My blankets squished. With my eyes closed, I felt the circuitry in the walls around me. In the back of my head lurked a star of alloy and circuits, the tiniest fragment of the cocooned mind around me. I opened my mouth, fearful of what would come out.

“I am not a coward. I am excellent. My name is Dustie Dabig. My father was Dustin Dabig, my mother was Grace Li.”

My essie’s voice purred into my mind, satisfaction blended with awe.

And you have Tiamat’s navigation charts.

***

I strode down the corridor, my motion born more of a need to move than a need to be elsewhere. As the corridor widened with the break from Middie country to the Senior levels, Quick fell in beside me. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face, and his smile in response warmed cold places long frozen.

“Sir. Good rest, sir?”

“Still exhausted, First.”

He frowned his confusion at me. Rapid, light footsteps behind us told me Guy would catch up with us soon. I opened a private connection to Echidna.

Kid, you’ve been scanning the nearby stars. Do you have our position?

Her response came tuned for my ears only, “No, Captain. I really wish I had Tiamat’s charts.”

Wish granted. I began transfer of the bulky charts into Echidna’s memory.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Holy…” I’d stunned her so much she failed to keep her voice ears only, and I took perverse pleasure in hearing both Guy and Quick’s footsteps stop the moment she said the word.

“Delnot?”

“Yes, Captain?” He called out as he jogged up to take his place to my left.

“Are the Cadets in the bay?”

Quick frowned at that, whispering something to Echidna too low and fast for me to hear. “Yes, Sir. Some of them are still recovering, but they’re conscious.”

“That much I can tell, Delnot. Thank you.” I glanced at Quick. “Anything I need to know about?”

He’d recovered his professional mask, but I caught the edges of a grin lurking. “Nothing bad, sir. I’ll let you know when we have time.”

“Very good. Echidna?”

She remained silent for half a second. “Sir?”

Her tone wasn’t as pleased as I’d hoped. “Ears only. What’s wrong, Kid?”

“I really think Quick and Delnot ought to know this, sir. Good and bad news about our position.”

We’d reached the penultimate coaming before entering the Cadre quarters. Ahead of us Iheard the noise generated by a bay full of Cadets. “Delnot, Quick, VR Conference, max acceleration, now.”

We stood in our conference room, the clutter of our earlier work sessions surrounding us. Before I could speak, Echidna pulled it all aside, and we stood in a three-dimensional star map. A single star flared to sudden green brilliance. “The good news is we’re only ten jumps away from Deep Stand Base.”

Deep Stand Base: the gargantuan, semi-mobile fortification which lurked at the site of my mother’s most famous battle. If we could get into the same system, the Imperial forces there would rip the heavens themselves asunder to get us to safety.

If we could get there.

“The first bad news,” she continued, “is that in my current condition I can only store enough power for four jumps.”

“I’ve got an idea for that, Ma’am,” Quick interrupted.

After a pause, with all of us growing more excited by the moment, Echidna stopped us cold by the simple expedient of highlighting another star. “This is where we are now.”

The three of us just stared at our current location, our destination at Deep Stand, and at the route Echidna sketched out between them. Ten long jumps, right through the middle of ‘Sect space.