The Admiral and the Assistant

The Ninth Fleet, such as it was, poured into the Velonia System, weapons hot. The boneship awaited them, its scarab ships shuttling back and forth from the planet's surface.

"Form up," Grimthorn said. "Stacked forfex formation. I want to hit them from as many angles as possible. Maintain your distance from each other."

Kinnit was busy with the weapons console, but she kept an eye on the battle data.

"The boneship isn't attacking yet," she said. "All weapons systems are ready to fire."

Grimthorn nodded in acknowledgement.

"Admiral," said Lieutenant Renning, "the fleet's ready. Awaiting your orders."

Grimthorn pinched his lips tightly for a moment.

"Very well," he said finally. He touched a spot on his console, marking an area of the ship. "This will be our target." He paused, watching the stream of scarabs. His visage darkened.

"All ships, advance and open fire."

The Ninth Fleet spread out. An array of torpedoes launched toward the boneship, bright, deadly points of light streaking through space. They glittered as they crossed the cold, empty miles.

Captain Minius reached out for his console with a shaking hand. He brought up the sector data. The fleet had begun to unleash their fury on the Feeders. The Ocher Dawn was far back, hanging away from the boneship.

"Flander, the command did come through. We are to open fire."

The robot tapped the deck and operated its console. With a thump that rattled the whole ship, a torpedo streaked away into space, heading for the boneship.

Minius drew in a shaky breath. The Ocher Dawn had fired her first shot in combat, ever.

"Brutus, let's start scanning."

"Already doing it, Minius," he said with a distracted air. "I'm sending the data out as fast as we get it."

"That are good," Minius said. He sat back stiffly in his chair, trying to force his body into a comfortable position. There was nothing for him to do at the moment beyond keeping an eye on things. He tried to relax, but his muscles remained tightly wound, despite his posture.

The battle was joined.

With a crash, a hundred torpedoes smashed into the boneship, digging deeper into the partially healed crater left by the Celestial Slingshot. Fragments of struts sprayed out, filling everyone's scanners with static as the organic material scattered their readings.

"Again," Admiral Stonefist said.

The ships of the fleet launched again, the torpedoes streaking through space. Their impact sprayed more destruction into the sector.

"Admiral," Lieutenant Renning said, "the scarab ships are returning to their boneship."

"Those are just for harvesting," Grimthorn said. "They have no real offensive capabilities. We can ignore them."

"Grimthorn," Kinnit piped up, "the boneship is not returning fire."

"Yet," he said, frowning. "They did that last time, too."

"I wonder why?"

"Kinnit, watch the load on the reactor. The surface blasters are draining it too fast."

"Oh, right, sorry, sir," she said, making adjustments at the weapons console. That sort of thing would ordinarily have been handled automatically by the Swordheart's automated systems, but the Swordheart was still struggling with some of the damage from the first battle with the Feeders. Two of her engines were still non-operational, managing the weapons was now a mostly manual process, and much the the power routing infrastructure had been re-routed, complicating energy management throughout.

The flood of scarab ships slowed, then became a trickle as the reduced Ninth Fleet hammered at it relentlessly. The trickle thinned, and the last scarab made its way back into the interior.

The Feeders sat quietly for a moment, then their weapon lashed out.

The narrow, impossibly bright beam slashed through space, piercing the ISS Radiant Ward, a destroyer on loan from the garrisons. The stricken vessel heeled over, flames filling the ship, bursting through the hull, boiling out into space. With a shattering detonation, the reactor failed, blasting the Ward apart.

Fortunately, the Radiant Ward was far enough away from everything else that no other ships were affected.

Grimthorn's mouth firmed.

"Stay focused," he said to the fleet. "We've got good separation and good formation. They'll have to destroy us ship to ship at this rate. We've made them pull their harvesters off the planet. Let's give the Velonians as much time to escape as possible."

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The beam lanced forth from the boneship again, and another vessel erupted.

"Lieutenant Renning, scan that weapon," Admiral Stonefist said. "Give me any data you can about it."

"Trying, sir," Renning said. "There's just so much interference."

"Kinnit, can you help him stabilize those scans?"

Kinnit was working the weapons console, frantically shunting energy from one system to another and manually launching torpedoes.

"I'm-- I will, as soon as I can, sir!" she said through gritted teeth. "This rate of fire is taxing the Swordheart's reactor, and the automated systems are not bleeding off any pressure at all."

Grimthorn grimaced.

"You stay focused on that, then. Renning, get your scan data to the infographers, see if they can sift anything out of it."

"Yes, sir."

The battle continued, with the Ninth Fleet attacking the crater on the Feeder boneship, and the boneship returning fire, filling the space around Velonia with debris and dead Imperials.

"Some information back from infography, sir!" Renning cried. "The energy signature of their cannon is the same every time. It's possible they have only one weapon, and they're moving it around, somehow!"

"That's good," Admiral Stonefist said. "If we can target their weapon, perhaps we can--"

The bridge monitor on the Swordheart was overwhelmed by a bright light. The boneship's cannon was aimed directly at them.

