CHAPTER TEN
Ilyan
The first sign that Hekate had stopped being safe was Mara telling me not to panic.
I was halfway inside an open maintenance cabinet when she said it, which gave me enough metal around my head to consider pretending I hadn't heard her. Black Star's aft engineering section smelled different after four days in Hekate. Less burned insulation. More solvent, new seals, fresh metal and the particular chemical smell of things that had recently cost Lucien more money than he wanted to discuss. For most of the morning my problems had been small ones: a replacement regulator that kept reading three degrees warmer than it should, Niko accusing me of moving one of his tools, and the increasingly offensive discovery that Mara had been right about a calibration fault I had spent twenty minutes insisting was impossible. Radiator three worked again. Most of Black Star's guns worked again. Vesper had finished its final checks before breakfast. We had repaired enough of the ship that the warning lights no longer outnumbered the normal ones. We were supposed to have another day.
Mara saying don't panic meant we probably didn't.
I pushed myself backward until my shoulders cleared the cabinet. "Nobody says that before good news."
Mara stood over me with a slate tucked beneath one arm and a wrench in her other hand. I wasn't sure whether she had been using it or simply liked having something heavy nearby when speaking to people. "Hekate Defense entered District Twelve at six hundred."
I sat up. "Why?"
"They're searching the repair yards."
"For what?"
She stared at me.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
That woke me faster than anything Celene served in the morning. I climbed to my feet. "They know we're here?"
"No."
"You just said they're searching our district."
"I said they're searching the district. There's a difference, and right now it's the only difference keeping soldiers off this ship." Mara handed me the slate. A map of District Twelve showed inspection teams moving yard by yard toward us. "They've spent the last few days checking large docks, military-capable repair facilities, heavy component purchases and anything else that might point toward an unfinished strategic carrier that arrived needing half its backside rebuilt. They don't know where Black Star is. They know what Black Star would need."
I looked at the little inspection markers moving across the map. "How long?"
"Could be two hours. Could be less."
"How much less?"
"If somebody in Hekate Defense realizes publishing your exact search order is a stupid idea? A lot less."
"Nexus has terrible luck with people becoming intelligent at inconvenient times."
"That isn't luck."
"Let me have this."
She took the slate back. "Lucien wants everyone useful in auxiliary command."
"That's a dangerously generous description of me."
"You can complain while walking."
Black Star no longer felt like the same ship we had dragged into Hekate. Pressure doors that had needed to be forced now opened before I reached them. Whole corridors had light again. The ugly temporary cabling Mara had threatened to strangle people with was disappearing behind repaired panels. Hekate technicians moved through engineering sections beside Nexus crew, some of them wearing company jackets older than I was, all of them somehow able to complain about Black Star as though the ship had personally insulted their families. The hull outside had fresh plating in places and mismatched plating in others. Several defensive batteries were operational again. The forward lance had finally passed calibration during the night. The second one technically worked, which in Mara-language meant she would hit anyone who tried to fire it without permission. Vesper had a new leg, a repaired arm, a rebuilt thruster spar and enough mismatched armor to look less like a military machine than something assembled out of several people's bad decisions.
Black Star was no longer crippled.
That did not mean we were ready for a fight.
The ship had been built to carry more people than lived in some small stations. Nexus had fewer than forty. Its Frame bays were supposed to hold squadrons. Ours held Vesper, Radian and several utility Frames that would be useful if the Hekate Defense Force decided to challenge us to competitive cargo loading. Black Star could fight. It just couldn't fight the way the people who built it had intended.
The auxiliary briefing room was already crowded when Mara and I arrived. Lucien stood at the central table with Hana, Sera, Garrick, Niko and Oren. Tomas leaned near the rear wall with the expression of a man who had already lost an argument with Kaia and expected to lose another. Kaia herself wore her flight suit half sealed at the waist. She looked almost normal again until I noticed how carefully she lowered herself against the edge of the table. Her bruises had faded. Her ribs had not magically forgotten what happened at Caelum.
Lucien waited until the door closed behind us. "Hekate Defense is conducting systematic inspections of District Twelve. Our yard is currently seventh on the published schedule. The yard can delay them through normal legal challenges, but nobody here is going to ask civilians to fight Hekate soldiers for us."
Garrick frowned down at the map. "We can close the maintenance collar."
"No."
"It buys time."
"It buys us a siege inside somebody else's city."
Kaia crossed her arms. "We could leave."
Mara stared at her. "Thank you. None of us had considered moving the spaceship."
"I'm contributing."
"You're not."
Lucien enlarged the outer district. "Leaving is the objective. Leaving without announcing exactly what we are until the last possible moment is the problem. Harbor Control has put departure restrictions on large unidentified vessels. Hekate Defense has units covering the main transfer corridors. Hana?"
"At least six Frames in District Twelve now," Hana said. "More farther out. Two patrol cutters. They're covering exits instead of yards."
Kaia's mouth bent slightly. "Six."
Tomas looked at her. "Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"You made a face."
"I have one."
"Unfortunately."
She smiled.
Then every display in the room went black.
Garrick's hand went toward his holstered sidearm even though Hekate law had required him to leave the magazine elsewhere. Hana was already at the communications station. "That wasn't me."
