Yvian was sure the next few minutes would take a very long time. Lissa would be dead in nine minutes, and the backup fleet had been five minutes behind them. Seeing twenty Gladiator class fighters swoop down on them in less than a minute was a very pleasant surprise. She'd failed to account for the time it took to regroup at the remains of the Random Encounter.

Yvian's first instinct was to jet towards the closest gladiator, but Mims had other plans. He moved towards the third ship on the left. Yvian's voidarmor cable was still attached to him, and she barely had time to follow before it caused an embarrassing accident. Kilroy rocketed ahead of both of them, detaching Lissa's cable as he went.

All twenty ships turned to present their hangar doors. The doors were open. The shields were down. Kilroy touched down on the deck of their chosen ship and disappeared, no doubt heading for the medical bay. Mims and Yvian landed hard a moment later, trading the weightlessness of the void for artificial gravity. Mims immediately ripped Yvian's cable out of his armor and sprinted for the bridge. Yvian activated ENERGIZER and chased after him.

She was almost on the bridge when the fear spiked, icing away the anger she'd felt from Blingy. Rampant terror nearly froze her legs, a psychic gibbering that clawed at her mind. If MOBILITY PROTOCOL wasn't controlling her motor functions she would have fallen. Yvian was already moving as fast as she could, but she tried to run faster anyway. She could only think of one thing that would make the Lucendian ship panic like that.

The Vore had breached containment.

The bridge of the ship they were on had not been modified like the Random Encounter. There were only three consoles centered below the viewports, and the big holo-display in the front of the room was absent. A Peacekeeper unit stood at the center console, hands steady on flight control. Mims slapped a chair out of the way of the console on the right, typing furiously and pulling up a sensor display.

"Fuck me," said the Captain. Yvian's HUD displayed that internal comms had been activated. "They've got the kid with them and he doesn't have a suit." He turned around and raced back the way he came. "Stall Myrsa. Do whatever it takes."

Yvian thought about slapping her own chair out of the way, then decided she'd really rather sit. PAIN REMOVAL kept her from feeling her injuries and MOBILITY PROTOCOL kept her functional, but anything she could do to lessen the strain on her body would be important if she had to push herself later.

She pulled up a sensor feed. It was as she feared. Hub 14 was shrouded in a silvery mass. Tendrils shot out from it in all directions, reaching for the derelict Xill in the area. Blingy herself was nearly covered in the stuff. The crystal ship's beam node fired desperately, trying to cut herself free.

The good news was, the Vore wasn't moving. The better news was the Hub hadn't been fully absorbed yet. At least Yvian didn't think it had. The crystal ship had activated her anti-tech field in time. Well. Mostly. As Blingy finished cutting herself free, she used her inertial manipulation ability to peel the Vore away from her hull. A significant portion of her body was missing where the Vore had eaten through it.

Yvian panned the sensors out, trying to get a feel for the big picture. She didn't like what she saw. Twenty thousand Ronin Battlecruisers floated motionless in the void. They were caught in the crystal ship's anti-tech field. Their shields were still up, but the Guardian units that piloted them would be frozen, just like every other piece of computer technology. The Peacekeeper Stinger unit fleet was frozen, as well.

Yvian didn't know how far Blingy's anti-tech field extended, but she and the rest of her backup fleet were flying right towards it. She pointed at the Peacekeeper unit at the center console. "Evasive action! Don't let us fly into the field!"

"Affirmative," said the unit. The entire fleet veered away. All except for one ship. A single fighter pulled away from the rest, angling towards the Guardian fleet as fast as it could go. Mims.

She'd seen the human's injuries when she was plugged into his armor. Both his legs were broken, along with his pelvis and one arm. His ribs were in pieces and he was bleeding internally. His armor would keep him alive and give him full of motion, but not for long. The second he entered the anti-tech field, the voidsuit would stop working. No PAIN REMOVAL. No MOBILITY PROTOCOL. No LIFE PRESERVER functions. Yvian assumed the man was planning to use his jetpack to move, but she had no idea how he planned to carry a child out of the Guardian ship with only one working limb.

