Chapter 6: Dancing on a Razor’s Edge Part 1

"All Warships fire."

I slammed Hekkamuk's end spike against the floor in a sonorous clang that rattled my command center while the last remains of the ghostly pale fire at its spearhead were consumed by a burst of my own magenta and violet fire. At the same time I let loose pulses of charged particles aimed at where the enemy's command vessels were projected to be as they orbited the gas giant. I jabbed Hekkamuk twelve times into the holographic projection of the enemy blockade I had called up. My movements, my very thoughts and feelings were given energy by the droning rhythm of the voices and instruments that gave form to the Litany of the Warship.

The rhythm did not relent.

"Long range cannons one through twelve have fired," Weapons Officer Melusum intoned, "Ship is reconfiguring." There was no need for me to hear that, as I was the one doing it. It was for the rest of the command crew.

"Final evaluation before superluminal translation," Velteragni said, voice firm. "Enemy positions."

"None have appeared on sensors," Head Cartographer Vakkaidu said, "Latest satelite signals indicate no changes either, everything is according to our intel."

"Adumed, Salukam, status on enemy comms."

Communications Officer Adumed's was calm. "None of the intercepted comms indicate they're aware of our presence."

"Can confirm," Head Demon Ecologist Salukam said. "No significant demons riding on those signals."

"All right," Velteragni said. "How's the weather, Kanmurdi?"

Next to Vakkaidu Kanmurdi looked nervous. "Anomaly in the planet's magnetosphere," she blurted out, "Possibly on an intersecting course with translation's heading."

"Well, we're gonna have to change it then," Velteragni said to my chagrin. I felt the data. That anomaly was nothing and our timing needed to dance on a razor's edge to bring this mission to a succesful completion.

Easy Shishi, she spoke in my mind through a private connection, I can see from your face you're eager to go but I'm not taking any risk no matter how slight. Don't worry, we won't miss our timing. My expression was that readable? I had no idea.

"Shissurna," Velteragni commanded, "Start reorienting vector to indicated heading." She sent me the exact numbers through her implants. "Two point one second translation at a twelfth output heading vertical 270." A dip below the stellar plane to avoid the anomaly and a slightly higher acceleration than was planned. I reveled in the speed and accuracy of her order. She had made sure our timing would not be off and the battle plan would not be disrupted. That was the captain I had chosen alright.

"Yes, my captain!" By my will the coils of my Contract Drive burst out in a violent song that punctured the universe. My hands tensely grasped the air as I learned the true meaning of speed: not crawling along by crudely riding on top of an exhaust plume, but bending space to make distance lose meaning. The universe balked madly when I did so and quickly occluded all events beyond my Sphere of Influence. I danced on the edge of nonexistance, barely feeling the soft static of my connection with what was real. The act of faster than light travel was not supposed to be. Tough shit. I was doing it anyway.

Pins and needles coming from the stellar south. Minor radiation plinking off even my most basic shielding, some of it gathered, some of it scattering diffusely. Oddly exciting. It stopped as soon as I completed my translation, waiting as I slowly, anxiously, aligned my central axis with my next translation's vector. I hummed softly. More. "Reorienting complete!" More. Please.

My Velteragni opened her mouth for the words of salvation. "Twenty four point six second translation, full output at current heading, and release the accumulated radiation once completed, dear Shissurna."

"Yes..!"

Ah, speed... The abuse of the universe. Events went into hiding again and fingers that are not fingers stretched out to feel gravitational disturbances if there would be any. A waterfall of radiation against the massive shielding of my bow. I grasped so much of it, held it close and didn't let go; my crew would not have their lives invaded by it, their health secured, their wellbeing uninterrupted. The ones who would feel it were the ones who dared take up arms against us. Before events fully dared to show themselves I let it all escape my grasp, fanning out in a wide cone. Their husks would provide enough shadows to keep the structure of the outgoing tunnel operating at levels that were beyond just fine. Said husks would not. Their vessels? Their crews would experience significantly shortened lifespans. Their foolishness permitting, I would personally see to it they would be granted the mercy of swift death. Melusum's voice murmured in the background about the weaponized radiation I had released.

