It was too quiet. Samir rested in his chair in the silence of the bridge. There wasn’t much to do but wait. A few of the bridge personnel worked to keep scanning space for more incoming ships, but it was a lost battle if they appeared now. Most of the Hyperion were busy being arrested. Not that there was anything they could do about it now.

He had contacted the derelict and dispatched Dr. Philips to oversee the rest of the work. They reported that they had begun construction of the materials and would begin repair work in the next four hours. However, that did little to ease his mind.

The Free Exchange only had the rest of the day to react. Once the FTL drives of the derelict could be repaired, then it wouldn’t matter if they retook the Hyperion. This would be a short, decisive battle. Samir only needed to hold out long enough, but that thought still wasn’t comforting.

They were moving. He knew it even if it was just out of his sight. The only question was where the strike would come from. Father Soren never contacted me. Samir suddenly thought. It had been an hour since the two had parted ways. He should’ve reported back that Commander Terese had been detained.

Samir’s fingers clenched the armrests of the chair. If Father Soren hadn’t stopped him from… No, it was the right call. They needed to act quickly and him going off to deal with Terese would’ve cost them time they couldn’t afford. Regardless, what was done was done. The only question now was how to deal with it.

I’ll have to—

“Captain!” A crewman turned from his station. “One of our shuttles launched from the bay. They’re heading towards the derelict.”

Samir closed his eyes. So it begins. Of their eight shuttles, seven were currently on the derelict. One was kept on the Hyperion as following protocol, but it had been guarded by a squad of marines. However, that precaution seemed to be in vain. It was a bold move, although not one that couldn’t be dealt with. At least, if no other surprises were coming.

“Hail them.” Samir chose caution. He needed more information before he would attack.

There was a beeping noise as the connection was made. Samir stood up and brought the image of the shuttle to the holographic screen. “Shuttle Seven, return immediately to the shuttle bay. If you do not respond, I will have no choice but to open fire.”

There was a moment of silence as Samir waited for the response. He didn’t understand the purpose of launching just one shuttle. Even without most of the turret operators, he still had options.

“Greetings, Captain.”

Samir felt his heart stop in his chest as he heard that voice. It seemed like so long ago as to be a distant memory. The arrogant smugness of Glen Tannis as he intruded upon Samir’s exile. It was impossible.

“How did you—“ Samir’s mind reeled as he tried to figure out how the man had come back. No. He thought. Those distracting thoughts didn’t matter right now. Glen Tannis needed to be dealt with immediately.

“Lock on missiles and set them to proximity detonate,” Captain Singh ordered.

While the gravitational shielding of the shuttle meant it could deflect theoretically anything regardless of strength, the explosion would find its way through the cracks of the shielding. A few missiles would more than do the trick.

“An interesting choice, Captain.” Glen’s annoying voice sounded over the bridge. “But are you willing to kill your own man? I have Mr. Kieth as a hostage.”

“I’m called the Butcher of Three Systems. You think I wouldn’t?” Samir blinked.

“Arguable, considering he’s one of the few capable of piloting the Hyperion—even fewer since you killed Mia Williams.” There was the faintest hint of anger in Tannis’ voice.

“A greater loss than most, but he can still be replaced.”

What is this? Samir thought. Glen Tannis must’ve known better than anyone that Samir was more than acquainted with losing crewmen, even under his own orders. The conversation was little more than useless prattle. He’s trying to stall then. Which means—

“Fire the missiles now!” Singh shouted.

Three streaks of light shot out from the Hyperion and arced towards the shuttle. Just as they did, the bridge suddenly powered down. The faint hum of machinery slowly whirred to a halt, and they were left with black screens and useless controls. A moment later and the holographic projection fizzled away. Thankfully, the dim red lighting of the lockdown sequence remained. Captain Singh gritted his teeth. At least they got a single salvo off.

“Bring up auxiliary power!” Samir shouted to a marine.

The soldier quickly ran to an empty station where a switch was protected with a red metal covering. Unlatching the safety and opening it, the soldier flicked the switch. Only a select few of the stations came back on. The projection came back fuzzy, but it was still visible.

