Her handler followed her gesture, and stood a long time staring at the light. “She is the real reason you’re here. If you don’t eliminate her, we can’t eliminate that threat there. She’s working against us, in her way. I know what you can do, but you need access to the tools to do it. I can’t get you access until your target is dead. If you fail at this…”

“I never fail. Who are the aliens on that ship? More mealy-mouthed djinns, like the Dei Keiko?”

“The Drucians? God, no. They were the last of their kind. These are… something else entirely.”

“You’re afraid those aliens will send more ships if we destroy this one?”

“I know they will send more. But they will do so regardless. This shows our teeth, and buys us time. It’s many years to their planet and back. The Queen tried diplomacy for far too long. We simply did not have the resources to take out this threat. Now, with the boys home and our country united… perhaps we do. Perhaps we stand some chance of remaining autonomous. But it will require all of us working together, and that is something we have not done in a long, long time.”

“How long before another ship comes?”

“Eight years before they know the ship was destroyed. Some time for them to mobilize, then eight years to come back. We could have twenty years to sort out our differences before facing an interstellar war.”

“What do they want? To colonize us?”

“No. To conquer and strip us bare. There are very few habitable worlds left. It was only a matter of time before they extinguished theirs.”

“Twenty years of peace.”

“Yes. Have you ever been asked to deliver such a thing?”

“The war has been on and off only three hundred years. We had over two thousand years of peace before that. It was a very dull time.”

“Only because it did not need monsters.”

“Monsters like me?”

“As I said.”

Foolish child, she thought. It was monsters like me who ensured the peace. You all forget that now. She sighed.

“I will complete your little mission for you,” she said. “But you must promise me the ship is mine.”

“I can promise you nothing. It is not my decision to make. As yet, this is the only mission I have for you. If you fail, Umayma falls to outsiders for the first time in three thousand years.” She hesitated. “So don’t fail.”

“You pretend I care a great deal for Nasheen.”

“I know you care little for Nasheen. But you do value your freedom. If those aliens come here, you will be the first of our… old weapons… to be turned over to them. Why do you think I chose you for this mission?”

“You would rather I die spectacularly than get turned over to the enemy?”