The entire staff was elated when Rael and I announced that we’d fixed the equation. I bet it was the best bit of news they’d gotten in months. Everyone was eager to have a part in creating the chemical mixture for the scent bombs.

I know that any scientific venture required intensive collaboration, but I never considered myself much of a team player.

I was comfortable with Rael now. I would have been happy just continuing our work together without bringing in anyone else. I didn’t know if they were even qualified for this kind of work.

However, time was of the essence. It would take considerably longer to develop the stabilizing agent and incorporate it into the compound for the scent bombs with only two people working.

I let Rael choose the people she trusted most to help us. Rael stopped me as I was tugging on gloves and hunting down a pair of goggles.

“I was thinking you’d have a more supervisory role in this,” she said in a gentle tone that made me almost certain she meant something else.

“I’m the most qualified,” I protested, keeping my voice even. “This is why I was called out here in the first place.”

“Yes, you are the most qualified,” Rael agreed, though I could see the hit her pride took for her to admit that.

I almost felt bad for feeling smug. I’d worked my ass off to make headway in my field, forgive me for being excited when I was recognized.

“Which means you are the least expendable,” she finished.

“Are you saying the others are?” I asked, taken aback.

Rael winced.

“Everyone here is valuable,” she amended. “But we have to think long term. If our calculations were even slightly wrong and the compound became unstable, losing you would be a far deadlier blow than losing some of the others.”

“And do the others know about this?” I asked, dreading the answer.

“They were eager to help! Who am I to stand in their way?” Rael said with an unsettling smile. “Watch them carefully. I don’t want any accidents. It’ll be up to you and me to prevent them, so we don’t have to risk losing anyone.”

“That’s profoundly fucked up,” I muttered. “Of course, I’m going to keep an eye on them. I don’t want anyone getting hurt in my place.”

“Then there isn’t a problem,” Rael said sweetly.

Rael and I closely monitored the rest of the lab staff as they tried to create the necessary stabilizing agent. So far, they were all extremely competent. I guessed that many of them were students, maybe even Rael’s.

If we lived through this, each and every one of them would get one hell of a recommendation from me.

Long after I lost track of time, one of the lab techs gasped. I hurried over, convinced something had gone wrong.

“What is it? Are you hurt?” I demanded, quickly checking the tech over.

“No,” she said, a smile stretching across her face. “I did it!”

“You made the stabilizing agent?” I asked, almost not believing her.

She nodded gleefully.

“Did you take notes on how you did it?”

She gestured to a notebook filled with thoroughly detailed lab work.

I grinned.

“Fantastic job. Make copies, show the others how to do it. I’ll go get the casings from the engineers, and we can finally get this done!”

There was a smattering of applause and congratulations. I was still smiling when I left the lab. The engineers had been working on the physical components of the scent bomb in an old warehouse one building over.

As soon as I stepped outside, I heard shouting, angry snarls, and shrieks, too many voices to count.

I hurried in the direction of the voices. If someone was hurt, maybe I could help. I turned the corner.

A mob had formed outside the gate that surrounded the lab, the warehouse, and a few other small buildings.

Axtin was walking away from the mob. His lip was bleeding, and there were a few cuts on his green skin, but he didn’t appear to be seriously injured.

At first, I felt only anger towards him, but then I heard some of the things the mob was yelling.

“Murderer!” ne of them screeched.

There were so many angry voices overlapping one another that it was hard to pick out specific words.

“Abomination.”

I was running to Axtin before I could stop myself.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He didn’t meet my gaze, but he nodded.

“Alien lover!” One of the mob members hissed.

“What the hell is your problem?” I demanded.

“Things like him are my problem!” yelled one of the men at the front of the group, short and stocky with an unkempt beard and an unstable gleam in his eyes.

“It’s their fault our city is destroyed. It’s their fault why so many humans died. They are a blight, and we need to wipe them out!”

His deliriously impassioned speech garnered cheers from his disturbed followers.

“You idiots, he and his men saved your pathetic asses,” I snapped. “The ones that did this are the gigantic crystal bugs. Even you simpletons can tell them apart.”

“An alien’s an alien,” one of the other supporters called. “We didn’t have any problems until they showed up.”

