Forty-eight hours on Pyros Tertius felt like an eternity. The volcanic landscape didn't sleep...constant rumbles, periodic eruptions, the ever-present heat that made even the environmental suits struggle. They remained in the forward camp structure, barely bigger than an old earth trailer, most of which was taken up by the ATV. The small building’s systems provided shelter and life support while they waited for the backup retrieval window.

  Jessica had spent most of that time thinking about Thessarn's words. About Trent's accusations. About whether saving the Snarrics was preservation or imprisonment. She watched Khamm trying to maintain her optimism, saw Vorrin's jaw constantly tight with tension, and noticed Deke spending hours staring at his capture cube like he could will it to work through sheer determination.

  “Oryyx will figure a way to bypass their sabotage once we get back to the ship.” Vorrin stalked over to Deke. He had been more… conversational since their talk but his focus was something that would never change.

  Maddie had been quiet, which was worse than her usual chatter. She'd visit the floofs' data feed on her personal display, watching them play in their habitat, and Jessica could see the question in her eyes: Are they really happy, or are we just telling ourselves they are? Their determination had done little to answer the questions they were all feeling.

  "Time," Vorrin announced on the second morning. "The backup window opens in one hour. The geological surveys show increased instability...we have maybe three hours before this region becomes too dangerous for operation."

  "Then we do it now," Deke said immediately. "We've waited long enough."

  "The others are still out there," Khamm said quietly. "They sabotaged us once. They'll do it again."

  "So we adapt," Deke insisted. "They can disable the cubes remotely, fine. But they can't stop us from physically retrieving the Snarrics. We get close enough, we don't need temporal stasis. We just need speed and commitment."

  "That's insane," Vorrin said flatly. "These are apex predators. You can't just grab them."

  "Why not? They're only about fifty, sixty pounds each. I've handled bigger dogs back home with the General." Deke stood, his posture radiating determination. "We came here to save these creatures. I'm not letting some philosophical debate stop us from doing that."

  Jessica saw something in his eyes...not just determination, but need. He needed this mission to succeed. Needed to prove that what they were doing mattered, that the opposition was wrong, that he wasn't just playing soldier in someone else's war.

  "It's too dangerous," Khamm said, but there was uncertainty in her voice.

  "Everything we do is dangerous," Deke countered. "But we do it anyway because it's right. Or did those last two days convince you they're right? That we should just let everything die?"

  Khamm flinched. "No. But..."

  "Then we try." Deke looked at each of them. "We try, and if it doesn't work, if I can't do it, then we abort. But I need to try. We all do."

  Vorrin studied him for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "Modified plan. We approach with the cubes as the primary method. When...not if, when...they get disabled, Deke attempts physical retrieval. Jessica, Maddie, you provide support and watch for environmental hazards. I'll try to repair a cube in the field if possible, but I’m not as good with the mechanical stuff as I could be. Khamm, you're backup for Deke if things go wrong."

  "They won't," Deke said with confidence that sounded more like prayer than certainty.

  *  *  *

  The approach felt different this time. Heavier somehow, weighted with the knowledge that they were being watched, that every move was being judged by opposing forces. The male Snarric's territory was closer...they'd tracked it to a new lair after their first failed attempt had spooked it from its original den.

  "There," Khamm whispered, pointing to a formation of volcanic rock. "Thermal signature matches. He's sheltering from the heat of the day."

  "Both of them," Vorrin corrected, adjusting his scanner. "The female has moved into his territory. They've paired up."

  Jessica's breath caught. "Both? We could get both of them in one retrieval?"

  "If this works," Vorrin said grimly. "Which it won't. But yes, theoretically."

  They moved into position with practiced caution now. The Snarrics were in a cave system, partially visible through a gap in the rocks. The male was larger, his dark scales almost invisible against the volcanic stone. The female was slightly smaller, her coloring carrying hints of deep red that caught the ambient lava-light.