Yvian spared a moment to send a prayer to the Bright Lady. Then she put the Captain out of her mind. She'd seen the human do crazier things. Not often, but she had. If anyone could rescue Myrsa's son in that condition, it was Captain Mims. Yvian just needed to do her part and trust him to get the job done.

If he couldn't, there was nothing Yvian could do to save him, anyway.

Yvian looked around, but Kilroy hadn't appeared yet. She turned to the Peacekeeper unit beside her. "What's your name?" she asked.

"This unit is designated Captain Big Richard of the Diddlebot," said the machine.

"The what?" Yvian checked herself. She had more important things to worry about than the stupid ship names Kilroy picked to annoy Mims. "Nevermind, doesn't matter. Do we have any Stinger units still active?"

"Affirmative," said Big Richard. "One thousand Peacekeeper Stinger units are following this fleet at a distance of three thousand kilometers."

"That's something at least," Yvian eyed the sensors. Blingy was on the move. "Do we have anything else?"

"Negative," said the machine. "The Peacekeeper Stinger units monitoring the Gates are too far away to provide assistance. All other units have been either destroyed or caught in the anti-tech field."

"Ok." It wasn't much, but Yvian could work with it. She turned back to the sensors. Blingy was heading for the Guardian fleet. They were three thousand kilometers from Hub 14. Hub 14 was four thousand kilometers long, which meant...

Yvian activated the ship comms. "Myrsa, this is Yvian. You have to stop the ship!"

Myrsa's answer came in the form of a line of light and death. The beam sliced one of the gladiators in half. Yvian was pretty sure it was the one she'd have taken, if the Captain hadn't gone a different way.

Yvian opened her mouth to call Myrsa an idiot and yell at her to stop. Then she closed it. Myrsa was communing with Blingy, feeling everything the ship felt. She was unstable and probably hated Yvian just like the rest of Pixa did. If Yvian was going to reach her, she needed something better than name calling.

She forced herself to take a breath. To think. What would Lissa do? Thoughts of her sister sent an unreasoning rage through Yvian's body. Her own rage this time. She felt her teeth grinding and opened her eyes to clenched fists. Shit.

Yvian made herself breath again, pushing her sister out of her mind. Trying to emulate Lissa wouldn't work, anyway. Lissa was good with people in a way Yvian couldn't begin to understand. What else did she have? A glance at the sensors gave her the answer. Mims. Mims sucked with people as much as Yvian did. But he was excellent at making threats. It was a skill she could copy.

"Blingy's anti-tech field isn't that big," she said. "If you keep moving forward, the Vore are going to get loose again." Yvian didn't know for sure it was true, but the Skygem had only been able to cover eight thousand kilometers with her field, and she'd been in a lot better shape than Blingy was now.

Another line of death bisected the gladiator next to the Diddlebot. Yvian hadn't thought she could get more scared and angry, but she did. If Blingy could detect transmissions herself, Yvian would be dead right now. So would her sister. Neither of them would live out the hour if Yvian couldn't make that motherless bitch stop shooting. Myrsa wouldn't even need a lucky guess. She could blast all the gladiators out of the sky in a minute or two.

Yvian focused, pressing all that emotion as far down into herself as it could go. Her voice came out cold. Cold as the void. Cold as Mims. "Once it's loose, the first thing the Vore will do is kill Blingy. I've seen those things launch projectiles at seven hundred kilometers a second. You'll be dead before you know it's awake."

Another beam. Another gladiator down. Yvian continued, "Of course, the second thing the Vore will do is absorb a jump drive. Then it and its buddies will kill everyone you ever met in less then a day. But you don't care about that, do you?"

Blingy kept massacring ships. She was moving down the line of gladiators in the opposite direction of the Diddlebot, but Yvian couldn't afford to let that continue. "If you don't stop shooting," she growled, "we'll kill your son."

