Beyond the reinforced canopy of the Blackbird’s bridge, Underspace twisted and pulsed, a copper maelstrom of compressed subspace and rippling distortions. They had traded one form of chaos for another, the dazzling spectacle of starships ablaze in the name of Alpha Centauri swapped for this. That battle was out of sight, but Cassidy was determined to not let it slip too far from his mind. Once, he’d have pushed it to one side, focused on the job. Now, he held it quiet and close, ushering him onward, towards the end.

That end loomed ahead now, the Blackout Outpost nestled in a pocket of impossible stillness within the twisting labyrinth of Underspace. They had slid past patrol escorts to approach this vast construct bristling with firepower, energy coursing through its infrastructure. The heartbeat of the machine that choked Alpha Centauri.

‘Transponder spoof holding,’ reported Falaris at ops. ‘Vaadwaur still registering us as a command-class corvette. I think most operations aboard are automated, looking at these limited life-signs; no alerts triggered.’

‘Let’s not give them a reason to look twice,’ said Cassidy, arms folded across his plated chest.

At helm, Yang coaxed the Blackbird ever closer. ‘Course laid in for what they’ve designated docking port eleven. Closest match for the beam-in zone.’

‘Weapons on the platform aren’t charging,’ Falaris continued. ‘Traffic logs are tight, but I’m not seeing any patrols further down the corridor changing their bearing. Either they don’t suspect, or they’re over-extended.’

‘Either way,’ said Ranicus from beside him, ‘we don’t give them time to change their mind.’

Cassidy turned to the tactical display, where two pings marked their beam-in point. From there, the Rooks would take two paths. One wound upward towards a control centre, the other into the substructure, to the tetryon pulse manifold.

Yang’s voice cut through the silence. ‘Docking clamps extended. Port eleven locked.’

Cassidy turned on his heel, expression stony. ‘We’re in. Let’s go.’

Falaris looked over her shoulder and nodded. ‘Tetryon-based interference will scramble our transporters over more than a few hundred metres – but we can get you past the life-signs on the main docking sections. Once you’re any further in, we’ll lose targeting. If you want out, it’s safest if you get to the extraction zones, then call for evac.’

Cassidy nodded. ‘Understood.’

Down in the transporter room, the four Rooks and Ranicus gathered. They’d been over this a hundred times, but Cassidy still stopped, looking at his team with a level gaze. ‘You all know the job. Team Two – Two, Six – you’re our hands and eyes. Control systems have to be locked down, security jammed, systems opened. If they trap us or shield that manifold, we lose.’

Rosewood gave a short nod. ‘We clear a way, and keep the way open.’

‘Team One – me, Three, Four – we’re the hammer. We get to the chamber, set the charges, and get out.’ His gaze lingered a moment. ‘We do this fast. That’s better than quiet. But above all, we do this right.’

The two groups assembled on the pad, and Cassidy found himself looking over to Rosewood. ‘See you at the end.’

‘Race you there, Boss,’ said Rosewood lightly, though his eyes were steely.

Cassidy’s lips twitched. He keyed his comms. ‘Blackbird. Deploy.’

The world dissolved in a shimmer of light.

When it rushed back, the air was thick with warmth and a pressure shift. They appeared in a maintenance corridor of narrow bulkheads built along the same designs of plating, colourising, as every other Vaadwaur ship they’d set foot on, such vicious halls familiar to them by now. For a breath, the five Rooks stood in the dark.

Then came the distant crunch of boots on metal. Cassidy raised a fist, and the team dropped low. Around a corner, two Vaadwaur troopers swept past, alert, but not alert enough.

It took barely a gesture before Rosewood was gone from his side, darting ahead as a shadow. A quick blow from behind dropped the first soldier. Ranicus was there a heartbeat later, grabbing the second’s rifle and twisting it free before he could shout. A stun from Nallera ended it with barely a hiss.

Aryn raised his tricorder as the bodies slumped. ‘No alarms tripped. We’re still clean.’

Cassidy nodded. ‘We split here.’ He turned to Rosewood and Ranicus, jerking a thumb at a wide industrial shaft embedded in the corridor wall. ‘That’s your freight lift. Ride it to the control room. Pull their sensors and suppress any security lockdown before they even realise we’re here.’

‘We’ll keep your path clear,’ said Ranicus, already moving for the lift. ‘But if this turns into a firefight…’

‘Buy us the time.’

Rosewood stepped through the lift doors, eyes dancing even as he shouldered his rifle. ‘Always leaving us with the bill.’

Then they were gone.

Cassidy turned to his team. ‘Pulse manifold chamber’s below us. Maintenance shaft runs into the generator conduit spine. Let’s drop fast, hit hard.’

Nallera had already located the access hatch and was wrenching it open. ‘Let’s shut this down.’

The further they moved into the outpost’s bowels, the louder it got. Not noise, but vibration. What was elsewhere in the galaxy a subtle, imperceptible manipulation of subspace harmonics was a thudding heartbeat of pulsing energy here. Power and pressure throbbed through the metal decking, or so it felt. Descending was like falling into the heart of a living machine, every junction echoing with tremors, every light flickering like the station resented their presence.

