Samir relaxed back in his seat as he watched the viewscreen of the bridge. They had found Tannis’ body in one of the control stations as well as Miles Kieth and Dr. Philips. I wonder when it will end. He privately thought. The bodies seemed to keep piling up, and he was certain more would follow before this business was concluded.

While he was accustomed to loss in the war, the absence still hurt. Increasingly, he was standing alone. Amos had turned traitor, Father Soren had disappeared, and now Miles and Dr. Philips were gone. The ship felt empty without them, and the once friendly halls had now turned cold.

If they were to finally evacuate on the derelict, he would arrange a funeral for the dead. As it was, he could only offer a short prayer. However, it was a kind deliverance that most of his men were spared in the recent battle. He had lost only two shuttles compared to Erika’s four. What’s more, it was his shuttles that had landed on the derelict first.

Sergeant Barnes had led the capture of the bridge and a second team was advancing on another control station. So far, they had met no resistance from Erika’s men. A surprise, but he was grateful to avoid more bloodshed for now. If things continued as they are, Samir might just take control of the derelict altogether. But it’s still not that simple. He thought. Erika had a plan, and this was doubtless just another move on the board.

He shook his head. There wasn’t anything he could do about it now. The best bet was to continue as planned until they got the derelict on its way. Then he could worry about the future.

“Captain!” A marine turned from his station. “Shuttles are on their way back. We’ve received reports that the FTL drive will be operational in three hours.”

Samir closed his eyes in relief. Just a little longer. I just need to hold out a little longer. Maybe they had finally gotten lucky. He had expected one of the entities’ ships to have arrived by now. However, he was starting to think that the lone vessel might have been the only one out there—or at least the only one nearby. Then again, Samir had to assume otherwise. There was one way he could make sure.

“Ensign.” He turned to another crewman. “Bring up telemetry from the probes we launched.”

They had launched the small devices after the signal had been emitted from the derelict hoping to detect anyone’s approach. So far, the probes had all remained silent even after that mysterious ship materialized in the solar system. But let’s assume their FTL somehow bypasses normal sensors. We could detect them easily enough when they came into the solar system.

Samir watched as the screen changed to a three-dimensional view of the nearby region of space. The map extended to about eighty light years in all directions and encompassed around twenty star systems. A blue shading took up most of the chart with only the edges out of reach. Not a single vessel was detected.

“What are you looking for, Captain?” the crewman asked.

“I remember that the derelict’s FTL took it from star system to star system. Hopping from one star to another along its path. If so, then it seems reasonable to assume that it uses a star’s energy to make the jump.”

Captain Singh rubbed his beard. Their probes were built on detecting heat as it stood out best in the freezing vacuum. Stealth was difficult against such an empty background. Samir recalled one ambush where they had to dump the ship’s atmosphere just to avoid detection from the waste heat.

“I’m unfamiliar with the specifications of the probes. How well would they be able to detect objects near a star?”

It was a tactic rarely used in military engagements. Hiding a force near a star would obscure their heat signature, but doing so for extended periods of time was risky. Radiation always proved a threat even with the power of a gravity shield. Though Captain Singh supposed that wasn’t much of a risk for the entities.

“It depends, but it’s possible that they wouldn’t detect anything if the objects were close enough.”

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

“I want you to have the probes send out a high-density burst. Get a clearer picture of the area.”

The crewman glanced back at the Captain. “That’ll drain them of all their power. We’ll be blind a few minutes afterwards.”

Captain Singh stared at the viewscreen. “They didn’t help us the first time. Besides, we’re about to leave the system. I just want to make sure we’re alone out here.”

The crewman nodded and inputted the command. While without the gravity core they couldn’t send any enhanced transmissions of their own, they could bounce the command on the routine broadcasts sent from the probes. They just had to wait a few minutes before the next cycle.

Captain Singh cracked his knuckles as he squinted at the map. In the early days of space travel, back when mankind still thought there were aliens, there were stories of strange ships spotted in the frontier. Abominations hid in dark planets more ancient than stars. Undecipherable signals from an emptiness so vast that man never realized how truly small he was.

While he didn’t believe for a second that the entities were aliens in the truest sense, they might as well have been. Suddenly those innocent star systems on the map became something else entirely. No longer planets and gas giants, but worlds which housed monsters, looking to devour them.

Captain Singh didn’t think of space as frightening, but it was so easy to forget on the comfortable Hyperion that they were alone in the edges of the galaxy. Far from civilization and farther from any help. There was no calling the fleet when those things stepped out of the darkness again.

The command was sent and Samir watched as a darker shade of blue radiated outwards from the probes, traveling millions of miles in seconds. One reached the nearby star in mere minutes. Samir waited with abated breath as the blue overshadowed the dot and nothing happened.

He exhaled. Perhaps I was too—

A red icon appeared in another solar system. Two. Three. Four. Samir watched in still horror as more and more pings came back. By the time the enhanced scan was dissipating, nearly thirty ships had been detected. All of them were situated close to the stars of their respective systems. Looking at the map, every nearby system was occupied with some force.

The bridge was silent as the scan finally completed and the probes lost power. Everyone stared at the chart unable to look away from what was an entire fleet of enemy ships. We needed the gravity core to bring down just one. Samir opened his mouth, but no words came from it.

There was no telling if they were deliberately hiding or if this was just some accident of their FTL capabilities. Whether they were preparing for an ambush or surrounding the Hyperion until reinforcements arrived, it didn’t matter. They were far too many ships even if they hadn’t lost the gravity core.

Captain Singh rubbed his eyes. All the politicking on the Hyperion. All the schemes and plots that tore ship apart. And all the while the enemy was quietly waiting at the gates. There was no telling when these ships arrived. Maybe Terese’s plan could’ve got them to safety if only they acted on it fast enough. Then again, maybe not. He could go down a dozen hypotheticals, but it wouldn’t do any good.

Samir watched those red circular icons, trying to calm himself. He remembered the encounter with that strange ship, and even more so the fight with the entities. The thought that many more were just out of sight disturbed him. He could imagine hundreds of their spider-like bodies crawling through the halls of the Hyperion and killing all that they found.

He rid himself of those thoughts. What mattered was their next move, and it was time to see if the Hyperion’s crew had anymore tricks up their sleeve.

“Erika.” Samir tapped the comm. “I’m sending you telemetry data from the probes. It seems we have… company.”

There was a pause on the other end as she no doubt looked over the data. He wouldn’t be surprised if she double checked the computer logs to verify that the scans were authentic. Not that he could see the point in such a deception.

“Do you have any suggestions?” Samir asked, impatient to get on with it.

“Call a meeting in the briefing room.” Erika’s voice was cold. “We don’t have time.” The comm clicked off.

Hmph. Captain Singh rested his head. Always straight to business. Maybe she had a plan, hopefully she did. Samir might have fought in his fair share of engagements, but nothing like this. His eyes wandered over the map again.

It took the gravity core just to bring one down. If those ships decided to advance, it was over. The only thing holding them back was the fear of a weapon that was long destroyed.

The only chance they had was fleeing aboard a ruined ship that they themselves had fired upon. A derelict that was falling apart versus some of the most powerful vessels that Samir had seen in his entire career.

It really was just our luck. Captain Singh let his eyes rest. As soon as we beat Tannis, there was just going to be another catastrophe around the corner. No, that was the wrong way to think about it. The danger was always there, lurking in the background. At least now they knew about it.

They would just have to figure out a way to win this battle and then whatever else came their way. Win and win again. Fight and run for as long as they could—until the very edges of the universe if necessary. So be it. Captain Singh leveled his eyes at his enemy. Until the ends of the universe.