"We have power!" Tred cried.

Hev cheered as the lights came back on. They were dim, by human standards, but significantly better than darkness.

Caraval looked up at the lights, wondering what they had cost. "Good. Get me communications and sensors so we can inform the Craton."

He turned away, clicking onto Pirra's channel. "Lieutenant Pirra, are you there?"

There was silence - as there had been for some time.

They had all volunteered to go into the jaws of death on a routine basis. He always knew there was a chance that some of them might not make it home. Just part of the job. They chose to do it anyway so more people would get to make it home.

But would it have to end even worse for her? Would it have to end on an alien ship, not even her own, in a fate worse than death?

How could he tell his best friend that he'd sent his wife to that?

A message came. A single word. "Commander?"

His heart was pounding in his chest. "Pirra? Report status!"

"Situation under control, Commander." Something in her voice seemed to crack. "I think I'm okay."

Caraval felt a great release of tension in his chest. "Get down here. We're aiming to get in touch with the Craton."

"Yes, sir."

"And Pirra?"

"Yes?"

"Good job."

Caraval broke the communication, and he heard Tred's voice cry out in alarm.

"Sir!" he said. "We've got the Craton on scopes."

"And?"

The man looked at him with eyes as wide as saucers. "She's in trouble, sir. The Leviathan . . . I think it's awake."

*******

"Prepare to launch the shuttle," Brooks ordered.

A tense energy filled the bridge as the order was carried out. Everyone aboard felt great trepidation mixed with hope - a heady mixture that could break down even the strongest of discipline, in the Captain's experience.

Word had just been sent that Cutter had finished his work modifying the shuttle. As soon as he and his crew had evacuated the hangar, they could launch.

"Crew out, sir."

"Send it."

He felt the hum of power through the floor; the bridge was in the middle of a triangle of the three massive magnetic accelerators that the ship used for launching shuttles - or kinetic projectiles.

Even with all the shielding between them and the bridge, one could feel when they powered up. They were just that massive.

They all felt the shuttle move through the tube - or rather, the magnetic coils pulsing and moving.

"Shuttle away!"

Brooks clicked on his comm. "Cutter, when the shuttle is at an appropriate distance, begin broadcasting."

"Understood sir. System will start automatically at minimum safe distance. T-minus one minute and fifteen seconds."

A counter appeared in his vision, and he watched it tick down. As it hit zero, Cutter's voice came through again.

"Beginning krahteon emissions. Krahteon field stabilized. Distraction online, Captain."

"Show me," Brooks said, leaning forward.

An image of the shuttle - a basic, boxy thing - appeared on-screen. It was rotating in a way that would have made any passengers in it sick. If they hadn't already been pasted by the high-speed launch.

"Show us a false-color image of the emissions."

The image changed, showing the fields of exotic energy. Invisible to the eyes of most life-forms, in this view they resembled an aurora erupting from the shuttle. Even at the low power that the shuttle's small generators could manage, the craft itself was dwarfed.

"It's beautiful," he heard someone say softly, but didn't catch who.

"Cut our own krahteon emissions," Brooks ordered. He looked over. "Is there any change with the Leviathan?"

"Keeping sensors at absolute minimum, Captain," Urle said. "Give me a few moments, the system has to piece the data together."

The transhuman's head snapped up. "It's changing course!"

The tension broke; a cheer went up from the crew pits, and Brooks himself could not help but smile a little.

He let it go for a moment, before calling for silence. "Everyone, return to your stations. This isn't over yet. Sensors, continue to monitor. In the meantime, attempt to contact the Hev ship and-"

"Sir!" Urle's voice contained a fear that he could not hide. "Sir, the Leviathan is still following us."

"It didn't change course?" he asked.

"It . . . it did. We're getting a double reading, it's like there are now two of them!"

"Not two," Kell said, speaking for the first time he'd heard since their talk earlier. "It is one, but is in two places."

Urle let out a sound of anger that turned to hissing static. "That's not possible!"

"It does as it will," Kell replied.

"Did we end our krahteon emissions?" Brooks asked.

"Yes, sir. We're running as dark as we can without shutting down everything. It shouldn't even know we're here," Urle replied.

"It is not stupid," Kell said. "It saw through this trick."

"Kell, you said this would work," Urle said. "Damn it, man!"

"I said it could work. I still believe it could have. It simply turns out that it did not."

Brooks looked to the being. "Do you have any other suggestions, Ambassador?" Blaming it would do them no good, and he had a feeling in his gut that Kell was key to the situation.

"I will inform you if I have any," the Shoggoth replied. "But I fear we do not have much time."

Brooks looked back to the screen. "Project the Leviathan as best we can."

The image appeared, and he was shocked to see that it appeared larger than earlier. Their zoom, he confirmed, was the same. It was closing the distance.

"It's closer," Urle said.

"Sensors confirm, Captain - it is gaining on us," Cenz noted. "We're collecting what data we can, but as with anything related to a Leviathan it's not making a lot of sense beyond the obvious." The electronic screen that was his face showed worry and concentration.

Brooks could only look to the dimly-outlined shape of the eye of the Leviathan. It was fixed forward, perhaps it was so large it could not even move, as with some animals.

But then, it was a Leviathan; a beast that obeyed only what laws of nature suited it.

That eye, though. It was a trick of his mind to think it, but it felt like it was looking at him.