A thin white line appeared across the central screen.
Three authentication strings flashed beneath it.
Hana stopped moving.
Lucien did not.
"Secure the room."
Garrick sealed the door. Mara looked from him to the screen. Kaia's expression had changed too. Not alarm. Recognition.
The line pulsed once.
A woman's voice came from the speakers.
"Lucien."
There was no face. No insignia. No transmission origin. Nothing except the line and a voice that sounded young until I tried to decide how young, at which point I realized someone had cleaned enough detail out of the transmission that I couldn't tell.
Lucien placed both hands on the table. "I'm here."
A pause followed. When the woman spoke again, she did not ask where Black Star was, whether the Federation had found us or whether we had finished repairing the ship.
"How many?"
Lucien's eyes lowered slightly. "One."
"Who?"
"Tom."
The silence that followed did not sound electronic.
"The breacher?"
"Yes."
"The one who believed probability made cheating at cards legitimate?"
Kaia looked down at the table. "That was him."
"How?"
Lucien did not soften it. "Federation round during the seizure. Neck. Tomas couldn't stop it."
The white line moved faintly with the woman's breathing. "Was he conscious?"
"For a little while."
"Did he suffer?"
Lucien's jaw tightened. "Yes."
Nobody spoke.
The woman was quiet for several seconds. "I'm sorry."
Lucien nodded before apparently remembering she couldn't see him. "I know."
"No. You don't." Her voice remained controlled, but something underneath it had changed. "I helped put him there."
"He chose the operation."
"So did you."
"That matters."
"It matters because we owe him the dignity of remembering he chose. It does not make him less dead."
Kaia glanced toward Lucien.
He said nothing.
The voice continued more quietly. "Anyone else?"
"Injuries. No other deaths."
"Kaia?"
"I'm alive," Kaia said.
"That was not the question."
Kaia rolled her eyes at a blank screen. "Bruised ribs, shoulder, some other things Tomas keeps making dramatic."
"I cleared you for controlled flight."
"See?"
"And emergency deployment."
"Exactly."
"That does not mean combat."
"That sounds like a difference invented by doctors."
"Some things survive every war," the woman said. "Apparently Kaia arguing with medical professionals is one of them."
"Nice to hear from you too."
"Mara?"
"Still employed against my better judgment."
"Good."
Mara looked toward Lucien. "I like her."
"You've spoken before."
"I continue to like her."
"Tomas?"
"Alive."
"Sleeping?"
Tomas said nothing.
"Eating?"
His expression became offended. "Why does everybody ask me that?"
"Because apparently everyone has evidence."
Then the voice asked, "The students?"
Lucien hesitated.
It was barely there.
She heard it anyway.
"Lucien."
"Alive."
"That answer is becoming irritating."
I looked toward the screen just as Lucien looked toward me.
"Ilyan's here."
The white line went still for a moment. "Ilyan Corven?"
I stared at Lucien. "Why does she know my name?"
"You have been missing publicly for several days," the woman said.
"That explains why you know my name. It doesn't explain why you know I'm standing here."
"I was told a fourteen-year-old particle specialist was helping Mara."
"Who told you?"
Kaia looked at the screen. "He does this constantly."
"I'm beginning to understand that."
I pointed at the display even though there was nothing useful to point at. "Who are you?"
"A friend."
Lucien and Kaia both reacted to that in ways so small I almost missed them.
Almost.
"You two made faces."
"I did not," Lucien said.
"The room made a face."
Kaia snorted, then immediately put a hand against her ribs.
The anonymous woman continued, "Are you hurt, Ilyan?"
"I'm fine."
"That is not a medical answer either."
"I don't need somebody I don't know pretending they care about me."
The room went quieter than I expected.
For half a second I thought I had actually offended her.
Then she answered, "Fair."
That threw me off more than if she had argued.
"I'm still asking."
I looked away. "Bruised. Better than I was."
"Head?"
"No."
"Dizziness?"
"No."
"Nausea?"
"Not anymore."
Tomas nodded once from across the room.
Then she asked, "Did you choose Radian?"
Everything stopped.
I looked at Lucien.
He looked back at me.
He didn't speak for me.
"No."
The answer came out harder than I meant it to.
The voice stayed silent for a moment. "I see."
Lucien's expression closed slightly.
"We'll discuss that," she said.
"With me?" he asked.
"With you first."
Kaia looked delighted.
Lucien did not.
Then the woman's voice changed. Not colder. Sharper. The grief remained, but it moved aside because something else had to be done. "Listen carefully. The Federation still does not know where Black Star is."
Hana frowned. "Their people are three yards away."
"Hekate's people. Not theirs."
Lucien's eyes moved across the district map. "They narrowed us to Hekate."
"Yes. Black Star left Caelum unfinished and damaged. Vesper was nearly destroyed. You needed somewhere capable of repairing a military carrier without immediately honoring a Federation recovery order. There are not many places that fit. Hekate was an obvious possibility."
Oren leaned forward. "How did they get Vey to agree to a citywide search?"
"Pressure."
"Trade?"
"Some."
Lucien understood before anyone else. "Family?"