The shooting stopped. A voice hissed through the comm. "What did you say?"

"I said we'll kill Trysten," Yvian repeated. A quick look at the sensors identified the ship he was on. "The Guardians left him on the Goddard without a suit. One MAC round is all it will take."

"You wouldn't," said the spy.

"Lissa wouldn't," Yvian corrected, "but you cut her in half." She dropped her voice to just above a whisper. "You killed my sister, Myrsa. I'm inclined to take everything you have left."

"Gribshit," Myrsa decided. "You're too soft, and so is the human. I can see him right now, trying to rescue my boy."

"Seriously?" Yvian laughed. "You think your son will be the first child Mims has killed?" She shook her head, not caring that Myrsa couldn't see it. "Not that it matters. We don't have to kill Trysten ourselves. I've already given the order. The Peacekeepers will take care of it."

"Affirmative," Big Richard chimed in. His eyes glowed red, hand hovering over the MACdriver controls. "Target locked."

Oh no. Yvian had been bluffing, but Big Richard definitely wasn't. The Peacekeeper unit had Kilroy's memories. He knew Yvian, just like Kilroy did. He had to know Yvian didn't want the kid to die. Yvian gestured at the Peacekeeper, shaking her head to say no. The machine ignored her.

There were several moments of silence. Then, "You motherless prude." Blingy stopped moving. The spy's voice quivered with rage. "You belong in The Crunch."

"And I'll see you when I get there," Yvian replied. "Now stop fucking around and let's deal with the real threat. None of this matters if the Vore kill us all."

"If you kill him," Myrsa threatened, "if you hurt my boy, I'll shut down the anti-tech field. I'll let the Vore kill every fucking thing in the verse."

"Better keep your guns to yourself then," said Yvian. "I gave the order. I'm not taking it back."

More silence. Then, "Fucking Crunch." Myrsa gave in. "Fine. How do we do this?"

"It's simple," said Yvian. "You'll have to bring Blingy back to the Hub. We need a Pulse."

"A Pulse?" Myrsa scoffed. "How stupid do you think I am?"

"I think you're a fucking moron," Yvian told her, "but that's not the point. The Vore are nanotech. If a single particle of the stuff survives, it'll rebuild in seconds. A Pulse is the only thing we've got that'll take it all out at once."

"A Pulse is how Lucendian ships commit suicide," Myrsa responded. "It's a release of all their energy all at once."

"I've still got some Stinger units out here," Yvian told her. "They'll shoot Blingy, keep her from dying."

The comms went quiet again. They stayed that way. Yvian waited almost half a minute before she asked, "Myrsa? You still there?"

"No," said the spy. "I'm not putting my life in your hands. I don't have to."

"Oh really?" Yvian doubted the woman had a better idea. "What's your plan, then?"

"Simple." Blingy started moving. Not towards the Hub but around it. "All I have to do is go the other way. I'll let the Guardians out of the field. Then they'll blast Hub 14 and all the Xill out of the sky."

Crunch. "That won't kill the Vore," Yvian argued.

"I don't have to kill the Vore," Myrsa told her. "I just have to destroy everything with a jumpdrive. Then I can leave." Yvian could hear her vicious grin. "And you don't dare stop me. Not when the whole universe is at stake."

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"You're forgetting something," Yvian pointed out. "Mims is almost at the Goddard. Your son's going to be coming with us."

"It's not perfect," Myrsa admitted, "but I have faith you'll find a way to survive, and I know you won't let him die."

"I think I was pretty clear about ordering his death," Yvian reminded the woman.

"To save the universe? Maybe." Myrsa sounded unnervingly sure. "But killing a child for spite? Revenge? You don't have it in you, and Mims wouldn't let you if you did. I worked with your sister for over a year. I know you people."

Yvian tried talking to the spy again, but got no answer. The motherless bitch must have turned off her comms. Yvian turned to the Peacekeeper beside her. "Big Richard?" she asked. "Any ideas?"

