"Don’t touch anything."
Xyrek was busy browsing through cubes he had called up on his comm, not even looking at me. I scowled. "You think I’m going to break your fancy alien ship?"
"I think you have a dangerous habit of sticking your hands where they don’t belong." His fingers danced over one of the cube screens.
I turned my attention away from the rows of blinking consoles and frowned at a set of glowing glyphs etched into one of the overhead panels. They pulsed slowly, in a pattern I couldn't quite track—almost like a heartbeat.
"What do those mean?" I asked, nodding at the symbols.
Xyrek didn’t stop whatever he was doing, fingers gliding over a cluster of translucent cubes. For a second, I thought he was ignoring me—or hadn’t heard—and I was just about to repeat the question when he said, “Environmental integrity readings. Oxygen saturation, hull pressure, shield strength. That panel alerts me before anything else does.”
“Oka—y?” I dragged out the word, hoping he’d take the hint and explain further.
He sighed and glanced over. “It glows red if we’re about to die. Otherwise, it stays calm.”
“Charming,” I muttered.
He returned to his cubes.
I tore my gaze away from the hyperspace madness and refocused on something safer—the two captain’s chairs at the center of the bridge. They didn't look likejustseats. They were command thrones. Raised slightly above the rest of the bridge, positioned perfectly for control, they looked like they had every function at their fingertips—from navigation to combat systems.
I lifted an eyebrow. "Let me guess. One for you, one for your second-in-command?"
Xyrek snorted. "No second-in-command. Both chairs are mine."
I turned to him, unimpressed. "Oh, of course. Because why wouldn’t you need two seats for your giant ego?"
His smirk widened. "They serve different functions. One is for standard operation. The other is for—" he paused, and his expression shifted ever so slightly, "—when things get serious."
I narrowed my eyes. The way he said that… Something about it sent a thrill through me. He winked, and I realized he was pulling my strings.Wow, the alien made a joke.I mentally clapped for him, seeing a side I had missed so far.
Xyrek redirected his attention to his screens. He worked fast now, faster than before, as his fingers flew over the cubes. The screens flickered, and I wondered if it was in warning. The alien script glowed in an ominous red.
"They’re rerouting commands through my navigation relays," Xyrek growled, his voice taut with frustration. "They’re using my ship’s systems against me."
I watched over his shoulder, absorbing everything—the flickering lights, the shifting energy readouts, the error spikes. Then I saw it.
"Are these the power levels?" I asked, pointing at a readout.
Xyrek barely looked up, only grunted in response. I took that as a yes and scrutinized the readouts. If I wasn't wrong, it looked like the power levels to the ship’s primary control relays were fluctuating. Something was happening.
"I think the Ohrurs are trying to overload your circuits. My bet would be that if they succeed, we'll lose manual control of your ship."
Xyrek ignored me. I was convinced I was right and whipped around, scanning the bridge. "Where’s your main power junction for the bridge relays?"
Xyrek barely spared me a glance, too busy fighting a war on his cubes. "Why?"
"Because I think they’re overloading your primary circuits. You're about to lose everything if I don’t cut the right connection."
That got his attention. He snapped his head toward me, his black eyes narrowed. Then, with a sharp jerk of his chin, he pointed toward a recessed panel near the base of the captain’s chairs. I didn’t wait for permission. I dropped to my knees, pried open the panel, and nearly swore out loud at what I saw.
Behind the panel was a complex energy distribution board, sleek and far beyond anything I’d ever worked on before—but at least the design principle was somewhat familiar. The Ohrurs’ hack was pulling power directly from the ship’s core, funneling it through these relays in a way that would eventually fry them.
"Tools, I need tools," I pressed out.
Xyrek cursed under his breath, then reached under the captain's chair and pulled a black case out, pushing it toward me. I had no idea what those tools were, but one looked like a knife, and it would have to do. I started pulling open the power nodes.
Xyrek noticed. "What the hell are you doing?"
