The ground beneath Jessica's feet was warm enough that she could feel it through her boots despite the suit's insulation. Every step released a small puff of volcanic ash that hung in the superheated air before settling back down. The landscape was alien in ways that Verdara hadn't been, no softness, no life, just rock and fire and the constant reminder that this world was dying.

  Vorrin led them through the terrain with careful precision, his scanner reading geological stability as they moved. Khamm followed close behind, her usual brightness dimmed by concentration. The humans brought up the rear, Jessica between Maddie and Deke, all of them moving as quietly as possible through an environment that seemed determined to make noise.

  "Contact," Vorrin said quietly through the comm. "Thermal signature matches our target. Two hundred meters northeast, sheltered in a lava tube outcropping."

  Jessica's helmet display highlighted the location, a tumble of volcanic rock that formed a natural cave system. Through the heat shimmer, she could make out movement. Something dark, low to the ground, powerful.

  The male Snarric.

  "We approach from the west," Vorrin continued, his voice dropping even lower. "Wind is in our favor, carrying our scent away. The outcropping will give us cover until we're within capture range. Deke, you'll take point with the cube. Khamm and I will provide backup. Jessica, Maddie, you stay at a safe distance and monitor for environmental hazards."

  "Got it," Deke said, and Jessica could hear the tension mixed with eagerness in his voice. This was his mission, his choice. His chance to prove he could handle more than space hamsters.

  They moved forward in careful formation. The heat was oppressive despite the suits, and Jessica's display showed her core temperature rising slowly. The suits could handle it, but not indefinitely. They had maybe an hour before the cooling systems would start struggling.

  The terrain grew rougher as they approached the outcropping. Jagged volcanic rock formations rose like broken teeth, and between them, fissures vented sulfurous steam that made visibility even worse. Jessica kept one eye on her hazard display and the other on her footing. One wrong step and she could tumble into a vent or crack through unstable ground into something much worse.

  Vorrin raised a hand, signaling them to stop. They were fifty meters from the outcropping now, close enough that Jessica could see details. The Snarric was partially visible in the cave entrance, its dark scales almost invisible against the volcanic rock. It was grooming itself, using its powerful jaws to clean ash from between its claws with unsettling precision.

  "Smarter than it looks," Khamm whispered. "Look at that problem-solving. It knows the ash buildup affects its grip."

  "It's beautiful," Maddie said softly, and Jessica had to admit there was something compelling about the creature. Terrifying, yes, but also perfectly adapted to this hellish environment. A survivor in a dying world.

  "Deke," Vorrin said. "Move into position. Use the rock formation for cover. When you have a clear shot, signal. We activate on my mark."

  Deke nodded, pulling the capture cube from his equipment harness. His hands were steady as he checked its charge and verified its settings. This was what he'd wanted, the challenge, the danger, the chance to do something that mattered.

  He moved forward with surprising grace, using the terrain like he'd been trained for it. Maybe some of the General's lessons had stuck after all. Jessica watched him navigate around a vent, duck behind a rock formation, and creep closer to the Snarric's position.

  The creature hadn't noticed. It was still focused on its grooming, completely unaware that its entire future was about to change.

  Deke settled into position behind a boulder twenty meters from the cave entrance. He raised his hand, giving the signal. Ready.

  Vorrin nodded. "On three. One... two..."

  Jessica felt it before she saw it, a wrongness in the air, like pressure dropping before a storm. Her suit's sensors flickered, and Vorrin's voice cut through the comm with a sharp curse in a language she didn't understand.

  "Abort!" he shouted. "Deke, abort now!"

  But Deke had already activated the cube, aiming it in the direction of their target.

  The temporal field shimmered into existence for a fraction of a second, the familiar distortion beginning to form around the Snarric. The creature looked up, startled, its eyes finding Deke with predatory focus.

  And then the field collapsed.

  The cube went dark in Deke’s hand, its lights dying, its hum cutting off mid-frequency. The Snarric froze, every muscle tensing, its attention locked on the humans who had tried to trap it.

  "Run!" Vorrin commanded, already moving. "Back to the ATV, now!"