More vectors for translations from Velteragni. My dear Velteragni. "These respectively for petal launch arrays three, four and ten. No problem, right?"

"No problem!" I swung and jabbed Hekkamuk through the holographic display at the same points where they would be on my Greater Self, sending the mines and missiles out in a flashy display that was impossible to miss. Ah, the circus is in town. Out of immediate view my sisters were following similar orders from their own captains.

"Next translation and launch vectors. Petal racks two, seven and eight. No reorienting necessary."

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"On it!" A small jump and I dropped more mines and missiles like marbles in an ocean of ink. Another translation and launches, and another, and another... We had spread our net, now to wait for the fish trying to get out.

It had not been long—yet still too long—when Vakkaidu reported the movement of panicked fishes among their disintegrating brethren. "Three enemy groups attempting to break through. Sectors three, five and nine of the engagement volume."

"The ones in five won't make it," I said. Five husks and one vessel. They had clustered close together to concentrate their point defenses, too close. It took a single missile hit to one of the husks' propellant module to trigger a cascade of criticality events, that on its own wouldn't have caused more then a waste of fuel—even with failing shields—had I not irradiated the entire engagement volume earlier. The husk spectacularly failed at ejecting the containers that had begun cooking off and the resulting explosion flung massive chunks of debris into the path of the group along with a blast of radiation. The collisions and panicked evasive maneuvers made them look like insensate clowns stumbling around and flopping over each other, blocking the path of an overwhelmed office worker clutching his attache case. Insufficient mechanical safeguards in their lesser contract drives caused the various forms of Fair Matter to interact unfavorably with the abundant radiation and each other, and one by one they rippled and distorted into chaotic flowers of matter and warped spacetime spread out in a pattern of nested spheres. The fractured vessel and husks were now a constellation of irradiated debris hurtling through the system.

I trained my gaze on Velteragni, quietly asking which of the other two groups to engage. "Hm." She had been thinking. "Short range cannons on petals three, six, nine and twelve; start charging them; enmesh a dozen mines and follow this heading at full thrust, regular acceleration profile. Let's see what they will do." She had chosen the enemies in sector nine and I had an inkling of an idea as to why.

"Yes," I cried as I reconfigured my mundane drive, pulled the nearest mines into my Sphere of Influence and enmeshed them to feed them my sensory data. Riding along on my mental stream their intelligence increased one entire iota, manifesting in a constant, obnoxious chatter. [WHERE ARE WE GOING? WHERE ARE WE GOING? WHERE ARE WE GOING? WHERE ARE WE GOING?] But Velteragni's order had caused the rhythm within me to swell up again, even if it was to crawl through space with idiot mines in tow. Settling them in my Sphere of Influence allowed them to keep up as my mundane drive pulsed and slowly pushed all within to a significant fraction of the speed of light and information.

Changing vectors of the enemy signaled that they had noticed me and considered me a threat, as well they should. "Adjust vector as necessary for pursuit," Velteragni said almost casually.

"Hah! I know what you're doing," I said, grinning no doubt. And I climbed up from the stellar plane as they did.

She smirked in response. "Now why don't you fully extend your mundane drive's radiator fins? Make it seem like it has been pushed to the limit." I did so, hard light projectors pushing out the necessary rider material to configure the fins. "Fire cannons three and nine at the two front most husks." She had picked up on our language. It must've been Ela she got it from.

The particle beams hit, getting one of the husks just hair's breadth away from disintegration. They continued to climb, no doubt believing I had overextended my mundane drive's performance and they had a chance to escape. Of course they hadn't. "And there they go," I chirped.

"Release the mines and perform a rapid breaking procedure." Velteragni's order had been curt and caught the officers by surprise. Me, on the other hand, was expecting something like this and couldn't wait to see my dear captain's little trick to work out.

