Dakota slowed her time frame until the seconds stretched out. She ran an analysis of the course of the battle so far, and noticed how just a dozen scouts kept themselves close to the cache, while all the rest pushed the attack aggressively. She watched as one of them dived towards a Meridian drone, detonating at the point of closest proximity, overwhelming the drone’s wrapping of protective fields and annihilating the machinery within in an enormous blast of heat and radiation.

It was time, she decided, to stop running and go on the offensive.

As she drove the drones straight at the cache, several were annihilated instantly, but instead of breaking away again, as they had been programmed to do, she kept the rest driving relentlessly towards the cache and the cluster of controlling scouts sheltering there.

<Dakota, It’s Ted. We’ve come up with an idea.>

I hope it’s good.

<There’s a couple of scouts heading towards us. We might be able to take them out with the pulse-cannons, once they get within range, but we can’t risk letting them gather intel on the frigate and then maybe sending advance warning to the Emissaries that we’re in the vicinity. >

You’re assuming they haven’t done that already?

<Yeah, well, we still need to cut any potential losses. So here’s what we’re going to do: we’ll jump now, and rendezvous with you at the following co-ords. Pass them on to Trader, and we’ll meet you there later. >

We could wind up separated from each other by a long way, Ted. Maybe even by a couple of light-years.

<Not if we make it just a small jump, like you did back at Redstone. That reduces the chances of wide separation. There’s a binary system about twelve light-years from here that might be a good recognizable target. >

A moment later an image of the binary system materialized in Dakota’s mind.

<It’s got about six satellites, so we’ll aim for the fifth one out. Neither of us is going to hit the exact spot, but with luck we’ll be in close enough range of each other to make a relatively fast rendezvous. >

What about Nancy? She needs emergency treatment, Ted – as in right now.

<The consensus is we’re taking too big a risk if we let those scouts get any closer. We’re going to initiate that jump immediately. >

Consensus? You mean Corso and Martinez, don’t you?

Lamoureaux didn’t reply, but she could sense his tension and concern as if it were her own. Dakota pulled back into the real world, and she looked down again at Nancy. Her skin had reddened even more, and her lips trembled faintly.

Perhaps it was better she wasn’t aware of what was happening.