"Captain, something's come up."

I lifted Beck from her cocoon of gel and handed her to Jodi, who stood just outside the pod. The looks they gave one another warmed my heart even as it made me just a little envious. With no real family and all my time dedicated to preparing for Command, I'd never had a chance to have an intimate relationship with another person. As Echidna's captain, I wasn't likely to for the foreseeable future.

"Just a moment, Kid."

I stepped out of the remaining gel, trying in vain to keep my jacket clear of the goop. My pants were shot, but I had hopes we could recover the coat with a thorough cleaning. I nodded to Card, who glanced at Beck and Mull, motioned for them to follow, and moved down the corridor. It turned out she'd had psych training before her stint in Command, so for now she filled in the 'Doctor' slot in the 'Doctor, Friend, Telepath' trio required for waking someone from stasis. Gar Ross had dabbled as well while deciding what career track he wanted, so he filled in the same slot for Guy's group. Tiamat had placed the reincarnates in the outer layer of Middie pods, with the neoincarnates in the inner layer, so each of us worked a layer, working our way from friend to friend.

I stamped my feet twice to get the worst of the gel off, took one long step away from the subliming gel, and shut down my augmentation. The glow faded from my skin, residual gel settling onto the fabric of my recently spotless uniform. I trudged down the corridor after my rapidly growing crew, dragging my half-ton body along the deck. It still surprised me that I could make that much mass move.

According to my specs, my internal power reserves should last for hours of sustained high-power usage, or practically indefinitely for small things like I'd been doing. According to my essie, I'd never rested long enough to fill them, and the power core my design called for hadn't been available to my essie when they rebuilt me. I didn't even want to think about that right now. I could only rely on my augmentation for about one minute out of every ten, at drastically reduced levels from the first few minutes when I'd confronted Guy. I could lift someone up to twice my own mass out of the stasis gel, and since the Middies mostly weighed less than one of my legs, that meant I could physically assist them out to where one of the others could help support them.

"Captain, an Insectoid Scout craft has detected us."

The three Cadets walking in front of me froze. My augmentation flared and died in an instant, giving me just enough of a boost to launch me toward the end of the hall, the nearest spot I could find a display. Old habits die hard. This time they died fast, as my failing augmentation tripped me up, landed me face first in the remains of gel I'd thrown off. I pushed myself out of the muck just in time to remember I didn't need a display anymore.

"First day on the new legs." I joked to hide my embarrassment over my fall and how I'd forgotten about my augmentation. "How far away?"

"It's inside its ranged weapon envelope now. It's coming in for the close kill, or maybe to feed on any organics. Fifteen minutes to zero-zero intercept."

Not good. My bowels didn't release at the thought of being eaten by a ravenous 'Sect, but only because I hadn't eaten since my augmentation. I had more conscious control over them now anyhow. I could tell the gravity of the situation by how 'not soiling myself' seemed like an accomplishment. "How's your combat readiness, Kid?"

"Um... Not good."

Great. Adolescent insecurity. Luckily, an AI would work through this in a day or two. I'd have to remind myself to celebrate when she did. "How not good, Echidna?"

"Four to six percent of my projector capacity. Zero percent on deflectors and absorption panels. Armor is better, only one major penetration, the one Tomas is dealing with, and three minors, one into each of my bays."

Less than an hour working with him and already she called him 'Tomas'. He had some kind of freaky seductive way with AIs. Of course, that thought just served to distract me from how badly the 'Sect had us overmatched. Time to see what else remained in our bag of tricks.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Who's awake, fitted, and has combat experience?"

"Ranked by combat time from most to least, Cadet Guy Delnot-Li, Cadet Wendy Beck, and Cadet Jodi Mull." That struck me as strange. I figured Guy would wake his friends among the Cadets, and I'd always thought he hung around the other combat vet reincarnates. The luck of the wake-up order left me with only three to choose from. Guy... No. Not Guy. He needed to keep waking people up. I turned to Beck and Mull as I stood up. "How soon can you be ready?"

