Chapter 23 · The Mutineer's Name

The core opened its eye.

No alarm followed. No burst of heat. The chamber simply filled with a blue-white radiance that had no source, spilling across the deck plates and climbing the walls like water running uphill. Every exposed cable trembled. Somewhere beyond the armored hull, the fleet screamed through its defense channels as enemy boarding craft struck the outer ring.

Mara Quill's voice cracked through the emergency speakers. 'All sections, report. I need a clean perimeter around the Blue Heron. Repeat, I need—'

Static swallowed the rest.

Evan Venn stood beneath the core's light with Sera's hand still locked around his. Her fingers were warm, callused, and tight enough to hurt. She had grabbed him before the countdown reached zero, as if physical contact could keep him from being pulled into whatever waited on the other side of the machine.

Now the core was awake.

A thin line of symbols crawled across its surface. Evan recognized the structure before he understood the words. It was not a navigation sequence.