The human employed the same tactics as before. Longfire and Troubleshooter whittled down the Klaath Frigates at a distance, while Gunzerker mulched the Corvettes. When the Corvettes were killed, the battlecruiser hit Frigates until the swarm of Fighters and Raiders came out to play. After pulverizing the small ships, Gunzerker focused fire on the Destroyers in the back of the Klaath fleet.

Yvian and Mims plied their guns as well, shooting at whatever ship the human's battlecruiser was targeting. Lady and The Encounter didn't have near the firepower of their heavy hitter's Rapid Artillery Arrays, but they still outperformed the beam weapons on their frigates. That was the trouble with beam weapons. They dealt very little damage compared to the vast amount of energy they consumed. They were mostly only good for swatting fighter class ships at long range.

The Klaath Destroyers closed the distance, pounding on The Gunzerker. It's shields, a mere twenty eight percent at the start of the fight, fell rapidly. The big cruiser managed to kill one of the Destroyers, but the remaining eight Frigates joined the fray. Their concentrated fire more than made up for the loss of one Destroyer's guns.

Yvian's pulse pounded as she watched Gunzerker's shields tick down. Eighteen percent. Fifteen percent. The second Destroyer exploded. Eleven percent. Nine. The cruiser was doing everything it could, using the best tactics available. It would not be enough. Six Frigates left. Shields at six percent.

There were two Frigates left when the shields fell. A second later, there was only one. One was enough. Beam weapons carved through The Gunzerker, furrowing trenches across its armored frame. Through the comms, she could hear Captain Mims issuing a string of curses as the big ship poured everything it had into silencing the last enemy. Several seconds passed as the Klaath beams bored into the cruiser, and the cruiser hammered on the Klaath. The Klaath broke first. Its shields shattered and its frame fell apart under the combined might of forty eight Rapid Artillery Arrays.

"Well," Mims said, "That was a little closer than I'd like."

"You think?" Yvian's heart was still pounding.

"Let's see what the damage is." Yvian scanned the battlecruiser so she could see what the human was seeing. "Shield generator took some damage. Three RAA turrets are offline. Engines... the engines. God damn it!" The human started cursing again. "They took out our motherfucking engines!"

"Shit." The Gunzerker was still in motion, but it wouldn't be able to accelerate or maneuver. "Do we have a way to fix it?"

"Not in time." Mims muttered a few more choice curses. "Repair drones are already on it, but it'll take at least two hours to get Gunzerker mobile again. We're gonna have to move forward on our own."

"That sounds..." How to put it? "Risky."

"It's Fucking Dangerous is what it is," Mims agreed. "But that portal's got to be shut down and we're the only ones close enough to do it. We don't have the forces to deal with the Klaath that are already here. Whatever's coming through that thing'll make the whole sector its bitch."

"Uh..." Lissa spoke up. "About that..."

"What?" Mims asked. Yvian focused sensors on the area in question. A river of Klaath Klusters spun a circle two hundred kilometers wide. Sixty Destroyers and tens of thousands of other ships patrolled the circle. Inside the circle was a dimensional rift. A portal.

"The good news is, we're dealing with Queenships instead of some new monster we've never seen before." Yvian focused the view further. A series of nine kilometer spheres connected to each other, forming a straight line sticking out of the portal. A spiral wrapped around the spheres, three kilometers high and a hundred meters thick. The top two hundred meters of the spiral's edge tapered, thinning down to resemble the edge of a blade. Three and a quarter spheres were sticking out of the portal. Seven more bladed shapes had made similar progress. "The bad news is, there's eight of them."

"That is bad news," Mims agreed. "But I guess it doesn't matter how many of them there are. They'll be cut in half if we kill the portal on them. We just have to get there on time."

"That's the other bad news," Lissa told him. "They're coming through the portal a lot faster than they're supposed to. I guess they got a running start."

