Steph half turned, glancing back to where the captain was standing, talking quietly with the new XO. He hadn’t interacted much with Miram since she’d come on board, but the scuttlebutt was that she was a bit of a hard-ass. He didn’t want to know how she could be any more of one than Roberts had been. The former Army ranger hadn’t quite had OCD, but Roberts had taken attention to detail to levels Steph had matched only while checking his Archangel.

Eric caught his eye, so Steph lifted his chin in response before turning back to his job. He’d check in with his friend later, when they both had some time.

►►►

IBC (Imperial Battle Cruiser) Piar Cohn, Imperial Space

► Captain Aymes looked over the dark metal burnish that glinted from the floors of his command and nodded, satisfied.

The Piar Cohn was ready for service, and Aymes already had mission orders direct from Imperial Command.

Nothing could be better.

“Helm, you may bring us clear of the docks.”

“Permission received, engines powering, Captain,” the helmsman confirmed firmly. “Locks clear. Breaking clear of dock controls.”

The big ship didn’t rumble. Any vibration down to those on the nanoscale would be absorbed by the core of the Cohn, but Aymes felt a distant sense of movement just the same. Not everyone could, but he was one of the few who tested high enough to have a real spatial sense of movement even aboard one of the larger ships of the Imperial Fleet.

Out beyond the armored metal of the Cohn’s hull, the massive structure of the docks appeared to move away as the ship’s engines began the laboriously slow task of launching into near space.

A few minutes later, the helmsman confirmed their launch. “Docks cleared, my captain.”

“Very good. You have permission to begin ascent from the stellar well. Course to follow,” Aymes said, tapping a few commands into the computer control to unlock his orders and send the course over to the navigation and helm sector.

“Permission received,” the helmsman said before glancing down. “Courses received. Permission to power main drive?”

“Denied. Remain on secondaries until we clear planetary space.”

Honestly, Aymes would have liked to have skipped the long, never-ending climb out of the control of the local world, but they were in the Imperial Dockyards, not some backward planet under Imperial management. Aymes did not want some pampered prince gunning for his head because the gravity drives dislodged a relay responsible for the socialite’s favorite entertainment.

“Denied, yes, Captain. ETA to the open space . . . thirty tenth cycles.”

“Very well. Go to main drives as soon as we clear planetary space.”

“Permission received, only when clear of planetary space. Yes Captain.”

“First,” Aymes said, “you have temporary command.”

►►►