“There’s a gap in their formation,” Alex said, silencing Nimue. “Sector four-four-beta-omega.”

  Nimue frowned at him, then frowned at the screen, eyes narrowing as she studied the holographic display. The expression cleared. She looked back at him, her eyes suddenly appraising. Alex wasn’t sure he appreciated that look.

  She pressed a button on the command chair and said, “Arthur, dear, there’s a gap in their formation at sector four-four-beta-omega.”

  “Got it,” Prince Arthur’s voice said. “We’re launching now. I’ll take some of my men and we’ll drive straight through their formation!”

  Even as he spoke, several arrow-shaped ships streaked through the viewport. The holographic display zoomed in on the contingent of arrow-class fighters. Alex watched as around three dozen of the fighter’s broke formation and traveled for the two battling fleets, while the rest of the contingent clashed with the other arrow-class fighters.

  Alex wished he knew more about ship-to-ship warfare. He had studied it during his time at the academy, but studying up on tactics was one thing, while actually seeing a battle unfold before his eyes was quite another.

  “Nimy,” Gabrielle said suddenly. “If you wait until Arty widens the gap in the enemy’s defense, then fire your ion at alpha-zeta-four-three-nine-nine in exactly ten seconds, you’ll be able to break apart the enemy formation.”

  Alex blinked. Nyx blinked. Nimue studied Gabrielle with uncanny interest.

  “What makes you think that will happen?”

  “Look at how their formation is moving.” Gabrielle pointed to several spots where the movements of their ships were out of sync with the rest of the fleet. It looked like they were splintering. “If you look closely, you’ll see that their formation isn’t actually breaking apart. They’re converging on a new location to reclaim the initiative.”

  “And that new location will be alpha-zeta-four-three-nine-nine?” Nimue asked.

  Gabrielle shook her head. “No, it will be omega-omega-six-BB-six. However…” Here, Gabrielle pointed at the enemy blade-class battleship, no doubt the enemy flagship. “… The flagship will move to that location once Arty hits the hole in their defense. It will have to if they want to compensate for the new problem.”

  “I see,” Nimue murmured as she cupped her chin. “Yes, they would definitely have to do that.” She pressed a button on her command chair. “On my command, fire ion cannons at alpha-zeta-four-three-nine-nine!”

  Nimue received a chorus of affirmatives. Alex watched what was happening on the screen. Prince Arthur’s group had flown into the gap and let loose with a payload of some form of explosive. It wasn’t one of flames. Alex noticed the tell-tale signs of ion discharges.

  Ion was short for ionized particles, a form of electronic discharges that disrupted the energy fields used to power many forms of technology. Ion storms were a huge problem on Mars because they could even short out the lightwave barriers. It looked like the ion cannon operated under the same principles, taking the ionized particles, condensing it into a beam, and firing it off.

  Alex realized something as he watched the blade-class battleship begin to move exactly where Gabrielle had said it would.

  If our solar system was attacked by anyone else in this galaxy, we wouldn’t stand a chance.

  It was a hard truth to accept, but in light of the evidence staring him in the face, he couldn’t accept anything else.

  He had already known that they were technologically behind the rest of the galaxy. Gabrielle’s inventions proved that. However, a part of him had believed that Gabrielle, and Angelisia, were an exception. He had assumed the technological advantage that other solar systems had would be small.

  Alex had been wrong.

  While he had been standing stock-still in shock, the blade-class battleship was reaching the quadrant of space that Gabrielle had predicted. Nimue, staring intently at the holographic display, counted under her breath. Then…

  “Fire all ion cannons!”

  Alex had no idea how many ion cannons this ship had, but it must have been many, for the number of streaking beams that tore through space were so numerous it formed a tunnel around their battleship.

  The ion cannons slammed into the enemy blade-class battleship. Come to think of it, what exactly was that battleship’s name? As the beams of energy crashed into the shield, they splashed against it like water before skittering across the surface.

