Lana shook her head. “That’s Nathan’s doing. Unity is a lot different from the freighter it used to be. It might not be much of an external modification, but a lot of our internal systems have changed. Evolved. Even our energy signature is different. Our crappy sensors can tell me that much, at least. They’re one of the few things that hasn’t benefitted from the change.”

“I guess that’s why he thought we were using some of his species’ tech,” Nori said. “Enough of it remained for him to pick up.” The tall woman stared at the sleek-looking scout vessel with a slight frown. “Let’s hope that’s all he got. If he decides to be more aggressive, there’s not much we can do about it. For now, he’ll be busy questioning Alzigo. We should use that time to move around. We still have a horde of Warped to take care of.”

“His ship has weapons,” Lana said. “Can’t we … I don’t know, find a way to convince him to help out? I bet a few shots from a space cannon could easily solve our Warped problem.”

“Too dangerous, girl,” Bulco objected. “That weapon represents power. If we go to him for help, that would be showing our hand. We don’t want him to get the idea that he’s the meanest, strongest kid in the hood.”

“Bulco’s right,” Nori said, looking at her personal monitor. “The last shipment of cartridges is loaded. We have over six tons of ammunition onboard—that’s more than enough. We can take care of our problems on our own.” She ran her fingers over her controls, and a slight shudder ran through the freighter as she disengaged from the station.

Lana stared at the blue and brown orb planet below. “I hope you’re right.”

18 - Gauntlet

Unity flew through the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere, her prolonged neck pointing at the small continent below.

Nathan was back in his pod, accessing information only he understood. He could feel the ship continuing to shift beneath him. Hull and bulkheads reshaping more slowly than before, completing the transformation that was started by their union. He was still perturbed by the Alzigo’s claim that the Tec’s effect was benign. But he couldn’t deny that he felt better than ever since the synthesis. Since he allowed the Tec to take the tiniest root in his mind.

Then, as they reached the upper parts of Earth’s atmosphere, the final panel twisted into place and the ship’s transformation was complete.