K’vyn thought he’d seen everything in his lifetime.
“I was hoping to find Mogha from there,” Dani said. “So I can return C’hase to his kind.”
Alarm coursed through his veins.
“You cannot deny a mogha its master companion,” he said. “You are alpha for life. C’hase must stay with you.”
For life? Dani sat on the bridge of her ship, feet propped on the console in front of her, playing the conversation with K’vyn over in her mind. She couldn’t imagine living without C’hase, but didn’t he belong with his kind?
I belong with you, the mogha’s young voice sounded in her mind. I go where you go.
Could she keep the hellhound? She thought once she found the mogha home world, she’d be saying goodbye to C’hase.
Images of hiding him under her bed on the space station flashed through her mind. That wasn’t exactly a sustainable option.
And she didn’t tell K’vyn everything either. She had to warn the moghas. A human fleet was preparing to invade their system and terraform their world for a new colony.
Looking at her freighter, there was no way her ship was getting off this planet, but— Turning her gaze across the field of popsies, she eyed the advanced Korthan vessel.
Could she trust the Korthan? Did she have a choice?
You can trust him, C’hase’s voice sounded again.
But, why couldn’t the new colony just settle on this world? Could she tell the Human Colony Alliance about this planet? Would they lighten her sentence if she did?
The comm squelched and Dani pulled her feet from the console, stomping down on the flooring with a thud as she leaned forward, turning a knob to clear out the static.
“The fugitive crashed on an uncharted world in the Mogha system,” a voice said over the comm.
The Mogha system? Was it possible that she was already that close to finding Mogha?
“Any survivors?” another voice said, authoritative.
“Unknown.”
“Proceed as planned,” the authority said. “Double back for the fugitive once the objective is complete.”
Oh, no, they were moving now. How far away was Mogha?
“We will hit the Korthans where it hurts,” the first voice said.
Hit the Korthans where it hurts?
An image of the soft expression on K’vyn’s face as he watched C’hase flitted through her mind. And what he told her about his desire to have a mogha companion of his own, that all Korthans possessed this desire—
Dani’s blood froze, stomach dropping in dread. A colony wouldn’t be placed on Paradise, because the humans wanted to terraform Mogha next, to cause as much pain to the Korthans as possible.
Stars, she had to tell K’vyn. He probably even knew exactly where Mogha was.
Standing next to his ship, K’vyn’s heart dropped as Dani raced from her freighter, crossing the field of popsies straight at him. Was she hurt? Was C’hase hurt? Her frantic emotions hit him across the chest.
“They’re moving now,” she was yelling, words coming out in a panting holler as her legs swiftly carried her in long strides over the flowers.
What? Who?
Searching the sky for hellbats, K’vyn pulled his knife. But no dark clouds were rolling in, the telltale sign of the beasts’ arrival nowhere to be seen.
Replacing the knife back in his belt, the woman was at his side in the next instant.
“They’re moving now,” Dani said again, gulping in a breath, hands gripping her waist. “We’re running out of time.”
Brow furrowing, K’vyn said, “I don’t understand.”
“The Human Colony Alliance,” she paced in front of him. “They’re on their way to terraform Mogha.”
Face falling, the whole of his insides flushed downwards as time suddenly stood still.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” he heard himself say, his very voice sounding as if someone else were speaking the words.
“You shot down my ship,” Dani said. “I didn’t know if I could trust you.”
“The molk crashed your ship,” he corrected.
“Shooting at me didn’t help,” she retorted.
The world around him sped back up in a rush. No time to discuss the details of the reality of how her piece-of-molk-dung freighter fell from the sky, he turned to his ship.
“L’iza, ramp,” he commanded and bound up the ramp that materialized in front of him, leaving the human standing there with her mouth hanging open.
The ramp of the Korthan ship appeared step by step as it did when Dani first saw the warrior.
Closing her jaw as K’vyn ran up, disappearing into the confines of his ship, her heart stopped as an orange and gray blur brushed by her legs, racing up the ramp.
“C’hase,” she called. “No!”
She froze as the pup went out of sight. Dammit—
Waiting a full minute, she peered into the ship as best she could.
C’hase, she projected her thoughts. Come back.
Without warning, the ramp completely dissipated at once, hatch where the top previously entered clanging shut with a whoosh of hydraulics.
Dani’s heart pounded in her ears. C’hase!
Four holo-projections stood before him as K’vyn clasped his hands behind his back.
“Are you certain?” A’ryk Chiste, Death Angel of the Korthan Cyborg Corps, said, projection on the right. “A move on Mogha would mean all-out war.”
Humans only believed they were at war with the Korthans. Numerous scout ships ran interference to divert humans from inhabited worlds, ran blockades. Troops occasionally clashed in bloody battles. Fighters clashed in vicious dogfights—
In terraforming Mogha, the humans would learn what war with the Korthans was really like.
“I am certain,” K’vyn said. “Their location is unknown, but an Invader fleet is heading towards the planet as we speak.”
A’ryk’s frown deepened, the other projections shifting on their feet. “How did they find it?”
The best defense the Korthans had against Invader terraforming was in simply hiding the locations of worlds. From early contact with humans, even at the height of cooperation and good will, the Korthans kept key worlds a secret. K’vyn wasn’t sure he wanted to know how they found the location of Mogha.
“We will discuss the possibilities at a future time,” the delegate from Korth said, projection on the left. “For now, the Korthan Citizen Warrior Brigade will arrive in two days.”
“The Death Angels are enroute,” A’ryk said. “But I’m in the Zeta System. I won’t make it in two days.”
“The Galaxy Ship will protect her Korthan and mogha allies,” Captain K’ursick, second from the right, said.
“The Korthan Cyborg Corps will arrive on the Galaxy Ship,” L’den said, second from the left.
“This will be a rescue mission,” the delegate said. “Unless the Death Angels have figured out how to detect which Invader ship carries the seed torpedo?”
A’ryk’s lip curled as the delegate looked at him. “There isn’t any one ship that carries the seed. They switch it up each time. We won’t know until the torpedo is launched.”