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in the laboratory. What if Zeus needed them? He understood Zeus’s desire to keep him and Alpha safe: he would have made the same call if the tables were turned.
    "I hate this."
    "I do, too, but Zeus is only thinking of the safety of the kit."
    He stroked Alpha, attempting to soothe his symbiote as well as himself. Alpha sat in his normal torque shape against Dargon's collarbone. From the edge of his wide shoulders to the base of his neck, Alpha's dark green form was marbled with pink veins, draped across his upper chest and back. Alpha gently stroked Dargon’s lightly-furred skin.
    "I have no weapon." He glanced down at his heavy hyde skirt. It was all the clothing he had been able to don before the twins stormed into his quarters.
    "Zeus has fallen unconscious." Alpha and Zeus were connected in the same way Alpha was linked with him. The three of them made up an Alpha Trine, one of the few spread across the galaxies.
    He rested his forehead against the smooth door, struggling with his duty to their unborn kit and his duty to Zeus. "Has a Dar Massaga been in a situation like this before?"
    "Not since the war that decimated the females on your planet. Once we and the Zetas had offered our partnership, the Dar Massaga congregated on the moon of Hedisa Gamai to breed and birth our young. The moon is neutral territory, a sanctuary of safety, and no kit has been conceived or born outside of its walls in over a Millennia," Alpha replied.
    "Our young will be the first to be born in space? Your condition is fragile, Alpha, and we cannot chance an accidental strike. None other than Zeus are aware of your condition."
    "And yet, sitting in here, hiding when our Marked is on the other side injured, goes against all that we are. Remember, Prince Azaes and Prince Mestor are hurt as well. The Monticore would do their duty with extreme prejudice and subdue any who they deem a threat."
    "I am the only one sound of body. I would be suspect. I know."
    "The safety of the kit comes first. Even if we prefer otherwise."
    "I should not have called Zeus’s brothers for assistance." He had been berating himself ever since the two collapsed as they hovered over Zeus.
    "I believe they would have been pulled into the Waters of Poseidon wherever they stood. Our ship, their ship, I doubt it mattered. One minute the twins were talking to each other, and the next, unconscious. Something went terribly wrong on the other side."
    "Do you think Zeus’s distress pulled them in?"
    "If not Zeus, then someone or something else did. We have much to learn about his people."
    The door vibrated under Dargon's palms, barely perceptible, but still there if he concentrated. When they first entered the room, he had engaged the manual locks which secured and sealed the door from electronic manipulation. Glancing down at the control panel, the lack of light told him someone on the other side had cut power to the door mechanism. The door vibrated again and Dargon stepped back. They would not be able to come through with even a battering ram, as the internal metal frame had been extended and anchored to the ship's skeleton. However, in his short acquaintance with them, Atlainticians had struck him as a rather resourceful, determined race.
    The vibrations seemed to stop. At the top right hand corner, the metal began to change colors, from gray to a bright white-yellow. He took another step back as molten steel rolled like teardrops, slowly drooling down the door until it cooled enough to solidify again.
    He glanced around the small room, lips pressed into a determined line. He needed a weapon.

CHAPTER TWO
    The smell woke Zeus. The scent spoke of something burning and for a moment he feared the ship to be on fire. He rolled over, rubbing his eyes, and groaned at the spike of pain in his thigh.
    "Shhh, if you move too much, the sutures will tear." Zeus opened his eyes to see Athena leaning over him. "The wand did not work. It would not close your wounds, so Mayra had to use