Erika leaned on the railing and watched infinity pass by. The swirling clouds, which had no name or known substance, broke gently against the ship. However, the strangest thing was the patterns off in the distance. Just as gravity drew in planets and stars, the nebulous gases were drawn to one another. But instead of forming irregular clumps, the substances seemed to dance. It was as if the night sky had come alive with color, and the heavens were opened to the eye. Not that Erika ever believed such fanciful imaginings.

She stood in an observation lounge. The room was a giant glass window near the aft of the ship. Behind her were dusty couches and tables for those looking to relax off duty. While being some decks below the bridge, she still had a healthy view of the bow of the ship. I wonder what it looked like in its prime. She mused sadly.

“We’ve done more repair work on the shields.” Amos interrupted her thoughts as he stepped up beside her. “It’s difficult since we don’t have our normal diagnostic tools. We have to track down sections manually. Thankfully, Captain Singh is letting our men to do repair work in his sections.”

“Will we be able to make another jump?” Erika asked.

Amos leaned an arm on the railing. “We actually should be able to make a smoother jump next time. It was all the weaker sections gave out—the ones with interior damage that we couldn’t easily detect. After we get done replacing the wiring, I don’t expect anymore trouble.”

“That’s good.” Erika nodded. “Now, if only we could make it through today, maybe we have a chance.”

Amos turned to her. “What are the odds that we make it through this?”

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “Better than you think. Not as much as I would like.”

Amos gave a despondent shrug. “I hope we make it.”

“Me too.” Erika paused for a moment. She leaned further on the rail, resting both arms on the metal. “I know there’s been something that’s been bothering you. This might be the last chance to say it.”

The Chief Engineer raised an eyebrow at that. “Pardon me for saying, but I didn’t take you for the sentimental type.”

Erika chuckled a little at that. “I’m not, but we may die in the next few minutes. And considering I may have made the worst mistake in my entire life, I would like someone to talk to.”

“You mean when the Captain destroyed the gravity core?”

Erika kept Amos in the corner of her eye. “That is up there.”

The Chief Engineer crossed his arms. “It’s funny. I don’t remember him taking the shot. I can’t even recall the gun. All I saw was the look in his eyes.”

“He was going to kill you,” she noted.

Amos nodded his head to her. “Men kill each other all the time. I may be young, but I’ve been in battle before—at least once or twice. If it’s not personal at the start, it is when your friend is dying in your arms. I know that look of rage well enough.”

Erika watched the breaking clouds before them. “So you’re frightened of death? That Captain was so close to killing you?”

Amos laughed at that. He dropped his eyes to the floor and shook his head. “If he shot me in engineering, then that would’ve been it. There would be no qualms or questions. I would be dead on the floor, and he would be alive.” He looked at Erika directly. “That’s how war works. That’s how it should work, anyway.”

“A very mechanical answer.” She turned to him.

Amos’ eyes stared straight at her. “Then tell me, how does a man who has every reason to kill you, doesn’t?”

Erika withheld a laugh. She could give Amos a thousand reasons. There was the familial tie between the two, the once loyal relationship between captain and subordinate, or even the natural human instinct to hesitate before killing. Maybe Captain Singh thought he could make a better bargain to get off engineering if he spared Amos.

The exact nature of the matter didn’t have any importance. The equations just played in Amos’ favor at the moment.

The young man still stared at her.

“I can’t answer that for you.” She gave an excuse.

The Chief Engineer turned to the endless sky before them. “It’s not that I think Samir is right, but I question if I would’ve done the same in his place. The Butcher of Three Systems spared a man he ought to have killed. He spared you as well. I’m not so sure I would’ve been so kind if I had stood in his place.”

“You spoke up for him earlier,” Erika said. “When we thought we had won, you asked that he be treated well.”

Amos didn’t react to that. “Showing pity to a defeated man is different than showing pity to your enemy who held a knife to your throat. You want to know a secret? I did think he was my enemy for a very long time. I made it my goal to tear down everything the man stood for. I was going to rip away that man’s legacy and show the galaxy for what he was. That may be why I never really considered that he might want the same thing. Even after he came to me in engineering, I couldn’t quite bring myself to believe it.”

