It had better be where we’d left it. In spite of our desperation to destroy it, I thought of the alien ship as ours. We’d earned it. It was a profoundly ridiculous thought, but the idea of Mars Mining messing around inside our ship continued to rankle.

Two guards skidded around the corner ahead of us, weapons raised. “Hands up!” one of them bellowed.

Two sharp crackles sounded behind me, and the guards stiffened and collapsed.

I spun, mouth open, to find Imani lowering the stun gun. “Nice shot,” I managed.

She flushed. “Thanks.” A slight smile touched her lips. “My grandfather used to take Aliya and me hunting. I guess the principles are the same.” It was the first time she’d mentioned her sister in weeks, and her voice stuttered on the name. My heart ached for her. For all the time we’d spent together, Imani and I had never discussed our shared losses. Maybe it was soon time we did.

We had the presence of mind to relieve the guards of their weapons. I took one stun gun and Reed took the other. I was surprised how much better I felt with the gun in my hands. After what had happened with Matt, I never wanted to hold a real firearm again, but the stun gun was smooth and familiar. I could defend myself without killing anyone. I was instantly less dependent on the others, more in control, more myself. Omnistellar might have been behind me, but I hadn’t eradicated the guard from my system just yet.

Rune got us through the corridors without further incident. Relief suffused me at the sight of the ship on the tarmac. I’d forgotten how big it was, how alien. It seemed to swallow the light. A handful of guards surrounded it, but Imani, Reed, and I disabled them quickly and cleanly. I made Cage and Alexei haul them into the corridor, out of the blast range, assuming we managed to destroy the ship.

Alarms went off again. Someone had spotted us. Jasper raised his hands and wrinkled his brow, and the door crumpled in on itself. “That should buy us a few minutes. Now what?”

The original plan involved swiping explosives from the mines. Obviously, the midmorning attack on our room obliterated that idea. I’d had some vague idea of Alexei simply overheating the ship until it exploded, but standing in front of it, it was clear I’d been dreaming. It was too big, too sleek, made to withstand weapons fire in the vacuum of space. No amount of flames would damage it. “Maybe we can find where the signal is coming from?” I asked hopefully. “Destroy that instead of the entire ship?”

Rune shook her head. “I tried that when I first spotted the signal. If I’d found it, I might have been able to deactivate it.”