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  Hawthorn shook his head negatively. "This is just one example. I ran a calculation. To bring the two engines to minimal level of operation would require over two months of constant production from the replicator currently in Loose Nuts’ possession. And even that ignores the necessity of redundant systems."

  I sighed. It was an accepted fact that engine, navigation, and life support systems required at least a single redundancy. "That's the bad news, right?" I asked. "You're not about to tell me we need to scrap the engines too, are you?"

  The man's eyebrows shot up and he nodded his head, smiling reassuringly. I suspected he hadn't appreciated being given the task of telling me about the systems. "No, not at all. That was the really bad news," he said enthusiastically. "The Pogona engine design is ingenious and with attention, we could more than double output and increase efficiency by a factor of six. The thing is, they've been so poorly maintained, that they're choking with too much fuel forced down their throats. It'll take work and we'll have to manufacture parts, but they're definitely keepers. She'll never be a racer, but I think you'll be surprised what a difference good maintenance will make."

  "Could you get started on the engines while we come up with a way to manufacture new control circuits?" I asked.

  Hawthorn looked from me back to Munay, who nodded his agreement. "Aye, aye. We'll get right on it," Hawthorn answered. I wasn’t sure if he was answering to me or Munay.

  Marny, on the other hand, wasn't quite as quick to let it go. "Lieutenant Hawthorn," she asked with her raised, command voice, while stepping into Hawthorn's personal space. "Would you explain the chain of command aboard Hornblower as you understand it?"

  "Um," he stammered, looking nervously from Marny to Munay.

  "Hawthorn! Are you ignoring a superior officer's question while she's standing in your face?" Marny's voice filled the entire room and I cringed.

  "I guess I assumed we still reported to Commander Munay," he said, sweat forming on his brow as his attention snapped back to Marny.

  "Stand down, Gunny," Munay said calmly. "We're all after the same thing here."

  Marny spun on her heel and I could have sworn that fire was about to shoot out of her eyes. "Mister Munay, out of respect for your years of service to Mars Protectorate, I'll keep this short and to the point. There is no chain of command that doesn't end at Liam Hoffen. If you or Mr. Hawthorn can't get on board with that, I am positive there are any number of jobs in civilian life on planet Zuri that either of you would be well suited for. Are we clear?"

  Munay raised an eyebrow as he looked from Marny to me and I answered his unasked question. "It's easy enough, Greg. You swore an oath to me, but perhaps you have unfinished business with Mars Protectorate that needs your attention. I'd love to have your assistance, but I'm not going to have my orders questioned and I won't be put in a position where I question the loyalty of my crew."

  "You can't do this without us," he said evenly.

  "Maybe not," I said. My HUD showed that Marny had formed a tactical team channel and that Tabby would arrive at our position in twenty seconds. "That was not my question. You need to know that I will shoot, or order shot, any crew that participate in mutiny. I’m surprised I need to explain this to you."

  Soft footsteps landed on the deck behind me and my HUD showed that Tabby, my fiancée and all-around bad-ass best friend, had arrived. With her by my side, I truly had nothing to fear. In short, she was considerably faster and stronger than any human should be, thanks to reconstruction by the Navy’s best doctors. Tabby had lost most of her limbs when the Naval ship she was on was destroyed by pirates. She'd also had an unusual reaction to the synthetic tendons and muscles, only increasing her speed, strength and agility.

  "You don't need to escalate this," Munay said. "It was a simple mistake."

  "Glad to hear it," I said.

  "You don't need to escalate this, Sir!" Marny corrected.

  Munay pursed his lips in a small frown. "Sir. I apologize for my insolent behavior," he said. Anger flashed in his eyes, but to his credit he kept his voice even. "As I have not formally discussed rank with you, I apparently made assumptions that are onerous and have directed Mr. Hawthorn inappropriately. I remain dedicated to the pledge I made on Hornblower's deck after the Battle of Kameldeep. Although I am no longer in a position to speak for the other Mars Protectorate personnel, I believe my statement holds true for each of us. I ask that you find the fault in this misunderstanding to be my own and not hold Mr. Hawthorn accountable."

