Fight

A tremor ran through her body, but it wasn’t fear anymore. It was rage.

You won't have me. Not completely.

Gritting her teeth, she tore a loose panel free from the nearest console, revealing a tangle of raw, sparking wires. Her heart thundered against her ribs as she ripped one free, the current biting into her palms—but she held on.

The tainted captain laughed—a wet, glitching noise that echoed in her skull.

The tendrils lunged at her from the walls.

With a scream that tore her throat raw, she slammed the live wire against the pulsing root at the captain’s chest.

Sparks erupted.

The captain convulsed, the seed in his chest blackening, shriveling under the electric ****.

The tendrils around her recoiled, shrieking in a chorus of alien agony.

But it wasn’t over.

Pain ignited inside her—inside her womb—as whatever had been growing within her rebelled, writhing in panic. She doubled over, gasping, but **** herself upright.

Smoke filled the bridge as systems began to overload. She would either burn this infection out—or die fighting it.

Either way...

She would not be their Mother.