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Like Marcel did, I try to make idle conversation out loud, to mask the impression that the Aurelians and I might be communicating telepathically.

“Be careful,” I urge them – and that part I mean. “Come back soon. I hate being on the ship alone.”

Lucius grins, looking so cocky and relaxed on the surface. Inside, though, he’s in turmoil.

“Miss us already?”

Then, Lucius’srealvoice sounds in my mind.

Captain Aelon. He hates Toads. He’s got a warship and a battle-ready fleet, but convincing him will cost us our stake in Atlantis.

I realize my triad have only one thing to bargain with – the future they were planning to create. The one place in the universe that would be safe from the coming storm.

All this time, they’ve been breaking Aurelian law to buy into the man-made paradise – but they’re going to have to give it up for a chance to save me.

I swallow, my mouth dry.

A war-ship isn’t a rescue mission, either – it’s a full-fledged war. It could trigger a galactic conflict that would plunge the universe into chaos.

Quint paces the kitchen, speaking more than I’d ever heard him do before.

“We could cut the travel time in half by going through the meteor shower. I say we risk it.”

It’s strange to hear him speak, while hearing a different message inside my head.

We should Orb-Shift in ourselves. If we only had the coordinates! The Orb-Ring cuts us off from feeling you. It cuts us off from being able to shift directly to you.

He’d Orb-Shift in.

Orb-Shifting used to be the fastest way of travel. Now, you’d have to rely on a captain with a death wish to take the risk.

In recent years, more and more ships wink out of existence – and then, they don’t phase back in. Wherever you go when the Orb-Shift winks you out of existence claims you – never to return.

It’s made even the most intrepid of former starship captains give up the convenience of Orb-Shifting altogether.

My heart beats like a drum as I imagine what could happen if the void claimed Marcel, Quint, and Lucius – but then, my heart stops as I think of the consequences if itdoesn’t.

I imagine their little Reaver appearing out of nowhere – to face down the massive Toad mothership all alone.

It would be a tiny little fly against a gigantic monstrosity.

In real life, Goliath always wins. It would be no different with three men facing thousands.

That’s if my triad evensurvivedthe shift in. They could just wink out of existence, their auras disappearing from my mind – and never return.

As if it might be for the last time, I reach out with my aura to drink in the three essences of my triad. I sample each one, and then the cocktail of all three. Each so different, yet so similar – all brave and facing the greatest stress they’ve ever met.

Soon, Oblog will force the ring back on my finger and I’ll be alone in my mind again.

I take pleasure in our connection while I can.

As I stand there, I see Marcel fingering his Orb-Blade. He’s aching for a fight. Telepathically, he demands:

How certain are you that Oblog means to execute us?

Execute us.

He talks so plainly about our life and death. Marcel would wield the executioner’s axe, or face his own execution, with equal bravery. He’s a commander – a leader – and where Quint and Lucius have stressed auras, like caged animals, he’s found his calm within the chaos.