Page 59 of The First Spark (Dynasty of Fire #1)

The bridge of the Aquisian armada’s flagship, the Neptune , was eerily silent as it hurled towards the end of the stargate route.

Swallowing her rising panic, Kalie wiped the sweat from her brow.

They were as prepared as they could reasonably be.

Weapons were operational, communications were open with the other Aquisian fleets, and calculations were made for an emergency jump out of Dalian airspace.

But the last time she’d stood on the bridge of a flagship was the day Ariah died.

Screams rang in her memory, and she flinched, pushing away all thoughts of that night.

“Incoming message from the scout ship Artemis , sir.” The voice came from the pit where the communications officers were stationed.

Nadar, seated in the commander’s chair in the middle of the catwalk, flicked his webbed hand. “Put it through.”

A life-sized holoprojection of a green-scaled Aquisian man appeared in front of Nadar. “Three standard fleets on our end, sir. Two are Dalian.”

Kalie swallowed hard. Three fleets—three destroyers. A single Dalian destroyer was manned by a crew of nearly ten thousand, and there were two of them, not to mention the cruisers, the frigates, the corvettes… And Carik’s battleships, which were far larger and far more lethal.

Mira exhaled sharply. “So the Feds are already here.”

“And they only sent one fleet?” Zane’s suspicious voice startled her. He hadn’t spoken to her since Mira forced him to free her from that reckless oath.

Kalie didn’t turn from the metal ring looming at the end of the route.

Once they dropped through that stargate, Nadar’s four fleets would open fire on her people.

Two Dalian fleets was only half of Dali’s strength, and she’d known all along that she couldn’t count on the fleets from Oakwood, Shofield, or Stafford.

Only two of those three had mobilized—that was better than she could’ve hoped for.

The attack on Stafford must’ve succeeded.

Closing her eyes, Kalie breathed in the strong, pungent scent of metal. If all went according to plan, her people wouldn’t be harmed. “Does the radar give the flagships’ designations, officer?”

She didn’t need to ask—the Terra and the Scimitar , Oakwood and Shofield?—

“The Scimitar and the Halle .”

A pit plunged into Kalie’s stomach as she gaped at the Aquisian officer, silently pleading with him to deny it. He said nothing.

No. No.

“Isn’t that…” Zane trailed off, frowning at her.

“The Halle is Alexandria’s destroyer.” Kalie’s insides hollowed out, and she gripped the viewport’s railing for support. “That’s Julian up there, and the fleet from Shofield.”

“The Alexandrian fleet is there?” Nadar asked. “I thought you were positive they’d stand with you.”

I was , Kalie tried to say, but the words stuck in her throat. Nervous murmurs swept through the pits on either side of the catwalk.

“So Hewlett and Menliss’s fleets aren’t in the air yet.” Zane ran a hand over his face. “If Ryker’s not on your side, they might be staging a trap.”

“I’ll call Grant, see if he has any answers.” As Mira’s comm rang through the bridge, she flashed a strained smile.

“Princessa, we’re one minute from the drop, you need to make the decision now ?—”

Kalie doubled over the railing. Voices swirled behind her as Mira’s comm trilled, but her pulse pounded in her ears, drowning it out.

Her shallow, rapid breaths rattled in her chest. The stargate’s ring of metal loomed before her, blocking out the light of distant stars.

Beyond it, Dali appeared—a distant bulb of blue, with dark arrows blotting out the swirling oceans. So many ships. So many people.

“Grant’s not responding.”

“Forty seconds to drop?—”

“Princessa, you need to?—”

“Thirty seconds?—”

“It could be a trap, Kal.”

“Are you with me?” she asked, whirling on them. Her pulse was pounding too fast, and her mouth was dry as sandpaper. “Do I have your support?”

In the end, that was all that mattered.

Three faces stared back at her—Mira, with her silent comm clenched tightly in her grip. Nadar, whose gills rippled as his eyes met hers. Zane, pale and tense, but resolute.

“Until the end,” he murmured.

“Ten seconds!” the bridge officer shouted. “Princessa?—”

“Yes.” Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and faced the viewport. “Make the drop.”

As Nadar’s flagship shuddered through the stargate, the stretch of space between her fleets and the three orbiting Dali was eerily calm.

Standard fleets had thirteen ships—a destroyer, three cruisers, four frigates, and five corvettes.

Thirteen times three… thirty-nine ships stood between her and Dali.

Kalie closed her eyes, praying to Azura for strength and victory.

An officer appeared at her shoulder and tried to guide her to an open seat, but she shook him off and glanced at Nadar.

He nodded.

