“Bulco, no!” Nori ran at him and threw her entire weight at his immensely powerful arm. For all her effort, she might as well have tried to move a tree trunk. Even before the injection, the Engineer’s strength was much higher than hers. Now his grip could probably crush stones into dust. His exoskeleton wasn’t even straining to maintain the hold. “Leave him! As your captain, I command you.”

“No, Nori,” Bulco said with a deep voice full of rage. “If these assholes hadn’t turned up, we would still have our old life. I would still have my wife and daughter with me. He will pay. They will all pay.”

The alien was feebly trying to release the human’s hold on his neck with his free arm, the bristles on his face were turning into a deep purple.

“You’re right!” the Navigator said desperately. “You had justification for the first one, but Fle'gak here wasn’t responsible for any of this, he just came looking for his family. You can sympathize with that, right?”

The large man’s red eyes dimmed and the bulging muscles on his arms settled down a bit. “I … I … I guess you’re right.”

With the pressure around his neck somewhat reduced, the alien’s free hand dove to his side and returned holding a metal disc. “You’re monsters,” he spat. “Your whole wretched race. Die.”

“It’s a grenade!” Nori shouted, catching a glimpse of the item’s description, and jumped on Fleak’s arm, trying to wrestle the device away from him.

Bulco’s jaw clenched. He was still holding the alien’s neck and other arm, but despite the alien’s precarious position, he was still stronger than the woman and his fingers were probing along the sides of the item.

The Engineer gritted his teeth and his eyes suddenly shone with new light. His forearm muscles bulged even more than before. Fleak’s eyes, previously full of determination and hate, suddenly filled with fear. His fingers probed desperately at the grenade and then, with a sickening snapping sound, the Inthidlon’s neck twisted to an unnatural angle, and he went limp all over. Bulco released his grasp, letting the body fall to the floor. His red-shot eyes found Nori’s. “I gave him a chance, girl. He didn’t want to take it. And you know why? Because this is war. They are coming for us, and we better as hell make sure we’re ready for them.”

The Navigator took a step back from the towering man, slowly shaking her head. “This can’t be how we do things. We can’t go around killing every alien we encounter. More will come, then what will you do? Kill them all?”