Sure enough, an hour passed with no word from Bruvan or his crew on the second shuttle. Angh paced the tiny confines of the rear of the shuttle, the two Prillon warriors pressed with their backs to the wall to give the agitated beast as much room as possible. Even with their accommodation, he could only take three steps before turning to repeat the process.
I was used to this, to Bruvan’s head games. He claimed he took so long to make his decisions because he needed to analyze all the data first. But he and I knew the truth. The real analysis went on inside our minds, where the special NPUs we both had implanted in our skulls worked overtime breaking down Hive communication and codes.
I was support only. Both Commander Karter and Commander Bruvan had made that absolutely clear. So I hadn’t butted my nose in Bruvan’s business. But something wasn’t right. I was sure Bruvan could feel it, too. That was probably why he hesitated now. And Angh’s pacing? I had a hunch that Atlan beast could hear a lot more than he wanted to.
“Do you hear it, Angh? The deep hum in the background? Behind the buzzing of the others?”
“Yes.”
I stood, walking toward him. “What do you think it is?” I wanted his take on it, in case I was mistaken, or making things up in my head.
“It’s their mother.”
“Yes!” I jumped up and hugged him briefly. As he stood, stunned, I rushed back to the copilot seat and pulled up the communication with the other shuttle.
“Commander Bruvan, this is Commander Phan. Do you copy?”
“This is Captain Morzan. Commander Bruvan is not onboard, Commander.”
“What?” I felt my jaw go slack. “What do you mean, he’s not onboard? And why wasn’t I told?”
“Orders, sir.” The Prillon warrior was unapologetic.
“Can you patch me through to him?”
“Yes, Commander.” Izak paused a moment and I could hear him moving in his bulky armor. He was a big Prillon warrior, with a very nice… I cut that thought off before I could finish it. “Commander Bruvan. Do you read?”
“This is Bruvan. Go ahead, Captain.” Bruvan’s voice was distant, coming from his helmet audio. I knew where he and his team were—floating in space with jet pods strapped to their backs.
“Commander, this is Commander Phan. Where are you?”
“We are approaching a nexus point of the grid.”
“Why wasn’t I told? What is the plan?” I was fuming, anger welling inside me like a volcano. How dare he endanger all of us, his crew and mine, simply because he didn’t like me? Let us sit here and stew for an hour while he suits up and goes on a space walk with his entire team? Asshole.
“It’s need to know.”
“As your support team, I believe we need to know, sir.” The sir came out closer to a snarl, but I didn’t care.
He sighed, audibly, as if I were the most annoying human being in this sector of space. “Very well, Commander. We are approaching the nearest nexus point along the grid. Once there, my demolition team will place explosives and destroy it, creating a chain reaction that should bring down the entire net.”
I cleared my throat and Angh’s snarl let me know he was thinking the exact same thing. “That won’t work, sir. One of our freighters hit the net a few hours ago. It destroyed the ship, but the net remained in place.”
Commander Bruvan’s reply was short. “We are using a very special type of explosive, Phan. Designed for this type of situation.”
My head began moving side to side be
fore he even stopped talking. “Sir, there is an object floating behind the net controlling them all. If you listen closely, you will hear an almost imperceptible rumble. Warlord Anghar and I believe it is coming from some kind of master control mechanism.”
Angh spoke to Bruvan. “It’s their mother. It controls all of them.”
Commander Bruvan was silent for a full two minutes, and I held my breath as he was most likely listening with the same experimental NPU that I had. Surely, he would hear it. He had to. There were too many lives at risk for a mistake.
“I hear nothing, Commander Phan. And Warlord Anghar, all due respect, you are too heavily contaminated with Hive technology to give a trustworthy opinion.”
Angh growled, but I held out my hand to keep him back from the pilot area. “Bruvan, please listen to me. Commander Karter wanted Warlord Anghar on this mission for a reason. He wanted us all here for a reason. We have to work together, not fight one another and not get caught up in the past. Please. I am telling you, blowing up one mine isn’t going to do any good. We have to take out the mother.”
Beside me, Dorian had my back. “Taking out any more of their mines could trigger a full-scale Hive assault, Commanders. One hit could be attributed to flying debris, a meteor or asteroid. Space junk. But two might tip the scales, alert them to the battlegroup’s presence here.”