“Great.” Priya frowned at the ceiling. “How do we get out of here?”

“We have to find my friends. And my dad.” I pictured him lying on the office floor and my heart skipped a beat. If the aliens discovered him, he’d be completely helpless. Everyone else on the ship was clearly dead. It was only dumb luck that saw him with me at the moment the creatures breached Omnistellar’s supposedly impenetrable security. Sudden rage surged in my chest. I glared at each of them in turn, my gaze lingering on Matt. “You went along with this? You, of all people, knowing what they were, what Omnistellar might unleash—”

Matt jerked forward so quickly I instinctively recoiled. “They said they had it under control!” he shouted. “This ship was supposed to be impenetrable! You were all supposed to be safe!”

“Safe? You planned to arrest us!”

“Yeah, so you wouldn’t be devoured by aliens. I figured it was the lesser of two evils.”

“Oh, so all of this is what, your misguided attempt to protect us?”

Matt sneered. “Don’t get confused, Kenzie. After you killed me and abandoned me on Sanctuary, I didn’t have many choices left. I joined forces with Omnistellar and the Legion to protect myself.” He raised an arm, the light glinting off the metal of his cybernetic implants. “It was this or a prison mining camp, or worse. I don’t have any illusions about honorable motives. But yeah. In a way, I was looking out for everyone. I figured Legion was coming after you whether I cooperated or not. At least this way, you’d be off the station when the aliens showed up.”

“That’s enough,” Priya interjected sharply, stepping between us. The wall of tension we’d built shattered in her wake, rebounding against us. “What the hell is wrong with you? Do you want every alien on this station converging on this room?”

Scowling at them, I approached a nearby security monitor and swiped Dad’s omnicard.

“What are you doing?” Hallam demanded.

“Looking for my friends,” I returned shortly. Sure enough, a quick search of the code brought up the security feeds. Familiarity and something almost like peace washed over me as I scanned through the system. This was so close to what I’d done on Sanctuary. I didn’t miss the naïveté or the ignorance of my old life, but sometimes I missed its complacency, its single-minded rightness. Playing with the visual code, finding the security feeds, brought all of those memories rushing back—and with them, a powerful longing for my parents.

Even if we couldn’t find Reed, we had to get Dad out of that office. I didn’t know how we were going to move him if he remained unconscious, or if it was safe to do so. But it had to be safer than leaving him there.