“Go.”Īny sense of acceleration would have suggested imminent failure of the six-thousand-ton starfighter’s mass manipulators, but Michael Stanford was linked into his Falcon’s computers via his own neural inputs. “One point six light-minutes and counting, people,” he told them. He might have his suspicions about this whole affair, but either way, his people were going to put on a good show and come back alive. You get me, ladies and gentlemen?”Ī series of acknowledgements came back and the Vice Commodore smiled grimly. We are not-I repeat, not-going to try and take on eight starships with sixteen starfighters. “We’re going to play it nice and careful, and that makes that sweep at half a million klicks and as high a delta-v as we can turn between here and there. “All right people, we have eight unknowns coming in a slow trajectory, and the Old Man wants us to make a sweep and see who they are,” he told them. Since that sneaky rat wore admiral’s stars, however, the CAG had smiled, saluted, and promptly rewritten the schedule to put himself in charge of the sixteen starfighters and forty-seven other people in the two squadrons making up today’s Carrier Space Patrol. Vice Commodore Michael Stanford, Commander, Air Group of the space carrier Avalon and commanding officer of Starfighter Group Zero Zero One, knew exactly what sneaky-rat game was being played. SFG-001 Actual-Falcon-C type command starfighter Like a good soldier, though, the pale Commander, as redheaded as his Captain, shook his head to clear his thoughts and dropped into his neural link to give the orders. The absolutely filthy look Commander James Anderson gave his Captain in response to that order told Kyle his XO had finally worked it out. You can bring the ship to Condition Two, but I think battle stations aren’t needed yet.” “Send the CAG out for a high-speed scouting pass. “They’re still several hours from anything but extreme missile range, Commander,” he said quietly. Avalon’s Commander, Air Group should have known better, but it would work. “Shall I have him set up for a scouting intercept and take the ship to battle stations?” “Vice Commodore Stanford is running the CSP with two squadrons of Falcons, sir,” Anderson pointed out. “Any orders from the Admiral?” he asked, turning to the communication officer on duty. “Flag has designated them as potential hostiles, Bogies One through Eight.” A moment later, the flashing questionable contacts on the tactical plot turned to bright red. Friendly ships would normally send an alert ahead via the quantum entanglement communicators available on any starship. “Any radio IFF or Q-Com arrival alerts?” Kyle asked Xue directly. We’ll resolve volume as they get closer.” “I have eight contacts, all in the twelve-million-ton range. “We are refining and confirming with the system net,” the black-haired woman told her seniors. “How many contacts?” Anderson snapped, visibly dropping into his old tactical officer role before restraining himself and allowing his replacement, Lieutenant Commander Jessica Xue, to continue her report. “We have Alcubierre emergences-multiple ships!” “Sir!” a young- far too young-voice suddenly shouted in the bridge. War upended many of the conventions of peace, and many of the officers in Alliance Battle Group Seventeen were new to their ranks or, like Fleet Commander Anderson, arguably too junior for the roles they held. The Fleet Commander was less unobtrusive than he likely thought he was, but that was a lesson that Kyle would provide gently once the current exercise was over. The big supercarrier was currently in orbit around the recently liberated world of Alizon, and the bridge’s Bravo shift could easily be taking the current calm for granted. His newly promoted executive officer didn’t know him as well as some of the other officers did, but the Captain could tell that James Anderson knew something was up with his massive redheaded Captain.Īnderson was reacting exactly as a good XO should when his Captain was up to something, Kyle noted, slowly and unobtrusively going around the bridge to check in on the crew at each station. (CC BY-SA 4.0 Eric Bajart via Wikipedia).12:11 FebruEarth Standard Meridian Date/TimeĬaptain Kyle Roberts, commanding officer of the deep space carrier Avalon, watched his bridge with calm anticipation. Dips are present at the Fraunhofer line wavelengths.
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