They pushed on until ahead loomed a reinforced blast door, status lights glowing a muted amber.

Nallera reached the wall first, swept her tricorder, and swore under her breath. ‘Six signatures inside. Defensive posture.’

Cassidy hefted his rifle. ‘Set for close quarters. Four, stun grenade.’

She nodded and crouched beside the access panel. ‘On your mark.’

Cassidy raised three fingers. Two. One –

The door burst open with a pneumatic snap. The stun grenade bounced across the deck, blinding light and force exploding in the confined chamber.

Chaos followed. As did the Rooks.

Cassidy was first, straight into the dazed Vaadwaur. He smashed one across the head with his rifle stock, then spun and drove his boot into the chest of another, sending him sprawling across the control banks. Polaron blasts seared past him, wide and panicked.

Aryn stayed in the doorway, hunkered low. His phaser snapped once, twice. Two Vaadwaur dropped where they stood.

Nallera surged in next, planting herself behind a console and laying down fire. When one trooper ducked behind cover, she tossed another stun grenade that sent him slamming into the wall, unconscious. As the last Vaadwaur scrambled for the exit, Cassidy’s rifle came up, the blast taking him in the lower back and dropping him.

In the silence, steam hissed from cracked coolant pipes. Lights flickered low. Aryn rose from his crouch, already moving toward the far door. ‘We want the secondary chamber. That’s behind that bulkhead.’

Without another word, they stepped in. The chamber itself was more cramped than Cassidy had expected. It was in itself vast, but thick with the pulsing array of conduits all anchored to a glowing central spindle. From here, the tachyon emitter drew critical levels of power to drag the curtain of the Blackout down across the stars.

Aryn moved for the control hub immediately. ‘This should be it. If I can reroute some of the power relays through this chamber, away from the primary, it’ll be an even bigger blast.’

Cassidy nodded and turned to Nallera. ‘Pick your spots.’

She had her pack open before he finished his sentence, and was placing her charge at anchor points around the main spindle. Heat and pressure brought sweat slicking under his armour, but Cassidy didn’t move from his watch near the door.

It took less than twenty seconds before Nallera looked up. ‘That’s it. They’re primed. Once we’re clear, I can remote-detonate.’

Cassidy let out a long breath, jaw tight. ‘Let’s move.’

They ran.

The access tunnel lights kept flickering, and it felt the pressure of the chamber was driving them out. But they were not halfway before the lights turned a vivid, furious red, and metal screeched as blast doors began to hiss shut behind them.

‘Station’s waking up,’ said Aryn.

Nallera swore. ‘They must know we’re here.’

He checked his tricorder. ‘It’s not a full lockdown. Looks intermittent.’

‘Two and Six doing their jobs,’ rumbled Cassidy. ‘Let’s get out and not make it harder for them.’

Ahead, the corridor broke open, and some instinct screamed at Cassidy to stop. He swore and threw his fist up. ‘Hold!’

Vaadwaur soldiers rounded the corner at a run, rifles raised. The lead trooper spotted them and shouted, but Cassidy didn’t give him time. He surged forward, firing before they’d even steadied, and the corridor – too narrow, limited cover – turned into a killzone.

Nallera dropped low, rolling behind a column, and returned fire in a blast that took out a Vaadwaur’s leg. Across, Aryn dove behind a conduit, snapping shots through the storm of weapons fire.

‘We’re still two hundred metres out of the evac-zone!’ he called.

Cassidy didn’t stop moving through the barrage. His shoulder slammed a Vaadwaur into the wall, then he spun to drive his elbow into another’s throat. A polaron blast caught him high in the shoulder, blazing mostly off his armour. But only mostly. With a snarl of pain, he spun, and, one-handed, brought his rifle up again to fire point-blank.

The last Vaadwaur collapsed.

Nallera was on him in a second. ‘You’re hit -’

‘I noticed. Gotta keep moving.’

They pounded through the corridor as blast doors cycled shut behind them. He didn’t stop as he hit his combadge. ‘Blackbird! Get us out -’

And the corridor shimmered before he was done.

The bridge came to life before him. Nausea swam through his gut at the changing pressure and lights, at the pain in his shoulder, and Nallera had to grab him to keep him upright.

Jakorr rose from the command chair, the Andorian’s eyes serious. ‘Confirm team one returned,’ he said, voice clipped. ‘Falaris, make sure team two know it’s time to come home.’

‘I’m fine,’ snapped Cassidy, pushing Nallera away. He’d taken a second to use her to steady himself, but the job wasn’t done. ‘We still have a connection for remote detonation?’

She nodded. ‘We don’t want to be this close when we do it.’

At Ops, Falaris turned sharply. ‘Commander… one life-sign entering the beam-out zone.’

‘Only one?’

There was a hiss of static, then Rosewood’s voice crackled through the comms. ‘Six is on a lift. Should get her close enough for you to beam-out.’

Cassidy was at Falaris’s shoulder in an instant. ‘John.’

She looked up at him, eyes large. ‘He’s still in the control room.’

‘And once she’s aboard,’ Rosewood carried on, ‘you have to get the hell out of there. And finish the mission.’