  "Thank you," I said. "Are we good, Marny?" I asked.

  "We are," she said. "I will communicate a formal chain of command to all personnel, so we can avoid confusion. Will that be acceptable, Mister Munay?"

  "Yes, Ma'am," he replied.

  Chapter 2

  Piscivoru

  Sklisk awoke and flicked the tip of his tongue from his mouth, tasting the humid air of his rocky nest. The smell of his mate, Jaelisk, next to him and their brood only a few arm lengths away filled him with pride. It was the responsibility of every Piscivoru to grow a strong family, and their boys – Baelisk and Boerisk – had brought honor to his line.

  Reaching over Jaelisk, Sklisk twisted and stretched, just able to touch their nest's rocky ceiling. Grasping with first one clawed hand and then the other, he lifted his torso and twisted so his stomach was flat against the warm rock. Turning his ankles, he locked onto the wall with clawed feet and crawled quietly to the edge of the family's nest. Preferring a vertical orientation, he rounded onto the cavern's sheer face, careful not to drag his tail across his mate.

  "Skli, where are you going?" Jaelisk's voice was nothing more than a whisper on the pale blue vapors rising from the deep pools six counts of fall beneath him.

  "I seek morning sustenance and to rid myself of this skin," he hissed back quietly, not wanting to wake the overly active Baelisk and Boerisk.

  "I wanna come."

  "I wanna come."

  Sklisk's secondary eyelids blinked in understanding at the failure of his stated objective. He sighed as his boys skittered out onto the wall from their rocky beds, their tongues flicking excitedly, tasting the air. An armlength-and-a-half long, with torsos not much wider than the base of his tail, they were only six cycles grown.

  Now that his sons were awake, Sklisk knew there was no fight to be won. He would have to find another private moment to scrape the weathered skin from his body. Piscivoru never stopped growing. It was perfectly natural to outgrow one's skin, but considered a sign of immaturity to be seen peeling away the dead skin. So much so, that he'd never seen more than a slight pouch that was loose on Jaelisk. The deep brown along her back, the dusty-tan of her stomach, and the fiery-red top scales were always smooth beneath his touch.

  "Boys, give your father a moment to tend to his needs," Jaelisk said, sliding onto the wall with her family. "Sklisk, I will take them to water's edge and collect pouches for our journey."

  Sklisk blinked his translucent eyelids at his mate in appreciation. The boys would do as she said as they knew she would brook few arguments.

  "Aw, do we have to? Can't we go to the quarry before school? All the broodlings are doing it," Baelisk argued.

  Sklisk winced, his lids shuttering fast, twice. Baelisk was a strong-spirited child and seemed to demand that all lessons be learned more than once. Faster than could be tracked, Jaelisk's tail lashed out and detached the boy from the cavern wall. With nothing to hold him, he fell toward the luminescent blue pools, tumbling in the humid air.

  Jaelisk released her hold and straightened her body to fall after him. Unlike the tumbling boy, she fell in a line as straight as spider's silk, overtaking her son as he rushed toward the waters below, pushing him into position. Sklisk flicked his tongue nervously as he followed their progress into the warm waters.

  "Ohh, he was almost bug guts," Boerisk said, impressed, as he scurried downward after them.

  Sklisk knew it was an exaggeration. Tumbling for a six count would be pa
inful upon entering the waters, but nowhere near fatal. The lower nests were given to pairings because of that very reason, as it wasn't uncommon for broodlings to become detached as they grew.

  Releasing his grasp on the rock face, Sklisk aligned himself to grab Boerisk as he passed.

  "Dad, stop," Boerisk complained as he arrested Sklisk's fall for only a moment before being torn from the wall. "I think you broke my claw."

  Sklisk closed all three eyelids as he straightened out and entered the waters. A moment later, he opened the outer two and paused to enjoy the underwater grotto's brilliant blue crystals. He rushed along, propelling himself by quickly swishing his strong body and tail from side to side. Taking advantage of his surroundings, he slid behind an outcropping of jagged crystals and felt the satisfying scrape as hard-to-reach skin peeled away from between his shoulder blades and lower neck.

