Reviewing the data from the battle in the conference room; and sending a listing to Dr. McCloud to add the crew of the Minotaur to the front of the revival listing; Captain Amari considered the sight before her. Three of her new Mimics; cruiser-sized hollow shells in the shape of one of the Mag tug-class ships, their enormous size belying the fact that each of them had barely the weight of a scout ship. Still; each of the craft was, essentially, a hollow shell containing a trio of hypercannon; of a design using less than half the usual amount of iridium. She''d bet they''d fire once. Maybe a 60/40 shot of firing a second time.


    "Get the Typhon ready. As soon as Captain Laurent gets a new body, he''s going to be in charge of the defenses here.. we need to test these mimics. We can''t afford to simply assume that we have an endless amount of time to solve this problem. If we had witnessed a ship passing in and out of hyperspace, and killed it... even if the wreckage was slagged we''d probably figure it out anyway."


    Derek glances up from his own seat. "These things... have power sources that are either completely unknown or require an amount of antimatter we can''t safely produce. We should... check our roster. See if anyone has anybody from the old weapons division on Mercury has been revived. We need a solution for these Defenders.. though I suppose we could just plan on piling on enough thousands of missiles to do the job."


    "...Thats possible. Assuming that they didn''t learn from last time and are better able to counter a missile swarm; and even if they are, we can at least pull that in one of the other systems."


    Dr. Kent taps the controls for the screen. "The atmosphere on board these things. Same rough consistency. But green rather than blue. More advanced weapons, and absolutely no radio emissions."


    Captain Amari tilts her head a moment. "Is that significant?"


    "We already know these Defenders are very advanced, and very different, from the civilian craft. And its unlikely they lack any sort of communication. What if, rather than simply running silent they have some other sort of communication? Every system in their empire might already know about us."


    Beside him, Sergeant Vasquez nods. "The Survivor''s reports were clear about that. Instant communication was something that the race that saved him from the Enemy had. Those creatures didn''t use hyperdrives, either, but still caught up to the abduction fleet."


    "We need to face the grim concept that, right now, some system that has a population to support so many space stations they blot out a sun might be researching hyperdrives. Care to gamble how long it takes?"


    ***


    The only craft in the system larger than the Mimics was the 13; and unless they intended to waste a hyperdrive on what were, essentially, giant missiles, they needed something to carry them to the target. Which meant that, after having spent objective years in the Charlie system, the 13 was moving once again... with three enormous fake aliens hooked onto her sides.


    The transit to hyperspace was swift; setting her on course to intercept one of the thousands of deep-space Mag vessels emerging from the one primary system at the cluster''s edge.


    "Thompson. You''ve got the bridge. I''m taking command of the Mimic for the test." She tapped her icon. "Danvers, Ericson. Meet me on Mimic-1. McCloud... keep a few empty bodies waiting, just in case. These Mags are just full of surprises."


    As Derek watched her stepping out of the bridge, he settled down into the captain''s chair once again. "Alright, people. Hopefully this is just a quick drop-off and retrieval."


    He studied the starmap, and watched the readings as Mimic-1 powered up. Tiny emitters that gave exactly the same light frequencies off as the irritating blue goop that shone through the Carrier they''d encountered. A radio beacon test-broadcast. A familiar string; coordinates. Where the ship was, and who it was sending the message to. The message itself was a copy of one of the other deep-space radio signals heading for the same star.


    "Mimic-1, you''re looking good. As far as our scanners are concerned, you''re just another Mag. If you weren''t so close we wouldn''t be able to tell."


    Over on the Mimic; on a small, improvised bridge, containing only three people, suspended inside the massive, mostly hollow construct, Kelsey grimaced... but relayed the message. "Captain, we are go. Are you sure you want to be in here, and leave him in charge?"


    A soft chuckle. "Don''t worry about it. If they blow us to hell, we''ll wake up on the 13. We''re safer than you were walking out of your house back on earth."


    "Thats a very... poor safety standard, ma''am."


    A slow blink. "Ahh. From one of those cities with the... grave towers?"Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    "Coffin towers. They joked that the apartments were the size of a coffin... and that once you were stuck in one, thats where you''d end up buried."


    "Ahh. Still. Charge up one of the hypercannon. If it sees through the ruse, I''d prefer to leave a dead Mag ship than have to wake up in a new body."


    "Aye, ma''am." Kelsey glanced over to her side, carefully increasing the draw from the fusion core; as Ericson funneled that power into the hypercannon. After a few seconds, Ericson gave a thumbs-up; and she gently lowered the draw; this ship was built quickly, and built for one purpose; to take one shot, and then die. Everything was bare-bones and required careful, direct, control.


    "We are go for Hypercannon."


    "Signal the 13. Lets do this."


    ***


    Emerging from hyperspace a few light-hours away from the Carrier, the 13 came to a relative stop; even after months of accelerating, the Mag carrier was only moving at about 0.1C; and the Mimic would need to be just slightly faster for its flyby.


