At the thought of the Empress, a vision of her face danced in my mind's eye. Alabaster skin, jet hair coiled into a braid looped over her shoulders and around her waist, fine, slightly vulpine features; and a grin that only highlighted her predatory nature all flickered in an odd, strobing pink light. Her lips moved, but I couldn't hear her speak. A wave of reassurance swept over me. If the 'Sects overwhelmed us, she would carve a space for us in her mind, keep us safe until we could be reborn once more.

I blinked, and the vision disappeared, though the reassurance lingered. I snorted; I'd become nearly as religious about the Empress as the military folk I served with. Strength didn't make her divine; it just gave her the ability to connect every registered telepath in the Unity and, through them, return the dead to life.

Most people in the Unity didn't have to face the specter of unwanted death. Essies made old age and disease a thing of history books, and minor injuries often healed before a person knew they'd been hurt. Major injuries...

A pre-Cataclysm theorist had proposed the idea that since one human out of a thousand in prime physical condition died every year, humans would live to an average of a thousand years once they conquered old age. Apparently, he'd forgotten something about humans; as they age, they learn to avoid danger, because pain hurts. They make mistakes, but the longer they live, the fewer they make. With telepaths to lend a helping hand with mental health, even suicide didn't claim too many.

Except in the military. The Unity's enemies marched in numbers even larger than the Imperial forces. Every soldier from the oldest admiral down to the youngest cadet knew death could claim them at any moment of any day. They knew with equal certainty that should they perish in service, the Empress herself guaranteed their reincarnation.

They prepared for that now. Eager fury mixed with hard-edged determination sparkled in waves through my serried ranks of links. One or two, neoincarnate Seniors, wavered moment by moment between stark terror at losing what little of life they'd known and hungry rage to do unto the ‘Sects before they did unto us. I brushed my thoughts across theirs, bridging the abyss of fear and calming the storm of passion that might lead them to some overexcited mistake.

The world went away, replaced by the screaming darkness of a jump. Nearly overwhelmed by the echoes of thousands of minds beating at my own, I focused on the one unchanging fact of my existence: my link to the Empress. She glittered there, defying jump space as blithely as she did every other law of nature as I understood it, as if daring physics itself to deny her. We dropped out of the echoing chaos of our pocket, then leapt again a moment later. I clung to my links and my sanity, wondering why I'd ever chosen to become a military doctor.

The endless moment of the second jump passed. I brushed my thoughts across the Marines, waking them before they would normally rouse on their own. They slipped from their launch bays, and my mind filled with thousands of asynchronously dopplering emotions as each one vectored off in a different direction. I shook my head to clear it and headed for the Captain's office.

***

"Captain, the Marines are away."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Captain De'Lann shook her head, clearing the ringing darkness of her post-jump stupor. I could clear it for her, but the potential long-term effects on a pregnant woman or her child weren't worth the risk. Instead, I reached out a hand. She stared at it until I dropped it back to my side.

"They ought to be. They're supposed to be killing any Marapis who followed us. Just like you're supposed to be in medical."

I smiled to take the sting out of my words. "There aren't any psych casualties in medical at the moment, Sara. I might be able to assist you here, and that would avoid casualties."

She rolled her eyes at me but didn't order me gone. "How? Can you get real time tracking on my Marines?"

"Not as far as I know of, although if I can get the CAU working I've heard I could get something similar going."

She glanced up at me, her hands never pausing in their dance over her tablet. "I thought doctors weren't supposed to kill?"

"Sorry, Sara. I'm certain I couldn't kill a Vulg or a Human; the connection is too intimate; any telepath would be drawn into death with them. I'm not sure about a 'Sect. I might be able to help you coordinate though."

"That's... really quite useful of you. How did a Civilian wind up knowing so much about what a ship needs, or wanting to help in a fight?"

I smiled and looked down at the faintly glowing light of her unborn child's mind. "Maybe it's unused maternal instincts kicking in." Before she could make sense of her spluttered reply, I relented and gave her another option, "or maybe I've just linked to one too many soldiers, and they're seeping into me a bit at a time."

Triumph flickered through my warbling links to Tiamat's Marines, followed a split second later by a nauseating mixture of despair, fear, and fierce fury. "Something's wrong."

"They should have taken out the... oh, no."

"What is it, Sara?"

She ignored me, her hands flying across her tablet as she muttered commands to Tiamat. The deck lurched beneath my feet, and I stumbled into a wave of acceleration gel that filled the compartment a moment later. By instinct I breathed it in; my mind focused entirely on the scattered emotions and images coming in from our Marines.

Enemies. Hundreds of mother ships, thousands of parasites. Marines fought like men possessed, killing foe after foe before the 'Sects swarmed over them, ripping them apart. My links flared and died, shriveling down into tiny, waiting spores hidden in the back of my mind. One by one by one, as fast as I could, I threw them down that horrible, insanity-infested link, screaming into the aether as my friends and shipmates died. Waves of reassurance and gratitude came back, not quite hiding a simmering anger growing in amongst the cacophony.

"Holy god. She was right." I tried to ignore Sara's voice, but it cut through my concentration, nonetheless. "They set a trap, and we walked right into it. Recall all Marines. Prepare two more jumps."

"We only have energy for two more jumps, Captain."

"I'm aware of that, Tia. I need you powering up any way you can. Don't worry about tomorrow; if we make it back to the fleet we can resupply. Just get me power for... half a dozen more jumps as soon as you can."

"How long will I have to gather it? Dead running or in motion?"

"You've got as long as our armor can keep the 'Sects off us, and we'll be in motion. I'll be fighting while you get yourself powered up."

I almost asked why they didn't have the head of Engineering looking for power, but then his mental remains flowed through me, yet another soul commended to the Empress' care. I closed my eyes on my tears and bent grimly to my task.

We jumped. The Empress' damned link stayed rock solid, sparkling in the void like a beacon. I shoveled my shriveled links into that glittering furnace until none remained, then I let myself sink into blessed screaming oblivion.

***

My eyes slid open to the pitch darkness of my quarters. Captain DeLann and Doctor Andrews whispered through the hurricane around me. Inside my head each of them slept, waiting until they lived once more. Deep behind everything else a new constellation shone, a galaxy burning in a single fierce point, a glittering star of madness. A link to the Empress.