I climbed down the stairs to the destroyed hallway. Blood streaked the walls. Doors were ripped from their frames. Broken chairs and bedside tables were strewn from one end to the other. I looked in the first room I passed. The bed was flipped over on the floor and water sprayed on the floor from the bathroom. The toilet was stuck in the wall.

Brax bumped me as he brushed past. He cursed to himself as he hobbled toward the bathroom. Mia gave me a wary glance as she turned from the hall toward the jaw of Beth. I watched until she found the lever in the dark and the jaw yawned open to let her out.

"Do you need any help?" I called to Brax as he splashed around in the bathroom.

"One hour, less than one hour and they have torn you to pieces." He was cursing to himself from the bathroom. I stood there until I heard the sound of a spigot turning and the water spray stopped.

Then I continued down the hall. More bedrooms were destroyed. After the first four rooms, the others had bunk beds to sleep four in each room. Then the hall opened up into a large room filled with tables.

At the end of the dining room, Khan and the other dingo had the antelope man cornered trembling. Khan's tail was wagging but he growled low. The smaller dingo crept in from the side.

"Khan no." I scolded the horse-sized dog. His tail stiffened but he continued to growl. I closed my eyes and tried to remember the bond. I focused on the ball of energy in my chest and pushed my conscience through until I could see Zane through Khan's eyes. I could feel Khan's belly growl and the tension in his shoulders. "No! Bad dog!" I shouted in his mind.

The bond snapped and Khan bolted off whimpering. The other dingo confused followed him out of the dining hall down the next hallway. Both of them had their tails tucked screaming out whimpers.

Zane slid down the wall shaking and stroking his antlers. He started sobbing. I walked over to him, and he raised his hands in defense. "Relax. I don't want to hurt you.” I knelt, ‘sorry about my dog." I intended to sound gentle, but my deep voice came across as gruff and a little overbearing. I chided myself. Maybe I should have sent Mia down here.

He kept tight to the corner; his big doe eyes locked on me. Thurnar and his two sons plunged into the room from the hallway. They were panting and their clothes were torn. I looked over the dwarves. Thurnar, seeing me, stood upright and tried to look less exhausted than he really was.

He pulled at his braided beard and pointed over his shoulder. "Tried. To get. It under control, Rage." He said between breaths.

I walked over and dropped a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you. Listen the front door is open, and I am afraid that some of our new citizens may try to escape." I watched Zane glance at the hall behind me. "Can you and your boys post up at that hallway and keep them from coming through here without me?"

"I'll try sir but I'm afraid I lost my hammer back there in the skirmish." Thurnar said.

"Should I go back in for weapons?" Dredge asked, looking up at me.

"No, just pile up some tables and try to slow them down." I looked back over to Zane. He was starting to get up with his eyes on the hall. I wagged a finger at him. "Don't make me get my dog." He grimaced and I felt a ping of guilt. I dropped my voice low enough that the antelope couldn't hear, "I think he may be able to jump pretty high so be prepared."

Mido and Dredge started dragging tables over to tip in front of the door leading to the hallway. "Be careful." Thurnar said. "I probably shouldn't have brought the big one on board he's pretty mad about it."

I knew it was the language filter that softened Thurnar's choice of words by the look on his face. Still, I imagined the large cyclops slightly disgruntled and laughed to myself. "I bet he is."

I stepped through the hall leading further into the ship and entered the kitchens after passing some more trashed bathrooms. Water sloshed in the red carpeting, and I knew Brax would be down here cursing and working feverishly soon.

The kitchen had long flat top grills turned on their sides and a bar that at one time had been in the center of the room. Pots and pans were scattered across the floor. Broken glass sparkled on the tile.

The doors on the other side of the room kicked open and Kettle Head stumbled in backward. "I said ole, not old. It was a joke." He said in his robotic voice. His round glowing eyes seemed bigger than before. He waved his hands in front of him.

The doors flapped back and forth a couple times and Millie stepped in. She had her head lowered and was chewing something metal in her teeth. "Ye said it again." She dropped low and rammed him with her horns. The bot was airborne for a blink then stopped short when his metal caboose stuck in the wall. "I tell ya again, don't cha say those words ta me."

"I won't say them again." The bot tried to pry himself from the wall. "Ma ah ah 'am."

"Why yew."

"Millie." She froze and looked my way mid charge. I saw the redness in her eyes. I looked back to the bot in the wall. The bot popped free of the wall and turned back to look at the hole. He bent over to adjust the hydraulic in his knee. "Try not to break him." I said as I walked out the back of the kitchen shaking my head.