Three weeks on the float.

  The Diggory was crippled, drifting in the dark between two stars. The failed attempt to evade the Mercurial had seen their rift drive take a direct hit from their new enemy's rail gun. The round had shredded the drive irreparably, a wide gash in the ship's starboard hull, exposing the drive and much of the lower crew quarters and all of engineering to the void.

  This left them somewhere between outer Sovereignty space and the Vass system of Ak Avo, though the navigation computer could not triangulate their exact location.

  Things weren't all bad. Saul had managed to regain control of his sullen crew in the absence of Dupahl nor anything remotely eventful. As far as everyone was concerned, they were quite literally in the same boat.

  Belcia still wasn't talking to him, and Saul hadn't expected much else from her. As far as he knew, in his bones, he had earned her distrust. Lisa, his victim, turned hostage turned medical patient, had glued herself to Belcia, showing little interest in mingling with the rest of her ill-begotten crewmates.

  Tidus did speak to him, though keeping his words short, strictly restricting their interactions to the repair of the Diggory, as well as the detainment of Dupahl's cronies that were now packed into a makeshift brig taking up half of the mess hall.

  Aiden came around to Saul's cabin every now and then, being one of the few places spared from the damage of the blast, to play a few hands of cards. They talked, sure, but mainly Saul kept him around to keep his mind off of everything else.

  Between Aiden and Marge the cow, who Saul had to put into a medically induced coma to survive the lack of gravity, Saul didn't seem to have many friends.

  "Situation's still lookin' bleak," Aiden said, disregarding a particularly savvy hand of Saul's.

  "Same as yesterday?" Saul said, bemused.

  "Aye, same. Just thought if I said it, things might take a sudden shift toward the divine," Aiden said, a smirk forming on his right cheek after drawing a particularly good hand. Being trapped these last few weeks, Saul had all of the man's tells catalogued.

  "You've a pair of kings," Saul said, spotting his tell and folded, lifting his tablet to check for any updates.

  "Shit, Calmos," Aiden spat, "you can't even pretend to play through it?"

  Saul shrugged. It was hard for him to take joy in anything these days.

  "Maybe you need to get Tidus up here for a game. Or, what's that chap's name from engineering that serves under Belcia? Deric, is it? Get him in for a round."

  Saul ignored him. Despite his crew's indifference toward his serving as captain, he knew they still wanted little, if any, to do with him. Perhaps it was because he was captain of not much more than a dying husk of a ship.

  "Well," Aiden said, standing, "this has been a peach. Same time tomorrow?"

  Saul nodded. For some reason, it was primarily thanks to Aiden's scheduled visits that did the most to keep him sane. When Aiden left, Saul called up a picture of his son, Cole, on his terminal. Switching to video recording, he let out a heavy sigh and started recording.

  "Cole, it's me again. Not much has changed since my last, though you haven't seen that one either, so let's recap. It's now been three weeks since The Mercurial struck us going into riftspace. We're somewhere out between the stars, likely in the very spot where I'll take my last breath.”

  “I'm so sorry, son. I regret the choices that led me here. Throughout my life, I led by the example of others. I did as they did, as I was told. In turn, I made others follow that line as well. In an attempt to break myself out of that ebb, I might’ve overstepped.”

  “Be that as it may, this isn't a life I want for you. I may not have been the best father. I've missed the better part of your life, and for that, there's no reprieve, no way to right that wrong. The only hope I have is that you find a way to live as you wish. I want you to be free from the thumbs of others, to live by no rule but your own. I don't pray to know what that means for you, only that when it's all said and done, that sure as green, old earth you rise above.”

  “You may be part my son, but I know there's your mother in there also. If the universe had offered you a chance to know her, I know you'd feel the same. I see her light in you, an incorruptible gleam.”

  “You can do great things, son. And by the time you get this recording, if ever, I hope that you can trust that despite my fallibility, I do love you.”

  “Be the best of us," Saul finished and closed the terminal.

  A message chimed, telling him Tidus wanted to meet him on the bridge.