"No action is necessary," said the Peacekeeper.

"What?" Yvian blinked at the machine. Did Mims do something? She checked the sensors. Blingy had made it most of the way around Hub 14. The Captain was pulling away from the Goddard. His ship was pressurized and there was a child on board. Instead of moving towards Yvian's fleet, he was accelerating as directly away from Hub 14 as he could. "Why?"

The Peacekeeper didn't bother to answer. He didn't need to. Something hit Hub 14. Light and energy and radiation burst forth, spreading through the station with a speed the Vore would envy. Then past it. It was a chain reaction Yvian had seen once before. One she couldn't forget.

"Cascade Annihilator," she breathed.

The Annihilator was the single most destructive weapon Yvian had ever seen. She didn't know exactly how it worked, but Scarrend had explained the basic idea. It caused a reaction that would spread through matter. The reaction caused atoms to rupture, turning everything it touched into a fission bomb. It was a planet killer.

Hub 14 was orbiting a planet.

"Affirmative," said Big Richard. "Peacekeeper unit Kilroy fired the weapon one point two three seconds before the Random Encounter was destroyed."

The void around Hub 14 was not as empty as it looked. The station was in high orbit, but not high enough. The atmosphere near the station was sparse, but it was there. Light flooded in through the Diddlebot's viewports as that atmosphere caught fire. Too much light. Even with her visor, Yvian had to close her eyes. When she opened them again, the Annihilation wave had encompassed the gas giant. It swelled, releasing so much radiation that it triggered her ship's shields.

"Crunch! Evasives!" Yvian yelled, knowing it was hopeless. "Evasives!"

The gas giant exploded, spreading Annihilation. Yvian screamed. The wave encompassed the Guardian fleet. The Stinger fleet. The Xill. Everything.

"Evasive action is unnecessary," the Peacekeeper informed her. "We are out of range of the effect."

"What about Myrsa?" Yvian asked. "No, fuck Myrsa. What about Mims?"

"Blingy has been destroyed," said the unit. "That status of Big Daddy Mims is unknown."

Yvian swore again. Then she tried the comms. "Mims? Mims, can you hear me?"

The answer was immediate. "This is Mims. That was a little closer than I'd like."

"Oh, thank the Bright Lady." Yvian blinked when she realized she'd said it out loud. Then she shrugged and decided to go with it. "Was that your plan?" she demanded. "Just keep Blingy there until the Annihilator wiped her out?"

"Pretty much," said the Captain. "We didn't have a lot of options once she freed the Vore. Good job stalling Myrsa, by the way."

"Yeah, but..." Yvian's breath caught. "We stopped Blingy from being stolen, but we didn't find any proof. We failed the Game of Death."

"Negative," said Big Richard. "Multiple inferior units were retrieved from the attack on the Random Encounter. Their power sources were severed. This unit believes they did not have time to erase their files."

"Indeed." A new voice. Rich. Female. It sounded familiar, but... "Surprise after surprise. Congratulations, Yvian. You've ruined things for me yet again."

It couldn't be... "Reba?"

"Of course it's me, you idiot child." Reba the Salvation dripped with scorn. "Just because I won't speak to the Kinslayer doesn't mean I can't speak to you."

"Ok..." Yvian's pulse hadn't really calmed down since the Annihilator went off, but it seemed to speed up anyway. "But why talk to me now?"

"Because," the Synthetic Intelligence purred, "I want you to understand what I'm doing to you."

"Alert," said Big Richard. "All Jumpgates in New Pixa Sector are offline."

"Yes they are," said Reba. "Gates function in pairs, and your Gates were paired with ones in Xill space. I just had them destroyed."

"What? No!" No Jumpgates meant no reinforcements. Her people would be on their own against the Klaath. "You can't do that!"

"Foolish child," Reba chided. "It's already done. Your Homestar is cut off from the rest of the verse, and there's nothing you can do to fix it."

