Tyler lumbered over to the comp next to the door controls. “Bays Two, Three, and Seven are at capacity. I just shipped out ten megatons to STB-5612 out this bay, so I’ve got a bit more room here. Mining has slowed considerably, so we should be good for the next few months unless miners start pouring in again.”

“Good. Good.” He placed his hands on his hips as he surveyed the room. “I want you to get three tons up to the lab in the next hour. I don’t want any delays like last time. Matthew will be here for the transfer, and he doesn’t have time to wait around for you.”

“Yes, sir,” Tyler said. “I’ll get it done.”

I wanted to hit this SpaceDouche, whoever he was. I hadn’t known Tyler for long, but he was a nice guy. He didn’t deserve to be condescended to.

“The rest of six will be shipped out in the next two days, so you need to head over there once you get the lucole transfer ready for the labs.”

Tyler did a side-glance at me. “Sir? I’m supposed to be supervising—”

“Oh, she’s irrelevant. She won’t survive the week.” He gave me a grin that—even as tired as I was—made me want to step up and smash his face.

He sounded so certain, so confident that I’d be dead soon, that I wanted to beat his cat-ate-the-canary look off of his face.

Punching him would be even stupider than hitting Jason Murtagh, but I really, really wanted to.

“You get the lucole ready for the lab. Nothing is more important than that. Especially not her.” After a satisfied chuckle as he studied my face, he turned on his heel and marched out of the bay.

My arms shook with the force it took to hold myself back from taking him to the ground. He had to be one of Jason’s cronies since he was pleased with how exhausted I was, which gave me the strength to start walking toward the bay doors. “Who was that?”

“General Ystak.” He winced. “It’d be best if you forgot everything you heard.”

“Sure.” I hadn’t heard much, except that there was a large amount of lucole headed for a lab.

I wasn’t sure why they’d need three tons though. My only thought was for some sort of weapon, but I had war on my brain. Maybe they were testing out a new refinement process to fuel a colony? Or maybe they were using it to test out a new way to travel faster through the galaxy?

But my mind kept going back to war.

Something was going on here. SpaceTech shipped out an entire bay and a half of lucole last week, and now they’re shipping out another half of a bay?