Somewhere far away, acceleration shoved at me, trying to force me to my knees. I had no time to worry about that; I slugged a command to my essie to keep me standing, then returned to my virtual planning room, desperately juggling my order of battle around the map of the system, trying to find a way to protect the glowing blue marble hovering in the middle of the habitable zone. Six thousand suits of armor, most of them little better than trainers. One battered crèche ship. Arrayed against that meager shield, one frighteningly cunning Materner along with every offspring a Materner might carry.

We needed every edge we could get. Mobility… I scanned through Echidna’s stores, searching for pocket beacons. We’d never wanted to return to the same place we’d been before, so I’d never even thought to check if we had them. Her full complement listed twenty, enough to set up a redundant defensive perimeter around the benighted world I had to save. Tiamat had used four attempting to escape the ‘Sect trap. Tomas had cannibalized another six setting up the system killer. Eight more had gone to repair Echidna’s drive systems. That left two.

Even without redundancy, a perimeter required six. I had two. Too few. Too late to make more.

“Quick, Delnot, VR conference at your earliest convenience.”

Within seconds, Quick appeared before me, a ghostly image projected into the map. He glanced around, and I gave him a few moments to understand my current thoughts on deployment before I returned to my frenzied shuffling.

“Um… sir?” I’d rarely heard him so indecisive. I needed ideas, not another problem.

“Yes, First?”

“What did you need me for, sir?”

I stopped shuffling and concentrated on him. He stood, unperturbed but obviously confused. “I’m out of ideas. I need you to brainstorm with me. We need to find some way to keep those ‘Sects,” I waved my hand toward the cloud of buggy death currently hovering at the edge of my mocked-up system, “from landing forces on the planet here.”

He stood silent, still staring at me. Twice he opened his mouth to speak but stopped himself. The second time he shook his head once, as if negating his own ideas.

“Just spit it out, Quick. I’m stumped. I need something to jostle the answer loose.” I thumped one hand against my head in pure frustration. Quick blinked a few times, still arguing with himself. I reached out, was rebuffed yet again by the pure whirling speed of his mind.

“Fine. When you get something, tell me. Echidna?”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Find the spot furthest from all human habitations on the planet. Put one of our pocket beacons in geostationary orbit around it.”

“Loading it up now, Captain.”

“Sir?” Despite his tone of interrogation, Quick obviously meant to argue with my use of only one beacon.

“Did you have a better idea, First?” I turned my head away from him, watching as the pocket beacon came to life; it showed up on the navigational layer of my simulation now, nothing I could manipulate.

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He subsided. “No, Captain. I just…”

“If you’ve got something which might help, spit it out.”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I reacted to Guy’s tone before I consciously registered the content of his statement. I turned to where he hung, spread eagled, in front of the image of the Materner. I should have known he’d turn on me again.

“Is that an appropriate tone with which to address your Captain?”

Despite the way I held him and flayed at him, he still ground out, “If you do this, we die. Then the planet dies. Then the Unity dies. We fail.”

I forced his mouth shut. “What did you say to me?”

“Sir, with all due respect, he’s right.”

Holding Guy silent and still, I turned to face my First. “What?”

“Sir, you told us yourself. If we don’t warn the Unity about the ‘Sects’ new evolutions, they’ll carve through the fleet before anyone can react.”

My neck twitched, a tiny dismissive headshake. “The Dragon won’t fall that easily.”

Quick shook his head, sadly. “No, sir, they won’t, but they’re only one fleet, and given what we’ve seen, they will fall. After that… After that the Unity will be lucky if they manage to hold the Core Worlds, and luck doesn’t seem to be in great supply lately.”

“Dragons don’t count on luck. Dragons make their own. The Dragon won’t fall.” I turned away from him, facing the planet with the pocket beacon glaring above it. “We will not fall.”

“Sir… You called me in here to help you think of a way. Most of the time I can barely figure out what you’ve done after I’m done watching you do it. But you still called me in here. That’s a forlorn hope if I’ve ever seen one, sir. If you haven’t thought of a way, there isn’t one.”

I turned to him, daring him to look me in the eye. “The Dragon will stand!”

“That quote of Grace’s never was as popular as the ‘send them in again’ one.” Guy’s breathy voice, all he could force past my block, shocked me into silence. I stared, horrified, suddenly aware of the pink light suffusing the corner of my vision. I tightened my grip on him but couldn’t force myself to keep standing. I sank to my knees. Halfway there, Tomas caught me.

“I am not a coward.” I forced the words past lips which didn’t want to move.

“No, you’re not, sir.”

“I am excellent.” By sheer force of will I dimmed the pink light until only the normal glow of the VR room surrounded me.

“Yes, sir. That’s why I know if you don’t see a way by now, there isn’t one.”

I slumped, staring at my springy doll feet. Just before I collapsed, I shoved Guy from the VR conference. That done, I fell. Not just in the VR, I collapsed to the decksole of the shuttle.

Halfway to the floor something caught me. Banishing the VR conference room entirely, I looked up into Tomas’ face.

“Welcome home, sir. I take it the inhabitants on the planet below weren’t very friendly?”

“Oh god, Quick. The planet. I… I dropped a beacon on it.”

“You did, sir.”

“The ‘Sects couldn’t possibly miss it now.”

Quick lifted me, set me on my feet, and held me there until I reached out and gripped the edge of one of the acceleration couches. “No, sir, they won’t. It might buy us enough time to lose them entirely, sir. If the Materner falls back on instinct, she might even give up the chase.”

I glared at him, ignoring the hiss of Card and my bodyguard’s couches opening. “And all it will cost us are the millions of human lives below.”

“We can’t do both, sir.” He shook his head. “The only thing we can do is carry our message. If we stay here, we die in vain.”

“How do you know that, First?”

“You told me so, sir.”

I closed my eyes, unable to meet his gaze any longer. I wasn’t good enough. I’d pushed beyond my reach, and now when my duty needed me at my best I’d failed utterly.

“Sir?” Card’s voice broke me from my despair. “Are you okay?”

I might not be good enough to do my duty, but I could still play act like I was, keep the others from knowing. I straightened my shoulders one more time. “No, Card. I think I need some rest. First?”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Finish our restocking as planned. When you do, move out to the jump point. Wake me when we get there.”

“Yes, Captain. One thing, though?”

I couldn’t take much more of this, couldn’t fake much more of this. “What is it, First?”

“I’d like to alter our first stopping point. I think we can pick up another vital resource, and it won’t take us out of our way.”

I’d done everything I could to make our route the best possible, but if I couldn’t stop a simple ‘Sect incursion, how good could I be at navigation? “As you wish, First. Wake me when we’re at the jump point.”