There was a certain expectant silence on the bridge. Harking took a few deep breaths, feeling in those scant seconds the weight of his years fall away. Then reality came back, and he snapped into decision-making mode.

“Navigator – do we have enough range to make it? I need to know our options.”

The man barely blinked, shunting histograms and charts onto Harking’s screen.

“Affirmative, sir, but we will have exceeded our normal operating envelope by more than a half again. It’ll be a fuel-optimal burn and free-fall for the rest of the way. Estimated time to target would increase by a third.”

The captain nodded, reading between the lines. We don’t have many options.

Then we make the best of what we have.

“Go dark, then connect us to the Interlink. We’ll need to call this one in.”