They did their duty. Those who died—who are about to die—they will live on in the annals, as heroes of their people.

She’d been raised on affirmations like that, but she found that the more death she witnessed, the less effective they were on her.

“Two minutes to firing range.”

Kat stared at the display, at the data streaming in from her scanners. She was still getting a feed from the probes in orbit around Santis, too. It all told her the same thing. The enemy ship had taken heavy damage from the fighter assault. She was proud of her people. They had executed the battle well, and now all that was left was to finish the job. Then the victory would be won.

Still, she felt nervous, an unsettled feeling she’d never had before. It was the enemy commander, something about the way he’d handled operations. He’d blundered into her trap at the transwarp link, but since then he’d handled everything the way she would have. He’d avoided her laser buoys at Santis, and he’d deployed his fighters with great skill. And the Confed squadrons had gone toe to toe with her own and proved themselves a match for the Alliance’s best. Her enemy didn’t seem like the sort to give up, to wither because he was at a disadvantage.

But what can he do?

What would I do?

“One minute…”

She took a deep breath, her mind still stuck on her adversary, on what would happen as Invictus entered her enemy’s firing range. But there was no time for that now, no chance to guess. It was time.

She sat quietly for that last minute, calm, looking out on her bridge crew. The she said, simply, “Fire.”

*   *   *

“Secondary batteries…ready…” Barron was leaning forward, staring at the display, at the range as it counted down.” His people had gotten lucky, very lucky. If the enemy had weapons as long-ranged as Dauntless’s particle accelerators, his ship would have been torn to bits by now. But the Alliance vessel just kept coming, its batteries silent as it approached. In less than a minute, Dauntless’s own secondaries would open fire.

The enemy’s velocity meant they would only be in range for a short time, perhaps two minutes. He knew his foe would do everything possible to make that count. And he had to do the same.