In the CIC, Mac hunched over his console, "All good?" he asked.

"They're about as ready as they can be. I glanced to Lev. "The rest of the ship?"

"About as ready as they can be," he echoed.

"Course plotted?"

"Twelve minutes ahead there's a concentration of metallic asteroids," Mac didn't look up. "I believe the mineral interference should disrupt the enemy ships comms."

"Can you maintain course through that section?" I asked.

He did look up and I saw just the tiniest amount of uncertainty flicker across his eyes, he did however nod.

"If I time the approach correctly and we can maintain formation integrity," he replied. "Derek will need to follow our lead precisely. Any deviation will result in collision."

I cringed. "How is he feeling? His crew?"

"You should ask him, he'd benefit from your support," Lev and Mac said in unison.

"Fleet wide comms then," I said and waited for Lia's confirmation nod. "Derek status?"

"Manta-S we're secured for high-acceleration. We are ready to follow your lead."

With a flick of his hand, Mac updated the tactical display one final time. "Pursuit force status, twelve minutes from our current position. Their formation's tightening, but they're struggling with larger sections of the asteroids. That will give us a little more time."

"How much more time?"

"We'll have a fifteen minute gap to reach open space before our engines burn out completely."

I looked at my monitors at the people who'd become more than crew to me, Torres stood at the door with her marines also either side.

In forty-five minutes, we'd either be free or dead. There was no middle ground.

"All stations, prepare for emergency burn. Pavel, Las—monitor engine stress and report any anomalies immediately."

"Understood, Captain," Pavel replied. "Nanite integration holding steady. Ready for emergency burn."

"Captain," Lev interrupted. "Ranger just altered course. New ETA, six minutes."

Six minutes. He was fast, far too fucking fast. "Time until we can safely initiate emergency burn?"

"Ninety seconds," Las replied.

Those ninety seconds were an eternity, till I called. "Chief, initiate burn."

The acceleration was insane, and the whole ship shook beneath us.

"Chief," I said.

"Engine output at seventy percent and climbing," Las reported. "The nanite matrix is holding. Temperature's rising but within acceptable parameters."

Asteroids rushed past at mind splitting velocity. Mac's concentration was also out of this world. I watched in awe. His hands moved so fast. Each course correction executed with split-second timing.

"Derek, status?" I managed to ask.

"With you, Faulkner. Manta-S holding formation." Even Derek sounded strained. "This is the craziest thing I've ever done, and I used to run blockades for a living."

"Captain," Lia said. "Ranger's ships are accelerating to match our velocity."

"How long until they're in extraction range?"

"At current speeds—fourteen minutes."

"Engine output at eighty-five percent," Las reported. "We're almost past safe acceleration."

Torres strapped in beside Lev's station, had one hand braced against the bulkhead, her eyes scanning the CIC crew just like I was. Her two marines stationed near the entrance-maintained eye contact with her. I doubted anyone was getting in here soon, but their commitment to duty was duly noted.

"First asteroid concentration zone in ten seconds," Mac announced. "High metallic content. This is going to get rough."

We dove into the asteroid cluster, and Mac weaved us between massive chunks of iron and nickel with nothing but sheer skill, or maybe it was luck.

<<Luck and skill,>> Lia said.

"Electromagnetic field on the right is too strong," Lia warned.

"I've got this," Mac said. "Trust me."

But the sweat was dripping from his forehead, about to run into his eyes. I unbuckled and was up in a second.

He didn't blink as I came in behind him to wipe his brow. "And I've got you," I whispered.

The ship shuddered even more as we passed within meters, our velocity making every course correction a gamble. I almost fell over, just about catching myself.

"Their formation is breaking apart," Lev reported, studying tactical displays.

"Rangers' network coordination is degrading with the interference."

"Good," I said.

But even as he spoke, I could see them adapting. They weren't following our exact path, instead they were anticipating our trajectory.

"They're predicting our route instead of chasing us."

"Confirmed," Lia replied.

"Engine output at ninety percent," Las reported. "We're at maximum capacity. Thermal stress is critical."

"Time?" I asked.

"Twenty-two minutes of burn remaining," Lia replied.

"Molecular stress showing in engine three's manifold, we're pushing it."

"Can you compensate?"

"I'm trying. Redistributing thermal load to engines one and two, but we're pushing them harder to maintain similar output."

The CIC was vibrating so hard around me I thought we're split apart. Every system screamed in protest. The green lights on my screens turning orange, then red.

"Peyton," Las said.

"We can't slow, keep that burn going."

"Captain, Ranger has repositioned. They're setting up an ambush pattern at the second asteroid concentration."

"We… I can't," Mac was not only flying us now he was trying to get us another exit plan.

"Change course," I ordered.

He frowned, but then swung us wide, I didn't think she could move like this, but she was, straining and complaining the whole way.

