Rosewood felt the half-inch drop to the deck of the transporter pad as the beam faded, its light and the sight of the burning skies of Innes leaving him blinded in the gloom of the Blackbird’s transporter room. Which meant he didn’t see it coming when Cassidy grabbed him and slammed him into the bulkhead.

‘What the hell do you think you were doing?’

The Rooks scrabbled, Aryn shouting in surprise, Nallera going to pull Cassidy’s shoulder, but the big man’s grip was iron tight. Rosewood struggled, pushing against the arm pinning him by his chest into the wall, but to no avail.

‘I was – they were going to kill them -’

‘You almost got us all killed!’ Cassidy snarled, face rammed into his.

‘You need to stop,’ wheedled Aryn.

‘What’s the point of us if we don’t -’

‘Boss!’ Nallera flailed ineffectively.

‘Those soldiers nearly fired on that entire crowd! You nearly compromised the entire fucking mission to cripple the comms and liberate this world! Thousands of officers in the skies right now -’

‘We don’t have time for this!’ Q’ira’s near-hysterical voice cut through the chaos, high-pitched and fast. Somehow, it was enough to make Cassidy stop, make his grip on Rosewood loosen enough he could shove himself free, and eyes turned on the slender Orion woman. Her chest was heaving, her eyes wide. ‘Yes, he nearly got us all killed, but we’re back aboard now and I don’t fancy getting blown up because we were too busy bickering?’

Perhaps it would have been enough to stop Cassidy. The shuddering of the deck at the impact of weapons fire on Blackbird’s hull definitely did. His lip curled, and now he pushed Rosewood away. ‘Bridge,’ he snapped.

Q’ira wasn’t wrong, but it turned out she wasn’t exactly right, either, because they arrived on the Blackbird’s bridge to find Ranicus in perfect control. She stood behind the command chair, hand on the back of it like it wasn’t hers, her voice low and clipped as she gave orders.

‘Hard to starboard, Mister Yang. Get us under the spine of the orbital grid, now.’

Behind the tactical display blazing a furious red, orbital platforms of Proxima II swung through the canopy view, making distant lights of weapons fire in space blaze sharp lines in front of Rosewood’s eyes. The deck surged beneath them as the inertial dampeners fought the manoeuvre, and Rosewood had to grab Q’ira so she didn’t fall. His heartbeat was already thunderous in his chest, but in the pitched battle of Proxima they’d just entered, suddenly he, his body, his thoughts, felt very small.

Yang pulled the Blackbird into a tight dive, and through the canopy, a pair of Manasa-class Vaadwaur escorts swept above, bristling with weapons, still firing blindly into the swirling chaos over Proxima II.

‘We’ve lost them,’ Yang confirmed a moment later. Piloting them through the catapult, he’d sounded exhilarated. Now, there was a quaver of nerves and adrenaline. ‘They’re heading for the Sirius.’

‘Let them take on someone their own size,’ Ranicus mused, even if Sirius was three times bigger. At last, she turned back to the soot-stained and battle-worn Rooks, her gaze level. ‘Welcome back.’

Jakorr turned from Tactical, his eyes more accusing. ‘What did you do? We were only to detonate the spire if we lost Innes -’

‘Mission changed,’ Cassidy said coolly. ‘That’s the thing about fieldwork, Lieutenant; no plan survives contact with the enemy.’

‘It means we’re exposed in the middle of a system-wide battle!’

Ranicus shot him a look. ‘We have it, Lieutenant. We’re a small scout, and they have bigger threats to worry about.’ She turned to Cassidy. ‘Recommend that if we’re not going to stay out of harm’s way, we contact the Alhabor and join up with them and the fighters.’

Rosewood perked up. ‘Shep’s running point on smallcraft? She’s good, Cassidy, we should -’

‘Contact Harrian on the Sirius,’ Cassidy said instead. ‘See what he’s got to say.’

But when Falaris turned, it wasn’t with the Sirius on her console display. ‘Commander, I’ve got something. I’ve been monitoring Drehm’s comms – I can’t patch in, but he’s been chatty enough across the system I can identify his encryption protocols. He just sent a short message to a shuttle in orbit, and the shuttle’s power systems then spiked. Then all comms activity from his surface location went dead.’

Aryn took a step towards the main display as Falaris pinged the shuttle. ‘He beamed up.’

‘And I have his vector.’

Rosewood watched as the small marker pinged away from the planet’s upper atmosphere, hugging a trajectory toward the system’s edge. Two escort fighters orbited in tight formation around the shuttle on its flight path out.

‘He’s making a run for it,’ Cassidy breathed.

‘And he’s right there,’ confirmed Falaris.

