45.0

How far is it to Archimedes?” Boz asked. The voice in his helmet sounded calm enough, but there was no mistaking the edge to it.

“A few hours, at a guess,” Ravi said, aiming for a cheeriness he didn’t feel. “Physics is our friend here. We’re on the same trajectory Kur was when he threw us out, so we’re headed straight there on his original vector.”

“We won’t be able to slow down, though,” Lisette said. “We must be going way too fast for the EMUs to handle.”

Ravi reached down to a bright red switch on his EMU’s right arm and flicked it on. Running lights burst to life on either side of him. Red and green. There’d be a flashing white one somewhere behind his head, but he couldn’t see it.

“I’ve activated my beacon. I suggest you do the same. Hopefully, they’ll pick us up.”

“Hopefully,” Boz said. “If they haven’t been blown to bits, and assuming they can be bothered. Maybe they’ll just let us suffocate out here—save themselves the expense of a trial.” She paused for a moment. “You know what? Now that I’m thinking about it, suffocating to death might be a whole lot better than being mulched.”

“Don’t talk like that!” Lisette said, shocked.

“Why not? It’s the sarding truth.”

“Do you think Kur will be able to catch Fafnir before she hits Archimedes?” Ravi asked, desperate to change the subject. “I’m guessing we got tossed out because his acceleration would have broken us in half.”

“Maybe they’re both in it together and he doesn’t want to miss out,” Boz said darkly. “Maybe we got tossed because he didn’t want to get hacked—or blown up. These EMUs pack a sardload of weaponry, you know.”

Ravi smiled despite himself. Boz, too, must have contemplated firing into the dragon’s innards.

Aloud, he said, “I don’t think so. He didn’t have to lie about agreeing to our proposal. He could have vented the atmosphere without warning and killed us anytime he wanted. I don’t think it was a fake-out.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think you can spot a dragon that much of a head start and hope to catch it with another dragon. You ask me, we’re pretty much sarded.”

“No one’s asking you,” Lisette snapped.

“Enough,” Ravi sighed. “Nothing we can do, anyway. Might as well wait it out.”

They drifted on, heading toward Archimedes at several klicks per second and toward the Destination Star at thirty thousand. Despite the velocities involved, there was no sense of movement. It was as if they were somehow stuck in the center of a vast ball of stars. Ravi watched the air gauge on his EMU begin its slow crawl toward zero.

“Look,” Boz was saying.

He must have dozed off.

“What? Where?”

“Two o’clock low.”

The view was partially obscured by his right knee, so he tilted the EMU to compensate.

Small flashes. White and red for the most part. They looked close enough to touch, but Ravi knew they must be many thousands of kilometers distant.

“I think it’s missiles and whatnot from Archimedes,” Boz said. “You know . . .”

“CQM.”

“Right. I guess they’re shooting at Fafnir.”

Fafnir had taken off at 20 gs with Kur hurtling after her on an intercept. If she’d burned all the way in, or maneuvered hard to avoid her sibling, there was a chance that Archimedes’ sensors would have picked her up. At least now they’d have a fighting—

All of space disappeared. Replaced by a giant, white-hot sun. Even with the helmet visor to protect him, it was blinding. Ravi screwed his eyes shut, red splotches all across his retinas. The suit beeped a radiation alarm. His own internal sensor flickered a warning. Not fatal but close. He’d need to visit the infirmary . . . .

“Who am I kidding?” he said, mostly to himself.

“She’s gone!” Boz cried. “Archie’s gone!”