The Armstrong sent out a burst of computer signals without prompting, and the Orellana quickly responded. The back-and-forth soon became so rapid that it was almost indistinguishable from two unbroken signals.

"There's a bunch of signal chatter going on between the Armstrong and the Orellana," said Marcecaux, looking worried at his console "I think they're talking."

"Bridge to the Captain," said Gibson, immediately.

It wasn't necessary to page her. Just as the signals had begun the door to her office slid open. Captain Littlecrow didn't need to be told twice. She came running onto the bridge before the Commander had finished his sentence.

The ship chirped in the negative, to indicate that the person being paged was present.

"What's going on?" asked the Captain.

Commander Gibson stood to give the Captain her seat.

"We believe the Armstrong and the Orellana may be in communication with one another," he said.

The Captain sat in the command throne.

"Stay sharp everyone," said the Captain "We're probably going to need to do something fast and we're not going to know what. Or when."

An uncomfortable silence began, as the ships continued to exchange a flurry of signals.

"Did something happen in your office that might have triggered this?" asked Gibson.

"I gave the Armstrong a field commission," said Littlecrow.

If she had said this to him a week ago Commander Gibson would have put up the biggest fight of his career. He would have laid out lengthy arguments against the very premise of doing such a thing, both legal and moral. If the Captain had not relented he would have filed a formal complaint with the Foundation and with Exploration Fleet. Instead he said:

"Oh."

Suddenly Mitzner's console began to light up with battle-scan data all on it's own. It had identified an exotic looking component deep within the hull of the Orellana, some kind of highly dense sphere.

Marceaux's console was lit up too.

"Orellana is redirecting power to shields!" Marceaux announced.

"So are we," added Mitzner.

"We're moving!" announced Guildenstern.

The Armstrong's immediate evasive action allowed it to turn what would have been a direct hit into a glancing blow. The ion beam scrapped against the far side of the Armstrong's ion-hardened shielding. The shields flickered but remained coherent.

The Armstrong fired back, the beam hitting the central mass of the Orellana. There was a visible pop as the shields destabilized and the Armstrong immediately fired mass drivers. The metal slugs were quickly vaporized as they crashed into a second set of shields around the Orellana.

"Everyone whose console still works help in any way you can," said the Captain "Do not wait for orders! Fire at will!"

Both ships were now circling each-other erratically, trying to be unpredictable enough to be hard to hit but stay close enough to be accurate with their own weapons.

The Orellana fired again, now compensating for the fact that it was fighting a moving target. This time the unusual, pulsing ion beam hit home and overwhelmed even the Armstrong's advanced shielding. The Orellana quickly slid a volley from its own mass drivers through the opening.

The mass drivers crashed through several decks and straight into the pressurized section of the Armstrong. Four crewmen were killed on impact, and their bodies were sucked out into open space along with large quantities of oxygen.

"Armstrong do a ship-wide page," said the Captain "All non-essential crew report for maintenance duty. Seal off all compromised decks and try to save as much of the oxygen as you can."

"That section had no ship-critical components," said Gibson "Why would it fire at such a tactically sub-optimal location?"

"It's not trying to disable the ship," said the Captain "It's trying to render it uninhabitable."

While all this was happening Mitzner was lost in her own world. She didn't notice much except the data her console was displaying. It was telling a sort of story and she was beginning to understand. The Orellana used concentric shielding, something not thought entirely possible by the Huxley Foundation. Breaking through would require getting the timing just right.

That's when her console stopped. It wasn't operating on its own anymore. Mitzner immediately realized that it was waiting for her input. The Armstrong wanted her to take the shot. It wanted her to drop the shields and then target whatever the dense spherical component was.

Mitzner fired once, a test shot to get a feel for the enemy shields. Her ion beam connected and destabilized the first shield but, as before, a second shield still remained.

The Captain and Gibson were still shouting. The ship shook as one of its AG modules was damaged. Other people were shouting too, but Mitzner couldn't spare them an iota of attention.

Mitzner quickly adjusted several virtual sliders at once with one hand, while she separated the ion cannons into two groups with the other. She set the first group of cannons to a dangerously high power setting and disengaged the safety cut-off. This would burn these ion cannons out very quickly so she would only get one shot. The other group she left with the default settings.

Both ships were getting defensive, putting more and more distance between one another. Mitzner waited for her opportunity. Sweat oozed its way out of her hair and down her face but she didn't dare wipe it away.

The Orellana came around and fired its combined arms, breaking through the shield and scoring another devastating hit with the mass drivers. The other hits had already vented much of the ship's oxygen and now they were losing what little they had left.

This attack, however, exposed the Orellana to potential counter-fire. Mitzner took her shot.

The full power beam crashed into the first shield and remained long after it should have dissipated for safety reasons. Just as the first set of cannons burnt out Mitzner activated the second.

The first shield crackled out of existence, and the overpowered beam spilled out onto the second shield before burning out spectacularly. At this point the beam from the second group hit, overwhelming the already badly taxed second shield.

For a brief shining moment, the Orellana was unprotected.

The mass driver volley was well-timed. It flew through the opening in the shields just at the last microsecond before the first shield re-stabilized. The slugs impacted the dense sphere with so much force that warheads would have been redundant.

The explosion caused the Orellana to careen off course, out of control. Unbeknownst to the crew the loss of the sphere also ended the Orellana's control of local space/time.

Bringing it's relativity drive to life the Armstrong opened a space/time tunnel just behind the Orellana. Unable to gain control of itself in time the ship fell into the tunnel and shot off towards whatever destination lay on the other side.

Mitzner took the opportunity to wipe the sweat from her forehead.

"What in all the stars just happened?" asked the Captain.

* * *

The Armstrong was badly in need of repairs and couldn't stay long, but they stuck around just long enough to help the two orbital colonies avoid falling to complete chaos after the dissolution of their previous totalitarian government.

The colonists proved to be a savvy and educated people. Most were originally Foundation members, or else descendants of them. With the Armstrong serving as a figurehead it wasn't difficult to get them to organize themselves and begin real self-governance.

The absorption of the colonies into the Foundation seemed inevitable, but the Armstrong had to leave with the process just started.

Without requiring any outside input the Armstrong identified the next closest point of interest within it's starmaps and set a course.

End: Remembrance Of The Magellan Class