I LET LEGION TAKE THE lead as we stepped into the hall. Say what you wanted about them, they were good. Professional. They’d lost two teammates in as many hours, but you’d never know it by Priya’s and Hallam’s expressions. Matt hadn’t quite mastered their inhumanity, and twitches of emotion kept clawing their way into his eyes, but he resolutely stanched them. Trying to live up to his new friends, muttered a sarcastic voice inside my head.
Hallam crept into the hall first, big gun at the ready. He glanced both ways. “Clear,” he whispered.
We followed. Finn’s body was nowhere to be seen, but a massive splotch of red marked where he’d fallen. I tried not to stare.
The aliens had left the bodies where they’d dropped in the command center. Why drag Finn away? He was an anomaly, of course. Maybe they continued to harvest after all? But even as the thought occurred to me, I dismissed it. Anomaly or not, no way Finn had survived four sharp blades through the chest. His lungs, his heart, all must have punctured instantly. They’d taken the body for some other reason, even if only to mess with us. Had they done the same to the bodies on Obsidian? Or were they piled together somewhere like the command center, someplace they’d thought was safe and gathered for protection? I shuddered at the thought.
Priya and Hallam ducked into the medical center we’d recently cleared, swinging their lights around before leading us in. The alien bodies remained motionless on the floor. “Looks clear,” Priya whispered. “But no guarantee it’ll stay that way. Keep close. Hallam, grab a med kit from the cupboard, just in case we need it before we find the healer.”
Hallam had given me a shoulder light like the ones Legion wore. Strapping it to my body left my hands free to hold the laser rifle. I gripped it tightly, terrified of dropping it. More terrified of having to use it, in spite of my new resolve. Matt lingered behind me, and I was very conscious of his gaze.
We advanced carefully through the facility, no aliens in sight. Where were they? They must have known we’d gone into the holding cells, but they hadn’t followed us. Because the holding cells were reinforced more strongly than the rest of the ship? Because we didn’t represent enough of a threat? Or because something had distracted them?
My feet itched to run, but I let Hallam and Priya set the pace. They moved as silently as Mia, their training impeccable and absolute. I glanced at Matt. “Hey,” I whispered, barely more than a breath. It was still enough to earn me a glare from Hallam.
Matt hesitated, then drew a bit closer. “What?” he mouthed, his expression not inviting confidence.
I lowered my voice even further. “I’m starting to understand things a bit better. None of us are in normal circumstances. So, whatever Legion did to you, whatever Omnistellar did to you, I just want you to know that I forgive you for turning on us.”
He gaped at me in disbelief. “You . . . forgive me?”
“Yup.” I forced a smile. “I’m not blaming you or saying we didn’t deserve it. I’m just saying that I get it. You made a choice. You protected your family. You survived.”
Matt scrubbed a hand over his face. “They ripped me apart, Kenzie,” he said quietly. “In just a few weeks they dismantled my body and my mind. I was unconscious until a day before we arrived at Obsidian. I hardly know what happened. But when I woke up, all I could remember was that sense of betrayal . . . and Legion. Somehow, they’d been fused in my head. I know it’s not real. I know I’ve only known them for a few hours. But . . .”
I nodded. “That’s how Omnistellar works. They need you loyal, so they go into your brain and make you that way. Just be glad they didn’t make you loyal to them.”
He met my gaze, his eyes wide and wounded, for the first time without even a trace of anger. “Why didn’t they?”
“I don’t know. Not enough time, maybe? Too much of a stretch? They needed the others physically present to bind you? We can ask Priya about it later.”
“We?”
I shrugged. “If you want. You’re not on your own, Matt. You don’t have to forgive us. You don’t even have to like us. But if you need us, we’ll be here for you.”
“Look, let’s just . . . let’s get through this, okay?” He bit his lip, clearly shaken, and something in me jostled loose. Whatever Omnistellar had done to him, they hadn’t destroyed him. And that meant that neither had I. “We can talk about it on the other side.”
I appreciated his confidence that there would be another side. “Deal.”
“Will you two shut up?” hissed Priya over her shoulder.
We shut up. But I felt better. Whatever happened, whatever he’d been through, the Matt I knew lingered beneath the new facade. It gave me hope that everything would be okay, that we’d find the others, save my dad, get off this ship alive. How, I didn’t know. There had to be shuttles. Where had the aliens come in? Maybe we could escape the same way.
