He started scanning around—extra scans.
Something.
To make sure he was not missing anything. He was an acute tracker, but that was better on land, not in a spaceship, where he could not feel the winds or hear the shift in the ground.
The best he had was what he could see in space.
So, he started looking.
A long, open window on the side of the ship showed the interior, what looked to be a corridor of some kind. The position seemed like a vulnerability, and he wondered why they would have such a large, open area on the side of the ship.
And then he saw the ambassador’s entourage appear.
All in bright red, surrounding one central figure. They paused at the windows, looking out at them. One stood to the side, her posture different from the others. A warrior among the entourage. She moved differently.
She looked tiny.
They all did. Five stood there. That was it? Five? How did such small beings expect to create peace between two species who have been at war for nearly two decades?
It made so little sense.
The war was all they knew. Wrathin doubted, even if both species could come to a place of neutrality, they could be at peace. There was too much between them.
But they had no choice.
The Rhimodians could not continue fighting. Could that be why the humanoid Terrans wanted to create peace now? Because they could no longer afford the fight, either?
It seemed a difficult task, trying to—
The star field lit up in an explosion.
The Terran ship lurched to one side. A burst of fire from the far side and the ship lurched again.
Through the windows where he’d just seen the ambassador, he now saw Terrans running, the wake of voluminous clothing billowing behind them.
“Confirm explosion. Bahran. Confirm.” Wrathin called. The flight pattern put Bahran in the best possible position to see what happened.
However, Bahran didn’t respond.
“Bahran?”
A moment of silence.
Had the explosion hit Bahran’s ship as well? He was on the far side, where the explosions occurred. He accessed the life signs of his unit mate.
Systemunresponsive
Hadthey lost one of their squad?
A pain stabbed at Wrathin, but not a physical one—one of emotional torment. Worry for his squad mate.
Reactive. Because of his thoughts.
A hiss of air, and then a voice. “Explosion confirmed,” Bahran said.
Wrathin must take care if his emotions were already surfacing. Stim kept emotions and reactions in check.
If there was ever a time for emotion to be in check, it was in the middle of this chaos.
