They're ready.

At Guy's prompt, I stepped from his armor alcove, pushed off with just a touch of augmentation, and floated to the very center of the bay. With another brief surge of power, I brought myself to rest relative to the ship. I swept my gaze across the floor and walls of the bay, pivoting smoothly around my center of gravity without any need to resort to my augmentation. When I'd satisfied myself that I'd met the gaze of each and every Cadet aboard, I stopped my spin with my back pointing at Guy's bay and spoke.

"Cadets. For those Juniors who don't know me yet, my name is Dustie Dabig. I've met many of you briefly when you woke up." My augmentation projected my voice through the bay. Echidna could have relayed my whisper to everyone's ears, but her crew needed to hear me, not her relaying me. After a brief pause while the inevitable whispering among the Juniors died down, I steeled myself and continued, turning so my back faced the alcove where a trio of Middies watched the first- and second-year Juniors.

"As of roughly twelve hours ago, I am the Captain of Her Majesty's ship Echidna. Her Majesty's ship Tiamat, her Captain, and Doctor Andrews were killed in action against a force of Insectoids." Shocked silence met my words. The gathered cadets stared up at me, even the first and second years gone quiet in imitation of their fellow Cadets.

"The remainder of her crew, as well as all Senior Cadets, were lost in action before the Captain's death." For all I knew they'd been alive when Tiamat started her death run, but unless they'd been close to another Imperial ship, they'd died soon after she abandoned them. If they were lucky.

The Cadets, still shocked at the sudden confirmation of Tiamat's loss, of Captain DeLann's death, slowly crumbled into muttering, disbelieving chaos as the impact of the crew's loss struck home. Their parents, their uncles and aunts and older siblings; all gone while they slept in stasis. A fourth year wailed, and that broke the dam. In seconds the bay echoed with the cries of Cadets reduced in an instant to grieving children. I let my ship's crew cry and cling to one another while I hovered, untouched, in their center yet apart from them.

I had more to tell them. The 'Sects hadn't gone away. The sacrifice of their captain, their ship, and their families hadn't saved them, it had only bought them time.

But I let them grieve. I gave them the time no one had ever given me, the time I'd never known I needed. I couldn't, now. Too much time had passed, filled with anger and blame and deep, abiding hatred. Tears tried to flow from my eyes out of sympathy, not grief of my own. I let the wailing and weeping reach a crescendo before I reached out to Echidna, had her project my voice through the grav panels under their feet.

"Dragon Cadets!" I reached out, letting a touch of my own buried rage leak through the room. The children stopped wailing, their weeping eyes turning back to me. "This was not an accident. This was not a mistake. Our support fleet, our ship, our families," I paused, hoping none of the older Middies would call me out as an orphan. "Everything we hold dear was targeted by the 'Sects."

The tiny thread of anger I'd let seep into the room rebounded a thousand-fold. Every Cadet from the near-Seniors all the way down to the Noob first years screamed in frustrated rage. I let the scream build until every Cadet capable of it stood, shaking their fists in the air. I raised my arms, and the screaming stopped, replaced by a fevered panting. They focused every ounce of their attention on me, and I sent out a silent prayer that I wouldn't damn us all to some 'Sect belly shaped hell.

"I cannot tell you where we are; we don't know yet. I cannot tell you how long we’ve been running; I only woke twelve hours ago. I cannot tell you how our families died; all our records were lost with Tiamat." The growl rising from the walls and floor of the bay vibrated my augmented bones. I remembered the feral hunger filling me when Jodi, Wendy and I killed the Soro; I let that same hunger spill forth into the crowd around me now.

"I can tell you what we are going to do. We are going to get back to the fleet, we are going to tell the Imperial forces about this ambush, and so help me God we are going to make the 'Sects pay for our losses every time they leave themselves open!"

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The primal roar of thousands of Cadets filled the bay, overwhelming my own augmented voice, triumphing over the grav plates themselves. I waited until they ran out of breath for screaming before I spoke again.

