“Captain.” She nodded, stepping in that precise clipping manner of a magboot wearer. He matched her pace and they headed for the elevator, not speaking again until the doors closed.

“What of Earth, Captain?” Gracen asked softly as they headed for the command module, rotation spinning up to match the habitat speed.

“It’s still there,” he said, causing her to slump in relief.

He didn’t want to rain on her moment, but the news wasn’t all good by far.

“We registered close to a thousand Drasin ships in the system, and we had to dodge others on our way in and out,” he told her. “Earth is holding the line on the ground, but they’ve got no assets to help clear the sky.”

“The Odysseus and her sisters will be ready soon,” Gracen said. “I am constantly amazed by how fast they can build a ship.”

“Six ships, no matter how advanced, are going to have a hard time putting any kind of real dent in the enemy forces, Admiral,” Carrow said tiredly as the lift came to a stop and the doors opened.

Gracen didn’t respond until she was sure the corridors were clear.

“Six ships, plus the Enterprise. That’s all I could bargain for in the short term,” she said tersely. “Can Earth hold out long enough for more?”

“How long?” Carrow asked, morbidly curious.

“At least six months, more likely a year.”

“No chance,” he answered as he let her into his private office off the bridge. She took a seat in front of the desk as he walked around behind. “It’s a minor miracle that they’re still holding the line. No one back home is sure why the Drasin haven’t dropped everything they have yet.”

“They’re holding back?” Gracen frowned.

“It seems that way,” Carrow said. “The President’s office has been working on building transition weapons to engage the fleet . . .”

“From the surface of the planet? That’s insane,” Gracen hissed. “Even if they could aim it, no one knows what atmosphere or a geomagnetic field will do to a tachyon stream.”

“They’re getting desperate, ma’am.”

Gracen shook her head. “Long past getting, if they’re thinking about firing a transition cannon from the surface of an inhabited world. The number of things that could go wrong . . .”

“You’d know better than me, ma’am,” Carrow said, just a little testily. He’d never been read into the transitional waveguide folder, since his ship wasn’t scheduled for the upgrade for a few more months.

Gracen was silent for a time, thinking about it. Initiating transition was tricky enough in microgravity, but pulling it off while fighting a significant gravity well would take some major fine tuning of the system. What scared her most, however, was what happened if they succeeded but lost containment of the beam while launching an armed nuke.