The display played it back in slow motion. The dilaceration cannons fired perfectly – all nine of them, straight through the Timelance. It should have been sliced ten ways. Why wasn’t it? “Replay slower,” I said, and the display showed the lasers firing again, right through the ship. “Slower! Like a million times slower! Focus in on just one laser. Jesus.” The display was now focused so near to the Timelance that I could see the familiar, sinewed patternization I’d come to know from being inside it. “Play.”

This time, when the laser cut through, it was the skin of the ship that moved first. It anticipated the weapon, collapsing in on either side of the path of the incoming laser, creating a channel through which it traveled. A nanosecond later, the rift closed, showing no evidence it had ever been there. I didn’t have to look at the other eight lasers to know it would show me the same thing.

“Son of a bitch,” I sighed, slumping down into the chair.

Blinding lights appeared on the Scythin ship’s outer ring. I didn’t know, but I knew. I was about to get smoked. I stood, puffed up my chest, and yelled at the display, “BRING IT ON, YOU WINDCHIME PLAYING MOTHERFU–”

Twin sickles of light pulsed out from the Timelance. The Silent Child only shuddered. I wasn’t dead. Had they fired a stun gun? An electromagnetic pulse? A warning shot?

Emergency icons and status reports filled the displays. “What happened?” I asked. As if in answer, a simple animation appeared on the display, showing the outline of the Child. Then it showed the wings separating from the body and floating away. “The wings are off?”

YES.

The engines dropped to zero. Made sense – they were in the wings. Auxiliary power came on, but it was the bare minimum. Lights and life support, best I could tell. Gravity systems failed. Amongst the warnings were those showing steam lines venting into space, and the ship began to tumble as a result. I held the captain’s chair as long as I could, but the ship’s multiaxial rotation sped up and I flew out of it.

They’d only maimed the ship. They meant to board, or to take the piece of the ship containing me with them.

Disoriented, I flew about the deck, sliding across the floor, then rolling up the walls and ceiling. I smashed a display with my ass, then rag-dolled the console before shooting across open air and whacking Aptat’s carapace vault. I wrapped my arms over my head as I proceeded back along the wall and floor. One solid hit to the head would kill me. I couldn’t die while I still knew where the Chime was – and more importantly, the identity of the person who was going to find it: Patton.