“Sir! A drone just launched on the Interloper ship!” an excited sensor tech called out.

  What the hell?

  “Drones! What happened?”

  “Sorry, sir!” Draskol said. “Unknown. My station didn’t send out any commands, and we didn’t get notification of a launch. We’re checking our systems. I'll have an answer in a moment for you.”

  “Same, sir. I'm checking my pilot’s logs as well,” Frostmere said over the open channel from the flight deck.

  “Sensors, what are the Interlopers doing about that missile?” Bowman asked.

  Bowman saw Ramirez lean down and give a quiet word to the ensign, patting him on the shoulder.

  “Sir,” the tech said, this time with more control. “Their APC is tracking the missile. Hold, sir.”

  There was a brief pause. Most eyes on the bridge glanced towards the sensor station.

  “Missile destroyed, sir.”

  Damn it. We aren’t in position yet. If they're competent, they’ll realize that missile didn’t come from the Rishi.

  “I need answers, people. Benjaan, any idea on your end why a drone launched?”

  “Unknown, sir,” Master Chief Benjaan said.

  A Voltaron, and the Rishi’s Weapons lead, his midnight black skin seeming to absorb the surrounding light. Bowman had spent a stint on Voltaro, where he learned to love the Fire Bush coffee, but had never gotten used to the way light seemed to be pulled into the natives.

  “Best guess is the building electromagnetic and gravitational forces had something to do with it. The missiles had their targeting systems engaged, but not locked. We didn’t fire, but their weaker shielding makes them less tolerable to those forces. This close to the Cluster, their electronics may be affected.”

  “True, sir,” Draskol said, turning to look at the captain. “We’ve been testing some new shielding, but hadn’t expected to operate in, or around, a Cluster. The radiation is magnitude more than the Barrier.”

  Bowman nodded. That had always been a potential issue.

  “Drones. Flight. I want the target systems disengaged from the drone’s missiles. Keep them in an active state, but I don’t want them engaged until just before an actual launch.”

  “Aye, sir,” Frostmere said, a heartbeat before Draskol echoed his own acknowledgment.

  Bowman thought of sending the junior staff from the bridge. However, senior officers appeared to have things in hand. Besides, such practical training rarely occurred on the Rishi.

  Might as well take advantage of it.

  “Ok, they know we’re here. By now they must realize we aren’t alone. Helm, come about, put us behind them. Get us within thirty thousand kilometers. Frostmere, direct the drones to form a defensive shield at the Cluster’s entry. Draskol, is our cloaking still holding?”

  Draskol looked at his screen, on which he had overlaid the Rishi’s own sensor output.

  “Aye, sir. The cloaking’s still engaged.”

  “Drones being redeployed now, sir. They’ll be in position shortly,” Frostmere said.

  Bowman nodded.

  “Good. Let me know the second they are. Those drones are our ace in the hole.”

  “Sir,” Tanaka called out a moment later, “looks like they are pouring it on. They’ve dropped their stealth, and from the heat spikes, it looks like they are red lining their engines to get to the Cluster before we can get to them.”

  “When will the drones be in position?”

  “I don’t think they’re going to make it, sir,” Tanaka said, speaking for his team. They were busy, and he didn’t want to split their focus. “That ship has got some serious muscle, and she’s flexing hard.”

  “I agree, sir,” Frostmere said. “My readings show that, even at top speed, the drones can't reach the ship for interception.”

  Bowman acknowledged the two men.

  “How close is the leading edge?” Bowman asked, thinking on the fly.

  If he couldn’t stop them, maybe he could slow them down. The Rishi remained too far from the Interloper to launch a missile in time, but the drones, arrayed in a semi-sphere around the Interloper, could still reach it.

  “The Interloper ship just left it in their wake, sir. They are heading straight into the Cluster at full speed.”

  “Tavu?!” Bowman asked.

  “Sir?”

  “Please tell me we’ve got some ordinance loaded on one of those drones that you can use.”

  Tavu smiled.

  “There’s one, sir, but it’s not much. Just a small incendiary that was previously loaded for practice. We didn’t unload it before deploying the drones.”

  “Good. How accurate can you be, Teleporting from a speeding drone to an evasive ship?”

