Kelloch stared at me for a long moment, rage and disbelief warring in his features. Then calculation replaced fury.
"But you're here," he said slowly. "In my command center, surrounded by my people, with no escape route. Clever girl. But ultimately self-destructive."
He gestured, and his remaining guards moved to surround me. "Your data transmission may have damaged my organization, but it won't save your life. I think an extended processing session is in order."
I backed toward the exit, but armed figures blocked every route. The command center had become a trap, and I'd walked into it willingly.
"Nothing to say?" Kelloch moved closer. "No final words?"
"Just one thing." I met his compound eyes without flinching. "You made one mistake eighteen years ago."
"Oh? And what was that?"
"You should have killed me when you had the chance."
I spun and jammed the tip of my shock rod into the emergency fire-suppression panel on the wall. The system overloaded with a shriek of tortured electronics, and thick, choking clouds of suppressant gas erupted from the ceiling vents, plunging the room into chaos.
In the confusion, I made my move. Not toward the exits, but toward Kelloch himself. The shock rod found his thorax. He convulsed, mandibles clicking frantically.
But he was tougher than I'd anticipated. He lashed out with one chitinous appendage, catching me across the ribs with bone-crushing force. I flew backward, slamming into a bank of monitors that erupted in broken glass.
Pain lanced through my side. I tasted blood.
Kelloch advanced through the smoke, rage giving him strength. "Eighteen years I could have been hunting you," he snarled. "Eighteen years of lost profit. But we'll make up for it now."
I rolled aside as his bulk crashed down where I'd been lying. My shock rod was gone, lost somewhere in the debris.
But I still had one weapon left.
The command console's emergency controls were within reach. My hand found the interface. I didn't trigger the data purge; that damage was already done. Instead, I activated the command center's internal audio and visual recorders and patched them directly into the public broadcast channels I'd already opened. "Smile for the cameras, Kelloch. The whole sector is watching."
His compound eyes widened in horror. On the main viewscreen, his own enraged, spittle-flecked face stared back at him—a live feed broadcasting his loss of control to every rival and associate.
"You—" he sputtered, his composure finally shattering. "You'll pay for this humiliation! I'll flay you alive!"
His threats devolved into a stream of incoherent rage, all of it captured and sent out across the stars. He was no longer a feared crime lord; he was a spectacle.
Kelloch lurched toward me, his mandibles clicking with a fury that was no longer calculated. But before he could reach me, the command center doors burst open.
"Tamsin!"
Talon charged through the smoke, a blur of cobalt traceries and controlled violence. Kelloch spun to face this new threat, but he was too slow, his movements clumsy with rage. Talon's blade found the gap between chitinous plates, sliding deep into his flesh.
The Zhyxian's scream cut off abruptly as he collapsed, ichor spreading across the polished deck plating.
"Are you hurt?" Talon's hands moved over me, checking for injuries.
"Bruised, but intact." I struggled to my feet, accepting his steadying grip. "His network is compromised. And his reputation is... shredded."
"And Kelloch?"
I looked down at the massive corpse. "Won't be troubling anyone again."
"Good." Talon's voice carried grim satisfaction. "The Regalia is secure. Time to leave."
As we ran toward our ship, toward escape and whatever future waited among the stars, I felt something I'd forgotten existed. Not just justice served or vengeance satisfied, but the simple possibility of tomorrow being better than yesterday.
For the first time since I was seven years old, that felt like enough.
