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The determination in her voice brooked no argument, but I sensed that there was also fear. Not of what might lay ahead, but of being left alone.

“Stay close," I conceded, drawing my blaster. "And if I tell you to run, you run. Understand?"

She nodded, her own weapon already in hand.

We advanced slowly through the mist, every sense straining for any hint of our companions or their attackers. The marsh had gone eerily quiet. There was no sound of struggle, no voices, not even the ambient noises of the marsh that had surrounded us earlier.

Then a faint hum penetrated the silence, growing steadily louder. Something was approaching from above.

I tilted my head upward just as a shaft of sickly yellow light cut through the mist, illuminating particles of dust and spores thatdrifted in the alien air. The underside of a ship became visible. Even though such a swift rescue wasn’t possible, my heart illogical leapt. Then sank.

It wasn’t Drexian. It was unmistakably Kronock. The gray, scaly hull resembled the hide of its reptilian creators, its angles sharp and aggressive.

"Down!" I hissed, pulling Morgan flat against the soggy ground.

From our position, I could just make out something that made my stomach clench. Our companions were being pulled upward in the yellow light, their bodies limp and unresisting.

The beam retracted, the ship's belly closing around our friends like some monstrous predator swallowing its prey. Then, with a surge of engines that scattered the mist in concentric ripples, the vessel banked sharply and accelerated away, flying so low its wake roiled the surface of the marsh.

"They took them," Morgan stammered. "How did they find us so fast?"

I pushed myself up onto my knees, tracking the ship's trajectory until it disappeared. “We didn’t slip in unnoticed. When we crashed, they must have sent sentries to investigate." My mind was already calculating, analyzing the ship's design and direction. "That was a patrol vessel, not a long-range transport. They're taking them somewhere nearby."

"The prison complex," Morgan whispered, her strategic mind reaching the same conclusion I had.

I nodded, turning to find her fighting back tears, her chest rising and falling too rapidly in the thin atmosphere.

"We're going to find them," I assured her, gripping her shoulders lightly. "The Kronock have just done us a favor. They've taken our companions right where we needed to go and where my brother and Sasha are most likely being held."

She met my eyes, her own filled with doubt that she was trying valiantly to suppress. "You think the two of us can rescue them all? Against all the Kronock inside the prison?”

I refused to let my own doubts show on my face. Shadow training had taught me that confidence, even if it was fake, was often the difference between success and failure.

"We can," I said firmly. "We will."

"Because you're a Shadow and you're used to missions like this?" she asked, a note of desperate hope in her voice.

The truth was, I'd never faced anything like this before. Shadows operated in stealth and subterfuge, focusing on the gathering and manipulation of information. We weren't assault troops or extraction specialists. But what choice did we have? I would have to use my skills as best as I could to sneak into the prison and sneak our people out.

"Yes," I lied. “I’ve trained for this.”

She straightened, drawing strength from my false certainty. "Then you can teach me what you know, so we can save them together.”

I had neither the time nor the authorization to teach Morgan any Shadow skills, but I found myself unable to refuse. We needed each other now, more than ever.

“Just follow my lead.” I turned away before she could see the conflict in my eyes, my gaze fixing on the direction the ship had disappeared.

Was I making the greatest mistake of my life or the smartest tactical play possible? Would Morgan thank me or curse me for it?

I would find out soon enough.

Morgan

What was I doing here?This had been a mistake. I was a Strategist, trained to analyze maps and battle plans from the safety of a command center, not to trudge through alien swamps on rescue missions. My place was behind a tactical display, not in the field where my inexperience could get someone killed. I gulped. Could get Tivek killed.

I stole a glance at his back as he moved ahead of me. He was so composed and so in control despite our dire situation. There was much more to the admiral's adjunct than anyone at the academy had suspected, me included.

What would it be like to be a Shadow? To move through the world unseen by design? There was something thrilling about the idea, something exotic and mysterious that appealed to the part of me that had always felt like an outsider.