Jade nodded, head lowered. "I will not."
Sin Kra tapped the round implants embedded into Jade's skull. They thrust out from the shaved side of her head. The implants shone, casting blue light against his claws.
"I will have to calibrate your mind," he said.
Jade stepped back. "No! No, Father. I don't need another calibration."
"Clearly you do." Sin Kra chortled. "You stand stooped before me, shoulders slumped, head lowered, and you confess fear. What kind of apex predator confesses fear?"
"I am not afraid!" Jade said, straightening her back. "I am a proud huntress, and—"
"A huntress who dreams of being human!" Sin Kra said. He huffed and turned toward his servants. "Bring the cables."
"Father, no!" Jade cried. "Please! Not again!"
She tried to retreat, but he grabbed her. He held her tightly in his claws. She wriggled, trying to free herself, but he was so strong.
The furry arachnids approached, carrying cables tipped with crackling prongs. The servants hissed, eyes shining. They placed their bristly feet upon Jade.
"Father, no!" Jade said. "Plea—"
The arachnids plugged the cables into her implants.
Jade screamed.
Venom pumped into her, crackling, sizzling, filling her head, flowing through her skull and veins.
She tried to beg, but she couldn't even speak. Only scream.
She was drowning. Burning inside. The agony roared over her memories, crushing them, searing them, burying them. Acid flowed over her parents, that glittering cave, the girl she had been in her dream.
And in the ruins, she remembered.
She was a pale, translucent hatchling, a scorpion tearing through an egg.
She consumed her own mother, ripping into the flesh.
Her own father broke her, remolded her, reformed her into the Deceiver. A scorpion in human form. A great huntress to destroy the vermin.
Sin Kra stared at her, still gripping her, even as the venom kept pumping into her head.
"What are you?" the emperor demanded.
Jade could barely see him through the pain. Barely speak. She felt as if her teeth would fall out, would join the pile.
"What are you?" Sin Kra shrieked.
She managed to shove words past her lips. "I . . . am . . . Skra-Shen!"
"Who is your father?"
"You are, my emperor!"
"What is your task?" the emperor said.
"To slay humans!" she cried. "To slay them all!"
Sin Kra nodded and yanked out the cables. It felt like he had ripped off chunks of skull. Jade fell to her knees, panting, wheezing, weeping. She had bit her tongue, and coppery blood filled her mouth. She had wet herself. She knelt on the pile of teeth, hair crackling, her implants glowing, then fading.
"Rise, Jade of the Skra-Shen," said Sin Kra. "And hunt again."
She rose. She clenched her fists so tightly her palms bled.
"I will hunt them all!" she shrieked, her voice echoing through the cavern. "I was born here. I hatched from a great queen's egg, and I consumed her flesh. I am the huntress of the dark. I am the mistress of pain. I am the flayer, the queen of death! I will kill them all!"
She spun around, bounded across the chamber, and burst out into the searing landscape.
"Gather, my warriors!" she cried. "We fly out! We hunt! We kill!"
The scorpions gathered around her, howling for bloodshed. Jade licked the blood off her lips. She looked up at the blazing suns and smiled.
You're out there, Emet Ben-Ari. You're out there, humans. I will bring you back here, and your teeth will shatter under my boots.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
As the Nantucket rumbled toward the hollowed-out asteroid, Leona refused to look at her father. She sat in the cockpit, fists tight, jaw clenched.
"Leona." Sitting at the helm, Emet reached to pat her shoulder. "This is the right choice. We—"
She shoved his hand away. "Don't touch me."
He returned his hand to the controls. He stared forward again, piloting on in silence, brow furrowed.
Let him fume! Leona thought. He's dragging me here. To see her. That . . . creature.
Her lip peeled back in disgust. Ten years ago, as a girl of seventeen, Leona had flown this same path with Emet. They had come to see it. And it had betrayed them. Because of that creature, her womb was empty, her thigh was scarred, and—
Stop.
Leona forced deep breaths. She was still an Inheritor. She could not succumb to her pain. Humanity had never been in such danger, and she must be strong. But why, Ra above, did Emet want to return to the traitor?
Leona stared at the asteroid ahead. From the outside, it looked like any old rock. Hacksaw Cove was hidden from the galaxy. It didn't even orbit a star. Peacekeepers never came here. Most in Concord space didn't know this place existed. But outlaws, pirates, smugglers, and terrorists knew. So did the Heirs of Earth.
If you stole, bought, or sold forbidden data, Hacksaw Cove was your Mecca. Here was the gossip hub of every spy, conspirator, and detective in Concord space. You went to places like Paradise Lost for hookers, drugs, and grog. Hacksaw Cove was not about pleasure nor sin. This place was about information.
The asteroid was many kilometer wide, almost a micro-planet, and never in the same place. No star tethered it. Often it floated among many other asteroids, hidden in the crowd. Hacksaw Cove was nearly impossible to find, unless you had the right code. The Inheritors had paid quite a few scryls for this code.
As they moved closer, details on the asteroid emerged. Its surface was dark and craggy. There was no sign of civilization here. But there was a secret code engraved into the stone. Emet tapped at his keyboard, pulling up a two-dimensional hologram of a rocky asteroid, its surface covered with craters and mountains. He raised the holographic image, aligning it with the true asteroid that hovered outside.
When both images aligned—the true asteroid and the holographic one—new landforms appeared.
The combined images created a network of canals, spelling out words in Aelonian, the Concord's lingua franca:
Welcome, friend.
"We've got the right asteroid," Emet said.
Leona glowered. "Have I mentioned that we're making a mistake?"
"A few hundred times, yes." Emet raised the scorpion memory chip, the one the refugee girl had smuggled out of Hierarchy lands. "But there's important information stored here. Humans died to retrieve it. And there's only one alien who can hack into this chip."
Leona felt her cheeks flush. She leaped to her feet. "Dad, not her! You can't trust that creature again. It's her fault! It's because of her that—"
"Leona!" he roared. "Enough. Sit down. You are an Inheritor. Act like it."
She glared at Emet, trembling with rage.
I can't, she thought. I can't forget that day.
The scar on her thigh, long and deep, burned again. She winced, looking away.
I miss you so much, Jake.
Sometimes the pain was too great. Sometimes Leona wanted to do like Bay. To steal a ship. To flee her father, flee the Inheritors. Yes, Bay had lost somebody too. Bay had run. And before him, the traitor David Emery had run, stealing the Earthstone. So many had abandoned this war. So many grieved.
Leona looked back at her father. At his shaggy hair, streaked with white. At his haunted yet strong eyes. And her shoulders slumped.
I will not abandon him too. I will stay. I will fight with him. For Earth.