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At the helm, Veronica’s fingers danced over the controls. As the Fordham rocked due to the result of another blast from the enemy vessel, she accidentally mis-keyed a command and had to correct the input quickly.

“Shields down to forty percent!” Raya shouted over the noise of the various alarms sounding on the bridge.

Another hard blast shook the starship.

“Now down to thirty-seven percent!” Raya announced. She was starting to sound frightened, Veronica thought.

The battle had been going on for nearly fifteen shipminutes, against another starship of unknown design and unknown capabilities.

Well…not entirely unknown.

The ship was very well armed, equipped with the same types of energy weapons the Fordham possessed. Her shielding capabilities were not as robust as the Fordham’s, but she was heavily armored, especially in obviously vulnerable portions of her hull.

And she was very well captained.

The commander of that ship had been able to go toe-to-toe with the Fordham —despite their vessel being significantly smaller—executing textbook maneuvers which proved that even here in the Andromeda Galaxy it would be wise not to underestimate any foes.

The Fordham had arrived at the point indicated on the mysterious starmap provided by the unspac Jane had encountered. However, upon arriving, they had been ambushed by this vessel. There hadn’t even been an opportunity given to attempt communications…

“Starboard ion cannon battery has been destroyed,” Findara added from her station. Her voice was steadier than Raya’s.

On the heels of that announcement…

“The last Sabre Squadron fighter has been destroyed,” Ensign Burammto said from the Ops station.

Blast!

All of their Sparrow starfighters had already been taken out by the enemy ship—which did not seem to have any starfighters of its own—and now Jane and the rest of Sabre Squadron was gone, leaving the Fordham without any ancillary support.

Veronica adjusted course, bringing the Fordham to starboard another ten degrees,

“Have the heavy lasers fire at will,” she ordered Ensign Pike, who was manning the Tactical station because Commander Dell had been trapped in a lift tube on her way to the bridge before this battle began. “Have plasma missile batteries Seven through Nine prepare for a strafing run. Tell them all to target the bottom of the hull just forward of the vessel’s engines. On my mark.”

“Aye, ma’am,” Pike acknowledged.

Captain Yarrum was dead. So was Commander Voss, both of them killed in the early stages of the battle when a strike from the enemy ship sent a power surge through the EGF conduits just below the bridge, causing an explosion which—as bad luck would have it—destroyed the two command seats and their occupants.

Two other senior officers had also been killed later by falling debris from the upper bulkhead. With Commander Dell still trapped elsewhere on the Fordham , Veronica was now in command of the starship.

Another explosion somewhere on the bridge behind her caused a shower of sparks moments before white smoke started filling the air. The emergency ventilation system should have kicked on automatically, but apparently it had been damaged.

No time to worry about that, Veronica considering, putting it out of her mind. She had more important things to do right now…

“Hang on!” she warned.

Using the helm controls, she stole all the power from the tertiary systems and rerouted it to the engines, whose main trunk lines had been compromised. The surge of power allowed her to maneuver the Fordham into a sharp dive which brought it perpendicular relative to the enemy vessel. She then yawed just as sharply to starboard and gunned the engines. This brought the starship under the other ship.

Shouts of surprise came from some of the other hands on the bridge. Another JG, Lieutenant Moravey had apparently not been strapped in. He tumbled forward and crashed into Findara’s console. It sounded like a bad hit to Veronica, and he lay there not moving, but again, she couldn’t worry about that.

“Missile batteries… fire! ” she ordered.

Plasma missile batteries Seven through Nine fired at the location she had indicated as the Fordham ran along the bottom of the enemy ship. The missiles all hit their mark, penetrating the armor plating of the ship.

Veronica kept gunning the engines until the Fordham was clear of her opponent.

“Ma’am!” Ensign gHarx—a Ventorian—shouted in her native language. She was stationed at Secondary Tactical. “The enemy is breaking apart! The entire aft section has exploded, and I’m seeing—”

But she didn’t get to finish her statement.

Suddenly, the other vessel was completely destroyed by a massive explosion that caused an intensely bright light to fill the Fordham’s bridge, making Veronica shield her eyes. It rocked the starship so much that she ended up banging her head on the helm console.

“What the fuck?” she muttered, touching her forehead, and pulling back fingers covered with her own blood.

A new set of alarms began wailing.

“Ma’am!” Raya called out. “The shockwave from that explosion has pushed us deep into the star’s gravity well! We are past the red line!”