The white line didn't move.
"That is all I am going to say on an unsecured strategic channel."
I thought about Lucien standing beside Radian while people were trapped elsewhere on Black Star. You're telling me they die if I don't give it to you. That's a threat.
Yes.
The comparison arrived without permission.
Kaia looked at me and knew exactly what I was thinking.
The woman continued. "The important part is this: the search itself is not the point."
Hana straightened.
"They do not need Hekate to open the correct door. They need you to react. Leave early. Interfere with an inspection. Move unusual equipment. Launch Vesper. Do anything an ordinary ship would not do, and somebody watching Hekate's traffic gets confirmation."
Lucien looked toward the outer-system display. "They're watching departures."
"Yes."
"Alecto?"
"Assume so."
"How close?"
"Not close enough to openly enter Hekate without causing another political problem. Close enough that once they know, you should stop expecting another quiet week."
Kaia put both hands on the table. "So staying gets us searched and leaving tells them where we are."
"Yes."
"That's annoying."
"I thought you liked problems."
"I like solvable problems."
"This one is solvable."
Kaia's smile returned. "There you are."
A new packet appeared on Hana's console. She isolated it before allowing the contents onto the central table. A route map unfolded.
One destination brightened.
ORISON.
Lucien studied it. "Why there?"
"Because Hekate repaired your ship. Orison can help you with everything repairing the ship did not solve."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
Nobody answered me.
The woman did. "It means Black Star is now famous enough that simply owning it has become a political statement. You need routes, information and people who understand how to move between governments without accidentally joining one."
"Tessara?" Kaia asked.
"Absolutely not."
That answer came fast.
Too fast.
I looked toward the screen.
Lucien noticed too. "Wasn't planning on it."
"Good. If Black Star heads toward Tessaran territory after escaping Hekate, half the Federation will decide they have finally proved who ordered the theft."
"You have a lot of opinions about Tessara," I said.
No response.
Interesting.
The woman continued. "At zero nine forty-three, Hekate is releasing a heavy commercial convoy through Outer Transfer Six. The city has already delayed it because of the search, and they cannot keep freezing civilian traffic indefinitely. You have refinery ships, bulk carriers, tenders and enough engine signatures to make tracking unpleasant."
Sera expanded the corridor. "Defense checkpoint."
"Of course."
"How many Frames?"
"I don't know."
Kaia smiled. "Assume too many."
"Finally, something you and I agree on."
Lucien looked toward Mara. "Can we make the corridor?"
Mara studied the route. "Yes."
I leaned over the table. "That looked like a very optimistic yes."
"It fits."
"By how much?"
"Enough."
"How much is enough?"
"More than none."
Sera sighed. "Thank you both. I feel much better."
The anonymous woman said, "Do not trust the published inspection schedule."
Hana looked up. "Why?"
"Because Vey's military commanders know Nexus could see it too."
Lucien was already moving. "They'll reorder the last yards."
"I would."
He nodded. "Stay available."
"I'll try."
"Thank you."
"Lucien."
He stopped.
"Tom is not yours alone."
His expression barely moved.
She continued, "Black Star had to come off the board. I still believe that. If the Federation deployed it as intended, this war could have entered a phase none of us could control. That does not make the people who died taking it acceptable losses."
Lucien's voice went quieter. "I know."
"No. You know how to say it."
Kaia looked at him.
The voice continued. "Remember him. Then make the next decision."
The connection disappeared.
For several seconds nobody moved.
Then I said, "Who was that?"
Lucien changed the map.
"Lucien."
"An ally."
"That is not a person."
"It is technically a description of one."
"Is she Ardent?"
He looked at me. "She wants the war to end."
"That was impressively not what I asked."
"Yes."
I stared at him.
Kaia started laughing.
Lucien ignored both of us. "We have less than ninety minutes."
That ended the conversation.
The plan started simple and became worse every time somebody improved it.
We could not fight Hekate directly. We could not sit in the dock. We could not reveal ourselves before the convoy moved. We could not take the safest exit because Hekate had enough Frames sitting across it to make safety theoretical. Black Star had plenty of weapons again, which would have been comforting if firing most of them inside a populated city had not been an excellent way to kill people who had nothing to do with us.
Lucien imposed one rule before anything else.
"No cockpit shots."
Kaia stared at him. "Against how many?"
"At least ten once the district reacts."
"That makes this considerably more irritating."
"No missiles inside the city. No heavy fire through inhabited structures. Nobody fires a lance unless I authorize the target."
Mara folded her arms. "I just fixed that lance."
"Congratulations."
"I would like to use it."
"I'm sure you would."
Garrick tapped the district map. "What if they board?"
"We stop them."
"What if they fire first?"
"We stop them."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the answer we have."
Kaia tilted her head. "He means break their machines without killing them."
"I know what he means."
"You looked confused."
"I was considering strangling him."
"Get in line."
Tomas stepped forward before Kaia could leave. "You're cleared to fly."
"I know."
"You are not cleared to pretend your ribs no longer exist."
"I would never."
"I have met you."
Kaia's expression became wounded. "That sounded personal."
"If your left side starts weakening, if breathing becomes difficult or if your shoulder locks, you disengage."