  Saul suited up in an environment suit before making his way to the bridge. The atmosphere inside the bridge had been vented just as the engineering level had, though in this case only due to a small set of fractures along a bulkhead. An almost superficial bit of damage under ordinary circumstances, it had been left unrepaired due to efforts being diverted elsewhere. In the meantime, however, the vented bridge served the perfect purpose of conducting private meetings.

  "We've a problem," Tidus said when Saul walked into the bridge. His voice came in muffled with several skips from a faulty comms link, yet another thing on the list of abandoned priorities.

  "Would be stranger if we didn't," Saul said with a snort.

  "You'll want to know this," Tidus handed Saul his terminal, his thick gloved fingers covering the whole of the screen. "I've had a chat with one of our detainees, which prompted me to take a look at the air recyclers.”

  Saul took the terminal, not seeing what the initial readings meant.

  “They’ve poisoned them,” Engineer Roger Deric, Belcia’s subordinate, said, having just entered the room.

  “Explain,” Saul said, his numbness over the past couple of weeks suddenly shifting toward unamusement.

  “The algal soup that normally filters out O-two, it’s been fed a slow bleed of a synthetic cocktail over the last few weeks. Seems one of Dupahl’s men had some botany experience.”

  “How were they able to affect this many of the recyclers,” Saul said, scrolling through the feed, finally making sense of the results.

  Tidus held up a bundle of half-deflated translucent packs of fluid. “It’s these packs.” He handed one to Saul.

  Saul squished one in his fingertips, its contents leaking out in the null gravity.

  “The packs are filled with a saline solution which is causing the algae to under-produce in each reproductive cycle. Essentially they’re dying out.” Deric said.

  “We’re going to suffocate,” Belcia said.

  “Well, that’s not what I wanted to hear,” Saul said. “How long do we have?”

  “The better part of a week, maybe more,” Deric said.

  “You’re joking,” Saul spat.

  “Sure as green, old earth,” Tidus said.

  “So why are we all here then?” Saul said, “Shouldn’t we be working on solving the issue?”

  “That’s precisely why we’re here, sir,” Belcia said, stepping into the room with reluctant emphasis on the sir. “You got us into this mess. I’ve run the simulations, and my hands are tied. There’s nothing more for it on my end.”

  “Tidus, ideas?” Saul asked.

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  “None, captain. We’re dead in the water,” he said.

  “Sir, if I may?” Deric said.

  “Please,” Saul gestured to the man.

  “We might not be able to do anything about the scrubbers or the damage to the ship’s drives–”

  “Where are you going with this, Deric?” Saul said

  “Like Tidus said, we’re dead in the water. If you’ll allow it, some of us would like the chance to explain ourselves. You see, some of us have families back in Sov space. I, for one, don’t want them to suffer for my part in all this.”

  “Let me– us– send a message back home and assume the blame. Or even just to say goodbye.”

  Saul’s heart sank. He had hoped for a plan, some miracle that would right their course and fix their ship. Maybe they were right. Maybe all they needed to do now was to lay down and accept their fate.

  “After that’s done,” Tidus said before Saul had a chance to reply, “I’ve instructed Belcia here to find a way to most effectively scuttle the ship. No sense sitting here waiting to suffocate to death. Make it quick. Painless.”

  Belcia nodded, “It’s been done. The reactor’s been rigged. So have the auxiliary generators in the crew quarters and mess areas. I’ve also gone ahead and placed some shape charges on the outer hull of the damaged areas of the ship. Maximum coverage, there should be nothing left to salvage.”

  "And the rest of the crew, they're unaware of all this?" Saul hoped.

  "I for sure wasn't told," Aiden said, patching into the room’s wallscreen. "Would've been nice to know that we were as far fucked as we are."

  "Aiden," Tidus chimed in, "I made the choice to not include you in this, least not until the captain was brought in the know."

  "Funny, you still think of me as your captain after all I've done," Saul said, defeated.

  "For worse, you're all we've got," Belcia said.

  "She's right. You're still our captain," Aiden said, "You say so, and we end this."

  Saul considered that. "Seems there's no better time than now for an announcement," Saul said and opened a shipwide channel.

  "Crew of the Diggory, this is your captain," he began, though noticing Belcia had already turned to leave without another word.

