Caledonia raised the receiver. Her mouth went dry and she swallowed hard, suddenly unsure. Would anyone be listening? Would anyone respond? Instinctively, she slipped a hand inside her pocket, finding the garnet Hesperus had given her. She pressed her thumb to the smooth spot where he’d worried his own thumb. Knowing that even the Sly King of Cloudbreak had needed reassurance from time to time bolstered her and she licked her lips.

“This is Caledonia Styx, commander of the Cloudbreak Fleet. Many of you have heard of the recent attack on our city. We were forced to flee, but many survived, and we are still fighting against the legacy of the Father, against Fiveson Lir and all he represents. We have joined with Fiveson Tassos at the Net, and I am asking that any ready and willing crew join us here.” As she spoke, she imagined how that news would land. She imagined fear and mistrust and hope colliding like an explosive star. “You have no reason to trust Tassos, but I am asking you to trust me. Sail to the eastern edge of the Bone Mouth and my people will be there to meet you.”

She released the receiver and turned to Tassos. “How often can you loop that message?”

“As often as you want,” he answered, nodding to the Bullet stationed by the comm, who held a small speaker up to one ear and set to work.

“How far can the signal travel?” Pisces asked. Their own shipboard radios were limited to a range of ten miles, but Hesperus’s comm had been much more powerful. “Can it reach Cloudbreak?”

Caledonia caught the slender flame of hope in Pisces’s eyes and felt it kindle quietly in her own chest. A single name whispered there: Amina.

“On a clear day,” Cepheus answered, stepping closer to Pisces.

Pisces nodded, hiding her emotion by clearing her throat.

“Good?” Tassos was growing irritated. “Now, what in the deepest hell is the rest of your plan?”

Caledonia gestured for them to follow her back into the bowels of the megaship. She said, “We cannot defeat Lir ship to ship, so we’ll have to go about this another way.”

“What way is that?” Tassos asked, falling into step at her side.

“We’re going to take control of those gun towers.”

“But how will we get to them?” Cepheus asked, keeping pace at their heels with Pisces at her side. “You’ve already said we can’t go ship to ship, and the only way to reach them is through the harbor.”

“That isn’t exactly true.” Caledonia turned down a broad hallway, hoping she was leading them in the right direction. “There’s more than one way inside the Holster.”

“You want to flank them? Over land?” Tassos asked, incredulous, as they reached the chamber where the others waited.