After doing what he could to find his crew, Captain Hunter set about to analyzing the Dunkerque’s communications systems. There was always an outside chance a full suite of communications equipment would be able to do what a tac-suit based portable system couldn’t.

He had the power he needed. Yili did say the batteries were at 17%. After confirming this fact for himself, he set the ship’s communications on maximum broadcast bandwidth and keyed the transmitter.

“Hunter to landing party, come in.”

He waited the regulation ten seconds.

“Hunter to landing party, respond please.”

Nothing was audible on any of the ship’s pickups. The Captain quickly configured the system to broadcast his hail at ten second intervals and set his personal commlink to relay the Dunkerque’s response frequencies before moving to the short range sensor station.

Meanwhile, on the Dunkerque bridge, Zony was working as fast as she was able to locate the Captain’s commlink designator.

Anything? Moo asked.

Zony shook her head. “The last autoresponse we got was from lift two, but these readings don’t make any sense. It’s almost as if...”

“As if what?”

“Okay, look at this.” Zony pulled up the frequency analysis track and superimposed it on the position tracking of Hunter’s commlink. “Here, right when he steps into Lift Two, all of the frequency tracking spikes into third and fourth harmonics and we lose his signal. Nine seconds later, we get the base frequency and the harmonic at the same time index, giving our commlinks a chance to reacquire his signal for point zero zero five seconds. Then the base signal disappears again and we lose his track. Now, you could call this coincidence, except for that second blip. His appearance and disappearance is exactly coordinated with that base signal.”

“Meaning you can get a fix on his position?”

“I already did. If I set our frequency cycle to his harmonic range, I reacquire his signal, but at a different time index. From our perspective, time is passing 100 times faster for him. I know that because the time index on his commlink is already registering a couple of days in the future.”

“Could that be a systems malfunction?” Moo asked, desperately trying to keep up with Zony’s formidable intellect.

“Not unless the laws of physics are different wherever he is.”

“You said you had a fix on his position. Where?”

“He’s on the bridge of this ship.”

Moo just stared.

As he worked furiously to get a fix on the Dunkerque’s position, Captain Hunter’s commlink beeped, indicating he had received a response to his hail. He keyed his transmitter.

“Hunter here.”

“I see you simply won’t be deterred, Captain.”

Hunter face froze in a combination of shock and recognition. He rose to his feet and activated the main viewer. The face of Admiral Hughes appeared. He was still wearing his Skywatch uniform, but it was decorated with a number of strange insignia. He also had odd marks on his face. They looked as if they were from some kind of pigment.

“Admiral, I have orders to take you into custody and return you to Skywatch Fleet command for debriefing.”

Hughes chuckled. “By the book. I have to say I’m impressed, Jason. You took to your training much more readily than I first believed.”

“I’ll kindly ask that you address me by my proper rank, sir.”

“Not in a mood for a reunion with your old teacher? Well, I suppose I deserve that. But I’m no longer a Skywatch admiral, captain. I have been offered a much more valuable role in the world to come.”

“With all due respect, sir, what the hell are you talking about?”

“The army that is preparing to conquer the Core systems has granted me the title of Warlord. I will deliver the human race to our sovereign. He will decide if they live or die. If you live, it will be to serve the Ithis. If you die, be safe in the knowledge you gave your lives to advance a far more worthy species.”

“You’re already facing court-martial for a number of offenses, admiral. Do you really want to add treason to your indictment?”

“Captain, there is no jurisdiction known to man with the power to enforce its will on me. I have ten million warriors at my back and a fleet of starships with enough firepower to annihilate the human race in a matter of weeks. We’re not talking about a war here. We’re talking about the complete obliteration of every planet man has ever set foot on.”

“Stop it, admiral. You’re scaring me.”

“You have an opportunity here, Jason. You have a chance to fulfill your commission in ways no other Skywatch captain has ever dreamed of. You can save mankind. You can literally save every man, woman and child alive if you’re intelligent enough to recognize where you stand in history. The Ithis empire spans galaxies. Mankind is a mosquito infestation in comparison.”

“Surely I don’t have to remind the admiral what mosquitoes can do to an arrogant population?”

“Mankind never employed anti-matter weapons against insects.”

“Admiral, would you mind carrying a message to the Ithis sovereign for me? It would certainly save us all a lot of time and it might earn you some more paint for your face.”

Hughes’ expression did not change. He replied with a deadpan sarcastic tone. “What message is that, captain?”

“You tell him if he plans to exterminate the human race he better bring his lunch. Hunter out.”

The channel closed abruptly and Hunter went back to adjusting the Dunkerque’s short range sensors.

A strange signal flickered on Zony’s frequency analysis display.

“Colonel?”

“Do we have sensor coordinates yet?” Moo asked.

“Negative, but we’re getting some kind of intermittent transmission on that base frequency. It’s happening in microsecond-length bursts, however, so there’s barely enough time to register its there, much less do an analysis on it.

“Auxiliary power restored,” Yili announced.

“We can’t move. You’re aware of the inverse-square law?”

“Signal strength is inversely proportional to the distance from the source?”

“Close enough, colonel,” Zony smiled. “It’s theoretically exponentially true across dimensions. If the Captain is on some other plane of existence, a movement of even a few inches could put him permanently out of range of any signal we can muster.”

“Helm at station-keeping, engineer,” Moo ordered.

“Colonel, we’ve got hostiles on the move. Now on Deck Three and approaching the core magneto-lifts,” Yili announced. The marines at the bridge entrances braced themselves and hefted their weapons.

“Get a fix on him, lieutenant. Now.” The look on Moo’s face left no room for interpretation.

“All due respect sir, even if we get the Captain back into our dimension, what’s our plan?” Zony asked.

“We’re going to do what the Captain originally planned: Use this ship to beat those damn bugs to a pulp.”