“It’s nothing, captain. Just need to stay focused.”

He nodded, taking a message from a runner and adding a note to the red box over the lower hull. Looked like they were nearly done with that area.

“Repair crews say we should be okay to move on half power in two hours, but I’m going to push for whatever we have in one because we don’t have much longer before the nearest patrols pinpoint where the battle happened.”

The captain turned to the map and drew a large circle.

“We need to be out of this before noon. Can we do that?”

I jotted down a few numbers, running the calculations. Picked up the compass hesitantly, then laid down two arcs. They met just barely outside the border.

“We can, but it’s going to be a close-run thing, Captain.”

Firus bent down to check the constructed line, mused for a second, and approved it.

“No time to waste then, Quartermaster. Banon? Get as many men out of the infirmary as you can. We need every man we can have.”

We leapt into action.