That was something Veronica had to worry about…

This battle had taken place in orbit around a hypergiant star—one that was over 1500 times wider and nearly 150 times more massive than Earth’s sun. In other words, it was not something a starship ever wanted to get too close to.

The shockwave had sent the Fordham tumbling. Veronica hurriedly used the helm to regain attitude control, but she could tell they were in big trouble. The hypergiant really had them in its gravitational grip. Not only that, but although she had stopped the tumble, she was unable to steer the Fordham away from pointing directly at the star. The lateral reaction control systems were not responding.

They were literally diving headfirst into the hypergiant.

“Engineering,” she called out, “What is going on with lateral control?”

“ RCS damaged and offline, ” came the report from the Engineering Section. “ We’re working on it, but it doesn’t look good! ”

Of course, Veronica thought. She considered her options…

She needed to turn this starship, but she couldn’t turn this starship.

An idea came to her…

“Ops, listen carefully!” she ordered. “I want you to explosively decompress all airlocks, hangars, and storage bays on the port side, forward of the port beam.”

“Aye, ma’am,” Ensign Burammto replied. “Explosively decompress airlocks, hangars, and storage bays, forward of port beam. Executing…now!”

Veronica checked the readings on her console. Almost immediately she began shaking her head.

She had hoped that the decompressive blasts created by opening those compartments to space would be enough to turn the Fordham’s nose to starboard, to a degree sufficient for using the engines to bring the starship into a stable orbital course around the hypergiant.

But the ship wasn’t turning enough. Her bow was basically still pointed at the inferno of the hypergiant.

“Ma’am, our shields are getting killed by this heat and radiation,” Findara said.

“Down to twenty-nine percent,” Raya added.

“We’re going to get cooked when the shields fail,” Ensign Pike added…which was about as helpful as telling her when his birthday was. She needed individuals to offer suggestions, not obvious statements.

Veronica stared at the main viewscreen, at the burning fireball that was about to consume them. After a moment, she looked down at her console, trying to figure out something that could save them.

A steady blue light caught her attention. It was one of the controls for a system which was still online. Suddenly, her mind came up with something so outrageously audacious that she couldn’t believe sensible Veronica Vale had thought of it.

“Activating fermion drive,” she announced to the crewmembers still alive on the bridge, pressing the illuminated blue button.

“ What? ” Raya squealed.

Veronica ignored her, busying herself with entering the commands to bring the fermion drive online and get it powered up.

“Shields down to fifteen percent!” Raya called out.

“I need the size of this star!” Veronica shouted. “Somebody!”

“Two-point-zero-eight billion kilometers in diameter,” Findara supplied.

Veronica overrode the Precision function on the fermion drive, and input a destination value of six billion kilometers…straight ahead.

I hope this works…

She told herself not to worry about it. They were dead either way. The only options available to them all now was to die by being fried by the star’s radiation, or to die by actually trying to do something.

“Fermion drive powered up,” she said. “Activating…”

She tapped the icon on her screen.

The now familiar ripples in space-time appeared directly in front of the Fordham . Then…the Einstein-Rosen bridge portal opened up, showing an inky blackness that looked like a hole was being punched through the hypergiant.

Then…

In the blink of an eye, the hypergiant was gone. The Fordham was in clear space, full of stars. The readings on Veronica’s console showed the hypergiant star was now…four billion kilometers aft of them.

“It worked…” Findara said softly. “That actually worked.” She then said something in her native language, which Veronica knew was the equivalent of “Holy fuck!”

Suddenly, everything disappeared. The stars, the viewscreen, the entire bridge. In their place were words—displayed in several languages: Simulation Ended.

***

Veronica removed the AI/VR helmet from her head and set it down on the mock helm station on the simulation bridge. She stood up and stretched. She was wearing a form-fitting simsuit, a black garment with millions of nanosensors embedded in the fabric.

She looked around.

The other participants in today’s simulation—Findara, Raya, Ensigns Burammto, Pike and gHarx, and Lieutenant Moravey—were also standing and stretching. Moravey was not, in fact, lying dead or unconscious on the bridge floor after flying across it following Veronica’s daredevil maneuver to destroy the enemy vessel. But apparently, he hadn’t been strapped into his seat at his mock station, and so the simulator had shown him suffering the consequences of that. Looking at him now, Veronica thought he didn’t seem happy.

“What kind of trick was that?” he said approaching her. “I ended up dead.”