  They were grooming each other.

  The intimacy of it struck Jessica...these weren't just specimens or targets. They were individuals with relationships, behaviors, lives that meant something even if no one was watching. The opposition's words echoed: You're not preserving them, you're imprisoning them.

  She pushed the thought away. They were here. They were committed.

  Vorrin and Khamm raised their capture cubes simultaneously, targeting each Snarric. "On three," Vorrin said. "One... two..."

  The cubes activated. For half a second, the temporal fields began to form.

  Then they died, exactly like before.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Damn it!" Vorrin immediately pulled tools from his equipment harness, opening the access panel on his cube.

  "Khamm, keep watch. I need two minutes to bypass the remote disable."

  "We don't have two minutes," Deke said, already moving. "They've seen us."

  Both Snarrics had looked up at the sound of the failed cubes, their eyes finding the humans with predatory focus. They didn't attack immediately...they were assessing, calculating, deciding if this threat was worth engaging.

  Deke didn't give them time to decide.

  He ran forward with shocking speed, closing the distance before Jessica could shout a warning. The Snarrics reacted instantly, the male moving to intercept while the female circled, pack tactics activating instinctively.

  "Deke, no!" Khamm screamed, but he was already there.

  He grabbed for both simultaneously...the female was closer, the male circling defensively. His hands closed around them with the desperate strength of someone who refused to fail.

  The female twisted like a snake, impossibly flexible, and her jaws found his forearm. The pain was instant and terrible...Jessica could see blood immediately, the suit's material torn through, teeth grinding against bone, the superhot air of the planet burning Deke’s arm doing even more damage.

  But Deke's other hand had the male.

  And he wasn't letting go.

  "Deke, stop!" Vorrin shouted, abandoning the cube repair. "Release them before..."

  But Deke had committed. His injured arm held the thrashing female while his other hand clamped around the male's jaws, forcing them shut like someone wrestling an alligator. The male's claws raked at his suit, tearing material, but Deke's grip was iron.

  The female bit deeper, shaking her head, tearing flesh.

  And Deke's instincts took over.

  He couldn't hold both. Not with one arm mangled. Not with blood making everything slippery. He had to choose.

  He shoved the female away...not hard, not violently, just a reflexive push to stop the pain, to save what he could save. The kind of reaction anyone would have when something with teeth was tearing into their flesh, and they could feel bone grinding.

  The female Snarric flew backward.

  In any other environment, it would have been fine. She would have landed on solid ground, gotten her bearings, attacked or fled.

  But they were on Pyros Tertius.

  The female hit the ground at the edge of a fissure they hadn't noticed, hidden by ash and shadows. The unstable volcanic rock crumbled under the impact.

  She fell.

  Her claws scrambled at the edge, finding no purchase on the loose stone. Her eyes met Deke's for one moment...confusion, fear, anger...and then she was gone, disappearing into the glowing depths of a lava vent with a sound that would haunt Jessica's nightmares.

  "NO!" Deke lunged forward, reaching for the fissure, but Khamm tackled him, pulling him back from the unstable edge.

  The male Snarric stood frozen, looking at the fissure where his mate had vanished. He made a sound...not quite a roar, more like a keening wail that spoke of loss in a language that transcended species.

  Then he tried to lunge after her, to follow her into the depths.

  But Deke's hand was still clamped around his jaws. Still holding on with desperate, bloody determination.

  "I've got him!" Deke shouted through gritted teeth. "I've got him! Go, move!"

  Vorrin was there instantly, pulling something from his equipment harness...a sedative injector designed for exactly this situation. He pressed it against the Snarric's flank and triggered it.

  The creature fought for another moment, then began to slow, his struggles growing weaker as the sedative took effect.

  "Hold him," Vorrin commanded. "Just another few seconds."

  Deke held on, blood streaming from his mangled arm, his face pale with pain and shock. But he held on.

  The male Snarric went limp in his grip.

  "Back to the ATV!" Vorrin ordered. "Now!"

  They ran, Deke still cradling the unconscious Snarric against his chest with his good arm, his injured arm hanging useless at his side, leaving a trail of blood across the volcanic rock.

  The male Snarric didn't follow...he couldn't. The sedative had taken him completely.

  Jessica looked back once as they fled and saw the fissure where the female had fallen, a glowing wound in the planet's surface. The male had tried to follow her into death. Would have succeeded if Deke hadn't been holding him.

  Saved by the same grip that had killed his mate.

  *  *  *

  The ATV's medical kit wasn’t extensive, but watching Khamm was treating Deke's arm with brutal efficiency. The bite had gone deep, tearing through suit material and flesh, grinding against bone. His charred flesh had cauterized much of the wound, but the damage was extensive. He'd need proper medical attention back on the ship, probably reconstructive work.

  The male Snarric lay sedated in a containment field nearby, his breathing slow and steady, unaware of everything that had happened.

  Deke stared at the unconscious creature, his face gone pale beneath the blood and ash.

  "I killed her," he said quietly. "I saved him and killed her."

  "It was an accident," Maddie said, crying openly. "You didn't mean to, you were trying to save them both..."

  "She's still gone..." Deke repeated, his voice hollow. "We came here to save them, and I killed the female. The one that could have had babies could have continued the species." He looked at his mangled arm, then at the male Snarric. "I'm still holding him. Even now. Like if I just hold on tight enough, it'll make up for her."

  "We're returning to the ship," Vorrin said, his tone allowing no argument. "The male is secured. The geological readings show this region will be uninhabitable within hours. We got what we came for."

  "At what cost?" Deke asked, looking at the sedated Snarric. "He tried to follow her. Did you see that? He tried to jump in after her. Would have died with her if I hadn't been holding his jaws shut."

  Khamm's hands stilled on his bandages. "You saved him."

  "I killed her," Deke countered. "Same action. Same moment. I succeeded and failed simultaneously." He closed his eyes. "The General would say that's worse than just failing. At least failure is honest."

  "It was an accident," Jessica said, but the words felt empty.

  "Does that matter? She's still dead. Because of me. Because we came here thinking we knew better than the universe." He looked at his bloodied arm, then at the sleeping Snarric. "And now he's alive because of me, too. Saved and orphaned in the same moment."

  "You did what you could," Maddie offered weakly.

  "I did what I shouldn't have done at all," Deke said. "Thessarn was right. We cause more harm than good. I'm living proof."

  Vorrin started the ATV, engaging the engines. The geological readings were worsening by the minute...they needed to leave now.

  "One Snarric retrieved," he said, his voice carefully neutral. "Species continuation... mathematically uncertain. We'll need to attempt cloning if we want any chance of recovery, and even that's not guaranteed."

  "I'm sorry," Deke said, staring at the creature he'd saved and doomed in equal measure. "I'm so sorry."

  As they lifted off from Pyros Tertius, Jessica looked down at the volcanic landscape one last time. Somewhere in that fissure, buried in lava and ash, was the female Snarric. The last female of her kind, dead because they'd tried to save her.

  The opposition had been watching. They'd seen everything. And Jessica knew with absolute certainty that they would use this...would point to this mission as proof that Khamm's crusade caused more harm than good.

  The worst part was that Jessica wasn't sure they'd be wrong.

  In the containment field, the male Snarric began to stir, the sedative wearing off. He'd wake soon, confused and alone, unaware that his mate was dead, unaware that he was now the last, unaware that the beings who'd captured him had killed the only chance he'd ever had for his species to continue naturally.

  Deke sat beside the containment field, his mangled arm cradled against his chest, watching the Snarric with hollow eyes. He'd held on. Refused to let go. Saved what he could save.

  And it still wasn't enough.

  The ship's hold felt like a tomb as they docked, carrying their partial victory and complete failure back to face whatever came next.