I’ve little time to react to being separated from Vax forever. As soon as the guards take him out the doors another group bursts in panic.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Orbis shouts at the intruding men. “I am in the middle of holding private council! How dare you interrupt me!”

An Argonian guard runs to meet Orbis and drops to his knee in recognition. I recognize him as the tall and broad guard that first welcomed us to the station. “Sir, the radars have just picked up another sign from the second wave! They have light jumped forward a day’s position and are a few hours out!”

“How many?” Orbis asks.

“A couple thousand sir,” another guard answers.

“Probably just a scouting party,” Orbis reasons. “We can take care of that no problem.”

“Yes sir,” the guard answers, “usually we can sir, but it’s the formation the fleet has adopted. It’s most unusual.”

“Unusual?” Orbis asks. It seems the guards have definitely got his interest now.

“Yes sir, we’ve never seen anything like it before. We thought you might want to come and see.”

Orbis raises his brows and looks over at me with interest. “Denzel, you come with me. I want to see if we can put those unique eyes of yours to use. If what the Riga tells us is true, then you might be a great military advantage to have around.”

I want to tell Orbis to go fuck himself. I feel like saying that I won’t help. Why would I help the very person that had just sent my lover away forever? I swallow down the rage and keep it held back though. I have to put my own prejudices to one side for now. There’s a possibility that I can help earth and help the Argonians. I might hate it but acting like the bigger person is the most important thing I can do right now. I lift my head up high and clench my jaw.

“Lead the way Commander. The sooner we deal with this the better.”

Our party leaves the palace of marble and another shuttle takes us across the inner-city of the mothership to deep-lens, the technology the Argonians use to look into far space. Our journey brings us to a vast room that is the size and breadth of a football stadium. A ceiling towers above us in the distance. At its center there is the broad mouth of the deep-lens. It stretches down from the ceiling to the floor as a cone of polished white metal.

Hundreds of terminals cover the floor of the observatory, and Argonians work at every one, typing away on alien instruments, gazing into monitors of star-studded space while recording observations and holding serious-sounding conversations with one another.

“What is this place?” I whisper to Loola.

“The deep-lens,” she answers back. “We gifted this technology to Argonia half a century ago. The telescope is extremely powerful. They have a small army that constantly observe the night skies to study the movements of neighboring alien armies.

I look across the vast room and marvel at the operation. “Vutaz… these guys really don’t mess around when it comes to war.”

“When it comes to war the Argonians are among the best, but even they will struggle against a Horkax army with Psion weaponry.”

“Is it that bad?” I ask.

Her face is a grave picture of concern. “Oh, it’s bad. It’s really bad.”

Our group stops in front of a broad wall of terminals that show pictures of deep space. Amongst those images are the distant shadows of the approaching Horkax fleet. My mouth drops and I walk over to the monitors to see better.

One of the Argonians responsible for running the deep-lens approaches Orbis and I, saluting Orbis as he does so. “Commander Orbis!”

Orbis salutes back. “At ease officer. Tell me what’s so unusual about this formation.”

The Argonian scientist turns to face the screen and explain, but he doesn’t have to tell me. I already know. “They’re not flying in their grid formation.” I say.

“That’s right!” The scientist says with some surprise. He looks at Orbis, trying to establish how a simple earth girl could know so much. “How do you know?”

“I’ve only faced the Horkax a few times,” I say, “but they’ve always been in the same formation. The wall of death. The grid. They seem to like it.” I look up at the images in front of me and study the dense knot of ships on the screens. “It seems they’re adapting.” My eyes trace across the imagery in rapid fashion. There are easily several thousand ships, packed together as a tight square. I would almost get the impression they were protecting something, but there at the front of the cube on each corner there are four solitary red blips.

“What do you think Denzel,” Orbis says. “Is there anything we can do to tackle this? Taking out a scout party head on could give us a massive advantage against the second wave.”

I nod to myself and walk across the floor to get nearer to the large monitors. I turn back to face the group and point at the monitor as I talk. “There are four lieutenants in this formation. One at each corner.” I point at the red ships to identify them, knowing full well that no one else can see the distinct shade.

“Lieutenants?!” The scientist remarks. “You’re referring to Hive theory. It’s never been proven!”

