Free Asteroid Crisis: Star Challengers Book 3 by Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, June Scobee Rodgers

Galaxy—about a hundred billion. Then estimate how many of those stars actually have planets around them: that’s somewhere between twenty and fifty percent, maybe as many as eighty percent. And of those stars with planets, how many of the planets are generally at the right distance from the sun where liquid water could exist.”
    “Sounds like we’re getting rid of a lot of possibilities,” Dyl said.
    “And we’re just getting started,” Dr. Romero added. “Out of all those possible planets, on what percentage might life actually evolve? And if life evolves, what are the chances it would be intelligent? And of the intelligent species out there, how many of them would bother to look elsewhere and try to communicate with us? Finally, what are the chances that the timing is right? For example, if an alien civilization tried to send a signal to Earth and the signal arrived here a thousand years ago, nobody in the Dark Ages could have heard it.”
    Song-Ye let out a long sigh. “As in, out of all the possibilities, we got stuck with a bunch of squidbutts who want to take over the Earth.”
    Dr. Romero started to remove Kylarn internal organs, sliding them to one side beneath the clear wrapper, while she made her best guess as to their function. Dyl controlled the high-resolution camera, filming every movement. Dr. Romero and Song-Ye studied the Kylarn’s organs, measured them, and sealed each one in a special container beneath the clear wrap. They took liquid and tissue samples for later analysis.
    Dr. Romero studied her work. “I could write research papers for the next twenty years about this specimen, but we don’t have the time or luxury for that. This isn’t just a matter of scientific curiosity—we need to know more about these beings.”
    “We might know more than we think we do,” Song-Ye said. “If they intend to live on Earth after conquering it, the Kylarn must have a biochemistry similar to ours. It’s only logical.”
    Dyl frowned down at the alien, remembering the tentacled creatures that had scrambled through the ISSC modules while trying to take over the station. “Okay, their home planet may be more like Earth than we thought, but they sure don’t look much like us.”
    Dr. Romero continued pulling organs from inside the alien. Suddenly, the Kylarn’s tentacles twitched, swinging wildly, and flapping on the autopsy table. Song-Ye and Dyl stepped back, alarmed.
    “Is it…?” Dyl started, too frightened to say the word “alive.”
    “Impossible!” Song-Ye said, though her terror betrayed her attempt at sounding confident.
    Dr. Romero laughed. “Well, look what we found here.” She pressed inside the alien’s corpse again, and again the tentacles flapped, smacking the table hard.
    “A dense nerve cluster. It seems to respond to stimuli long after death. Must be super sensitive,” the doctor said.
    “Wha-what does that mean?” Dyl asked, still shaken.
    Dr. Romero smiled. “I think it’s a soft spot, a place of vulnerability. Now, how can we use that to our advantage?”
    Song-Ye and Dyl smiled. Now the real fun of discovery would begin!
    ***

Ten
    While Dyl and Song-Ye helped Dr. Romero examine the alien body, Colonel Fox took JJ, King, and Tony to see the starfish-ship, which remained attached to the station airlock from the Kylarn’s attempted invasion.
    The vessel was an ominous, alien-looking construction attached to the node room’s exterior hatch, through which the Kylarn had entered in their bid to take over the station. Its hull gleamed silver, and five long, sharp arms radiated from the central body.
    “The vessel is still largely a mystery to us,” Fox said, “even though our aerospace engineers have analyzed it for nearly two years. Dr. Kloor has dozens of theories about the physical principles that might drive a ship of this sort, but we still haven’t been able to fly it to test those theories. The cockpit controls are a rather inscrutable. No matter how our