"And they're not done killing," Emet said, eyes dark. He reached toward the holograms, closed the lists of names, and pulled up more data.
New holograms appeared around them, showing star systems. Planets, moons, and asteroids orbited through the room like an orrery. Some of the worlds—the dark, rocky ones, cold and desolate—were labeled with red skulls. Human skulls.
"Gulocks," Leona whispered.
Tapping each skull revealed information. The number of human prisoners. The number of humans exterminated so far. Incoming shipments of humans. Number of human skins retrieved. Perhaps most sickeningly: lists of medical experiments performed on prisoners.
"It's genocide," Leona whispered. "All the scorpions' plans. All the millions they've slain, the millions they still plan to kill."
Emet's face was pale. His fists were clenched. His eyes were hard.
"Look, Leona." He pointed at dotted lines that stretched between the worlds, each labeled with a date. "These are future flight paths. This shows us which human communities the scorpions plan to invade next. Which gulocks they plan to take the captives to."
Her eyes widened. She gasped and clutched his arm. "So we can save them! If we know their plans, we can warn people, save people, we—"
"We have only a handful of starships," Emet said, eyes dark. "And these gulocks are deep in Hierarchy territory. It would take massive fleets, entire Concord armadas, to invade that deep into their space."
Leona was trembling. "So we must get the Concord to fight! To do something!" She yowled in agony. "Dad, there must be something we can do. We can't just have this information and do nothing!"
Emet ground his teeth. "The Heirs of Earth operate in Concord territory. We—"
"Bullshit!" Leona said. "You invaded Hierarchy space just days ago to save refugees."
"Only a few kilometers in. We barely crossed the border. These gulocks are light-years into their space."
"Dad!" She glowered, hands on her hips. "What is our motto? What are the holy words of the Heirs of Earth? Wherever a human is in danger, we will be there. Not just in Concord space. Anywhere."
"You would have us invade the Hierarchy, an axis of thousands of predatory civilizations, ruled over by the Skra-Shen themselves, the galaxy's most vicious killers?"
"I would have us fight for our species! I won't allow us to go extinct. And that's what the scorpions want, Dad. They want our complete annihilation. And I won't allow it." Leona pointed at one of the dotted flight paths in the hologram. "Look at this one. This flight is scheduled for tomorrow. According to this metadata, the scorpions will be shipping a thousand humans to this gulock. Their flight path will take them only fifty astronomical units away from the border. Just a few steps in." Leona sneered. "Let us take the fleet. Let us attack their convoy and rescue the human captives. Same as last time."
"Last time the Rawdiggers helped us," Emet said.
"We can't just depend on Rawdiggers." Leona raised her chin. "We must depend only on ourselves."
Emet studied the data. "The scorpions will protect the convoy. We have only seventeen warships."
"It will be enough," Leona said. "Maybe we cannot save the millions. But if we can save a thousand, or a hundred, or only one more life—we must. Before we can seek Earth, before we can return home, we must save whoever we can. Otherwise who will return to Earth with us?"
She was weeping now. Emet pulled her into his arms. Leona laid her cheek against his chest, crying softly, seeking comfort in his embrace like she had so often in her childhood. She was a widow, a mourning mother, a scarred warrior, a commodore in the Heirs of Earth. But sometimes Leona still felt like a child. So scared. So lost. Needing his strength.
"Wherever a human is in danger," Emet said, "we will be there. We will fight."
Gently, Leona pulled away from his embrace. She walked through the hologram, passing through hundreds of gulocks, worlds of death marked with red skulls. Eyes dry, she approached the alien at the back of the room. Alice hung on the wall, spinning lazily, her cogs moving the gears around her.
Alice opened her eyes, turned a few degrees, and blinked.
Leona placed her hand on the living gear. She had expected Alice to feel like metal, but the alien's skin was surprisingly supple. It felt like leather.
"Alice, I'm sorry," Leona said. "I was angry. But you helped us today. I apologize."
A cable rose like a serpent, then bent, forming a smile beneath Alice's eyes. But rather than comical, it seemed almost like a sad smile.
"You lost somebody you love," Alice said. "Sometimes it is easy for us clockworkers to forget. I once lived in a great computer, a machine the size of a world. I was one gear among many, one life among a trillion dead parts. But many eras ago, we clockworkers too felt love. We too mated. We too sought heat and comfort. I am part of a machine, and my arms reach across the cosmos, but they can never embrace a loved one. I too am sorry, Leona Ben-Ari, warrior of sunlight and sea."
"I lost my sea and sunlight," Leona said. "We humans too are far from our home. But I must believe that we can find Earth again. That we can all go home."
Alice reached out a cable and stroked Leona's hair.
"When you came to me last time, I would not sell you the scorpions' algorithm, and your mate overheated and could not be rebooted. I cannot undo that algorithm, but let me transfer you a new packet of information." Her eyes narrowed. "Nearby, there is a hardware installation called Paradise Lost. Many beings of flesh dwell there. Two of those beings are Homo sapiens. But exterminators are heading toward Paradise Lost, planning a massive purge. Those Homo sapiens need you."
Leona winced. She glanced at her father. "Can we spare a single ship to save two humans? When so many need us across the border?"
"Leona," Alice said, and her voice hardened. "One of those humans is named Bay Ben-Ari. Your brother."
Leona's heart seemed to stop.
She and Emet stared in stunned silence.
Bay. My brother. He's alive. He's—
Alice screamed.
Leona started, spinning toward her. "Alice, wh—"
Alarms blared.
The room trembled.
"They followed you here!" Alice shrieked. She began to spin madly, eyes wide. "Scorpions, scorpions, scorpions!"
CHAPTER NINETEEN
"Scorpions—here in Hacksaw Cove?" Emet said. "Nonsense. This is Concord space. The scorpions wouldn't dare invade."
But Alice was spinning rapidly, screaming.
"Scorpions! Scorpions! Scorpions!"
From outside, rose the screams of other hackers. Hacksaw Cove trembled.
"No, Dad, this isn't Concord space," Leona said, gripping her rifle. "This is no man's land. This place doesn't even officially exist."
She grabbed the memory chip and pulled it free from the wall. She and Emet stared at it together. It was bleeping and flashing.
The scorpions can track their chip, Leona realized, heart sinking. There's a tracking beacon on the Ra damn chip.
Emet stared into her eyes. Clearly, he realized the same thing.
"Run!" Emet said. "To the Nantucket!"
They raced out of Alice's shop an instant before plasma bolts blasted it.
The shop exploded behind them.
Leona and Emet leaped through the cavernous interior of Hacksaw Cove. It was filled with cables, gondolas, a thousand hacker shops—and a swarm of strikers.
As she fell, Leona activated her cybernetic time-twister.
Time slowed down around her. She fell in slow motion through hell.
The strikers filled the asteroid. They swarmed through the chamber, ripping cables. Gondolas fell and shattered. The strikers were firing everywhere, bombarding hack-shops. Aliens screamed, voices deep and distorted. Shards of glass and metal filled the chasm. To Leona, the shards seemed to hover as gently as snowflakes. Corpses burned.