Her cries were growing more pathetic, and Cincin never looked away from me. Each one made my soul break.
Wyn frowned and picked Cincin up. She glared at him but didn’t protest. “I’m going to take her with me. This way you can’t be bullied into feeding her more.”
“Thank you.” I kissed his cheek, and he smiled.
We left the room together, tails entwined, and only separated when we had to. Wyn was going to work in my office, which made me feel better about returning to Command. I would have to get over my panic at some point, because I couldn’t always know where Wyn was, nor did he have to inform me. But for the moment, Wyn was happy to indulge me, and as his work entailed attacking the virus, it made sense for him to use my office.
When I stepped onto Command, everyone stood at attention, and Talvax moved toward me. I said, “Captain departing.” Once she was gone, I said, “Return.”
I moved toward the front of Command and took a seat on Talvax’s stool to begin looking at reports. Thousands upon thousands popped up. So many people were late for their duty shifts because they had to use the tunnels, as no one wanted to risk being trapped. More and more systems were breaking down and not working. Wyn’s virus was tearing through NAID, moving faster the further it spread.
We were limping to the closest station, hoping we would arrive before critical systems like life support failed. Every day we came closer, and I was hopeful we would reach it before anyone was in danger. Besides, Wyn was protecting all of the critical systems, and I had complete faith in my mate.
A tingle went up my spine. I frowned. That was odd. My inner fire was sparkling, but I couldn’t tell what was happening. On impulse, I stood and moved closer to the screen at the front of the bridge, staring out at space. Something was wrong, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
I pulled out my touch stone to contact Wyn, even though I had seen him less than an hour ago. It was dead. Communications within the ship were rarely working anymore. He had to be fine. My inner fire was being elusive, which was… different. Was it because of my grief?
Since my parents died, I hadn’t had any flashes of insight, but it wasn’t unusual for my inner fire to be silent for months at a time. I could never predict when I would have an intuition about something. But one had never teased me like this, hovering in the background.
The tingling intensified, making me take another step forward.
“Commander, is everything alright?” Gorgownun asked.
“I’m not sure.” I turned around to face her and something crashed into my stomach. It felt as if I’d been hit but I hadn’t, at least not physically. “Reverse course!”
“What?” the helmsperson asked. “There’s nothing on the sensors.”
“Reverse course. Now!” I snarled.
Something was coming.
The ship moved back on the path we’d come, but it wasn’t fast enough.
“Wha—” Gorgownun didn’t even get to finish her questions before something massive appeared. A portal that was deep purple in color and spiraled faster and faster as a glowing nose poked through. “Siscurras… Impossible.”
“Full reverse,” I ordered. I didn’t care about the rarity of the creature in front of us. I cared about surviving.
No matter how fast we were going, it wasn’t fast enough. Siscurra were massive, at least ten times the size of our ship. We wouldn’t even harm the creature if it crashed into us. I doubt it would even feel it, but we wouldn’t survive a direct impact.
The creature just kept growing as it came out of the portal. Its skin was a deep purple with starbursts of light glowing onits hide. Its mouth opened and it inhaled, taking in nutrients from space. Our sensors went crazy, flashing. It was drawing us toward it. The siscurras didn’t want us; it didn’t even notice us with its tiny eyes. But still the draw was too much, and we were pulled toward it as the bulk of its body began to break through the portal.
“Brace for impact,” I ordered, trying to get back to the captain's seat, but I was too late.
Silence reigned for all of one second before I was thrown across Command. Sparks flew and a fire broke out at one of the stations. People were screaming. I could hear the rending of metal as we impacted with the creature. I crawled forward, trying to see where it had hit us. If there was anything I could do to help the ship and my people. I grabbed a fallen screen, groaning at the pain in my gut and back.
I dropped my head to the ground. We’d glanced along the creature’s side. We would survive. Maybe. I pressed my hand to my side, and blood gushed through my fingers. Each breath hurt and my back throbbed. My eyes closed. I’d done what I could. Now, it was up to Talvax.
Wyn. I hoped he was safe.
“No, you don’t,” a voice growled.
I looked up with a frown. “Vorjyn. You’re not allowed up here.”
He snorted. “I think we can forgo formalities, just this once. There is a hole in the side of the ship, not to mention the door’s open and security is down.”
He snarled as he picked me up, and my world spun. I said, breathless, “Wyn. Find Wyn.”
“Yes, yes. Your little mate. All the orders for me, aren’t I lucky? Let me take care of you first, then I’ll find him.”