"Sure."
"Say it."
"No."
"Kaia."
She stared at him for several seconds, then sighed. "If my ribs decide to betray civilization, I come back."
"That is not what I said."
"It's what you're getting."
He looked toward Lucien for help.
Lucien pretended to be extremely interested in the map.
I was starting to understand leadership.
My part ended up being much less heroic.
Black Star could do everything we needed it to do. It just couldn't comfortably do all of it at once while slipping through a maintenance corridor barely wider than the ship. Mara and I argued over the problem until I finally explained it the simplest way I could.
"The ship keeps trying to share."
Mara looked at me. "Power."
"Yes."
"Important word."
"You knew what I meant. Every system wants some. Thrusters, cooling, guns, everything. We don't need all of them at full power at the same time."
Sera glanced over from navigation. "Meaning?"
"When you turn, we give the ship everything it needs to turn. Then cooling catches up. When something shoots at us, defenses get priority. Stop asking Black Star to be perfect at everything every second."
Mara studied the display.
"That is ugly."
"It's temporary."
"Still ugly."
"Does it work?"
She ran it.
The predicted drift through the tightest section dropped enough that Sera stopped looking like she wanted to murder us both.
Niko glanced toward me. "Radian."
I looked at him.
"You got the idea from Radian."
"I got the idea from me."
"You got it from watching Radian."
"I improved it."
"You stole it."
"Fine."
Mara pointed at the seat beside her. "You're running it during the breakout."
I looked toward Lucien.
He nodded once.
Nobody mentioned Bay Three.
Nobody mentioned the repaired white Frame standing inside it.
I noticed.
At 08:31 Hekate changed the inspection sequence.
Our yard moved from seventh to third.
The Voice had been right.
Esme Harrow came through the maintenance collar seven minutes later carrying a helmet beneath one arm and enough fury for several people. "You have Defense soldiers two yards away and four Frames walking the outer service spine. Their warrant team is faster than I expected."
Lucien met her near the collar. "How long can you delay them?"
"I can challenge jurisdiction, inspect every authorization code twice and have one of my security doors suffer a sudden philosophical disagreement with opening."
"How long?"
"Ten minutes."
"We need twenty."
"You have ten."
Mara muttered something.
Esme pointed at her. "You are not tearing my service equipment off the hull."
"No promises."
"I mean it."
"So do I."
Esme looked toward Lucien. "Once you leave, I knew nothing."
"You serviced an unidentified hull under legal privacy protections."
"I know what my lawyer will say."
"Good."
"That wasn't permission I was asking for."
Lucien almost smiled. "I know."
At 08:47 the yard opened.
Black Star moved.
Slowly at first.
Tugs drew us out of the repair cradle while external arms folded away from the hull. I sat strapped beside Mara in aft engineering with three displays in front of me and too many voices in my ear. The outer cameras showed Hekate passing close around us—gantries, repair towers, pressurized walkways, cargo rails, distant apartment windows and work lights. People lived here. That fact felt more important now than it had while Kaia and I were eating street food beneath the civic ring.
Sera came over the shipwide channel. "Transfer authorization accepted. Hull Seven-Nine-Delta, proceed Corridor Twelve-B."
I looked toward Mara. "That's us?"
"Yes."
"Terrible name."
"That's the point."
The challenge came less than a minute later.
"Seven-Nine-Delta, Harbor Control. Confirm outbound assignment."
Sera answered calmly. "Outer Transfer Six. Joining release group Kappa-Four."
"Your departure certification is incomplete."
"We are repositioning under yard authority."
A pause.
Black Star kept moving.
"Seven-Nine-Delta, hold at marker Twelve-B-Four."
Sera didn't.
"Seven-Nine-Delta, acknowledge hold."
Lucien's voice entered the command circuit. "Continue."
The Hekate controller came back sharper. "Seven-Nine-Delta, cut thrust and hold position under emergency harbor authority."
Hana said, "Scan."
Kaia's voice came from Vesper's cockpit. "About time."
"Stay in the bay," Lucien said.
"You make everything boring."
The scan crossed Black Star.
Five seconds passed.
Hana breathed out. "They know."
The military channel erupted.
"Unidentified vessel, halt immediately. Hekate Defense Force is assuming traffic control. Do not launch auxiliary craft. Do not energize weapons. Repeat, cut propulsion and hold."
Lucien did not answer them.
"Execute."
Black Star woke around me.
The deck changed beneath my feet as main propulsion came online. Lights dimmed in empty sections. Systems that had been quiet for days suddenly came alive together. I pushed power where Mara called for it and tried not to think about how many tons of ship Sera was moving between structures that had probably been built by people who assumed captains would follow signs.
"Hekate units converging," Hana said. "Eight Frames. Nine. Ten. Two cutters."
Then a pause.
"One additional contact behind the outer truss. No identification."
Kaia laughed softly. "Eleven."
Lucien's answer came immediately.
"Vesper, launch."
The bay camera filled one of my screens.
Vesper stood on both legs.
For a second I forgot everything else.