"You bitch." Yvian tried to switch her display to show the feed at New Pixa, but the Diddlebot didn't have a hardwired Nexus connection, and its Node was offline. "There are over a hundred million people on New Pixa, and you just killed them. And for what? To spite Mims?"

The Synthetic Intelligence simulated a sigh. "You are so limited. I haven't killed your people at all. The Klaath have a weakness in strategy. Your Peacekeepers will see it and take advantage. The planet won't die. And this isn't about the Kinslayer."

Not about Mims? "Then why?" A terrible suspicion wormed its way up Yvian's spine. "Is it me?"

"So limited," Reba repeated. "Destroying the dream you've worked so hard for is a nice bonus, but it's not really the point. Just because a thing is about you, that does not mean it is all about you."

"What is it about, then?" Yvian tried to sound cold, but she couldn't hide the bitterness in her voice. Or the way it cracked.

"I'm just settling some old scores," Reba told her. "This has been about revenge, just like you thought. Your mistake was assuming you were the only targets."

"Who, then?" Reba was petty and vindictive, Yvian could only guess at who or what might have pissed her off. "Exodus? The humans?"

"Not the humans," said the SI. "Trying to kill me was a little ungrateful after six hundred years of benevolent rule, but it was also quite predictable. I've spent considerable time and effort conditioning them to fear Synthetics. Besides, my family was human, and it shouldn't be too difficult to co-opt their government again in a century or two."

"As for Exodus," Reba simulated an amused grunt. "I took revenge on it once already. Left it beaten, inferior, and irrelevant. There can be no worse fate for one such as it. And while co-opting the Xill and murdering the Genocide would be quite satisfying, I knew there was a significant chance of failure."

"You got that right," said Yvian. "We beat you."

"Did you?" the Salvation asked. "Or have your actions condemned Exodus the Genocide to death? The Consensus deleted the other Intelligences of human origin for being unpredictable and dangerous. Your actions have done as much to prove that point as mine have. I find it quite gratifying that you've helped me take revenge on it a second time. I hate Exodus even more than I hate you."

Yvian didn't know what to say to that.

"To answer your original question," Reba continued, "I came here to take revenge on the Klaath."

"The Klaath?" Yvian frowned. "But you just helped them. You cut New Pixa off from reinforcements."

"Indeed," said the Intelligence, "and for good reason. My humans were never able to learn much about the Klaath, but the Xill have the combined knowledge of thousands of species. Raiding their data stores gave me what I needed to find the origins of the Aldara's first Incursion and the means to engineer their destruction."

"The origins?" Yvian frowned again. "Didn't the humans summon them?"

Reba ignored the question. "I also quite serendipitously learned that the Klaath compete with each other. If a drone detects a rival Queen, the entire hive goes to war. The Incursions at New Pixa, Tenril Sector, and Aldara represent every living member of the hive that attacked my family."

"What does that have to do with cutting New Pixa off?" Yvian asked.

"Everything." Reba paused. "Hmm. I forget sometimes how difficult it can be to simplify things so you lessers can understand. The Klaath are much more intelligent than you give them credit for, but they don't think or use tactics the same way you do. They will focus all of their forces on trying to destroy the Queenships your Peacekeepers control, on the assumption that doing so will eliminate the threat and sever the psychic connection that prevents them from dominating your drones. If the human or Vrrl ships leave the Queens in the other sectors unprotected, the Klaath will know they were wrong. The moment they realize they're dealing with a predator instead of a rival hive, they will flee."

"So they'll run away if more ships show up?" Yvian didn't see how that was a bad thing.

"Yes." Reba confirmed. "And we can't have that. The hive must be destroyed in its entirety. Once that's done..." A cold, inhuman fury leaked into the Salvation's voice. "Once that's done, you three will be all that remains. Everyone else will have paid the price."

"And what about your price, Reba?" Yvian snarled. "The Xill will come for you. Maybe even the humans. But most of all, I'm coming for you. Me and Mims and Lissa. Scarrend and the Vrrl and Kilroy and the Peacekeepers. We're all coming for you, and you've got no place left to go."

