“We’re being invaded.”

Lucas stared at the recorded camera feeds, playing back the last five minutes in their buffers on continuous loop. With the base feed down this was all the intelligence they had.

“Snap out of it, Lucas,” Teague said. “I need your focus.”

Lucas shook his head to clear it. “Sorry, Commander. What do you want to do?”

“We need our feed back up and running. Can you do anything about that?”

The young comms technician shook his head, typing furiously on his workstation. Computers are back up, so the feed should be too. I don’t think the CME did this. I think they did.“ He pointed at his screen, which showed a slow-moving squad of men and women partially covered in what looked like black quicksilver marching up a corridor. That was from ten minutes before. They were long gone from that position now.

Teague paced in front of the workstation, squeezing his bottom lip between his thumb and index finger. He needed to coordinate with the security staff. He thought of Jasleen, hopefully somewhere in the cargo hold locating General Steen’s surprise.

“Sir,” said Romeo. “If I may, I think I have an idea.”

Teague arched an eyebrow. “I’m open to any and all suggestions.”

“Donovan had become a bit paranoid at the end. He had a small cache of weapons stashed inside Command, in a storage locker. Live ammo, too. No rubber bullets or bag rounds.”

“Let’s see it. Lucas, keep working on our feed.”

With the help of a pair of techs, Romeo got an aft storage locker opened. Inside was a crate packed with six pistols and three tactical shotguns.

“Did Jasleen know about this?” Teague asked.

“I don’t think so,” said Romeo. “Donovan didn’t exactly trust her.”

Teague recalled their past altercation and nodded.

“Donovan foresaw a time when we might have to defend the Command blister from an outside incursion,” said Romeo. “I thought he feared a mutiny. But now…”

“Teague nodded. “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. Thanks, Nat. Nice work.”

Teague stood admiring the stash. “All right. Everyone with weapons training, grab a gun.”

Teague was surprised when Lucas reached in and lifted a pistol out of its foam cradle, slapping in a magazine and chambering a round. Lucas grinned at him, bemused.

“I’m from the Texas Allegiance Zone, sir,” he explained. “I’ve been shooting stuff since I was ten years old.”

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“Very well,” said Teague. “Until we need you, though, I want you working on getting our comms back up and running.”

“He tucked the gun into his belt. “Yes sir.”

Lt. Romeo sealed the main bulkhead door, severing Command from the rest of the base. Buffered camera footage showed a squad of infected, if that’s what they were, moving up the corridor towards them just as they heard loud banging on the thick pressure door.

“Everyone, defensive positions,” said Teague without really knowing what he meant. Everyone holding a weapon positioned themselves behind a workstation, while everyone else got down on the floor and crawled under and behind these barriers.

Teague chambered a round into his pistol and waited. It had been a while since he’d had any firearms practice, and he wondered what if any effect their weapons would have on the strange invaders.

There was another loud clang, and then the door simply opened, rising up and into the layered bulkhead.

To his people’s credit, they began firing immediately. But their shots were wild, and when they did hit they didn’t strike vital areas. The silver-covered invaders rushed forward with preternatural speed, subduing anyone holding a weapon fairly quickly.

Teague got off two rounds before a metal-covered fist smashed the gun from his hand. It went skittering under a console, out of reach. The invader reached for him.

“Wait.”

Leneski’s voice was loud and authoritative as he entered the room, a shit-eating grin on his face. Teague’s blood went cold as he did the math and connected the dots.

“Mike,” he said. “You son of a bitch.”

Leneski chuckled, arms akimbo. “Well, well, well. Seems we’ve got ourselves a situation. Notice that no one died in here just now. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?”

Teague scanned the room. Lt. Romeo sat on the floor, bleeding from a cut on her head. There were other injuries, broken bones. But Leneski was telling the truth. No one had died. “I’m supposed to thank you for that?”

Leneski gave a half-shrug, conceding the point. “I suppose not. But we’re in a real pickle, and only you can help me out of it.”

“How so?”

“Donovan left you a present. I need it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Teague.

Leneski made a motion, and the invader who knocked the gun from Teague’s hand lifted him by his uniform front one-handed high into the air. Even in the lighter gravity, it was quite a display of strength.

“I am in no mood for fuckery,” said Leneski. “Give it to me. Or I’ll have my friends kill everyone in here including you, then tear this place apart until we find it and take it anyway. I’d rather not do that. I’m in a bit of a time crunch, and well, it’s just so damned messy.”

Teague felt anger rise in his gut. “Not until you tell me what’s going on.”

Leneski nodded to the figure who held Teague, and the invader hurled him into the sealed door of his ready room. It collapsed inward as Teague impacted with it, and he slid halfway across the ready room floor.

“I’m going to do better than tell you, old friend,” said Leneski, following his enforcer inside. “I’m going to show you. But first I need something.”

Teague’s silent assailant lifted him off the floor by his left arm and hurled him into the bookshelf behind his desk. Books, slates, and his signed baseball toppled to the floor in slow motion. Teague pulled himself to his feet with a groan. He was going to feel that in the morning. If he lived that long. Reaching into a desk drawer, he took out the drive Donovan had slipped him and flung it at Leneski, who caught it with a flick of his wrist.

“Thank you. Now was that so hard?”

“Fuck you,” said Teague.

Leneski laughed. “Maybe later. Right now we’ve got a ringside seat for the death of one world and the birth of another. Let’s go.”

He pulled a gun from a pocket of his tunic and aimed it at Teague. “This is just so you don’t try something heroic and stupid. I really do have something amazing to show you. Don’t you want to know what Proteus is all about?”

“Promise you won’t hurt anyone,” said Teague.

“I really don’t think my word means all that much to you anymore. But OK. I really don’t want to hurt anyone. I want to save them. And I’m going to let you watch me do it.”