"As long as we're together," Victoria said. Lawrence stopped in his tracks as she turned to face him. A sudden, gentle gust of wind from the direction of the sunset riverbank. "With you by my side, I'll never give up no matter how bad it gets."

  There was a tap on Lawrence's helmet. He opened his eyes—or at least thought he did. There was only pitch darkness. Have I gone blind? Lawrence shuddered at the thought.

  Lawrence groaned painfully. Slowly, memory returned to him: he crashed into an asteroid, but he wasn't sure if he had his shield up in time, or even his whereabouts now.

  But his worry subsided. His cockpit lit up at intervals from a low-intensity red light. The systems were down—so in a way he as blind as he was deaf. Then he heard it; the faint alarm buzz. He moved his loggish arms and made contact with the collapsed shock balloon. He struggled to wake his muscles and guided them slowly to shove it back in the compartment with repeated caveman grunts.

  He froze before he could shove the last of it in. His dome cockpit had subtle tremors. With no security rails in place, they were pronounced because of the lack of shock absorbers. He's never heard such intense mechanical agony before, much less the experience of unblunted shockwaves until now, and he hoped it would've stayed that way. He cleared his throat and fastened the console plating on. The eerily illumination and the muted paneling enabled his unchecked anxiety.

  Lawrence reached for the console ignition key, but hesitated.

  Another wave of tremors. No longer so subtle, but not crazy either.

  He shivered as he tried to process his next course of action. Not knowing his exact position or even where he was in the asteroid field was his biggest concern, but what were those quakes? Was it friend or foe? Perhaps celestial collisions? A nearby battle or the enemy trying to flush him out?

  If he powered on the K?mpfer now, it might pose a risk. There was a chance——his signature could be picked up and enemies could converge on his location before he even had a chance to get himself better oriented. That was a gamble he wasn't sure he wanted to take.

  The shock waves became increasingly aggressive. It spurred him on to jump the gun. He turned the key: nothing happened, except the cockpit—his grave—shook uncontrollably. He stopped thinking just as his blood froze and his heart skipped several beats.

  "Oh Lady Luck . . . have I lost your graces now?" Lawrence murmured. He shoved the loose paneling out of the way and hugged the interface. The tremors got closer. Was he doomed? "Ben . . . Kaz . . . what would you have done?" Lawrence whispered under his breath. Would they have sortied after Victoria? Would they have stayed put with the fleet?

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  Lawrence didn't want to abandon his K?mpfer; just as much as he didn't want to abandon Victoria and Frank. I'm not heartless, he said inwardly. Was it the vain hope of Victoria picking up his wavelength? He didn't know how that worked; he could only pray Victoria didn't actually think of him that way. Roy, Kaz . . . we weren't heartless, he told himself. His linear chair was an amusement ride he very much didn't want to be on.

  But it quickly became evident that it may be his only course of action. So much for having the black box secured, he told himself. How long was I out for? How much recyled oxgygen do I have in my suit? Thoughts raced through his mind. He checked his vest and noted time was not on his side at all.

  Lawrence breathed in manually; he suddenly felt light-headed. If he couldn't somehow restart the K?mpfer, he might die without so much as putting up a valiant effort. His allies may never even find him, and it horrified him what the Imperium may do with him—alive dead.

  All the while, the harsh seismics kept his reality checked. Every brutal vibration rattled his skull as much as it did his steel casket. He cleared his throat and made another attempt to activate the K?mpfer. Still nothing. "I'm screwed," Lawrence uttered.

  In a fit of anger, Lawrence gave it good old percussive therapy—then the war machine revitalized. Astonished, but concerned for his safetly he quickly set it into a low-powered state to avoid possible detection before the panomera camera even had a chance to activate. That also meant he wouldn't have access to its recycled air.

  He knew better than to think the enemy wouldn't notice. Lawrence simply couldn't chance it. He needed visuals, but it won't be with the help of the K?mpfer. Too much overreliance on technology made man weak; the rise and fall of the Thinking Machines a millennium ago was a testament to that.

  He unbuckled and grabbed hold of the metallic panel. There's no telling if Lawrence could even abandon ship with the liberty pod. If he wasn't in a good position to launch it, it could only end in disaster. There was always the risk of collision with celestial bodies or debris. Escape balls don't exactly have stellar input controls.

  That really just left one last option: open the cockpit and venture out into the cosmic wine-dark sea. But if the systems were down, he wouldn't be able to open the hatch door. Suddenly, for Lawrence, the dome steel casket seemed smaller than he remembered. A sudden unpleasant memory of being shoved into and locked in a closet by older kids reared its ugly head.

  Driven by panic, he lunged for the door. His hands fumbled with the leverlock, but he turned it with great difficulty. Since the systems were down, he'd have to use muscle to force the rest open.

  So he kicked, and kicked some more. His legs screamed with pain, but he put up with it. After enough effort, he made an opening small enough for his profile.

  Lawrence gave himself a push towards his linear chair and looked behind it. He took from the rack a laz pistol and a bundle of grenades, and slid them on his belt. They may be as useful as pointing a flashlight at his adversaries, but it was better than nothing to get eyes and ears on his situation.

  Lawrence took a deep breath, held the loose panel under his right arm, and slowly crawled out from his K?mpfer into the unknown.