Darien had watched the footage from their encounter with the mystery ship over and over and over. He couldn't find anything in it to disprove Amber's startling declaration. The way the ship bent the space around it, distorting the very fabric of reality resembled Blink travel too much to be a coincidence.

But that only ignited another question in his mind: how?

Blink was biological, not technological. He could open a window large enough to transport himself and one other person at a push. Beyond that the error margins in the calculations increased exponentially and the whole process became incredibly dangerous. It was impossible for a single operative to create a passage through space-time big enough to transport a whole ship.

His thoughts turned grimly to the kids that had been snatched from their homes up and down colonial space. It was no coincidence. Whatever method their enemies had used to build a Blink ship, it had something to do with the kidnap victims. It would be up to them to find out what.

The door tone of his room on the station sounded. Rubbing his eyes with both hands, he flopped back in his seat and called, "It's open."

With a hiss the door opened and Niamh stepped inside. Her jacket hung in one hand and she gently pressed the button to seal the room again. She crossed the room and leaned down, resting her chin on his shoulder, putting an arm around him. He closed his eyes, inhaling deeply, feeling her breath against his cheek.

"How're you doing?" she asked quietly.

"Too much thinking to do," he muttered. "Something just doesn't feel right."

Her grip around him tightened into a reassuring hug. "If everything were right we wouldn't have a job."

With a sigh he stood up, turning to face her. "I just can't get my head round it. How can a ship Blink?"

"We don't know if that's what happened."

"It's the only thing that ticks all the boxes."

She shrugged. "We'll find them – you know we will. And when we do all the mysteries, all the secrets, we'll get the answers. In the meantime..." she cocked her head to one side, a mischievous smile on her face. "I thought you might like to take your mind off things."

"Oh yeah?"

"We've got some time while the techs do their thing." Her smile broadened and her gaze wandered up and down his body. "No cameras in here either. We're alone for a change."

Darien grinned at that. It would certainly be a good way to get both of their minds off the mess they currently had to deal with. He let his eyes pass over her lithe, slender frame and felt blood rushing to his cheeks.

"So, what do you say, sir?"

Unable to think of anything snappy or romantic to say, Darien took a single stop forward and slipped his hand around her back, feeling her muscles tense beneath the smooth fabric of her top. A small breath caught in her throat as he pulled her close. She dropped her jacket on the floor and her hands rose, resting against his chest.

Niamh looked at him, her biological eye twinkling. Then she ran her hands up his torso to the sides of his neck and she closed the remaining distance between them in a sudden motion. Darien closed his eyes, feeling her lips push against his and his grip around her waist tightened reflexively.

The warmth of her body rushed through him as they became entwined around each other. His fingers slid under her top, caressing her smooth, soft skin and he felt her shudder with pleasure. With his free hand he cupped the back of her neck, holding her close as their kisses became more frantic; frenzied. She surged forward, wrapping a leg around him and pushing him back against the table with a crash.

A mischievous giggle passed her lips then her hands were under his jacket, nails digging against the muscles in his back as she clung to him. Electricity roiled through Darien's veins as he finally let his base urges take over. He let her tear the jacket from his shoulders and then her fingers crept beneath his shirt, tracing the contours of his body with a gentle, inviting touch. With his arm still wrapped around her waist he lifted her off the ground, extracting a squeal of surprise. She coiled her other leg around him, running kisses down the side of his neck. They banged into the desk again; something fell.

Suddenly she froze, her lips still touching his. Then slowly; agonizingly she pulled away.

"We just can't catch a break," she whispered huskily.

He opened his eyes to see her looking past him, hair dishevelled and exasperation stamped on her flushed features. Following her eye line he glanced down at the floor and his heart sank.

Lying innocently where it had fallen, his comm bracelet pulsed blue.

*

"We have a plan," Smith told them. "The ship will surface again and if Tannis Brock is on board we will detect it. When that happens you must be ready."

The operatives of Hammerhead Squad had reconvened in one of the briefing rooms, along with Blink's commander. He paced leisurely back and forth as he spoke, his voice calm and collected as though the events of the past weeks hadn't even happened. Darien did his best to focus on Smith and the task at hand, trying not to look at Niamh. Every time he did his mind flashed back to what they'd been doing less than half an hour ago and his whole body tingled.

