“Battlestations,” Travis repeated. The bridge was bathed in glowing red light from the battlestations lamps. “Full thrust, Captain.” Travis activated the shipwide com. “All crew, strap in, prepare for high thrust maneuvers.” She put a hand to her headset for a second. Then she turned toward Barron. “Engineer Fritz reports we’ll have full thrust in thirty seconds, sir.”

“Tell her fifteen, Commander.” Barron’s bad feeling became an urgent foreboding. He slapped his hand on the com unit, connecting to his engineer even though he’d just ordered Travis to do it. “Fritzie, I need full thrust now…damn the risk.”

A thought passed through his mind. He was being reckless, taking a real chance of overloading the reactor just to escape some unproven threat. Then Dauntless shook hard. The danger was no longer unproven.

“Incoming fire, Captain.” Travis spoke calmly, though Barron knew his first officer was anything but. They’d been in the system less than five minutes, and they were under attack. Whatever battle they had come to fight…it had begun.

“Some kind of lasers, Captain. One hit, amidships. Damage report coming.”

Dauntless shook again.

“Fritzie, I need that thrust. Now!” Barron hadn’t seen all that much action in his career yet, but he could tell from the hardness of the shaking that the guns firing at his vessel were heavy ones.

“Active scanners, Commander. I need to know what’s out there.” Whatever enemy they were facing already knew they were there.

“Active scanners powering up, sir.” A second later: “Full thrust engaging.”

Barron felt the pressure as Dauntless’s massive engines blasted at maximum power, overwhelming the capacity of the dampeners to absorb the g-forces. He leaned back to offset the discomfort from feeling three times his normal weight, trying to get comfortable.

“Active scanners report a cluster of buoys ahead. Power readings are off the charts now, sir. Whatever they are, they’re strong.”

Barron cursed under his breath.

You damned fool. You knew there was an enemy here…and you blundered right into the system.

“Secondary batteries…fire at will. Target all platforms and destroy them.” His weapons could clear the buoys; he was sure of that. But the trap—and that’s exactly what he knew it was—would serve its purpose, at least partially. Dauntless would take considerable damage in a straight up fight with the laser platforms, leaving his vessel at a tremendous disadvantage later, when it faced whatever was waiting for them. And there was no longer any doubt something was waiting.

His orders to maneuver around the spread of weapons might just be enough…depending on how many there were. The mighty thrust was even now altering the battleship’s vector, moving it out of the buoys’ primary firing arc. Dauntless was still taking damage, but with a little luck she’d escape the worst of it.

“Secondary batteries firing, Captain.”