  The Snarric erupted from its cave with terrifying speed. It didn't roar, didn't announce its attack; it simply moved, closing the distance to Deke in seconds. He scrambled backward, dropping the useless cube, his training forgotten in the face of a predator that had decided he was a threat.

  Khamm threw herself between them, her own cube raised like a weapon even though it was equally dead. "Back off!" she shouted at the creature, knowing it couldn't understand, but needing to do something.

  The Snarric stopped, eyeing her with intelligent calculation. It was deciding, Jessica realized. Deciding if they were prey or just annoyances. Deciding if the fight was worth it.

  A volcanic vent nearby chose that moment to erupt with a gout of superheated steam. The Snarric flinched, its attention breaking. When it looked back, they were already retreating, scrambling over the rough terrain in a controlled panic.

  "Don't run straight," Vorrin barked through the comm. "Random pattern, make it hard to track. Jessica, help Maddie, she's falling behind."

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  Jessica grabbed Maddie's arm, pulling her along as they navigated the treacherous ground. Behind them, the Snarric had recovered from its surprise. It wasn't chasing, not yet, but it was following, pacing them at a distance, shadowing their retreat with the patience of a hunter that knew its territory better than they did.

  "It's not attacking," Maddie panted. "Why isn't it attacking?"

  "Because it's smart," Khamm said, her voice tight. "It's assessing. Deciding if we're worth the energy expenditure. Keep moving, don't give it a reason to commit."

  They made it back to the ATV without further incident, though Jessica could feel the Snarric's eyes on them the entire way. When she risked a glance back, she saw it standing on a rise about a hundred meters away, silhouetted against the red sky, watching.

  "Inside," Vorrin ordered. "Now."

  They piled into the ATV, and Vorrin sealed the doors immediately. Through the reinforced windows, they could still see the Snarric. It watched for another minute, keeping its distance as it patrolled in a wide circle around where they huddled in the vehicle.

  "What the hell happened?" Deke demanded, his hands shaking slightly as he pulled off his helmet. "The cube was working, I checked it twice, it was fully charged,"

  "It was sabotaged," Vorrin said, his voice cold with controlled fury. "Remotely disabled at the moment of activation."

  "How is that even possible?" Jessica asked.

  "It shouldn’t be, but there’s only one group that has the technology and knowledge to interfere with our temporal stasis fields." Vorrin's jaw was tight. "The same group that left us a year ago."

  Khamm had gone very still. "They're here," she said quietly. "On the planet. They followed us."

  "Or they were waiting," Vorrin said. "They knew we'd come here eventually. The Snarrics are too important to ignore, and we're too predictable in our methodology." He pulled up scanner data, adjusting frequencies. "There. Temporal signature that's not ours. A shuttle, maybe two kilometers from our position. Its one of ours."

  "Why would they sabotage the mission?" Maddie asked. "What's the point?"

  "They broke away from us because they believed differently… they want to prove we shouldn't be doing this," Khamm said, and there was pain in her voice. "To demonstrate that we're reckless, that we endanger the timeline, that we cause more harm than good." She looked at Vorrin. "We have to talk to them."

  "No," Vorrin said flatly. "We abort the mission and leave. We can't complete the retrieval with them actively interfering."

  "We have the backup window," Khamm protested. "Forty-eight hours. If we can convince them to stand down,"

  "They won't stand down. That's why they left in the first place. If they’ve returned its for a reason, I won’t risk it." Vorrin was already initiating the ATV's systems. "We're done here."

  "Vorrin, please,"

  "I said no." His voice carried an edge that made everyone flinch. "I'm not endangering this crew or this mission for a conversation that will change nothing. They made their choice. We move on."

  Jessica watched the tension between the siblings, the pain and frustration and old wounds being reopened. She thought about the Snarric, still alive out there but alerted now, suspicious. About its mate somewhere on this dying world. About the opposition group, close enough to interfere but not showing themselves.

  "I thought you said the Snarrics were important," she said quietly.

  Everyone turned to look at her.

  "Even you claim saving them is important, Vorrin" she clarified, looking at Khamm and Vorrin. "We need to give this our best effort. Unless we can somehow come back a different time when they won’t be here."

  "Absolutely not," Vorrin said. “Our ship’s temporal signature won’t let us return to the same space. The ships would bounce off each other’s fields like balls shooting off into the timestream with no set destination.”

