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“Awww. You say the sweetest things.” Sloane kissed his cheek. “Let’s get to work.”

***

Sloane hid her worryabout how sick Dallin looked as they continued to formulate the poison. She’d set him to work on reprograming the filtration system, but she wished he’d just rest.

“How is the ship’s computer behaving?” she asked. “We need it to believe it’s normal to blast an aerosolized particle out of the ship, rather than bring it in, filter it, and circulate it around. We don’t need our artificial intelligence to become artificially dumb and stop this from working.”

“I’m getting there,” Dallin said. “Give me ten minutes.”

“Try to make it five. That cutter will get through the hull, eventually.” Sloane was focused on the tricky task of getting a potent enough batch of aerosolized poison to damage the Siblet. She’d created a stable base containing a propellant and a solvent, then added the poison, making sure there was a good dose of salnite in the mix.

A few minutes later, Dallin looked up from the keyboard. “How are you doing?”

“I’m ready,” Sloane said. “How about you?”

“All set.”

She handed him the canister of poison, her fingers shaking. “Should we give them a warning?”

“Nope. This is the perfect punishment for them.” Dallin fixed the canister into an air vent.

“I want to see their faces when they know what’s about to happen to them.” Sloane opened the comm channel. “Hey, sugar. We’ve got bad news. We’re not surrendering. And you should get out of here while you still can.”

“We’re moments away from breaching your ship’s hull,” Captain Ghal said. “And your docking clamps have been locked in place. You’re going nowhere.”

Dallin growled. “They’ve trapped us.”

“I can fix the clamps as soon as we get rid of these jerks.” Sloane waved at the Siblet, then flipped them her middle finger. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’m a nice girl, and I always want to give the bad guys a second chance, but you’ve had yours. It’s not my fault you chose to ignore it.”

“We’re not afraid of a single human and her dying Apexian.”

“He’s not dying. But you soon will. How about a taste of your own poison?” She looked over at Dallin. “Let them have it.”

He activated the reverse filtration system through the air vent, and a few seconds later, a pale mist shot out from the front of the ship and covered the Siblet.

None of them moved, although several shifted from foot to foot, and a couple covered their faces with their breathing masks.

“It’s too late for that,” Dallin said. “One gulp of that gas, and they’re history.”

“What is this?” Captain Ghal snarled.

“It’s your poison,” Sloane said. “We don’t like it, so we’re sending it back. You’ll want to look into getting an antidote. The symptoms aren’t fun, and the outcome is terminal if you don’t get it looked at.”

The Siblet shifted around, and several of them talked to each other as they backed away, all of them shoving on their breathing masks.

Captain Ghal turned and yelled at them.

“Uh, oh! It looks like there’s disharmony in the ranks,” Sloane said.

“Any second now, they’ll retreat.” Dallin sounded raspy.

“Once they’re gone, I’ll go out and remove the clamps, or whatever it is trapping the ship on the ground.”

“Let me do that,” Dallin said. “It’s too risky for you to go out there.”

“It’s too risky to send my sick Apexian out there, too.” She kissed him on the mouth, trying to hide the worry that burned through her at how sick he looked.

Dallin had given her too much of his healing energy in his efforts to keep her alive. Now, he wasn’t able to heal himself, and the injuries from the Siblet assault were still bleeding. Even though he hadn’t once complained about his broken leg, Dallin must be in agony.