Archimedes
Cassius's small corvette returns unseen to the alliance fleet carrying Pytha, a funeral torpedo, and the private spaces where Darrow learns the full shape of his brother's love.
Story so far
Archimedes carried Darrow, Cassius, and their survivors through exile, Venus, and Europa, becoming a cramped home whose cockpit held their newly spoken brotherhood. Lysander recovers it after Cassius's death but cannot bring himself to destroy it; he releases Pytha with the ship and Cassius's body, though its cannons have been disabled.
Twelve hours out from Io, Archimedes hails the Pandora from beyond its scanners and joins Darrow's fleet. Its hold contains Cassius in a House Bellona funeral torpedo, and its small rooms preserve his outline everywhere: his cockpit habits, training space, childhood photographs, House Mars pendant, clippings of the Howlers, and years of images with Lysander and Pytha. Darrow and Sevro use it as a place of mourning rather than command, watching Institute footage together and transforming the corvette from an escape vessel into the archive of a brother they have lost.
Appearance
A compact, hard-used corvette with a cockpit, commissary, training room, narrow personal cabins, and cargo hold now fitted for a House Bellona funeral torpedo.
Role
Archimedes is the intimate surviving vessel of Darrow and Cassius's journey, returning the dead Morning Knight to the people who can honor him truthfully.
Relationships
Earlier in this series
Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:
- Iron GoldBook 4
Sources — 4 recorded facts, by chapter
- A crippled antique corvette whose repair is the castaways' only practical route from the sunward waste back toward Mars.
- Quicksilver's refuge restores the battered corvette with a superior stealth hull and supplies, turning Darrow's small ship into a better-equipped but still fragile route to the Rim.
- The upgraded corvette becomes an emergency evacuation ship on Io, trading stealth for direct fire as it rescues children, wounded Daughters, and Darrow's exposed team.
- Cassius's small corvette returns unseen to the alliance fleet carrying Pytha, a funeral torpedo, and the private spaces where Darrow learns the full shape of his brother's love.