Erika noted a wistfulness in Amos’ face. “Samir was in the wrong. He would’ve condemned the galaxy. You can’t forget that.”

“Just because another man is wrong doesn’t make you right,” Amos snapped back at her. “I don’t like Samir. I don’t even trust him. But if he is a better man than me…” He lowered his head again. “I need to know.”

Erika finally put the last pieces of the puzzle together. Amos was having a moral crisis. It was no wonder he had let that information slip so easily in their meeting with Samir. The man was losing faith in his own cause.

The only issue was what she was going to do about it. She ran through a number of equations. Amos was at best a tool she would have to keep her eyes on. He held a significant amount of loyalty with the crew that had chosen her side. As such, it guaranteed him a level of independence to act against her own interests.

The immediate solution presented itself. The best way to centralize power was to trim down the hierarchy itself.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Hmph. I almost feel guilty about it. Erika made no motion as she contemplated the idea right beside him. The truth was that Amos’ usefulness had mostly run its course. He was placed in his position as the knife to Samir Singh’s back. Any further use would be up to her own discretion. Right now, her hold on him was slipping, and the effort to win him back would be too much of a hassle. The mathematics just made sense any way one looked at it.

Still, she hesitated. It was one thing to betray Samir Singh. It was quite another to betray your own ally. Amos had believed in her. He had chosen to believe in her. That was something that spoke to her humanity, whatever part of her that was. To toss the man aside so casually was repulsive, even to someone such as her.

“It’s a shame history doesn’t judge us for our intentions, only our actions.” She sighed as she watched the unknowable go by above them. “But maybe that’s what’s fair. All the justifications and reasons in the world don’t get to excuse what you’ve done.”

“Do you think there might’ve been a better way?” Amos turned to her.

Erika leaned up from the rail and looked at him. She felt his life in her hands as the man searched for an answer. She could almost see Father Soren in her head, begging her to let him live. I spared the galaxy on your account, but I will not forget for a moment that we are at war. Father Soren hadn’t convinced her that she was wrong, but he did persuade her to give humanity another chance.

The Free Exchange now had that chance, and she was free to pursue her own work far away from anyone could stop her. While that came with its own risks, everything did. She would see her journey to the end.

She chuckled a little. “I don’t know. I don’t think anyone can, but we can only do so little in the grand scheme of things. You want to know if you are a good man? Prove it.”

Those words condemned Amos. They seemed so small, but they would take their hold on him. She didn’t know when it would happen, obviously, but something would come along. Circumstances would present the opportunity. All she needed to do was wait and make sure Amos fell into the trap.

Erika saw the universe distort as a window opened in this new realm. Before she could blink, they were through. Wisps of light danced around them as they came out of the infinite and back into normal space.

She took a deep breath as she saw a red rocky planet stretch out below her. The crimson rock was littered with meteorite impacts and windswept deserts that were blasted from millions of years of radiation. Judging from previous scans, it was the closest planet to the star. She lifted her eye further and saw a large blue disc further out. Even from this distance, it swallowed a portion of the night sky.

The ships would’ve detected their arrival immediately. It would only be a few minutes before they approached. Erika crossed her arms as destiny awaited her yet again. So it begins.

“We should vacate to the sphere room.” Amos gestured back down into a hallway. “More protection that way.”

“It doesn’t matter. If they start destroying this ship, we’re all dead anyway.” Erika didn’t turn from the star. She stood there, staring straightforward into the blue sun. “This is how it goes. Either we live or we die.”

Amos left her silently. There wasn’t much to do but wait as the minutes ticked down. All any of them could do was hope that things played out the way they wanted. Erika remembered how she felt with Tannis, standing on the edge of a precipice. It was so much more now. The vast abyss opened up before her, and she watched as it approached.

She didn’t know when she could’ve spotted the ships, but she suddenly noticed four dots separate from the stars. They moved as specks against the black, almost as distant as the million pinpricks of light twinkling in the background. However, they slowly grew to take shape, and Erika saw the four vessels approach.

