Seeing Cole on-screen sent Wyatt’s thoughts into chaos.
Ogen seemed to notice. “Don’t rush your decision. Even if you wanted to trade right now, I can’t ‘play’ with you. We’re already tens of thousands of kilometers away. I’d love to chat longer, but the signal could drop at any moment, so I’ll keep this short.”
Cole suddenly roared from off to the side, “Don’t agree to him! I’m not worth it—”
Before he could finish, someone slapped tape over his mouth.
Ogen continued smoothly.
“You’ve three days… no, five days to think. If it’s too hard, you can refuse. I don’t care. I’ve already given humanity an explanation, and this battle wasn’t my fault in the first place. Five days from now, we trade above Aurora Plateau. You get integrity. I get honor. Everybody wins. If you’re worried about fairness, bring every ship you’ve.”
It kept that disgusting smile. “I don’t care either.”
“What if he’s already dead?” Wyatt asked.
“Then we trade bodies,” Ogen answered without hesitation. “In short: whatever you do to our general, we do to Cole. Gunnar—am I right?”
Ogen turned to the figure holding the greatsword. Gunnar the Scarless Tyrant nodded. “Of course. Absolutely fair.”
The feed started to stutter. Ogen noticed too.
“Time to say goodbye,” it said. “And I’ve to compliment you—the way you fought this war was beautiful. I’m looking forward to our next…”
The hologram held a cheerful wave, but the link had already died—distance swallowing the signal.
“Bang!” Wyatt’s fist smashed the screen to pieces.
After forcing the scrambled data in its head back into order, it immediately shared the entire conversation video with the others.
Outside, the fighting was nearly over and victory was inevitable—but the news drained the joy from everyone in an instant.
Bit cursed until he ran out of new words. Little White started complaining about her luck again. Blin handed fleet control to Wyatt, then turned into the Nightmare and tore off in pursuit…
Half an hour later, the battle ended completely. Plando’s warships were wiped out. Fewer than fifty small ships escaped, and Ogen and Cole were clearly on one of them. If they’d rescued Cole, it would have been a perfect win.
Two hours later, Blin returned empty-handed.
Everyone gathered inside Deep Space Base No. 2 to decide what to do.
Blin and Bit kept cursing. The rest stayed silent.
When Blin’s profanity started looping, it finally spat out a decision. “We trade. We don’t have a choice.”
“Then this whole war was for nothing,” Bit snapped.
“It wasn’t,” Blin shot back. “Without Cole, we don’t win this battle at all. Cha-cha-cha… we can’t abandon a good man.”
“And it’s not for nothing,” Little White said. “We destroyed a quarter of Edean’s fleet.”
“I agree,” Merc said quietly. “Bit—we can’t forget our own values.”
Bit threw up his hands. “Hey—Merc, you think I’m that kind of person? But have you thought this through? We killed a lot today, sure—but Edean still has three times our strength. And Ogen wants us to meet at Aurora Plateau? That’s obviously a trap.”
Silence stretched.
Little White elbowed Wyatt. “You haven’t said a word. What do you think?”
“I agree to the exchange,” Wyatt said. “And I agree with Bit’s concern. But there’s another problem too.”
Little White’s eyes widened. “Right. We don’t even know if Graham will survive.”
…
Later that day, Wyatt went to the base’s medical bay. After the fighting, Graham had been moved here.
Aside from the guards outside, only Mesha was inside. When Wyatt entered, she quickly turned her head and wiped her face. When she looked back, the tear tracks were still there.
Wyatt glanced at Graham in the pod. His head was wrapped in thick bandages. His body was strapped down. Clear tubes ran into his nose and wrists. His skin was the color of a corpse.
“How is he?” Wyatt asked.
“He’ll live,” Mesha said, voice thin. “But there’s brain damage. He has seizures sometimes. I don’t know when he’ll wake up—if he wakes up.”
“We just voted,” Wyatt said. “Everyone agreed: we trade Graham for Cole. We leave in three days.”
“Thank you…” Mesha’s voice broke. “But Ogen said… whatever happens to the general happens to Cole. What if they do this to my dad too?!”
Wyatt’s chest went tight with a sudden surge of guilt. It tried to find something to say—some comfort, some promise.
In the end, it could only tell the truth.
“I… don’t know.”
Mesha covered her mouth and started to sob. Wyatt stood there awkwardly, muttered a few clumsy reassurances, then backed out.
