The shuttle’s alarm tore me out of the vision like a knife through silk. Stars, halos, Nancy’s crimson glow—they all vanished, replaced by the monstrous outline filling our forward display.The armada.It wasn’t a fleet in any human sense. It was a new sky, a living continent drifting across the void. Bioships the size of moons stirred awake, billions of lights sparking to life like a neural net firing. The sight hollowed me. Everything we’d just fought for felt like a child’s skirmish in the shadow of a tidal wave.I dropped into a jump seat, my throat raw. “It’s over,” I said, the words tasting of ash. “We won a skirmish, and now the whole ocean is here.”Ka’ri didn’t flinch. She was at the console, her hands dancing across alien keys, her gaze locked not on the armada but on the vitals scrolling across Nancy’s cot. The crimson glow pulsing in Rachel’s veins reflected off her face.“The signal’s still there,” Ka’ri muttered, teeth clenched. “Her consciousness… it’s like a severed co

I sat at the console longer than I should have, fingers poised but not pressing. The message would go out soon—Mars Command needed to know the outcome. Officially, we had achieved a “successful tactical victory.” That part was true. The rest—the depth of what we had captured, the implications of Rachel’s connection, the fragile, desperate intelligence trapped in steel and sedation—was a truth I could not yet reveal.I typed carefully, deliberately.“Specimen contained. Mission objectives fulfilled. Recommend immediate human consolidation.”No mention of its origin. No mention of its pain, or the fact that our victory was a misread of desperation. The broadcast went out, coded as top-priority. On Mars, I knew ǂGao and Da’kar would receive it in seconds.On the red sands of Mars, Elder ǂGao read the report first. Relief flickered across his face, but only for a moment. The text was vague, incomplete. His fingers tapped the console sharply, summoning Da’kar. The younger officer’s brow fu