The ship understood all of his commands, always responding as expected, but it never spoke. This did nothing to alleviate Bregg’s loneliness.

The former colonel paced back and forth on the deck, constantly glancing at the screen. They were in stealth mode, which would make them as good as invisible to anyone who didn’t know they were there. This had allowed him to get close enough to the alien fleet to study their strange, spike-covered vessels. Even their movements were odd. They never fully went in a straight line. Every few seconds, there would be a shift in direction before they returned to the forward motion. He had tried to find a pattern in those shifts—there had to be one—but had failed so far.

They all had different sizes and different shapes—spherical, triangular, ellipsoidal...

He frowned. “Are any of them similar at all?”

His eyes darted to the screen where the AI spouted its answers. After reading the text, he grunted.

“I know they all have spikes. I have eyes to see, you dolt! What I want to know is if any two of them are similar in shape or size?”

As he read the answer, his frown deepened.

“Just as I thought. But what does it mean? Do they have no factories? No models? No blueprints?” His eyes went back to the alien fleet. “Or is it done on purpose? If so, why?” He grimaced. “Any why do I even care? I don’t. I shouldn’t.” He spun to face an empty spot on his right. “And stop giving me lip, Richard! Not in front of the men. You should know better. I—”

He froze and looked around the deserted deck. Scowled.

“Well,” he muttered, “I suppose I can let it slide this once. But to tell you the truth, what bothers me most is the lack of information. I do not like not knowing, not understanding.”

Bregg planted himself facing the window and crossed his arms.

“Maybe we could capture one of the smaller ones. Study it.” He glanced to his right. “I’m sure we could handle that, Richard. The Horus has plenty of security features we can use to contain the aliens within the hold.” He tapped a finger against his lips, pondering. “We could fill the space with toxic gazes to kill them off so we could gain access to their ship. Yes. I like that idea. Ship! Find a small alien craft nearest to us. Take also into account how far it is from the others. We don’t want to draw attention when we pull it in... Oh. You’re right, Richard.” He frowned. “We need to cut off their transmissions, or they’d alert the others. Do we know how they communicate? No?”

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He stared at the alien ships in silence for a long moment.

“How long would it take to pull them in?” His eyes went to the screen where the answer scrolled. He nodded. “Our shields are more powerful than any I’ve ever seen in the Imperium. I bet we can take any incoming fire for a few minutes. Long enough to get that ship in and warp out. Alright, let’s do it! Horus, get us closer to our target and start the process as soon as we’re within range.”

Bregg watched as his ship moved forward, closing the distance with a smaller alien vessel that trailed at the tail end of the fleet.

“What’s going on?” he asked when they slowed down to match the alien’s speed and nothing else happened. “Grab it now!”

His eyes flicked to the screen where the ship spewed out a single word: “Impossible.”

“What?” He blinked. “Why not? Do it!”

The same word was repeated.

He cursed.

“We can’t stay so close for too long! We were supposed to grab it and dash...” He turned an accusing look at the empty air to his right. “Do you have something to do with this? Is it a joke? Is that it? Was this your idea? Some joke! I could have you court-martialed for insubordination. This is—”

All lights on the deck went off.

He turned to the window and noticed they had stopped moving, but so had the smaller vessel. The entire fleet, for that matter.

“What...”

Many of the ships turned as if to face him.

“Retreat!” he shouted. “Now!”

Nothing happened.

Fuming, he ran to the controls, hoping to manually get them out of there, but he stared at the dashboard and cringed.

“It should be you doing this, Richard! Get us out of this mess!” He growled and threw his arms into the air. “What do you mean, you can’t? I know none of this is standard, but—”

He stumbled back, blinded by a sudden burst of light from the window. Outside, a swirl of colors slowly dissolved, leaving him dazzled. When they were gone, all he saw were stars.

“Huh. Where did they go?” He rushed to the controls and slammed his hands against the dashboard. “Tell me, damn it! Where are they?”

He stared at the screen as it remained unresponsive.

The floor under his feet vibrated.

“What now?” The Horus began to move again. “Where are we going?” He frowned as the text on the screen told him they weren’t moving. “You think I’m stupid? You think I can’t feel—”

The text changed.

We are being pulled in.

He straightened and looked at the window.

“Pulled in? By who? Into what?”

He stared and stared, but all he could see were stars.