  A grimace replaced Tavu’s smile. “I don’t know, sir. When I placed the beacon, it was hard enough. Now with all three vessels, the Rishi included, racing at breakneck speed… its complicated.”

  “What do you need us to do to help with that?” Bowman asked, even as he monitored the star map and the trajectory of the enemy ship.

  “Flight,” Tavu called out, presuming the captain’s open comm could hear her. “Can you match the Interloper ship’s speed, even for a brief burst?”

  “Maybe for just a moment, but it’ll burn out the drone to do it,” Frostmere said.

  Tavu nodded and turned to Tanaka at Tracking.

  “Has their speed leveled off yet?”

  Tanaka glanced at Bowman, but he just nodded to his station lead, letting Tavu run the show for a moment. Bowman noticed her ease in taking charge. No doubt, a trait ingrained from the very start of her training as a Power. He knew it had been that way for him.

  Tanaka returned to check his console before answering. “It looks like they’ve reached their top speed. But it won’t be for long. They’ll have to slow down just after they reach the first navigation buoy, and the transit lane takes a sharp turn to avoid a pocket of concentrated electromagnetic buildup.”

  Tavu didn’t acknowledge but hunched over her console furiously running calculations.

  The bridge had become deathly quiet. The crew had never seen someone blatantly disregard their captain before, but they could also see that Tavu was working hard on something.

  After a protracted minute, Bowman cleared his throat. The Interlopers were quickly closing the distance to the Cluster.

  “Anytime, Petty Chief Tavu.”

  Tavu started at the address, but a quick tap on her thigh from Draskol reminded her of where she was and her “new” rank.

  “Sorry Captain. I think I’ve worked it out. On my mark I'll need the drone I’ve just flagged for Flight to match the Interloper ship. The Rishi needs to match their speed. I could use help to confirm my calculations. I should be able to position the ordinance as they approach the first turn. Someone just needs to tell me where to put it.”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Bowman didn’t hesitate. “Get it done, people. Rishi, match their speed, on a heading right up their backside. Flight, follow Tavu's lead. Tanaka, if you wouldn’t mind assisting the Petty Chief.”

  “Aye, sir,” Tanaka said, already halfway across the bridge.

  “Tavu, what sort of incendiary are we talking about?” Benjaan asked from Weapons.

  “Just a small class A shaped charge.”

  “Hmm. I may have a good idea where to place it, sir,” Benjaan said, turning to the captain. “Give me a moment to confirm the scans we have of the ship.”

  “We don’t have much time, Benjaan. Get the info over to Tavu as soon as you’ve got it.”

  “Aye, sir!”

  “Petty Chief Tavu. Once you’ve got your calculations done. Don’t wait for me to give the order. If the timing is right, just do it. We’ve only got one shot at this. Let’s not mess this up.”

  “Yes, sir!” Tavu said with the most enthusiasm Draskol or Bowman had heard from her since she had been ‘recruited’ into the Rishi’s command structure.

  Bowman sat, watching his crew race against the clock.

  This better work, Carter.

  __________

  “We’re coming up on the first navigational buoy now, Zirenna.” Yaziri said.

  “Good, maybe we’ll actually get ahead of the Rishi in the Cluster.” Ikora said before Zirenna had an opportunity to speak.

  Zirenna glanced at Ikora but said nothing.

  She’s doing that more and more lately, speaking out of turn; when this is all over, I’m going to have to speak with her.

  “Very well, Yaziri. What entry speed does the buoy suggest?”

  “One quarter impulse. We’ll have to make a sharp turn almost as soon as we pass it to avoid a dense pocket of energy that is building.”

  Zirenna did some quick calculations in her head. She considered their current speed and how long it would take the Oshakati to come down to one quarter impulse. She didn’t like it, that gave the Rishi too much time to get within range and launch an attack on her ship.

  “Take us in at three quarter impulse, Yaziri. As soon as we pass the buoy, we’ll do a battle turn, firing our port aft thrusters to heave over and get into the lane.”

  Yaziri nodded at this. Zirenna saw the pilot grip her control yoke tighter, but she had trained for this and she would make it work. She had to; it was the fate of the Oshakati in her skilled hands.

