Izairis rushed over. Naecia said, “The thick one. It’s got eight compression latches.” Izairis snapped them open, one by one.

A tremor made them look up to the port feed right as the Scythin worm-missile plowed through the docks with the momentum of a runaway barge, peeling away the superstructure as if it were made of solar foil. Moments later a tremor shook the Odiat. Once Aszerat’s structure had absorbed most of its inertia, the missile disaggregated into a million chaotic boids. The Silent Child was enveloped in the blink of an eye, and then just as quickly abandoned. They swarmed briefly before becoming the serpent again, this time with clawshaped “heads” at both ends. Rather than slithering, each head operated as a massive adze, smashing into the floor and using the leverage to pull the rest of itself along.

It made its way down the dock, falling apart and pouring over the other ships parked there, then reforming and moving down to the next.

“Oh, we are so dead,” Naecia mumbled as she watched the ship in bay seven disappear in torrent of boids.

Izairis shut the hatch. It didn’t give Naecia any more confidence in their safety. She closed her mask.

“Patton?” she said. “What is your current position?”

“Me and the decoy are just about halfway to the drop zone. Over and out.”

Izairis shrieked. Naecia saw the display. They’d reached the Odiat. Immediately, the tiny tug was rumbling back and forth in the docking clamps, the sound of snapping metal booming through the structure.

Naecia took Izairis by the shoulders and shoved her inside a blast closet. A hole tore open in the hull behind them. She slammed the closet shut and spun around. The melee limb worked into action, its fusillade sparking harmlessly off the talon-like worm head as it pierced the skin of the ship. She might as well have been shouting insults.

The second head crashed through the ceiling and gashed the floor, knocking her backward. “Patton!” she screamed. “NOW!”

“Now? Now what? I’m still in the transway!”

Naecia rolled away from a boid-tentacle. “Do it!”

“Loud and clear.”

A ribbon of color strobed down the tentacle’ s length and it coiled like a scorpion’s tail, rearing back pre-strike. Naecia cowered, wondering if their plan would work with Patton halfway across Azerat. Then the beast stopped moving, and, not a moment later, spilled into pieces. The boids rumbled away, springing back through the new skylight. Others burst directly through the walls for the docks. Naecia realized she’d been screaming and stopped, breathless.

“Patton’s still on the transway!” yelled Izairis from the blast closet.

“I think he’s far enough ahead,” Naecia said, running over and setting Izairis free. “Depends how fast those things can travel through the city.” She looked to the drive. Still intact. Not that it mattered. “Help me get this thing up. We need to find power.”