  "I have failed you; make no mistake. I know this to be true. But short of suffering the endless black while hunger takes us, we have decided a quick end be best.”

  “A few have asked, however, that before we cause ourselves to fade, that we first be given a chance to write back to those whom we have wronged, those we love, and those who beg for closure."

  Saul typed a command in his terminal.

  "I have unlocked the communications laser for general use. Let your loved ones know whose fault it is in all this. And be no mistake, that fault is mine and mine alone. Tell the Quarter it was me who led you astray, and beg that no wrongs be dealt against you at my folly. You have my most sullen apologies, little good that may do. May the gods look kindly upon each and every one of you. You deserved so much better."

  Saul ended the broadcast to see those still crowded around him clapping silently in the microgravity. He smiled at this. Maybe if he had at least done one thing right in all this mess, he hoped it would be this.

  Three hours later, Saul, Aiden and Tidus were seated in the mess along with a smattering of other crew members.

  "Well, shall we?" Aiden said.

  Tidus typed a command into his terminal, sending the detonation codes over to Saul.

  "All that's left is pushing the big red button, as it were," Tidus said.

  Saul sighed. "And everyone's got a message out?"

  "Yep. Just finished the last of them," Belcia said, sitting down on the bench beside him.

  "While we're young!" Aiden said sardonically.

  Saul hesitated a moment, wishing for some miracle.

  "Captain!" Deric said, rushing into the room. "Captain, wait. We're about to hit–"

  Just as Deric reached them, The Diggory whined and slammed. Saul was knocked clear out of his seat, and he could see several other crew members struggling to grab hold of something in the microgravity.

  "What in old hell is that!" Tidus barked.

  "That's what I was trying to say," Deric said, now clutching a bleeding gash in his forehead, "starboard proximity sensors, lidar, everything is out. We just impacted something that I only barely got a tertiary glimpse off of neighbouring sensors."

  "We hit something?" Saul said, confused. He knew that anything this far out in deep space usually meant solid jagged rock that would otherwise have hit with such overwhelming force as to rip The Diggory into pieces.

  "That's just it!" Deric said, "it's not a natural formation. We hit something smooth, going roughly along the same trajectory as our own vessel. Though, at a slight magnitude slower."

  "A ship!" Belcia said, checking readings on his terminal.

  "Well, isn't that divine," Aiden said.

  "Belcia, do we know where it came from?" Saul asked, skipping straight over the crew's amusement.

  "No transponder, no hull insignia, no outer markings of any kind; visual or in any spectrum," Belcia said, "if Deric hadn't been looking, I doubt we'd ever known it was there."

  "Deric, anything you can add?"

  "No, captain. Whole thing's black as night," he said, "hang on– there is this."

  Deric flicked a reading from his terminal up on a wallscreen. The readout showed a faint debris trail extending out from a complex structure embedded in the side of the ship's starboard hull.

  "Is that a power station?" Belcia said, thinking out loud.

  "Sure as Earth was green!" Tidus said, who up until this point had been silently nursing a swollen knee.

  "Seems this ship had taken a similar hit to our own. Though it looks like it impacted its power generation station, being a different configuration than The Diggory, however long ago that may have been," Belcia said, studying the readings, "I doubt this thing is even human-made."

  "That's because it's not," Aiden said, "it's Quisabar. And a warship at that."

  Saul raised his eyebrow at Aiden's sudden insight.

  Aiden shrugged, "read about their design in my training days. Back when war with them seemed a bit more likely. Their capabilities far outpace ours."

  "That may be," Saul said, "but what good does that do us? Two broken ships won't save us."

  "Captain, if I may. Perhaps they do," Deric interjected. Saul gave him a nod to proceed.

  "From the state of our ship, we know we lack the necessary components to repair both our engine and our environmental systems. And our hull has suffered far too much damage at this point to patch outside of spacedock."

  "And from the outside, the quisabar warship's drives appear to be intact. Though lacking any sort of power generation to fuel it," Belcia interrupted.

  "You're saying two ships can make one?" Saul said.

  "In simplest terms, yeah," Deric said.