It was true. The Queenships were moving nearly twice the speed she'd been expecting. Once one of them got a third of its narrow bulk through the portal, it would be able to coordinate every Klaath in the system. Worse, it would be able to defend itself. A Queenship's beam weapons outpowered a Destroyers' by an order of magnitude, and it could hit a target ninety thousand kilometers away. They had no chance of stopping them once they brought their guns to bear.

Instead of having two and a half hours to stop the portal, they now had sixty seven minutes.

"We can make it." Yvian gunned her engines. The Wandering Lady leapt into the void.

"I like the way you think," the human approved. He paused. "The ring making the portal is ten Klaath Klusters across. We have to sever it completely in one go to break the portal."

"I know." She saw The Random Encounter keeping pace behind her. Troubleshooter and Longfire followed as well, but they couldn't accelerate at the same speed as the Lady.

"Our ships don't have the firepower to do that."

"I know." Yvian programmed her turrets to fire at any target that came within fifteen thousand kilometers in the direction she was flying. Her weapons would lose most of their oomph after twelve thousand kilometers, but the speed she was reaching for warranted a margin of error.

"I see," said Mims. Lines of yellow light shot past Yvian's ship. The human's beam frigates were doing what they could to clear the path ahead. They'd fall out of weapons range before she reached the portal, but she'd take all the help she could get. "I don't think we've got time to dock, but if you make a voidjump I can pick you up."

"No."

"Yvian..." Lissa started.

"It's not that I don't want to," Yvian assured her. "I can't. There's a lag time when you fly by remote."

"Eight one hundredths of a second," Mims provided. "Barely noticeable."

"Normally," Yvian agreed. "But we're accelerating way past the speed ships normally operate. We're only getting one shot at this and we don't have a margin of error. I can't risk it."

"Yvian, don't be crazy," Lissa insisted. "If you just-"

"No," Mims cut her off. He cursed softly. "She's right. Someone has to stay on board." A pause. "It doesn't have to be you, though. We could switch places."

"I can't fly the Encounter like you can," Yvian told him. "Our chances are better where we are."

"Maybe," he admitted. "I just... I don't know if you'll survive the impact."

"I know."

"Sis..." Lissa trailed off.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"It'll be alright," Yvian lied. "I know it will." She knew no such thing.

She heard the human take a deep breath, blowing it out of his nostrils. "I don't like it, but it's the best we've got. We'll back your play. Don't forget the suit."

The Wandering Lady raced through the void, weapons blazing. The Random Encounter followed in its wake. The massive cargo vessel plowed through the remains of the Klaath they killed. Yvian avoided it when she could, but the sky was littered with the things, and cargo ships didn't maneuver well. Fortunately, Raiders and the occasional Fighter were much smaller than Yvians kilometer long mega freighter, and the big ship brushed them aside with minimal shield damage. At least her turrets and the Encounter ensured it was only dead Klaath they were running into.

Raiders and Fighters by the hundreds tried to close on their position. Weapons fire killed those coming from the front, but Klaath in every other direction turned to follow. Yvian didn't bother firing at anything bigger than a fighter, speeding past Corvettes and the occasional Frigate. So far, none of them had been smart enough to match their speed before trying to engage the way the Destroyer fleets had.

A pair of Destroyers nearly gave Yvian a heart attack when they streaked towards her ship. They were trying to match speed. Terror turned to relief when she realized they were gunning for The Gunzerker.

"I guess they don't think we're important," Lissa remarked.

"Big mistake," Yvian confirmed.

"Compared to Gunzerker, we're not important," Mims pointed out. "It's the most dangerous ship in the system."

"We'll see about that," Yvian quipped. "I'll be sorry to see it go, though. That's one mother of a battlecruiser."

"Go?" Mims asked. "What do you mean, go?"

"It's gonna die, right?" Yvian watched the approaching fleet. "It's too damaged to take on another fleet that size."

"Probably," the human agreed. "That's why I set the Jumpdrive to take her back to the Gate two minutes before they get there."

