1. The indestructible machine isn’t indestructible after all. It is falling. It is being destroyed; and 2. It’s going down and we’re stuck inside of it.

A shout leaves my lips as determination I thought I’d lost flares.

Slamming my fists on the metal orb, I pray it breaks. But of course, nothing happens.

Sam and Mina are scrambling, trying to do the same, even though we know we can’t break it.

We’d tried many times before.

But right before the orb slams into the water, that man appears again.

I cannot see his face and it’s all happening so fast, I’m not sure I’m even seeing him for real at all.

His fist lights up and it smashes into our compartment. The glass-metal, the barrier to the outside world…cracks.

And then he’s gone. Thrown off the orb as it smashes into the lake.

“There!” Sam shouts, her gaze on the crack.

I wonder if she saw the brave man too but there’s no time to ask her. I’m already moving.

I slam my fist at the crack and pain tears through me. I’m pretty sure I just broke my wrist. But the crack splits and then…it gives!

Somehow, I’ve punched a hole in it.

“Adira!” Sam’s shout is almost drowned out by my own blood rushing into my ears.

I made a hole in it!

But my elation is short-lived. For as soon as the orb hits the water, it begins to sink and I am faced with a whole new terror.

Water rushes in through the hole I just made, desperate to fill the space.

It’s coming in so fast, it hits me hard and I’m thrown back.

Sam scrambles to take hold of Mina, who’s gone limp, and she screams. Or maybe I do.

Mina isn’t moving.

Unconscious.

I pray she isn’t dead.

I do not know.

I slip as I try to rise again.

The water is cold and the ripped dress I’d found in someone’s house is now soaked.

Still, I manage to push myself forward.

“Help Mina!” I shout back. “I’ll get us out!”

I hope I can.

Pressing forward against the sudden torrent feels like I’m fighting against every law of physics, but somehow, I reach the hole I made.

Maybe the weakened area will yield to my fist again. And so I try.

I punch it, fighting the pressure of the water as the orb fills up.

Pain explodes in my fist again and I inhale sharply.

The glass seemed to be even harder than before.

Each time I slam my fist against it, more pain ricochets up my arm, but the fear of what will happen if we don’t get out is worse.

So I keep going.

I don’t stop, even when the water reaches my knees…my waist…my shoulders.

It reaches my lips in no time and I take a deep breath, hoping it won’t be my last as I continue hitting my fist against the orb.

The water is murky, I can hardly see, but I don’t stop.

I can’t stop, even when the most likely scenario is staring me right in the face.

Is this how we die?

Behind me, Sam is trying to keep Mina’s head above the water. High above me, she swims, fighting her own waning energy to save the woman she’s pulling upward with her.

But the air pocket above me is barely big enough for them both.

Sam realizes this and places her body underneath Mina’s, supporting the woman’s head.

She’ll run out of air soon.

We don’t have much time.

So I pound on the barrier. I pound on it even as my skin breaks and my blood begins to fill the water around us.

I feel my eyes burning…my lungs…my entire body feels like it’s protesting.

I need air.

We need air.

But the barrier isn’t breaking.

No matter how hard I pound on it, I can’t get us out.

I do a mini somersault and aim my boot at the barrier instead.

Nothing.

My lungs feel like they are about to explode and there’s pressure in my head as if my veins are about to burst.

I raise my leg one more time, but my strength is gone…

I can’t even kick forward one more time.

We are about to die.

I stare outside the orb, outside the barrier at the water surrounding us.

Freedom…so close…

As the last of my strength leaves me, something large and dark moves in the water.

A fish, or reeds maybe…I’m not quite sure.

Vaguely, I realize my body is drifting away from the barrier, floating away and I have no strength to stop it.

And Sam…Mina…they’re drifting too.

The dark shape draws closer and somewhere in my mind a thought comes forward.

That’s not a fish.

Far too large to be one.

It feels like a dream. Like time has ceased to exist and I am simply just…floating.

A sort of peace settles over me as the dark form materializes into a man.

That man.

I hadn’t imagined him.

He comes close, his hands pressing against the outside of the orb, and his eyes lock with mine.

Liquid gold…like molten lava, they pierce mine, and I wonder if he’s real or a figment of my imagination.

His features are indiscernible.

He is faceless. He is all black.

All I can see are those eyes.

He raises a hand and I imagine his fist shining with the same sort of white energy that had crawled over my skin.

As my consciousness wanes, the barrier of the orb breaks apart and he is suddenly before me.

Eyes that aren’t human look down at me but I’m too far gone to react.

I think…

I think this is the end.

Chapter Six

FER’RO

There is movement within the Scrit.

It has passengers.

I climb down its outer shell just in time to see them inside.

It’s pilot is dead. I made sure of that.

Our missiles had aimed straight for the central core that held the Gryken.

It had been unaware of our arrival, walking with its shields down.

But even with its shields up, it stood no chance.

A whole world had been destroyed while we’d discovered how to kill the Gryken, and we aren’t afraid to use that knowledge now.

What we hadn’t known though, was that the Scrit had been carrying passengers…

I’m thrown off the vessel as it hits the water and I have to backtrack to find it again. I reach it just in time to see the creature, the passenger, inside.

Long brown filaments float above its head. It is floating backward, its limbs outstretched, but I note one thing.

The calmness in its eyes.

It sees me and for a moment…I pause.

My symbiotes, my ba’clan, writhe over my skin.

They can feel it too.

The being’s cry for help, though no sound comes from its mouth.

It is dying.

We have to save it.

My ba’clan charge as I aim my fist, slamming into the Scrit’s dome.

The vessel is no longer invulnerable, and it shatters before me.

As the being floats away, I reach for it.

The first thing I notice is how small it is. Frail.

The body is weak as I take it into my arms I realize it is also…limp.

And there are more of them.

Two others within.

Also unconscious.

I sense one of my brethren approaching and signal to him.

I cannot save the others, or this one will perish.

It is obvious this species cannot breathe under water. If I do not bring this being to the surface, it will die.

A simple mental command is all I need and my ba’clan activate, aiding me toward the surface.

A message thrums from my throat, the vibrations carrying through the water to my brethren.

“More below.”

I hear a response as more of my brethren dive.

If we’d known anything about this species, we would have been better able to strategize.

But they are unknown to us.

A distant species—one we have never seen nor made contact with before.

From a world, far, far away we came to save them.

To help.

The last set of Vullan warriors committed to one final task.