His team had patched hundreds of breaches, replaced millions of meters of conduit and wiring. They had fashioned metal patches to cover the largest of the tears in the great engines. But Cinatus knew the slightest hole, a loose connection, almost anything could cause a catastrophic failure, one that could set repairs back weeks or kill members of his team. A failure even threatened Invictus with massive damage from internal explosions. He’d done his best, focused on every detail to the point of driving himself close to insanity. Now he would see if that had been enough.

Ten percent…so far so good…

There were a dozen readouts, but he was mostly concerned with the pressure gauges. Too low meant the required energy density wasn’t being achieved. Too high meant the control mechanisms weren’t functioning properly. But so far the numbers were spot on, right in the middle of the expected range.

Twenty percent…

The floor under his feet began to vibrate. That was normal, at least unless it got too severe. It was the kind of thing no machine could measure properly…not as well as an experienced engineer’s instincts. And his were telling him everything was still good.

Thirty percent…

Still good. And enough power to test the thrusters. He tapped the com unit on his collar. “Commander, we’ve got thirty percent power flow and holding steady. We’re ready to do a test burst now.”

“Very well, Optiomagis…” Kat’s voice was stony, determined. “Proceed.”

Cinatus turned and waved to a group of technicians about thirty meters down the long room. Then he looked down at the console, and he extended his arm, his fingers resting on a series of levers. He paused a moment, taking a deep breath. Then he flipped each lever in turn, and he grabbed on to the sides of the workstation, holding tightly as he heard the roar of the engines…and then felt the g-forces pushing against him. There was thrust! The engines were working, pushing against Invictus’s vector, reducing the velocity that was carrying the battleship away from its adversary.

He glanced down at the controls. All committed power was going into generating thrust. Invictus’s engines were at thirty percent of capacity, which Cinatus knew was a miracle considering the hunk of junk they had been less than two days earlier.

“Congratulations, Optiomagis.” Even Kat’s iron voice showed signs of surprise. “You and your people are to be commended for a job well done…and I will see this is so when we return to Palatia.”

“Thank you, Commander. I will pass your words to the rest of my team.” Cinatus had been nervous communicating directly with the ship’s commander. Standard procedure called for him to deal with the communications officer or exec. But Commander Rigellus had dispensed with all that, demanding constant direct updates from her engineer.

“How much thrust can we generate, Optiomagis?”