“You can say that again,” muttered Jasper.

The rest of us remained fixated on Liam. “None of that explains how you recognized the signal,” Mia snapped. “Or what you know about the aliens.”

Liam took a deep breath. It caught in his throat. He shook it off and continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “And if you weren’t human, well . . .” He gestured to the pistol strapped to his belt. “That’s what this was for.”

“You obviously haven’t encountered those things,” I said quietly. “If you had, you’d know guns are all but useless against them.”

He stared at me for a minute. There was something strange in his eyes, something flatter, or maybe brighter, as if he had more colors than I expected to see in a human iris. “The gun wasn’t for the aliens,” he said at last.

His words settled over us with the weight of a shroud. Before anyone could ask any more questions, Liam rushed on. “I headed for Mars. One way or another, I had to know the truth. I called in every favor I was owed on Obsidian to hack the comms and figured out exactly who you were and what you’d gotten your hands on. The second I got the details, I knew you had the right idea: to destroy that ship. But I wasn’t sure you’d be able to do it before Omnistellar showed up, so I headed to the planet to make sure. I was monitoring Mars security, so I knew when you attacked, and we arrived on the landing strip at about the same time.” He gestured to a backpack at his feet. “I had some explosives with me, but you had a walking flamethrower. Once we destroyed the ship, I didn’t feel like leaving you behind at corporate mercy.”

I leaned forward, bracing my elbows on my knees and dragging my hands through my hair as I struggled to process this new information. It was too much to take in. Earth knew we’d survived Sanctuary? How? They should have assumed we’d all been blown up with the station. I opened my mouth to ask the question, but Liam wasn’t done yet.

“As for how I knew about the aliens,” he continued, glaring at Mia, who’d already opened her mouth, “I’d think that was obvious. They destroyed my planet.”

Complication, Legion. I believe we’ll need your involvement after all.

Well, color me shocked. I would never have guessed.

Can the mockery. Intel says the subjects are headed to Obsidian.

So, your source is working. Nice. Do they have the ship?

No. That’s been destroyed.

Then how in the name of corporate bliss . . . ?

Does that really matter, Legion?

I guess not. We’re on an intercept route. We have a little surprise in store for your brats.

I’m sure you do. Just try not to cause too much damage before the cavalry arrives.

Copy that, base. Legion out.