For there, in stark detail, were the familiar outlines of tiny Ceres: the bare expanse that was Ceresta's sprawling port ... the geometric patterns of the town.
And there, too, in the upper scanner, shone clusters of tiny, crawling pinpoints—the mighty Federation fleet hurtling through the void, poising in this moment to lance down upon their distant prey.
It dragged through a thousand years, that awful instant; an instant so terrible that it made the navigation room swim and dissolve before Jarl Corvett's eyes.
Why had his fate brought him here at this final moment? Why must he take his stand just in time to see the Federation fleet blast his one last dream?
Desperately, fists clenched and sweating, he tried to calculate how long it would take the racing ships to reach a range where they could use Wassreck's deadly force projectors. Five minutes—? Three?
But what did it matter? Whatever the time, it still would be too short.
Unless fate had brought him here now for a purpose; unless the gods of the void themselves were riding at his side....
His stomach writhed. With a will born of utter frenzy, he tore his eyes from the screen.
The guards and the Fantay officer still stood waiting. rey Gundre was studying him with narrowed eyes.