Barron’s gaze remained set, his mind following each of the weapons heading for his ship. Dauntless’s gunners had taken out five of the torpedoes before they converted. Now four more zipped by into the space where Dauntless had been. But there were ten more still coming.

“Bring us around, course 311-120-128…increase thrust to forty percent.” Barron spoke rapidly, knowing his command was coming too late.

“Executing,” Travis snapped back.

But Barron had been too late. Dauntless shook hard. Then again an instant later. The second hit sent a shower of sparks flying across the bridge as a power conduit overloaded. The lights flickered for an instant, and Barron could hear the distant rumbles of explosions.

He slapped at the com unit, his eyes still fixed on the display as he did. Two more torpedoes zipped by, but another slammed hard into Dauntless’s bow.

“Damage report.” Barron reached down and grabbed his headset, pulling it roughly over his head. “Now, Fritzie. What’s going on down there?”

“I don’t have it all yet, sir.”

Barron could hear the sounds of shouting in the background, urgent calls for teams to deal with one problem or another…and worse ones, cries that hit him in his stomach, those of wounded men and women. His men and women.

“How bad is it?”

“It’s bad, sir. We’ve got power drains in multiple locations. At least half a dozen external compartments are compromised. I think the reactor’s okay, but I’m worried about that jury-rigged repair to the cooling lines. I just got back to engineering from the launch bay, and I’m still trying to get on top of things. Give me another few minutes, sir, and I’ll get back to you with better info.”

“All right, Fritzie…just remember, we’ve got the enemy battleship heading right toward us. They’ll be in range in…” He glanced down at the readout. “…twenty-nine minutes.”

“Understood, sir. Fritz out.”

Barron felt a chill. He’d never heard his chief engineer sound so rattled.

“Bring us around, Commander. Reverse thrust now.”

“Yes, sir.”

Barron watched another spread of plasmas move by on the display…and then two more, the last two, coming right at Dauntless. He knew there was nothing he could do. The weapons were too close, but he had to try.

“Increase thrust to flank, Comm…” The ship shook hard, and the bridge spun around, the grav control system giving out. Barron was thrown forward hard, his chest slamming into the harness. He felt the breath ripped from his lungs, pain in his shoulder, his sternum. The bridge was plunged into darkness for a few seconds, only the red glow of the battlestations lamps remaining to light the way.

Then the emergency lights snapped on, a soft glow replacing the brightness of the main lighting panels.

“Captain, Commander Jamison reports he has multiple fighters coming in, fuel status critical.”