  “Attention Oshakati,” Zirenna said, keying on a ship wide channel. “We’ll be entering the Cluster shortly. I don’t know what to expect in there. Our charts don’t show the space lanes, and we must get regular updates from the buoys en route. The Rishi is on our tail and we’ll be engaging in high-speed battle maneuvers to evade them. Be ready for anything. Zirenna out.”

  The captain turned to Ikora. “I want you to handle the ship updates while we’re in the Cluster. I won’t be able to split my attention. You deal with any problems that come up and only pass along anything that you think I need to know.”

  “Aye, Zirenna,” Ikora said. She immediately started typing commands into her console, updating the system to direct all ship communications her way.

  “One minute to the buoy, Zirenna!” Yaziri said without turning, her focus fully on her task.

  “Don’t start the turn until the very last second, Yaziri. It could make all the difference.”

  Yaziri didn’t acknowledge this, other than with a slight nod. Her focus dialed in.

  “Here we go, Oshakati, brace yourselves,” Zirenna said, somewhat to herself. Her crew were hyper focused, working in sync like a finely honed machine.

  She wished she had taken the time to see the doc, her back was going to be screaming at her when this was all done.

  ___________

  “Sir!” the ensign at Tracking said. “It looks like they aren’t slowing down nearly enough. They should reduce to one quarter impulse, but they’ll be entering the cluster at three quarters, if not more.”

  Bowman resisted the urge to ask Tanaka to confirm, but the lieutenant commander was with Tavu, running calculations. His crew knew their jobs, and he had to trust them. He couldn’t get confirmation every time they reported in, that would crush their morale.

  “Thank you, sailor. Let me know if anything changes.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  Bowman sat, thinking for a moment. Ignoring navigation buoy calculations when traversing system clusters at any speed was suicidal.

  Their captain either has nerves of steel or doesn’t know what they are in for.

  “Petty Officer Tavu?” Bowman said, while continuing to scan his console, looking for anything that could give them the advantage.

  Bowman sat up straighter when she didn’t respond immediately, quickly swiping his HUD aside to get a clear view of the deck.

  “Tavu, update!” This time, it wasn’t a question.

  Tanaka gave Tavu a slight nudge from where he stood beside her station.

  “Sorry, Captain. We’re almost there. Just updating our calculations.”

  Bowman nodded. He was just about to inquire if they had thought about the fact that the Interloper ship had not slowed down as expected when the vanilla wafted across the bridge.

  “Incendiary device is in place! Right behind their main engine manifold.” Tavu said. “All yours, Weps.”

  “Got it!” Benjaan said. “Detonating in 3, 2, 1.”

  Bowman brought back his HUD. On the zoomed in star map, he noticed how close they had come to missing their window. The Interloper ship had just come abreast of the first buoy, racing into the Cluster at what looked like breakneck speed. He switched over to a window showing the long-range visuals, which were trained on the enemy ship. Bowman saw the brief flash of a small explosion.

  __________

  Zirenna felt the explosion more than heard it.

  What the hell?

  “Report!” she said, already pulling up her own screens and inspecting them.

  Zirenna knew whatever it was; it wasn’t good news. She could already feel the ship shuttering, the deck plates vibrating beneath her feet in a way that told her the engines were out of alignment.

  “Zirenna!” Iskka called on an open comm from Engineering. “There’s been a minor explosion. Aft of the primary drive.”

  Why the hell is Iskka reporting?

  The captain ignored the engineer for a moment, hitting a button on her console to put the call on hold.

  “Yaz …?” Zirenna said, addressing her pilot, but she didn’t have time to finish. Yaziri was already responding.

  “It’s not good, Zirenna. I’ve lost control of the aft starboard thrusters. Whatever happened, it happened just as I was getting ready to maneuver into the turn. Without them, I can’t perform at the tolerances needed. I’ve gotten us through the turn, but we went wide and skimmed that dense energy pocket we were trying to avoid. It sheared some armor and who knows what else. I won’t be able to make any battle maneuvers, at least not ones that need those starboard thrusters.”

  V’Resh!

  “Understood. Is the ship able to keep going?”

