I was pushed back as we accelerated, banking sharply to turn away from the ships that were still spilling out of the hacked gate before us.

“Aquila, what do we do here?” Elliot growled into the comms.

Anxiety nipped at me as I waited for her response, glancing between the screen I’d strapped to the armrest between Peggy and me and the scanner on the console. I hated not being in control, I couldn’t do anything about the oncoming attack. There were no additional controls for the weapons, there were no gun turrets for us to man. We couldn’t do anything but watch.

“Retreat, put more space in between you and the Council. Andy, retreat but slow down so that Elliot can catch up. Hyd, pull into formation behind Elliot. Lyra and Ant, get your ships nearby. If the Council ships engage, start defensive manoeuvres. Lace, send three ships to the nearby gates and check if they have been reprogrammed, prepare the rest for an offensive. The gate is the choke point, if we can cut it off, we can stop any more ships from coming through. We’re working on shutting it down from here,” her voice came back.

I forced myself to breathe deeply.

How’s it going there? I thought quickly to the rest of my ship, hating that they were so far away from me but the fact that Andy was piloting the ship with Fornax did give me some comfort.

Doing okay here, Andy’s keeping us up to date on the situation but I can’t believe those fuckers hacked the gates, Cas said, hatred in his voice. How are you two?

I smiled despite the situation.

Me either. We’re okay. Peg’s doing okay, I think. Nearing your ship now.

Oh good! Gem sent back. Can you tell her we love her and can’t wait to see her?

Of course.

I switched the comms back to Peggy’s channel.

“How you doing, Peg? Did you hear the announcement from Aquila?” I asked.

She sniffed loudly.

“Yeah. That’s the person from the big ship we met on the Irision mission, right? I think her name was Aquila, right?” she sent back.

I smiled at her question, checking the scanner again. We were so close to the others.

“Yeah, that’s the ship we’re heading to. It’s called Freo and she’s the Captain. I just spoke to the crew, they say they love you and can’t wait to see you.”

There was a pause where she sniffled again.

“Can you… can you tell them I love them and can’t wait to see them too?” she asked.

“Of course, Peg,” I said gently before relaying her message back to the crew.

“Did the Council reprogram the gate? Surely that’s a violation of… Interplanetary Ordinance seven-nine-seven? Or is it seven-nine-five? I don’t know.”

She sounded defeated which worried me. She knew the IO’s well. I remembered her memorising them; she said it was a necessary part of her role as the diplomat. It wasn’t like her to forget or to be so uncertain but I hoped it was just a temporary side effect of her time with the Council.

“Seems like it,” I said, pushing my worries aside.

“Surely that means your Captain can call in the treaty and Interplanetary Defence for protection and punishment?” she asked unsteadily.

I hadn’t even thought about that. I didn’t know much about ID or the Board of Protectors that oversaw the larger independent planets.

“I’ll ask,” I said quickly before changing back to the other channel. “Aquila, Peg’s just asked if we can get Interplanetary Defence involved because the Council reprogrammed the gates. Can they come help us?”

My leg bobbed as I waited for a response. I needed to feel useful, to do something.

“We’ve reached out to them already. They’re sending some independent engineers to come investigate the problem whilst they run some analysis from afar,” Aquila said.

“What happens if the fight is ongoing when they arrive?”

“Then they’ll join in. They have stated that they will intercede any ship that appears to be blocking access to the gate or defending it but they are aware of our ship IDs.”

I could hear the smile in her voice.

“How many ships are they sending?” I asked carefully.

“About ten. Per gate.”

I grinned and flicked the channel back to Peggy.

“They’ve already been alerting and they’re coming to investigate and help us out.”

“Good,” she said faintly.

A red light blinked in the corner of my eye before a voice came over the comms.

“Alright, Erid’s about through gate forty-three and Herc is soon to be approaching ninety-five,” Lace’s voice said.

I flicked through the scanners but they were too far away to be picked up. I couldn’t do anything but wait as Erid’s voice warned us they were entering the gate.

There was a pause as we all waited for her response.

“Erid, report in, please. Are you in District seventeen?” Lace asked, nervousness entering their voice.

Anxiety made my hands slick with sweat as fear entered my mind along with the creeping worry that we would never hear from them but luckily, they answered.

“I truly have no clue where I am. Scanner is still calibrating,” their voice said. “Gate on this side is unmarked, I don’t see any planets or identifiable stars. Might be in some dead space.”

“Alright, let us know when your scanner is back up. Ours is still trying to find you. Herc, are you about to enter the gate?” Aquila asked.

“Yes, Captain. Going through in ten,” a low voice said quickly.

I waited, counting silently for them to enter.

I hit twelve before Herc said, “Entering now.”

The wait was excruciating again and I found myself watching the every increasing advancing Council ships on the scanner behind us. They weren’t firing still as far as I could tell, just silently following us. It was somehow scarier.

“Oh, nik! I’m on the outskirts of Nova! Lots of ships. Fuck!” Herc’s voice shouted before silence took over.

“Shit. Herc, come in!” Lace said quickly.

Panic made my hands slick within my gloves but I knew it was too late.

“Herc’s ship has gone offline,” Aquila informed us after a moment.

The ship jolted and I didn’t have a chance to process what she said as bullets sprayed the ship once more.

“They’re engaging,” Elliot barked as he pulled at the controls, swerving to avoid the attack.

My hand found Peggy’s once more and I found myself squeezing my eyes shut.

“We’ll be okay, Peg,” I promised dumbly as the report of even more ships approaching came over the comms. “We’ll get back to Freo.”