Lilly has but a moment to press a hand to her bleeding arm before the next crisis begins. Zerg screech by overhead. Time to high-tail it to the ship! Lilly waves to Malorn and then takes off at a run. She catches up with Imogen and Narud just as they are reaching Saffron. Off in the distance, a zerg drop pod crashes into the island and disgorges zerglings and hydralisks.
“Thank you,” Imogen says to Malorn through her comm. “Time to go!”
“Time to go? The zerg are here!” he replies with delight. “The perfect time for some target practice with my ship!”
Imogen wordlessly shakes her head, but when it comes down to it, she is not responsible for Malorn or his decisions. “All right,” she tells him, then drops her voice to add, “just please don’t kill my brother.” She hopes Aiden was taking the calls from Char like before, but she is not sure.
“Hey, tell him to be careful!” Lilly calls over from the pilot station, where she is preparing Saffron to take off through a sky full of zerg.
“I’ll give you a tally of the kills later,” Malorn says. He has no mouth, but Imogen can still hear an eager smile in his voice. Then he cuts the connection.
Even though the zerg are not directly attacking Saffron, there are so many of them that they block the way up. Narud encourages them to use the irradiator to take out what zerg they can. “Just let her fly,” Imogen snaps at him. “We need to direct all power to that.”
Lilly ignores him, concentrating on flying low to the ground and then out over the ocean until it is clear enough to head upwards. It is harder to do with a science vessel than a wraith, though. The ship shudders, and sample jars go flying from the shelves above the science station. Miraculously, everyone aboard manages to avoid getting cut by the shards.
Sheila belches to life with an incoming call as Saffron breaks through the clouds into the upper atmosphere. Imogen glances over at Narud, who is now buried in scientific papers. She cannot count on how distracted that makes him though, so she scoops up the awkward armful of zerg radio and retreats to her quarters before answering.
“Sister! We’re here. Are you all right? Are you clear?” Aiden asks.
“We’re clear,” Imogen confirms.
“Good! Is he still alive?”
“I don’t know what your folks are doing down on the ground there,” Imogen tells him, a little uncomfortable with the urgency she hears in his voice. “He was still alive when I last saw him.”
“I apologize if your ship got banged up at all. The sky is literally full of zerg.”
“I know,” Imogen says flatly. “I’m there. Are you?”
“Aye!”
“All right, well, stay out of the way of any protoss lasers,” she advises him.
“Is your maniac protoss boyfriend here?” Aiden sputters.
“That maniac protoss helped our family return to safety after your ‘issues’ so cut him some slack,” Imogen chides.
“I’m not discounting his capabilities, I’m discounting his discipline,” Aiden shoots back.
“And he’s not my boyfriend,” Imogen adds, pushing back against Aiden’s constant efforts to match her up with someone.
“My apologies. He seems to turn up an awful lot.”
“Aye! Because he’s reliable.” She lets that comment hang in the air, and Aiden takes it exactly as intended.
“Ouch! That hurts, Sister. Can you at least tell him to stop shooting at my Swarm?”
Imogen tries to reach Malorn, but the call will not go through. “I’m getting a busy signal, Brother. I’ll try to call him off when I can, but, you know, his people do get attacked by zerg all the time, so…”
“His people are the most antagonistic blowhards in the sector!”
“I’m not trying to start a political argument with you,” Imogen says wearily. “I’m just saying there’s a history there, and I might not be able to call him off.”
“Well, if you’re not going to call him off—”
“I’m going to try,” Imogen grinds out in frustration at Aiden’s reframing. “I might not succeed.”
“All right, Sister,” Aiden relents. “I will hold the Swarm off as long as I can.”
“Get them on the ground, doing their job!” she tells him. He equivocates about all the different types of zerg there are, and she observes, “I feel like perhaps you brought a few more than were necessary to take out a single ghost.”
“Sister, we have to be very sure to catch him.” For a brief moment, there is a hesitancy in Aiden’s voice; Imogen suspects he is afraid to fail his queen and have her unreasonable wrath turned upon him. He continues though, as blustery as earlier, “As you know, he’s a threat to the whole sector.”
“Aye.”
“I’m doing this to help safety,” Aiden insists.
“Aye, I understand,” Imogen replies, all serious now. “And when I’ve finished securing the sector, I’ll give you a call. I’m going to make sure Earth never comes for us.” Aiden is surprised at how ominous his sister sounds. “And when I make that happen,” she continues, “none of these sides will need the armies they have.”
“That would be nice, Sister, but I’m not sure that’s how it’s going to work out.”
“It’s not an impossible dream. I have a way, and I’m going to do it,” Imogen declares.
“Well, stay safe, Sister. But right now, I have a job to do.”
“So do I. Goodbye, Brother.”