  "Send over a boarding party. Find out what can be found. If it's our fate to die in the black here and now, so be it. But I'll be damned if we do it before exploring all options."

  "Aye, sir," Tidus said, already moving to leave the mess hall, several crewmates in tow.

  "And Belcia, and whoever else you need, begin dismantling the power station, leaving it only as intact as needed to keep us breathing over here. Have someone port the grower vats over as well and all non-essential systems. Personal items will be left until last if there's enough air to spend bringing them over."

  Saul paused, "which reminds me. Deric, you and Aiden, ensure there exists a functional analogue to our own algal systems over on the warship. Seems little point to going through all this effort if we're just going to suffocate to death on the other end."

  The crew set about patching and repairing the damaged systems of the quisabar warship, a flurry of workers flying about over the ship's exoskeleton with plasma cutters and torches. Over the span of thirty-two sleepless hours, they managed to restore both the power station and air recyclers — which turned out to run off a fast-producing fungi-like creature — as well as most minor systems.

  "Well," Saul said, standing on the dimly lit bridge several decks inwards of their newly restored warship, "this certainly took a turn in a direction I didn't see over any horizon."

  "You're shitting yourself if you'd say otherwise," Aiden said, "Which reminds me. Before you sit yourself in that Captain's chair, you sure you're the one to do it?"

  "He's a point," Tidus said, "now that things aren't so bleak, should you be the one that leads us?"

  Saul was surprised but saw their point. After all his mistakes, should he have the privilege of the job?

  "He's still our captain," Belcia said over bulletin from engineering, "short of another mutiny, he's still got rank on all of us. If we lose our ideals now might as well consign ourselves to the black anyways."

  "My vote is for Calmos," Lisa said, stepping into the screen beside Belcia, "He’s a known quantity. Next closest thing we have is Aiden, and damned if I'd trust him farther than I could throw him."

  "I resent that," Aiden said.

  "Besides, he's been nothing but honest since everything went sideways," Lisa continued.

  "I'm for the captain," said Deric and Sergeant Gaul in unison.

  Tidus nodded his approval. Aiden shrugged. Saul felt a wash of relief but said nothing. He knew nothing he could say would do their approval justice.

  Instead, Saul sat down and positioned the ancient-looking terminal in front of himself.

  "Seems our new ship needs a name," Aiden said,

  "If this translation is accurate, its name is Hand Of the Devout," said Tidus.

  "Sucks," Aiden said.

  "Captain, any ideas?" Tidus asked

  "We found her, a mirage in the black. Let's call her The Bête Noire," Saul said.

  "Betty," Aiden scoffed, "I like it."

  "What language is that?" Deric asked.

  "Something old. Like her," Saul grinned.

  "Name's aside, what do you want to do with The Diggory?" Belcia said on screen.

  "Well, we've already made a pretty convincing case for our deaths to anyone who might come looking, and she's already rigged to blow…," Aiden said.

  "Do it," Saul ordered before adding, "as far as the wider universe is concerned, we're dead men now."

  Tidus activated the destruction command on his terminal. Onscreen, the Diggory shuttered, then annihilated in a blinding flash, vaporizing most of its structure into component atoms before overwhelming the Betty's sensors.

  When the sensor feed returned, an empty void stood where their home had been. The ship, Saul and many of his crew had spent much of the critical years of their lives in, had vanished as if it had been nothing short of a phantom.

  "What now?" Asked Ensign Deric.

  "Sir?" Tidus said, "Seems the Betty's star charts are more robust than the Diggory's. I'm showing an outpost system close by that seems undiscovered by the Sovereignty. It's also reading as abandoned, though it doesn't explain any further. Might be our best chance at a resupply without getting shot at or impounded."

  Saul thought for a moment; this seemed a bit too convenient. Though, without any other avenue to follow, he opted to ride the only wake they had.

  "Chart a course. This empty bit of space has me bored nearly to death," Saul said.

  "But does the system have a name?" Aiden asked, a sardonic smile stretched across his face.

  "No," Tidus said.

  "My vote's for Moby if we're sticking to that nautical theme."

  Saul smirked. "Moby it is."

  The Betty's projectors fired, a rift opened and swallowed their new warship as they leapt through.