Something in my warrior's soul lit up. It was a gravitational beam emitter, or their version of it. The whole reason the Huyiid was so large and accompanied by four support vessels was not for the strong shielding—though that was a bonus—but to facilitate this powerful weapon. According to the reports it and its twin had wiped out whole groups of Kayaalid vessels in one shot. Those idiots had clustered closely to take out the Integrated Groups' spheres and paid the price. Very quickly the remainder of the Kayaalid forces learned to take up a hit and run strategy.

This weapon. I wanted to see it, compare it to my short range gravitational beam emitters, and show those fools which was superior. Not that there was much question as to which it would be.

"They're targeting the 13^th Redeemer Wing!"

"Lennaivu, a simple answer if you can."

Eh? Ragni had surprised me there. What did she need the Contract Writer for?

"Has our dear Ship broken the Habedkur Treaty when she..." The right words came to her with some trouble. "When she added the enemy sphere to her own."

"Hard to say," Lennaivu said. "But any observers would not necessarily come to that conclusion."

The quarter had finally dropped and mechanisms turned swiftly. When a Mezhained spoke of the treaty the 'representatives' of humanity signed with the longnecks at Habedkur, he or she would focus on either the complete lack of the League of Nomadic Peoples involvement in its writing, or the wars that followed when some of the contemporary hypercivilizations on their authoritarian arc saw the opportunity to rid themselves of the 'pirate' fleets with accusations of violating the same treaty said 'pirates' had had no say in. It turned out the treaty was a non-aggression pact with the interesting demand that both species severely limit the practice of sciences regarding the superluminal to the point of allowing open war on those that did so. In return there would be limited contact between humanity and the longnecks unless there was an explicit need to suppress the forbidden sciences in either of the species' realms. At least four times this was deemed to be a good enough reason to pick on the Mezhained, and all four times these Treaty Wars ended with a Mezhained sage brilliantly providing evidence that they were not in transgression. After decisively winning those wars, of course.

The failed ambush that marked my very first battle was part of what was possibly the fifth of these wars. 'Possibly' since no official declarations were made. All speculations as to the real motivations behind Shadowstar Company's hostility were just that: speculations. There was of course the recent intelligence report that implicated the Haalukishdryan Order as the mystery organization that was pulling the strings. It didn't matter. They could only impotently look on while we were in Kayaalid space.

Still, much of humanity regarded the treaty as important to its continued existence—especially the restrictions on superluminal science—and my sin had been to trample all over that. Even if it was a maybe, I could see where the crew's anxiety came from. If I had beyond any doubt engaged in the forbidden arts it would be best if there were no witnesses.

Meanwhile the separatists had not abandoned their plan to destroy the Kayaalids.

"It's almost fully charged, Captain," Kanmurdi informed. "There's a possibility of massive systems failure if they fire it."

"Thank you, Kanmurdi," Ragni said. "And thank you, Lennaivu." Her mind worked rapidly. "Melusum! See if you can detonate some mines to break that weapon." Another great plan from my Captain! All it needed was a simple beam weapon and the mines would explode in the Separatists' faces, while keeping our firepower focused on their contract drive. I was sure I smiled and giggled all over my avatars.

Barely making a sound, Melusum hurried along some coordinates; I sent out the beams. Lit up by these simple lasers, the mines set off their charges, sending directed clusters of projectiles alternating with masses of charged particles towards the unusually short and thick lobed petals of the offending vessel. Triggered by their sympathy circuits, other mines in proximity to those who had served their purpose followed after them in a cascading effect.

Battered as the bow and anterior stem was, it took almost no effort at all to punch through the shielding. I saw the petals disintegrate, the stem punched through and burned. What remained looked like an umbrella that had been thrown into a campfire.

"It's powered down!" Everyone's moods lifted upward when Kanmurdi announced this small but significant victory. Melusum even let out a short holler to celebrate the accomplishment.

"Don't close the manifolds just yet," Ragni said, acting as the designated voice of reason. "That vessel is functioning still."

She was right. Whereas before its bow and main weapon were aimed towards the 13^th Redeemer Wing it was now slowly turning towards us. Its nearly eviscerated sphere flickered with erratic energy patterns that yet contained a familiar throughline.

"They're powering it up again..! With this much damage it couldn't possibly—" In a quiet moment that lasted but a heartbeat Kanmurdi properly connected what was current with what would come next. "It'll kill us all!" What little color Kanmurdi's face had washed away in terror when she realized what fate the enemy crew had chosen.

I had no such feelings. "It's about time! How slow must they be to ignore us, to ignore me!"

Contrasting Kanmurdi's panic and my irritation was Ragni's relative calm. "If you feel confident you can bring that lesser contract drive to failure, I would gladly let you."

"Please let me!"

"All right." She cast her gaze at the rest of the command crew. "Vakkaidu, keep her bow facing the enemy contract drive as much as you can while making as much distance as possible. Melusum, make sure she doesn't overheat her weapons systems."

The two grunted affirmation and tandem, but there was hesitation in Vakkaidu. If he took too long again I would slug him with my tiny but very hard fist. He weighed his options, realized there was no time for that and chose a short but hard burn that hopefully gave us enough velocity away from the possible catastrophe.

