“Dash,” Sentinel said. “It would be useful if the League could share what data they do have with us. At this point, anything about them may be enlightening.”
“Good point.” Dash looked at Lomas. In answer, she turned to Envaer. “Show the imagery from our last battle with them.”
While Envaer tapped at controls on a console built into the table, she looked back at Dash. “We ensured that we had several drones standing back from our last engagement to record what happened.”
A screen at one end of the room lit up, while the room lights faded. An image appeared, showing a task force of about a dozen warships, ranging in size from what Dash would call a heavy cruiser, down to a corvette-class ship. A split screen showed a single dark, sleek shape, visible more by the stars it occluded than any light along the hull. A scale bar showed that the Deeper ship was far larger than any of the League ships, but it also seemed to be alone.
“Only one Deeper ship?” Leira asked. “A big one, sure, but do they often operate alone like that?”
Lomas shook her head. “No, they don’t operate alone.”
Dash felt his mouth open in amazement when he saw shapes begin to carve away from the Deeper ship. Smaller craft, just as sleek as the parent, peeled away from it. All of them raced toward the League task force, opening fire with powerful x-ray lasers and fusillades of even smaller, dart-like shapes that must have been missiles. Dash narrowed his eyes at that. They were identical to the missiles that had destroyed Assembly Prime.
The battle itself didn’t last long. The League fleet was battered and blasted to scrap in minutes, every ship being destroyed.
The imagery froze, and the lights came back up. Dash turned to Lomas.
“That was bad. I’m sorry that happened to your people,” Dash said.
“We share a common loss here, as there were almost three hundred lost in that battle. Just like your attack. We’ve avoided battle against the Deepers as much as possible since then.”
“Naturally, though, we live in fear of them pressing home more attacks against us,” Abillart said.
Envaer’s eyes bored into Abillart, but he seemed immune to the look.
“Can’t deny that’s true. So you can understand our wariness, I hope,” Lomas said.
“Of course.” Dash turned back to the screen, drumming his fingers on the table. He felt Leira looking at him.
“Dash, what are you thinking?” she asked.
Dash raised a hand. “Can you predict the next attack with any accuracy?” He never took his eyes from the screen.
“No, but they don’t seem to attack the same place twice, and they also seem to originate somewhere near the galactic rim. Based on that, I can give you a good guess, because it’s exactly where we won’t want to be,” Lomas said.
“Good enough. I want to be there when they come knocking.”
Lomas tilted her head to one side, regarding Dash through eyes that were half-closed. “You sure about that? I know you took them on once already, but that was three of their smallest ships.” She gestured at the screen. “You saw their full capability. They don’t use anything we understand. Or at least not much beyond some sort of hyper-efficient x-ray laser and antimatter shipkillers.”
“That’s fine. That ship is a lot bigger than mine. If that’s what they attack with, then I’m going to make a hole in theirs and take a look around. And if they attack with smaller stuff, well, then we’ll kill it.”
“Wait, you want to look around? As in literally climb inside their ship in that—what did you call it, a mech?”
“Yeah. The Archetype, actually.”
“You just want to bash your way into a Deeper ship and see what you find.”
Dash grinned. “Don’t worry, I’ll ask nicely.”
Envaer leaned forward, sputtering in disbelief. “But . . . what if you can’t stop the ship? What if you just provoke them to do even worse?”
“Don’t worry, we won’t go in carelessly,” Leira said, patting Dash on the arm. “But you can trust us. Our mechs by themselves are a huge problem for the Deepers. On top of that, we’ve got three heavy cruisers and an escort carrier fitted out with Denkiller fighters. There’s not much chance of the Deepers getting past that.”
“You don’t know that!” Envaer shot back. “What if you try to take them on and find yourselves outgunned?”
“Then we’ll go to plan B,” Dash said. “Which is to run away. But that just leaves us in no different a position than we are now, does it, although we’ll pull data from each and every encounter. We won’t go away empty-handed.”
“Besides,” Leira put in. “I don’t think you can provoke these bastards into doing much worse than what they already are, can you?”
“Good point.” Lomas held up a hand to stop Envaer from objecting any further. “But, seriously, Dash, do you really believe you can get in close enough to . . . to board a Deeper ship? Really?”
He gave the question some thought. “Yes. I have the Archetype, which is something you can’t fully understand yet, but I’ll have something even more valuable in Leira watching my back. That’s trust, firepower, and experience, all in one, and Sentinel can think faster than any being can act. I have no doubts. We’re going in.”
“Thanks, boss,” Sentinel said.
“There we go,” Dash replied. “Now, let’s discuss dinner and a nap, then point us at the Deepers. I’ve got some questions for them.”
“Questions? That’s it?” Envaer asked.
Dash returned a predatory smile. “Yes. Questions. The kind you only get to answer once.”
4
“This is the single best donut I’ve ever eaten.” Dash savored the explosion of sweet flavor that flooded his mouth. “Maybe the greatest in the history of the galaxy.”
He held up the remains of his pastry and frowned at it. Barely a bite left—maybe two. He’d actually had Sentinel unplug him from the Meld so he could enjoy it properly.
“If I hear one more word about donuts,” Leira shot back, “I’m going to pack up and head back home, I swear.”
Dash laughed, popped the last bit into his mouth, then made cooing noises as he consumed it.
“You are enjoying that a lot,” Sentinel said. “Is a partly burned assemblage of hydrocarbons and fats really that good?”
Dash licked his lips. “Oh, yes. You don’t know what you’re missing, Sentinel.” He swallowed, licked his fingers, then had Sentinel plug him back into the Meld. The Archetype’s cockpit vanished as Dash became the mech again.
The Archetype hung among some Kuiper Belt debris at the edge of the system Lomas expected the Deepers to attack. Since they seemed to come directly from galactic rim-ward, it made predicting their route of attack relatively easy. It smacked of overconfidence, but that was understandable. The League wasn’t able to mount much of a challenge to Deeper incursions.
Dash was going to change that, if only to preserve the most awesome baked goods in this part of the known universe. He’d had various things called donuts, the origin of which could be traced all the way back to Old Earth, before. But he’d never had anything as sublime as those Abillart had given him as a snack while they waited for the Deepers to show up.