  Those ion cannons must have been powerful. That, or there had been so many that the shields couldn’t withstand the barrage. The blue outline surrounding the battleship flickered several times. Sparks skittered across the surface. Then, almost like an android shutting down to recharge, the shield and even the ship itself became silent.

  “The Clarent has gone silent,” an aide said. “All systems have been shut down.”

  “Excellent,” Nimue said. “Prepare a boarding party to storm their Clarent and take everyone there into custody.”

  Alex remained standing alongside Nyx and Gabrielle, the three of them now forgotten, as Nimue issued commands to her crew. Outside of the viewport, the battle continued. However, it was clear from how the enemy ships were dispersing that the battle was already over.

  “Hmm… how intriguing…”

  What is?

  “That angel bitch is a talented commander. She was able to look at the entire battle and accurately predict exactly what would happen as though she were clairvoyant.”

  “She must have gone through intensive training to be capable of predicting what would happen in a battle almost a full minute in advance.”

  Alex glanced at Gabrielle, who was studying the holographic display with the same pouty face she used when inventing. There was nothing different about her now. Her countenance was the same she always had.

  And that’s when it hit him.

  They were in the middle of a battle, and Gabrielle was just as calm now as she always was. Thinking on it, she had always been like this. When Shii-rya had kidnapped Selene, when the Jāhilīyahns had attacked them, and even more recently when MacArt had kidnapped her, Gabrielle had never displayed even an ounce of fear. No, it was more than that. It was like she had no sense of danger.

  Alex was beginning to realize that he knew very little about Gabrielle.

  3

  It took about an hour for everything to settle down. With Prince Arthur back in command, they hooked up with the fleet protecting Camelot, and then began rounding up all of the forces that had attacked. While many of the forces were able to flee, there were quite a few that had been grounded thanks to the ion cannons. The enemy flagship, the Clarent, was one such vessel that had to be thoroughly searched with a boarding party.

  Alex and Nyx were part of that boarding party; Nyx was a well-known assassin, so it was obvious they would ask her, and she had vouched for Alex’s skills, so they were allowing him to go as well.

  He was grateful to Nyx. Really. Were it not for her, he would have been left with nothing but his own thoughts and the voices inside of his head.

  The boarding party consisted of a dozen individuals, a mixture of men and women wearing skintight military uniforms with armor. They looked like a variation of Gabrielle’s crisis suits. The color scheme of white and black supposedly signified their status as a special forces’ unit.

  As Alex sat beside Nyx in the boarding shuttle that would take them to the Clarent, he glanced at the individuals around them. Silver breastplates shone in the light as if freshly polished. Greaves of the same color clicked together as the soldiers tapped their boots against the ground. Everyone was carrying rifles, silver ones that vaguely reminded him of assault rifles, but were shorter and more streamlined. Only the captain, a tall woman with russet hair and a scar running across her left eye, had something different--a blaster pistol, she had called it.

  The ship was already traveling toward the Clarent. There were no viewports in this boarding shuttle, so he couldn’t see the outside. However, according to the pilot, the Clarent was still unresponsive.

  “Alex,” Nyx said suddenly.

  “Hm? Yes?”

  “I’ve been thinking about your powers,” Nyx began, “and I’ve noticed that it takes a while for you to change weapons. What’s more, you can’t use your Aura of Creation for anything other than weapons and shields.”

  Alex nodded. Had this been anyone else, he would have cried at how she pointed out his deficiencies, but this was Nyx. If she was telling him something, there was a point to it.

  “I think you should try calling out the name of your attacks.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Nyx turned her head. Half-lidded eyes the color of blood stared at him from beneath a dark fringe of hair. “Using the Aura of Creation takes a lot of focus. You have to visualize what you’re using it for, and then make it happen. However, visualizing something in the middle of battle is hard. That’s why I think if you call out the name of your attacks, it will make you faster at creating them.”

