I let out a long breath. “There are seven storage bays on Abaddon. They were filled to the brim with lucole up until the week before I got there, and ever since I’ve been on base SpaceTech has been emptying them as quickly as they could. There’s been an endless stream of ships showing up, only to turn right back around again. The shipments go to different colony planets for storage. And I’m not talking a container or two. It’s been hundreds of thousands of tons of unprocessed lucole. They used to do all the processing there, but they stopped a few months ago. Carl—the guy who trained me to mine—said there was enough lucole to last SpaceTech for a couple centuries, even factoring in rapid expansion.”

Lorne leaned back in his chair as my words sank in. “What are they doing with all of that lucole?”

“You mean beyond powering their cities, fueling their ships, and using it for weapons? I don’t know. But I think they were planning to have the base emptied by the time any Aunare showed up to take me.” I took another bite. “They’re building some sort of new top secret weapon with it, too. Most of the lucole left on the base right now is earmarked for the lab. Matt—the guy in charge of inventory—wouldn’t tell Ahiga much, but he did say that whatever the weapon was, it would be enough to take down the Aunare.”

He muttered something.

I didn’t know what he’d said, but I understood cursing when I heard it. “Not only that, but most of the crystals I found on the moon were unharvestable. They were planning to mine that moon until it was all gone, and I think it’s safe to say that’s already happened. There are more places they could possibly start new mines, but for whatever reason nearly all of the crystals are volatile. Something on that moon has changed, maybe all of the mining changed the makeup of the crystals themselves?”

Lorne was still, and so quiet.

I played with my food while I talked. “I think I was there to draw you in, except only after the base was emptied of supplies. Then you show up, take me—or probably take my body because the way my job was going there, I wasn’t going to last much longer. I’d have killed myself before I put on that stupid suit again and—”

Lorne sucked in a big breath as his skin brightened. His tattoos lit along his skin, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

“Are you okay?”

“No, but finish. Please.”

“Umm…” I wasn’t even sure what I’d been saying.

He opened his eyes, and the glow dulled a little. “I’m just having a little trouble controlling my emotions. When you say that you would’ve killed yourself, it’s hard not to get upset.”