[POV: Sofia Lanka]

"Give me the rifle, Alistair. I don't care if the safety is biometric—override it. If I’m the primary genetic key to this entire orbital network, then the gun should recognize my touch as a command, not a request. Hand it over, and get the children behind the reinforced bulkhead. Now!"

Sofia’s voice cut through the rhythmic thrum of the warship’s hangar with the precision of a diamond drill. She wasn't the trembling captive Caelum had expected. The moment the tractor beam had deposited their transport into the belly of the leviathan, she had stepped out of the wreckage not as a victim, but as a predator reclaiming...