The target laser shining from Alik’s upper wrist switched off. He took a cautious step forward. Even his forehead crinkled up as he peered at the slumped figure. He held his breath and reluctantly pulled the axe free. It made a horrible squelching sound as the blade came out. Alik leaned forward a fraction. Everyone heard him suck down a breath. He gave Jessika a confused stare. “What the fuck?”

“What is it?” Yuri asked.

“I…” Alik flinched. “I don’t know.”

Yuri took an impatient step over and examined the massive wound in Feriton’s skull. “Shit.” He gave Jessika an astonished look.

“What the bloody hell’s in there, man?” Callum demanded.

“It’s an Olyix brain,” Jessika told him.

“Bollocks!”

“See for yourself,” she said. “That’s not human gray matter. The Olyix scooped out Feriton’s brain and replaced it with one from a quint. Does that procedure sound familiar?”

Yuri scowled at her.

Callum walked over, grimacing against the carnage, forcing himself to look into the gore. He knew what a human brain looked like, and whatever the mass of tissue was inside Feriton’s skull, it wasn’t human. The structure was all wrong, long strands arranged neatly rather than the usual jumble of lobes, and beneath the thick splatter of blood, the surface was fish-belly white.

“No fucking way!”

“It is a brain of a quint unit,” Jessika said. “Which means the other four bodies in the union have seen and heard everything that Feriton heard and saw—including their damaged ship. They will also know every aspect of your Olyix Monitoring Office.”

“Fucking hell!” Yuri grunted in dismay.

“What do you mean, their damaged ship?” Kandara asked.

“That ship outside? It’s an Olyix midlevel transport. It was traveling back to their enclave when my colleague crashed it out of the wormhole.”

“The Olyix have a wormhole?” Callum asked numbly. “But…” He turned to Yuri. “Did you know all this?”

Yuri shook his head, his gaze never leaving Jessika.

“That’s how I knew Feriton was part of an Olyix quint,” Jessika said. “The fourth chamber in the Salvation of Life is not full of precious artifacts. It contains a wormhole terminus, which leads back to the enclave. They all do.”

“All?” Callum implored.

“The Olyix always arrive in vessels like the Salvation of Life. It is a subterfuge which allows them to observe the species they’ve discovered before they elevate them.”

“Elevate?” Eldlund asked weakly.

“Take them on their pilgrimage to the God at the End of Time. And, trust me, joining them isn’t voluntary. They seize every sentient race they find. They already have thousands imprisoned back in their enclave, maybe more.”

“I don’t believe a fucking word of this,” Alik snapped. “I mean, just how the fuck could you know all this shit?”

Jessika’s expression turned sorrowful. “Because I am Neána.”

“What the fuck is that?”