That mad scramble when each instantaneous slice of time turned into an eternity, and yet, somehow, with all those terrifying eternities strung together, there still wouldn’t be enough time to go around.

Misrem laughed.

A good fight made her so philosophical.

“Navarch, we’re scanning something . . . odd,” the scanner tech said.

That was not what she wanted to hear right before a fight with an already decidedly odd enemy.

“Define ‘odd.’”

“I am not sure,” he admitted. “Perhaps nothing, but there is something occasionally eclipsing the starfield.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. We cannot get a parallax vector . . . It may be a very small object, quite close, or a very large one outside the system . . . I think it is close, however.”

Misrem strode over. “Show me. And why do you think it’s close?”

“It is blocking different stars too quickly,” he said. “If it is very far, it must be moving very fast.”

She watched the scanners as a star blinked out, then another, and the first came back as this . . . shadow and moved across the field.

“There’s something out there. Very well,” she said. “Go to active scans and find it.”

“As you command. Active scans engaging.”

►►►

AEV Hood

► The alarms from the sudden scanner hit would have startled Ian right out of his seat if he hadn’t been solidly strapped into place.

“We’ve been spotted!”

“Flush the tubes!” he ordered. “Evasive action! Warp space, all flank!”

“Torpedoes away!” Weps called.

“Drive warp coming up; thirty seconds to full warp!”

“All thrusters! Get us moving now!” Ian snapped as the Hood started coming to life around him, systems all lighting up as they were brought from low power settings to full combat levels. “Lasers and HVMs free! Fire as we bear, all weapons!”

“Aye aye, Skipper,” Weps called. “All systems live, targeting solution locked. HVMs away!”

The Hood shuddered as the high-velocity missile banks were flushed, and Ian could more feel than hear the whine-click of laser capacitors discharging furiously.

The forces at his command didn’t have the power needed to sweep space wildly the way the enemy ships did, but they could put some serious wattage downrange. If they could just get a good bounce off the enemy armor with their hyperspectral systems, they’d be able to make the most of what they had.

“Even armor,” he said, eyes on the clock and the range. They had only seconds left now before a laser strike could reach them. “Go to white knight.”

►►►

IBC Shion Thon, Flagship, Third Reconnaissance Squadron

► The profile of the small ship in her sights was so far from what she’d expected that Misrem uncharacteristically hesitated from sheer surprise. That instant of indecision allowed the enemy captain to act before she did.

“They’ve fired on us . . . I think?” Her scanner tech didn’t sound convinced.

“What do you mean, you think?” Misrem demanded, but before she could get an answer, another alarm went off.