"I expect we'll see more of them roughly every six hours." The bay went silent again, the Cadets' ferocity shocked into momentary stillness by my frank assessment. "When we can kill them without risking losses, we will kill them. When we can't, we run. We'll find a reference point eventually, and when we do, we'll start moving back toward the fleet. Until then, every time we jump in less than six hours, we buy ourselves a little more time. More time to find a reference point," I let that feral hunger seep through me once more. "More time to set up traps to kill the damned 'Sects who killed our family."

I'd intended to tell them some more details, to arrange for meetings with my department heads. In the screaming cacophony that came after, I could only cling to the vestiges of my sanity and nudge my crew's rage toward getting us ready to jump.

***

I leaned back into the chair in my old quarters. Quick and Guy, my First and the keeper assigned by my Empress, filled the rest of the room near to bursting, but I felt no sense of claustrophobia. Every ounce of dread left in me focused on the looming chaos I sensed hiding in the circuitry behind my bedroom walls. Unlike the focused, driven rage of the bay, this reeked of pure, unadulterated horror.

"Tell me again how this is supposed to work, Quick?"

"Tiamat's memories are stored in the local systems. I would guess quite a few details of the last few days before she died, by the space they're taking up, but I'm not sure. It might be Echidna's missing drivers; it might be Tiamat’s recipe collection. What I do know is that neither Echidna nor I can find navigation data or any recent combat information."

"Yes, but how am I supposed to get it?"

"I'm sorry, sir, I'm getting to that. Echidna and I tried to review some of the memories, but they're... they're hopelessly corrupted, sir. We can't make heads nor tails of them, but we're not looking at the big picture. We're searching for standardized file information. As a telepath, you might be able to get a sense of the data as a whole, rather than trying to piece it together from fragments."

"Right. I have no idea how that's supposed to work, but you're the tech expert. Now, since the Captain generally isn't supposed to be taking point on dangerous work, lest she auto-decapitate her ship, why am I doing this instead of Cadet Delnot?"

"Two reasons, sir," Guy cut in. "First, I'm really not all that powerful compared to you at this point. I'd begun training with Doctor Andrews, but," he bowed his head and took a deep breath before continuing, "I never really took it seriously. I'm a telepath, but I never really chose to be. You on the other hand, are an augmented telepath. Your augmentation is, in part, specifically designed to enhance your abilities."

"What?"

My own voice, colored with the hint of my sirens, echoed through my head.

I need to talk to someone outside. I need to get out. Make this happen.

"Well. Clutter. Moving on. What's the second reason."

"I've already tried, sir. I think my own memories of the moment of her death may be imprinted on the portions I can access most easily. I get wicked feedback any time I try, and something about it draws me back to that section of memories, no matter what I try."

I nodded, satisfied if not sanguine. "So be it. We need that data, and at present it looks like I'm the only one who can get it. Besides that, my essie tells me I need some down time for maintenance."

This doesn't really qualify.

I ignored the sirens and plowed on. "First, get us out of the system in less than five hours. Scavenge as many resources, repower as much as you can, but do not, under any circumstances, engage the 'Sects before I am back in command. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. Refuel, refit, and resupply for five hours, then leave. Evade all 'Sect contact. Repeat as needed until you return to command."

"Cadet Delnot, I need you to take over as headmaster while I'm gone."

"I still think you're insane for continuing classes at a time like this."

I frowned at him, and he raised his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, sir. No disrespect intended. I just," he stopped himself, took a deep breath, and squared his shoulders. I felt his stubborn disagreement kindling into resentment, but he let none of it show. "I'll do my best, sir. You can count on me. Honor of the Dragon, sir."

I nodded. He might not want to do the job, but after giving an oath like that, he wouldn't shirk. It would have to do. I nodded at each of my lieutenants, then turned my back on them.

"Okay then, gentlemen." I reached out through my augmentation and spun open my wardrobe. "Since I'm going to be napping, and neither of you is invited, be about your duties."

I really wish I'd remembered to tell Echidna to get rid of that awful faux leather thing. Fortunately, my lieutenants had the self-control to wait until my door slid closed to start laughing.