Kel opened her eyes. They were white-hot, featureless, burning with stored light. The crimson coil around her neck sang.
Darrow didn’t relay it. She could feel them. The ship was her body. Every hull plate was skin; every sensor, a nerve. But she couldn’t act. Not yet. The cooldown was not a technical limitation. It was a biological one. Push the Navarch’s gift twice in rapid succession, and the feedback would liquefy her brainstem. navarch ability cooldown 30 seconds
On the bridge of the Oblivion’s Wake , First Officer Darrow watched the timer on his neural display bleed downward. Kel opened her eyes
Thirty seconds.