He forced his attention off it, going to his crew. He panned over each and every being in his view. They, too, were staring at the screen, at the Leviathan.

They felt it, too, he realized. Each and every person who saw that eye felt it was looking at them.

"How long do we have until we are within its Reality Break Shadow?" he asked.

It was critical; crossing the RBS was the point where minds began to break, where matter began to change. Where any ship would soon meet its end.

Neither Urle nor Cenz answered.

"Officers!" Brooks snapped sharply. Urle jumped, and Cenz's face took on a shocked expression.

"My apologies, Captain," Urle muttered. "We . . . we predict we are twenty minutes from entering the outer edge of its shadow." He did a double-take. "That . . . yes, that's right."

"The shadow on this one is approximately twice the radius of that of any previously-discovered Leviathan," Cenz noted. "By the seas, this one dwarfs them all."

He put Cutter into the channel. "Can we increase speed?"

"Negative. Engines already at highest limit due to venting. Plasma will restore over time, but not enough to increase velocity."

Brooks hunched forward in his seat, looking into the eye of the Leviathan. "Begin evacuation of the civilians, and prepare for an emergency transmission to the nearest relay. We have to warn Earth."

Urle nodded, though grimly. "Aye, sir."

"What is the significance of this?" Kell asked.

Cenz answered. "Our engine moves us in sublight, through zerospace - and allows us to send messages faster than light - but we cannot do all three at the same time. Unless . . . we overload the engines. They will become disabled, but we can send one transmission."

"And then?"

Cenz hesitated before answering. "And then we are dead in space."

*******

"Still trying to get comms back up, sir. There's just a lot of interference and the system is on backup AI . . . saying it's inadequate is putting it mildly."

Caraval cursed. The Hev ship was coming back online, but she was in a poor shape. Most functions were iffy, and the most key were going to be a nightmare to control without the AI. And on top of it all, for some reason there was music coming from a speaker, and it definitely wasn't a genre he liked.

The door opened to the room, and the Hev captain floated in, followed by the ambassador - and Pirra.

Caraval waved her over, and she saluted loosely as she approached. Her main suit was gone and she was simply in her undersuit - it lacked the heaviest protection and all additional equipment, but it would still provide some basic protection from radiation and vacuum.

"How bad?" he asked.

She shrugged and tapped her ear.

Reaching into his pocket, he took a kit and handed it over. Just a basic system that could at least hook up with hers - it helped using the same gear. Hev equipment was far too non-standardized for it to be an option for them.

"The suit couldn't take it," she finally answered, not meeting his eyes. He knew that Moth-Owls were even flightier about eye contact when nervous than humans.

"And you?" he asked.

"I want a check-up when we get back. But I don't have any visible signs."

She stared suddenly, off to the side, and Caraval followed her gaze, to Tred, who had frozen looking at them. The horror and shock on his face was likely what Pirra was feeling.

"Focus on the comms," he ordered the man, and turned back to her. "Is it still spreading?"

"Yes, I don't think it's going to stop."

"We need to amputate, then." He sighed. "If this ship can handle surgery." The way it was slapped together, he wasn't sure.

"It's contained - for now - to an external module. It was originally meant to be detachable, though I'm not sure it is now."

"Human," a new voice said.

Caraval looked over and saw the Hev Captain there. He seemed angry, but he wasn't sure why. His system seemed to have come back on, so Caraval reasoned he'd been listening to their conversation.

"Yes, Captain? Good to be able to have proper introductions. I'm Lieutenant Commander Caraval. You know Pirra, of course."

Pirra stared with cold eyes at the Captain and the Hev shot her back angry looks.

"I want her off my vessel," the Hev hissed. "Contaminated! We save no others, but she comes out?" He gnashed his teeth.

It caught him off-guard, but he replied quickly.

"She has no signs of contamination, and she was not in there long. In the vast majority of secondary infections, it takes heavy contact or extended exposure to cause changes to biological beings. Pirra, did you have either?"

She shook her head.

The Captain snarled. "Not good enough!"

He leaned in, and suddenly his voice was quiet - so quiet that Caraval's system barely even picked up the words.

"Mutiny. They will not abandon the trapped," he hissed.

Caraval's eyes wandered over the Captain's shoulder - and across the room, he saw at least a dozen Hev huddled together. They had their arms around each other's shoulders, heads close in. He'd seen that before in Hev groups. It was a psych-up before they prepared to face death.

Almost breathless, his eyes fixed upon the Hev, he whispered.

"Friendly channel only. Prepare for quick evac. May have internal strife."

Pirra's system wasn't on that channel, he realized. He glanced over.

"Pirra, we should listen to the Captain," he said, a little louder than normal. "Return to the ship and get in the isolation pod."

She stared at him for a second in confusion - they didn't have an isolation pod.

His eyes went from her to the Hev, and her eyes tracked it. Seeing the group, realization dawned on her. With a nod, she began to drift back towards their ship. While their rescue suits were as tough as high-grade military armor, her undersuit would stop little more than a primitive knife.

The group suddenly broke; the Hev moved quickly by human standards, and began to fan out, their eyes on their captain.

Panic appeared in Captain K'Raaiia's eyes. His hands went for the holster at his side - but his sidearm was gone, still in the possession of the Ambassador.

"Captain!" one of the Hev snarled. Murder was in his eyes. "We know what you're plotting! You will not sacrifice our crewmates so shamefully!"