“Are you serious?” I laughed, throwing my head back. “Wasn’t a drug ring busted in this city last month? Pretty sure Duvest has the highest crime rate of all the settlements. And it’s not like humans have never destroyed their own world before. Oh wait, we destroyed Earth. Our own planet! So, don’t use my friends as a scapegoat for the fact that as a species, we were already pretty shitty!”

“I don’t have to take that from an alien’s whore!” The crazy-eyed man in front hissed before lobbing a rock in my direction.

His throw was pathetic. It landed three feet in front of me and five feet to the left.

“Big mistake, pal,” I snarled, anger flooding my veins.

I took a step forward, preparing to grab the rock and hurl it right back at them, when I felt a strong arm close around my waist.

“Easy there, feisty boots,” Axtin murmured in my ear.

I pushed against him. He was the last person I wanted to be touching me right now.

“You’re a tough little thing, but you can’t take on a whole mob. Let’s just go before we make things worse.”

“Let me go, or I’ll use the rock on your pretty face,” I spat.

“You think I’m pretty? How sweet of you to say,” he said, slowly starting to back us up.

“Bite me,” I snapped.

“You know I will,” Axtin growled.

Immediately, my body flushed with heat. I opened my mouth to fire off another insult but was cut off by the sound of sirens. Four personal hovercrafts sped around the corner and halted sharply between the mob and Axtin and me.

One of them scrambled to the ground and drew his blaster. I balked when he pointed it at Axtin.

“Let the girl go and come along with us,” he said.

His hand was shaking a little, and his voice lacked conviction. I doubted he’d ever fired that thing before. After the Xathi attack, I was sure a lot of the veteran officers didn’t make it.

Now rookies had to step up. Great.

“Is this whole town incompetent?” I sighed, wiggling free of Axtin’s grip.

Axtin lifted his hands in surrender, looking as annoyed as I felt.

“I’m with him, you inbreds.”

“How about you don’t insult the man with the blaster?” Axtin muttered to me.

I rolled my eyes at him, even though he was right.

The officer looked twitchy.

“Look,” I said in a much calmer tone, “Axtin and I are working together. It’s that mob you should be arresting. They attacked him. They threw rocks at me. All we are trying to do is help.”

Another officer stepped up. He looked older and considerably more experienced than the one with the blaster. He looked tired.

“Ma’am, you can’t blame these people for getting riled up when you bring someone like him into the city,” he explained as if I were a child.

“I brought him in so he can help me develop a weapon against the aliens that actually destroyed your lives,” I hissed. “It’s not my problem that those idiots are letting their baseless fears get the best of them. Axtin and his men are the reason any of you are alive right now.”

The second officer pressed his fingertips into the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath.

“Look, I can’t have this kind of unrest. Justified or not. I need you both to be out of the city by morning. Otherwise, it’ll just get worse.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but Axtin stopped me.

“Understood, officer,” he said. “Leena, come on. You’ve got more work to do.”

He gently gripped my upper arm and gave it a soft squeeze.

“Fine,” I muttered, throwing one more dirty look at the mob before letting Axtin lead me back to the lab.

Once we were out of sight, I yanked my arm out of Axtin’s grip.

“What the hell happened?” I demanded. “Are you sure I’m the one that needs the babysitter? It looks like you’re the one who needs looking after.”

Now that I was looking at him, I could see a patch of skin on his arm that looked like a chemical burn.

“I was ambushed,” he said with a shrug as if it was no big deal. “A woman sounded like she was injured, I went to help her, and then the mob sprung up around me.”

“You mean it was planned?” I asked.

“Definitely,” Axtin muttered. “They’ve probably been watching us since we got here. That officer is right. It’s best if we leave in the morning.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “All of those people survived the Xathi attack. They all saw the Xathi. Why would they think you’re a threat?”

“It’s normal in wartime,” Axtin said dismissively. “People are scared. People are angry. They’ll lash out at anything that is different, even if it’s not a threat. It’s an extreme method of self-preservation. They’re in full survival mode now.”

“No,” I said. “They are using this war as an excuse to become monsters.”

Without another word, I walked back into the building.