A crackle of white energy shot through the Swordheart. The ship shuddered. Flames rushed up and down the halls of the vessel. The crew on the bridge tumbled as the inertial dampers were all shattered.

"Engineering--" Admiral Stonefist managed to get out. "Engin--"

The flames reached the bridge, filling it with superheated plasma. Desperate screams could barely be heard over the rushing flames. Admiral Stonefist curled up. In the brief moment when he could still feel anything at all, he could feel his uniform burning and flaking away. He opened his mouth to join the chorus of screams, and the hull ruptured, flinging them all out into the pitiless frigidity of space. He had one brief moment of viewing all the stars of the galaxy wheeling by, then the reactor of the Swordheart ruptured, scouring them all away in radioactive fire.

Grimthorn gripped the banister that circled the captain's dais, gasping with terror. His eyes were white-rimmed. He was staring at the deck beneath his feet. It was whole and unbroken.

He slowly lifted his eyes. The bridge crew looked back at him, all of them with the same look of terror. He scanned the faces of his crew, their eyes mirroring his shock. Kinnit was clinging to her weapons console, her eyes full of unshed tears.

He reached for his console. His hand trembled.

"Engineering," he said, his voice hoarse and uncertain. "I need a status report."

There was an unusually long pause before Engineering replied.

"The Swordheart is whole, sir," the chief engineer said in an unsteady voice. "No damage to any systems beyond what we had when we entered the sector."

"Grimthorn... did we die?" Kinnit asked in a barely audible voice.

Grimthorn swallowed heavily. Looking at his rattled crew, he remembered his duty. He straightened, drew his shoulders back, and clasped his hands behind himself to hide their trembling. He forced strength into his voice.

"We're not dead right now," he said firmly. "Lieutenant Renning, where are we at in the battle?"

Lieutenant Renning's brow wrinkled as he reviewed the data on his console.

"We... have not engaged the enemy yet, sir," he said.

Grimthorn frowned. He remembered coming into the sector. Remembered ordering a stacked forfex formation. But currently the fleet was arrayed in a loose velites formation. Thinking back, he could also remember ordering the velites formation. The two memories overlapped in a way that made him immensely uncomfortable.

"This is an unusual circumstance," he said to the bridge at large. "Comms, get me Captain Cohrmere."

"Yes, sir."

The face of the Captain appeared on the main bridge monitor. His expression was neutral, and his eyes were shock-white from lid to lid.

"Captain," Admiral Stonefist said, "did your Wraithfleet do anything... unusual?"

"We unwound what must not be," Captain Cohrmere replied mildly.

"So do you remember? The reset?"

"Yes, Admiral." Captain Cohrmere's visage stared blankly back at him. "I remember everything."

Grimthorn stared back, expressions warring on his face.

"Very well," he said. "Very well. I feel like I should be grateful." He drew in a careful, measured breath. "Thank you, Captain."

Captain Cohrmere nodded slightly, and the comms blinked off. Grimthorn let out his breath.

"Fleet, let's prepare to attack."

Captain Minius sat in his seat on the bridge, his arms gripping the arms of his seat tightly. He stared with horror at the bridge monitor.

"What were that?" he said.

Brutus was busily scanning his console.

"I... I don't know, Minius," he said. "We were over spinward at least a hundred miles from here. Now we're back at the jumphole. And nobody's shooting."

"Are this Imperial technology? Or some trick by the boneship?"

Flander rapped the deck for attention, then pointed at its console.

"We have all our torpedoes back," Minius noted. He gave the screen a troubled look. "I need to contact the Admiral about this."

The battle rejoined. Slowly at first, then with increasing intensity, the Ninth Fleet fleet began hammering at the boneship once more.

Kinnit's eyes flicked back and forth as her hands danced across the weapons console. She was balancing all the energy usage, preloading torpedoes and ion shells, and managing the rotational balance of firing across the surface blasters, to make sure none of them overheated. It was frantic, demanding work, and it was a wonderful way to keep herself busy enough to prevent her from thinking about what had just happened. Creeping horror lurked just over her shoulder. She had felt the flames, the sudden flash-freezing of space, the final blast...

She shook herself and routed some power to the main cannon, blinking away tears. She needed to focus on the job right in front of her face.

She continued to work on the weapons, but she couldn't help but scan her console in between tasks.

The Radiant Ward was back. All systems green. She had seen it destroyed, but now it was back. Her breath hitched, a thimbleful of hope filling her heart.

Kinnit glanced at the bridge monitor. The scarabs were streaming back in to the boneship. She stiffened as the trickle of ships thinned.

This was it. This was when the boneship had fired last time, after all the scarab ships were safely aboard. She watched the boneship carefully. The last few scarabs wriggled back in...

There. Just in the same spot as before. It was the briefest of flickers. Lower spinward quadrant.

"Admiral," she said, "I think they're about to--"

The narrow beam lanced out into the fleet. It struck a recon ship, the Polaris. She heard Grimthorn swear behind her.

"Kinnit, the ion cannons!" he barked.

She gasped and scrambled to load more ion shells. But her mind kept running on a loop in the background.

She didn't want to experience a reset ever again. But watching the battle unfold once more, she began to develop a plan.