WEIFANG, EARTH ORBIT “WHAT IS THE status of our repairs?” Sun asked tiredly, still thinking about the Confederate transmission. “Damage is, of course, extensive. We’re down by half our engineering section, Captain.” “Most of those systems were covered by redundancy, yes?” He could see the reluctance in his officers’ eyes as they nodded in agreement, not that Sun blamed them in all honesty. It was clear what he was going to ask them to do, he was sure, and it was equally clear that it was essentially a suicide mission. What could he do, though? What could any of them do? They had led the enemy to Earth. That was on their heads. Maybe the Confederates made them an enemy in the first place, maybe not. Sun was now privately disposed to believe that whatever these things were, they were now and always had been hostile. Whichever was the case, however, didn’t really matter. He had personally caused this particular battle, forget the war for the moment. This was Sun’s own mess, and he had to try to clean it up.
