I stared at the shattered remains of the door, waiting for some snarky comment from Tiamat.

"Tiamat... is gone."

I froze. "What do you mean, gone?"

"We can't hear her." Images, ideas flowed into my head beside that simple statement. Every member of an essie begins life with the ability to hear the radio spectrum as easily as an unaugmented human could hear the audible one. In my case, the only time of silence they'd known had been the brief period I lived aboard the transfer shuttle; Glaucus and later Tiamat murmured to themselves constantly.

The same thought reminded me I no longer counted among the unaugmented. I'd paid a high price in pain, but along with my physical augmentation, my essie had remembered my desire to speak with someone from within the stasis pod, and they'd responded the only way they knew how. I gathered my thoughts and projected them outward in a broad band, hoping to catch anyone aboard with my call.

This is Cadet Captain Dabig. What is Tiamat's current status?

Only silence answered at first, an aching, endless silence which forced me to realize I'd never known that type of silence since I boarded, since Guy's touch upon my mind started my own latent abilities on the long slog toward maturation. The fact he'd also touched off my nightmares paled in comparison. Tell an Imperial Marine you have nightmares, he'll drink with you. Tell him you're a telepath, and he'll politely excuse himself from your company.

Tiamat is dead.

That single quiet sentence, delivered by a mental voice so haggard I almost didn't recognize it as Guy's, drove me to my knees. I sobbed like a child, unable and unwilling to stop myself.

Long before I'd finished mourning, a scream of fear and surprise echoed through the corridors. More than half static, it filled my ears and newfound telepathic sense equally, driving me into a tucked ball. I fought my way to my feet as it changed, matured from the omnipresent shrieking wail of a newborn to the focused cry of a child seeking her mother.

"Captain? Captain? Is that you? Are you my captain?"

I stood there, listening mutely to the voice so like yet so different from Tiamat's. I felt the pulse of the ship's thoughts coalescing around me, focusing second by second. Emotions flickered through the mess, not the yielding, cluttered things produced by humans, but hard edged, distinct pulses rocking me backward. Confusion. Longing. Desire. Fear. Hope.

Hope lies.

The thought, not meant for her, leaked out of my mind anyhow. The ship whined at me, the sound grating on my ears. I wanted to help her, but more than that I needed to get the screaming infant out of my brain.

"I am Cadet Captain Dustie Dabig."

"Captain! You are my Captain!"

Her thoughts surrounded me, teasing their way into my mind. In moments I heard nothing except a soft buzzing surrounding me. The sound comforted me, for a moment dulling the edge of my grief. I'd awakened without a wake-up crew, so something had gone wrong. Without the whine, I could think, so I let my new companion buzz in my head and tried to sort out my situation. I needed orders, maybe weapons, and definitely clothes. I headed for my quarters, hoping I'd meet someone on the way who could give me a situation report.

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I got to my room without meeting a single soul. A touch of ozone lingered in the air, but I couldn't place the source. Remembering the single painful thought from earlier, I leaned against my door and tossed a message out into the ether.

Guy? Are you there?

His reply came slowly, as if he couldn't muster the energy to speak.

Captain's office. Come.

Despite our recent troubles, he was still one of my Middies, and he needed me. I turned to my door, intending to dress quickly and get to him. I bonked my nose on the door.

I addressed the interloper surrounding me, and realized with a shock she hadn't told me her name. "What is your name?"

"What is my name? Oh, I don't know that yet. What is my name, Captain?"

I leaned against the door, trying desperately not to cry. I couldn't call her Tiamat; no one would be able to replace my lost Mother of Dragons. I couldn't leave her nameless and drifting; I'd known too much of that myself. I searched my memory, and my essie helpfully threw up a list of names. After consideration shortened by the ship's endless quiet repetition of 'name, name, what's my name?', I answered her.

"Echidna." It wasn't the nicest of names, but if I could suffer with a derivative, so could she.

"Echidna! Cool, I have a name! What can I do for you, Captain?"

"I need into my room. I need my clothes."

"Oh. Yes, sir!" The door to my room slid open, and my closet carousel ratcheted a set of dress whites around before I even stepped into the room.

"Dress blacks, please."

"But... you're the captain. That means you're Navy, not a Marine. Right?"

This couldn't go on. There had to be someone aboard with more seniority. "Echidna, which personnel aboard are senior to me?"

"Middle Grade Cadet Guy Delnot-Li."

"And he's not Captain because?"

Echidna giggled. "Because you outrank him, silly! Besides that, he declined the position." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Please don't be mad. I wasn't sure, so I asked him too."

I rushed to reassure her. "I'm not mad. What happened to the rest of the crew? What happened to the Seniors?"

Echidna paused for a few moments before she replied, her tones still hushed. "All crew members and students senior to you, save Cadet Delnot-Li, are listed as Killed In Action."

I stared at the dress whites. Technically, as a Middie, I could still wear them. If Echidna was right, I ought to be wearing them. Some captains who had been Marines didn't, but they got away with it because of the ancient 'once a Marine, always a Marine' tradition. If I put them on, I turned my back on my plans, on my father, on my mother.

I'd hated them for so long. Without them I had no idea who to be.

"I am not a coward. I am excellent." I still had a goal. I'd always intended to command. Not like this, certainly, but I hadn't chosen to have the 'Sects ambush us. I'd gone to sleep a frightened girl and woken a Captain. Now I had to live up to that. I reached for my dress whites.

The motion disturbed a bit of stasis gel still clinging to my arm. It fell to the floor with a nasty plop sound.

"You couldn't even clean me up when you were done?"

"You didn't ask."

Immediately a glow surrounded my entire body, lifting the final remains of the nasty gel as it did. A shiver ran through me, pushing the gel just far enough away to rain to the floor with a gentle series of patters. I stepped to the closet and began dressing.

"Thanks."

I got as far as my undergarments. I held the uniform shirt up, staring at it. I'd always wanted command, but I'd thought commanding a squad of Marines would be the best I could hope for straight out of school. More likely, I'd act as someone else's First until I had enough 'seasoning'. Command of a starship took decades. Millennia if the upper tiers didn't think you had the right stuff.

Echidna crackled a speaker near me, a young AI's version of a polite cough. I looked at the nearest pickup.

"You don't want to be my Captain either?" In that instant, I felt as small as she sounded. Whether I wanted it or not, she needed a captain, and I was the only one left.

"It's a big shirt to fill."

"That's okay. You'll fill it out really good."

I groaned at her awful attempt at humor, trying to take the bite out of it with a grin, and slid into my new uniform.