"Oh," said Yvian. "I kind of thought we were using it as a decoy."

"We are. That doesn't mean we have to let her get dusted." Several seconds later he said, "Do you know the difference between success and failure?"

"Skill?" Yvian guessed. She sensed a lecture coming.

"Luck?" Lissa suggested.

"Decisions." Mims lectured. "Skill is important and luck is a thing, but it's your choices that say whether you win or die. What jobs to take. Where to get your intel. How you prepare for the job. How you do the job. Everything. The ability to think clearly and make good decisions under pressure is the difference between a rich privateer and a dead one."

"Uh..." Yvian wasn't sure where this was going. "Ok."

"You haven't been making good decisions."

"You said this plan is the best we've got!" Yvian protested.

"Keep your eyes on the sensors." Yvian glanced down and saw a Frigate moving to block her way. It was less than half her ship's size, but she'd take a lot of damage if she ran into it. Worse, it would slow her down. She changed course, pushed her maneuvering thrusters as hard as they would go. She made it past, missing the Frigate by a bare fifty meters.

"Good decisions are made on good intel," Mims continued, "Based on a mix of logic and instinct. You see what's there and take the best course to get what you want. That's not what you've been doing. You're choosing to see the verse the way you want it to be. Not the way it is. Yourself, too. You're ignoring reality in favor of ego."

"And yet, here I am, giving us the only chance we have," Yvian countered.

"See? You're still doing it, even now." the human was unphased. "Following me out here in a cargo ship was a bad idea. Staying on the only vessel without a Jumpdrive is even stupider. Sure, it's coming in useful, but that's just a lucky break. One that'll probably kill you."

"I'll be ok," Yvian said. "I've been pretty lucky so far."

"No you haven't." Mims told her. "What you've been is under the protection of your sister and the best Privateer in the galaxy. You've done nothing but lose money since I left. The only reason the Freedom Republic didn't kill you was your sister saving your asses behind the scenes. Then you almost died because you were too proud to keep close to the Gate so you could run. You have been a cascade of failure, Yvian."

"No I..." Cascade of failure? She'd lost a lot of money, and she had needed to be rescued. "That's not..." She was about to ram into another Frigate. Shit. This one had a small fleet of Corvettes with it. She started to maneuver. She wasn't going to make it. "Dammit, Mims, why are you telling me this?"

She could hear the shrug in his voice. "It's a gap in your training." Shields flared blue light as The Random Encounter slammed into her ship. It's thrusters added to her own, changing her trajectory. The Wandering Lady shot past the fleet, free and clear. "As your former instructor, I find gaps in training offensive. Plus it'll come in useful if you don't die, today."

"Anyone ever tell you you're kind of a jerk, Mims?"

"Sometimes," he admitted. "But I usually kill them."

The masses of Klaath in the way thinned as they drew closer to the portal. Yvian could see why. Destroyers and Frigates had gathered Klusters and Corvettes by the tens of thousands. They ringed the portal in a defensive line, ready to intercept any force that might dare disrupt the arrival of their Queens. The Queenships had made significant progress. Their spirals projected over a hundred kilometers into the sector. Another twenty minutes, and they'd be ready to open fire.

Yvian would not give them twenty minutes.

The Wandering Lady barreled towards the portal. Its turrets spat fire to herald its coming. The Random Encounter flew by its side, adding its own guns in support. The Destroyers prepared for its coming. Frigates, Fighters, and Raiders massed along the portal's edge. They knew what Yvian was trying to do. They would sacrifice as many as needed to stop her. The Klaath cared nothing for their own lives. They cared only to protect their Queens.

Two minutes to impact. Yvian started the turn that would bring the Lady crosswise, the length of its bulk ready to strike the portal's edge. As she did so, she told her maneuvering thrusters to change the ship's trajectory. She couldn't hope to power through the mass of Klaath awaiting her, but the build up had lessened the number of ships on either side of the bulge. If she could just hit there, where the ranks had been thinned, her speed and the ships bulk would do the rest.