"Proximity alert. Firing aft thrusters." She looked at Mac, and said. "Take us through the densest section of that belt."

Mac didn't question her, he looked at me. "Do it." I confirmed. In that split second I'd decided to trust them both, compromised or not Lia's self-preservation was just as strong as ours.

Mac forced the Faulkner to bank again and we dove toward asteroid formations so dense it looked like a solid wall.

I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn't. I had to see this through. I had to show every person who watched that we were a solid team.

Trust was everything.

Mac threaded us through gaps barely wider than our hull, yet he never flinched, not once.

"Engine's one and two showing critical stress levels," Las reported. "The Nanite matrix is fracturing."

"How long?"

"Long enough," Las said. "Hopefully, long enough."

I focused on the engineering feeds, the beautiful molecular structures Ashley's nanites had created were breaking apart.

"Ranger is still adjusting course to intercept," Lev called out. "Two vessels breaking formation to flank us."

"Captain," Lia's said. "Ranger's ship is moving into potential scanning range."

"Can we get around him?"

Mac was shaking his head.

"ETA to extraction attempt, ten seconds."

"Sarah?" I asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "I—we've done everything we can bar…." She paused for only a second. I glanced to Lia whose face was pale, how she echoed my feelings I could never fully understand. "Torres," Dr. Martinez said, "Initiate code b720."

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As I opened my mouth to ask, Torres and her marines did the unexpected. One of them moved to stand before Mac, and one blocked my view, Torres stood before Lev.

"What are you doing?"

"Lia," Dr. Martinez said. "Take the ship."

"I have this ship, Doctor."

"Engine three output dropping," Las announced. "Thirty percent and falling. Engines one and two are also dropping fast. Captain we're done."

Our acceleration decreased and the ship lurched. "Ranger is closing the gap"

"Seventy seconds," Lev reported. "Captain, if they get a lock on us again—"

"I know." Everyone in the CIC knew it too.

"We're out of time," Lia warned. "They're initiating preliminary targeting protocols."

Torres's hand moved to her belt, and I saw Thompson and Stevens do the same. "We've got you."

Thompson smiled at me, then jabbed a needle into my arm. "What is this?" I asked again.

<<They never took their nites,>> Lia confirmed. "They just gave them to you."

"No," I said. "No, no no. That's not right." The pressure hit without warning. It was flooded my veins. There wasn't any physical pain—but the sensation of something pulling at the edges of my consciousness was now gone.

The marine in front of me dropped like a sack of potatoes, clutching at his head.

Torres screamed, and also fell to the deck.

"Torres," Lev's was up and kneeling before her. "Fight it Torres."

I watched through blurred vision. Torres put one hand on Lev's shoulder and he did the same for her.

"Scanning pressure increasing." Dr. Martinez said.

"Engine one complete shutdown," Las announced. "Maximum burn time reduced to eight minutes."

Torres fell backwards, her face flushed, bright red. "Captain..."

"Can you counter it?" I asked Lia desperately.

"They're using focused extraction protocols. Targeting specific individuals rather than broad scanning. How did they know? I can't do anything else, but—

Lev's hands gripped his console, knuckles white. "I can feel it. They're not just scanning—they're trying to pull, even me."

The sensation changed. This time there was pain—the feeling my thoughts were being tugged away from my body.

Lev let out a scream followed by Mac, I struggled, but I didn't. Instead, I said. "Lia, remember what we said."

"I remember," she whispered as if she were right beside me. "Faulkner," her voice rang clear. "Self-destruct sequence initiated. Five minutes."

Torres moved directly behind Lev, both hands on his shoulders now. "Hold on, Chief."

"Lia," Mac called, "Ship is mine."

He wrestled the Faulkner from her, and I could see why. "New trajectory," he said. "Manta-S, follow me."

"We're not leaving your side." Derek replied.

"Mac, you're crazy, we can't—"

That gap was tighter than tight. Nothing was that small. Except he was flying straight for it.

<<They're achieving partial transfer,>> Lia warned. <<If they maintain scanning contact for another thirty seconds, there's nothing we can do.>>

"Why?" Lev asked. "Why?"

"With respect, Chief—you are our priority." Torres held onto Lev with everything she had, but blood was running freely down from her nose and ears now. Thompson on the floor before me I'd not noticed had stopped thrashing ages ago.

"They won't get thirty seconds. Ten seconds to clear," Mac called out, "Manta-S hold this line, do not deviate."

Lev tried to get out of his seat. "Torres—"

"Make all of this mean something, Chief."

Mac was not threading the eye of a needle, he was doing much worse, much fucking worse.

Twenty seconds.

As the rock before us loomed in my viewer this time I closed my eyes.

