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“This is insufficient.”

Razili rolled her eyes. “Of course it’s insufficient. It’s barely a gram.”

“I need no less than five kilograms to manufacture and test a suitable delivery system.”

She spun from her microscope, fists clenched at her sides and took a deep breath.

She unclenched her jaw and stared at the handsome, infuriating, annoying Trelxak lurking in her lab’s doorway.

“I thought Trelxak were supposed to be intelligent. Capable of quick calculations and able to see multiple outcomes for any situation.”

His brows drew down. “That’s correct.”

She cocked a hip against her lab table. “So tell me, Calyx, why you insist on interrupting me several times a day to repeat the same information? Can you not deduce that your actions are, in fact, slowing my progress? That you are hindering the very outcome you wish?”

She smirked in satisfaction as his mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air. She watched as his spine stiffened, his lips thinned, and he gave a curt nod of his chin.

“I shall leave you to your work.”

“That would be a blessing.”

He hesitated, as if he might say more, but then turned and strode out of sight. Razili sighed. Calyx had become a thorn in her side since his assignment to create the delivery system for the Scozid neutralizer she was synthesizing.

She rubbed at her eyes before fitting them into their familiar spots on the eyepieces. The microscope—and the lab surrounding it—were top of the line Denchui tech. Light years beyond what she’d had on Earth. Literally.

Being flung across the universe had been a blessing in disguise.

Instead of a middling chemist doing rote experiments on the United Nations space station Shangris , she was at the forefront of her field.

Earth bound chemists begged for a position in her lab, the stack of applications having grown to precarious dimensions.

Uv’ex, a lovely Chaiteals male who’d served as her mentor on Ladegantu, encouraged her to choose several but the idea overwhelmed her so the pile sat untouched.

As the Scozid threat grew nearer, the Ka’atari had moved their females, young, and elderly—along with the human survivors, their rhun mates and children—to a secure planet named Corix 23.

A fully stocked and equipped lab was waiting for Razili.

She remained largely confined inside the sterile walls, not leaving for more than an hour here and there since.

And those only when one of the other humans forced her to take a break.

She was well aware of what rode on her shoulders.

The ability to defeat an advanced race set on universal domination. A race with no qualms against using other beings in horrible experiments, torturing innocents, and the wholesale destruction of planets.

The Scozid were planning to attack Denchui space, putting everyone at risk. The compound resting on a slide under her microscope neutralized their technology. In effect, when it touched a piece of Scozid tech, it turned that tech into a paperweight.

Another of the humans had stumbled across it, and made her swear to keep its origin secret.

The compound was gruthji saliva. The large, horned animals were sentient, and one had befriended Gabriella.

The gruthji had suffered at the hands of both alliance and Scozid alike.

Razili would not be party to any further mistreatment.

The very idea of harming an animal in the name of science—or for any other reason—made her stomach twist.

There was no way to harvest a large enough amount from the animals without causing immense harm, so she had to figure out a way to synthesize it.

The issue was quasarase, a protein enzyme that worked like kallikrein in human saliva, only instead of producing a vasodilator, it produced a conductor dilator, shutting down a particular piece of technology’s ability to create, store, or share any type of information.

In amateur terms, the ones and zeros just stopped when applied to the type of biomechanical technology the Scozid used.

Quasarase proved difficult to synthesize, and efforts at replication were tedious. Instead of a normal carbon-based chain, quasarase was a mix of carbon and silicate chains woven intricately together. One wrong bond and the entire thing fell apart.

Razili adjusted the microscope’s fine focus and cursed. The slide revealed her latest attempt fractured. She yanked it from the stage clips and threw it into the trash. It clinked against the fifty or so slides holding previous attempts with the same outcome.

She was missing something. She needed a fresh approach. She reached over and tapped her tablet, pressing the button to connect to Uv’ex’s lab on Ladegantu.

“Razili! So nice to see you.”

She smiled and felt her shoulders melt a fraction away from her ears. “Uv’ex, I need your help. I’m trying to synthesize this compound, but the bond is a complicated mash of carbon and silicate. Everything I’ve tried so far has failed to hold.”

