I leaned against the wall of the corridor outside my quarters. Six thousand odd kids scrambled through the back corridors of my mind, each and every one vying for a piece of my attention. Every few seconds some minor crisis grabbed my focus away, forcing me to deal with it before I could return to my own problem.

Hovering around me I had the system we'd just left, the system we currently transited, graphs of our current power situation, and a map of the local system connections. The nearest one with an Earth-like planet glowed green. A single still image of the surviving Materner loomed behind them all, the backdrop a constant reminder of the tenacity of our pursuers.

"So... how much longer can we hold out, Kid?"

Echidna didn't remind me I had access to the data. Sometimes humans needed to talk things out. "If we get into a stable orbit close enough to a star, set out solar collectors, shut down everything except station keeping and life support, and I put myself on standby mode, we can survive indefinitely."

"And we'll be sitting still when that Materner finds us. Not an option. How long can we keep running?"

"With everything we've scraped together, we can remain in motion for just over twenty-one days. Each jump burns off a little less than ten days off of that count."

"We can make it to the system with a terra-class planet in two jumps. How long until we can make the first jump?"

"Nine hours."

"How long until she jumps in system with us?"

Echidna didn't have to ask which she I meant. The image projected across the wall animated, rotating and breaking down into a wireframe as it did. "Based on observed damage here, here, and here," three areas of the wireframe highlighted red, she's got seventy five percent of her drive power at best." She paused a moment to let that sink in, and to make sure she had my attention. "Honestly, sir, I'm not sure she can jump at all."

I ignored her optimistic assessment and focused on the more important reality. "How long for her to transit the system to our jump point at full normal speed?"

"A little over eight hours, sir."

"Right. Divert all power to drives. I want us to the jump point in four hours."

"I... I can't do that, sir."

"Why not?"

"Because most of her spare power is going to structural reinforcement to keep us in one piece and what's left is going to life support, since we're nowhere close to airtight, even with the fields in place to hold the air in."

Quick slid down the wall beside me, a solid thump marking the moment when his butt hit the ground. He'd aged visibly over the past few days. The puppyish eagerness I'd overlooked when I first met him had matured into a wolfish, predatory determination. He rubbed one hand across the back of his neck, closing his eyes before he continued.

"Honestly, sir, if we were to join up with the fleet right now, they'd probably evacuate. They might leave a skeleton crew to help with repairs, or bring in one of the big mobile repair docks, but..." He paused, eyes slitting open to take in my expression before squeezing shut again. "That Marapi detonated what was left of her stores right before she impacted. Probably meant to do it right after, but we got lucky." He snorted, then fell silent.

"Look. If we saw that Materner, she saw us. She'll know just about where we jumped from, and given that she can figure out where we jumped to. If she gets in system with us before we leave, we haven't gained anything meaningful; she's still right on our flaming tail."

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Quick spoke without opening his eyes. "She's going to keep dogging us until we kill her. You know that."

"Kid, can you take her? Assuming all her weapons are live?"

"Not in the shape I am now. If I were at one hundred percent, with my full crew? Sure, not a problem. Tiamat and the cadre could have taken half a dozen Materners without breaking a sweat, but..."

I cut her off before the bitter self-recrimination in her voice could get any worse. "But you're not fresh, and you don't have a full crew. You never have been, and that's not your fault. The fact remains, though, that if we turn and face her as is, it's a complete crap-shoot if we win or lose."

A tired grin twisted Quick's features. "I thought you liked to gamble, sir."

"No, Quick. Not that way. I know that my people have the skills to do what I need them to, and the nerve to do it the way it needs to be done. I make plans that lean on those skills, on that courage, and pit that strength against the 'Sects' arrogant clumsiness." I paused, wondering for a moment at my own vehemence. "I guess I gamble that none of them will break, or that they won't forget their lessons, or that the enemy won't get a sudden burst of brilliance to the brain pan." I grimaced in sudden realization. "I lost on that one, you realize."

Quick frowned. "How so, sir?"

"That Materner. She was part of the ambush. She's been tracking us. She found some way to jump out of the nova. She's too flaming smart." I sighed. "She's smarter than me, apparently."

"Nope."

I twisted my lips into something resembling a grin for Quick's benefit. "I appreciate your confidence, but I don't have a solution for this one. I think we're down to a gamble."

"Nope."

I shook my head. "You saying 'nope' isn't going to make our situation change."

"Nope." He grinned, an expression I wasn't used to seeing on anyone lately, but especially not on Quick. "But it doesn't need to change. You just need to figure out how to use what you've got. To outthink one strung out, half fried 'Sect."

"Look, even with everyone in armor, we can't..." I froze, the answer coming together in a flash. "You've got everyone in armor, yes?"

Quick nodded, a tired smile playing across his face. "Yeah. Even the little ones. They're controlled by a combination of on-board expert systems, with autonomous essie control for odd situations, plus input and override from Echidna if it becomes necessary."

I frowned a little, distracted a moment from my sudden epiphany. "Why not just put them under essie control? I mean, I get why Echidna can't control all of them, between speed of light limits and multitasking..."

"I am a mature AI, Captain. I can handle the multitasking." Echinda chimed in.

"But why the local expert systems?"

"Scale, sir. They... have a hard time really comprehending things on our sense of scale. Intellectually, they can figure it out. That's just math. But they don't have a gut feeling for it, if you will."

"That's a terrible pun."

"Wasn't intended as one, sir."

I stared at my first officer's bland, innocent face, trying to catch a hint of the grin I'd seen earlier, or the smile that came after, but he'd settled once more into his professional mask. I shrugged, returning to my earlier thought. "Okay, Quick. Get everyone into their armor, then put everyone under in long shifts. With the minimized life support usage that buys us, can we make it in four hours?"

Quick frowned as he juggled numbers in his head. He shook it slightly just as Echidna chimed in, "Yes, Captain, I can!"

"No, she can't, sir. We can cut it down to five though."

"I can make it in four!"

Quick shook his head firmly. "No, you can't, ma'am. I can see what you're thinking; you'll zero out the particle shielding. Each of the suits has integral shielding, so we won't need it. But you do."

"I'll be fine."

I shook my head. She might be able to multitask like a mature AI, but my Kid wasn't really 'mature' yet. "No, Echidna. Quick's right. We can't afford to have you getting brain scrambled. That's our plan, though. Get everyone in armor, drop the ship-wide life support, and get us to the jump point in five. With any luck, the Materner will be stuck sniffing after us based on our particle emissions, which they can never do at full speed."

"Will do, Captain!"

"One minor problem, sir?"

I hid a shudder of denied relief, "Yes, Quick?"

"If we drop all life support for five hours, we're probably going to lose most of the garden."

I didn't hide it this time; I shuddered at the thought of nothing but unflavored glop for the foreseeable future. Then again, I hadn't eaten anything except Guy's horrible concoction since we started running. I sighed. "We'll soldier on, Quick. Who knows, maybe we'll find something worth restocking with at that planet we're heading toward."

"I hope so,sir."

"Oh, and Echidna?"

"Yes, Captain?"

"Keep that particle shielding up. We don't need any more heroes. Got it?"

"Yes, sir."