Commander Tze—a ghost of chrome and silk—materialized between them. “Enough. The Cascade expands in four hours. If you cannot synchronize, we lose all three timelines. Including the one where your sister still breathes, Destiny. And the one where Leilani’s homeworld exists.”
Their mission profiles had never overlapped. Until now.
Then Leilani did something unprecedented. She dimmed her internal dampeners—the psychic armor that kept her sterile and perfect. For the first time, Destiny felt the raw ache beneath: the grief of a world erased, the terror of losing again.