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in command of this battlegroup and have a responsibility to each and every man and woman in this squadron.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind, sir.”

“Unfortunately, we now find ourselves with a bit of a problem. The captain of a ship must have the complete and undividedrespect of the people under him. I damaged that respect by relieving you and placing Commander Mackey in your place. I can’trestore your command without risking confusion and divided loyalties. I can’t assign you to another ship’s department withoutundermining your authority no matter where I put you. You understand me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“For that reason, I am relieving you of all duty. When we get home, I will recommend you be assigned another command. I don’twant your career haunted by what happened on the bridge today.”

“Very kind of you. Sir.”

“For what it’s worth, Jason, I believe you to be a capable officer. You will have my highest recommendation for your new command.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“You have anything you want to tell me? Man to man, just us guys?”

“It doesn’t really matter, does it, sir? The Navy Board is going to know you relieved me, and they’re going to want to knowwhy. For the record, Admiral, I was not panicking on the bridge this afternoon.”

“I didn’t say that you were.”

“I felt that you were making a mistake. Sir.” He took a deep breath. “I didn’t realize that you were so . . . sensitive tocriticism. Sir.”

“I am not,” Gray replied, his voice cold. “I do appreciate that you believed I was making a serious error in judgment. Further,I appreciate that it is your duty to point out to your senior officers instances that appear to be lapses in judgment, orthings that they might not know. I don’t mind having my orders questioned. But not in combat, in front of other personnel! You understand me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I will only point out that my decision seems to have worked out after all. Perhaps you should work at trusting your seniorofficers rather than tell them what they can’t do in a tight situation in front of the bridge crew.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Dismissed.”

He stared out at the stars for a long time. Gray knew that it was quite possible that he had wrecked the man’s career. Rand was right—the Navy Board would not overlook the fact that he’d been summarily relieved of command.

Unfortunately, the good of the ship and of the mission always came first.

“Admiral? This is Mackey.”

“Yes, Luther.”

“We have probes coming through the Rosette. Recon drones. I suspect that our friends on the other side are getting ready tocome after us.”

“Launch fighters,” Gray replied. “Keep us tight behind Straggler. I’ll be up right away.”

He just hoped he’d thought of everything . . . or the N’gai Cluster of 876 million years ago would become America’s grave.

Chapter Nine

12 April, 2429

VFA-96, Black Demons

N’gai Cluster

1608 hours, FST

“Launch!”

Acceleration slammed Gregory back in his seat as his SG-420 Starblade shot from the launch tube and into open space. Orientinghimself, he spun his fighter to face the underside of America’s immense shield cap and let his drift carry him out from under its shadow into the harsh glare from the Rosette. The backgroundradiation out here was fierce, a seething torrent of high-energy particles accelerated by those black holes, but his Starblade’shull should be able to hold back the worst of it, at least for a while.

“America CIC, this is CSP One,” Gregory said. “Handing off from PriFly. All Demons clear of the ship and formed up.”

“Copy, Combat Space Patrol One,” a voice replied from America’s Combat Information Center. “Primary Flight Control confirms handoff to CIC. You are clear to move into position.”

“You heard the man,” Gregory told his squadron. “Tuck in snug and close.”

The twelve fighters drifted forward, clearing America’s shield cap but not moving far beyond it. The carrier hung enormous beside him and just barely astern, the wink-wink-winkof her running lights picking out her deeply shadowed shape against the starfield.

Ahead, once they were past the immense, curved rim of the shield cap, lay wonder.

Within the past several minutes, America had aligned herself behind the object designated as Straggler Alfa, a black hole two hundred kilometers across. Less thana light-minute ahead now, the tiny object was invisible to the unaided eye. High magnification, however, showed the eventhorizon of the object blotting out the line of sight forward; around it, space was tightly bent, the stars beyond twistedand blurred into a silver-white halo around the black hole. Around the object, spanning much of the sky, the six brilliantlyshining accretion disks of the Rosette’s black holes moved in a perfect circle. Under magnification, he couldn’t see the centerof the N’gai Rosette; Straggler Alfa was in the way.

Which meant that someone coming through the Rosette from elsewhere wouldn’t be able to see the Americans, either.

“Any word on the Russkies?” Lieutenant Timmons asked.

“Negative,” Gregory snapped. “Now shut your yapper. Radio silence!”

And they waited.

Even at 18 million kilometers’ distance, Straggler Alfa exerted a relentless pull on all of the Starblades, as well as onthe carrier behind them. When a star exploded and became a black hole, it continued to exert the same gravitational tug onits surroundings as it had before, as if the original star remained in place. Gregory had his hands full juggling the balanceof gravitic drive thrust against that relentless pull, holding his position motionless relative to the object.

“CSP One, CIC,” a voice said in Gregory’s head. “Long-range scans indicate the enemy drones are returning through the Rosette. If anything’s going to happen, it’ll go down any moment now.”

“CSP One copies.”

The minutes flowed on, the sound broken only by the rasp of Gregory’s breathing in his helmet and the hum of the Starblade’sgravs holding it back against the pull of the former giant sun.

Straggler Alfa, he’d decided, must be the remnant of that blue-white star the Sh’daar had hurled through the Rosette. Someone—theConsciousness or the Harvesters—had blocked the star from getting through, though a large amount of plasma had shotgunnedpast the Rosette on the other side. What was left of a giant