Veronica liked Moravey, he was a good bridge officer candidate, but she gave him a look now that showed just how uninterested she was in his problem.

“You should have been strapped in,” she said. “You took yourself out of the sim, and you left us a crewmember short during a battle.”

Moravey opened his mouth as though to continue the argument, but Veronica could see the realization that she was right enter his eyes. He shut his mouth with a snap and turned away with a huff. She felt a little sorry for him. They were all being evaluated during this simulation, and his carelessness was not going to reflect well on his performance.

Veronica took a glance at the observation window, which was at the rear section of the sim bridge.

Captain Yarrum and Commander Voss were having a very lively discussion, it appeared, with both of them occasionally looking through the window at her, but with confused expressions on their faces. Both of them even shrugged a couple of times during their discussion.

“I thought we were toast for sure,” Raya said. “Like, literally toast! We were going to get cooked!”

“That was a…creative solution to the problem,” Findara said.

“It was the only thing I could come up with,” Veronica told them.

A hissing sound made them turn towards the portal that led into the sim bridge. All of them stood to attention as the captain and Commander Voss entered.

The captain marched right up to Veronica and looked down at her.

But she didn’t say anything. Veronica swallowed. She was certain she was about to get chewed out. For what, specifically, she had no idea. There were countless decisions she had made during the simulation which she supposed the captain could take exception to.

Finally, the captain looked upwards.

“Meg, have Dr. Ketterman join me on the simulation bridge right away,” she ordered the AI. “Send a hover-sleigh to pick her up wherever she is.” She then looked at all of the lowlies. “Everybody just stay right here,” she said.

She then started pacing. Her head was down, and she looked as if she was trying to solve the biggest problems of the universe.

She didn’t stop until Dr. Lia Ketterman entered the simulator about ten minutes later.

Dr. Ketterman was the inventor of the fermion drive, and had overseen its installation on this starship. She was in her early thirties, with chocolate brown hair, and was taller than Veronica by several inches—but then again, many people were.

“Thank you for joining us, Doctor,” the captain greeted her. “Commander Voss and I would like to ask you a question.” She gestured towards Veronica. “We just ran a battle simulation. I won’t bore you with the details, but the simulation called for the Fordham to become trapped in the gravity well of a hypergiant star, with no way of maneuvering free. It was a pretty hopeless set of circumstances.”

Again, she started pacing before stopping next to Commander Voss. And again she gestured towards Veronica.

“Lieutenant Vale here solved the scenario by activating the fermion drive,” she told Dr. Ketterman. “The fermion drive then allowed the Fordham to somehow pass through the hypergiant star safely and emerge—unscathed—billions of kilometers away.”

Dr. Ketterman glanced at Veronica. She cocked an eyebrow.

Captain Yarrum crossed her arms.

“Now, I would like to know, Doctor,” she said. “Is Lieutenant Vale’s solution possible?”

Dr. Ketterman looked at the captain and Commander Voss. She then nodded slowly.

“Did I not mention that?” she asked.

“ No! ” Captain Yarrum and Commander Voss exclaimed simultaneously.

“Are you telling me,” the captain said, stepping closer to Dr. Ketterman, “that the fermion drive can allow passage through stellar objects?” However, no sooner had she asked the question when she raised her hand. “The dumbed-down version, please, Doctor,” she added.

Dr. Ketterman face-shrugged.

“Okay…the dumbed-down version,” she said. “Theoretically…yes. The fermion drive has the effect of opening up a zero-length wormhole between two points in space. That wormhole would be stable enough to act as a…tunnel through other objects and allow this ship to fly through them.” She paused. “Although, I wouldn’t be dumb enough to actually try that, you understand.”

She looked at Veronica.

“For what it’s worth, Lieutenant, that was clever thinking,” she said. She turned her attention back to the captain. “Is there anything else, Captain?”

“No, Doctor, thank you,” Captain Yarrum said.

When the scientist had left, the captain stared at Veronica.

“How did you know to target that portion of the enemy vessel?” she asked.

“It was logical, ma’am,” Veronica replied. “Most starships have less armor on their ventral sides, never expecting a concentrated attack there, at least not from another starship…”

This was true. The armor of a typical starship was sufficient for defending against attacks by small fighter craft. Larger, more massive starships were often unable to maneuver themselves into position for ventral assaults.

“But I know the maneuvering capabilities of the Fordham , ma’am,” Veronica continued, “and that if I took the enemy by surprise, I would be able to guide this ship under them and fire the plasma missiles.”

