“Oran,” she repeated in a desperate attempt to trick her mind into finding an answer when all she wanted to do was ask her command crew for options.

The skin around his eyes tightened and he opened his mouth to speak when there was a pounding at the door.

“Captain!” Pine’s voice filled the silence behind the pounding. “We’ve got news.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

By the time Caledonia and Oran arrived in the observatory, the rest of the command crew and Hesperus were already gathered.

It was late. The curtains were pulled against the chilly night air and a fire had been set in the low-lying fire pit. Kae pressed a cup of hot teaco into Caledonia’s hand as she entered. Around the room her crew bore signs of having been roused from sleep. All except for Amina and Hime, who were bundled as though they’d just returned from town. And Nettle, who bounced on her toes and looked like she was physically restraining herself from speaking.

“Captain’s on deck,” Pine announced, fixing Oran with a dead-eyed stare.

The room snapped to attention, heads swiveling toward the sight of their leader. Caledonia took one of the seats near the fire, directly across from Amina and Hime.

“Captain,” Amina said with a sharp nod. “We have a problem.”

Behind Amina, Hesperus glowered at everyone. His jaw was clenched and he bristled with energy, suggesting that the problem was something more of an imminent threat.

“I’m listening,” Caledonia said, setting her teaco aside.

“A rogue ship came in after sundown,” Amina began. “They went through all the usual channels: the ship was searched before moving into port, the crew questioned, everything seemed in order. Hime and I were doing rounds on the dock when they were assigned a berth and began to unload their cargo.” Here she leaned forward, elbows pressed to knees, expression stony. “Their cargo included everything they needed to build a pulse bomb.”

Pulse bombs weren’t explosive in the way of mag bombs, missiles, or even star blossoms. They weren’t incendiary, they were acoustic, made for shaking apart the foundations of buildings or shearing off the side of a cliff.

“Why wasn’t it caught immediately?” Pisces demanded. “Everyone assigned to intake is supposed to know what they’re looking for.”

“They do,” Tin said, rushing to defend the teams she worked so hard to organize. “They all do.”

“But pulse bombs haven’t been used in ages,” Oran supplied. “Their pieces look practically harmless in isolation and Aric stopped their production because they’re useless at sea.”

“Not so useless if your target is basically a mountain,” Pine shot back.

“Cloudbreak,” Hesperus growled. “My city is their target.”