I had watched it come back to life one piece at a time. The replacement leg wore darker armor than the original. The left forearm still carried fresh plating. One thruster housing had a different manufacturer's mark Niko had refused to sand away because, according to him, anyone offended by it could pay for matching armor themselves. Vesper looked scarred even after being repaired.
Maybe because it had been.
Kaia's voice changed when she spoke from inside it. Less joking. More focused.
"Vesper. Launching."
The catapult threw her into Hekate.
Vesper cleared the bay, turned sideways between two cargo towers and vanished beneath the first burst of Hekate rifle fire. Blue-white shots crossed where it had been. Kaia rolled beneath them, came up against the lead Frame and fired twice before I realized she had aimed. One shot blew apart the enemy rifle. The second tore through its shoulder shield. Vesper flashed past, dark-orange Particle Blade igniting in its right hand as Kaia twisted around the Frame's blind side and cut through the elbow joint.
The arm spun away.
Kaia kicked off the disabled Frame's chest and used it to throw herself toward the next two.
They split.
That was her whole fight.
She never let them become a group.
Two Frames tried to box her against an old refinery stack. Kaia fired between them, forcing one to shield itself, then dropped under the other and drove Vesper's shoulder into its waist. The collision sent both machines spinning, but Kaia fired her rear thrusters halfway through the tumble and recovered first. Her carbine came up. Three rounds hammered into the opponent's leg, thigh, knee, ankle. The Frame lost control of the limb and slammed against a maintenance truss.
Kaia was already somewhere else.
A third pilot tried to follow.
Vesper disappeared behind a cargo tower.
The Hekate Frame turned after her.
Kaia came around the other side and hit it from above.
"She knew he'd follow," I said.
Mara didn't look up. "Watch your board."
"I am."
"You are staring at Kaia."
"I can multitask."
"Prove it."
A warning light appeared.
I fixed it.
"See?"
"Miraculous."
The fight outside widened. Hekate pilots were disciplined enough not to chase blindly for long, but Kaia only needed them separated for seconds. She used the city itself like another weapon. Cargo cranes became cover. Service towers hid her approach. She fired around one disabled Frame and forced another to turn its shield away from Black Star. When two pilots tried to trap her against a fuel-processing spine, she killed Vesper's forward thrust, let them overshoot and came down between them with the Particle Blade burning.
One blocked.
The other wasn't fast enough.
Kaia's blade cut through its rifle and half the right forearm.
No cockpit.
No kill.
Then the remaining Frames started ignoring her.
"They're coming for us," Hana said.
Four broke from the engagement and accelerated toward Black Star.
"Point defense only," Lucien ordered.
Capture cables launched from the first pair.
Black Star's guns snapped to life. Tracers ripped across the narrow space between us and the Hekate machines. One cable disappeared in sparks. Another broke apart near its launcher. The third struck our underside hard enough that the sound traveled through the hull.
"Tether attached!"
Sera cursed over comms.
The cable tightened.
Black Star shifted toward the side of the corridor.
A fabrication tower filled the forward camera.
"Move us left," Sera said.
Mara looked at me. "Give her the thrusters."
"They're hers."
Black Star rolled.
Slowly.
A ship this large never looked fast from inside. The structures outside made the truth obvious. The fabrication tower moved across the camera until I could see windows.
People behind them.
Then the tower slid past.
Twenty meters.
Maybe less.
Kaia's voice came through between gunfire. "Plenty of room."
Sera answered, "I hate you."
"Most people do."
One of the Hekate Frames holding the cable released before Black Star dragged it into the tower.
Another came over our dorsal hull.
This one didn't fire.
It folded its rifle against its back and extended a clamp.
"They're boarding," Garrick said.
A medium battery rotated toward it.
"Line crosses an occupied dock," Hana warned.
Lucien said, "Hold."
The Frame got closer.
It landed one foot against Black Star's armor.
"Still blocked."
The pilot reached for the hull.
"Clear."
"Fire."
The particle battery flashed.
The shot struck the Frame through the hip. Armor burst outward. One leg separated completely and the machine tumbled away from us. Emergency thrusters fired almost immediately, correcting the spin.
Hana checked the beacon. "Pilot alive."
Nobody celebrated.
The corridor opened ahead.
So did the barricade.
Six Hekate Frames waited across Transfer Six, shields overlapping enough that there was no easy path between them. Two cutters hovered farther out with weapons trained inward. Behind us, more Frames were regrouping around Kaia. Black Star had become the center of a trap.
Sera stared at the tactical display. "We're not fitting through that."
Lucien stood beside her. "Options."
"Turn around."
"No."
"Stop."
"No."
"Push through them."
"And if they don't move?"
Nobody answered.
The six Frames held position.
They knew we didn't want to kill them.
I hated that they were smart enough to know.
Hana pointed at the upper edge of the corridor. "There."
An old cargo gantry extended across part of the opening. Removing it would create enough space beside the blockade.
"People?" Lucien asked.
"Evacuated when Defense locked the district."
"Certain?"
"Life scans clear. Internal control blister empty."
Lucien looked toward Mara.
She understood before he spoke.
"No."
"Mara."
"You told me no lance fire inside Hekate."
"I told you no lance fire through people."
"That distinction will comfort the structural engineers."
"Can you cut the empty support?"
