Dropping down the gravity well of a star was, of course, the easy part, even if the competing gravity fields of the star and planets contraindicated warping past light-speed. Such a move wasn’t strictly impossible, of course. Unlike the transition drive, space warps could be reliably maintained within competing fields, but the risk of catastrophic accident made it generally unwise to go much above three-quarters of light-speed. Doing so would also massively increase hull stress, leading to far fewer space hours before a complete refit was required, and not even the Priminae were so casual about those costs. So barring emergency—real emergencies—travel within a star system was still done the slow way.

So it took them half a day to fall to Ranquil and settle easily into orbit.

►►►

Priminae Capital, Ranquil

► Admiral Rael Tanner examined the imagery on the large displays that were now showing the new arrival in orbit of Ranquil. The Odysseus was always a welcome arrival in his opinion, but from what he’d been told, it had supposedly been on a simple reconnaissance mission. So why was the big vessel streaming atmosphere?

“Analyze the damage,” he ordered. “That burn pattern is . . . familiar.”

“Laser damage, Admiral,” the technician on duty responded. “It’s difficult to calculate precisely the extent of the damages, given the new armor on the Odysseus, but I believe that the blast is significantly more powerful than our own shipboard weapons.”

Tanner stared for a moment. “Nothing in our records has more power than one of the new Heroic Class ships.”

“That damage says otherwise, Admiral.”

Tanner grimaced, but didn’t say anything else. He and Captain Weston were going to be engaged in a long conversation very soon.

“I expect the captain will request a repair slot,” he said finally. “Reserve one for them—priority slot.”

“Yes Admiral.”

Tanner shook his head, getting up from his console. “I’ll be up top. Contact me by mobile if anything comes up.”

“Yes Admiral.”

►►►

► “Captain Weston.”

Eric nodded without smiling as he descended the ramp from the shuttle. His expression was more distant than normal from Tanner’s experience.

“Admiral,” he said, stepping clear of the loading path and stopping to take a deep breath of fresh air.

“I saw on our monitors that you encountered some trouble,” Tanner said. “Those burns did not look like Drasin beams.”

“They weren’t Drasin,” Eric said, shaking his head.

“Then who?”

Tanner felt himself suddenly pinned by a stony stare unlike anything he’d experienced with the generally charismatic officer.

“I very much want to know that myself,” Eric said steadily. “It was the same configuration vessel you were flying when the Odyssey first arrived in Ranquil, Admiral. So I very much want to know, who the hell is the Empire, and what do they have to do with the Priminae?”

Tanner frowned. “I don’t know what you’re speaking of, Captain. Are you sure they used our cruiser design?”