Her expression smoothed out and she grinned. “Oh yeah, that’s my special little weapon.”
She flexed her right hand, and her claws extended, but the index finger claw didn’t match the rest.
“A few years ago, that claw got ripped out when I was using them to pry open a door. It’s a long story, but they were able to replace the claw with this nifty metal one. The doctors back home were even able to give me a little reservoir of drugs in that claw so when I flex in a certain way, I can inject someone. It’s fairly harmless in one dose. All that happens is you go to sleep and wake up with a headache and fuzzy memory.”
She dropped her eyes and her amusement vanished. “Uh, but it’s not harmless if you use both doses at once. Then the person dies.”
That must’ve been how she killed the guard back on the outpost. He grabbed her and placed her on his lap.
“Good,” he grunted, holding her gently against his chest. “Death is what they deserved.”
“I know, but…”
“You know you’re the righteous one when the death of another bothers you, no matter if it was warranted," he murmured.
“You’re probably right,” she said. “But it’s going to take me a while to not be affected. Don’t let go, okay?”
“Never,” he agreed.
Chapter 31
Myrum
It took two full rotations with Steady’s crew and the outpost staff working together to finish preparations. Now they were all gathered in the command room on Steady, watching the large display at the far end of the room.
“We’re outside the shock zone,” Teshor said. She was the only one sitting at a workstation.
Helmen turned to look at all of them. He and Amina were standing at the front, with the rest of the Ossisos standing a little behind them. Although it was clear Amina didn’t want to be their official leader, they still tended to look to her for instruction or comfort, especially Gis.
Part of it might’ve been that she, a small, defenseless-looking human, killed a guard that had terrorized them. The other part was that Gis was constantly deferring to her and the others followed his lead.
“After this, there’s no going back,” Helmen warned.
“That happened the moment Lorse died,” Gis said.
Helmen gave him a little nod. “Right.” She turned back to face the display. “Teshor, you have permission.”
Teshor tapped a sequence and looked up. They stared at the display, but nothing happened.
“Did something go wrong?” Myrum asked.
“Patience,” Amina said. “The chain reaction takes a—”
The display lit up so bright it made both of them flinch. The Ossisos gave a collective gasp. A moment later the explosion dimmed, and they could see the burned-out wreckage of the outpost’s securing points, but the rest of it was gone. Most of the debris was sent flying out into space.
“There’s nothing left,” Nashie said, sounding shocked. “I knew it would be a large explosion, but I didn’t think it would destroy everything so thoroughly.”
“And that’s why always checking your enviro-controls is important,” Amina quipped. Teshor, Desur, and Jossulum chuckled.
“They’ll know it was sabotage,” Jul said.
“They may suspect, but they’ll never be able to prove anything," Teshor said. “If they find the outpost recorder, everything will point to an enviro system catastrophe. It will also say you were all aboard.”
“The debris will either land across the planet or be scattered across space,” Jossulum said. “They’ll never be able to gather enough to prove anything.”
“That means our families are safe,” Sar said. The others murmured in agreement.
Desur moved to stand next to Helmen and face the Ossisos. He threw his arms wide and declared dramatically, “You’re all officially dead and get to be reborn! How does it feel?”
