Anya hadn’t moved from the bridge once except to get a quick bite to eat from the replicator, and even that had only been at Renn’s prompting. She found she didn’t have much of an appetite. She was in her chair, staring at the void, when the first alarm sounded and the lights on the bridge went from a soft, fireside orange to a dangerous blood-red.

“First missile wave will impact in thirty seconds. Gaia’s Saber will arrive in fifteen minutes. Repeat: fifteen minute warning to contact,” the dull voice of the ship’s computer said.

“Here we go,” Anya said. Renn had somehow been asleep in the chair next to her, snoozing lightly. This both annoyed and relieved Anya: she couldn’t have slept if she’d forcibly drugged herself to do so, but at least it was a sign Renn trusted her. Maybe. He could’ve been faking in order to——

Was I always this paranoid, or was it just when the psychic showed up? Anya thought.

“You’ve got an incoming message from Gary!” Felix said.

“Bring him up,” Anya replied and Gary appeared in a window beside her.

“The first missile wave should be striking now,” Gary said. As if on cue, the display of triangular “windows” at the front of the bridge lit up with dozens of orange and white blips and data screens.

“Holy hell,” Gary said.

“What?” Anya demanded.

“Is it that bad?” Renn asked.

“No it’s…really good,” Gary said and grinned. “96% of first-wave missiles have struck.”

“Seriously?” Anya asked. “That’s great!”

“I’ve got the drones at the edges of the fourth wave coming in visual range now,” Gary said and a screen appeared on the Saber’s main display.

Willis loomed on the screen.

A faint aura of reddish light hung around the asteroid like a hellish halo. As Anya watched, some of the smaller missiles exploded against that red light, while the larger ones just made it through and detonated on the surface. Their explosions created domes of pure white light that ate away at the crimson corona around Willis, weakened its light and made it grow dimmer by the second.

More than that, the explosions created gaps in the black surface of the huge asteroid. The black surface teemed and squirmed, and the camera zoomed in to reveal those millions of aliens Anya had seen just days before. Wherever their masses scattered, they revealed the pale gray rock on which they propelled themselves.

“Are you two ready?” Gary asked.

“Yeah,” Anya replied. She encased herself with light, holding the oxygen and atmosphere of the ship within her luminescent cocoon. She put another layer of light enhancement over her armor and her weapons, and then summoned Reggie. Her feathered serpent elemental of wind and fire sprang out of his summoning crystal, sunset scales glittering. Anya had considered whether or not he could survive the vacuum, and decided he could after going through his particulars in the menu. He needed heat, most of all, and she would give him plenty of that. His elemental status said he needed “wind” though not necessarily “air.” Anya wasn’t sure if the solar wind present throughout the solar system would count, but was assured by Felix that if Anya encased him in the same light shield as herself, with oxygen inside it, he would be fine. And if not, she had told Reggie to get back into his summoning crystal ASAP.

Renn pressed several buttons on his white coat and the light white armor beneath it, and the sides of his helmet. The coat tightened on him as it created a number of pressurized seals. He gave Gary a thumbs up.

“I think the EVA suits would probably get destroyed if Anya wore them, but are you safe, Renn?” Gary asked.

“In addition to enhancing my psychic abilities, my helmet, armor, and coat give me additional protection and act as an environmentally stable suit capable of withstanding a total vacuum and immense pressure, or lack thereof. Still, a back-up wouldn’t hurt.”

“I’ve got both of your lifesigns uploaded into the ship. If it detects either of you are having trouble breathing or anything else that might indicate you’re exposed to space, it’ll send one of the EVA suits at you. Just stay within a hundred miles of the ship and you’ll be fine,” Gary said.

“Got it,” Anya said.

“Missile waves two-through-five have impacted. 65% of missiles have struck,” the computer said.

“Good, good,” Gary said.

“When do the digger rockets show up?” Anya asked.

“Most of them arrive with you, but I sent a few up ahead starting in wave ten,” Gary replied.

“10% of total alien lifeforms on Willis have been depleted,” the computer said.

“That is…a lot better than I expected,” Gary said. “Makes me wonder when the other shoe is gonna drop.”

“Well, now they know shit’s coming,” Anya said.

“Right. Looks like you’ll arrive in less than ten minutes. I gotta check some stuff, so I’ll let you go. I know you’ll need to concentrate so I’m not going to bother you unless it’s an emergency. But kid, I’ll be waiting for you to call me back,” Gary said.

“As soon as I can,” Anya smiled at him and then his screen vanished.

“15% of total alien lifeforms depleted,” the computer said.

“That’s good news but…even if it’s 90% by the time we arrive, that’s still millions of them. At least hundreds of thousands. There were less than a thousand aliens in the recon wave,” Renn said.

“Yeah,” Anya said as she took a breath. “Just gotta do what we can.”

“I have a favor to ask, in case we run into trouble,” Renn said.

“Shoot.”

“We’re likely going to get some levels, at least a few, in short order. Did you have a plan for them?”

“Yeah, tell Felix to put them in my highest skills, get me as close to 100 as he can.”

“Mm, I thought so. My favor is this: don’t spend them on the skills you already have. At least your ‘Other’ skills.”

