Nyx is now in front of the entrance to the command center’s shelter. Or at least where it should be. What she finds is a pile of rubble, and Zone and several others digging through piles of concrete. There’s even a body sticking out, the oxygen tank ruptured and long emptied.

  The command center is now back under the control of the colonial government, and Nyx finally sees the governor for the first time. She doesn’t speak to him, but he gives her a polite nod.

  Nyx crouches next to Zone, “You were findin’ Gwen?”

  Zone doesn’t look up, “Nope. She’s in the rubble or the shelter.”

  She sees his jaw clench as he continues to dig without looking up at her.

  Nyx digs. She suspects the crushed person was a guard for the shelter and sees others gathered around the same area and starts helping.

  Soon, others come, and construction drones take over the digging, and everyone heads outside except for Zone.

  Nyx finds where they’re keeping the captured lab people once she’s explored a little, waiting next to an inflatable building that’s nearly finished inflating. Most have recovered from the stun rounds, though the ones she shot aren’t here, and she wonders how many of them died.

  She recognizes most of them as orderlies she saw in passing, about six of them, and a few others she doesn’t recognize.

  She keeps walking after giving the orderlies a rude gesture, and soon finds the soldiers she’d come with, “We’re bein’ done with ‘em?”

  They both turn to her, and the one that usually speaks to her points his gun at the prisoners, “No. We’re setting up a quick tribunal. They’re being charged with treason, insurrection, murder, and all sorts of things.” He growls out. “They’ll probably be executed in the next week.” He turns to the ruined building, “We couldn’t have done it without your and Cai’s help. We think the asteroid attack killed most of them. It was just hard because the ones that survived were the ones armed and on patrol or defending.”

  Nyx just nods along.

  The other soldier finally speaks, “They’re talking about giving you all medals. Making you honorary citizens.”

  The first soldier smacks the second, “Shut it! That was supposed to be a surprise.”

  The second soldier chuckles, “I promise not to tell the others we gave it away.”

  Nyx shakes her head, “We’re not stayin’. Gonna go with Cai on the Donati.”

  The first soldier nods, “Yeah, that’s why we’re makin’ it honorary to tell you you’re welcome back anytime.”

  Nyx smiles, “Thanks.” She turns to the prisoners, “Can we be watchin’ the dum trial? I wanna be seein’ ‘em spaced… Or whatever you’re bein’ doin’ here for ‘em.”

  “I’m sure you’ll get a front-row seat.”

  Nyx glares at the prisoners when her stomach growls, “Thanks. Um… is there bein’ a place I can be gettin’ some dum food?”

  She also needs to use the toilet.

  The second soldier points to another inflatable building that’s set up nearby, “Should have some in there if you like Nufuud.”

  Nyx pouts at the word Nufuud, “Thanks…”

  She eats, refills her air, and does her business in the building, then heads off to find Zone.

  He’s still helping dig, and she sees the door to the shelter through the rubble.

  There’s not much for her to do as the drones are doing things much faster than she can, so she fiddles with her wrist computer.

  The Donati isn’t in range, so she looks through the menus before settling on looking for open channels. She sees several encrypted ones, one from each security guard and soldier. One for each drone. And several others for private lines.

  She also noticed a folder of music. There was a note from Cai telling her he had selected his favorites from the last three hundred years, and so she listened. Most of it is older music, and she liked the calming ones the most, though there were a couple fast-paced ones she liked too.

  Some time later, they’ve cleared enough rubble to get into the shelter.

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  Zone is right there, bouncing on his heels as technicians check the door. The soldiers and some security come and head in first.

  The airlock cycles. Then soon, Nyx and Zone are next.

  The shelter is a large, open space with what she assumes are bathrooms on each side. It’s dimly lit, giving her a relaxed vibe. In the back, she sees rows of shelves filled with boxes of what are probably the supplies and food needed to feed everyone.

  She finally turns to the dozen and a half people. Several are who she assumes are government workers, and a couple she recognizes as from the lab. Several of the women were the ones taking care of the kids, and Nyx gives them a finger as she unseals and opens her helmet’s visor, “Spark you for leavin’ the kids!”

  The women give her dirty looks, but otherwise just grumble as guards move through them, putting restraints on them.

  Zone tosses his helmet to the side, it clattering onto the floor, “Gwen!”

  Nyx turns to see him run over to the woman. She’s lying on the ground, and has a huge black eye, and is holding her stomach in pain.

  Zone kneels next to her, “What happened? Are you okay? Is the baby safe?”

  Gwen turns to look at Zone, “The baby… He’s gone now. Michael… he…” She puts a hand on her stomach, “He said he couldn’t stand having your baby inside of me, so he… I tried to stop him, but… I’m sorry, Zone.”

  Zone clenches his jaw and fists, “He beat you just to kill our son!?”

  Gwen just looks away as she cries, “Zone… We’re done. Please leave. I can’t look at you right now.”

