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“Aye, sir,” said the officer at sensor control, and theship

Soasp Even Davenport, an officer with nearly a decade in the fleet, took an unconscious half step back

“Good God, she’s a big one,” he said

The Heart of the Tenetar-class ships to come out of Laconia’s orbital construction platforned to the home fleet and the protection of Laconia itself The Voice of the Whirlas still being grown between the spars and limbs of the alien orbital arrays And while the fleet now consisted of over a hundred ships, the Magnetars were the largest andStorm, his own ship, was one of the Pulsar-class fast destroyers, and he was fairly certain the Tempest could fit a dozen of them inside its hull

The Pulsar-class destroyers were tall and sleek in design To Singh’s eye they were almost reminiscent of old Earth naval ships But the Heart of the Tempest was -dead giant the size of a planet It was as pale as bone too, even where the curves fell into shadow

Like all ships built by Laconia’s orbiting construction platfor not quite huuns andplate system that made the surface of the ship seeical There was so the constraints of their her levels

Singh wasn’t an expert in the protoies that it spawned, but there was

sos partly designed by a species that had been gone for millennia Collaboration with the dead left questions that could never be answered Why did the construction array make the choices it made? Why place the drive here instead of there, why make the internal systehtly off? Was it a -vanishedcertain, and probably never would

“Tees,” the comm officer said

“Re for dock now,” his helm added, and the main screen shifted from telescopic shots of the battleship to a wire fra at the Tempest

“Very well,” Singh said with a smile The admiralty had entrusted him with one of Laconia’s state-of-the-art ships, and they’d filled it with serious and focused officers and crew As a first command, he couldn’t have asked for better

That he and his ship were the tip of the i on the cake

“Admiral Trejo sends his compliments,” the comm officer said “He asks that you join him for dinner in his private mess”

Singh turned to his XO “Stay on the Storm and keep the crew alert We have no idea what reception we’re getting on the other side of the gate, and may need to deploy at a moment’s notice”

“Aye, Captain”