“Why not?” Anya asked, her pitch rising in obvious hesitation. Renn tapped the side of his helmet so that it lowered and he was looking at her face-to-face.

“Because I want us to a do a sort of trade. If it comes down to it.”

“Trade?”

“I will take Flame Dominion, Gravity Dominion, and Light Dominion. You will take Hive Mind, Body Duplication, and Psychic Mastery.”

Anya laughed. She laughed right in Renn’s face. She slapped him on the side of his arm as if he’d just told her a great joke. For the first time since she’d seen Renn, he looked irritated.

“I’m serious,” he said.

“I know!” Anya said and laughed some more. “Oh shit man, I needed that. You think I’d take the skill which would basically throw out the welcome mat for you to come into my head?”

“You would have equal access to mine,” Renn said.

“No, I wouldn’t. Because your psychic mastery would be off the charts where mine would be like, level 4.”

“No, it would match mine,” Renn said. “Exactly.”

“What?”

“Your dominions, the different aspects grow in power with level, yes? Your Sun’s Heart gets bigger, more efficient at generating heat. Same for the others.”

“Yeah.”

“Psychic mastery does not function the same way. My brain isn’t getting bigger, it just gets better. Your dominions require skill, true, but they also require raw strength that the aspects grant. Psychic mastery does not have a barrier like that. So long as we are linked, you know what I know, you borrow my knowledge. But it’s redundant anyways. A hivemind cannot overthrow itself. You’re thinking of it like a Venn diagram. There’s you, there’s me, and we overlap in the middle. It’s all just one circle though.”

“You could be lying,” Anya said.

“I could, but I could also have my AI come out and tell you the same thing,” He said and gestured. His royal purple AI, with a head like an orchid. It said something in French before Renn spoke back to it and it turned to face Anya with a haughty expression.

“My host is correct. Psychic mastery is initially dependent on the presence of psychically inclined braincells and an additional cortex, which are granted at level 1, in much the same way you are granted the Sun’s Heart at level 1 of Flame Dominion. Beyond that, it is merely training and knowledge acquired. You may consider it like an art form. The difference between a master painter and a novice is not the size of their hands or the strength of their wrists, but the knowledge they possess. Hive Mind would cause your level of psychic skill to match his own,” the AI said in a French accent that matched Renn’s own.

“Felix?” Anya asked.

“I only have access up to level 10 of Psychic Mastery and Hive Mind, but yes, the menu data fits that description. And his AI can’t lie!” Felix piped up.

“So we’d be one. That still sounds like I’d be erased,” Anya said.

“No more than I would. And if you want to go back, respec after, then that will also be what I want. And in exchange, we would become a vast army of destruction. We wouldn’t need the other phases to save the world. Just us. My dominions wouldn’t be as strong as yours, but I’d have the knowledge to use them to ultimate effect, and you would be able to magnify them further.”

“Jesus, this is what you wanted from the start,” Anya said.

“It was an idea. A last resort. I’m not thrilled about the concept of sharing my headspace with you either, but if it comes down to trusting me and giving Earth a better chance, or not, well…Besides, with your skill levels in the dominions and that Battle Aura skill, the advantage would be yours. You could over-power me. Easily.” Renn shrugged.

Anya scowled at him. He was dangling the safety of the planet in front of her like a dog treat. Do what I suggest and everybody lives, you just need to let me into your head.

Still, just the thought of it, of the power they could produce: Herself magnified a hundred times over and with access to psychic powers, plus Renn multiplying himself with her dominions. They could probably just nuke the whole asteroid in one go.

“Missile waves six-through fifteen have struck. 35% impacted,” the computer said. “17% of total alien lifeforms depleted.”

“Shit,” Anya said. “They’re toughening up.”

“First-wave digger rockets in position. 100% of rockets landed. Beginning drilling,” the computer said, and Anya started to cheer when the computer immediately added, “80% of digger rockets destroyed. 20% of digger rockets at 1% penetration. Drilling continues. 2%, 3%, digger rockets destroyed.”

“Well, that’s somewhat expected,” Renn said as he put his helmet back on.

“Missile waves Sixteen-through-twenty-five have struck. 21% impacted. “19% of total alien lifeforms depleted,” the computer said. Anya’s stomach knotted.

“What’s the total average percentage of missiles struck?” Anya asked.

“Total average for all waves is at 54%. Predicated strike percentage for final waves is 5% and 3%. Total average is 38% for all waves,” the computer said.

At the current rate, the final waves of missiles that arrived with Gaia’s Saber wouldn’t do much of anything but serve as a distraction, and she and Renn would be on their own. Granted, the total number of missiles that had struck was well above the 10% minimum Gary had set, but it was still lower than she’d like.

But it was enough. They had to try.

“I’ll hold onto any points I get,” Anya said. “But I’m not promising anything.”

“Hopefully it won’t be an issue. But I thought I’d mention it,” Renn said.

“Five minutes until Gaia’s Saber reaches Asteroid Willis,” the computer said.

“Just focus on killing as many of the bastards as you can so the digger rocket can do its thing and maybe we can get home,” Anya replied, and then braced herself for inevitable.