"I'm done," I said, climbing off the metal girder, my heart hammering a solo in my ears, punching my brain with every beat. The migraine caused gray and black blobs to flash before my eyes.

  That's what you get for warding a three-hundred-meter-long transmission tower in one go.

  I missed the ladder's last step, my boots ringing against the Belithain's steel decking. The Kylians had done a great job turning the old space-hauler into a home, dividing the city-sized cargo bay into parts, building two-story dwellings out of discarded, fractured and re-welded hull plates, setting up horticulture farms and training areas. There was light in many places, chasing the cargo bay's darkness and cold toward the bow. They'd even built a small park, with real grass beneath a slew of UV-grow lights. In theory, you could strip naked and go sunbathing.

  Of course, Riina might have some words if you did that. For all of her grandmotherly looks and manners, the Belithain's commander had a core of molten steel that waited patiently for a chance to burn anyone who displeased her into cinders.

  "You sure you're done?" said Hao, setting me down. I hadn't even realized she'd caught me and kept me from falling. My legs flailed about before I managed to get them beneath me.

  "I'm fine," I said.

  "That's not what I asked," Hao said, raising one of her bushy eyebrows, giving me a stare from her too-blue eyes. She had a firm hold on my arm, keeping me upright. Easy to do since she was two heads taller than I. "You sure it will work?"

  "It will work," I said, my mouth dry, my voice a croak. "It's just a ward."

  A three-hundred-meter-long ward. The Belithain's transmission tower was the largest thing I had ever warded or infused. Normally, a tower is created in sections, carefully rolled cylinders of chemically pure iron doped with 36% nickel to resist thermal expansion and contraction. These were very carefully warded over a period of six to eight months, by a team of warders, while slowly rotating in a supporting cradle. Any deviation from the standard forms would create force leaks, and leave the transmission ward inert.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  I'd warded the whole tower in two months, freehand, on a steel girder that made up the center support of the Belithain's cargo bay. I was quite proud of it.

  "Then why doesn't it give out any readings?" Hao said, re-connecting her reader to the tower's fist-sized output leads.

  "Crud," I said.

  "Really?" Hao said, giving me a raised eyebrow above her too-blue eyes. "Cursing will not help."

  I was about to give her an elbow in the ribs when I remembered that she was two heads taller than me, and had a seriously short temper, especially when it came to physical touch.

  "Cursing will help me feel better," I said instead.

  Hao ignored the jibe. Bad sign. My flashing headache pounded my will to investigate into submission.

  "Maybe you need to re-ward it," Hao said.

  I tried giving her a glare. Most of Hao's knowledge of magic came from watching action-adventure vids, and was as useful as hammering in a loose nail by bashing your head against it. The glare failed.

  "Chief engineer," said Adin, one of Riina's Kylians who served on Hao's engineering crew, "maybe the Captain needs to rest a bit, before he falls down, like?"

  The Kylians had all taken to calling me the capital-C Captain. It made Hao laugh, Riina smile, and me fume. What was wrong with plain old Jake? It was a good name, even if it was fake.

  "Good point," Hao said. "Let's get you to bed."

  "Fine," I said, "drop that crowbar and the knife in your waistband and let's try."

  That got me a shove and a curse, which was fine by me. I wasn't an egg that needed mothering. I'd warded freehand before I could grow a beard.

  The thumping in my head got louder. Or maybe that was my boots against the steel decking. It was becoming hard to tell. The cargo bay's cold, dry air scratched my throat with every breath. I stumbled, and Hao grabbed me.

  "Chief engineer," another of her helpers called. "There's a burned fuse in the transmission relay."

  "See," I slurred at Hao. "I knew it wasn't the wards."

  "Go to sleep," Hao said. "Adin, help him to his cabin."

  "Yes, ma'am," Adin said, diving in beneath my arm and hauling me upward.

  Discipline. Soon, they'd all be saluting and wearing those silly caps like in the Fed navy, and then where would we all be? I'd have shaken my head, if it hadn't hurt so much.

  Leaning on Adin more than I would have liked, I made my way to my cabin and collapsed in bed.