Before we hit the asteroid, I opened my eyes, just long enough to see Torres's entire body go rigid. Her face contorted, and her legs gave out. She collapsed, her body convulsing. There was nothing anyone of us could do. This wasn't an enemy you could shoot or a wound you could treat.

"Ten seconds to clear," Mac's voice cracked.

Lev and I were both frozen, we could do nothing but watch our friend die in the most horrible way possible.

Lia announced quietly. "Commander Torres's neural patterns are gone. Consciousness transfer complete,"

The body on the deck still breathed. She still had a heartbeat, but there was nothing behind her eyes. Torres was gone. Not dead in the conventional sense, but extracted, uploaded, integrated into the composite intelligence that hunted us. Ranger.

"Clear," Mac bellowed. But it was too late for some of us. We might have survived, but….

"Ship-wide comms,", I tapped my controls, my shaking fingers missing the code combination. "Medical to CIC," I said. "Commander Torres's and her marines need immediate attention."

"Understood, Captain," Dr. Martinez replied quietly. "We're on our way."

"All stations," I said quietly. "Continue emergency protocols. We don't let their sacrifice be for nothing."

The Faulkner held on, as long as she could, but twenty minutes later Las commed through. "Engines are gone," he reported, pure exhaustion in his voice. "We're coasting on momentum alone."

I checked our speed. Mac's impossible flying had worked, we had enough momentum to drift toward the outer edge of the asteroid field. But after that, we'd be in open space with nothing.

"Derek?"

"Manta-S engines also offline. We're with you, Captain. To the very end."

Lev sat at his station, his hands moving across his displays but he hadn't spoken since… since Torres died right in front of him.

"Lev," I said quietly.

No answer.

"Chief," I said with more command. "We need you. I need you."

"I'm here," he replied without looking up.

"Lev." I said.

"Pursuit ships are maintaining tracking distance. They're not attempting that gap."

Because they were a lot bigger than us, they'd never make it. That much was clear.

"How long until we drift clear of the asteroid field?" I asked.

"Thirty-eight minutes on current trajectory," Mac replied.

Thirty-eight minutes of drifting helplessly. Then what?

<<Captain,>> Lia said. <<Long range sensors are detecting faint quantum signatures. Coalition vessel configurations. Multiple ships.>>

My heart leaped and I sat up. I did not however voice it loud, not yet. I needed it to be true before I told them. <<Sorrel?>>

<<Analyzing...>> The wait was going to break me. <<Yes. It's Captain Crai's convoy. But they're still over an hour away, and they're engaged with something.>>

<<Engaged?>>

<<Energy weapons fire. Multiple targets. Our rescue convoy is under attack.>>

Of course it was. "On screen," I ordered.

<<But…>>

"On main screen please Lia."

She pulled up the sensor data, all eyes on what was transpiring in neon flashes in the distance.

I tapped for ship-wide comms. "Faulkner," I announced. "Our rescue convoy is under attack."

"Sorrel?" Lev's hands stilled on his console, and he looked up.

"Maintain emergency power conservation and keep comms open, await further instructions."

"Lia," Mac said. "Do whatever you can but get us through to that convoy."

"On it."

While we waited for Lia to do something, anything Dr. Martinez arrived.

She went straight to Torres, Lev was back in his station, but he flinched as Martinez turned her over.

"Her body is still alive," Martinez confirmed and looked to her collegues checking on the other two marines which had fallen.

"Also alive," the both of them confirmed.

"But they're not there, right?" Lev asked, his voice more than shakey.

Martinez shook her head. "There's nothing of them left, no."

"What are you going to do?" I asked and moved to stand with her, my hand on Lev's shoulder for support. Him or me I wasn't so sure.

"We can't keep them alive," Martinez said and lowered her head. "They each made their decisions when they joined up, donating to medical science, but we just don't have the space."

Lev was about to launch himself out of his chair, but I kept my hand there tight, my grip firm. "If we put them…" Fuck I couldn't say it.

"The engines are the best option," Lia came in beside me, her solid form and her private one wrapped me in a hug. "There will be nothing remaining and its clean out of the air conduits."

"You'll burn them? Alive?"

"They're not alive, not in the sense you think," Martinez said, but her words still reverberated around the CIC with horror.

"When?" I asked.

"We'll take them there now," she said and she nodded to her team, Katya, had tears in her eyes and the others were as pale and sick as I felt.

"Twenty-minutes," I said and dipped my head. "I'll hold a vigil for them in twenty minutes, ship wide."

"You can't be serious," Lev started.

But I leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Chief. Go with them."

He looked at me, and for a moment I saw the raw grief underneath his normal composure. "Captain, my station—"

"Your station will be here when you get back. Go. That's an order."

"We've got the CIC, Lev." Mac agreed with me. "You need to get checked out too."

