The Queen’s meditation was interrupted by a knock at the door before she had the chance to experience another of Marta’s memories.

  She rose with a sigh of irritation and stepped over to the oaken door, followed by Bones. Opening it revealed the skeletal form of her first officer, Lilith Moonfall, who’d been undead even longer than the Queen.

  Lilith had lost her flesh long ago and her eye sockets bore a ghostly, red glow. She wore a tattered example of the ship’s uniform the Queen had long since stopped caring about, a black pair of trousers and a gray shirt that had once looked professional, though it was overly-baggy on the bones of the dead woman. There was even centuries of ground-in dust on it, because cleanliness and hygiene were basically impossible to maintain for a zombie, but by the time they became a skeleton and were able to stay clean, they no longer cared.

  Lilith’s voice touched the mind, rather than the ears, because it was like that of a ghost, The sensory witches have detected an incoming object. It’s most likely the fish you threw back.

  “Very well, I’ll be on the bridge in a moment.”

  The Queen sat down on her throne and Bones laid down at her feet, because he’d long ago accepted the idea that the crew were no threat.

  Lilith handed a flat scrying crystal to the Queen, which displayed a view of Starwitch. Somehow, Amelia had repaired the masts Mina had wrecked and even the little stub of the fourth mast was functioning. That witch may have been weak, but she was proving more interesting than the Queen had hoped.

  “Trajectory?” She requested.

  Lilith rattled off the relevant figures related to speed and position. The Queen ran the numbers and concluded the little witch had screwed up. She’d gone for a polar orbit, which was ahead of and at a ninety degree angle to the trajectory of Foundation Stone. There was no way Starwitch had enough reaction mass to change her orbit enough to matter.

  “What a shame. She overshot and missed.” The Queen shook her head, “At this rate, the little dog will probably die of thirst, though perhaps she already has.”

  She sat back in her throne and tried to meditate on her battle with Marta.

  Amelia finally caught sight of the monolith on one of the scrying crystals, then used a reversed pinch gesture to zoom in. She smiled, because her gamble had paid off: her current trajectory was going to take her within just a few miles of the monolith, which was barely close enough. With any luck, the Queen was even now concluding Amelia’s trajectory was a failed attempt at an attack run.

  For the next few minutes, Amelia played dead, until she was minutes out from the point of closest approach, then turned the valve on her oxygen tank to normal. As Amelia watched the clock, waiting for her moment, her mind cleared.

  She laid hold of the stick for the gas thrusters and precisely turned Starwitch to face ninety degrees to the side of her trajectory as she paid close attention to her sense of magic, quite pleased to feel the extremely wasteful magic of the monolith’s granite as the structure produced a gravity-manipulation spell to slow down for orbital insertion, which was most effective at the lowest point in an orbit.

  The second hand of the clock ticked to the moment Amelia had calculated for her attack run to begin and she began the chant for her spell, using words for ‘gravity’, ‘ship’ and ‘thrust’. Amelia wasn’t sure if her body could handle the strain of channeling so much magic, but she set her mind on absorbing that wasted by the monolith, which was far more than she needed to slow down her much smaller vessel.

  Amelia grunted as the mountain of energy flowed through her soul and into her body, leaving her feeling as if every inch of her skin was on fire! Tears rolled down her cheeks as the pain grew so intense, she worried it was going to kill her!

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  She thought on her sisters and the pain they’d endured in Dugaria. She considered their sacrifices and refocused her mind on the task of regulating the energy flow, in the hopes of riding the current, rather than taking it in the face! The pain grew, but she hadn’t yet grasped the full power she needed and whimpered as she reached for even more!

  The power hit her like a ton of bricks smashing her skull! Amelia screamed and realized she was far too weak for the task at hand and she was going to die!

  The Book of Newts was frustrated and angry. It wished it had chosen a different puppet, because Amelia was so difficult to steer and needed constant assistance with calculations, despite her brilliant mind. Unfortunately, the very mind that had drawn The Book to the girl had become a disadvantage in recent years, because its puppet had developed a very strong will.

  The Book concluded it had been too patient with her. Ironically, it lacked the magic required for more forceful action, because Amelia had none to spare.

  She was about to die, which would leave the vessel they were in on a slingshot trajectory that would fling them into deep space, away from Junas, a situation that was untenable, to say the least.

  Setting aside its frustrations with the situation, The Book of Newts entered its puppet’s mind and centered itself in the flow of magic, lending a hand with the insane task she was performing, because it had no desire to be forever lost in space.

  Amelia was amazed her doom never came and within seconds, she was riding the enormous wave of magic! The resulting sudden change in acceleration pressed her into her seat more forcefully than ever before and her vision became a tunnel as blood flowed out of her head to pool in the vessels along her backside!

  It was too much and she realized her own spell was going to crush her to death! With a small adjustment, she created a secondary field of gravity inside the ship, partially counteracting the force she felt, leaving just enough room to breath and properly pump blood through her body.

  She made continual, small adjustments to the direction the ship pointed, using the gravity spell, always keeping herself at ninety degrees to her trajectory, until both the monolith and Starwitch were traveling on roughly the same line.

  It’s changing course! Lilith reported, her voice full of emotion, for once!

  “What?” The Queen’s eyes snapped open, “How? She shouldn’t have the resources for that!”

  She looked out of the bridge and ran fresh calculations of the other ship’s trajectory, forced to conclude Amelia had somehow changed her orbital inclination without reaction mass, though she’d turned her little ship into a beacon of powerful gravity magic in the process! It made no sense at all, because such a weak witch couldn’t possibly have done it without help!

  That’s when the Queen realized she made the biggest blunder she could have: in her haste and eagerness to consume Marta, she’d forgotten to take The Book of Newts from Starwitch. The Book was nothing if not selfish and with it at risk of being lost in space, it was surely assisting Amelia with her magic!

  The Queen pounded her throne in frustration and screamed, “Full reverse thrust!”

  Having completed the first stage of her plan, Amelia wasted no time and turned the tail of Starwitch to face the monolith, while she adjusted her gravity spell to slow the ship down, because her current trajectory was too fast and she was drifting directly away from her target. This time, she exactly equalized the force inside the ship, because she had no desire to test the strength of the pilot seat’s straps with a reverse thrust they hadn’t been designed for.

  As she rocketed backwards toward her objective, she turned her attention to the rear-view crystal, glad to see she was on target, with the bridge of the monolith looming ever closer from one instant to the next! Bracing for the inevitable impact, she put a hand on the lever for the landing gear!

  She waited for the perfect combination of range and velocity, then slammed the throttle of Starwitch all the way forward!

  The Queen tried to apply her magic to the ship, but found herself unable to concentrate!

  I’m not letting you do that! Marta whispered inside the Queen’s mind!

  Having failed to cast the spell required for escape, she looked up and noted with horror the rapidly-approaching tail end of Starwitch, on a direct collision course for the bridge!

  “No!” She screamed and climbed from her seat, running out of the room via the main hallway, followed by Bones!

  Superheated steam poured from the rocket nozzles of Starwitch for just a second and a half! The glass of the window briefly exploded inward as the steam blasted it apart, followed by a reversal of force that shot the fragments out, carried by the internal atmosphere!

  Within an instant, the bridge crew was blown out of the ship, some of them bouncing off Starwitch! The smaller ship passed inside and was drawn downward by the artificial gravity field of Foundation Stone, just as the landing gear hatches opened to bring the tires out for a rough, backwards landing!

  The smaller ship rolled to a halt while the masts charged with a white spell that vaguely resembled a soap bubble, complete with swirling colors. As the energy extended outwards in all directions, it formed an atmospheric seal in place of the missing window.