  “The controls feel sluggish, but I’m managing. I’ll have to slow down to quarter impulse. But we don’t have the precision I need anymore.”

  “Do it.” Zirenna said, having already felt the deceleration happening. Yaziri knew what she was about and hadn’t waited for her captain's order.

  “Ikora.” Zirenna said. “I want a full report as soon as you have it, but give me the highlights right now.”

  “I can’t explain what happened, Zirenna. We didn’t track any missiles being launched. It seemed like we…”

  “I am not interested in conjecture right now or how it happened.” Zirenna snapped. “I want the details on the status of my ship. How badly damaged are we?”

  Ikora looked at her boards for a few seconds, clearly embarrassed by the reprimand.

  “It looks like the aft starboard thruster took some damage. Engineers are assessing whether they can repair it. But that may mean someone needing to go EVA, which obviously isn’t possible. We lost about fifteen percent of our aft armor, and the rear APC is out of commission. It looks like we’ve also lost our main communications array. And Engineering reports Nyana is heading to sickbay with a head injury. She’ll be ok but can’t perform her duties at present.

  Ah, hence Iskka.

  Zirenna sat back in her chair. “Is the communication array able to be repaired?”

  Ikora shook her head.

  “I mean, we lost it; it’s no longer there, Zirenna.”

  Zirenna sat still for a moment, assessing the situation, her mental lists re-organizing themselves on the fly.

  “Yaziri, let me know if your controls erode any further. Ikora, I want you to work with Akandi and see if you can figure out how we communicate with the Forsetti when we get out of this soup.”

  She keyed her board and brought Engineering back on. “Iskka, I want you to deal with any problems on your end. Unless we are about to blow up, just presume I’ve given you permission.”

  Zirenna paused.

  “Is the core still stable?”

  There was a slight delay. Iskka was probably double checking before replying. “It is. The containment shielding is holding, and the core appears stable. The explosion wasn’t enough to penetrate the hull. I’ll get the ship back together the best I can, Zirenna.”

  “Thank you, Iskka. Let Ikora know if you need anything.” She keyed off her board before hearing a reply.

  “Zirenna!” Delemi said. “The sensors went offline, as expected, once we entered the Cluster. Last readings had the Rishi entering the Cluster about now. They weren't gaining but slowed down to quarter impulse just before entering the Cluster. They should be within missile range, but who knows how effective they'd be with all the electromagnetic forces in here.”

  Faceless gods help us. I’ve got to get out ahead of them. If I can just get out of here with a bit of headway, and with communications fixed somehow, then we can set up an ambush with the Forsetti.

  “Copy that, Delemi.” Zirenna said with a calm voice that bellied her unease.

  She continued staring at her screens, seeing all manner of information flowing past her, but her mind was racing, and she was having a hard time focusing. Even for a Corsair captain, this situation was nerve-racking.

  Ikora came over to her station, standing in front of the captain. Zirenna was about to berate her first mate. She didn’t need the drama right now, but Ikora handed her a data-pad. She looked down at it.

  Breathe

  Zirenna looked at her friend. Ikora stood alert, betraying no sign of anything beyond her duties.

  She looked back down at the data-pad again. Zirenna took in a breath, holding it for a moment before releasing it. She repeated this twice, then pretended to approve the pad’s contents with a signature. Zirenna handed the pad back to Ikora, who nodded and walked back to her station, sitting down and settled into her straps.

  The captain watched her first officer retreat as she sucked in another calming breath. She briefly checked her console; data streamed in, showing her ship’s status, the Rishi’s position, and other details.

  Zirenna reached over and punched in a few commands. She studied the updated stream for a moment, running calculations in her head. She allowed herself a small nod.

  “Yaziri, how is your control on the port side? Are we still able to pull battle maneuvers using those thrusters only?”

  Yaziri paused for a moment, taking the time to run a quick diagnostic on her system.

  “I think we could manage limited maneuvers using them, but only ones on a starboard trajectory. We can use our main engines at quarter impulse to change direction, but at half impulse or better, we need those thrusters.”

  Zirenna nodded and then permitted herself a small smile.

  “That’ll have to do. I’ve got a plan.”