The Encounter pressed against the Lady's side. Mims knew what was needed. With his ships thrusters added to hers, they aimed for the path of least resistance. The Destroyers saw the shift. The Klaath tried to compensate, ships streaming to reinforce the gap. They would not have time.

Thirty seconds to impact. Three things left to do. Yvian spoke to her voidarmor. "Activate HUD." Her heads up display sprang to life, filling the top left corner of her visor. She checked her ship's trajectory. Still on course. More Raiders had moved to block the way, but none of the bigger ships would get there before she hit. The Lady should be able to smash through them. She hoped.

Twenty seconds. Two things left to do. Yvian spoke over the comms. "Here goes. Take care of Lissa for me."

"Don't die," Mims replied.

Eight seconds. Yvian spoke to her voidarmor one more time. "Crash, crash, crash." Her HUD display flashed CRASH PROTOCOL ACTIVATED in big red letters. Her body froze in place.

Impact in three seconds.

Two.

One.

WARNING! CRITICAL DAMAGE! SEVERED SPINAL CORD. CRANIAL FRACTURES. MULTIPLE ORGAN FAILURES. SEVERE INTERNAL BLEEDING. MULTIPLE BROKEN BONES. Yvian saw her injuries displayed on the HUD. She had not felt the impact. Impacts, she supposed. As she'd feared, ramming the Klaath portal at forty kilometers a second had overloaded the Lady's inertial dampeners. The voidarmor's CRASH PROTOCOL features had compensated enough to keep her alive, but only barely. Or the HUD was malfunctioning. She didn't feel particularly injured, after all.

PAIN REMOVAL ACTIVE. INJURY STABILIZATION PROTOCOLS ACTIVE. EMERGENCY MOBILITY PROTOCOLS ACTIVE. Oh. Right. CRASH PROTOCOL activated the suits emergency medical functions as soon as it detected the impact. EMERGENCY MOBILITY meant the suit was moving for her, letting her function as if she wasn't hurt right up until she died of her wounds. Which she would. Soon, if she didn't get medical attention.

The time on her HUD informed her she'd only been out for a few minutes. She sat up. The motion sent her spinning. Gravity was out. She used her jetpack to stabilize herself. Manipulating the jetpack was awkward. Her body was numb. MOBILITY PROTOCOL provided a limited feedback, but it wasn't as good as her sense of touch. She made for her console.

The Wandering Lady was broken. Shield array destroyed. Comms destroyed. Half of its turrets were gone. Life support was gone. Sensors were damaged, but she was able to pull up a display of the nearest fifty kilometers. The massive bulk of several Queenships came into view. They were moving. She couldn't tell if they were still functional or not.

Sensors picked up one more ship in the area. A heavy fighter. The Random Encounter.

Yvian smiled in relief at the sight of the human's ship. Or at least she thought she did. She couldn't feel her face. If only there was some way to contact them...

Her eyes went back to her HUD. There was a small flashing icon next to the big text. A comm request, wrist console to wrist console. Of course. She tried fiddling with her console, but her fingers were too awkward. "Voice Command Activate," she said. The words slurred together. She couldn't get her mouth to move the way she wanted. Broken jaw, maybe? Either way, she was clear enough the suit understood her. VOICE COMMAND ACTIVATED appeared on her HUD. "Accept comm request," she commanded.

"Yvian?" the human's voice was as matter of fact as always, but Yvian had known him long enough to pick up the slight edge of concern. "Are you functional?"

"Sorta," she said. "I'm using MOBILITY PROTOCOL. I think I might be dying, though."

"Try not to do that," he told her. "Does the Lady have engines?"

Yvian checked. The engines were damaged, but the readout said they could still function. "Yes. They're damaged, though. Looks like I can move at twenty six percent of my max acceleration."

"Then fucking run!" Mims hissed. "We're in Klaath space."