"Ready for what?" Hekket asked with unease clear in his voice.

"To board it." Smith clasped his hands behind his back, taking a steadying breath. "Normally I would hand this over to a ship-to-ship boarding team from the colonial marines, but the nature of our enemy negates that possibility. As soon as they see a boarding craft on approach they will simply disappear."

Darien nodded knowingly. "So you want to get within striking distance and then have us Blink across?"

"Exactly."

"We can't Blink on board without knowing the interior," Amber put in. "That ship doesn't match any known configurations. If we go in blind, half of us will probably end up materialising inside a bulkhead."

"I'm aware of the dangers, Amber." The Blink commander pressed a button on his remote and a diagram flashed up on the screen behind him. For a moment Darien stared at the unfamiliar layout in confusion, then he realised that it was a scan of their mystery ship. "Our first encounter was not a total loss. At close range the Mattock's sensors were able to penetrate the local interference and give us a skeleton layout of its interior."

Folding his arms, Darien leaned back in his seat, examining the plans. He'd never been an expert on ships, but even he could see the oddities in the vessel's design. The inside of the huge bulbous stern still had unmapped patches, growing thicker the closer the scans moved towards its centre. He guessed that must have been where the jamming signal originated from.

The long thin protrusion had a more comprehensive layout, with a lower deck filled with small chambers. His eyes narrowed as he hunted for a likely place for their incursion to take place. Right at the junction where the ship and the dodecahedron connected there was a large empty space.

"Is that a cargo bay?" he asked, pointing it out.

"A best guess," Smith said. "And in any case it's your safest option. Our goal is to find their home, to track this threat to its source. To that end, as soon as the opportunity presents itself you will board that ship."

"Just us?" Hekket said. "On our own?"

"Yes."

"We're not an assault team," the medic exclaimed before anyone else could speak. "Their most dangerous asset walked off Blink Station Alpha. When we first took them on we needed three teams and a gunship squadron to take Tannis Brock in. And this time we'll be on their turf!"

"I hate to say it," Niamh muttered. "But he's right. I'm all for putting these scumbags on the defensive for a change, but assaulting that ship will take more than the six of us." She cast an apologetic glance at Darien but he gave her a small nod of agreement. He wanted to get out and hit their target as much as anyone else, but he wasn't stupid.

"I'm not suggesting you take and hold the ship alone," Smith replied. "For a start, you will be outfitted with specialist combat gear. You will also be taking a transmission beacon with you. Once you've made it into the cargo hold lie low. Then after the ship has returned to its home base your task is to disable the jamming signal, activate the beacon and then wait until we can send a full assault team to back you up."

Darien's eyes lit up. Now this was starting to sound like a workable idea.

"Since we don't know where this ship is going to end up, there's no way of knowing how long you may be left on your own," Smith continued. "Once you've completed your assignment stay safe and wait for back up – if possible see if there is any way to further sabotage their systems to aid our boarding teams. But no heroics."

Shifting his gaze, Darien looked at Hekket. The other boy still looked uncomfortable but with the full details of the plan laid out before him he kept his misgivings to himself. He glanced to Niamh and she was looking back, her expression hungry, eager to put an end to this once and for all.

"Alright," Darien said, turning back to Smith. "Why don't you tell us a bit more about this 'specialist' gear?"

*

Down in the armoury Sergeant Duggat was waiting for them and he had an array of equipment lined up on the tables beside him. Smith gave the hulking man a nod of acknowledgement.

"Sergeant, it's time to fill the operatives in on our developments," he said.

Duggat grinned. "New threats make new solutions." He reached back and picked up a slab of body armour from the collection. He held it up and thumped a clenched fist against it, extracting a hollow clack. "This is modified hybrid polymer armour plating. It's thicker and more rigid than your standard issue armour, but weighs the same. It's blast proof, can withstand temperatures of up to one thousands degrees C', and it'll stop any small arms fire from beyond twenty meters meaning anyone who wants to hurt you needs to be at point blank range. It's as safe as you're going to get this side of the century."