“Denzel can identify the ships somehow,” Orbis informs the scientist. “Not only can she see the ships, she has fought them in person and identified that Hive theory is correct.” The scientists around me stare at me like I’m an alien, which is fitting, because I technically am to them.

“How far out is this wave?” I say.

“A day at regular galactic speed perhaps,” the scientist answers.

“If we leave now we can take them by surprise,” I say. “If I’m at the head of the attack I can help identify the ships personally.”

“Nonsense,” Orbis says. “There’s no way we’re taking you to the frontline. You stay here where it’s safe. We can’t risk putting you out there.”

“And you can’t take out those lieutenants without me. I can tell you where to shoot, but general guidelines are no good when you’re shooting at a thousand ships.”

We seem to come to an impasse. Orbis doesn’t want to take any chance risking my life, but without me there on the attack, his men don’t stand a chance.

“She’s got a point Orbis,” General Prita says. “Taking Piper out there is risky, but I’ve seen her fight with my own eyes. She’s a fantastic pilot, and an even better shot.”

“It just can’t happen,” he says while tensing his jaw. “To put such an important asset in a position of danger like that…”

“You have an uprising on your hands, don’t you?” I say. “What would this up and coming rebel leader do if he found out you didn’t do everything in your power to stop the Horkax? Defeating this second wave will help to solidify your people once more. If the Horkax win this round, the Argonian people will be broken forever. We can fight this thing now and bring glory to your people again, or you can hold back and miss the chance of your lifetime.”

Orbis stares at me, his pale blue eyes questioning me intensely. “Are you… are you blackmailing me Piper Denzel?”

“I guess I hadn’t really thought about it that way, but yeah, I guess I am.”

Silence beats between us before Orbis bursts into deep and thundering laughter. It takes me by surprise completely. It’s the first time the bastard has showed any sign of humanity since we’ve met. It’s arrogant, but I like it, and I feel myself warming to him slightly.

“I think the Argonians have a lot to learn of earth women, Piper Denzel,” Orbis says. “You are great warriors of words. You have slain me in the war of conversation. I commend you for that.”

Argonians. Why is everything war to them? My heart skips a beat regardless. I get the feeling I’ve won. “So, you’ll take me?” I say. “I can fight on the frontline?”

Another long stretch. Orbis finally lifts his head and nods. “Very well. But we fly in a fighter together. You will accompany me personally.”

One of Orbis’ aides looks up in surprise. “Sir! You are much too valuable! You cannot fly into such a dangerous battle!”

Orbis flashes fire to his aide, silencing the insubordination at once. “I’m the Commander of Argonia, I can do whatever the Vutaz I want. What kind of leader would I be, sending off a human girl to war, while staying here in the safety of my own barracks? We launch in the next hour. Move out!”

* * *

The efficiency of the Argonian war machine doesn’t fail to take me by surprise. We make an immediate departure from the deep-lens, and our group is ushered to the flight field. The Riga leave us at this juncture to return to their own ship, they will be back to meet us in space.

We move with a rapidity and precision that is startling. Every step is accounted for. Every obstacle to launch into instant war has been removed. Within twenty minutes of Orbis ordering the assault on the Horkax fleet, a hundred Argonian ships are up in space above the mothership, flying toward the approaching horde. I have been assigned to a medium-sized fighter ship, and Orbis is at the controls. I’m sat beside him in the fighter, watching a live feed of the deep-lens footage from back on the station, the Horkax haven’t changed formation, they fly on into the black of space regardless.

“How long until we get there?” I ask Orbis.

“Our group will shift to hyper-speed in a minute, we’re just getting the engines warmed up. Once we shift we’ll be there instantly. The fight will begin at once.”

I look down at the screen and gulp. My eyes trace over the four red dots. Advantage or not, I still feel nervous. “It’s good that we’re meeting the Horkax head on like this, it sends a message. Couldn’t we have sent more soldiers though? The entire Argonian army would have made quick work of this.”

Orbis looks over at me and smiles. “You scared Denzel? We’ve still got enough men to take them out easily. We have twice their number.”

“I get that, I just thought it would pay to be safe.”