For Aunt Calida and Marcus, for Lexie and Ariah, for her family on Etov, for her people, slaughtered and oppressed—for all the innocents trampled under the Federation’s power, their fleet would fall today.

Tremors racked Kalie’s body as she roared, “Fire!”

Hundreds of cannons unleashed upon the shadowy Federation fleet, and the floor rumbled beneath Kalie’s boots.

Orange plumes burst along the flanks of the Aquisian ships.

Shrapnel exploded from a Federation corvette, and her knuckles turned white on the railing.

Deadly arcs of light painted the darkness, like a red storm on a black canvas.

She couldn’t blink if she tried; her eyes were stuck to Carik’s fleet. No forgiveness. No mercy.

Then the Dalian ships opened fire.

Their lasers pummeled the forcefield rippling before the viewport, and Kalie reeled back, her mouth flapping wordlessly.

Julian . She could barely think, barely breathe.

It was her coronation all over again.

Voices surged behind her as officers barked orders and demands, but blood thumped in her ears, drowning them out.

The temperature seemed to rise twenty degrees.

As she wiped sweat from her face and turned, the bridge was in chaos.

Runners bolted from one station to another.

Mira and Zane were roaring at a tech. Two bridge officers shouted at Nadar.

Kalie’s stomach shriveled, but now was not the time to panic. “We stick to the plan!”

The techs kept working at their stations, but the officers faced her. She steeled her spine and drew herself up to full height. Her heart raced, but she managed to keep her voice steady.

“Target Dalian offensive capabilities only. Destroy their cannons and their thrusters, but leave their oxygen tanks and life support systems intact.”

“Your Majesty,” protested the weapons officer, “they’re aiming to destroy?—”

“But they’re my people,” Kalie snapped, narrowing her eyes. “Use all force against the Federation, but aim to neutralize the Dalians, not destroy them. Are you still with me, Senator Nadar?”

Nadar rubbed his scaled forehead. “Yes, Princessa. Officers, follow the contingency protocol. The objective is to disable their offensive equipment and minimize the loss of Dalian lives. Understood?”

The officers nodded and barked orders at their techs.

Pressing her lips together, Kalie gave him a curt nod of gratitude. “Officer Lantis, patch me through to the Halle .”

“Your Majesty?”

She stared at the looming Alexandrian flagship, as if she could see through its thick metal hull and shatter-proof viewports, into the bridge where Julian undoubtedly stood—as if her gaze could cross the abyss between them, and meet the brown eyes she’d once drowned in.

“Open a transmission. I need to talk to them.”

Orders echoed down the length of the catwalk, and a camera drone circled around to face her. Clutching her wrists behind her back, Kalie stared into its shiny black lens. Sweat streaked down her face, leaving salty droplets on her lips.

“They didn’t accept the transmission!”

Kalie’s chest tightened. After everything they’d shared, after a decade of friendship and love… Julian would not fight for her.

Breathe .

She sucked in a hitching breath that smelled of metal and iron. “We stick to the plan,” she repeated, setting her jaw. She would do everything to avoid harming Julian and his crew, but they could not be allowed to continue fighting.

“Approval to deploy warplanes, Princessa?”

Kalie didn’t turn away from the viewport. “Target cannons and thrusters only.”

An army of warplanes shot from the hulls of Nadar’s destroyers. Blasts discharged from their cannons, racing towards the armada blockading Dali.

Kalie tapped her fingers against her wrist.

Julian had made his decision.

Jet-black planes spawned from the Federation’s ships, nearly invisible in the darkness of space. The planes collided in a jagged line of orange explosions, midway between the fleets.

“We’ve lost a corvette!” an Aquisian officer bellowed.

Kalie squeezed her eyes shut. How many dead? A thousand? More? It didn’t seem real—in the span of a moment, all those lives, gone. As she opened her eyes, taking in the maelstrom of shrapnel, the heavy weight of reality settled on her shoulders.

They’d died for her.

The air around her was hot and stifling.

Breathe. Breathe.

An explosion boomed. Someone screamed.

“We’re taking heavy fire!”

The anguished shout crackled through the comm channel, and a fist clenched around her heart. Flames engulfed an Aquisian cruiser as lasers pummeled the crumbling ship.

“Order an evacuation!” Nadar roared.

A scream tore through the comms, and Kalie’s mouth wrenched open as a team of Dalian warplanes flew past the wreckage of the Aquisian cruiser’s bridge. The ship caved in. A vacuum swirled in the ruins of the distant cruiser, tossing specks into space. People .

She couldn’t breathe.

“That’s it!” Nadar thundered. “All ships, open fire on the Dalian rebels!”