"How's that not standard issue?" Idas wondered jokingly.

"Because you could build a fighter for what one of these suits costs."

The operatives exchanged surprised looks, but the Blink quartermaster didn't seem to be joking. "I've got six and only six full sets of this gear. They're prototypes, top of the range and really damn expensive, so try and bring them back in one piece."

Next he grabbed a small black sphere maybe a centimetre across and held it up, his eyes twinkling triumphantly. "Then we've got this little gem. We call them mufflers. They generate a small personal field to mask your life-signs. Should help you keep a low profile once you're on board that ship."

Darien nodded approvingly. Impregnable armour and a mask for their life-signs would certainly increase their odds of success. There was, however, another item on the table still to be presented.

"And last but not least, this is a Compac Light Assault Cannon," Duggat declared, hefting the bulky weapon so they could all see it. "Designed for close quarters urban combat and ship-to-ship boarding teams, it weighs twice as much as a lance-carbine and kicks ten times as hard."

Darien's eyes ran up and down the weapon. Shorter than the lance-carbines – barely a foot an a half in length – the cannon had a rounded rectangular barrel and a stubby magazine of shells protruding from its underside. The trigger and grip were surrounded by a thick metal hand guard that could be used as a striking implement in close quarters.

"The Compac fires explosive tungsten-cored rounds, with an effective range of one hundred meters," the quartermaster continued. "Within that range these shots will penetrate body armour, doors and even lower spec bulkheads."

Idas let out an impressed whistle.

The sergeant handed Darien the Compac, and then started giving them out to the others. Instantly he could feel the extra heft from the solid-state rounds and the reinforced barrel. He placed it to his shoulder and swung experimentally left and right, feeling the shifts in weight. It was a significant departure from the feather-light simplicity of the carbines. He felt a sense of apprehension and excitement in equal measure.

Glancing around he cold see that not all of his squad mates felt the same. Amber and Hekket both looked thoroughly uncomfortable with the new heavier weapons, while Niamh and Idas were positively beaming. Uther didn't seem to have landed one way or the other, his brow furrowing with concentration as he moved with the Compac tucked against his shoulder.

For his part, Darien definitely appreciated the extra ordinance. One thing their lightweight carbines sorely lacked was stopping power – even when he'd been hit Brock had been able to run with a lance sticking out of him. The weapons simply weren't designed to cause that kind of damage. He rested the cannon across one shoulder and looked at the quartermaster.

"We'll need to clock some range time with these," he said.

"I thought you might." Duggat's face creased into a smile. "The main testing range is set up for you already."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Idas rumbled.

The quartermaster made beckoned them. "Follow me, kids."

They fell into step behind Sergeant Duggat as he led them through to the range situated just off the main armoury. Unlike the normal firing range that the operatives could use when they pleased, this room had much more stringent security measures in place. A place for testing out the latest Blink hardware, the cube-shaped chamber had massively reinforced walls and a heavy vault door to protect against wayward shots and explosions. A line of physical targets ran from left to right – thick blast plates emblazoned with circular bands of red.

Without needing to be told the operatives lined up, taking a target each. Darien looked across at Smith as the door to the range boomed shut. The man gestured for him to go ahead.

Squaring his shoulders he faced the target and brought up the Compac, tucking the stock against his shoulder. He spread his feet a little wider than normal, bracing for a harder kick-back than normal, then looked down the weapon's short range scope. With a tremble of excitement he exhaled and squeezed the trigger.

The Compac fired with a strangely muted thump, its muzzle snarling with orange light. The stock slammed back against his shoulder even harder than he'd been expecting, but he clung on through the recoil, watching the results.

To his amazement the tungsten-cored round didn't just hit the target. It blasted a six-inch hole through the armour plating, sending a cloud of vaporised metal spewing across the floor of the range. A murmur of surprise passed through the group and Darien let the smoking barrel drop, eyes wide. He stared hard at the mangled impact point and a grim smile formed on his lips.

Tannis Brock wouldn't walk away from that.