{Earth}

Tameka eagerly awaited whatever news, reports, intelligence—anything—that tipped the scales in their favor and allowed the Shadow to take a single proactive rather than reactive step. Hell! She’d settle for a plain, active step. That’d be a welcome change to this pandemonium. The flight to Enki’s conduit in Siberia hurt all the more because of the silence. It strained with the weight of sheer terror and unexpected failure.

That’s right.

The gorgeous specimen of Icarean female strapped to an alien stretcher with all the bones of her face smashed in counted as a fucking failure. The truly decent human man watched over Karter with his head bowed to hide the fear, no doubt.

Oh, Fury would live up to her name today. Enki. Imminent. Anyone and everyone responsible would feel her wrath. The Shadow’s wrath.

“Mommy, your hand hurts.” Pax kissed the mottled knuckles of Tameka’s clenched fists. “All better.”

Relax around the kiddo. Xelan wouldn’t want him to feel the tension. Only security and love. Gently, she reassured, “I’m fine, baby. Do you want in my lap?”

He nodded emphatically as Tameka unbuckled his seatbelt and tucked him comfortably against her. She kissed the top of his red curls and resumed staring out the window. It hurt to hold him and relive the moment Tumu, Sagan, and Chris appeared at the Ecology with Karter between them. Damaged. Busted. Unhealing. All three of them coated in her cerulean blood. The look in Chris’s dark brown eyes… If someone gave her a mirror right after losing Xelan, Tameka imagined she looked as haunted.

Tumu insisted on flying them himself. She glanced away from the window when he popped out of the cockpit and checked on Jack. Autopilot altitude. Not much longer before they landed, then.

“Your legs are fine?”

Rayne’s brother nodded and cleared his throat before speaking, “Yea. Thanks, Tumu. Sorry you keep having to volunteer for an emergency infusion.”

A martyr. Just like his sister. Tameka shook her head and scratched Pax’s back for her own comfort.

The blue alien gently admonished, “Stop saying that.” Then to Ross, “How’s your head?”

Damn, the Tritan’s genuine concern for them warmed Tameka despite her mistrust of him.

Ross smiled prettier than her brother ever could—

Shit. A slight pang hit Tameka in the heart. Not that she could stand him, but where was Kyle? How did Imminent know where to find the Arsenal? Why did they hit the chateau when The Brethren weren’t assembled? What did they gain by any of this?

“Peaches…”

Tameka closed her eyes against the convincing warmth in his tone.

“Uncle Tu! Hee.” Pax held out his arms for the extra-compressed Gargantuan Tritan to hold him.

With a nod from her, the ancient alien obliged. Standing over her and bouncing her son, Tumu assured, “We’ll get answers.”

How did he know? But really, what else would she think about right now? One thing came to mind. Cinder’s star, Li, held a nacre in its center. One she powered up a few days earlier. She needed answers for that. Did Earth’s sun have a nacre? Could she drain it like all other nacres? Was that how the Tritans manipulated it to expand into a red giant? Was it reversible?

Lightning illuminated the sky.

Caedes emerged from the cabin where he rested most of the trip. He held one of many devices he kept for communication or intelligence reports. “The weather… It’s hazardous on Earth and Cinder. Elden’s sphere nearly collapsed.”

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Tameka shot a sharp look at Tumu. That only happened when—

“Something’s wrong with Rayne,” Jack muttered in horror. “Who’s with her?”

“Bones, Para, and Colton,” the Officer of the Third informed. “I’ll contact them immediately.”

As Pax grew tense, Tameka squeezed gently to relax him. “It’s okay, honey.”

He looked up at her with those eyes so like his father’s and pouted. “Auntie Rayne is sad.”

From the open cockpit, Tumu called out, “What?!” He rushed back from the comms to ask again, “What was that, Pax?”

Tameka glared at him as her son stiffened and shrank back from his urgency.