We reached the opposite side of the med facility without incident. Priya and Hallam carefully eased the door open and, finding the hall empty, beckoned us through. All four of us crowded onto the circular lift, although Hallam had to lean against Priya and angle his gun upward to make it fit inside the tube. We ascended in the same total silence, even without risk of the aliens hearing us. In the enclosed space, our lights seemed intensely bright. I closed my eyes against them, not wanting to have to readjust to the darkness when we arrived at the top.
The disc settled into place, and I opened my eyes. The upper corridor looked exactly as I’d left it. “Where’s the armory?” Priya murmured.
“Opposite corner.” As far from us as possible. “My dad’s in an office right down the hall.” I knew we needed to get to Reed fast, but it had been a long time since I’d left Dad. I kept seeing him in vivid detail, limp against the carpet. “Can we check on him? Make sure he’s stable before we find the others?”
Priya hesitated, exchanging glances with Hallam, then nodded to me to take the lead. She stayed right on my heels, and for once I appreciated her presence. Legion had an imposing, competent air that made me feel we might have a chance.
Of course, they’d already lost two of their members. That was worth remembering. Who else was dead? I spared a thought for Obsidian. Alexei’s uncle Grigori, Cage’s contact and her people, the little girl I’d seen in the marketplace, Liam . . . was everyone on the station gone? Horror raced through me as I imagined their last moments, especially Liam’s. I’d never figured out who he was or what he wanted, but the aliens were his worst nightmare come to life. If he had died, I hoped it was quick. If he hadn’t, I hoped he’d escaped, no matter what he’d done to us.
My skin crawled as we passed the closed command center. I suspected other areas of this ship, areas with large concentrations of people like the downstairs dormitory, were equally gory. I had no desire to find out firsthand.
We reached the office without incident. I swiped Dad’s omnicard, stepped inside, and stopped short.
Dad was gone.
“I left him here,” I said, panic lending volume to my voice. “Right here. He was hurt. He couldn’t have moved far, not by himself.”
Matt gently pushed me aside and crouched where I pointed. “There’s blood on the carpet,” he said to Priya. “No trail or anything, though.”
“He couldn’t have moved without help,” I repeated, staring at the empty space as if I might will him into existence. “I never should have left him. I should have . . .”
“What?” Priya demanded, her tone gentler than I expected. “Sat here with him in the dark and waited for a monster to attack you?”
“I don’t . . .”
“If the aliens got him, there’d be more blood. He probably woke up and dragged himself to a more secure location.” She glanced around the room. “Nowhere to hide in here. Our best bet is to stick to our original plan. Find your friends. The girl who talks to computers can locate your father.”
My head jerked up. “Matt,” I said. I hated to ask him for any favors, but . . . “Does your power still work the way it used to? I mean . . .”
“I know what you mean,” he said softly. “I’ve been looking for other human life off and on since we discovered the command center. That’s how we found you.”
“And? Do you sense anything now?”
He frowned. “Yes. Something. Someone. Farther along this corridor. I can’t tell how many or who, though. The aliens always messed with my abilities.”
“That’s it?”
“No,” he replied, but very slowly. “Kenzie, I really can’t say for sure. I think . . . there’s someone in engineering.”
Hope sparked in my chest. “It was empty when I checked earlier.”
“And now it maybe isn’t. I don’t know.”
Something clattered in the hall, and we all jumped to attention. Hallam jerked his heavy gun toward the exit and scowled. “This is getting us nowhere. Priya, what are your orders?”
She glanced at me, at the closed door, at Matt, but her expression never changed. “Engineering is right across the hall, but it’s big and full of hiding places. It’s safer once we have reinforcements. We’ll stick to our original plan and check the armory. If nothing else, we can upgrade our weapons.” She raised a hand, forestalling my objection before my lips even formed the words. “We’ll head to engineering after.”
It looked like she expected me to argue, but she wasn’t wrong. Part of me didn’t know where I wanted to head first, anyway. My father seemed like my last link to my old life, but my friends were my family in so many ways now. It was almost a relief to have the decision about who to save first taken from my hands. “All right,” I said. “But let’s hurry.”
No sooner did the words leave my mouth than a shriek filled the air. The floor exploded into jagged metal and, not ten feet in front of me, an alien leaped into the room.