  "Ooh, gross," Baelisk said, vibrating his tongue in the water to communicate.

  "You look like such a delicious little grub," Sklisk said and flicked his powerful tail, turning to chase the already-fleeing troublemaker. The child squirted through the underwater grotto and turned toward a hole no more than two hand-breadths wide. If Baelisk was allowed to enter such a small space, Sklisk would not be able to follow. Fortunately, as fast as the boy was, Sklisk was faster. An expert swimmer, he caught his son only moments before losing him to the grotto's many hidey-holes. Sklisk raked his claws down the light-brown scales which ran along the boy's back. The move both served to stop the boy and convey Sklisk's affection.

  "Don't eat me, big pokey monster," Baelisk trilled in delight.

  Sklisk reached around and jabbed the boy's soft stomach scales with sharpened claws and was rewarded with a tiny bubble of air escaping from one of the boy's nostrils.

  "Stop – I'm gassing," Baelisk complained, still giggling and trailing a thin line of bubbles.

  The Piscivoru had the capacity to stay submerged for upwards of twenty minutes if they conserved captured air within their lungs. Exertion reduced this time considerably as did 'gassing,' which simply meant releasing the oxygen they'd captured. Unlike other oxygen breathers, this species separated oxygen from the atmosphere and stored it for later use.

  "Okay," Sklisk agreed, releasing his often orneriest of sons. "Why don't you come with me to the kill. We will bring morning sustenance for Boer and mother." He caught his wife's eye as she swam past and acknowledged his plan with a subtle flick of her tongue, no more than a claw’s width out of her mouth.

  "Really?" Baelisk asked.

  It was unusual to take a juvenile so far up in the caverns, but Sklisk and Jaelisk were leaving on a clan mission that might take as long as a full count of moon cycles. The boys would need to know how to retrieve daily food and Baelisk was the best-equipped for the task.

  "Only if you can catch me," Sklisk said and turned abruptly, following the path of a bubble to the pool's surface.

  He waited at the water's edge for only a moment before Baelisk broke the surface and leapt onto the wall. The two raced up the sheer face, rocketing past their home and climbing well past the danger zone of ten-second falls. Of course, any decent Piscivoru knew that when falling from any distance, safety could be found by angling back toward the safety of the rock face.

  "How far up is the kill?" Baelisk asked curiously.

  "Ten hands of the bug warriors managed to reach the second lock," Sklisk answered.

  "Engirisk says we should use our numbers and not count by hands," Baelisk said, referring to a technically minded elder who taught the young and old alike.

  "Very well, how many bugs are ten hands?"

  "Fifty, father. That is so easy. But how did the bugs make it past the first lock? I thought their shells were too wide."

  "They used great machines to break through, Baelisk," Sklisk answered. "But you have nothing to fear. It took them forty cycles to pass through the first and it will take them another forty to pass the second. If they do, we bury the grotto and hide within the great under."

  "Frielisk says something has made the bug warriors angry and that they are attacking more than ever before. Why do they wish to kill us?"

  "They fear the Iskstar," he explained. "Before our eyes glowed with the Iskstar and we lived beneath the ground, we had a great civilization that lived beneath the yellow sun. Our ancestors lived peacefully in nests they built with our own great machines. There were multitudes and multitudes of our peoples and we were safe and happy."

  "But then the bug warriors came and attacked the people who lived beneath the sun," Baelisk said, repeating the lore that had been told to him time and time again. "And our great machines could not defend the peoples. And we had to hide in the ground and be protected by the Iskstar."

  "You listen well, Baelisk," Sklisk said, inwardly amused by his impatient son's highly shortened rendition of the last five hundred cycles of the Piscivoru species. Baelisk had heard the stories and eaten of the bug meat, but he had never seen the vast ruined cities nor the great bug armies that were intensely focused on rooting them out.

  They continued to squeeze through the upper passages, quietly greeting those they passed with blinks and tongue flicks. For as long as Sklisk could remember, the bug warriors had dug in his home world's stony ground, looking for the remnants of the once powerful Piscivoru. Great care had been taken to lead these bugs away from the shattered civilization that lived under the protection of the Iskstar. The warrior's presence at the second lock was worrisome as it showed the bugs were closer than ever before.

