I move--fast.
My hand closes around his throat before he can react, lifting him just enough that his boots scrape against the floor, the sound sharp and brief before silence crashes down around it.
“You think this is about her?” I ask, my voice steady despite the tension coiling through my arm. “You think I make decisions like this without understanding the cost?”
He claws at my wrist, not effectively, not enough to break my grip.
“Then explain it,” he forces out, the words strained.
I lean in slightly.
“You don’t need the explanation,” I say quietly. “You need the result.”
I release him.
He drops hard, catching himself on one knee, coughing once as he drags air back into his lungs.
“Anyone else,” I say, my gaze sweeping across the bridge, catching every pair of eyes that refuses to meet mine directly, “wants to test that?”
No one speaks.
No one moves.
Good.
I turn back to the command chair and sit, the motion deliberate, as if nothing of consequence just happened.
“Get back to your stations,” I say.
Movement resumes immediately.
Not natural.
Not comfortable.
But functional.
Vihl steps closer, his voice low.
“That’s going to hold for now,” he says.
“For now is enough,” I reply.
He studies me for a moment, then nods.
“Yeah,” he says quietly. “For now.”
The wrongness is still there.
Stronger now.
Sharper.
Like something just slipped past the point where I can ignore it.
I lean forward slightly, my claws resting against the edge of the console as I pull up internal tracking systems.
“Run a full location check,” I say.
