“No,” Kee said. “Havil overdid it with the healing, but otherwise he’s okay. The rest of us have a few bumps and bruises, but this armor is fucking unbelievable. I mean, I knew it was, logically, but having it on is a whole other experience. I took a close-range plas pulse to the chest and barely felt it. No wonder Valoffs are so damn hard to kill.” She shook her head. “I’ll never understand why the FHP didn’t steal the tech. We fought in tissue paper by comparison.”

I nodded. It was an exaggeration, but not by much. I likely would not have survived tonight in my standard armor, and I wondered if Torran had known that.

“Get to the bridge,” I told Kee. “I’ve brought the ship out of standby, but we’ll need to be ready to launch as soon as Torran gets here. Just don’t let ground control know what we’re up to until the last minute.”

Kee nodded and left the cargo bay just as Varro returned, without Havil. The remaining members of both teams kept their weapons close and their attention trained on the cargo bay door. I didn’t know if Torran had warned them to expect trouble or if they were just as on edge as I was, but I appreciated the backup.

Chira tried to carry Cien deeper into the ship, but he shook his head and babbled something in Valovan. When he squinted at the door, I realized he couldn’t see.

I pulled a second pair of night-vision glasses from our supplies and quietly approached the pair. I activated the lenses, then held them out, keeping a bit of distance between us. I didn’t want to make the kid any more nervous than he already was. “If he wants to see, he can use these,” I murmured softly. “They’ll be a little big for him, but they should work okay.”

“Thank you,” Chira said. She spoke to Cien in Valovan, then handed him the glasses.

The child put them on, blinking around in wonder until his gaze settled on me. Then he jerked back, fear stark on his face. He spoke quickly to Chira, his tone urgent. I couldn’t understand what he said, but I did catch droch, the word for “human.”

Valoffs might’ve kept his abilities suppressed, but humans had frightened him.

While Chira reassured him, I carefully turned and moved back to the door, keeping my motions as soft and nonthreatening as possible. I returned to my former position, crouching so I could see outside.

The spaceport remained empty.

As the minutes ticked past, my anxiety climbed higher and higher. I’d always had a fabulous imagination, and now it worked against me, reminding me of all of the terrible things that could’ve befallen Torran.