Jai and Marlow moved over to the Omia Zaos, coaxed there by Sauli’s offer of the best scotch ever distilled from real oak barrels.
As we headed at dead slow speed toward the inner lock gate, I settled against the captain’s inertia shell on the bridge and shifted the view on my dashboard back to the city we were leaving behind. I studied it with a touch of regret. We hadn’t stepped off the platforms even once. Now I had seen Wynchester for myself, I itched to explore it. The city was an ancient anomaly among all the domed and lidded communities scattered across the galaxy. Its very long history tugged at me.
I promised I would one day visit properly and spend time here.
Then I shut off the display and watched the approaching lock instead. We had things to do.
Lyssa stood beside me.
“You have the coordinates from Lyth?” I asked her.
“I do.”
“Does Captain Truda?”
She paused. “He does,” she confirmed.
“As soon as we’re beyond the speed limit outside the Great Lock, you can jump.”
“I would prefer to build up speed before we jump,” Lyssa said. “The Omia says it is faster than me.”
“And you want to prove it wrong?” I asked curiously.
“I want to make sure we don’t fall behind. I want to emerge into normal space at the other end either before the Omia or at the same time.” Her expression was withering. “The shipmind is a baby. If it runs into the Blues and I’m not there to guide it, it will curl up and suck its thumb.”
I held back my laugh. “Then by all means, build up your speed first.”
It took an hour to move through the Great Lock and back into open space beyond. Lyssa immediately kicked in the reaction engines and the Lythion leapt forward, with the Omia right beside us.
“See you at the other end, Captain,” I called out to Truda.
“I calculate five hours from now, Colonel,” Truda’s voice informed me.
I glanced at Lyssa. She wiggled her hand, with a grimace.
“That’s about right,” I told Truda. “Go in with your guard up,” I added.
“I’ll have everything running hot,” Truda assured me. “I’ve seen the footage,” he added, his voice dropping.
Three minutes later, we jumped.
*
We emerged into normal space with both rail guns primed, and a full arsenal of nasty stuff just waiting to deploy, with my fingers on the triggers dashboard, and Lyssa with every external sensor at full stretch.
I held my breath, listening with every cell in my body, looking for any excuse to slide my fingers across the triggers.
“Nothing,” Lyssa said at last. “We’re on the far edge of the Carina arm, as far away from any human establishment as the arm will let us get. And the Omia just emerged.”
I studied the starfield ahead of us. It even looked different. “I didn’t have time to study the stars when we were out here last time,” I murmured. “There’s almost no stars to see in this direction, except for that band there. What is that?”
Lyssa frowned and I knew she was consulting her innards, checking star maps. “Brother?” she said diffidently. “I have no reference points,” she added to me.
In other words, her maps didn’t go that far.
Here be dragons.
Lyth’s voice came in. “Our galaxy is a spiral galaxy. That band of stars is the next arm over from ours.”
I stared at it, my heart thudding. “Lyth, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I’m thinking what you’re thinking, Danny,” Jai said, from the Omia. “We had to come out here to see the possibility.”
“That they’re from that other arm…” I murmured.
Lyssa stiffened. “Incoming!” I think it was the first time I’ve heard her scream. Her voice was replicated on every system, and alarms sounded, flags flashed at me from my dashboard.
At the same time, Captain Truda on the Omia shouted, “Aft inbound! Brace yourselves! They’re right on top of us!”
—23—
It isn’t possible to hear anything in space, but I suddenly wished we could hear. I felt as though all of me was strained backward, to sense whatever was coming at us from behind. There was no time for Lyssa to turn the ship to face it.
She held very still, her attention on all her externals, processing the data.
“Turn the rail guns!” I shouted at her.
“I have,” she said shortly.
I shut up. Lyssa’s reactions were faster than any of mine. Anything I thought of now, she’d likely already covered.
Pounding on the ramp to the bridge announced the arrival of the rest of the ship’s compliment. Fiori actually beat Dalton onto the deck, and Dalton was a sprinter. She skidded to a stop next to my shell. “What can we do?” she asked breathlessly.
“I’m on weapons,” Dalton said, settling behind the weapons dashboard. The triggers array disappeared from mine as he took it over. That gave me a few precious seconds to think.
“Stand against that shell over there,” I told Fiori, pointing at the navigation shell. “Lyssa will put up a 3D display of the ships in this area. You get to watch everything over her shoulder, and if you spot anything hinky, like a fourth ship, you scream.”
Fiori nodded and went over to the shell. The navigation tank formed in front of her, saving me from having to ask Lyssa and possibly distract her.
More pounding. I glanced back at the ramp as Yoan hurried onto the bridge. I pointed at the engineering dashboard. “Your father’s post. Go.”
Yoan nodded and settled behind the dashboard, scanning it to familiarize himself with the remote controls for the engineering compartments and systems.
I watched Lyssa. She’d got the ship moving, burning through space at a speed that made the floor vibrate beneath our feet. I presumed the Omia was doing the same but wouldn’t trip anyone up with useless questions.
The faster we burned now, the longer it would take the newly arrived ship to catch up with us.
Then Lyssa stiffened. She turned to face the back of the bridge and, presumably, the ship on our asses. “You have
