You decide that you need to know more about your body. What it can and can't do, new attributes you haven't discovered yet, everything. And Littleflame will need to know all of it, if he is going to be your medicae. Plus the Deathwatch needs to know as well. The first individual affected if the Gellar fields flicker and daemons slip onto the ship is always the Navigator after all. If they end up having to fight one wearing your flesh, they need to know how to kill it. And if, in the process, you learn more about Littleflame, all the better.

The expected order comes down: Full Warp to Alphara. All hands to prepare for a high-speed Transit. The astropath has sent the alert out to all military commands in the sub-sector. But they are going to take time to respond: they need to muster their strength, escorts need to come in from patrols, transports need to be organized. And they can't start doing that until the message gets to them, which will take even more time.

The Ignis can cut some time off of that loop, but she needs to get moving fast. By going directly to Alphara, and utilizing both of her cargo holds, she can bring two regiments of Guardsmen to the fight. And running alone, she can make the trip faster than any convoy. Hopefully, other Von Sebastion ships will be in the area as well. The Terra Incarnadine was scheduled to stage through Alphara before heading back out again on survey work, and her Pathfinder Task Force might have enough firepower to hold off the Tyranid Splinter Fleet. But all of this planning hinges on you. The Ignis can't navigate the Warp without its Navigator. Which means that as much as Chaplain Danus or Bishop Ducarin might hate your new form, they can't just kill you out of hand. Not without a replacement ready.

You shove that line of thinking out of your head. Right now, you need to get the Ignis to Alphara as fast as possible. You pull up the real-space maps. Tracing a direct line Coreward and anti-Spinward from Outbound to Alphara bypasses Polaris and Kania, but not Viking. So two systems means between five and ten days, for a normal ship under normal conditions. The Ignis will cut perhaps five days off of that time, given her finely-tuned Warp drive. Perhaps even more, depending on how well you do your job. You store the charts away and Open your Third Eye, staring into the Warp in search of the Astronomicon.

Everything is slightly muted, and it takes you a moment to figure out why. Either the Hive Fleet is even closer than everyone thought, and already starting to disrupt Warp travel and communications in the region, or you are now resistant to the minor bits and bobs of interference you used to have to parse away. But if the Splinter Fleet was close, then the Astropath wouldn't have been able to get his message out, so it has to be you! This must be part of the 'hardening' that Ariavari spoke of! You can't know the full extent of it until you run into your limits once again, but even this is no small advantage. Your hope flares and your heart beats in time with the steady golden glow of the Astronomicon's light. With so little interference in the way, you have a lock of Iron on its direction, and your course will be well-illuminated indeed.

You lay in your course, including the Warp entry vector. You can see the reefs around the Alphara system, drifts and shoals of destroyed ships from failed invasion attempts. With the Tau to Rimward and Renegade and Corrupted humans steadily emerging as the Warpstorms retreat from its Spinward flank, Alphara has seen more than her share of fighting, even for a Fortress-world. Your course arcs cleanly over and round the debris you can see, avoiding the worst of the wrecks.

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"Navigator to Bridge. Course laid in. Transit at will."

"Bridge here Navigator. Translation in thirty seconds. Helm standing by."

"Understood Bridge. Helm, stand by for course corrections." They must have gotten the Ignis under way even as you were locking in the entry vector. You take a deep breath, let it out, and start issuing course corrections as you feel the Ignis slip into the Warp.

Less than twenty hours later, you are coming up on the Revision point. You call the start of the revision exactly on cue, and drop the Ignis back into realspace in one of the designated approach lanes just outside of the weapons range of the nearest defensive batteries. It's a new record for the route, and one likely to stand for quite some time. You disconnect from your throne, pull your dress back into place, and head for your quarters. Given your new body, you can't exactly walk about on the Ignis the way you used to.

Over a rather belated breakfast, you inquire on Littleflame and its condition. Canala informs you that it is laying down, having been rendered quite seasick from the transit. You shrug, and set aside the thought of starting your investigations right away. It deserves some time to recover after all, particularly if you are going to be taking the Ignis back to Outbound in the very near future. Instead, you pull up one of the external feeds form the Observation dome on your terminal. You have to sit cross-legged on the floor to use it, but it's not that uncomfortable. Panning it around, you can't help but grin.

The Terra Incarnadine is indeed at Alphara, and her Pathfinder Taskforce is almost ready to ship out. The Ark Mechanicus-class battleship Terra Incarnadine is the flagship of course, supported by the Armageddon-class battlecruiser Olaf Thorson, the Overlord-class battlecruiser Skylark, the Dominator-class cruiser Skyfall, and the Lunar-class cruiser Terra's Light. The Sword-class destroyer Aegis leads the escort squadron of five newer Firestorm destroyers.

All told, it is a powerful formation, but a small bit of uncertainty churns in your gut as you consider the size of the fleet. If the Imperium deems it necessary to dispatch the entire taskforce to squash one Splinter Fleet, then how dangerous is the Splinter fleet really? Surely a force smaller than six destroyers, four ships of the line, and a super-capital ship is overkill for anything short of an outright invasion? Your terminal chimes with an incoming message. You answer tentatively, unsure who could be calling you. "Navigator Dannan speaking."

"Ethna? Is that any way to greet your Aunt?"

"Aunt Yasha?"

"Who else would be calling you dear? I didn't expect to see you again until next Founding Day, back on Oasis. You know, the big 50th founding bash?"

"Oh right, that one."

"That's it, something happened to you. What's going on dear?"