  "They're so big," Baelisk said, stopping at the edge of the rubble field where the bug warriors still lay. Even his father was not as long from forehead to tip of tail as a bug warrior. "How do they run?"

  "They stand vertically, as all Piscivoru used to," Sklisk said, pushing off the ground and raising onto his back legs so he stood straight. "Now we must hurry. You will be late for school."

  Sklisk pulled a glowing blue long-bladed dagger from the belt he wore around his waist, and sliced into a bug warrior's armor. He found it ironic that the very monsters that sought to destroy his people, were in fact most delicious. Working quickly, he slabbed enough food for Boerisk and Baelisk to survive for ten moon cycles. His Iskstar blade found no resistance in the alien bug's carapace as he cut. For a moment, he felt sorry for the bug who would feed his family. It had died beneath the ground far from home. His clan would devour its body and no trace of it would ever be found. It seemed pointless, although he appreciated its contribution to his family's health.

  "They are fearsome looking," Baelisk said, touching the tip of the bug's pincer with his open hand. " Its claws are very sharp. I would not enjoy fighting with it."

  Sklisk turned his Iskstar blade over in his hand and held the handle out to Baelisk. "When we are gone, you are responsible for retrieving food for our family. You will defend your brother first and then our clan. We stand together …"

  Baelisk looked nervously at his father and then back to the dagger. "So that we may all live." He finished his father's statement solemnly, accepting the blade.

  "Jaelisk, Sklisk, your bravery brings life to our people," the aged leader known as Noelisk said as the young couple stood in front of the small gathering of leaders. "A hand of moon cycles past, bug warriors broke through the second lock. Even though we destroyed those invaders, we know they have passed the scent of our ancestral home back to those that seek to destroy us."

  Sklisk blinked his eyelid in acknowledgement. The information was not new, but he understood Noelisk and the older Piscivoru found comfort in formality.

  "If this were not enough, the soul of Engirisk's machine has returned to the sun where it was born. While I do not adhere to Engirisk's teachings, I cannot deny the effectiveness of his machine's capacity to draw away the bug's advance. The people ask that you venture to the ancient city and find what Engirisk requests. Do you understand what is asked of you?"

  Sklisk blinked again. There was a subtle cultur
al war being waged within the remnant of Piscivoru. Among the several thousand souls, a growing percentage seemed to be reverting to a more animalistic state, preferring to live wild and free and to communicate with gestures over spoken language. Noelisk was one of those types and both Jaelisk and Sklisk were sympathetic, to a degree. There was little value in the education Engirisk and his faction had brought to the people. Life below was simple and with the constant threat of the bug warriors, hoping for a better life seemed to be folly.

  "Should we not just collapse the upper passages?" Jaelisk asked. "What has walking above given us beyond death?"

  Engirisk flicked his tongue, showing his desire to answer Jaelisk's question. "You are right to question, Jaelisk. I do not believe the Kroo Ack would stop attacking us even if we were to seal ourselves to the under. My machines are effective at leading the Kroo Ack away, and without them I believe the bugs will clear passage to the Iskstar grotto within one hundred fifty moon cycles. The Kroo Ack are as numerous as drops of water in the under. I do not ask that you choose education. I only ask that you restore my capability to deceive them."

  Jaelisk flicked her tongue in agitation. She was one of the growing faction that preferred a simpler life. For the peace of his family, Sklisk had avoided conflicting with her other than to send Baelisk and Boerisk to Engirisk's school.

  "We offer life to our people," Sklisk answered.

  Noelisk stood on weary hind legs and picked two objects from the table. At each end of the arm-length weapons, glowing blue Isktar crystals had been attached. Sklisk and Jaelisk accepted the weapons as they bowed their heads.

  "Taste of my device," Engirisk said, holding a small, flat device out to them. Obediently, they both ran their tongues across the alien device. "You will take this machine and follow its instructions only when you have entered the ruined city. The machine is not all-seeing and you must protect it while it is within your possession. It is fragile and must be cared for. Its loss would be devastating. It will help you locate the parts I require for my machines."