She stared at the target.
"Yes."
"Do it."
I heard Mara breathe in through her nose. "Forward lance. Low charge."
The command passed through the ship.
Outside, the six Hekate Frames began moving.
They had noticed too.
Two climbed toward the gantry.
One fired at Black Star.
The shot struck our forward armor and burst into orange light across the cameras.
The ship shook.
Kaia shouted something from behind us.
Then Black Star fired.
The forward lance flashed through the corridor.
The beam hit the empty gantry at its root. Metal turned white, folded and broke. The entire structure began drifting away from Hekate in slow pieces. Defense pilots scattered before the wreckage could trap them.
Sera took the opening.
Black Star surged forward.
We went through sideways enough that every instinct I possessed objected.
A Hekate Frame flashed past the port camera so close I saw scorch marks across its shield.
Another fired down our length.
Point defense answered.
Then the unknown contact moved.
Hana's voice changed.
"New Frame."
I found it on the camera just as it came around the outer spine.
It looked nothing like the municipal machines.
Dark gray armor. Heavy shield. Compact shoulders. Shorter profile. Built thick around the chest and legs without becoming slow. White markings ran along one forearm, almost understated compared to the bright identification panels on the standard Hekate Frames. A folded blade sat beneath the right arm. Two capture launchers rose over its shoulders.
Kaia saw it.
"Who's this?"
Hana searched military traffic. "HDF Warden-class command unit. Local harbor-interceptor variant. Pilot encrypted."
"Fancy."
The Warden ignored her.
It went for Black Star.
Kaia's voice immediately lost the joke. "Oh."
The Warden fired a capture cable at our aft section.
Point defense destroyed it.
Kaia came from above with Vesper's carbine firing.
The Warden raised its shield.
Three rounds struck in quick succession. The first left a bright scar. The second cracked the outer plate. The third punched through—but the pilot had already moved.
Kaia drew the Particle Blade.
Vesper came down hard.
The Warden braked instead of dodging.
Kaia shot past.
I actually leaned toward the screen.
The Warden turned inside her.
Its own Particle Blade ignited beneath the shield and swept toward Vesper's back.
Kaia twisted at the last second.
The blades met.
Dark orange light burst between them.
Both Frames spun away.
Vesper recovered first.
The Warden recovered almost as fast.
"That one's good," I said.
Niko answered over comms from Frame maintenance.
"Yes."
No joke.
That worried me.
Kaia attacked again.
This time she didn't charge straight in. Vesper fired low, aiming for the Warden's legs. The shield dropped to cover them. Kaia changed direction before the shots struck, rose above the machine and came down with the Particle Blade angled toward its shoulder.
The Warden caught her wrist.
Not the blade.
The wrist.
For half a second the two Frames hung locked together, thrusters firing against each other.
The Warden pilot drove the shield into Vesper's chest.
Kaia fired Vesper's knee thruster.
The machine's leg slammed upward into the Warden's abdomen.
They broke apart.
Kaia's carbine came around in one hand.
The Warden knocked it aside.
A shot went past the cockpit and tore through an empty cargo crane.
"Watch the city," Lucien said.
"I noticed."
The Warden attacked.
Fast.
Not Kaia-fast.
Different.
Every movement had a purpose. It never followed her farther than necessary. Never chased when she tried to pull it away from Black Star. Kaia would dart out, expecting pursuit, and the Warden simply turned back toward us.
She realized it.
"You don't care about me."
The Warden said nothing.
"Rude."
It accelerated for Black Star again.
Kaia had to chase.
Behind them, three standard Frames broke through her earlier disruption and came after us.
Our rear batteries fired.
One Hekate Frame lost its rifle.
Another threw up a shield and kept coming.
The third launched another tether.
Point defense got one line.
Missed the second.
Something struck Black Star's aft hull with a violent metallic impact.
"Anchor!"
The cable tightened.
This one didn't lead only to the Frame.
It ran past it to a fixed harbor point.
Black Star slowed.
"Can we tear free?" Lucien asked.
"Yes," Sera said.
"No," Mara said at the same time.
Lucien looked between the channels.
"The ship can," Mara said. "The station might come with us."
Hana checked the anchor structure. "Pressurized transfer node connected."
So we could leave.
We just had to rip part of Hekate open and maybe kill everyone inside.
Lucien didn't hesitate.
"Find another way."
I stared at the cable.
It was stretched tight behind us.
"What if we stop pulling?"
Mara looked at me. "We are escaping, Ilyan."
"For four seconds."
Sera heard us. "What are you thinking?"
"The cable's only dangerous because it's tight. Turn toward the anchor."
Silence.
Then Sera said, "That puts our stern almost against the traffic tower."
"How close?"
"Thirty-nine meters."
Kaia's voice cut in from outside. "Luxury."
Sera said, "I am muting her."
Lucien said, "Do it."
Kaia immediately protested.
Sera did not mute her.
Black Star turned.
The traffic tower slid into view behind us.
Thirty-nine meters became thirty-four.
Thirty.
Twenty-seven.
I stopped watching.
The tether slackened.
"Now!"
Point defense fired.
The cable broke.
Sera threw the ship forward again.