  There was some manner of truth to her words. Calling out the name of an attack would make it easier to picture in his mind. At the same time, as Alex imagined himself calling out an attack name like Titan Girl did in her holodrama, he couldn’t help but blush. The idea was embarrassing.

  “I… I’ll think about it,” Alex replied diplomatically.

  “You should seriously consider it,” Nyx added. “It will help.”

  Alex knew she was right, but still…

  “Captain Tanner, we’re approaching the Clarent,” a voice called out over the speaker.

  The fabric of Captain Tanner’s unitard creaked as she shifted in her seat and pressed a button on the wall next to her. “Very good. Board through the aft cargo haul. If it’s blocked by debris, blow it sky high.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “You heard the man,” Captain Tanner addressed the soldiers. “We’re about to begin boarding the Clarent. It’s time to get ready. Set weapons to stun. We’re not here to kill anyone. We’re splitting up into two groups. Markus Antonio, your squadron will go aft, while mine heads to the bridge. Round up everyone you see. You two…” she pointed at Alex and Nyx. “You’re coming with me. I’d like to see those skills you’ve boasted about.”

  Alex and Nyx were left with no choice but to follow Captain Tanner’s instructions. A slight rumble was followed by a soft hiss as the boarding ramp lowered. Everyone stood up and rushed down, moving in formation. He and Nyx followed behind the group at the captain’s orders.

  The docking bay they were in was smaller than the one aboard the Excalibur. According to Captain Tanner, the Clarent was an earlier model of the blade-class battleship, and thus it was about two-thirds smaller. That was still a lot of ship to search, though.

  As booted feet hit the durasteel grating, Alex realized something.

  There was nowhere there.

  The place was empty.

  “Creepy.”

  “Do you think they left?”

  “Maybe they were never there to begin with.”

  Could you two please stop talking?

  At the end of the docking bay was a large sliding door that led into a well-lit hallway. Their boots made soft clangs against the metal floor as the two squadrons split up. Alex and Nyx followed Captain Tanner’s squad as they moved around a corner.

  Click.

  Alex froze. That sound… it made him think of something metallic tapping against the wall.

  Click-click. Click-click-click-click.

  The sound was coming from above him, so Alex looked up, and then blinked in shock as almost a dozen small robots that looked like spiders crawled toward them along the ceiling.

  Alex screamed out a warning, but he couldn’t really tell what he had said. He was too busy calling upon his Aura of Creation. It came to him, an ethereal blue flame that enveloped his body--until he transformed it into a pair of whips that he held in each hand.

  By this point, the spiders were dropping from the ceiling on top of him and the others. Alex didn’t hesitate. He lashed out with his whips. Left hand. Right hand. Each time he swung a whip, one of the spider robots blew apart. However, it seemed as though the more he destroyed, the more that appeared.

  The soldiers were quick to get in on the action. They moved with a smooth precision, lining up their shots and taking the spider robots down one by one. Captain Tanner was particularly impressive as she dual wielded a pair of blaster pistols, firing simultaneously at different targets with pinpoint accuracy.

  It wasn’t just the soldiers who fought alongside him; Nyx was also there. She stood by Alex, a pair of armbands transmuted into two curved swords, which she swung with an elegance that was as beautiful as it was deadly.

  Unlike Alex, who remained in one place, Nyx danced around the hall, her blades singing a hymn of death. Every attack sliced through a spider robot. Her blades cleaved through the metal bodies as though they were made of butter. As more spider robots descended from the ceiling and crawled along the walls, Nyx transmuted her hair, and several strands that suddenly transformed into blades joined her dance.

  “Keep moving as you fight!” Captain Tanner commanded as she moved backward, firing at the swarm of tiny robots. “Don’t stop! We have to make it to the bridge!”

  Alex would have proposed they split up, with one group staying here to keep these spider robots at bay, while the rest moving toward the bridge. However, Captain Tanner seemed to have other ideas. She kept them together. He guessed she was wary of splitting them up in case these were a ploy to do just that.