They were much the same as the first one they encountered. It was as if a spaceship was hollowed out. Although these seemed to be of a different design than the first. The exoskeletons were more angular and pointed. They looked as though ships decorated for war, but Erika guessed that such an appearance was incidental.

Inside them was the same oozing liquid which coalesced and writhed just under the surface. She knew that thousands if not tens of thousands of consciousnesses boiled and churned along with it. And so we stand against each other. She nodded her head as the derelict turned towards the oncoming fleet. Captain Singh was keeping up appearances well. It was only a question if the other ships bought the ruse.

We’ll see if it works. She grinned as they approached one another. She could see the massive hulk of one of the entities’ ships taking the lead. She didn’t quite realize how huge the ships were from the viewscreen of the Hyperion. It was much bigger than she ever imagined. Even from a distance of several thousand kilometers, it maintained an impressive image in the night.

A part of her began to doubt in the back of her mind. Maybe they’ll figure it out. She suddenly thought back and wondered if the original crew of the Herodotus ever found out about the sabotage when they flew for another galaxy all those millennia ago. The Free Exchange would never make something as obvious as a technical failure. The true weapon was built into the hierarchy of the ship. Back before stasis pods were invented, the Free Exchange had devised faults which would carefully annihilate all the colonization attempts.

By all rights, the Herodotus should’ve been destroyed by its crew long before they made it to Andromeda. However, it was clear to her that a deviation happened which somehow preserved the crew on their journey. They made it, and now the crew of the Hyperion were witness to the consequences.

The hollowed ship loomed in the sky above them. She gripped the rails tightly as it came ever closer until it was a scant hundred meters above them. It’s going to be now or never. She watched as the liquid metal bubbled above them. Several forms detached from the swirling ocean and fell down towards the ship, puncturing the hull. They’re boarding us. She gritted her teeth.

It was a touch better than being fired upon, but it was only a matter of time before there would be too many to fight them off.

Now or never. She quickly glanced around, hoping for any sign of more ships. Three more forms detached from the hollowed ship above and again sank into the hull. She couldn’t help tremble as the nagging doubt took hold of her mind.

Maybe she had been wrong. Maybe the Andromedans were far more different than she had given them credit for. In that case, they had just handed themselves over to the enemy without so much as a fight. She looked on desperately as yet another three forms fell from the ship. Erika couldn’t help but hold her breath as they glided across the night, streaking down towards them.

She didn’t have so much as time to blink as the sky erupted in a roar of light. The silver forms were consumed by fire, which lit the perpetual night in a blaze. The blast’s shockwave impacted the derelict and threw her back onto the floor as another ship jumped into the solar system and fired upon the vessel above them. Erika was forced to avert her eyes as weapons that could lay waste to cities salvoed.

She felt the derelict lurch into motion as it fled away from the battle down towards the atmosphere on the red planet below. Her eyes stung as she clambered to her feet again. Shakily falling against the railing of the observation lounge, she lifted her gaze to the night above.

The first four ships which had greeted them had turned to face their attacker. Golden shields flared to life as beams of light thundered between them. More ships entered the solar system, opening fire chaotically as they appeared in the fray. Erika could only gape as nearly fifteen ships suddenly engaged in furious battle.

The silver ships glittered as they let loose cataclysmic volleys of projectiles so fast that Erika nearly thought them beam weapons. Antimatter missiles rang deaf in the void but exploded in red and white light. The derelict fled as fast as it could until the silver ships became little more than streaks illuminated by weapon’s fire.

Erika laughed as the shock wore off. She raised her arms at the cacophony of light dancing in the distance. This was what Glen Tannis must have felt, cutting down protectorates and eradicating entire empires without so much as lifting a finger. She knew this was closest man could ever come to feeling like god.

She had been wrong. Erika may have stood on the precipice, but the abyss parted for her. After everything that had happened, this was the power that she alone now commanded. This was proof that nothing was left to stand in her way. The entities were at each other’s throats, and Erika gleefully watched as the sky burned all around them.