Eric knew it was now just a matter of minutes, likely, before he was forced to do as Carrow had. He rather hoped he would be able to take more of the enemy with him when it came to that.

He couldn’t go into the next life letting Carrow upstage him, after all.

Those morbidly amusing thoughts were thrown from his mind by a yell from Michelle Winger.

“What the . . .” She rose up from her seat, staring at her board like it had just bit her.

“What is it?” he twisted, looking over.

“Tachyon jamming is clear, Captain,” she said.

That couldn’t be what she was swearing about, could it? Eric shook his head. “Fine. Send the message FTL, Susan.”

“Yes sir,” Lamont answered.

Winger broke in quickly, however. “Sir, we have a tachyon event!”

“Bow shock?” he asked, cringing. More Drasin they did not need.

“Negative. Transition.”

Eric blinked. The only people who can do that are on Earth and . . .

He smiled. “Well, good. Hopefully that’ll be enough. Send a message. Inform any Priminae ships of what’s happening and request . . .”

“Captain, it’s not outside the system. They’re coming here!”

“Impossible!” he uttered.

“On screen!” Winger countered simply.

Eric looked over, the tachyon disturbance clear on the screens. He saw something for the first time then—the appearance of ships from transition with his own eyes.

Two appeared, then four, and then eight, and finally sixteen.

Sixteen Heroic Class ships reformed from transition before his eyes, and Susan’s board instantly chimed.

“Message from the Atur, Captain.”

“On screen.”

The screen flickered, and Eric found himself staring at the slight build of Admiral Rael Tanner. The Priminae officer grinned cheerfully at him. “Captain Weston. It is good, and somehow entirely unsurprising, to see you on the Odysseus. Please maintain course and speed. We will cover you.”

“Y . . . you heard the admiral, Commander,” Eric stammered a bit.

“Aye sir . . . maintaining course and speed.”

“Get the Vorpals in tight, Susan,” Eric ordered.

“Yes sir.”

The Priminae Heroics turned in space, and they watched as the big long guns pivoted out and came to bear on the battle. The tachyon scanners surged as they fired, and space was lit up by dozens of balls of plasma erupting all around them. The Priminae ships continued to fire their transition cannons, not stopping until the very last of the drone ships was nothing more than dust on the solar winds.

Eric slumped a little, closing his eyes.

“Stand down from combat alert. Make sure all damage control teams have everything they need,” he said. “Susan . . . get me the admiral again. I have to offer my thanks.”

“Our thanks, Captain,” Gracen said softly. “All of our thanks.”

EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

THE DRASIN HAD come and gone from the Earth.