At the same moment the Warden escaped Kaia.
It had been waiting.
The dark Frame turned beneath Vesper, kicked hard off Kaia's shield and shot straight toward Black Star's engines with its Particle Blade lit.
Kaia was behind it.
Too far.
Our rear guns couldn't fire without risking her.
I looked toward the secondary hangar camera.
Radian stood in Bay Three.
White.
Still.
Ready.
My hand came off the console.
For one second I wasn't in engineering anymore.
I was inside the cockpit.
Perrin's Frame in front of me.
His voice in my ears.
Move, Ilyan.
I can't.
Neither can I.
The terrible flash afterward.
Blood where a person had been.
I knew how long it would take me to reach Bay Three.
I knew how long Radian would take to launch.
Nobody had to tell me.
Nobody did.
Lucien's voice came across the tactical circuit.
"Kaia, break right. Battery Three, fire across its nose."
Mara snapped her fingers in front of me. "Ilyan."
I looked at her.
"Stay here."
Not an order about Radian.
An engineering instruction.
Still.
I put my hand back on the controls.
Battery Three fired past the Warden.
Not at it.
The Hekate pilot turned the shield instinctively.
Kaia came from above.
Vesper hit the Warden with both feet.
The impact drove it away from Black Star's engines and sent both Frames tumbling into open space. Kaia fired her carbine against its shoulder at point-blank range. Armor exploded away. The Warden's blade arm went slack below the elbow.
The pilot answered by slamming the shield into Vesper hard enough to throw Kaia sideways.
Her breath cracked over comms.
Tomas was immediately there. "Kaia."
"I'm fine."
"Your breathing changed."
"I am in a fight."
"Left side?"
"Fine."
The Warden fired one of its cables directly at her.
Kaia cut it out of the air.
Then she went inside the shield.
Vesper struck low, shoulder-first, and drove the Warden backward. Kaia's Particle Blade came up.
She had the cockpit.
I saw it.
So did everyone else.
The orange edge stopped for less than a second.
Then Kaia turned the blade and cut through the Warden's remaining capture launcher instead.
The assembly split apart behind the Frame.
"Nonlethal," she muttered. "Stupid rule."
The Warden pilot drove a knee into Vesper's damaged hip.
Kaia swore at Lucien by name.
Lucien did not respond.
We reached the outer threshold.
For the first time since leaving the yard there was actual open space in front of us.
The commercial convoy was already moving beyond Hekate: refinery carriers with huge drive plumes, freight ships, tenders and support craft spreading into their assigned lanes. The sight of them felt like a door opening.
Then one of the patrol cutters moved across it.
"Hekate cutter blocking exit," Hana said.
The ship was smaller than Black Star but large enough that simply ramming through it was not an option anyone sane considered.
Its forward weapons charged.
Lucien looked at the tactical display.
"Lance."
Mara looked toward him. "At the cutter?"
"No."
A line of automated traffic-control drones had unfolded across the lane in front of it, forming a physical wall designed to force us to stop before reaching open space.
"Drones are unmanned," Hana confirmed.
"Clear behind them?"
"Yes."
"Fire."
Mara smiled despite herself.
Black Star's forward lance lit the dark.
The beam tore through the barricade. Drones burst apart one after another, fragments spreading across the cutter's firing line. The Hekate ship rolled away rather than fly straight into its own destroyed barrier.
Sera saw the opening.
Black Star went through.
Hekate dropped behind us.
Not completely.
The Warden and Vesper were still fighting near the edge of the city.
Kaia finally had room.
That changed everything.
The Warden was good in close structures because it could deny space and refuse pursuit. Open space belonged to Vesper.
Kaia disappeared sideways.
The Warden fired where she had been.
Vesper came around beneath it and put three rounds across its shield. The damaged plate broke apart. The Hekate pilot dumped it, rotated and fired back.
Kaia rolled through the shots.
One clipped Vesper's shoulder.
Armor flashed.
She kept coming.
The Warden raised its rifle again.
Vesper crossed the distance before it could fire.
Kaia's blade cut the rifle in half.
The Warden punched her.
Not elegantly.
Just drove one armored fist directly into Vesper's face.
The sensor head snapped sideways.
Kaia laughed.
Actually laughed.
"Okay."
She struck back.
Vesper drove an elbow into the Warden's chest, fired its hip thrusters at the same time and used the added force to throw the heavier machine backward. Kaia followed with the carbine, firing into the Warden's leg. One shot missed. One scarred armor. The third tore through a calf thruster.
The Warden lurched.
Kaia raised the weapon again.
"Kaia," Lucien said.
"I know."
"Break."
"I know."
The Warden tried one last shot.
Kaia rolled past it, fired once without looking back and hit the other leg.
Then Vesper accelerated toward Black Star.
The Warden tried to follow.
Its damaged legs failed to hold the maneuver.
It stopped at Hekate's outer defensive boundary.
Kaia never turned around.
Vesper reached us thirty seconds later.
Her breathing sounded terrible.
Tomas was waiting at the bay before the recovery arms locked.
"Cockpit open."
"I can walk."
"Cockpit."
"Tomas."
"Kaia."
Something in his voice ended the argument.
