“Aye, Commander,” the lieutenant nodded, turning to her controls and opening the appropriate channels. “PD, this is X-Com. What is your status?” She listened for the answer. A few seconds later, she replied, “Point Defense reports ready to fight, sir.”

Roberts nodded, his eyes still on the plot. The Odyssey had leapt forward, hurtling itself out of the snare that the enemy had prepared for it, but in doing so, they were flying into the teeth of the tiger.

“Enemy ships are adjusting their courses. They’re going to try to intercept.”

“Of course they are,” Weston said, still watching the clock.

Ten seconds.

“Sideslip, Lieutenant. All thrusters to port,” he ordered. “Ten-second burn.”

“All thrusters to port, aye, Captain,” Daniels said, activating the commands. “Ten seconds.”

The ship rumbled and complained but followed the command as its starboard thrusters burned hot and shoved the ship off to port.

Ten seconds later, the rumble died out a little, though the big engines pushing them along still filled up the background with their incessant roar.

“Energy flare!” Waters snapped. “They shot at us, sir!”

“Of course they did,” Weston smiled. “Analyze and adapt our forward plates to deflect. Helm, random course alterations along our current path, if you please.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” both men answered as one.

Admiral Tanner’s mood grew grimmer as the waiting game wore thin and then vanished into nothing but one nerve grating against the other. If only he had a ship, even one of the old converted freighters, anything at all to…

“Admiral!”

Tanner spun around. “What is it, Ithan?”

“Look, sir.” The young woman pointed.

Tanner looked up, blanching white as he saw the board lit up with four blazing icons, bright as a noonday sun.

The Odyssey’s green flash blazed brightly now. They had obviously dropped any pretense at hiding, and he could easily see why. Three hostile red icons surrounded it on the plot. His stomach twisted as he easily read the trap in the image.

“The Odyssey is accelerating, Admiral,” the ithan said calmly, eyeing the threat board as well as her own instruments. “We are reading all four on the actual time sensors now—weapons fired from the Drasin ship!”

The screen lit up as a blast from the Drasin ship traced across the stars, obviously in response to the Odyssey’s sudden appearance. Tanner grimaced as it closed on the Odyssey, perfectly aligned with its target.

Someone groaned. Tanner didn’t know who and he didn’t care. It was all he could do to not groan himself.

And then, less than ten seconds before it struck, the Odyssey coolly slid aside.

Tanner stared, his eyes widening, as people gasped at the clean miss. How did Captain Weston know? Then he understood. Weston didn’t know that the enemy had fired. What he knew was the time it would take, to the second, for a shot to reach his position from the Drasin’s lasers.