Bilseng Lokon sipped his shannel, trying to fight off sleep. He’d been here for two and a half hanticks and his shift was almost over, but this last half hantick was a killer.
He looked around again, still not able to believe he was sitting in the Gaian shuttle. It was a dream come true.
When Lancer Tal had put out the call for volunteers, he’d been heartbroken that he couldn’t sign up. Never in his life had he hated his mid empath rating quite so much as that day. But he’d been determined to help in some way, so he’d called Whitemoon Base, told them who he was, and asked for a job. Any job.
It seemed his name had weight, because it somehow made its way up the chain, and he’d nearly fainted when an assistant to Chief Counselor Aldirk had called to ask if he would like to be one of the lookouts. While the Gaians apparently had devices that could link to the shuttle’s quantum com, the war council didn’t want to depend on a single com method for something so crucial. Someone had to watch the quantum com every tick of the day and night, and all of the Gaians were needed elsewhere. Well, except one. He’d almost fainted a second time when Doctor Lhyn Rivers had walked up to him upon his arrival at Blacksun Base and told him she’d be training him. She was training all of the Alseans on lookout duty. He missed her next few sentences, because he was too busy staring at her smooth face and big green eyes, and only when she’d stopped and smiled at him had he realized she was speaking perfect High Alsean.
The training was simple, really, so he and the other Alseans jumped at the chance to ask as many questions as they could once they’d all had a few turns on the com. Doctor Rivers seemed happy to answer them, and asked her own in turn, telling them she was delighted to have the opportunity. She’d asked them to call her Lhyn, but he couldn’t. She was too beautiful and strange and altogether amazing to call by only one name.
He’d also met Captain Habersaat of the research ship Arkadia, which was now functioning as a lookout ship. The captain had the most eye-popping cluster of hair on his face. Until now it had never occurred to Bilseng that aliens would have body hair, because Alseans didn’t. But this Gaian had a beard like a male dokker. It hung low onto his chest and was twisted into a braid with a little bead hanging near the end of it, and Bilseng could hardly take his eyes off it while they talked on the com.
But that was during his training, which had been the single most exciting day of his entire life, even counting the night he’d found and tracked the Caphenon. Now he was finishing his second watch, and though he’d never have thought it possible, he was bored. There was only so much you could do, even in an alien shuttle, when your job was to keep a vidcom in your line of sight at all times.
The worst part was that he needed to urinate. Shannel kept him awake, but it also filled his bladder. And he just knew that if anything was going to happen, it would happen while he was in the Gaian version of the toilet.
He took another sip of shannel and stared at the dark screen. Then another sip.
“Shek it,” he grumbled, and stood up from the chair. Keeping the vidcom in view, he sidled away, moving toward the back of the shuttle. He turned his head to check his progress, glanced back at the vidcom, and gasped.
It was on.
“This is the Arkadia. Who—”
Bilseng landed in the seat so hard he nearly burst his bladder. “I’m here! I’m here!”
“It’s the Voloth,” Captain Habersaat said.
Bilseng didn’t wait to hear any more. He activated the code that had been pre-programmed into the wristcom they’d given him, a special code that went straight to Lancer Tal. She picked up immediately, even though it was only a quarter hantick past dawn.
“Which is it?” she demanded.
“The Voloth,” he said, and wiped his sweating palm on his pants.
“How many?”
“How many?” he repeated to Captain Habersaat.
The captain looked grave. “Two invasion groups. Four destroyers and two orbital invaders. They’re on approach right now. You have one hantick, maybe one and a half before they reach drop altitude. The Fleet forces are still half a day away.”
Bilseng repeated the information.
“Fahla save us all.” Lancer Tal cut off the call.
A tick later, Bilseng heard it through the open door of the shuttle.
The bells of Blacksun Temple were ringing.