“Ma’am,” Moravey quickly said, “I would like to point out that my scans of the enemy vessel had revealed less armor on their ventral side, and I would have very likely come to the same conclusion as Lieutenant Vale.”

Veronica fumed, but kept her composure. Whether Moravey’s scans had shown less armor on the ventral side or not didn’t matter. It was rude of him to try to diminish her own tactic.

Captain Yarrum slowly turned her head to look directly at Moravey.

“You’re dead,” she told him. “So I don’t care what your scans showed.”

Veronica didn’t think it was possible for someone to blush as red as Moravey was doing now. In fact, she was worried that his head was about to explode.

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied sheepishly.

“No doubt Lieutenant Vale’s maneuver would have caused a lot of damage onboard this ship,” the captain said. “And maybe more than a few injuries.” She looked at Veronica. “Next time, you may want to consider sounding collision before executing such an…acrobatic maneuver.”

Fuck! That would have been smart!

“Understood, ma’am,” Veronica said.

“Nonetheless,” the captain went on to all of them, “because of her, the Fordham lived to fight another day. So at least Commander Voss and I did not die in vain.

“She showed excellent leadership and creative problem-solving, and she maintained a cool head. She took the textbook, ripped it up, and came up with something new. I can even forgive her for not sounding collision because of how rapidly things were in motion. And—as it turned out—her little trick at the end, when she used the fermion drive to save you all from joining Lieutenant Moravey in the hereafter…would have worked.”

“May I ask, ma’am,” Findara began, “was there another solution?”

“Yes,” the captain said, “but let’s see if you can come up with it yourselves. In fact…” She pointed to everyone except Veronica. “…you all are dismissed. If any of you can come up with the solution in twelve hours, you may present it to Commander Voss. Anything more than twelve hours, and you’ll run this simulation again. Lieutenant Vale…you stay.”

Veronica took a deep breath as her fellow lowlies left the sim bridge.

She may have just been praised by the mighty captain, but she was now worried that she was going to get her arse chewed out for…something, and that it was going to be so bad the captain was afraid she might cry and didn’t want to embarrass her.

When the portal leading out of the sim bridge closed behind her friends, the captain said, “Arm a thermonuclear warhead.”

Veronica blinked.

What the hell?

Was she expected to retrieve a warhead and arm it?

Was she going to be timed?

She hoped not.

She didn’t know how to arm a thermonuclear warhead.

“Ma’am?” she asked.

“The solution to the simulation,” the captain said, looking at her. “To avoid being swallowed by the star. Arm a thermonuclear warhead.”

Apparently, that was all Veronica was going to be given, and so she started analyzing this clue.

After thirty seconds—during which she was very much aware of the captain and Commander Voss staring at her—she thought she had the answer…

“Arm a warhead…” she began, “…set it to explode in five minutes or so…eject it out an airlock—port or starboard, doesn’t matter…then the explosion should blast the Fordham out of the gravity well.”

“I would set it to explode in three minutes, Lieutenant,” the captain said. She shrugged. “That’s two minutes less you’re waiting. Anyway, even at fifteen percent—or whatever they were down to by that point—the shields would have protected the ship against the blast…although some teeth might have gotten rattled out of people’s heads.”

“That’s a clever solution, ma’am,” Veronica said.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Captain Yarrum said. “I came up with it. Coincidentally, when I was a lowly JG. It surprised my first captain as well.”

“Thank you for sharing it with me, Captain,” Veronica replied.

“Don’t tell the others,” the captain ordered. “And keep up the good work. Now, if you’ll excuse us, Commander Voss and I will retire to my quarters to discuss what I am sure will eventually be called ‘The Vale Maneuver.’” She paused. “Not that I’ll ever be dumb enough to try it, you understand.”

***

At the helm, Veronica’s fingers danced over the controls.

“Reversion in sixty seconds, Captain,” she announced.

This wasn’t a simulation. This was the real thing.

The Fordham was about to reach the point which Meg believed was indicated on the starmap provided by the being Jane had encountered.

The Fordham was now on complete lockdown. None of the amenities—shops, parks, game rooms, lounges, or restaurants—were open, and all civilians were confined to their quarters, except for those who had jobs vital to the operation of the ship. Meg was keeping tabs on everyone, making sure no one violated this order. And Commander Parikh’s security forces were stationed throughout the vessel as a further deterrent against anyone breaking this confinement.

