My heart sank, and I hugged myself against a sudden chill. After all the discomfort, loneliness and hunger I had endured, were my pursuers about to finally overtake me?

There are two groups. As its words appeared in my mind, the bear’s claws slid in and out of their sheaths. One group is armed. I know them from your thoughts. They are the mercenaries who attacked and murdered your companion.

“And the others?”

They are new to me.

Desperate hope overcame fear. I took a pace toward the creature. “Do you know who they are?”

I have not encountered them before. They are newly arrived. I am bringing them here at a far higher speed than I brought you.

“Newly arrived?” I felt my heart trip like a hammer in the foundry of my chest. Were these my rescuers, responding to a distress call from the ’dam, or new antagonists to be avoided or fought?

There are currently three ships in orbit, the bear said. There was a fourth, but it has been destroyed.

“They’re fighting?”

There has been a dispute. A paw raked the stone floor with a skittering sound that set my teeth on edge. The ship responsible for the attack on your liner has been destroyed.

“And the others?” I hardly dared breathe. I wanted to grab fistfuls of fur and shake the beast. “Show me!”

The animal snarled. For an instant, I thought it was going to swipe me with one of its paws. Then the dome shimmered overhead and stars appeared. I saw two Carnivores and a Scimitar. Targeting lasers flickered between them in the darkness.

I hadn’t seen a Scimitar since fleeing the bridge of the Righteous Fury in the immediate aftermath of Pelapatarn, but I knew no two were alike. Battle damage, piecemeal replacements and sporadic upgrades lent each of the large ships a subtly different aspect. And, unless I was very much mistaken, the battlewagon sitting out there was my old flagship. It had undergone a refit and some of the external equipment had been upgraded, but I recognised the dorsal scanning array, which was an older model no longer used on ships of the line, and the scars that had been gouged into her port bow by the glancing impact of a suicidal Outward corvette. Seeing her again now, my pulse quickened further. I knew I had friends aboard that ship, officers and ratings who had willingly colluded in my disappearance, preferring to spirit me away into anonymity than have the ship’s good name sullied by a public war crimes trial.

The vessels are engaged in a three-way confrontation. The creature beside me growled. And I detect further ships approaching from interstellar space.

“Show me.”