“Never better.” The lie was obvious, but I appreciated the effort.
His marks activated, and I watched for the second time as the code flowed across my mate’s neck. It was different from the D’tran codes—more complex, with additional elements that I realized were the Destran version.
“That’s everyone,” I said, looking at the database we’d compiled. “Thresk, are you ready?”
The Kythran elder nodded from the central platform. “We input the codes into the primary system, yes?”
“In the sequence I’m sending you now.” I transferred the file, then double-checked the protocol one more time. Something was nagging at me—a warning message that had flashed briefly on one of the screens when I’d been setting upthe input sequence. When I’d tried to examine it more closely, it disappeared.
Probably just a diagnostic notification. The system was ancient. It probably threw up warning messages constantly.
“Everyone ready?” I asked.
A chorus of affirmatives came back. The Kythrans were positioned at the interface. The D’tran were watching tensely from around the room. Torven was beside me, his hand on my shoulder for support—his or mine, I wasn’t sure.
“Then let’s save a planet.” I initiated the sequence.
The response was immediate. The crystalline structure at the center of the platform lit up like a star. The patterns on every surface in the room began to move, flowing like water toward the interface. The Kythrans’ hands moved over the controls, and I watched as the codes we’d collected began inputting into the system.
For a moment, I thought it was working. The screens showed what looked like acknowledgment protocols, the system accepting the input codes.
Then everything went wrong.
The building shook. Not a gentle vibration, but a violent lurch that sent me stumbling into Torven. Alarms began to wail, and the screens that had been showing acknowledgment protocols suddenly filled with what I recognized as error messages and defensive warnings.
“What’s happening?” Vikkat shouted over the noise.
I stared at the screens, my blood running cold as I took in the messages. I didn’t need to read them to understand what all the red errors meant. “The system knows what we’retrying to do. It’s interpreting our shutdown attempt as an attack.”
Another violent shake, and I heard the sound of structural damage from somewhere above us. Through the windows, I could see the weather outside intensifying at an impossible rate. The wind that had been strong was now apocalyptic, tearing at the landscape with visible fury.
The nexus tower groaned, and I felt the floor tilt slightly beneath my feet.
“It’s defending itself,” I said, horror dawning. “The autonomous system is defending itself by making the weather worse. It’s using the atmospheric instability as a weapon against us.”
“Can you stop it?” Torven’s grip on my shoulder tightened.
I looked at the screens, at the cascade of defensive protocols activating, at the weather readings that were climbing to levels that shouldn’t be possible. The system wasn’t just rejecting our input—it was actively counterattacking.
“I don’t know,” I whispered.
The tower shook again, harder this time, and something in the ceiling cracked with a sound like a gunshot. One of the D’tran warriors cursed.
The system was going to tear itself apart before it let us shut it down. And it was going to take us with it.
CHAPTER 21
TORVEN
The tower shook again, and I watched Zara reach out and support the elder Kythran at her side. Through the windows, I could see the storm intensifying to levels that defied comprehension. The sky had turned black, shot through with veins of green lightning, and the wind was tearing chunks of rock from the landscape and hurling them through the air like projectiles.
“Shut it down!” Vikkat shouted over the alarms. “Whatever you’re doing, stop it!”
“I can’t!” Zara’s voice was raw with panic. “The system won’t let me abort the sequence. It thinks we’re attacking it and it’s defending itself.”
I watched her hands fly over the console, trying command after command, but the screens kept flashing those same error messages and defensive warnings. The Kythrans at the central interface were backing away from the crystalline structure, which was now glowing so bright, it hurt to look at directly.
Then Zara froze, staring at something beside the main console.
