“No. I’m not. I’m dying. Whatever you did to me is killing me.”
The Nexus pointed glanced down his nose at Thomar first, then Varin. My mates stirred in my mind, fighting the Nexus unit’s control. They were close, close enough to rise and destroy him. Knowing they were with me again, I reached for them through our mating collars. Not yet. I am fine. Not. Yet.
Still ignoring Helion, the Nexus moved that black, heartless gaze to me. “You are three. You must survive.”
“What are you talking about?”
The Nexus blinked and I was gone, out of my body, my mind his. I saw what he wanted me to see.
A war. Battleships. Fighting.
Not with the Prillons. Not with the Coalition ships. With someone else.
Somethingelse. The things the Hive fought had no ships. No weapons I could see. They were darkness, moving darkness.
What are they?I asked, mind to mind.
The enemy.
I thought we were your enemy.
You are a resource that is nearly exhausted. We must adapt.With those words my vision switched to a medical setting. Multiple locations. Dozens of attempts to breed with Coalition females of all races. Their experiments were brutal. Cold. Clinical. And failures. Every single one.
Until now.
I staggered as he forced me to open my eyes and see the babies here, in this room.
“I don’t understand.”
He tilted his head as if irritated and my vision changed again. Once more I was in deep space, but this time the battle was huge, an entire solar system filled with explosions. Ships. Death.
The Hive were on one side, thousands of integrated fighters from the Coalition charging forward to fight an enemy I did not understand. Thousands of fighters fell. Destroyed. Every planet, rock and moon soaked in Coalition blood.
Angry, I pulled away from the vision. “Why don’t you fight your own war?”
“We are few. You are many.”
“Why didn’t you ask for help?” I felt sorry for this thing now, and I hated that. I felt Thomar stirring in my mind, fighting his desire to protect me, forcing himself to remain still. The Nexus unit’s focus was on me and not my mates. If Thomar decided to attack, the Nexus would have no time to escape.
The Nexus unit made a noise that sounded like an alarm of some kind. “We stood before Emperor Alamar Arcas and did as you suggest. We were refused.”
Shock jolted through Thomar’s body. Confusion. Thomar stood slowly, his hands up in a gesture that matched the blue creature’s pose. Palms out. “That was hundreds of years ago.”
“And has your answer changed, Arcas? You are here, killing my soldiers, ignoring our struggle. Still you deny the inevitable result of our failure.”
“What failure?” Thomar asked.
“When we fall, you fall.”
Wait. What? I was new to space but this entire conversation made no sense to me.
“I am not the emperor. Prillon Prime is not ruled by the Arcas family.”
The Nexus tilted its head. “I smell your blood, royal. I see Alamar Arcas in your face.”
“I speak the truth. An Arcas has not ruled Prillon Prime for hundreds of years.”
“Interesting. I shall take this information back to the others.” The Nexus unit literally disappeared into thin air.