Samir watched helplessly as the streaks of light came closer and closer to the shuttle. Just as they were about to hit, the shuttle suddenly turned. The Captain watched as the gravity fields surrounding the vessel broke and smashed against one another. The distortions of light crashed against each other almost as waves on an ocean.

All three missiles exploded in a ball of fire. However, instead of enveloping the vessel along the smooth surface of the gravity field, the fire split outwards in a hundred different directions. It diffused and burned along an invisible, writhing wall. Some offshoots of the blast navigated the impossible labyrinth of the gravitational distortions and made it to the shuttle. They tore at the vessel, superheating chunks of the hull and causing ruptures along the metal. But none penetrated to the cockpit, as Samir had hoped.

It was an expert maneuver that could only have been done by an experienced pilot. A second before, and the missiles would’ve diverted and come about at a different angle. A second later, and the shuttle would have been destroyed. Samir doubted that a man like Glen Tannis had that skill. For whatever reason—whether Miles wanted to save his own life, or he was working with the bureaucrat—it didn’t matter. Tannis was on his way to the derelict.

The auxiliary power control meant that they had only the most basic systems available to them. Forget high-powered lasers. They wouldn’t even be able to shoot so much as a torpedo. The only things left were sensors and communication.

“Hail the derelict.” Captain Singh quickly ordered. “There are one or two marines over there. They won’t be able to land without being arrested,” he spoke quickly, almost trying to reassure himself.

“Sir!” Another crewman looked up from his station. “Communications aren’t responding.”

Who could’ve— Samir sank back in his chair. It was engineering. Somehow, the Free Exchange had captured the section. In which case, the game was up. Without power, the bridge was useless. But on the other hand, engineering had no real access to most of the systems either. Most of these situations ended in a stalemate, where both sides could destroy their respective sections and cripple the ship. But for Singh, a stalemate now meant defeat. Tannis was on his way to the derelict. He needed to find a way out of this.

“Captain.”

Samir paused as he heard the voice of the Chief Engineer over the comm. He sat back down in his seat and sighed. “Amos.”

He tried to figure out how it had happened. Amos wouldn’t have let the section get taken so easily. The Free Exchange could control almost anything, but even they would’ve had a hard time of breaching engineering.

Most of the doors in engineering were reinforced for that very purpose. You couldn’t just shoot through the walls with accelerated bullets. Even a hull cutter would require ten minutes just to cut a hole. That was plenty of time to take positions and post men to defend the section. Maybe a team of highly skilled marines could pull a breach off, but certainly not quickly enough for Amos not to warn him.

“Is there anything you can do on your end?” Samir asked. “The bridge has lost power.”

While he knew that the Free Exchange would be listening, he was hoping that Amos could buy him a little more time. Enough so that Samir could stop Tannis before he made it to the derelict.

“Captain, I had power to the bridge shut off.” Amos admitted.

Samir opened his mouth agape, but no words came from it. He closed his eyes and lowered his head downcast. Just what have you done? All Amos had to do was wait in engineering for a few hours. That was all that Samir had asked of him.

We also caused a small overload in the circuitry to temporarily disable communications. Don’t worry, the ship’s automatic repair systems should fix that in the next thirty minutes.”

Samir privately swore the foulest curses. He struggled to keep composure. As much as he wanted to, losing control would not get him anywhere. He needed to keep himself calm and focused if he was going to get the bridge back.

“What did the Free Exchange promise you?” he asked.

“The Free Exchange?” Amos’ voice came back confused. “I did this on my own, Captain. Now that you have your men arresting the ship, I wanted to have a talk. What do you intend to do with the derelict?”

“Amos—“

“I want to make it clear that I’m serious, Captain,” Amos interrupted. “Right now, we’re just playing games. No harm has been done yet. We’re all sitting safe. But you know I can change that.”

“It’s mutiny then.” Samir couldn’t hold back from that accusation.

“The fate of the galaxy is too important for uncertainty. When we get back to the Free Exchange, you can have your court martial,” Amos spoke calmly. “Answer the question. What were you going to do with the derelict?”

Samir paused. He felt tempted to lie. That was something he hadn’t done in a very long time, but now… His mind couldn’t up but run through the calculation. Amos knew Samir could’ve waited until the gravity drive solution was implemented. Samir could’ve waited until they were halfway back to the Free Exchange to do these arrests. That he did them now put the entire Hyperion in further jeopardy.

