“I need those engines back online now, Optiomagis.” Kat had her hand on her earpiece as she spoke into the headset’s microphone. Strictly speaking, she should have been issuing orders to Wentus and allowing her exec to pass them on to the more junior officers. But right now she didn’t have the time or patience for it.

“We’ve got massive damage down here, Commander. Whatever that weapon was, it hit us hard.” Raban Cinatus was Invictus’s chief engineer, and Kat could hear the tension in his voice. Her ship had been badly battered, there was no question about that. But she was sure the enemy was in worse shape, and the sooner she could get Invictus turned around to finish the job the better. She was wary of the enemy commander, and the thought of giving him more time ate away at her confidence.

“It was a particle beam, Optiomagis,” she said matter-of-factly. “Confed battleships have particle weapons as their primary batteries.” Kat didn’t place much stock in intelligence reports, but now she wondered if she was the only one who bothered to read them. Though short on details about effectiveness and power output, the reports had been pretty clear on the fact that the Confed navy had upgraded all its capital ships with the new weapon system. Still, she found herself surprised at how hard that shot had hit Invictus. There was no question, the enemy’s primaries were superior to her own main lasers.

So, why did they wait so long to fire? Just to get in a point blank shot by surprise? Or were they having trouble keeping the guns online?

She’d seen schematics of the Alliance’s own particle beam weapons, which unfortunately currently existed only as designs in progress. She remembered being struck at the size of the proposed weapons, and the complexity. She’d expressed a level of concern about durability, at least to the extent it was wise to question any project that had the Council’s support.

“Commander, I have twenty engineers working on the engines, and half the maintenance units. I’m fairly certain we can restore some level of thrust, but it’s going to take a while.”

“Define a ‘while,’ Optiomagis. I’ll remind you we are moving away from the enemy at greater than one percent of lightspeed.”

“A day, Commander. It will take a day to restore thrust. At least. Perhaps two.”

Kat felt a burst of something that felt like anger, but she realized almost immediately it was just frustration. Cinatus was a gifted engineer and an Alliance warrior though and through. She knew he wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t rest, until the engines were back online. But that didn’t change the fact that Invictus was racing away from Santis, and the enemy battleship, with no way to alter its vector.