    The navigation officer carefully tuned the engines... until the 13 was only moving perhaps 15% faster than the Mag; at this distance, it would take sixteen hours to catch up. "Speed matched. You are go for launch."


    The ship shook. Even as massive as the 13 was, and as hollow as the Mimic was, it was still thousands of tons of heavy metal. "Opening hyper portal. We''ll see you on the other side."


    After a few moments; making sure the course was set, and the Mimic was flying on the right course and speed; the 13 burst back into hyperspace; planning to, of course, match speeds with the Carrier; a few light-hours ahead, allowing the Mimic to catch up.


    Being in command of a starship was an exhilirating feeling; even if it was only for a few days.


    ***


    The Mimic kept up a steady acceleration; but only at a fraction of 1G, the same as what the Carrier leading them was at; but her existing velocity allowed her to draw closer by the minute. Before reaching a light-minute away, the Mimic broadcast a radio signal; a cloned copy of a recorded signal, with coordinates replaced for the Mimic and the target carrier.


    For Kelsey, this was a mind-numbingly frightening experience. She''d already died once. She didn''t want to die again. Sure, she''d get a new body. But would it really be her? Was she really the same Kelsey who''d died? No. A copy. And if she died... the new one, on the 13? Would be another copy. Not her.


    While Captain Amari seemed calm, relaxed, confident in the idea that no matter what, she''d be fine... Kelsey had to carefully control her own response. She pulled up her overlay controlls from her Icon, Onyx''s familiar chirping presence helping sooth her frazzled nerves, and tuned down her own simulated emotions. Something that, technically, she shouldn''t be able to do, and definitely shouldn''t do even if she were.


    But she was an engineer. This body was a machine. It was inevitable she''d be able to fine-tune her own equipment. Every time she heard Derek''s voice over the comms array she did this again; in fact, she''d nicknamed this option on her icon the ''DT'' button. Muting down the blend of rage and loss that she felt when she heard the voice.


    The ship carefully turned, keeping the one active hypercannon aimed near the Carrier.... but... it was unnecesary. The Carrier gave a response signal; its own coordinates, those of the mimic, and a string of unknown gibberish; and just kept accelerating. With a speed difference of a little over 1% of lightspeed, they went from max weapons range to point-blank, and all the way out the other side in just a few minutes. When they reached four light-seconds past, slowly moving further ahead, she relaxed.


    "Captain. We''re going to be passing out of hypercannon range in... One minute, seven seconds. Shall we begin stepping down and dissipating the capacitor?"


    "No... We''re definitely going to take these things out at some point. No time like the present.  Ericson! Line up your shot to go right down the center of it, and fire."


    "Ahh... yes, ma''am."


    Kelsey gave a slow exhale. Stay calm. Everything is fine. She tapped a key, the fake tentacles in the path of the hypercannon moving out of the way... and just before passing out of range, Ericson fired. A long string of distorted, purple space appeared and vanished in an instant. The Carrier exploded in a vibrant burst of vivid blue and purple light.


    Ericson smiled. "Target destroyed ma''am."


    Kelsey smiled. She''d be getting back to the ship safe after all. She tapped the button. Letting her emotions normalize once again... as she looked down at the controls. Her timesense instantly shifted, running at maximum capacity. An broadcast brought Ericson and Amari up to the same timescale.


    "Captain, the hypercannon ruptured. We''re suffering a cascade failure. We have... less than a second before the whole ship fails."


    Amari looked back at her; down at the controls. "Well. I guess this saves us the long flight back to the 13. Upload any data on what caused the failure and broadcast it. I''ll see you on the ship, Danvers. Ericson. Good work." She smiled, giving a salute.


    Kelsey stared at her in horror and panic. Even at her accelerated timeframe, she had less than a minute to live. She thought back to her life. Her first one, a successful starship engineer. Her life in the city. School. Derek. The navy. Her second, new, life. Technically her own real birth, since she was, by no means, the real Kelsey Danvers. The most striking memory was punching Derek. Trying to send him flying off into hyperspace.


    The look of stunned horror at the betrayal on his face. Her own regrets. Would she do it all over again? She watched the hypercannon starting to come apart. The ship breaking up around it, as bits and pieces of it were scattered into hyperspace.


    And it all went black.


    ***


    Sitting up in the robot bay, Kelsey looked down at her hands. Ignoring McCloud''s directive to get out of the bay as the roboticist moved on to wake up... probably Ericson... she shut her overlay off. This was a new her. Literally; she''d been born just seconds ago, in this new body. She was navy. She''d probably be stepping into the line of fire again. Her new lifespan might be measured in thousands of years... or in weeks.


    For a moment, she considered just giving up. Then... Onyx perched on her shoulder. The tiny dragon chirping at her as if it were a bird. She smiled. Turned her overlay on, letting herself feel human once more... and stepped out of the bay. For now, she could get back to work. But she wasn''t the old Kelsey. She needed to make her own, new, choices.