That much was an ironclad truth, Eric admitted. Despite the fact that the Odysseus was powerful and sophisticated enough to slaughter dozens of the enemy ships, they were dealing with hundreds of them. It was just a matter of time before the damage grew too severe for them to continue, and it was equally clear that the Drasin had no intention of letting them get out of the system and into any position to initiate a transition.

That made his job easier. It was the same job he’d had the last time, really.

Savage the enemy forces until they dragged him down, and hope against hope that he did enough damage to give everyone else a chance to survive.

Not really the ideal position to be in, but if you were there at least there was no complexity to your task.

“Watch your nine o’clock, Steph,” Eric noted. “Incoming.”

“I see them,” Steph said, putting the Odysseus into a flat spin to bring the forward lasers to bear. “Nail ’em, Milla!”

The lasers pulsed, lashing across space as the enemy ships fired in return. The beams crossed space and one another with nearly unimaginable power. The Odysseus’ beams struck true, three more enemy ships vanishing in the now-familiar zero gravity explosions, even as the Drasin beams burned into the armor and hull of the much larger Odysseus.

“Three strikes!” Winger called. “We’re venting atmosphere all across the forward decks . . . casualty reports pending!”

“Get rescue teams up there,” Eric ordered. “Milla, keep firing!”

The slim Priminae woman shook herself from the shock she’d felt, hand coming down on the command to unleash the weapons once more. The beams lanced out at new targets, boiling away the armor and hulls of the smaller Drasin ships instantly, lighting up the black of space with more death and destruction.

“They’re coming around on us. We’re about to get mobbed, Captain!”

“Steph . . .” Eric didn’t even have to finish.

“Aye Captain, evading!”

A space-warp drive allowed a ship to do some incredible and, frankly, incredibly counterintuitive maneuvers. Without turning, or banking, or anything that might be familiar to a terrestrial pilot or observer, the Odysseus simply shifted hard to port at maximum acceleration.

Flying sideways was actually a bit of a confusing motion for Steph, however, so he pivoted the ship in the direction of flight. This wasn’t because he had to. The Odysseus was quite capable of flying in any direction with equal power and efficiency, but it was slightly disorienting to plan maneuvers unless the ship was more or less aligned with his own perceptions.

He could do it, just not as well, so Steph did the best he could to keep the front more or less pointing in the direction they were traveling.