The Shadow Flotilla’s spatial shears opened around Trunk Line Four. The cable carried power to the ice habitats and the hospitals treating survivors from both fleets.
Austin stood between the shears and the conductor.
“Back away,” he said on the open channel. “You’re inside fifteen feet of a live line, and nobody called 811.”
Shadow-Judge Mo Yan answered, “Wu Ji says the line already failed.”
“Wu Ji has been lying to you since Frost-Belt.”
The shears closed.
Austin clamped his wrench across the grounding shield and sent a controlled fault through the cutting frame. He kept the surge away from the corvette reactors. It burned out the shears, navigation arrays, and weapon links. The ships drifted with their cabins warm and their air intact.
Mo Yan tried to trigger a manual charge. Sera reached it first.
