‘Reasoned, or guessed?’ Praxa­medes asked the question lightly but Nem­etus could feel the weight of it.

‘There was no time for reason, brother,’ he argued, remembering why he thought Praxa­medes was constantly scrutinising him. ‘Had I waited even another second we might never have broken through the barrier.’

‘And if you were wrong? Not for a second had you considered the possibility that the forces unleashed would tear the cruiser apart.’

‘The situation required action. If it had been you, would you have triggered the warp jump?’

‘No,’ confessed Praxa­medes. He studied his slate for a few seconds. ‘I would not have gambled all of our lives on a guess.’

‘We were adrift in the warp. There was nothing to lose. It was no gamble.’

‘I disagree. There may have been another opportunity. We might have engineered a more certain solution. Future possibilities that you rashly ignored.’

Nem­etus lowered his dataslate to look at his battle-brother. Praxa­medes kept his eye fixed on his readings, whether from diligence or to avoid his brother’s gaze was not clear.

‘None of us are feeling right,’ said Nem­etus. ‘The whole company is tense. The serfs are confused, easily distracted. We cannot afford to have divisions between us.’

Praxa­medes finally turned his eyes on Nem­etus, sighing heavily. ‘You want me to accept your mistakes without comment for the sake of morale?’

‘I do not accept that I made a mistake,’ Nem­etus snapped. ‘And I do not seek your judgement. We are all alive because of what I did. There was not going to be a second chance.’

He moved away, turning his back on Praxa­medes. Since his arrival Nem­etus had been aware of the differences between him and his brother-lieutenant but they had never seemed to affect their ability to fight together before. Now he wondered if Praxa­medes really would be second-guessing every decision.

‘It isn’t judgement,’ Praxa­medes said, following him. ‘I’m trying to understand how you think. You and the captain, you have this manner, this quickness about you that I can’t replicate.’

‘Why would you want to?’ Nem­etus turned, surprised by the confession. ‘Why be something you are not?’

Praxa­medes did not reply. He turned his stare back to the swathe of stars.

‘You think it is holding you back from command?’ guessed Nem­etus. ‘The captain keeps choosing me over you for battle command.’

‘Not just the captain. I had a ship command but was then assigned to the captain as his second. Why was that? What did Battle Group Command not see in me?’

‘I cannot speak for others, but I would rather follow Aeschelus with you as his second. He has a hunger that you temper. Can you imagine what trouble he and I would get into without your presence?’

Praxa­medes did not seem amused by the thought, lost in his concerns.