The drive worked by literally changing the shape of the universe around the ship, creating a “slope” in space-time for the ship to fall along. Out in open space this wasn’t a problem for most things the ship passed, since distances were generally large and tolerance for things like planets was extremely high.

Inside the controlled space of the Forge, however, the Priminae were justly concerned with the effect the passage of ships might have on the local space-time. Warping space too aggressively left behind small bubbles of deformed space-time that could take days or weeks to fade and, as the planet within the star continued on its orbit around the center of stellar gravity, those bubbles would inevitably come into contact with the shield.

Suffice it to say, that wasn’t a good thing.

The Priminae had their own term for it, a word that didn’t translate into English, but the closest anyone had come up with was the word cavitation from fluid dynamics. It wasn’t actually a bad comparison, since in a real way space-time responded to warping much the way fluids responded to pressure differentials.

The six battleships began the climb out of the gravity of the star, penetrating the planetary shield and passing without incident into the solar plasma beyond. Every sensor on board was blinded, save the beacon transceivers, and they continued on pure instruments as they headed out.

Transiting through the plasma was a tense period, lasting almost half an hour, but even bursting out into clear space did little to relax Gracen or anyone who knew a little bit about the anatomy of a star. The temperature on the hull didn’t decrease as they put some distance between them and the surface; instead it began to climb rapidly as they passed into the star’s corona.

“Ahead, full acceleration.”

“Aye ma’am.”

The Odysseus surged through the coronal flares, exploding out into clear space finally, with the other five Heroics following suit. The six ships continued on course for a period as they got their bearings, instrumentation coming back online.

“Make course for Ranquil. Engage when ready.”

“Course applied, engaging,” Steph said, curving the path of the ship on a least-time course for the planet.

Gracen opened a channel across the squadron. “All hands, this is Admiral Gracen. We have successfully transited the Priminae star and are clear of the Forge. Congratulations on a textbook passage, or rather what will be one when we get around to writing the textbook.”

“Well, would you look at that.”

Captain Carrow heard the exclamation from his helmsman, but let it pass without comment. The six Heroic Class battleships had just entered fully into visual range, decelerating fast as they closed for Ranquil orbit, and honestly he couldn’t blame the man for sounding impressed.

Awed is the word, Carrow corrected himself as he too watched the ships settle into a high orbit over Ranquil, just above the Enterprise’s own.