  “We have two days… we could make contact, talk things out,” Maddie spoke up, here the optimist.

  “Even if they would listen. They are traitors, can’t be trusted. They absconded with our own shuttle with no notice, no warning, and apparently still using it. No. Making contact isn’t happening.”

  "Why not?" Deke asked, leaning forward. "She's got a point. Whatever beef they have with you, it's not with us. We could at least hear them out. Understand why they're doing this."

  "Because they're dangerous," Vorrin said. "They believe they're doing the right thing just as firmly as we do. That makes them unpredictable."

  "So are we," Jessica said. "Unpredictable, I mean. We're new to this. Maybe that's an advantage. Maybe they'll talk to us precisely because we're not you."

  Khamm was looking at her with something like hope. "It could work. If we can just get them to explain their position, understand their concerns,"

  "And then what?" Vorrin demanded. "Even if they tell you why they oppose us, even if you understand their reasoning, it doesn't change the fact that they're actively sabotaging our mission. We can't complete retrievals with them interfering."

  "But maybe we can negotiate," Maddie offered. "Find some kind of compromise. They let us complete this mission, we... I don't know, listen to their concerns? Adjust our methods?"

  "They don't want compromise," Vorrin said, but his voice had lost some of its certainty. "They want us to stop entirely."

  "Then let them say that to us," Jessica said. "Let them make their case. We're supposed to be learning how all this works, right? Learning to make decisions about conservation and intervention? Well, this is part of it. Understanding why some people think we shouldn't do it at all."

  Vorrin looked at Khamm. "This is a bad idea."

  "Most of our ideas are bad ideas," Khamm said with a weak smile. "But they're right. We can't make this decision for them. If they want to talk to the opposition, that's their choice."

  "And if the opposition refuses to talk?"

  "Then we abort and leave, like you wanted," Jessica said. "But we have to try."

  Vorrin was quiet for a long moment, staring out at the volcanic landscape. Finally, he nodded. "Fine. But I'm monitoring communications. If things go wrong, I pull you out immediately. No arguments."

  "Deal," Deke said.

  Vorrin pulled up the comm system, adjusting it to the frequency the opposition shuttle would be monitoring. He hesitated, his finger over the activation button, then looked at Jessica.

  "You do it," he said. "Your voice, your words. Make them understand you're not us."

  Jessica took a deep breath, then reached for the comm control. This was insane. They were on a volcanic hellscape, being stalked by apex predators, about to negotiate with people who had just sabotaged their mission. This was so far beyond anything she'd imagined when she called Khamm's name in the storm.

  But she was here. And sometimes showing up meant stepping into situations you weren't prepared for.

  She activated the comm.

  "This is Jessica Chen of the… what’s the ship’s name?"

  “L’askh’ennys” grumbled Vorrin, obviously not happy with this plan. “It means The Last Kindness,”

  “The Last Kindness” she said, her voice steadier than she felt. "We're the human crew. We'd like to talk to you about what happened today. If you're willing to listen."

  Static filled the ATV for a long moment. Then a voice came through, calm, measured, with an avian quality to its tone that suggested the speaker wasn't humanoid.

  "We know who you are, Jessica Chen," the voice said. "We've been observing you since Verdara. And yes, we're willing to talk. But not with Khamm or Vorrin present. Just you three. If they can agree to that."

  Vorrin looked like he wanted to refuse. Khamm touched his arm gently.

  "Your choice," she said to the humans.

  Jessica looked at Maddie and Deke. Maddie nodded nervously. Deke's jaw was set with determination.

  "We agree," Jessica said into the comm. "Where and when?"

  "Return to your base camp. We'll meet you there in one hour. Come unarmed, come in good faith, and we'll explain why everything you're doing is wrong."

  The comm cut off.

  "Well," Deke said into the silence. "This should be interesting."

  Outside, the Snarric had disappeared back into the volcanic wastes, unaware that its fate now depended on a conversation between humans and aliens about the nature of intervention, preservation, and the right to decide who lives and who dies.

  The sky was darkening as volcanic ash thickened in the atmosphere. In an hour, they'd meet the opposition face to face.