. The same one had left Earth some time earlier, but it looked beaten up on its return. I could check the system and see if we have any more details on where it visited.”

I didn’t need any system telling me where that ship had been. There was only one culprit that fit the timeframe, and that culprit was Ezra, returning from the Junkyard with Yorrek’s notebook in tow. I wasn’t sure if his crew had managed to get their hands on any of the pilfered serrantium weapons, or if Ezra had even returned to pick them up, but I knew he had the most important item of all.

“Have there been any changes in the rebel activity?” I asked.

“The latest intel we have is that Orion went quiet for a while, but then he started stockpiling resources—weapons, blood, everything. That’s around the time this ship left Earth. We believe the factories are still functioning and the rebel alchemists are still hard at work, but that’s about all we know,” she explained, with a hint of regret.

It was the same stuff we’d heard from Mort, though my thoughts on his trustworthiness hadn’t changed. Even now, I couldn’t help wondering, somewhat bitterly, if he’d lied to us about certain details. It would be just like him to keep out an important fact or two, though I had no evidence to prove it.

“Did you hear anything about a notebook?” Navan asked anxiously.

Commander Mahlo stared at him, her eyes suspicious. “A notebook? No, we haven’t heard of anything like that. What do you know about a notebook?”

“No way, lass. Our guts are all spilled out,” Stone interjected. “Gotta give a little to get a little.”

“Have the alchemists started doing anything different?” I pressed.

Again, she looked blank. “Not that we know of. As I say, they’ve been stockpiling, by the looks of things, but that seems to be it. Do you know something we don’t?”

“Ezra took something valuable during a different encounter we had with him on the Junkyard. He took a notebook that belonged to a renowned alchemist on Vysanthe. We think it might contain the secret to the immortality elixir, but we’re not a hundred percent sure.”

Commander Mahlo set her vivid gaze on me, aghast. “No… That can’t be. Last we heard, they were missing something important—a final ingredient.”

“Yeah, and that book could contain the secret to it,” Bashrik muttered.

“Then again, if what you’re saying is true, we might have a window of opportunity,” I said, my mind whirring. “If nothing has changed down there in the rebel base, then maybe they haven’t figured out the key yet. If that’s the case, then this means we’re all still on a level playing field. No one is immortal yet, and, if we can get our asses in gear, nobody will be.”

Angie nodded excitedly. “If we take out the rebel base before they can do anything else with the elixir, we can get rid of the rebels and their unnatural experiments in one go. A clean strike!”

“A joyous occasion, if we can make it work,” Commander Mahlo conceded.

I smiled at my best friend’s enthusiasm, though I couldn’t share in it. There were still too many things that could go wrong, and no way of eliminating the risks beforehand. We just didn’t have time for an intricate scheme, with every possible avenue covered. The queens’ ships would be arriving in less than three days. In that brief interim, we needed to figure out the best positions for our shield-bearers, find any weak points, and get everyone in position before the enemy surrounded Earth.

Even if we’d had months to prepare, I doubted we’d ever be truly ready for what we were about to face. But if these queens and these rebels thought they could come to my neighborhood and take what didn’t belong to them, they had another thing coming. This was my home, and even if it took the last scrap of energy I had, I would never back down.

This was humanity’s fight, and my fists were raised.