The silence that followed drew out until Aymes finally had to break it himself. “Well?”

His tactical officer pushed back from the station, still staring in puzzlement at the display.

“Estimates are one in eight of expectations, sir.”

“What?” Aymes stepped forward, leaning over the man and staring at the details himself. “How is that possible? Even Oather ceramics aren’t that durable.”

“I do not know, Captain. It doesn’t fit any of our projections.”

Aymes could see that much, but like his officer, he couldn’t see any explanations. The puzzle this ship represented was growing ever larger, and frankly, this encounter was becoming more than an irritation and was well on its way to full-fledged worry.

“Continue firing, standard spread,” he ordered. “Continue as we pass. What is the deceleration rate?”

“Captain?”

“At what rate are they slowing, Altern?” Aymes asked.

“They . . . they’re not.”

“What?” Aymes demanded, turning to focus closely on the scanner station.

He checked the data on the scanner display himself and started cursing under his breath.

“Captain?” The man standing at the station pulled back from him.

“They’re intending to bypass us and go directly to the planet.” Aymes swore. “That small craft was clearly more important than I suspected.”

He considered his deduction for a moment, then set his features. “Reverse power. Get me a solution to intercept the enemy vessel with a zero-point acceleration.”

►►►

AEV Odysseus

► “Target has flipped acceleration, Captain. They’re aiming for a zero-zero intercept . . .” Sams paused, running the calculations, but Eric beat him to it.

“In the planet’s orbit, right?” he said.

Sams looked down, then back at the captain with a surprised look. “Yes sir. How . . . ?”

“Not hard to work out, Ensign,” Eric answered. “We’ll have to adjust our course in orbit. That’ll delay us enough for them to catch up.”

“Yes sir. Sorry sir.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’ll learn. Experience can usually get us close enough long before computers arrive at the exact right answer.”

“Yes sir.”

“Do we have a firing solution yet?” Eric asked, looking to the tactical station.

“Yes sir. Passive lock, ninety percent solid.”

Eric blinked, somewhat bemused. A 90 percent solid lock meant that the enemy ship wasn’t even trying to evade the Odysseus. He supposed that he shouldn’t be surprised, given how the fighting between the Drasin and the Priminae had shaped up.

“Fire as we pass,” Eric ordered. “I want maximum time on target with fully focused and adapted lasers.”

“Aye aye, Captain.”

As the light-seconds counted down, with the two ships barreling past one another, Eric waited until the last possible moment before issuing the order to fire.

At less than five light-seconds, he spoke. “Fire.”