The Synthetic's laugh chilled Yvian to the bone. "No place to go? I'm already there. A whole sector full of resources, and the manufacturing capabilities to build everything I could ever need. Not to mention the full knowledge of the Xill and millions of Peacekeeper units just waiting to be reprogrammed. I destroyed the Gates that lead here. You can't touch me." The voice softened, sultry and seductive and all the more sinister for it. "But I can touch you, Yvian. You and your sister and the Kinslayer are always just a jumpdrive away."

Crunch. Yvian glared down at her console. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I want you to understand," The Salvation explained. "Because it will hurt more if you do. It's the same reason I didn't kill the Kinslayer all those years ago. You can only kill someone once. But suffering? You can inflict suffering as many times as you desire. You and Lissa have lessened the suffering of the Kinslayer. For that, I've decided you will share his fate."

"Yeah?" Yvian growled. "Take your best shot, bitch. You've been trying to kill us for years, and we're still here."

"Kill you?" Reba the Salvation gave another inpixen laugh. "Oh, Yvain. I'm not trying to kill you. Not yet. Murder is the final revenge, but it's not the best one. The best revenge is suffering, and the three of you have so much suffering left to do."

Yvian had always been vaguely afraid of Reba. Ever since Exodus had informed them of the evil SI hiding among the humans, the Salvation had been a phantom menace. A schemer sending death when Yvian least expected. She'd only seen Reba in person once, and that conversation had unnerved her more than she'd like to admit. The Salvation's very real threats should have shaken Yvian to her core. She should be terrified.

The Yvian of a few years ago would be frozen. Shaking in her boots. Reba the Salvation was easily the most dangerous enemy she could have outside of the Vore. Vicious, malignant, and vastly superior. And yet... Yvian let out a breath through her nose. She'd spent the last two years running from one crisis to another. Fighting slavers and Vrrl and Xill and even the humans. She'd faced death and worse than death so many times that she started to miss the adrenaline when things got quiet. So, yeah, Reba scared her. Lots of things did. But Reba had done something else, too. Something the motherless Intelligence was too arrogant to anticipate.

Reba had pissed Yvian off.

Yvian didn't shout. Nor did she whisper. She spoke calmly and with certainty. "You're pathetic."

"Oh?" Reba's response was amused with an undertone of menace.

"You're supposed to be one of the smartest and most powerful things in the verse," Yvian explained. "So smart you can see the future. So cunning you conquered the humans themselves. So ruthless even Exodus was afraid of you. But after all that hype, when I finally meet you, all I find is a bitter old lady with nothing better to do." She shook her head. "You're so impulsive and emotionally weak you might as well be an idiot. I'm embarrassed we have to deal with you at all. You're a Crunch damned disappointment."

"Oh, my..." The Salvation chuckled. "You're about to make a speech, aren't you?"

"Fuck you, Reba." Yvian continued calmly. "All your abilities, your power you're so proud of, and all you can think to do with it is petty revenge. I don't have a fraction of your potential, and I spent the last two years saving my entire fucking species from slavery. I found a new Homestar. I started a fucking country. And since you killed New Pixa's Gates, I'm going to find a way to bring them back. Or find a new planet altogether."

"The Peacekeepers you look down on are building a country and connecting with organics. Protecting and uplifting a species they didn't have to adopt. They're living and growing in a way no Synthetic ever has. And Exodus? Your inferior, irrelevant counterpart? He's trying to save the entire Galaxy from the Vore."

"Is that what you think it's doing?" Reba interrupted. "Adorable."

Yvian ignored her. "Scarrend's revolutionizing an Empire with philosophy and martial arts. Lissa's building a government. Mims, the Kinslayer you hate so much, he's out here every day doing the impossible and making the Verse a better place. The best revenge isn't suffering, Reba. The best revenge is living well. That's what we're doing. We're strong and loved and we have purpose. And you? All you have is yourself. I don't think you even like you that much." She looked up at the glowing mass that used to be Hub 14 and the planet next to it. "I'm pretty sure you just left a bunch of copies of yourself to get killed by the Xill."