  Zone stands up and lets out a deep growl, his ears folded tightly back against his head, “I’m gonna fucking kill him…”

  Zone stomps around, “Michael! Get over here so I can beat the shit out of you!”

  Nyx feels anger building up inside of her too, her tail swishing rapidly and her own ears folding back against her head, and she moves her hand to the pistol with live ammo. Michael had beaten Gwen to kill her and Zone’s baby? She still has a few shots left, and one should be enough.

  He’s not at the shelter.

  Zone finds his helmet, “He’s not here. He better not be buried already, because I’m gonna make him pay…”

  Nyx doesn’t recall seeing Michael among the captured lab personnel, “I’m thinkin’ he is bein’ buried.”

  Zone growls again, then slams his helmet back on.

  Nyx follows him out of the airlock, and they search through the rubble. They even look at the growing pile of bodies, but he’s not anywhere. So Zone joins the drones.

  Nyx kicks him behind the knee, causing him to fall to his knees, “Stop it, ya dum bilge diver. When were ya last eatin’ or takin’ a shunk? And check yer dum air.”

  Zone grabs his helmet and screams. He then punches the ground and lets out a long string of expletives and hate that made even Nyx want to cover her ears.

  Nyx takes his hand. She says nothing and merely pulls on his hand.

  He doesn’t resist, and she takes him to the inflatable building she went to earlier and dumps him in the airlock.

  Nyx doesn’t go in with him. Instead, she returns to the third floor of the building.

  Those she shot are gone now, but she finds the blood stains and she stops where the man she knows she killed was.

  She sits and stares at the blood stain that marks the end of someone’s life.

  Nyx still doesn’t feel guilty. It was a life that made others suffer. If he’d lived and escaped, he’d make others like her suffer. The world was a better place without him.

  She stands and moves to the rubble Michael was probably buried. Heidi too? Cai had killed them, Twoey pulling the trigger. What if there were innocent colonists in there too? How would they feel knowing they’d killed innocents?

  Nyx looks up. She can see the sky where the ceiling has collapsed, so she climbs the rubble to the ruined roof.

  She turns on Cai’s music and sits with her legs over the edge of the building and watches the sky.

  She misses Cai. Roxy and Twoey too. How long until they can come back and land?

  Nyx doesn’t look away until she sees someone sit next to her.

  It’s Zone.

  He doesn’t look at her, “Thanks.”

  Nyx doesn’t look at him, “Sparkin’ shunky what was happenin’ to your kid.”

  Zone pulls his knees under his chin and rests his head on them, “They told me from the start they’d kill him when they found out he wouldn’t miscarry. My son. But when we escaped, I thought there was a chance to save him. I never wanted a kid until I found out Gwen was pregnant. But it’s like… that’s mine. I helped make him. He’s got a part of me in him.” He clenches his jaw, “And then we’re in that room full of noisy, smelly kids. And I saw him running around and playing with them. Now he’s gone.”

  Nyx doesn’t know what to say. She’s never wanted to be a mother. On the Az Gaper, the thought of having a baby terrified her. Even if she survived being pregnant while starving, she couldn’t imagine raising a half-Felis on that ship or any baby. Even now, she still wasn’t sure… Any baby she had would be deaf. Would she want to bring a child into the world that had a disability like that.

  She looks at Zone. He’d been changed so that any child he had with a human developed normal hearing? What if she had? If not? Then that meant that Zone was the only man she could have normal children with?

  Her lip curls at the thought of having a child with Zone.

  Zone scowls, “What’s that look for?”

  Zyx feels herself blushing, and she feels a shiver go from her ears all the way down her tail, “Nothin’!”

  He rolls his eyes, “Whatever.”

  Nyx looks back to the sky, “What’cha gonna be doin’ now?”

  He looks up too, “I’m gonna be goin’ with Cai and everyone. Don’t want to be anywhere near this place anymore.”

  “Let’s be leavin’ as soon as Cai is bein’ back. I’m bein’ done here too.” She thinks for a moment, “I’m wantin’ to see a shiny drawin’ gal and havin’ her be paintin’ us before we’re goin’.”

  Nyx recalls how Casey offered to paint herself with Cai. She now wants Roxy, Twoey, and even Zone in it too.

  “A painting? That actually sounds cool. And I want to wait until the trials and executions before we go.”

  “I’m not wantin’ to be seein’ those. I’m just wantin’ to be forgettin’ now. Movin’ on to Cai’s secret place.”

  Zone snorts, “Cai’s secret place?”

  Nyx blushes and her ears flatten in her helmet, “I’m not talkin’ about… about that kinda secret place!”

  She throws a broken chunk of concrete at him.

  “Ow! Not fair, you have armor and I don’t!”

  He hefts his own chunk of concrete, then looks at her cracked helmet, “Yeah, let’s not throw stuff. Your helmet looks one pebble away from springing a leak.”

  Nyx has gotten so used to the spiderwebbed cracks, she’s forgotten they could be a problem, “They’re bein’ fine until Cai gets back.”

  She looks back to the sky, hoping to see any sign of the Donati’s return.