Deep Space Base No. 2 was filled with engineering robots. Some repaired internal systems; some piled wreckage into mountains and hauled it away in small freighters to the furnace-recycling plants. Ships that were still potentially dangerous were dragged far out and blown apart. Dorian and Dancer oversaw most of it, and they were likely running ragged.
Wyatt walked between heaps of scrap, thinking through the problems ahead as it headed toward one of the docks.
Voices arguing sharply made it pause.
It followed the sound and found Rowan Finch and Boka red-faced, circling a machine about waist-high. The moment they saw Wyatt, they fell quiet.
“What is that?” Wyatt asked.
“My invention,” Rowan Finch said quickly. “A signal simulator.”
“What does it do?”
“It can infiltrate Edean’s network and temporarily spoof the highest authority—broadcasting commands to every robot under it.”
“It can do that?” Wyatt froze. Its optical sensors flared.
“Ha. Childish,” Boka sneered. “No chance.”
Wyatt looked to Rowan Finch. The man flushed. “Right now, it can send the commands… but it might not be able to make them execute.”
“That’s like talking to a rock,” Boka laughed.
Boka turned to Wyatt. “Lord Wyatt—I’m on the mechanical crew too. That ‘command’ is basically the most low-grade virus imaginable. Even if it worked, Ogen’s compute can pinpoint our location in under three minutes.”
“I said I’m not finished,” Rowan Finch snapped. “Don’t jump to conclusions.”
“You can’t finish,” Boka fired back. “Your base code is wrong. The Integrity’s transmitter isn’t compatible with Plando’s. You’re wasting time.”
“Boka,” Wyatt said, “let him complete it first. If it really works, it could be a weapon strong enough to decide the final outcome.”
“Yes, sir.” Boka immediately nodded.
“Where’s your captain?” Wyatt asked.
“Uh… I think she went back to her room.”
…
Wyatt had last separated from Linneya before the battle began. The pre-war tension had left the newly appointed captain of the Integrity anxious and shaky. She’d insisted she wasn’t scared, but she’d kept clutching Wyatt’s hand until she learned the Azure Thunder wasn’t coming. Then she finally let go—relieved, but strangely empty.
Since they weren’t needed in the fight, the Integrity and the support fleet had been stationed at the safest rear position for the entire battle, until it ended.
After speaking with Boka and Rowan Finch, Wyatt went straight to Linneya’s room.
It knocked gently.
No answer.
Probably asleep, it thought.
After waiting a moment, Wyatt turned to leave, planning to come back later.
Then a message from Big Blue slammed into its inbox.
“Wyatt—where are you? Linneya… something’s happened.”
“What?!” Wyatt’s head felt like a bomb had gone off. “Where is she?”
“Medical bay! Hurry!”
“Medical bay? I was just there.”
Wyatt ran—hard. In under a minute it burst into the medical wing.
A crowd blocked Graham’s room. Dorian, Big Blue, and Dancer were all there, but none of them dared to move. They only kept talking into the room, pleading, until they saw Wyatt and hurriedly made a path.
Wyatt heard Linneya’s sobbing first.
Then it saw the scene—and couldn’t believe it.
The girl was curled up in the corner, but she was holding an FBZ rifle that hadn’t been there before, muzzle aimed straight at Graham’s pod.
Mesha stood with her hands raised between the pod and the barrel, helpless. “Don’t do this! Linneya—you don’t want to shoot me, do you?”
“Move,” Linneya cried through tears. “Let me kill this bad man!”
She spotted Wyatt and shouted, “Wyatt! Help me! They’re going to let him go!”
The rifle was chambered. Worse, it had been switched to the grenade magazine. Linneya’s finger was pressed tight to the trigger, and her thin arms shook violently under the weapon’s weight.
Wyatt lunged forward, stepping in front of Mesha.
“Linneya,” it said urgently, “don’t do this. Give me the gun.”
“I’m not messing around!” Linneya sobbed. “Have you all forgotten Sister Starling and the others?!”
She stumbled back a few steps, voice breaking as she screamed, “You don’t want revenge? You don’t want to avenge her? He’s the one who got them killed! Why are you saving him? Why?!”
Her tears poured harder, and the rifle’s muzzle wavered more and more. Linneya’s whole body shook, caught between grief and rage—and the grenade magazine sat there like a fuse waiting to be lit.