He pressed a slender finger to his chin, two of his four eyes closing in thought. “Carbon and silicate, you say?”

She nodded.

His mouth popped open and he spun to a large monitor at the back of the room. His fingers flew across the screen, too fast for Razili to comprehend what he was doing. A few seconds later, the image of a planet shrouded in purple clouds zoomed to the forefront.

“You may find something of use here, on Dunia Prime.”

Razili leaned forward as if she could get a better view. “Where is it?”

Uv’ex faced her with a frown. “On the edge of Scozid space. Few alliance scientists have been there, but those who have reported most of the native flora and fauna have evolved to have woven carbon and silicate chains.”

“That’s perfect! I’ll go right away.”

Uv’ex shook his head. “I can’t advise that, Razili. You may get a Ka’atari to make the trip and bring back samples, but you shouldn’t go there. It’s too close to the Scozid homeworld, and with the threat heightened, I worry for your safety.”

“I’ll speak to them.” She had no intention of being left behind. This was too important. What if they brought back the wrong thing? Or nothing useable? No, she had to go.

The thought made her want to vomit.

The Scozid race was technologically superior, but they had gained that technological knowledge by enslaving, torturing, and altering whatever they saw fit.

They had no morals and no empathy. They were criminal psychopaths on a galactic scale.

She’d seen first-hand the effects of their cruelty.

Death was a far better option than falling into Scozid hands.

If this compound weren’t their best defense—their only defense—against them, she wouldn’t even consider the risk.

She thanked her friend and colleague and then cut the connection. No one had ever thought of Razili as bold or forward, and the idea of asking the Ka’atari to take her to Dunia Prime gave her pause. She worried her lip with her teeth and then straightened her spine with a snap.

She couldn’t be a wimp. Not in this case.

She put her big girl pants on and went in search of Rahel.

As an elder Ka’atari on Corix 23, he had the authority to greenlight her mission, but more importantly, he was kind to Razili, and she could speak to him more easily than some of the other, more intimidating warriors.

Calyx hadn’t gone far when Razili dismissed him from her lab. The effects of rhun wouldn’t let him. Even now his naturally hot body rose in temperature. He would strip out of his pants, but the chemist was uncomfortable with nakedness, so he endured.

Her logic was sound. She couldn’t very well complete her task with his constant interruptions.

He had tried offering her food or drink when she remained in her lab for long hours, but that was a disaster.

Walking into her lab with a full tray of offerings, she had yelled at him to leave immediately, before he compromised her samples.

That’s when he resorted to mission-only conversations, which clearly weren’t working either.

He needed a new excuse to stay nearby. As long as he could smell her, he could keep rhun at bay. He hoped she’d feel it soon, but it was clear she remained unaffected.

That he annoyed her was also clear.

He refused to pressure her, so he kept the reason for his constant presence to himself. His nanites may be screaming at him to fulfill rhun , but he remained in control—for now.

Eventually, his control would slip, but he would tell her well before that happened.

He heard the click of her heels on the floor before watching her rush through the door and down the hall. He followed her, keeping a reasonable distance in case she turned and caught him. He needn’t have worried; she never looked back.

She ducked into the elder’s hall and came right back out.

Then she checked the mess hall. Whatever, or whoever, she sought wasn’t there either.

His heart skipped a beat. What if she was looking for him?

That was a high probability, but not a certainty.

He was contemplating the pros and cons of revealing himself when she turned and her eyes snagged on him.

“Calyx, have you seen Rahel?”

He refused to acknowledge the disappointment that flooded his body. “I have not.”

She sagged and it took all his strength not to reach out and comfort her.

“The elders usually gather in the recreation area at this time of day.”

She perked up and gave him a smile that stunned him for several seconds. He registered her call of “Thanks!” thrown over her shoulder as she hurried away. He had to jog to catch up to her. When he entered the rec room, she was already deep in conversation with the elder.

Her hands alternated between being clasped in front of her and smoothing the front of her garment. She spoke too softly for him to overhear their conversation, but he could see the Azar getting agitated. As his volume increased, Razili shrank.

Rahel roared, “No!”