Without any other information, Nem­etus decided that the best way to locate the system out of the several hundred identified by the cogi­tators was to make a manual observation of the local starfield. The servitors of the navigational banks would be able to retro-calculate the location of the Ithraca’s Vengeance from the observable stars, like an ancient ship’s master sailing the Aeneid Sea on Macragge but on a vaster scale. With this in mind, he took a dataslate with a videograph attached up to the main gallery on the prow decks, furthest from the polluting glare of the plasma engines.

The viewing gallery was a glassite dome about sixty feet high, situated above the strategium. The system star dominated the view ahead, the eagle-break prow of the cruiser pointed towards the growing circle of light. Above gave the best view of the starfield, dense clusters of distant suns spread across the inner spiral arm of the galaxy. Nem­etus recognised none of them.

While he took notations and videolithic data the door hissed open and Praxa­medes joined him. The other lieutenant also had a recording slate in hand.

‘Checking that I am doing this correctly?’ said Nem­etus. The words came out with more venom than he had intended, stopping Praxa­medes mid-stride.

‘I thought you might like some help.’ The other lieutenant lifted a hand towards the star-filled void. ‘That’s a lot of cataloguing to do.’

The humble offer made Nem­etus feel even more guilty for his accusation. There was only one way Nem­etus knew how to remedy the situation: head-on.

‘Apologies, brother. You did not deserve my scorn. I cannot help but feel you think me inferior, but it is only the shame of my short­comings making themselves known.’

‘I have never known you to be anything other than a superb leader and a devout servant of the Emperor,’ said Praxa­medes, starting forward again. ‘Even I would find this task onerous, but it is a vital one.’

‘Thank you, brother. All assistance is welcome.’

They stood side by side scanning for several minutes before the silence had gone on too long and Nem­etus could not help but break it.

‘How are the repairs coming along?’

‘Slowly. The main power network is badly damaged, hampering other efforts. The tech-priests are dedicating more time to rerouting the cabling and restoring reactor integrity. We’re fortunate that none of the shielding broke when we force-translated back to realspace.’

Nem­etus considered this for a few seconds.

‘Was that a rebuke, brother?’ Nem­etus half-laughed, to hide the doubt in his question. ‘I cannot tell any longer.’

‘An observation. What prompted you to activate the warp drive?’

‘It was purely instinctual. I was worried that we would lose the opportunity altogether. The captain had already brought down the Geller fields. I reasoned that we had one chance to escape.’