"Aye, ma'am!" After a sixtyfold warning to the crew I cut all thrust from my mundane drive and adjusted my Sphere of Influence for a 180 degree pitch, surprising myself with the speed someone my size could do a back flip. With the blessing of generated gravity none of the crew would've noticed a thing had I not warned them beforehand. "Time for the burn!" Willing it, my mundane drive spew an ever expanding exhaust plume retrograde. I let the mines loose from my Sphere of Influence as I slowed down and sent them towards the fleeing group where they would bring their suicidal mission to an end. [GOODBYE!] Before I even came to a velocity low enough for proper superluminal translation Velteragni sent me a new heading that would send me straight to the last group of enemies. "Translate there?" I asked, eagerness in my voice.

She nodded. "One point three five six seconds at half output, if you don't mind, dear Ship." And so I left behind bewildered opponents, gaining the false hope of escape in favor of their peers with the same false hope. Their bewilderment showed when after a few seconds of delay they started to change their headings in a way they hoped was erratic. "Can you predict their patterns?" Velteragni asked. "It should be easy for you."

It was. What they had instructed their calculating devices in in the way of randomness was admirable, but couldn't weigh against the deep well of my subconscious. The deep well that descended to the graveyard. I could tell where they would be even with the light delay and felt some awe and pride at my own abilities well up against the background of bloodlust. "It's so easy, I only have to look," I said. The how of it all was for later, now was the time to fight.

Velteragni now turned her attention to the officers. "Vakkaidu, have there been any changes to the vectors of the enemy boats in sector nine?"

"No changes, ma'am." Agitation characterized the minutiae of the Head Cartographer's tone and body language, obviously ill at ease with our having abandoned the enemies in question. "Ma'am," he continued, his feelings now apparent to all, "They're not taking any significant damage from our mines, at this rate they'll escape the entire engagement volume before we neutralize the targets in this sector."

Vakkaidu's panic bounced off of Velteragni like water off a duck's back. "And if we had engaged them," Velteragni said with emphasis on the last word, "Our current targets would've gotten away. And if we had the time I could tell you why I've prioritized these targets but we don't. Now pay attention and I might not need to tell you." Humbled into silence, Vakkaidu gestured affirmation and turned his attention back to his station. "Shishi," Velteragni said, her tone flipped back to casual friendliness just for me, "Change your pitch to show those two vessels to the south of us your bow, give them a good look at your heraldry."

I grunted assent while already maneuvering myself towards the two vessels and the husks under their command.

Velteragni continued her orders. "Pick two husks and fire at their contract drives with the two shots you've charged."

"Hah!" I had already fired before she had even finished her sentence. Seconds passed and two shimmers followed by ripples that expanded into concentric explosions perilously close enough to the two vessels to be fun (for me).

"Adumed," Velteragni said, "Open communication with the two vessels." Adumed complied with a terse affirmation. "To the crews of the two Shadowstar Company vessels," Velteragni began in Usormbaati—an old proxy language used by much of human space—somewhat stiffly but perfectly understandable, "This is the captain of Vulilognan Shissurna: the newly launched Warship of the Mezhained Golden Fleet. Your leadership has made the grave decision to engage us with vaguely motivated and violent intent." Just then my sensor arrays picked up on the fate of the fleeing targets in sector nine. A low giggle escaped my lips as Velteragni continued her speech, redirecting my dire need to laugh loudly to a few of my other avatars. "In turn we have decided to defend our right to travel and trade as we have always done before. The obliteration of your fleet is a warning: continue your current plans and you can expect even greater losses." Vakkaidu's face turned red as he saw how the targets in sector nine were hit by my particle shot from long range cannon nine. Their weakened shielding struggled to stop even a shot this bloomed off, their hulls glowing with visible corrosion, course corrections ceasing. It all proved too much for me. I laughed loudly through my prime avatar and through Velteragni's speech. Like a real trooper she marched on. "Please broadcast your distress to your leadership and ask them to reconsider. With enough luck on your side your deaths will not be in vain and many more will be prevented. That is all."

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