As the realization hits me, I sink back in my chair, raking fingers through my sweat-sticky hair. I almost let myself believe that what happened back on Titan was a mistake—a case of alien technology gone horribly wrong. I thought it was Momma’s greed that caused that catastrophe.

But President Leonis would never make a mistake like that. She wouldn’t let something loose on another planet without knowing exactly what it was going to do—and she would never do anything so risky without a reason.

“Shit,” I say hoarsely. “Do you understand what we just did, Scorpia?” She stares at me, her feet coming to a stop. “We started a war.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Legacy

Scorpia

I renew my pacing, taking a swig from my flask. Now that Corvus points it out, it seems so obvious. This was never just some job. Leonis used us to fire off the first shot of a war.

“But why?” I think aloud. “Why would she want to go to war?” My mind wanders back to the barren crop fields I saw on Gaia, the sanitation checks. Something strange was happening there. I should have paid more attention to it, especially given that we made a deal with Leonis afterward, but I never got the feeling they were preparing for interplanetary conflict.

“Does it matter? It’s already done.” Just when I thought we were starting to get somewhere productive, Corvus is slumping back into the stance I found him in: head down, face in his hands. Like the weight of everything is physically pressing down on him. I can empathize—he’s lost even more than the rest of us—but I can’t let him collapse under it. He’s the one who survived a war, the one who’s supposed to lead us. Titan proved I’m not cut out for it, so we need him.

“Leonis is linked to all of this. We need to figure out what she’s planning next,” I say. “So… why would she use us to launch the attack? And why Titan?”

Corvus grimaces at the mention of his home-planet, like it hurts just to hear the name. Thinking too hard about Titan drags my own thoughts down a painful path, too—to Momma. If she was here, she would know what to do. She’d know how to save Pol. I take a deep breath and subdue my emotions with another long drink of whiskey.

“Well, let’s go back to the issue with Pol,” I say, and wipe my hand across my mouth. Maybe thinking about him will help both Corvus and me focus. “Like I said, the Gaians made this thing, or at least discovered it. And they know the most about alien tech to begin with. But without Momma, we have no access to Gaia. We won’t be able to leave the landing zone.”