“Who is that?” Orin asked curiously. Dus looked down at the eight-year-old when the little boy broke the silence. Cygnus didn’t even glance over, his face stony and unreadable. Well, unreadable to anyone but Dus. He could see the grief, Bone-deep and crushing, in Cyg’s eyes, and wished his friend would talk to someone, anyone, about his loss. “I’ve never seen him before.”

“That’s Cygnus Volans,” Dus murmured, and lifted Orin up so he could see, even as Cygnus approached the wide viewscreen. Outside, the enemy fleet was rallying, for once on the attack against ships, and not planets. “He’s the leader of the Blood Stars. I’ve told you about them, yeah?”

“The psionic base,” Orin remembered some, but it had been a while and he wasn’t sure. “Do you know him?”

“He’s my best friend,” Dus said quietly, and smiled a little, sadly. It used to be true. They grew up together on Blood Star Base. “Or he was. I don’t think he’s anyone’s friend anymore.”

“Why not?”

“The woman he loved was on Polaris Four. His heart is broken.”

The death of every new planet sent shockwaves through the survivors. Polaris Four hadn’t been much of a loss... if not for Andra, Cyg’s syzygy, and almost-lover.

Cygnus hadn’t told him all of what happened, but Dus knew he had experienced everything to the last moment as if he was there himself.

And now Cygnus Volans had nothing to lose.

Indus watched as his friend gazed out at the ships that were homing in on them. At the weapons. At the shields no one could get through.

And Cygnus smiled, just a little.

It was the kind of smile that ripped a person open and left them bleeding on the floor.

Most people couldn’t feel the shockwaves as Cygnus raised his hand and unleashed his power, without even the limits he usually put on himself to save his own mind. Dus was a telekinetic himself, and for a moment, he couldn’t breathe under the weight of all that barely-controlled power.

Psionica could do impossible things when they were angry enough, and Cygnus had enough fury to power his abilities for a hundred years.

At first it was hard to see what was happening. The enemy ships weren’t that close, after all. They didn’t need to be, with their swarms of small, maneuverable fighters and their powerful weapons.

But then, Cyg didn’t need to be close either.

Slowly, fighting every moment, one of the immense ships shuddered violently and began to turn, great engines blazing futilely as it tried to resist.

But Cygnus had cracked a moon in half, a long time ago, and that was before he had the power of grief and rage behind him, driving him forward.

The ship trembled, and shook as it tried to go into hyperspace to escape the wrath of a single human.

The great engines howled silent in the vaccume of space.

The ship didn’t move.

Cygnus smiled.

His hand snapped into a clenched fist, and the ship before them shattered apart, a million ragged puzzle pieces bursting into a perfect orb of debris.

The next ship tried to escape too.

The one after that actually made it. Shot distance.

But not far enough.

The fighters, those that hadn’t returned to their ships in an effort to get away, were easy targets, and Cygnus sent them spiraling into each other, and the wreckage which followed the slightest twitch of his fingertips.

Finally, their patch of space was empty except for their few Human ships, and Cygnus finally turned away from the viewscreen.

The grief in his eyes was terrible, and Dus didn’t try to catch his attention as he went past, no doubt off to report the victory to the generals.

For their sake, he only hoped none of the generals brought up Andra.

Really, for all their sakes.

Cygnus Volans would not be taking prisoners.