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“They powered up a gravity well projector. It’s projecting a cone of energy in our direction. It can’t hurt us—the bump was just our own gravity-keeping generators adjusting the gravity on the ship. We have no damage or injury reports coming in.”

Drysso frowned. The only thing the gravity well projector did was prevent them from turning and going to light-speed while still in the cone. “Lieutenant Rosion, compute hyperspace solutions for me.”

“That will be difficult, sir. Because of Yag’Dhul’s density, the array of the moons, and the gravity cone, we’re severely limited in our choices. All we can do is run away from the plane of the elliptic until we escape the current constraints on us, then head out. If you want us to return to Thyferra, our best bet would be get free, take a short jump to the edge of the system, and then head back on our entry vector, since that is the fastest route to Thyferra.”

Something else is going on here. “Lieutenant Waroen, shift assets to scan the edges of the system along our entry/exit vector.”

“Yes, sir.”

Drysso turned to watch his red-haired aide work. The young man’s pale complexion drained further of color. “Sir, I have a small taskforce on the system rim. It is composed of snubfighters and freighters and maybe a larger ship.”

“An ambush?”

“Perhaps, no, wait. Sir, the ships are outbound toward Thyferra. Exit speed is consistent with that of the freighters or our own ships.”

Drysso nodded, then turned back toward the viewport. His assessment of Antilles’s tactics had been correct: the man opted to send part of his force to Thyferra. The fact that the freighters had been waiting at the edge of the system indicated that Antilles had indeed anticipated their strike. Even with freighters and the War Cruiser in support of his operation, he can do little to hurt Thyferra. His troops will be tired because of the journey and unable to fight well. Moreover, once I destroy this station, I can return to Thyferra. I will arrive shortly after he does and pounce on his forces, destroying them. The gravity well will buy him some time, but not enough.

Drysso pointed to the holopad. “Yesti, open a comm channel with the station. Lieutenant Rosion, bring us to range and have us hold there, please.”

“As ordered, Captain. Engines, all stop.”

Terrik’s image appeared again on the Lusankya’s bridge. “I notice you have stopped, Captain Drysso. Do you have surrender on your mind?”

Drysso smiled. “I do. Yours.”

Terrik’s anticipatory smile faded into puzzlement. “I guess you think we don’t want to fight. Believe me, we do.” Again he gestured to someone outside the image area and a much heavier tremor shook the Lusankya. “As your people will tell you, we’ve just powered up all of our tractor beams and have them on you. You can try to break free, but if you do, I’ve got to see a man about a guarantee he gave me.”

“You better hope he works fast. Rosion, engines full back. Break those locks.”

“Can’t, sir. Helm is sluggish and those beams are very powerful.”

Drysso snarled at Terrik. “You give me only one choice.”

“Good. The terms of surrender are …”

“No, you fool, my choice is your complete destruction. Weapons, all bear on the station. Fire on my command!”

“Emperor’s black bones!”

Drysso whipped around and spitted Lieutenant Waroen with a harsh stare, but his aide remained engrossed by a monitor and missed it. “What is happening, Waroen?”

“Sir, we have multiple proton torpedo and concussion missile sensors locked onto us.”

“How many?”

“Many, sir, over three hundred.” Waroen looked up. “We’re dead, sir.”

Drysso turned back to the viewport and imagined the rippling fire of three hundred proton torpedoes and concussion missiles smashing into his forward shield. Under that onslaught it would collapse and the missiles would begin nibbling away on his ship. And that’s only the first volley. The subsequent volleys would consume the Lusankya utterly and completely.

With Drysso’s vision of disaster came the crumbling of his plans for the future. The Lusankya