“I’ve got reactor B ready to restart. I doubt I can get it much past fifty percent output, at least at first. But it’s enough to give you more thrust than the enemy has now.”

Escape. Fritz was offering him a chance to get his battered ship away from the enemy. He shook his head. Running wasn’t an option. But looking like he was running…

“Negative, Fritzie.” He didn’t want to risk his energy readings spiking, scaring off the enemy. He needed them to pursue. “Get everything ready…but don’t restart. Not until I give the order.”

“Yes, sir.” Fritz’s voice was non-committal. Like many ship’s engineers, she tended not to see things beyond the confines of her engines and reactors. Tactics was the province of the captain, and hers was to see he had the technology and equipment he needed ready.

“How about the primaries?” Any fix to Dauntless’s main guns was likely to be fragile and short-lived. But if things went according to plan, even one good shot could be the difference between victory and defeat.

“Lieutenant Carson’s team is working on them now, sir. Commander Travis is there too. They’re replacing power conduits, but the accelerators themselves appear intact. We should be able to get them online in the next twenty minutes, sir. Though I can’t promise how long the repairs will hold.”

“Thanks, Fritzie. And good job getting the reactor ready so quickly.” He was genuinely surprised at how speedily her people had finished the repairs. He suspected it was a patchwork of temporary fixes, but if Fritzie said the reactor would restart, Barron had no doubt that it would restart.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Very well…carry on. Barron ou…wait, Fritzie…” Barron was deep in thought. He’d been trying to put himself in his enemy’s head, wondering what he would do if the roles were reversed.

Alliance culture is aggressive, warlike, so they won’t retreat. Probably not at all, but certainly not when they think they have the edge…

“Fritzie, I want you to eject some reaction mass…and some radioactives too.”

“Sir?”

“I want you to release some fuel into space. Not a lot, maybe ten percent of what we’ve got left. And I want some wastes from the reactor ejected too. And push reactor A a little harder. Get me five percent more thrust.”

“Ah…yes, sir.” A short pause then understanding dawned. “Yes, sir! I’ll have it done immediately.”

“Carry on. Barron out.”

He turned and looked at the display, his eyes focusing on the small red oval moving steadily closer to Dauntless.

It’s you and me…a game of chess for the lives of our crew. No, not chess. Poker. And I’m raising you now. Am I bluffing? Or do I have a hand after all? It’s your move…