The canopy opened.
Niko started shouting about the new forearm armor before Kaia had even climbed out.
"It was new!"
"I noticed!"
"You just got it!"
"I'll buy another one!"
"With what money?"
Apparently that was the real wound.
For several seconds the chaos almost felt funny.
Then everything became quiet enough for my hands to start shaking.
The ship was damaged, but not badly. A tether had punched through outer plating. Several defensive guns needed new barrels. One battery had overheated. Vesper had come back with fresh scars across armor we had installed less than a day earlier. Radiator three had survived. The main drive had survived. The lance had survived.
More importantly, Hana found no confirmed Hekate deaths.
Several injured pilots.
No dead.
That mattered more than anything Mara put on the repair list.
Lucien called engineering.
"Status?"
Mara started with the ship.
He let her finish.
Then asked, "People?"
"No crew casualties. Two minor injuries."
"Kaia?"
"Tomas has her."
"Students?"
Jun answered before Mara could. "All five accounted for."
Lucien closed his eyes for half a second.
Counted.
Kaia had told me about that.
When he was eleven he counted people because if six went somewhere and only five came back, he needed to know.
He was still doing it.
The secure channel returned twenty minutes later.
Same black screen.
Same white line.
Lucien took the call in auxiliary command. Hana was there. Mara dragged me along because apparently being useful once meant everybody started developing expectations.
The woman spoke first.
"You were considerably louder than I hoped."
Lucien leaned against the table. "We got out."
"I noticed."
"Hekate identified us?"
"Yes."
"So the Federation knows."
"If they don't already, they will shortly."
"Alecto?"
"Assume it is moving."
Lucien brought up Orison. "Route?"
Another packet arrived.
"Stay with civilian traffic long enough to make immediate tracking unpleasant. Then take the route I sent."
I stared at the screen. "You have a lot of routes."
"Yes."
"And contacts."
"Yes."
"And apparently classified information."
"Yes."
"Who are you?"
"Persistent, aren't you?"
"That's what people keep telling me."
I heard something that might have been a laugh.
Then her voice changed. "Kaia?"
"Tomas sedated her," Lucien said.
"He what?"
"She attempted to leave medical."
"That sounds like her."
"She claimed he was violating her civil rights."
"That also sounds like her."
Mara smiled.
"And everyone else?"
Lucien answered differently this time.
"Alive."
The line stayed quiet.
Then she said, "Tom isn't."
Lucien looked down.
"No."
"He should be remembered when this works."
"If it works."
"When."
It wasn't confidence.
It sounded almost stubborn.
"I did not help remove Black Star from Federation hands so another generation could inherit a worse war. I do not care whose flag eventually gets credit for peace. I care that fewer people have to die reaching it." Her voice softened. "Tom believed Nexus could make something better. Do not turn him into another reason to make something worse."
Lucien remained still.
"Orison," he said.
"Orison."
"And after?"
"We decide when you arrive."
"We?"
The pause was small.
I noticed.
Lucien noticed too.
Then she said, "Everyone still trying to make sure there is an after."
The channel closed.
I waited until Lucien turned away.
"No."
He stopped.
"No what?"
"No leaving."
"I have several things to do."
"You have a mysterious woman calling through an encrypted channel, knowing the Federation's plans, telling us exactly when commercial convoys leave Hekate, ordering us away from Tessara like she gets a vote in Tessaran foreign policy, and every time I ask who she is you start walking."
Mara made a suspicious sound behind me.
Lucien looked tired. "She's an ally."
"Kaia already implied that was generous."
"Kaia says many things."
"Is she Ardent?"
"She wants the war to end."
"That is not an answer."
"No."
"Federation?"
"No."
"Tessaran?"
Lucien did nothing.
His face did nothing.
That was the problem.
I pointed at him. "That."
"What?"
"That face."
"I have one."
"The face where you think technically not lying is the same as answering."
"It frequently is."
"I hate talking to you."
"I know."
He left.
Mara waited until the door closed.
"You're getting better at that."
"I shouldn't have to become good at a person."
"That is unfortunately how people work."
On the way back to engineering, I passed Bay Three.
I stopped.
Radian stood inside.
No damage.
No scorched armor.
No blood.
Nothing from the fight had touched it.
It had been ready the entire time.
That was the part I didn't want to think about.
When the Warden went for Black Star's engines, I had almost moved.
Nobody had asked me.
Lucien had not threatened me.
Kaia had not called for help.
Mara hadn't even looked toward the hangar.
I had simply known where Radian was.
Known how quickly I could reach it.
Known what it could do.
For one second, getting inside had felt like the obvious answer.
I stared at the three dark sensors in its head.
Nothing looked back.
Somewhere behind me, Mara called my name.
"Ilyan."
I turned.
"I'm coming."
Black Star moved with the commercial convoy, Hekate shrinking behind us and Orison waiting somewhere ahead. The ship had been found. The Federation would know soon. Alecto would start moving again. Somewhere out there was a woman with no face who remembered Tom's bad jokes, knew Kaia well enough to expect arguments with doctors and talked about Tessara as though its future mattered personally to her.
I had questions.
A lot of them.
For once, I left Radian where it was.