In horror and disbelief we listened to the account of the destruction of the entire Sol system by a single alien ship. A ship that matched the description of the now glowing and semi-transparent hyper-crystal object in the cave in everything but size.

"How do you know Rockford wasn’t lying? He could’ve been a Coalition agent trying to fool us into never trying to retake Sol."

"Astronomers confirmed a change in Sol’s intensity. We changed historic records to keep others from noticing. With most of humanity still sleeping in a boat, it was easy."

"Why? Why keep such a monstrous secret?"

"Imagine what would happen to society if everyone knew. I know what happens because I saw it happen to those who knew. Before we decided to keep it secret from the rest. There was panic, eternal paranoia, religious delusion, mass suicides. Many wanted to hide on the planet and live like animals thinking they'd escape the apocalyptic wrath of omnipotent judgmental aliens."

"You know what? That doesn’t sound like such a frikkin bad idea! Instead you keep people happy and clueless with fairy tales. Like that crap about waking up in a paradise."

O’Hara lost it. "Listen, princess. None of us had it any easier than you. Not in Sol, not in Sirius. Many sleepers didn't wake up out of fear of finding themselves stranded in space to a slow lonely death. That’s why the audio sequence…"

He stopped himself.

"We don’t have time to comfort you, Zelman. Put on your helmet, take Nuclear Torpedo 1 in there with Gorman, and leave it right in the middle of those***ers so I can blow them to kingdom come!"

"Are you out of your ****ing mind? What part of “can send messages back through time” did you not understand? What if they don’t appreciate us killing their babies?"

O’hara pulled out his side-arm, pointed it at me, and said nothing more. He flicked a switch with his thumb and I heard the gun power up.

"Let’s go, Kara. It’ll be alright, I promise."

I turned to look at Andrea. She said nothing and kept a blank expression. This is going just the way you wanted, isn’t it?

I put on my helmet.

"And don’t try anything funny. Once you’re outside I can blow up your explosive belts by the press of a button and take the second torpedo there together with Peterson."

O’Hara didn’t stop pointing the gun at us until we were in the airlock.

While we climbed over to the torpedo launcher, Chris said: "Kara, just do everything you’re told and you’ll be ok. Military code forbids him from killing you as long as you obey." That’s really comforting. Military code.

"I’m releasing the torpedo. Prepare to haul it."

While Chris and I slowly pushed the massive torpedo towards the entrance, I tried to figure out a way to survive this. He won’t hesitate to kill us, but he won’t risk botching the mission either. The captain may be willing to die rather than fail. The nuke is the only card I have to play. I can’t risk losing it before I have a plan. But I didn’t, and time was running out. I couldn’t stay silent any longer.

“Chris, don’t you wonder why he doesn’t just steer it inside from the ship via remote?”

"It’s not built for slow maneuvering inside a station. Plus its sensors wouldn’t see those absorbing walls. And he’d probably lose control once inside."

No, it’s because they need to get rid of us so they can use our stasis pods on the way back.

We reversed thrust to slow down as we approached the entrance.

"Gorman, I'll tell you the code to arm the nuke when it's in the center of the hatchery. You’ll have 10 minutes to get back to the Trailblazer."

When we entered into the darkness, I knew I could no longer wait.

"How do we know you won’t blow us up on our way back after we armed the nuke, O'Hara?"

"What is wrong with your brain, Zelman?"

“Kara, we almost made it. Remember what I told you.”

“I know there are only two working stasis pods left, Peterson. Yours are in the decompressed cabin.”

There was silence. They must be talking among themselves without transmitting.

“Stasis pods don’t just automatically break in vacuum. And we can move them to the bridge if we can’t re-compress the cabin.”

"Ha, right! And what if they did break?"

“Then that’ll be tough luck for whoever has a broken pod. Sidd’s the only one with jurisdiction over life and death here, unless you disobey orders. I’d be court-martialed in Liberty if I murdered you. I’ll tell you the code to disarm the belts when you’ve armed the nuke.”

We emerged into the cathedral-like flower garden. One of them was now shining with a blue and pearl colored glow.

"How do we know you didn’t set the nuke to go off the second we arm it?"

"Kara please…"

"Shut up Chris, I’m trying to save your life too!"

"I’m saving you. I’ve seen soldiers panic, and that's what killed them. Following orders is the best chance you’ll get. If they wanted to kill us they could’ve already done it and just bring the other torpedo here themselves."

"But it’s still more convenient for them if we do it."

"Gorman, ignore her crazy ramblings and just arm the nuke."

"I’m doing this to save you Kara, so don't interfere."

"No! I tried to tell you… you think following orders keeps you alive because the dead guys couldn’t tell you their side of the story!"

I tried to pull Chris hands away from the keypad on the torpedo, but with his greater strength he threw me across the room with one arm.

I’m sorry. I’m doing this for you.

I barely managed to brake my impact on the wall before bouncing off it.

O’Hara began to dictate the nuclear activation code while Chris typed it into the keypad. "Alpha... Zulu... Eight..."

"Chris stop! I know how to disarm…" It's faster to prove...

"November..."

I frantically typed the numbers 1, 5, 2, 2 on the belt buckle. “Foxtrot...” It opened and came loose.

“Security breech detected. Initiating…” I flung it at the exit tunnel. ”..emergency terminations.”

A short sharp noise that sounded like “crr” which must have come from Chris’s microphone sounded in my ears.

A split second later two shock waves impacted my suit and threw me against the wall.