Amos would figure out the truth eventually, but perhaps Samir needed time more than anything. He needed control back only for a few moments to destroy Tannis’ shuttle. And maybe that was what the bureaucrat had counted on. Tannis knew Samir was a man who believed in truth. And such a life came with a price.

“I was going to send the derelict to its original destination,” Captain Singh finally said.

He wanted Amos’ loyalty, but perhaps he wanted it cheaply. Samir wanted a blind faith that he could take advantage of. And maybe that was a sin. He thought back to that confrontation on Ghenus. Samir genuinely believed that Amos was one of the few men in the universe who could possibly understand him. One of the few men that could share the burden.

Samir wanted that more than anything. He wanted Amos to see the world the same as he did, and so he didn’t press the Chief Engineer like he did to so many others. He tested the crew at the commencement ceremony to see their character. He tested his men again before the arrests to see whether they could go through with it. But he never tested Amos out of fear that he might be proven wrong. And so Samir extended the man a trust that he had given no one else in his entire life.

There was silence on the other end of the comm. Samir held his breath, waiting for the response. It occurred to him that this was again perhaps intended. The Free Exchange had chosen Amos Singh out of all the galaxy to be his Chief Engineer. That wasn’t an accident. Maybe it was because Amos was the one man in all the galaxy who could truly betray Samir Singh.

“I can’t let that happen, Captain.”

Samir felt his breath leave him, and he fell back against the chair despondent. For all his careful planning, for every victory he scored against the Free Exchange, the mistake had been made from the beginning. And now it was too late.

“You know what the Free Exchange are going to do to the Andromedans?” Samir felt a rising anger in him. “They’ll dissect that ship apart! You’re condemning a civilization to extinction!”

“You don’t know that,” Amos quietly responded. “But what I do know is that you’ll be sending the Milky Way into an intergalactic war without the tools to fight it. How will the entities react if they lose the vessel? Forget that. What will they do if they capture it, anyway? Their ships can travel between galaxies—ours can’t. We’re vulnerable Captain.”

“And will you sacrifice a people for that cause? Are you willing to be another Butcher?” Samir couldn’t hide the fury from his voice. “You told me you wanted to wash the blood off our name. How does that fit in your plan?”

“I’m doing this to save the Milky Way. To save trillions. Even if it comes to that, I have to think of home.”

“That’s what I thought. Standing on the bridge of the Perses.” Samir glowered. “You don’t know the cost until the blood is running down your hands.”

Captain Singh cut the comm off. Further talk was pointless. He glanced around the rest of the bridge. All eyes were on him. Expecting him to have a next move. Samir sighed, wishing the burden didn’t have to fall on him.

He had been outplayed—brutally even. Every second that passed was a second that he couldn’t afford. If he wished to remain in the game, Samir would have to take a risk. All or nothing. But there was little he had to lose at this point.

“Override the life support safety,” he ordered one of the crew. “Reset atmospheric composition to diagnostic level three.”

“Sir?” The man turned in shock.

Diagnostic level three was an atmosphere designed for testing the carbon dioxide scrubbers. Pumping carbon dioxide out just below lethal limits, it was used to ensure that the equipment could reestablish a breathable atmosphere. However, now it would pacify the insurgent crew in engineering.

Captain Singh had learned this trick early on in his career, although thankfully he never had to use it. Just below lethal was unfortunately a number that was not set in stone. It would put the entire crew at risk, but that was a consequence Samir would have to deal with later. The diagnostic setting also forced open all vents in the ship, meaning that engineering was no longer sealed off. They were all tied in with the ship’s atmosphere now.

It would be a race to life support. Engineering only had a select few spacesuits, and those were on the crewmen who were repairing water distribution when the lockdown commenced. Engineering would be flushed out toward life support to disable the system before it could poison the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the system was only a deck above engineering. If they could breach the checkpoint before Captain Singh could get his men there, then it was truly over.

He tapped the comm again, this time alerting Sergeant Barnes. The fate of the galaxy would be decided in the next ten minutes.