“We’re being safe by sending a small faction. If I sent the entire army there would be no one left to defend the mothership from a surprise attack. The Horkax look simple but they are cunning warriors, just like us. Moving an entire army would come up on their radars. They would spend every ounce of fuel they had just to make an attack on the mothership and destroy it once and for all.”

I’m somewhat impressed by Orbis’ cunning assessment of the situation. Argonians certainly aren’t the brightest, but they really do have a sharp mind when it comes to war. “What happens when we get there? Can we run over it one more time?”

“There are a hundred ships in front of us and the rest of the fleet are behind. When we’re in visual distance you take the ship’s guns and lead the assault on the Lieutenant ships. We take them out, the rest of the scout party dies and we fly back to the mothership. Simple as. It will give us a massive advantage over the second assault.”

I nod to myself and try to keep my breathing cool. I don’t know why I’m feeling so panicked all of a sudden. I guess the pressure is a bit more intense because it’s earth that I’m fighting for this time. In that moment Vax wanders back into my head and a flash of hurt stabs through my chest. I try to picture where he might be now, flying off into the vastness of space all alone. Never to come back again.

The thought that I might never see him again makes my blood boil, and I can’t escape the crushing guilt of being the one responsible for his exile. “You didn’t have to be so hard on Vax, you know?” I say to Orbis. He stares back at me in disbelief.

“Hell of a time to bring that up, don’t you think? Vax made his mistakes. He knew what would happen in coming back here. I have to look strong in front of my people now. Any weakness will bring civil war. We can’t afford that right now, not with the Horkax on our doorstep.”

I know he has a point, but I just don’t care. “I just want you to know that I disagree, and I hate you for it.”

Orbis laughs. It’s a laugh that infuriates me. “Doesn’t bother me one bit darling. All you have to do is hit the reds when we launch… speaking of. Hold on tight.”

A white light flashes on the central console indicating that we are ready for hyper-speed. I brace against my chair, anticipating more craziness after the last jump. The stars blur on the screen in front of us and a mild vibration comes over the ship. “What’s the matter?” Orbis asks, seeing my unease.

“My last jump was with the Riga. It wasn’t so pleasant.”

“Relax. That’s faster than light travel. It’s always a pain. This is nothing. Five seconds and we’ll be there.” I count the seconds in my head and on the fifth one the vibrations cease. Orbis looks at me. “See?”

I’m relieved the jump is over but looking out through the ship windows I suddenly feel my heart sink. The scouting Horkax horde lays in front of us as a giant cube of densely packed ships. The cube reacts as one to our presence and green laser fire starts drifting across the blanket of space. It’s begun. Orbis hits his radio button, connecting his voice with his army.

“Looks like they’ve spotted us already boys so let’s move on out! Squadrons four through eight: sweep forward and lay down the attacking fire.”

Enthusiastic hollering returns over the radio and I watch in fascination as several hundred Argonian ships streaks forward and begin laying down the assault. Their covering fire isn’t enough to destroy the cube, it’s merely enough to pull away some Horkax ships and act as a blanket for our wave. The sky is full of Argonians ships now, circling round in front of us as an unbreakable wall.

“Wall is up. We’re up Denzel!” Orbis shouts. “Let’s go!” Orbis hits the thrusters and I move into the seat on his other side, taking control of the ship’s guns. I keep my eyes on the screen to track the position of the red Lieutenant ships, navigating Orbis to our first target.

“Jettison five degrees east, pull up ten degrees north and hit the thrusters!” I shout while mounting the gun. I pull my sights across the endless see of Horkax ships, stopping as I find my first red target. “Hold steady!” I shout. “Firing!”

“Firing at first Lieutenant!” Orbis shouts, relaying the information to the rest of his men. I squeeze the trigger to the ship gun, letting out a burst of neon-white laser fire. The rail of electric light zips through space and smashes into the ship of the first red Lieutenant, igniting it in a brilliant ball of fire.

Orbis punches his fist into the air and lets out a loud holler. “That’s it! Take that you Horkax sons of bitches! See you in Vutaz! Who’s next Piper?!”

My eyes scan across the battlefield rapidly trying to find sight of the next Lieutenant, but I realize very quickly that something isn’t right here. My shot on the first Lieutenant should have immobilized a quarter of this Horkax fleet, but they’re all flying on like nothing has happened.

