“How long?” Hessia asked.
“Two hours, and we"ll be ready.”
“Can you be ready to go in one?”
“If we have to.”
“Good. I know you wanted to go back to the Refuge, but we need to act.”
An hour later, the Dragon rose from the surface of the planet. Hessia"s ship, the Falling Fire, waited for them in orbit, following a lower, faster trajectory than Surtr"s vessel. The Periarch"s ship resembled its lander: functional, almost cobbled together. The cubic bulk of its metaspace drive unit was clearly of a different design to the spiky angles of its main housing. The lateral beam-weapon arrays looked like they"d been grafted on as an afterthought. Selene hadn"t seen the ship properly at their deep space rendezvous, as Hessia had travelled in a much more impressive-looking shuttle. She unders