I reoriented myself within my Sphere to his chosen vector and spewed out a pulsing blue torch that lasted about six Mississippis before I flipped my highly shielded and highly armed bow back at the Huyiid. That vessel with its sphere a feeble flicker was reliant on its maneuvering thrusters to turn, and yet it valiantly got closer to get me in the sights of its fearsome main weapon. Through the shredded structures of its petals I could see the coils of its contract drive—still in their mostly undamaged shrouds. The angles were oblique but damn it if my cannons couldn't burn through the almost dead shielding.

"I can target that little contract drive just fine from here, thank you very much!"

A shock went through Vakkaidu's shoulders when he heard me shout, lifting his finger from the input key exactly one Mississippi later. What did he think I needed a course correction for?

Ragni knew my mood and threw out her arm in a powerful gesture, index finger aimed at the holographic Huyiid.. "Then fire, fire, fire!"

I felt it and cried a warrior's cry, piercing the hologram with Hekkamuk in tandem with my salvos. Four shots, two hit debris while the ones that got through seared the shrouds. The angles were oblique, but with shielding this weak there was significant damage on the areas that got hit. Another four. Three did not hit anything significant while the last melted away half a shroud, showing the metallic coil underneath. Another salvo. Four hits, one nearly melting a coil. Radiator fins projected out from my cannons. Three more blasts of charged particles tore away the shrouds and warped two coils.

The dying vessel's weapon was almost ready to tear itself apart in a burst of disorganized criticalities, its remaining crew valiantly struggling to keep it aimed in my direction. Part of me wanted to see it fire even as it failed, just to witness some of the promised strength, but in the end my wish was to engulf it in the lesser contract drive's collapse before that. I continued firing without pause. One coil warped in the evaporating heat of its shroud, another snapped loose from its anterior connection point and twisted and shimmered wildly in space like a necklace unwilling to let go of its pearls. Another salvo did away with the remains of two shrouds damaging their coils. Then came three misses and one hit that nearly melted a coil.

I stopped and listened to the faint notes these coils sang.

My mind went back to the support vessel, how I had poured my presence into its sphere and made its coils quiver. Could I have done the same with this half dead beast that stared me down? For a moment I thought I could feel its contract as intimately as its lost support vessel. In the song was a despairing cry that could only be found in things that became aware their defiance of death could be stretched no further.

A shimmer and then a massive glowing ball of debris.

So much energy had been invested in the Huyiid that the usual hemispheres of such critical collapses touched to become full spheres. Its crippled Gravitational Beam Emitter had not even been given a chance to spew its criticality in my direction—our direction. My crew remained safe in my embrace.

I threw four arms up in cheer. More arms, in fact. I had 60 avatars after all. "Took 'em out! Took 'em all out! The big boat and the small boats!"

"Can confirm," Kanmurdi said. "It's all just debris now."

I continued cheering, igniting a roar on all decks. "Another victory for our Ship!" Big man Guruiel tossed me in the air with ease. Somewhat scary but damnit if I didn't secretly enjoy it. Only secretly, though.

As I descended between the missile launch tubes I felt a hand on my prime avatar's head. It was my Captain standing behind me. I tilted my head back towards her and was greeted by her usual warm smile, her hand remaining on my head. "Did I do good?"

"You did."

"And when I took over that little boat's sphere?"

"That was..." She looked away awkwardly for a moment. "Very much a surprise."

"A bad one?" I probed.

Her face betrayed the conflict in her mind. "Well, the Sholaidon maneuver was once a surprise."

A surprise that must've had at least half of Meshanonden's crew crap their pants, let's be honest. "Will this be the Shubesh maneuver then?"

That had snuck up on her unawares. There was uncharacteristically awkward laugh from her but her gears were ones that turned quickly. "It would be the Shissurna maneuver now, wouldn't it?"

"Please, no. I've received more than enough attention just for being born." I realized that was the wrong phrasing just too late. It must've been the influence of my previous life as a human.

Luckily, Ragni didn't find i strange and laughed at it instead. "Poor Shissurna, born as a Warship."

"Poor Shissurna can't escape being worshiped."

She pat my head again and I felt my cheeks flush with a holographic glow. "That is how you know you are loved."

"That's right." My mania seemed to have dissipated. "Love can be scarce for some." A conclusion one could only come to if they had lived a life like Becca's.

Ragni looked a little nonplussed but accompanied it with a smile. "You say the strangest things sometimes."

I had formulated an answer for his in advance. "Oh, you know me, I spend too much time reading novels."

"Which one has a child asking her mother to let her drive the family ground vehicle?"

Oh.

I had said that.

From the look in Ragni's eyes my usually obsidian face had to be wrapped in a red holographic glow. And it wasn't just her, the whole command crew had their eyes on me, forming their own judgements.

"P-please disregard your Vugni when she says weird things under the influence of yamurduk."

Too late. I had drawn their attention back to that little odd utterance and had inadvertently made sure it would continue to live on rent free in their heads. As embarrassing as it was, a hidden part of me was glad I could have an actual mother for once.