“Copy one hundred,” Griffith said, then cursed under his breath as he continued to receive only error messages from the engines panel.
Eura’s sharp voice cut in from over Adequin’s shoulder. “Sirs, where do you need me?”
Adequin cleared her throat, indicating the terminal against the port-facing wall behind her, the mirror of Jackin’s station. “Take sensors—they’re set for ship-to-ship combat, let’s get them switched to vector agility. Then prio’s a read on the Tempus’s volatility.”
“Acknowledged, sir.”
“Boss,” Jackin called a warning over his shoulder. “Shields are a great start—but if it crashes into us or blows up while we’re still this close, they won’t hold, that’s a guarantee.”
Adequin slid a quick glance at Griffith. “Engine report?”
“Sublights are a no-go,” Griffith responded, jaw tight. “Something’s interfering with the starter, but without a mechanic on deck, we’re not gonna be able to troubleshoot in time.”
“Tempus viability, sir…” Eura began, her tone wary. “I’m getting a lot of interference, but it’s not good. We have minutes, at best.”
Adequin let out a sharp breath. “All right, fuck it.” She palmed the FTL screen to expand it. “Prepare for snap-warp.” She grabbed Kharon’s coordinates from the dock, then hastily dismissed a series of reproachful snap-warp warning messages. “Copilot, authorize.”
“Authorized,” Griffith replied, punching the command into his screen.
Adequin tapped to engage, but the console blurted out a casual, negative tone in response. She resent the command, and Griffith tried again. The same disproportionately docile tone rang out. And again, nothing happened.
“Shit,” Adequin growled. “What’s wrong? I cleared the risk warnings.”
“It’s not the snap-warp,” Griffith said. “The drive just won’t catch. Do we have eyes on the core?”
“Sirs,” Eura interrupted, “I don’t think it’s the core. We’re getting massive waves of interference across all systems. My telemetry’s rough, but it looks like it’s coming from the direction of the Tempus, though I don’t see what could be causing it. We need to get farther from it before we can accelerate to warp speed.”
“It’s the Divide,” Jackin assured. “Back at the Argus, the same thing happened to the SGL’s warp drive.”
“The SGL?” Griffith laughed.
Jackin ignored the snickering copilot. “We didn’t get warp back online till we were at least a few hundred klicks clear.”
Griffith’s mirth vanished, and he threw a look over his shoulder toward Jackin. “How the fuck were you only a few hundred klicks from the Divide?”
“Focus,” Adequin ordered, and Griffith turned back to his screens. “Ions—？” she began, but couldn’t even get the full question out before he extinguished it.
“Still a nonstarter.”
“Fuck.” The half-healed burns on her cheek stung as adrenaline-laced blood pumped through her veins. She’d worry later about tasking her Imprints to continue the mending process. For now, she needed to put all her energy and focus into getting them out of there before the Tempus either crashed into them or blew them to pieces, or both. “Any ideas?”
Jackin cleared his throat. “Short of conjuring an interference dampener around the entire warp drive…？”
“That doesn’t sound practical at the—”
The proximity sirens blared, drowning out the rest of Adequin’s words as harsh amber light bathed the cockpit.