The room went silent.
Jack looked directly at Kurt, but his friend avoided eye contact. His eyes moved to Nadya before following her gaze to Sarah, who stared blankly into the room. He wanted to reassure them—to remind them that they had succeeded. They saved Earth from the remnants of the enemy fleet. But it felt like a lie. The weight of failure sat on him, forcing him to confront the fact that all they did was postpone the threat. His mind locked onto a single thought: it would take just under three hundred years for the enemy transmission with the knowledge stolen from Alpha to reach their home world. Another three centuries after that, a new, stronger fleet would return to Earth in force. As they reach the threshold of the enemy star system, evidence emerges that everything may not be as it appears. The enemy defies understanding. Fear overrides logic at every turn. And the temptation to succumb to an alien technology—even if it's the only way to protect Earth—seems irresistible. Coming face-to-face with their enemy, they are confronted with a single, more potent question: do they even deserve to survive?
