{Earth}

“Hey, I thought you might want a snack.”

Lynn turned to find Lamassau in the lab’s doorway. The space was empty save for her since Legir went to bed. She was surprised the boys had finished with Battle of the Crawlers so soon. He held a plate of nibbles and a glass of milk. She set down the nacre she examined and smiled for the Tritan.

“Thanks. I’m starving.”

That wasn’t true. Lynn could still feel the cheesecake in her gut, but maybe she wasn’t digesting it well because she needed something with meat.

Lam handed over the provisions, looked around the lab, and blew the air from his cheeks. He asked the obvious question. “Learn anything yet?”

Feeling suddenly heavy, Lynn sat down. “Not one inconsistency so far. Legir’s results are the same. I’m better at building weapons against nacres. I think Pablo and Xelan are more suited to find if anything’s wrong. We’ll need to take all these samples back with us.” She took a second to look over the expansive room littered with the amber glass pearls. “It’s a big job.”

“Worthwhile.” Rolling a nacre like a marble, Lamassau continued his explanation. “I told Conscience back when this conversation started, I didn’t think it was a good idea to trust Enki-supplied anything.”

“He sure did,” Andrew called from the door. “Mind if we come in?”

Lynn smiled at her boys. “By all means.” Then she noticed the frown on Andrew’s face. “What is it?”

Cypher and Colton followed with similar expressions. Colton’s heavy dreads swayed down to his waist, and he recently added some more muscle to his already considerable bulk, preparing. “Sorry to bother you, Chief.” That was probably the most words she heard from him in a single conversation.

“But we need to show you something.” The hazel-eyed soldier, Cypher, still passed as a blond frat boy. He plugged a drive into one of the lab’s many terminals.

Lynn checked their grim faces before settling to watch the footage on the screen. It was of the Iona Arsenal’s observation room outside the Faraday Cage. The day the detainees and Inanis copies attacked. There was Lynn, John, and Caedes carrying Devis out. Smith volunteered to stay behind and guard the…

“No.”

Was all Lynn managed to say before T.a.o. appeared further down the corridor, followed by Celindria and an entire horde of black-clad operatives.

Smith let them right inside the secret weapon room.

Lynn was oblivious to her tears until they scalded her cheeks. Her voice sounded detached from her as she said, “That son of a bitch.” His betrayal continued to masticate her already raw wound.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Andrew, the only other person she knew who understood, placed a gentle hand on her back. “What did they take from there?”

Cypher looked expectantly at her. Colton was generous enough to keep his lids low. Lamassau narrowed his eyes at the screen, watching as operative after operative transported the weapon from the most secure facility in the Shadow.

Lynn swallowed a dry lump of heartache before answering, “The colossal Tantamount.”

Andrew cursed. Cypher’s eyes doubled in size. Colton shook his head.

Lamassau shrugged. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing they detonated it yesterday on L. Capra—”

“No.” Elden, this hurt Lynn to say. “That wasn’t the colossal. That was a regular Tantamount. This one is a hundred times more catastrophic—a hundred thousand if placed on a tectonic singularity. Nox meant to use it on the Yellowstone caldera, on the North American continental divide. Earth was facing volcanic winter if we’d lost on Volcano Day.”

Pausing the footage, Andrew asked, “Do we have any idea where they might use it?”

Lynn dragged a hand down her face and shook her head, bewildered and horrified all at once. “For all I know, they may stick with Nox’s original plan. To force us out. That’s a smart strategy. But so many other planets are tectonically unstable. They could use it on any of them.”

“Then we’ll need to prepare,” Tempest said from the hall.

Dolor followed behind her. “We’ll spread the word to monitor any volatile sites. They won’t get the chance to use it here.”

Cypher asked a scary question. “Do you know if there’s any way to diffuse it?”

Lynn certainly did, and she still relived nightmares of that day.

Wasting no time, Lynn ran to the Tantamount’s lift.

Bones called out to her, “You don’t need to do this.”

“Yes, I do. I won’t let him do this alone. He’ll die.” She reached to hail the elevator when it suddenly whirred from below. “What’s happening? Is he down there?”

Bones’ tone went from somber to impatient. “That’s what I was trying to tell you—” Caedes put his hand on Bones’ shoulder to stay the warrior.

Pablo stood inside the lift. “Hey.”

She punched him in the shoulder, and he cried out. “Fuck! You’re strong.” He grinned at her sheepishly as he rubbed the site.

Her voice cracked on a sob. “I thought you were planning on dying like some hero without me.”

Bones confirmed, “He was.”

Lynn punched him again, half-heartedly.

“Ouch. Baby, I’m all right.”

“Blood. It’s always blood. A good deal of it, if I recall correctly. Where the sacrifice of nacre energy arms the weapon, blood signals the machine to abort.” Lynn felt haunted by her mistake of trusting Smith. Haunted by her lineage of poor decision-makers. Were her parents blind cultists CoN members in every Probability? Or was there one out there where she wasn’t condemned with trust issues?

Lamassau picked up the snacks he brought her and started to eat. “Well,” he began while smacking, “Chief of Weapon’s Engineer, what’s our prognosis?”

Without another moment’s hesitation, Lynn took out the envelope in her pocket and handed it over to Tempest. “Will you give this letter to Pablo’s mother?”

The woman’s eyes widened before she bowed with her head. “I’ll ensure she receives it.” She left the room, presumably to deliver it.

Dolor stayed, glancing over Lynn and Legir’s failed research into the nacres. Cypher ejected the drive. Colton went to work on researching possible Tantamount locations. Lamassau finished eating the food he’d brought her.

It was Andrew that checked Lynn back into reality. “We’ll solve it. We always do.”

If Lynn was haunted, then that made Andrew another house full of ghosts. She took his hand and asked, “How do you manage?”

He squeezed back with a vacancy dulling his eyes. “Sarcasm and cheesecake. You know… like a Golden Girl.”

Laughter escaped Lynn, unexpected and full. And why not? This family was held together by nacre, and that sufficed for now.

Fuck Smith.

Fuck the Tantamount.

And fuck Imminent.

“Yo, Colton? Is there any cheesecake left?”