Dash gripped the arms of his chair tightly as the Spindrift dropped out of jump space. He’d already given the orders needed to prepare it for the next jump, so all that was left was to see what ships joined them.
For several long seconds nothing happened… then ships started appearing. More and more of them. Dash let out a sigh of relief as the numbers climbed and climbed, before finally settling down to be all the remaining ships in the fleet.
Then the Wanderer appeared, almost as soon as the last of the other ships did. Dash started to let out a long sigh, but it was interrupted by an urgent call from the Wanderer.
“Jess,” he said. “You made it!”
“We did,” replied Jess. “But the Limited fleet is hot on your heels despite everything we did and the sacrifice of the rearguard. The