The girls pulled apart just far enough to look at one another. After a moment of communication too intimate for me to interfere, they both turned to me.

"What kind of Scout?"

"Checking... Soro class." Small. No parasites, so not even a proper mother ship. Just a pocket drive with the basic biologics required to support it. Less dangerous than a Kraken. Of course, a lucky Kraken could take down an Imperial Scout, and Echidna didn't have much more firepower than one of those when she had her full capabilities. Right now, one heavy suit of armor might be able to take her down.

Wendy interrupted my musing. "Ti... Echidna, do we have any Swatter pocket missiles in stores?"

"There are five remaining of my initial complement of sixty. Two are marked nonfunctional, the other three are borderline."

"Huh. Okay, Captain, we can be in the air in ten minutes, give or take a minute to get the Swatters hooked up."

I nodded, and they took off down the corridor. Two suits of armor against a Soro. Not impossible, but not good. I grasped at any way to improve the odds. I could almost see the puzzle pieces falling into place, accompanied by a flash of pink light.

Wait. Come back a moment.

"Kid, does the Soro know you're not dead?"

"No. I don't have access to the drivers for my deflectors, my absorbers are either melted down from terminal overload or disconnected from the network due to the meltdowns, and I only have access to about five percent of my projectors. I wasn't able to follow standard Imperial protocols and power up all three, so I've been playing possum, hoping for a chance at a lucky shot when it opens its maw."

"Excellent. Good job, Kid." My gut clenched anew at the reminder we only had five percent of our offensive power, not to mention a near complete lack of shielding. I couldn't let anyone see my weakness, though. "Hold off on firing. In fact, do you have power runs from your pocket drive capacitor to your remaining projectors?"

"I'm... not sure. Checking... yes, I do, Captain. I could overload the projectors if I needed to. I could get a shot in now; I didn't realize I had that kind of range. Should I take the shot?"

The connection of all our active power to the remaining banks gave me the last piece I needed. "No. Leave your projector capacitors empty, ready a straight feed from the pocket capacitor. Don't change anything; absolutely no external evidence we're alive. Got it?"

"Yes, sir."

I looked to where Beck and Mull stood patiently waiting. "Ladies, do you trust me?"

Mull frowned, her heavy features almost mulish, but Beck smiled. "Of course we do, Captain. right, Jodi?" She elbowed Mull in the side, and after a longsuffering look the bigger girl nodded.

"Good. I'm going to create a telepathic link. I'm going to try to, anyhow. I'm hoping the 'Sects haven't learned to watch those parts of the spectrum since we went under, and that the low power won't clue them in. We'll use that to maintain the surprise. Ready?"

"As we'll ever be," quipped Back. Mull just nodded again.

I stared at them, pink light strobing as I pulled on my mother's memories of how to do this. Since my augmentation, they'd lurked in the corner of my head, a cloud of pain laced with candy-colored stripes, but I needed them now. They responded slowly, but they did respond. I would accept no other option. I peered into Beck's eyes...

Her pupils shot wide. A hundred odd years of memory poured through me, parents and school and battles and fear and longing and, finally, washing under and around everything else, Jodi. By instinct I plucked out the key bits that made her Wendy, condensing them into a bright, flickering star which lodged in a corner of my mind.

I rode Wendy's flicker to Mull. Her history oozed through me, the slow, deliberate thoughts a dark backdrop to her girlfriend's glow. Again, the important parts sifted from the dross, never the ones I'd think of had I been watching consciously. The portable Jodi slipped into a corner of my mind next to Wendy, and in the world outside my skull the two of them both tossed their heads as if waking from a sudden stupor.

Okay. Go get armored up.

Both of them blinked at my voice in their head. They nodded, Wendy's smile offset by Jodi's lack of expression, and then they turned and sprinted down the corridor. I tapped my connection to Wendy; her pulse raced as she pelted pell-mell toward the bay. I left the connection open in the back of my mind, waiting for her to be fully armored.

Meanwhile I turned to Card. "Who's next on the list?"