“Something is wrong,” I say while shaking my head. “My shot didn’t work. The red ship is down but it hasn’t done anything.”

Orbis looks over at me in panic. “What?! Are you sure?!”

Damned. I don’t know. “Let’s just get to the next one and try again!” I shout back. We weave through laser fire and spiraling ships. I find the next Lieutenant ship much faster. I wait until we’re much closer this time and then I realize what’s wrong.

“No… they didn’t. Those sons of bitches.”

“What?” Orbis looks at me. “What?!”

“They’re not real Lieutenant ships. They’ve set a trap!” I look down at the ship in front of me. It’s been painted crudely red. The Horkax soldier inside isn’t the same color. It’s just another grunt. They did this on purpose. “They’re not Lieutenants, they’re regular ships!”

“What?! Who’s controlling the unit then?!”

A voice breaks over the radio. “Commander! Commander! Come in. This is General Prita Lang!”

“Talk Lang!” Orbis says. “What’s going on?!”

“Pull out of there immediately!” Lang shouts back over the radio. “The cube is expanding. There are more Horkax than we thought. This isn’t a scouting party. It’s the second wave! The entire second wave!” Orbis looks up from the command panel, stares at me and looks into the sea of space before us.

The dense cube of ships before us breaks apart, revealing a metallic orb of some kind. Behind the orb an endless ocean of Horkax ships lay in wait.

“It’s a signal jammer,” Orbis says in stark realization. “They planned this. It’s a trap.”

“We have to retreat!” I shout.

He shakes his head grimly, pushing forward on the ship’s thrusters. “No Piper. It’s too late. We have to go on.”

My eyes drift in terror to the Horkax army before us and I feel my heart sink into my stomach. A million ships. Ten-thousand red lieutenants. An army of cunning soldiers that will stop at nothing to win. I jump back on the gun as Orbis guns the thrusters once more, firing into the infinite mass of enemies. It’s a useless attempt that doesn’t mean much. There are so many ships here it would take a lifetime to work through them.

“We haven’t got a chance Denzel,” Orbis says. “Even if I pull the rest of the army in. There are more ships than I could have predicted. There must be millions. This must be an entire wing of the Horkax army. There could be Generals here!”

My ears prick up at that. Generals? Hive theory supposed there might be four generals, which would mean this assault was one fourth of the Horkax army. If there was a General here and we took it down…

We fly through the battlefield, dodging laser fire, drifting through the cosmic ballet that stretched on for miles in every direction. All of a sudden something takes hold of the ship’s controls and we find ourselves grinding to a halt in the dead of space. Bright yellow klaxons fill the cockpit.

“Orbis! What’s happening!” I yell as I fight with the locked gun controls. He nods to the front and I look out to see a giant Horkax ship has floated up before us. The ship looks like the other Horkax fighters, but it’s much bigger and plated with bright yellow panels. A hologram flickers onto our screen. It’s a Horkax fighter dressed in bright yellow.

Its voice comes through our coms as a series of clicks and scratches, before it stops and clips something onto its throat. It speaks again this time, its voice whispers through the device like stone against glass. Cold and heartless laughter fills our ship.

“Commander Orbis, a pleasure to finally meet you.”

“Identify yourself bug,” Orbis growls.

“General Bavran. Second sire to the Horkax Queen.”

Orbis and I freeze and look at each other. This was one of the Generals!

“What do you want Bavran?” Orbis says with carefully measured words.

“Prisoners. You and the girl specifically. Our queen has been watching you Piper Denzel. It seems you learned our secret. We can’t have you running around free, killing our soldiers.”

Angst drums in my heart. Watching me? Me? How was that even possible? What did it even mean? Before we can even come up with a plan our ship starts to move forward through space toward the giant yellow ship before us. A mouth opens in the ship and we track toward it.

“See you soon,” Bavan chuckles before disappearing from the screen.

“Orbis! What do we do?!” I look over to the Argonian leader for answers, but none come.

“There is nothing we can do,” he says with much reluctance. “We’re being pulled into the belly of the beast Piper. All we can hope is that we somehow find a way out alive.”