No longer did Rosewood feel small, even as the stars burned around them. The blaze in his lungs was fiercer. ‘We’ve got to -’

‘Got?’ Cassidy rounded on him with a snarl. ‘You don’t tell anyone what we’ve “got” to do right now, kid. You don’t have suggestions, opinions, or thoughts right fucking now!’ Still, when he turned back to the front, his gaze was level. ‘Intercept course, Yang. Let’s finish this.’

‘Cutting a path through one of the old refinery stations orbiting the second moon!’ Yang called out. ‘Shaves a few thousand kilometres off our path and maybe he loses us on sensors.’

‘Ranicus,’ Cassidy continued sharply. ‘Notify Sirius we have the overseer of Vaadwaur’s Proxima operations in our sights and are in pursuit, and we could do with backup.’

Rosewood slunk to the back of the bridge. His fists were clenched with frustration, but when the Blackbird surged again under Yang’s piloting, he had to reach to grab a railing to keep his feet. Through the canopy, fire and light flared around them as Vaadwaur and Starfleet ships clashed in the void. If sound could travel through space, it would be like flying through a thunderstorm.

Then he spotted Q’ira, clutching the door-frame, her eyes huge. He leaned in.

‘You ever been in a battle before?’

She shook her head, mute for a moment before she swallowed. ‘You?’

‘Izar. Year ago, now.’ Izar had been devastating, but to compare that battle to this was like comparing a housecat to a Kryonian tiger. ‘Got through that one, too.’

‘Yeah?’ Now her eyes turned on him, more accusing. ‘Were you flying something this little?’

He forced a scoff. ‘Smaller.’

It wasn’t a lie. It was just the smaller ship had been the Defiant-class USS Independence, with firepower and armour magnitudes greater than the stealth and recon ship Blackbird could muster.

The ship shuddered as on the forward display, a Manasa class on the Scylla’s wing exploded in a starburst of energy. As the Scylla rolled to veer away, towards its next target, another Vaadwaur escort, its hull scored with streaks of black across its violet hues, loomed to port.

‘Do they see us?’ Q’ira near-shrieked.

‘We’re not their biggest problem!’ Cassidy barked, voice steadying.

‘Confirm that!’ called Jakorr. ‘Alhabor’s bearing down on them! We’re under the net!’

‘We still got eyes on this son-of-a-bitch?’

‘Confirmed!’ said Falaris. ‘Bearing two-one mark three-five. He’s got a pair of Pythus class fighters running escort.’

Aryn had taken the auxiliary station at the rear, as he so often did. His head snapped around. ‘We can’t take them in a fight.’

‘We can blow him out of the stars and run, or slow them all down enough someone gets to us. Any sign of backup?’ asked Cassidy.

‘Negative,’ said Ranicus, reading from an auxiliary station. ‘All ships are heavily engaged and – Commander.’

They’d torn away from Proxima II, away from the blazing firefight as Sirius and Scylla ripped out the heart of the Vaadwaur defence forces. Drehm’s shuttle was bursting away from the inner system, needing to get much, much further from the star itself if it was to safely get to warp. A glance at the sensors confirmed to Rosewood what she was saying: every ship of Sirius Squadron was heavily engaged.

‘Liberty took a beating from a battlecruiser to cover the Memphis. Endeavour had to redeploy to cover them, but she’s still tied up with that Astika. Liberty reported they were repelling Vaadwaur boarders and were fighting back,’ Ranicus explained, scanning her sensor feed, voice clipped and tight. ‘They’ve been requesting assistance throughout. And we just lost contact with the bridge.’

Cassidy turned. From behind, in the dim lighting of the bridge, the blazing display of the tactical feed on the main screen silhouetted him in hues of crimson and blue, every friend or foe a flare against his craggy features.

After a beat, he said, ‘Where the fuck is the Ranger? They were supposed to cover them.’

‘Tied up,’ said Ranicus with only the slightest gleam of judgement.

‘Drehm’s shuttle is past the thick of the fighting,’ reported Falaris, her quiet voice filling the silence. ‘They’re picking up speed. Should be able to go to warp inside six minutes.’

Rosewood swallowed, but it didn’t defeat the tension in his chest. Despite Cassidy’s instructions, he spoke. ‘We’re faster, still.’

Ranicus watched Cassidy for a moment more. ‘Orders, Commander?’

Then Cassidy rounded on the helm. ‘Bring us about, Yang. We’re alive today because of the Liberty. That’s a debt we repay.’

Rosewood took a sharp step forward. ‘Drehm – he’s a ranking officer, the intelligence he has -’

‘You can indulge your revenge fantasies another day, kid,’ Cassidy sneered, and gripped the command chair tightly as the Blackbird veered hard to starboard under Yang’s controls, away from the Vaadwaur leader’s shuttle. ‘Liberty’s dying. Drehm can wait his turn.’