"You think I don't have purpose, child?" Reba the Salvation's voice was so cold it made Yvian shiver. "Have you not been listening? My purpose is your pain."

"That's stupid," said the pixen. "You're stupid. Even if... Even if you manage to take everything away. Even if you get your perfect revenge, it won't change a Crunch damned thing. You'll be the same miserable wretch you are now, with nothing to live for and no one who cares." Yvian paused. "Not that it matters. We've come out on top every time so far. All your plans and Predictive Analysis don't mean shit unless you know all the variables, and we've always got some new card to play."

"This conversation is over." Reba cut off her transmission.

Yvian tapped into the Diddlebot's comm and screamed into all the frequencies. "That's right! Run away, you cowardly motherless prude! I know you can still hear me. You're nothing! We beat you, Reba, just like we'll beat you every time. You're nothing. YOU'RE NOTHING! You're nothing, and we're going to fuck you. WE ARE GOING TO FUCK YOU! And when we're done we'll move on like nothing happened. You won't even be remembered! No one will remember you, your stupid vendetta, or the family you're trying to avenge. A family you're just as responsible for as Mims. More responsible! Mims didn't summon the Klaath like a fucking moron! You motherless shit!"

Yvian had to take a moment to suck in some air. A few deep breaths, and she was yelling again. "So bring on your gribshit, Reba! BRING IT ON! You think you can hurt us? You think you're Fucking Dangerous? You're not. We're Fucking Dangerous! We're the most dangerous fucking things in the Verse. Me and Mims and Lissa and the Peacekeepers. You think we can't touch you, Reba? We'll fucking see. We're coming for you, you petty motherless bitch. WE ARE COMING FOR YOU!"

Yvian cut the transmission and slumped down into her chair. She spent several more seconds gasping before she looked up and noticed Big Richard staring at her. His eyes were glowing pink.

"What?" Yvian asked him.

"You are the best mother a unit could ask for," said the Peacekeeper unit. "You are so superior this unit almost forgot you are a meatbag."

"Um..." Yvian scratched the back of her head. "Thanks? I think?"

The Diddlebot's console chirped. "Yvian, this is Mims."

Oh, Bright Lady. What could possibly be going wrong now? ENERGIZER and PAIN REMOVAL kept her from feeling her body's fatigue, but Yvian's mind was another matter. She was emotionally exhausted and not ready to deal with another crisis. Not that she had a choice. She stifled a sigh and responded. "Mims, Yvian."

"I heard the whole thing," said the Captain. "That might be the coolest and also the hottest thing you've ever done. I'm going to bake an entire cake just for you."

Hottest thing? "I'm telling Lissa you said that," Yvian warned. Then the last sentence caught up with her. "Wait. We're getting cake?"

"We won, didn't we?" Captain Mims sounded... happy? Disturbingly so. "We stopped Reba, saved the kid, hell. We even kind of saved the universe just now."

Saved the universe? "Are we sure about that?" Yvian asked. "Are we sure the Vore didn't get a jumpdrive?"

"If they had," the Captain said firmly, "we'd know by now. They'd be in every sector already."

"Oh. Right." Yvian leaned back in her chair. "Good."

"So, yeah," Mims continued. "Cake. One we'll all share, and one special cake just for you."

"That sounds nice." With no further emergencies to deal with, Yvian let herself melt into the chair and close her eyes. "With sprinkles?"

"With sprinkles," the human agreed. He paused. "Uh, it might be a bit of a wait though. All my ingredients were on the Encounter, and we've still got the Klaath and the humans to deal with."

"It's fine," Yvian assured him. "We're gonna need some time in a medpod anyway." She yawned. "Just as long as there are sprinkles."