“Yes, Admiral.”

“Calculations are in, Captain. We are prepared to fire.”

Tianne smiled thinly. “Excellent. Engage the Drasin ships.”

“Engaging.”

A whining roar vibrated through the deck of the Cerekus as power was routed directly to the lasers and the powerful weapons unleashed themselves across the vastness of space.

“Message from the Archangel Lead, Captain,” Lamont said. “Commander Michaels is asking if you want them to come back in.”

“Negative.” Weston shook his head. “Tell them to keep clear. Something tells me that this isn’t going to be—”

“Thermal bloom!”

Weston stiffened. “Where?”

“The new ship, Capt—Holy Mother of GOD!” Waters let out a curse, his eyes bugging out as every warning buzzer on the bridge seemed to go off.

“What the hell was that?”

“Laser fire! Five…ten…no, fifteen beams!” Waters swore. “They bracketed us, sir!”

“Relax, Ensign,” Weston advised him. “If they were meant for us, we’d have felt them by now.”

“No, sir. We wouldn’t,” Waters corrected him in a shocked voice. “We’re reading intense corona flares—ten times the Drasin weapons levels.”

“What?” Weston blurted. “That’s insane!”

“Sir…I think we’d better secure for a radiation alert,” Waters advised. “These guys are tossing around some serious power.”

Weston nodded. “Susan…Issue the alert.”

“Aye, Captain.” Susan Lamont turned back to her board. “Warning, warning, the Odyssey is now under radiation-exposure protocols. I say again, the Odyssey is now under radiation-exposure protocols.”

“…say again, the Odyssey is now under radiation protocols.”

“Ah fuckin’ hell!” Kreuse cursed, looking up at the ceiling, though the voice had come through his suit headset. “Now what?”

“Doesn’t matter!” Corrin ordered. “Forget trying to repair that breach. We’ve got to throw a few sheets over it and get the hell out of here!”

“You heard the chief!” Kreuse spun around. “Get those rolls in here!”

While the men were hauling in the huge rolls of carbon-fiber composite they had been intending to use as a base for the repairs, Corrin turned on the crew working on the sealed closet. “And get those people out of there!”

“Thermal bloom!” Waters announced again. “They’ve got a direct hit on the port-side warship.”

“Analyze,” Weston ordered in clipped terms.

“The return signal scrambled the hell out of our sensors, Captain. I’m going to have to reboot the software. Secondary sensors turning into position,” Waters replied, working hard.

On the screen, the visible image of the Drasin warship was still there and intact. Though, at the moment, it was glowing practically white-hot from the energy it had absorbed, and for some odd reason, Weston had the impression that it was pissed off.

“Return fire!” Waters called out a second later. “Drasin are firing back.”

“Captain…” Daniels spoke up softly. “Course?”

Weston ignored the helmsman for a moment, staring at his boards. The ship coming toward them was now within two light-minutes, and it was finally starting to register on their sensors, despite the solar interference. Which actually bothered Weston, considering that a ship the Odyssey’s size would probably be hidden from visual sensors at up to twenty light-seconds.