That I should sit back and watch how this plays out.

No.

I refuse to.

I had family.

Friends.

A life.

Lived on a beautiful planet I took for granted.

That’s all gone now because of those bastards walking the surface, destroying everything.

The door slides open as soon as my ba’clan interact with it and I step into the corridor.

It is dim, as it was when I first entered the ship, and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust.

I head in one direction without knowing where I am going.

I’ll find the bridge somehow.

I want to see this thing.

I don’t know where this bravery is coming from. I don’t know if it’s the now constant, comforting pulse of the ba’clan against my skin, but I feel the most empowered that I’ve felt since this whole ordeal began.

I feel like I have the chance to fight this thing.

Footsteps sound behind me, almost silent, and I know the three males follow.

I am in the lead and as we come upon a set of Vullan, they stop in their tracks and stand to the side as we pass.

My heart flutters in my chest.

I can feel their eyes on me.

The question in their gazes.

The only thing I wear are the ba’clan and I get now what Fer’ro said about them.

They feel like they are a part of me—an extension of myself.

As if I can now do things I couldn’t before.

We are coming up on an intersection of corridors and my steps falter.

“Left,” Fer’ro says.

I jerk my chin in a nod and continue in the direction he indicated.

We pass more Vullan.

More confused stares.

No one says a thing.

Or, if they do speak, I cannot hear.

It’s not long before I come upon a flat black wall.

It looks like a dead end.

Fer’ro finally steps forward. His hand hovers above the wall as he looks down at me.

Our gazes lock and I have to swallow hard.

There’s a lot we need to talk about and as his gaze slips over my face to fall on my lips, images of him between my legs spring up like a jack-in-the-box.

I have to pull my gaze away.

I can’t think about that now.

Especially since I now know they can smell my arousal.

I’m a vet. Was a vet.

Such an idea isn’t alien to me…or strange…

Lots of animals are scent-based.

It’s just that…such a small difference between us highlights that these beings, the Vullan, are nothing like us humans.

An opening materializes and like a bell rang, everyone on the bridge turns to look our way.

It’s a vast room with a flat black control panel at the front.

Dim lights string the roof and the walls.

There is a wide viewing screen at the front and a single seat in the center on a raised level above the controls.

But even though the room is amazing, I find myself meeting the gazes of the Vullan there.

Their ba’clan had been rising before we entered but as soon as we step into the room, each and every one of them lower their blades, their eyes on me.

My heart thumps against my chest.

It is clear to me now that I am an anomaly. Me and the ba’clan that coat me are not normal.

But that is something we have to focus on at another time, for straight ahead, through the fog of cloud cover the ship floats between, I see the terror that landed on planet Earth and seeks to destroy it.

I take one step forward, and then another.

The Vullan move out of my way.

I hear clicks in their throat. Hums. Thrums. But none of them stop me.

I keep walking till I’m in front of the dark control panel, my gaze ahead of us.

The Scrit is steadily making its way toward us, its huge metal legs lifting and falling, crushing everything beneath it.

I sense Fer’ro at my side. I don’t need to look. I know it is him.

“So,” I continue to stare forward, “how do we catch this thing?”

No one has any idea.

No one says a word until He’rox comes to stand at my other side.

“There’s only one way I can think of,” he says. “One way to capture a living Gryken while still keeping our presence here a secret.”

I glance up and the blue-eyed Vullan is looking down at me.

By my side, Fer’ro hisses low.

“No,” he says.

He’rox doesn’t lift his gaze from mine. “There is only one way,” he repeats.

I get the sense that he is saying I’m the only way. But I have no idea how I can take down that huge machine.

Nothing we ever tried had been capable of doing it.

I didn’t even know the machines could be destroyed till the Vullan came. They know that right?

I lick my lips even as Fer’ro’s hiss becomes louder beside me.

“I guess that involves me, right?”

Well, I’d said I wanted to help.

That wasn’t a lie.

I turn my gaze back to the Scrit as it walks in the distance.

There’s not a lot of time to think about this. I’m either going to do something or not.

As I turn my gaze back to He’rox, I steel myself against whatever he is going to say.

Whatever I have to do, I will do it.

The moment I look at him, I know he understands my will.

His hands appear from behind his back as if he’d been hiding something there all along.

Two small balls of swirling blue and white light.

I swallow hard as I look at them.

“What are those?”

“The key,” he says.

“And you,” he continues, “you are the deliverer.”

I stare at him, his words settling in my mind as I try to understand exactly what he’s getting at.

Meanwhile, behind me, a large shadow is looming.

Fer’ro.

He leans over me, his snarl directed at He’rox. “You have got to be rekking insane.”

He’rox looks back out of the view screen, his gaze landing on the Scrit.

“It is the only way. How else will we prevent it from knowing we are here?”

I gulp as I watch the thing approaching.

There is so much tension in the room, I can feel it all around me.

“What do you want me to do?”

FER’RO

This is a stupid, stupid, stupid idea.

I clench my jaw as I watch Adee’ra walk forward through the rocky terrain.

I am camouflaged, hidden against one of the large boulders and so are some of my brethren.

She is bare.

Barefoot.

Vulnerable as she walks toward the towering monstrosity that is the Gryken vessel.

I clench my fist as I watch her move bravely forward. I clench it so hard, the rock cracks underneath my hand.

Her hands are behind her, holding the two things, the energy bombs, that we hope can take down the Scrit without destroying it completely.

For we need its pilot alive.

And that is the only reason Adee’ra is heading toward it.

She shivers and glances back, her hair blowing in the wind.

She is looking directly at me but I know she cannot see me.

My ba’clan have taken the form of my surroundings.

I am invisible.

I see the fear in her eyes, I can smell it, yet she continues to walk forward.

For herself.

For her people.

For us.

If this goes wrong…

The thought almost makes me shift from my position to go after her.

This was a stupid idea.

I should never have agreed to it.

But a hand on my arm stops me.

Ga’Var.

He clicks low in his throat. “Wait.”

Wait?

Wait?!

Wait while I watch the one good thing I’ve found in all this chaos to sacrifice herself?

But Adee’ra’s spine is straight and her fear scent is disappearing.

The Scrit is almost above us and I sense the moment it spots her.

My ba’clan writhe in agitation, almost losing their camouflage.

There is a moment when the air stills, and all I can see is Adee’ra. Her small, pale frame stands out against the brown of her planet.