She closed her eyes and let herself sink deep into the ship’s data-space. As long as she could keep up concentration, she could stay awake.

The power of suns flowed out of the fusion reactors and then through the drive-spines, tearing a hole in the fabric of the universe. The stars twisted, then changed.

A flood of new data immediately began to stream in via the sensor arrays: spectral analyses, mass estimates, number of visible planets, evidence of technology. They were still at least half a light-day out from the main-sequence star at the system’s centre, but they would get up close to the target world through the next couple of jumps.

Dakota was distantly aware of Lamoureaux guiding a small contingent of spider-mechs out on to the hull, intending to make a quick assessment of the hull-degradation.

Dakota activated the command structure that Moss had given her, and tried using it to locate Trader’s ship. Before very long she got an automated response from the vicinity of a low-albedo object somewhere deep in the heart of the star system. She compared the object with the data she had received from Trader, and they matched. That meant they had reached the target cache.

She checked in on Lamoureaux once more, and found he was analysing video feeds scraped from the spider-mechs that had been sent into the hold. Pieces and fragments of hull-plate clung to those sections of the underlying skeleton that had survived the blast.

I can see the landers, she sent to Lamoureaux.

<Yeah, they must have been at the farthest point in the hold from where Trader’s yacht was when it jumped.>

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she opened her eyes to see Corso bending over her.

‘Do we know where we go from here?’ he asked.

She nodded, her throat dry. ‘The target cache is on a small planet in the inner system, not much over a thousand klicks across and tidally locked to its star. The cache is on the dark side, however.’

‘And how long before we get there?’

She let her head fall back against the head-rest, almost afraid to close her eyes in case she passed out from exhaustion.

‘At least another hour before the drive is up to making another jump.’ She raised a hand, stopping him before he could speak again. ‘I know what you’re going to say. The scouts will reach us before that, but it’s just not possible to do it any sooner.’

‘Then you’re going to have to find a way to keep us safe from those scouts in the meantime.’

‘Sure.’ She nodded wearily. ‘Of course.’

He studied her. ‘How are you holding up?’

Dakota laughed weakly. ‘Just barely.’

He started moving away, but she reached out to stop him. ‘Wait. I need to show you something.’

She put on display the video feeds from the spiders.