"And you don't?" he spat back then lowered his head. "Sorry."

"Take the time you need."

Lev trudged behind the medical team, shoulders hung low. I wanted to go after him, to say something that would help, but there were no words for what we'd just witnessed, and they were under his command, they were his people first, our protectors second.

"Captain," Lia said. "Life support is holding at minimum power. But emergency batteries only have forty-three percent they're declining slowly."

"How long before we're in serious trouble?"

"Not long, six hours at current consumption rates." Her voice fell, "Maybe seven if we shut down non-essential systems."

We could shut some systems down, that wasn't a problem. But six hours. We'd either be rescued by then or we we'd be dead in space, likely forever.

Crunch time.

I sat back down and scanned over the ships damage reports.

Twenty minutes later, I was still looking at the same screen never processing any of it. Lia poked my shoulder. "They're ready in engineering."

I glanced to Mac. "We should…" He could only nod at me and we left to make a very solemn way down to into the belly of the ship.

We stepped into engineering, the heat still hit me in the face even though our engines were toast

The three bodies lay of our colleagues lay on gurneys beside the engine chamber. Torres in the center, her two marines flanking her. Their chests rose and fell with stupid regularity, their hearts still beat, this was wrong on so many levels, but…. They needed closure and so did we.

Lev stood at attention beside Torres' gurney, his face a mask, though Lia and I could see underneath it. Pavel and Las had positioned themselves by the engine access, waiting for my signal. The rest of the marines formed a semicircle around them, their heads bowed.

I'd never done this before. Never had to consign bodies, especially living bodies, to flame. I moved in to stand beside Lev, Mac on his other side.

The words stuck in my throat, but once I started, I found the voice I needed to give them the final sendoff they deserved. "Commander Torres," My voice broke. "Sergeant Thompson. Sergeant Stevens." I looked at their faces, making sure I remembered them. "They gave everything. Not just their lives, but their very selves. They sacrificed life so we could survive, so that we could get to Sigma-Seven."

Lev's jaw clenched, but he remained silent.

"Torres told me once that protecting her crew was her primary mission. That every marine knew the risks, accepted them, trained for them." I swallowed hard.

"It's true," Lev added. "She lived that mission to her last moment. When the extraction beam targeted me, she didn't hesitate. She stepped between me and that weapon knowing exactly what it would cost her."

Around the chamber, his marines wiped their eyes. Even Mac, did the same, his head bowed reflecting like we all were.

"Her marines followed her example. They knew what would happen. They did it anyway, protecting Commander Taves and myself."

I glanced at Lev. He was staring at Torres's face, his own expression carved from stone.

"We can't bring them back. We can't undo what was done to them. But we can make sure their sacrifice means something." I straightened my back my spine complaining. "We're going to survive this. We're going to reach Sigma-Seven. We're going to use Major Kuba's research to help her father, the Admiral. And when we do, it will be because these three gave us the chance."

Silence filled the CIC, and the engine chamber.

"Chief," I said quietly. "It's time."

Las moved to the controls, his hands shaking. Dr. Martinez stood beside him, tears in her eyes.

"Into the black, we go," my voice cracked but I spoke as clearly as I could. "With only the lights from our ancestors to guide us. We hold no fear through the darkness, feeling our way though it blinds us."

Lev's voice joined mine, strong and resolute. "When we can travel no further, and the light starts to fade..."

The medical team carefully moved the gurneys toward the chamber. Torres went in first, flanked by her marines.

"We will join the void," I finished, my throat tightening, my tears running free now, "with the love that you forever gave."

Las activated the engine chamber. Heat bloomed, controlled and contained. The bodies went in together. I turned away, unable to watch.

What seemed like an age later, the engines let out an almost imperceptible hiss, venting to space. "Dismissed," I said quietly. "Return to your stations."

Everyone filed out silently, leaving just Lev, Mac, and me.

"She saved my life," Lev said, his voice hollow.

"That's what they wanted," I replied. "What they chose, they saved all of us."

"It should have been me."

"They didn't give us a choice." Mac said.

"No." I gripped his shoulder. "She made sure it wasn't you. Don't dishonor that choice by wishing it away."

He nodded slowly, but the guilt remained etched in every line of his face.

"Captain," Lia said. "We have contact from the Pogue. They're requesting our status."

"Ranger will have intercepted their transmission," Lev said.

"Tell them we're holding position, life support stable. We need nanites for engine repairs." I looked at Lev. "Tell them we have casualties, but we're still in the fight."

"Acknowledged." Lia replied. "There is good news though, Iron Covenant and Silent Thunder are with them, and they found rescue pods from Ghost in the debris field."

"Thank fuck," Lev's legs wobbled, and Mac and I just managed to catch him.

"We're coming to CIC," I said. "Thank you, Lia, thank you."

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