The Drasin were horrific, sure, but honestly, it would have been far easier and even more certain to simply buzz the solar system and nudge a few comets out of the Oort Cloud in Earth’s direction. Pick the right combination of rocks and icebergs, and within a few years the human race would have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

A few might have survived on Mars along with the crews of the Odyssey and Enterprise, but the civilization of Sol would have ended with a big bang and a deep freeze.

Leaving an enemy alive who could do something like that was the height of military irresponsibility, but committing genocide yourself, that was as good as putting a gun to the very soul of your culture and pulling the trigger.

Eric didn’t know what he’d decide if he were put in that position. He’d had nightmares about it since the invasion—when his dreams weren’t filled with walking spiders the size of horses eating his ship out from under him.

He could kill the Drasin. He could consign that whole species to the abyss without a single qualm in his soul, but he didn’t know if he could do the same if . . .

Well, he’d just have to burn that bridge when he came to it.

“Understood,” Eric said, standing up. “Permission to return to my ship, ma’am?”

“Granted, Captain,” Gracen said, rising and extending her hand. “And do take care of her. I find myself rather fond of the Odysseus.”

“With my soul, Admiral,” Eric said, clasping her hand firmly. “I’ll guard her with my soul.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Gracen said and smiled, some true warmth shining through in that moment.

►►►

► Unity One was still largely under construction, but the Confederation had learned a lot in the intervening years since they’d put up their first space station. Now, with the help of the Block, they had artificial gravity pretty close to mastered, even though no one was quite willing to put a singularity reactor this close to Earth orbit just yet.

Eric made his way through the halls, heading for the docking ring. His shuttle would already be waiting to ferry him to the Odysseus, the beast of a ship that Gracen had brought back from Priminae space to help quash the last of the Drasin forces. The Odysseus was the “Warrior King,” the lead ship of the new Heroic Class of starship shared between Earth and the Priminae worlds.

It was quite possibly the single most powerful vessel to exist between the stars, though Eric had his doubts. There had been too many strange new things out there recently for him to fall for the hype the media outlets were pouring out about the new ships.