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Chapter 56

CHAPTER 56

ALINA

F ive days before the jump, the air was heavy with both anticipation and a kind of haze. The whole ship was in limbo, not least because of the palpable shift in Threxin's approach to the human occupants.

On the one hand, Threxin tightened security. He wanted to minimize the risk that someone would enact a rebellion so close to the jump. Alina had deduced that she was the only person told of the specific timing of the upcoming jump. She'd gathered that Orion Halen had been warned in rough terms, since he'd have to be the one to provide the target coordinates. Of course, that would mean Kaia had the same information. But the rest of the population were only told that Colossal was headed to a potential New Earth that they'd be forced to cohabit with the uhyre. That was, after all, the crux of their choice: that, or Heaven.

The upcoming jump was not announced to people, but Threxin fully believed that Orion and Kaia had every reason to blab about what rough information they had and try to stir up trouble. Their begrudging collaboration had been very much forced, and though Alina was hoping they'd grow to see that things didn't have to be all that bad, she didn't blame Threxin for taking extra precautions .

On the other hand, the uhyre adopted a visibly softer approach to their handling of what they had considered to be human "pests." More food rations were doled out, the CRD medbays had been restocked, and the rig remained open to all who wanted to try their lot in Heaven. Perhaps that in part accounted for the slowing trickle of Uploads in the medbay.

Alina had long since given up her triage runs for Kaia. The former commander's wife made clear she wanted nothing to do with her, now more than ever. But she did make a habit of spending time in the observer pit in the command center daily, listening, picking up what she could.

Alina wasn't sure if Threxin didn't realize just how much Apthian she'd managed to pick up or if he just didn't care, but he seemed very open with his discussions with Renza, talking everything from timelines to population numbers.

Five hundred people had died since the uhyre's arrival. Just over two thousand more chose to Upload, with the trickle of new volunteers slowing as the days wore on. That left about five thousand people on the ship—still more than Threxin's mandated limit.

Alina would have to ask him about that, and soon. She gnawed her lip, staring absently at the line connecting Threxin to the ship as blood trickled down the tube. Who would've thought the lifeblood of one of the last great ships to leave Old Earth would be that of the very creatures they were running from?

"You weren't entirely wrong."

"Hmm?" A familiar voice startled Alina out of her ruminations. She tensed when she noticed Kaia in the seat beside her, slumped with one foot propped on the carbon cushion. Was she about to get another verbal lashing about how much of a traitorous disappointment she was? She was already getting dirty looks left and right from the crew—maybe she could slip away and avoid yet more public humiliation.

"I said you weren't wrong," she said, keeping her volume low as she glanced over at Threxin and Renza deep in conversation fifty feet away. "I thought about it… And Orion talked some sense into me. After the invasion, this was the best outcome many of them could have hoped for: alive and with an option to Upload or find their New Earth. Uhyre aside, I bet some of them would rather be in Heaven than on New Earth anyway."

"I get where you were coming from. The limiters make them… logical," Alina said, unable to thwart the familiar compulsion to make concessions. "And logically it makes perfect sense for him to kill us all as soon as he has the coordinates to his planet."

"I have seen him here, with you. He'd gladly kill everyone else, I'd bet," Kaia scoffed. "But he won't, because he knows it'd destroy you. He doesn't give a shit about any of these people, but he looks at you the way Orion looks at me."

Alina swallowed the lump growing in her throat and batted at something in her eye. She didn't really know what to say. She was finally getting some concession from Kaia Halena, but it didn't come with the sort of satisfaction it would've just weeks ago.

"I was going to Upload too," Kaia murmured, looking down at her hands folded atop her propped-up knee.

" You? " Alina nearly choked on the word. She stared as Kaia sucked her lower lip between her teeth and issued a curt nod at her hands.

"To keep a promise," she said. "But then you were right about other things too."

Alina frowned, trying to decipher the words. "What do you mean?"

She did suspect, just a tiny bit, what Kaia might tell her next. It was enough to make her pulse quicken and her breath to hold. The suspicion grew when Kaia glanced over at Threxin once more, hesitating before finally leaning closer to Alina and barely whispering the admission: "I'm pregnant. "

Alina bit back a stupid smile and a big told you so. What was she supposed to do now? Congratulate her? Was she even happy? She wasn't smiling. Instead, her gaze was fixed on Threxin, a frown denting her brow.

"When did you find out?"

"Two days ago. Your guess was… premature. It's not far along. Quite the coincidence, huh?" Kaia huffed out a shaky laugh.

"Yeah…"

"Look," she said, finally, looking Alina in the eye. "He's going to find out eventually. Is he going to hurt this baby?"

Alina's first instinct was of fucking course not .

But would he? Threxin's priority was still keeping command of Colossal and, later, their new planet. Would he see Orion's heir as a threat to his leadership?

"I won't let him," Alina insisted, her hand hovering over Kaia's for a moment before remembering touch wasn't exactly a form of comfort for her. "Is it okay if I talk to him? He'll listen if I ask, I promise."

Alina was so sure Kaia was going to reject the proposition and shut her down, only her head bobbed in a series of nods instead. "I saw the change in Threxin once he got the NS. I saw how he listens to you. If anyone can keep him from doing something horrible to this baby, it's you. So yeah… please talk to him."

This was it, Alina realized. The first time ever that Kaia Halena had actually trusted her with something real. A few weeks ago she'd have been ecstatic, redoubled her efforts to keep that little flame of connection going.

Alina looked to the man—the alien—who had given her his confidence before he even really knew her. Who relied on her from the beginning, even when she was supposed to be his enemy. That was what real trust was supposed to look like. She watched Kaia as she stared down at her hands again, wringing her fingers. She hoped to help her stop worrying as soon as she spoke to Threxin. There was one thing, though, that could make the job of convincing Threxin that Kaia and Orion's child would be no threat difficult.

"And your plan?" Alina brought her voice lower still, barely mouthing the question. Kaia's broadcast had already been sent out. If someone were to respond, it was out of Kaia's hands.

She scoffed. "Clearly didn't come to shit. And when Orion found out he was furious."

"You mean he didn't know?" How could Kaia not have told him she had this big scheme going to get him back in command?

"He saw it the way you did… There was no way it was working out without some or all of us dying. I thought I had no other choice," Kaia pressed her mouth into a thin line. "But there's always a choice, and even more of them now, thanks to you. You were a good assistant, Alina. I know I wasn't what you'd hoped for, but?—"

"Kaia, please shut up." Alina cough-laughed through a sudden sob, tossing her bangs in her face. She acknowledged the tendril of foreign concern seeping into her mind and stroked it away.

I'm fine, she subcommunicated to Threxin.

We're all going to be fine.

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