I grew up in the aeon of infamy. How many generations spanned the aeon depended on who you asked.

Save the world.

The alarms tore the thought away in dissent scream until I only knew this was too familiar. I forced air in my lungs, dragging my gaze from the floor.

“Damen.” I was aware of the voice demanding my attention. Aware and ignoring as I watched the shape forming at the scanner’s limits. Fingers clamped on my shoulder and spun me to stare instead at a glowering Zoe, her face a brilliant red. “Did you hear anything I said?”

Pratt felt crewman Krause freeze after the quiet statement had cut through the ship’s bridge. Everyone on the bridge frozen at Bryne’s quiet proclamation. Pratt coughed, straightening from his examination of the monitors at Krause’s station.

Ash tossed his pillow at the system incessantly chirping away. Rubbing tired eyes, he grumbled at the device. The pulsating light invaded his consciousness, unfamiliar.

The moment Nolan walked in he veered for my cubicle. He grinned like a teenager spotting a friend they hadn’t seen all summer long, broad and boisterously. Damn. Something was up. Angry was the boss’s default setting. Anything else was cause to worry.

“We need more explosives!” Gage rubbed his hands together, and I could only describe his expression as gleeful.

Metal wailed grating over stone. Shifra clamped her fingers into stone as her foot slipped. Her knee groaned as she straightened on the narrow ledge. Ahead the path twisted along the mountain. Thin, but passable. She’d let excited override her protective programming.