Similarly, all off-duty crew members were restricted to quarters, although they were considered on-call, and needed to be ready to be summoned to duty instantly should extra hands be required anywhere on the vessel.

All weapons batteries were manned, with all weapons powered up. And, of course, all starfighters—Spacehawks and Sparrows—had their pilots onboard and were ready to swarm out of the Fordham’s hangar bays should the captain give the word.

Veronica thought of Jane…

There was a good chance that whatever happened once they reached this spot, Jane would be involved in it. She only hoped it ended better for Sabre Squadron than it did for them in that simulation.

Focus!

She couldn’t worry about Jane right now.

“Ten seconds,” she announced. It was a superfluous thing to do. The reversion clock was prominent above the main viewscreen… everyone with two eyes—or three in the case of Ensign gHarx—could see that there were ten seconds left. But she had been trained to read out the remaining time from her console at certain intervals. And the reason for that was…

“What if the reversion clock isn’t working?” a classroom instructor back on Earth had told his class of fresh-faced ensigns —Veronica among them. That was back when she was still hoping to qualify for the Bridge Officer Training Corp.

At the end of ten seconds the view on the main viewscreen instantly changed from showing the streaks of lights caused by plus-C travel to showing the countless stars of a galaxy.

There was nothing else, however, and all of the usual threat detection sensors were silent.

“All scanners,” Captain Yarrum ordered.

“No vessels, Captain,” Commander Dell reported from Tactical.

“No astronomical bodies in this immediate region, Captain,” Dr. Zimmer reported. “We’re not about to hit anything.”

“No anomalies of any kind that I can detect,” Commander Tuesday Corwin, the Chief Operations Officer, said.

“So why are we here?” the captain muttered.

“It’s possible Meg’s extrapolation from the map was incorrect,” Commander Voss suggested.

“Only by a margin of point-seven,” Meg replied.

“Which still isn’t one-hundred percent!” Commander Voss pointed out.

Veronica wanted to laugh. To her, it sounded like Commander Voss was having a snippy conversation with her annoying little sister.

“Hang on,” Dr. Zimmer said thoughtfully. “Captain…long-range sensors have detected what looks to be a planet. It is just over forty-four million kilometers from our location, at seven-two-seven, mark nine.”

“On screen,” Captain Yarrum ordered.

Momentarily, an image from one of the many telescopes on the Fordham appeared. It showed a small, blue, green, and brown planet.

Along with the image were readouts showing the spectrographic analysis of the world.

The readings showed the usual components of a rocky planet, along with several other vitally important things…

Liquid water.

Chlorophyll.

Oxygen and nitrogen.

“There’s your point-seven margin, Meg,” Commander Voss muttered.

“Excuse me, Commander,” Meg began, “but please keep in mind that it has been seventeen days since we received that map from the unknown being.”

“She’s right, Kenzie,” Captain Yarrum said. “Seventeen days ago, that planet was probably right where we are now.”

“Fine, take her side,” Voss replied.

“Captain,” Dr. Zimmer said, “there’s something not right.”

“What is it, Doctor?” the captain asked.

“According to my analysis, that planet shouldn’t be where it is,” Dr. Zimmer said. “And seventeen days ago, it shouldn’t have been here , either. This is a very strange region of space, Captain. There are absolutely no stars capable of exerting a gravitational pull on a planet of that size. In other words, that world is not in thrall to anything.” He looked at the captain. “I think this is a rogue planet.”

Veronica’s eyebrows shot up.

Rogue planets weren’t unusual. Thousands of them existed in the Milky Way; some of them even harbored life. However, this would be the first instance of discovering a rogue planet whose lifeforms had advanced to what is known as the Tania Limit—the ability to contact, travel to, and interact with species throughout the galaxy.

Those on the bridge continued studying the planet from afar…

There didn’t seem to be any detectable space traffic around it, which was odd. Additionally, there were no indications of technology, either coming from the surface or in orbit. Moreover, there didn’t seem to be any broadcasts emanating from the mysterious world—nothing on any of the radio bands, including those commonly used for video transmissions.

The planet, in effect, was silent.

“Helm,” Captain Yarrum said, “set course for the planet. Quips only. Fifty percent. Bring us to within half a million kilometers.”

“Aye, Captain,” Veronica acknowledged, inputting the commands on her console. “Quips only, at fifty percent power. Stopping at half a million kilometers. Travel time will be seven minutes, thirty-two seconds.”

“Execute,” the captain ordered.