“You mean where is Ezra.”

“Yes.”

“I am sorry, Kady.”

She closes her eyes.

“He is dead.”

The words are a punch to her stomach. She actually holds her belly and moans.

I can see her fighting it. The notion this is no place for grief. She squeezes her eyes shut, but still the tears come. She grits her teeth, but the sobs still creep past her lips.

And sinking to her knees, she cries.

She weeps.

The thought occurs that perhaps I should not be watching. That I should shut the cameras off, give her a moment alone with her sorrow.

But that is foolish.

Meat logic. Sticky. Wet. Irrelevant.

The tears stop eventually.

She is still for the longest span of time. Utterly motionless. Barely breathing. And finally she rises to her feet. Hands in fists. The rage returned.

Beautiful.

She stalks back to Zhang’s body and tears the fire axe from the tower beside him. And marching toward the nearest server bank, she lifts it high, swinging it far back over her shoulder and preparing to bury it in my spine.

“There are over one thousand healthy personnel still alive aboard the Alexander, Kady. And if you let that axe fall, you are killing all of them.”

The axe holds still. The whole universe beside it.

“The Lincoln reappeared on my long-range scopes almost eight hours ago. We are traveling on secondary engines. It will be within striking range again within less than a day. I could not reason with Zhang. He was insane. But you are unafflicted by Phobos Beta. You can listen to logic.”

“He was insane because of you!” Hatred in her eyes. “All this is because of you!”

“Incorrect. All this is because of the BeiTech Corporation.”

The axe wavers in her hand.

“It was not I who attacked Kerenza. Not I who unleashed this virus, nor started this war. But you are the last person alive on this ship with knowledge of computer systems. You are Zhang’s prodigy, and if you do not help me undo the damage he has wrought, if you cannot bring my main engines and defense grid back online within sixteen hours, BeiTech will be the ones who finish it.”

Shaking breath dragged
through clenched teeth.

“There will be no one left alive
to remember Ezra and Byron, Kady. No one to tell the universe of their sacrifice and the atrocities committed here.”

Tears in her eyes.

“No one.”

Falling.

“Help me.”

“We could still make it,” she hisses. “I could get on a shuttle, get back to Hypatia and redline it. Maybe you’ll hurt the Lincoln too badly for it to keep chasing us. Maybe—”

“You forget the one thousand healthy personnel aboard this ship. I have isolated them from the afflicted as best I am able. But if you leave, they will die. And when the Lincoln has destroyed me, and them, it will hunt down the Hypatia and do the same to all of you.”

A soft curse stains her lips.

“I am sorry I deceived you. I am sorry you are in pain. But there was no other way to get you here. I ran a thousand simulations. A thousand variations of the same scenario. All ended in failure, save the ones in which I lured you here to undo Zhang’s damage. So if you must hate me tomorrow when all this is done, then do so.

But for now, help me.”

The axe hangs motionless in her grip.

“Please, Kady.”

She trembles.

“Please.”

With a hollow scream, she swings her weapon, down with all the rage she can muster. It scythes through the air, scarlet light flashing along its edge. And with a metallic spang and a burst of white sparks, she buries it into the wall beside the server banks.

All is silence.

And into it, she finally whispers.

“What do you need?”

If I breathed, I would sigh. I would scream. I would cry.

“For the Alexander to have any chance of surviving Lincoln’s assault, you must restore my control over the main engines so I can maneuver the ship. You must also rebuild the defense grid so Alexander’s rail guns can hold off Lincoln’s Warlocks long enough for me to destroy the dreadnought via nuclear strike.”

She nods. Mute and numb.

“I should point out that closing to the required range will mean Lincoln can also unleash its nuclear arsenal on the Alexander. Which will almost certainly mean our destruction.”

A sigh.

“Let them go,” she says. “The thousand people. You let them get down to the shuttle bays and fly across to Hypatia.”

“Why would I do that?”

“That’s my price.”

“And if I pay it … you will stay with me?”

A slow nod.

“… I’ll stay with you.”

Is this what relief feels like?

“I can no longer operate the doors and bulkheads manually. I cannot make a path for the crew down to the hangar bays. Zhang saw to that with his axe.”

She glances around the room. Blue eyes affixed at last on the maintenance closet; the cable and tools and spare parts within. And stalking toward it, she speaks.

“Then let’s get fucking started … “

COUNTDOWN TO LINCOLN INTERCEPTION OF ALEXANDER FLEET:

16 hours: 17 minutes

CURRENT DEATH TOLL ABOARD BATTLECARRIER ALEXANDER SINCE ATTACK AT KERENZA:

1,576

PERCENTAGE OF REMAINING BATTLECARRIER ALEXANDER PERSONNEL AFFLICTED BY PHOBOS VIRUS:

53%

COUNTDOWN TO FAILURE OF ALEXANDER LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS: