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“Or logical programming,” I added. “I don’t have to command every single comms cell to do a basic function. We’d be dead before we could accomplish any task if that’s how our bodies operated.”

“Did you command the pneumocytes in your lungs to perform gas exchange across the alveolar wall so you can breathe?” Lohr asked.

“Those cells are specialized to keep you alive—and your nervous system manages all of the individual functions across the trillions of cells without you even being aware of it. Our Sirian cells are even more specialized and powerful.”

“As soon as Axxol jumped and left us stranded, I shut the grid down,” I said.

“That’s our internal comms network, which connects us to the wider DSC grid.

As far as HQ knew in that moment, we were all dead.

They didn’t get the last of our transmitted feed, though I couldn’t be sure exactly how much got through until I analyzed the logs once we moved locations.

We followed Axxol for a while and then decided to split up. ”

“That doesn’t seem smart,” Snyder said. Though he paled when we all shot him narrowed looks. “I mean, why did you split up?”

“Because Axxol tore off my front limb,” Lohr replied in a mild tone.

Holly swallowed hard and pushed her plate toward the center of the table.

“Tasted like shit too.” Axxol blew out a rattling breath of annoyance. “I knew you could grow it back, and I needed to slow you down for a while. I wanted you to start thinking for yourselves. Come up with a new plan. It worked.”

“He got too close,” Natalie said, her voice rising with emotion. “He could track you, even without the grid. Proximity mattered.”

“True,” Lohr replied. “The closer I got to him, the easier it was for me to track him. But another squad wouldn’t be familiar with the subtleties of our squad’s behaviors, let alone the unique tang of Big Red’s scent.”

Axxol snarled, baring his teeth. “Are you saying I fucking stink?”

Lohr threw his head back and laughed, allowing his tongue to hang out several inches.

“Proximity,” Natalie repeated, her eyes bright with pent emotion.

Not excitement—alarm. “I think another squad could feel our nearness if they got close enough. Like a cold spot in a house that shouldn’t be there, or an intuitive gut reaction.

Like when I knew there was something terrifying out in the jungle, even though I couldn’t see it. ”

“Maybe,” Lohr said slowly, drawing out each syllable as he rolled his tongue back up into his mouth. “Perhaps an extrasensory perception can detect the presence of Sirian cells.”

“Or simply sense the energy other Sirian cells put off,” Snryx replied grimly. “We can’t mask our heat signatures.”

“Exactly,” I said, trying to ease our mate’s concern. “They can’t either. If there’s something for them to sense, then we’d sense them too before they got too close.”

She gnawed on her bottom lip. “We’re looking for them. We’re listening. Smelling.”

“Tasting,” Lohr added. “At least once a day, I walk away from the house and sample the air, ground, and surrounding flora to ensure nothing has passed close by.”

“We’re back to touch, then,” she said. “Or simply knowing. Intuition. Their Sirian cells…”

Her eyes widened, her words falling off into silence.

“Baby?” Kroktl asked. “What is it?”

“Hold on,” she whispered hoarsely, her eyes unfocused again. “I’m checking.”

I shifted my awareness to the grid, trying to catch an understanding of what she might be looking for. :May I help?:

:What does the grid look like to you? Can you show me?:

I brought up a giant view screen like a Jumbotron she would recognize from American sports, though it was split into many smaller windows.

With a thought, I could pull up Kroktl’s screen, for example, and see through his eyes.

His thoughts and outputs ran in a continuous stream across the bottom and top of his screen.

All the data his specialized eyes captured.

His speed, the length of his stride. Now that I focused on him, I could also feel the gnawing hunger deep in his gut.

He hadn’t enjoyed a fresh kill for nearly a month.

:Oh,: she said in a small voice. :You each take such good care of me, yet he’s been hungry for weeks and I didn’t even notice.:

Kroktl rubbed his cheek against the side of her arm. :I’m too busy feasting on you to worry about eating, baby. Don’t feel bad. I didn’t notice my hunger either. I’ll take care of it tonight.:

I pulled my awareness back a little, so I wasn’t connected to Kroktl’s senses as deeply. :This is only the first layer.:

:What do you mean?:

I allowed the Jumbotron to stretch up, down, and around me, infinite in all directions.

Voices talking over one another, radios, televisions, Internet chatter, satellites bouncing calls back and forth, the endless cacophony of billions of lives on Earth.

The dull roar of their Sun and the rumble of solar flares and storms. Waves of energy bouncing off the moon and back.

Stars exploding. Asteroids and comets blasting past. Freighters of all shapes and sizes zipping through the common shipping lanes between Andromeda, Draco, and Sirius, signaling one another as they passed.

Waves of energy all around, a tapestry of color and depth that only I could sense.

:It’s terrifying,: she whispered in my head. :But beautiful at the same time. How do you keep from getting lost in all the noise?:

I focused on the squad grid and all the noise went away to a dull rumble in the background.

Then deeper, I focused on her. Our mate.

The heart and soul and purpose of our squad now.

She wasn’t a view screen on the Jumbotron—but a pulsing, vibrant jewel suspended in velvety darkness.

Spinning slowly, the faceted sides flashed and sparkled with her own changing light, sometimes bright as her Sun, though now, she glowed soft, pearly lavender deepening toward ultraviolet at her core.

:That’s how you see me?:

:Absolutely.:

Suddenly, I was on her grid, seeing through her eyes, though I hadn’t made any attempt to touch her private mind space.

The universe stretched out toward infinity, always moving, sweeping us toward our destiny, even if we weren’t conscious of that movement.

Stars twinkled around us, some brighter and larger, sparking all the colors of the spectrum.

:The mrions told me those are other dyni squads .:

Dread spiked my ruff in sharp points around my throat, even while my designation reveled in such power. Immediately, I captured a screenshot of her viewpoint and started logging movements and estimating distances. :None are on Earth.:

:I know.:

But she didn’t sound relieved. Instead, the lacy sparkling web of her mind trembled.

I felt her skin beneath my hands. My arms slid around her shoulders, protecting her. Shielding her without even realizing I’d stepped closer to her. :What’s wrong?:

She pointed to a swirling dark mass moving across the glittering grid of space. I locked onto its location, already estimating its arrival to Earth. Hours, maybe a day, if it continued the same velocity and trajectory.

:A pod of Balaenoptera,: Lohr said on the grid. :How interesting. I’ve never seen them swim so quickly.:

:Look inside them,: Natalie whispered.

: It appears they’ve fed on something with unusual purple bioluminescence,: Lohr replied.

:It’s Myrm. I’m not sure if they’re fragments or full drones, like the one I saw in the cave.:

A single word echoed around the grid from all directions.

:Fuck.: