The plan went unplanned. Green Wave should have been a routine arrival. Instead, Commander Cha Dzeeny finds armed warships waiting where none should exist. The machine prophet is gone. The future is uncertain. And negotiations may be very short.

“Maybe I have changed,” Cha Dzeeny said, “but so has Linuka Omga.” The Hikshuur vibrated as its reactor screamed toward warp. Twelve bullets. Four memory banks. One last chance to stop a weapon built to tear civilizations out of reality itself. Then the world changed. The air smelled of home. The woman before him was no longer Linuka Omga. She was the Shaajis. And something inside him knew reality had become… wrong.

“Something terrible has happened,” said Cha Dzeeny. The Hikshuur waits at the edge of Assembly space for Linuka Omga’s return. But when the airlock finally opens, the woman stepping aboard no longer feels entirely human.