No time for that.

Dray shouted, “Pattern delta!”

“Locking in,” Cohl snapped.

Pirius threw the Other Claw onto its new trajectory. The Galaxy center whirled around him, the merging lanes of gas spilling about his head.

Again the little convoy split, this time into two pairs. It was a copy of their first feint. This time Three and Four peeled off and went shooting away to Pirius’s port side, haring into the shining corridor of the Arm, as if trying to escape back to the Front. Meanwhile Wedge Leader and Wedge Seven, Dray and Pirius, went straight for the Xeelee, their weapons already firing.

Again there was a heartbeat of delay, as if the Xeelee were trying to decide what was happening. But this time they didn’t follow the decoy; this time they came straight on at Dray and Pirius.

Cohl said, “Lethe. They knew.”

“I don’t understand,” Nilis said.

“They didn’t fall for the bait,” Pirius said. “We were meant to look like a rearguard. The Xeelee were supposed to chase after the others. But they didn’t.”

“Your navigator said, ‘They knew.’”

“FTL foreknowledge,” Pirius said. “You can always tell when it cuts in. Suddenly they know what you’re going to do before you do.”

“They may know,” Dray said forcefully. “But that doesn’t mean they can stop us. Pirius, you’re less than a hundred light-days from Chandra. Make a single jump. Get in there, do what you have to do, get out.”

Cohl said, “It’s impossible.”

Pirius glanced at his instruments. This was the core of the Galaxy, full of immense masses throwing themselves around, spacetime churned to a foam. He took a breath. “Yes, it’s impossible. But we’re going to do it anyway.”

He was aware of Nilis tensing beside him, his pale fingers gripping the edge of his seat. Virtual Nilis was an authentic, fully sentient re-creation; perhaps death was as dark a prospect for such a creature as for a full human.

That knot of Xeelee were approaching; ten more seconds and their weapons would find their range.

“Commodore—”

“You’re on your own, Pirius. For those who have fallen!”

Abruptly Dray’s ship threw itself at the Xeelee, monopole shells spraying. Pirius saw the formation of the nightfighters momentarily waver; as she passed through them Dray made their wings rustle. But soon the Xeelee were closing over that brave green spark.

“Another gone,” Nilis said.

But she had bought a little time. “Cohl—”

“Laid in.”

“Do it.”

In the instant of transition Pirius could feel the instability of Galaxy-center spacetime; the jump felt like a kick to the base of the spine.

Violent blue light flooded the cabin. With warning Virtuals flickering all around him, Pirius gazed out of the blister.