  The blade-class destroyer consisted of many halls. These halls had numerous halls perpendicular to it, creating a network that branched off in several directions. Some of the hallways had doors that led somewhere, but most of them seemed to just connect one section to another. The design also seemed much different from Prince Arthur’s flagship. Alex didn’t know if it was because the Excalibur was a newer model, or if it was thanks to the crown prince’s personal taste.

  It probably didn’t matter, since, either way, Alex had no idea where they were going. All he could do was continue to fight, using his whips to cut through spider robots alongside Nyx, whose multiple swords were but mere flashes of light as she killed almost a dozen for every two that he destroyed.

  Even with him and Nyx taking the rear to fight, their progress was slow. It felt like they were crawling to their destination at a snail’s pace. If they didn’t find some way to get rid of all these in one fell swoop, this would continue until they were overrun.

  “Nyx!” Alex called out as he cut through one of the spider robots as it leapt at him. “Can you transmute the wall to block these from coming after us?”

  Nyx didn’t say anything, but he could see her face scrunch up in concentration. She spun around, all eight of her blades flashing out to create helicopters that diced numerous spider robots into pieces. As she came out of her spin, she nodded, cut through six more robots, and then her hair was transmuted from swords into fists. Kneeling, Nyx slammed her hands on the ground, while her hair slammed into the walls and ceiling.

  It happened in less than a second. The walls, floor, and ceiling enclosed in front of Nyx like a blast door. Several spider robots made it past the transmuted doorway before it fully closed, but Alex took care of those with his whips.

  Captain Tanner and the others looked at Nyx with something resembling awe. Alex understood the looks. Apparently, a transmutation on this scale was impossible for a regular person to do.

  “We should keep going, right?” Alex asked Captain Tanner, snapping the woman out of her stupor.

  “Right. Let’s move!”

  The bridge was located on the sixth floor. They were on the first. Blade-class battleships were apparently divided into positive and negative floors. The first floor was literally the one in the middle. Below that were floors -1 through -10, and above that were floors 2 through 11. It was an odd system, but Alex didn’t bother telling anyone what he thought about it.

  A pair of elevators stood at the end of a hallway they turned into, but, sadly, they were being guarded by another pair of robots. These were much bigger. They had four legs that were squad and had tri-pronged claws. Instead of arms, a pair of blaster rifles were attached to their shoulder joints. Heads shaped like bullets. Bright silver. Red vizored eyes. These were clearly a type of battle droid.

  Several of the soldiers opened fire. However, before the bolts could reach them, a shield flared into existence around the droids. The blaster bolts splashed against the shield and were harmlessly reflected off them.

  “Shit! Everyone take cover!” Captain Tanner ordered as the droids returned fire.

  While the soldiers all dove back behind the wall, Alex did not. He raised his hands and projected a flat shield. The blue shield covered the entire corridor. Alex grunted as the blaster bolts slammed into the shield and dissipated harmlessly. They were a lot more powerful than weapons used by the Mars Police Force.

  His arms shaking as he struggled to maintain the shield, Alex understood that he wouldn’t be able to keep this up for very long. He needed to take these things out quick.

  He judged the distance between him and the droids. Sixteen meters. He could make it--no, he would make it.

  Releasing a loud battle cry, Alex rushed down the corridor as the droids continued to bombard his shield with a ceaseless hailstorm of blaster fire. His arms strained as he pumped more energy into the shield. Cracks appeared and were regenerated. Just a little further. He was only ten meters away more. Eight meters. Alex stumbled, but he quickly righted himself and kept running. Five meters. Once he got closer, it felt like the blaster fire hit his shield more frequently. More and more cracks started running through it, to the point where Alex couldn’t continue regenerating them and simple shoved as much energy into his shield as he could for one, final push.

  One meter.

  Alex released a battle cry as he covered that last meter of distance. Then he slammed into the two droids, which were shoved against the wall before being crushed between his shield and the wall.