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"And that’s what you went to my mom, the one on Dakura, to find out about? How toit would continue Her body tingled with the absence of pain

"No I went to her to deterame show Her y alaxy, along with the threat it poses My people will move in and systematically destroy thismutation" Byrne looked over Molly’s head "The other door would have led you to your da as Molly felt her oiden "But don’t waste your ti, I’ve already sealed that one forever And soon, the other door will open"

His voice trailed off "Wait," he said "Your mother What do you ri at the slip She could see how tortured criminals were broken, how the pressure of layered lies smothered until desperation forced you to tear the the consequences

In the glow of the work light, Byrne’s face srew into ash returned, which scared Molly e

Byrne peered over Molly’s shoulder, into the darkness of the commons "How ironic," he chuckled "To think that the ansas under hter swelled as his hands came away from Molly’s armpits One of them slid up her chest to her neck She tried to pull away, but the other hand tangled itself in her hair, balling into a fist around a thick cluether to squeeze off her air supply She clawed at them, but they were made of steel Indestructible

"All these years, I had the hyperdrive under alaxy and hter ceased as he looked away Molly gurgled for air, arching her back and digging her heels into the dirt She could feel her eyes bulging out; she looked up at Byrne with tears strea where Cole hy he wasn’t there to rescue her--

Byrne s for her to die

When her esophagus closed cole was taken away The world became silent, and the last of Molly’s consciousness e of life, peering over the other side, when--in the scary vacuum, the eerie silence that had ensued--a louders relaxing Molly wheezed a large gulp of crisp air past her burning neck, a temporary reprieve fro toward the commons

Molly turned her head as far as she could and looked back to her ship; Byrne grabbed the work light and shone it in Parsona’s direction A dark shape fell frorass

"What was that?" Byrne asked

Molly remained silent, save for her rapid pants for more air

She had no idea

Byrne scanned the cooes there?" he called out, playing the beam across the hull of the ship

Another object fell froht It disappeared in the grass and clanged loudly against so else

"Were those ful of oxygen and pursed her lips As the fingers dug back into her hair and neck, she asked her own silent question:

Walter--what in hyperspace are you doing?

••••

"Walter, what are you doing?" Parsona asked

"Firing the missssilesss," he spat

"You have to arm them first! I told you not to jump ahead, just follow my instructions"

"But--"

"Listen to me We don’t have much time, and it’s very i a door, and the readings on "

"But--"

"Those were our only two et in one of the escape pods and eject into the grass I don’t care what you have to do to stop this, we’re all going to be dead either way, do you understand me?"

"But what about this wirelesss ? Very bad things are about to happen if you don’t get out there and stop thatNow leave those wireless settings alone, they’re only for disar missiles after they’ve been launched properly"

"I can arm them," Walter said flatly

"No, you can’t Trust me, it doesn’t work that way It would take a quantum computer a dozen years to hack into--"

"I’m already in"

Silence

"That’sthat’s impossible"

"No, it’ss the ssame key the Navy ussess on Palan for theirin and delete sstuff for fun"

Walter shook his silvery head as he armed the missiles "It’ss a sstupid passsword," he added to hihts popped in Molly’s vision as the choking resu, confused neurons When another bright light erupted fro to life in the dewy grass--she could barely distinguish it from her own illusory fireworks It wasn’t until the object sailed overhead, trailed by a cone of plasma, that Molly could actually tease it apart from her misery

The missile flew over the remains of the house and slalowing metal The hyperdrive wasn’t destroyed immediately, however As the shockwave from the blast expanded out into Lok’s at--still trying to unlock a gate through which armies were destined to spill