It was a stretch of asteroids; hundreds of thousands of ice and rock chunks ranging from dust to behemoths larger than the strike cruiser. With the augurs running on minimal power, they had not been seen further out.

‘Suggest course change to heading oh-forty-two, declination seven, lieutenant commander,’ said Oloris. ‘We will need to reduce speed for thruster manoeuvring.’

Praxa­medes said nothing and turned to the display controls. He brought up the local charts again and superimposed the augur readings, such as they were. The asteroid field was a big one, tens of thousands of cubic miles. The theory of void warfare held that smaller craft like the pursuing escorts were better at navigating such phenomena. The Ithraca’s Vengeance would have to slow to give the helms officer any chance of avoiding the largest asteroids with enough time to steer round them.

He thought back to what Nem­etus had said about his decision to activate the warp drive.

‘There was no time for reason, brother. Had I waited even another second we might never have broken through the barrier.’

‘The situation required action.’

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

‘Lieutenant commander?’ prompted Oloris.

They were two thousand miles from the edge of the field.

‘Power engines to nominal,’ Praxa­medes commanded helm control. ‘Navigational fields active. Power to gunnery.’

The deck officers relayed his commands, working quickly at their terminals, their affirmatives sounding back in the following half a minute. Quiet descended – only the faint murmur of servitors, clack of tele­metric gauges and clicking metriculators could be heard. It was broken by Shipmaster Oloris.

‘Helm orders, lieutenant commander?’

‘Ahead steady,’ Praxa­medes replied calmly.

He saw disbelief in Oloris’ eyes. ‘Ahead steady?’ It was a rare loss of discipline from the veteran, one that earned him a barked reprimand from Exelloria.

‘Attend to your orders, shipmaster, or recuse yourself from your role.’ The Chaplain stomped across the strategium while Oloris saluted and passed the order to helm. Exelloria continued on the vox-link, unheard by the deck crew and astropaths. ‘It seems that we are plunging straight into a volatile celestial phenomenon with enemy contacts at our starboard quarter. Is that your intent, brother?’

‘The marshes of Cothyria, Brother-Chaplain,’ replied Praxa­medes. He switched to vocal address so that the others could hear again. ‘I recall the lord pri­march’s actions in the marshes of Cothyria, as related in the Book of Macragge.’

‘I think this is poor timing for a history lesson, lieutenant,’ rasped one of the astropaths.