Despite that, Pax timidly repeated, “She’s sad. Mommy has me to hug her. But Auntie Rayne gets no hugs.” Then this beautiful angel of a Progeny hopped out of her lap and went to Tumu. He hugged the giant blue alien around one leg. Rushed over to Jack and squeezed his side. Hugged Ross’ arm, careful for her slow-healing bruises. Chris swung him up for a big hug and let the boy blow the covered Valkyrie a kiss. On the last, he toddled over to Caedes, who held out a pinky—the only uninjured part of his body—for Pax to squeeze. Even that tightened his eyes in discomfort.

Once finished with his precious errand, Pax returned to his mother for the warmest embrace of her life. Tears warmed her eyes and threatened to spill from her lashes. “My baby,” she whispered against his hair.

“She needs a hug, mommy.”

Tumu stared at the black carpeted floor, hanging his head to hide his black eyes. In shame? In grief?

Tameka caught Jack watching the alien. The entire plane observed the Tritan compartmentalize his ideals. A crisis of faith. Once upon a time, he and Xelan were friends. Quite the rogue in his day, Xelan led an epic chase across the Vast Collective, and Tumu—the Officer assigned to his case—tracked him. The Tritan once regaled her with many of the adventures they shared. But two years ago, when the Progeny sought their own nacres from Enki, it became clear that Tumu never completely chose a side. So, they survived many encounters with the Tritans where the Officer of the Third did little—if anything—to help them.

The worst being Rayne’s Tribunal. Eminent Wiw, Eminent Lance, and Eminent Abresson sentenced her to fifty years in the Martyr Complex with Eminent Celindria as witness to her crimes. Utter. Betrayal. In the end, they charged Tumu with the execution of her sentence. This allowed him to assign the Progeny as her guard. It was the only positive out of the entire ordeal.

But that left Rayne alone and afraid in that box. Asleep in her own blood. She requested it to keep Cinder open to Earth, but… How awful was it to miss living out life with her friends? To miss all their shenanigans? All their progress? Shit. Miss finding a partner and having a life of her own? When they delivered bad news, her rage manifested in some serious climate change and other bizarre effects. Like storms and tectonic disturbances.

“One day—I vow to you—everything will be clear.” With that, Tumu stomped back into the cockpit and flew the plane through a thunderstorm.

Caedes plopped in the seat beside Tameka and Pax with a groan he attempted to suppress. On an exhale, he muttered, “Callahan is safe. I’m sure nothing could best her even in her sleep.” The Icarus rubbed the center of his chest—over his brain—as if tending a headache.

Checking on the group, Tameka glanced back at Chris. No change. She much preferred him cracking jokes and doing hero stuff. Jack turned to Ross, and the two conversed about Enki. Plans of utilizing resources there to find Bethany on Lukemore. Possibly taking a break from Story Circle.

“You’ll need to make an address, Jack,” Chris called out from the back.

The young man turned for some eye contact. “Right. You’re right. I’ll do that when we land.”

“What will we do? From a global leadership standpoint?” Ross asked some hard questions.

They all looked to Tameka as the highest-ranking officer on the plane. A Progeny, she earned a certain amount of leadership more esteemed than that of the King Regent. She looked down at the future in her lap. After his beautiful display of pure kindness, Pax tuckered out and snored in the hammock he made of her skirt. They were fighting for him.

“When we land, I’ll call an audience with the Eminents to discuss the terms of the declaration of war. Ross, I want you with me. It’s the best way to check on travel permissions to other planets. While we do that, Jack, you reach out to Earth and enact a state of emergency. But only mention the public places, okay? The chateau and the quantum communicator. Don’t mention the Arsenal or the nacre chamber. Caedes, I know you’re hurt—”

He gruffly chuffed at her understatement and winced from the movement.

“—But I need you to reach out to The Brethren and find out their next steps so Jack can report the public-facing ones. Chris, you get Karter to medical and you get me some good news. If you speak to a Tritan, stay civil but discuss nothing in detail. Are your objectives clear? Do you have any questions?”

“We heard you loud and clear, Fury,” Ross answered firmly.

Caedes nodded gently with pride shining in his eyes.

Chris answered with a soft, “Roger.”

As she met their gazes with renewed hope and love, Tameka gripped her chain. Jack noticed and did the same. Ross and Caedes followed.

From the back, Chris repeated the Shadow’s pledge, “We will always remain.”