January 27th, 2262. 09:01 St. Mary’s Station – Admiral’s State Room

Admiral Tim Dufresne and his senior command staff were sitting in the rather ostentatious meeting room. Yellow gold trim was everywhere. The table itself was made of a tree native to the planet below. It was sealed in a transparent epoxy-like coating. The red hues of the wood were expressive and gorgeous.

The naval officers did not look happy to be there though. Across the table was a portly man that looked overly self-important and was flanked by a pair of nobles that were related to the royal family. The guests were giving this room looks of disapproval.

Tim decided to cut to the chase and get this meeting started, “To what do we owe the pleasure of this meeting?”

“The royal family is most displeased with the lack of updates surrounding Lieutenant John Lief. We have a vested interest in his continued health.”

“Vested interest? I know the lieutenant well enough to know that he is happily married and has no ties to the royal family. Besides the lone act of coming to their aid nearly two plus years ago.”

“The discussions surrounding his inclusion into the family are ongoing and frankly none of your concern Admiral. I must once again impress upon you the need for timely updates.”

“You can ask as much as you want, delegate,” Tim said firmly, “But the Navy will not be briefing you on the comings and goes of our deployments and vessels. I would recommend you wait for any official press releases that the Navy decides to share. I can share with you the links to the First Fleet’s page on the Extra-Net if you’d like.”

“Admiral, the royal family…”

“This conversation is over. The royal family has no need to know anything about our ongoing operations. If the lieutenant wants to share any information with you then he’s free to do so within reason. Now then, the guards will escort you out of the secure wing of this station. The Navy won’t be indulging any further communicative requests from you at this time.”

The admiral gestured to the pair of guards at the door. They walked forward and stood on either side of the delegate’s wingmen. The portly man looked like he was going to protest this treatment, but the Admiral had little tolerance for fools.

Eventually, the royal family’s delegation was removed from the room. The officers looked at one another in disbelief at the entitlement displayed. Tim slank back in his seat.

“Do you at least have any updates for me?”

“No sir. Lambda Bootis is absolutely teaming with Alliance vessels. Long-range scans do indicate a radiological accident happened above a small planet in the system. We suspect the response is so great because the world is designated a minor Agri-world,” a captain said.

“Somehow the world hasn’t been polluted yet based on intelligence that’s been shared with us. The eggheads believe the most likely explanation is stellar winds,” another captain added.

Tim didn’t seem to care about the condition of the world where the attack occurred, “And what of the Des Moines? Any clues where she is or could be heading?”

“Sir, I think a scenario that’s been overlooked is that the crew was trapped and as a last act of sorts they sent us that message,” a lieutenant commander said from midway down the table.

“Hope, it seems, prevents us from accepting that possibility Commander. But you are right that is a possibility,” Tim said as he stared at the end of the table.

“We don’t know what the slip tides were like at that system. They could be in any of forty systems at least. We’re running on the assumption that they couldn’t make it home in one jump.”

“They haven’t shown up in friendly space yet though,” another officer said, “What’s worrying is Naval Intelligence has been moving a lot of their assets.”

Tim shook his head, “I’m afraid we can’t count on their help. But I’m not sure we can move against them until they act. And at that point, we may be too late.”

“Sir, our friendly assets in Alliance space have reported back. They haven’t found anything, but the Alliance isn’t actively looking for her. If a bar room confession is to be believed the Alliance will not engage the Des Moines, should they appear, though they won’t be rushing to render any aid to her either,” a commander said.

“As much as I’d like to believe that if it were true, we need to run on the assumption that they are still hostile to her. Which means unless we have eyes on the ship, we can’t help any.”

“Second Fleet has sent assets to coordinate with the search sir. We have several squadrons of stealth vessels ready to breach their borders,” Vice Admiral Rawiri Panapa said.

“Keep up the good work. I don’t want anything going on official channels unless we absolutely must use them. Let’s keep our efforts on the down-low for now. Is that understood?”

The officers nodded, then got up and left the room. Tim gave a pained smile when thinking about the nonsense John got to deal with the family. He’d let him handle the response, presuming he survived and made it back to safety. Though he did make a note to impress upon John that homicides were not an acceptable outcome.

The Vice Admiral lingered at the door but then pressed the button to shut them, “Admiral, I strongly recommend we send our squads into Alliance space.”

“Pan, I want nothing more than to rescue that ship too. If we knew where she was at, I’d send in the cavalry. But it’s still a needle in a bloody haystack to find her. And we don’t even know if she’s still alive either.”

Pan nodded but walked back to the desk, “I’d like to get my assets split up along the border just in case. If nothing else, it’ll force Naval Intelligence to delay their strike.”

“Do it, but token forces in near each hub,” Tim got up and walked to the viewscreen on the right side of the room, “Look here. Start here at Psi Serpentis and go across to Mu Area, then up to Alpha Circini. Make this quick too.”

“I already have them activating ships as we speak. By the time I get back to my ship most of the fleet will be on the move.”

“Pan, you have my permission to fire on any hostile ships, irrespective of the badging worn on them.”

Pan nodded, “Let’s hope it doesn’t escalate to that.”

“If we’re lucky the Lieutenant will be alive and have already deduced a plan to stunt any attempts on his life.”

“Were we to be so lucky,” Pan saluted and exited the room quickly.

12:18 Outer Kepler Secundos System. CNS Des Moines – Bridge

The view screen showed an oblong portal that bridges the dimensions. The gas giant looked like a larger Neptune, with numerous bands of lighter and darker blues with swirls here and there. Slip space roiled around the portal.

The Des Moines was slowly moving forward trying to translate back into real space. The ship began to shake and rumble. John was white-knuckling his captain’s chair. Eventually, the ship broke through the forces holding it back and it was spat out of the portal back into real space, looking like it was drifting lazily around a road in the countryside.

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“Well, we survived. So far so good,” John said with a smile.

“Why’d you sound so surprised?” Billy asked.

John started to chuckle, “Hell, I didn’t know we’d make it. Darrel set a course away from the planet. Start a timer too.”

Just then Deniz in engineering joined the conversation, “Forty-two minutes.”

“Done and done,” Lieutenant Smith said as the ship’s main engines lit.

“Chief, how are the slip systems?”

“Better than expected. And we generated less feedback than expected. We’ll be discharged in under seven minutes.”

“Then we can jump farther?” John smiled as he asked the question.

“Still investigating. Your asinine plan is ready to go by the way.”

“Kill the power to the lances but let’s hold off connecting them for now. Should be able to do that while we’re underway right?”

“That’s the way we designed it.”

“Excellent, we’ll get out of your hair then,” John smiled as he turned to his crew on the bridge, “How’s the surrounding system?”

“Nothing out here. There's some merchant traffic around the habitable planet. No military vessels looking our way. Certainly nothing inside of an hour away from us.”

“Excellent news.”

Darrel spun around in his chair, “Stumpy, what’s this I hear about you and Rebecca?”

John grinned, “Oooh, ship romance. That's a damn dodgy thing, my friend.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t cite any regulations to me,” Billy laughed.

“Don’t need to since I know she rejected your ass, though only on a technicality,” John grinned, “She already came forward and told me. Now, between us bros, I told her given the circumstances I’m sure the Navy will overlook if any romances do spontaneously happen. Provided of course you don’t work with the other person or report to them.”

“Dude, you were my wingman?”

John grinned, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Can I leave…” Billy was standing up as he got interrupted.

“No. Sit your ass down and keep working,” John shook his and laughed under his breath.

Darrel pointed and laughed at Billy. The two made childish faces at one another. Until Billy decided to escalate things and was about to throw something at his antagonist.

“That mug leaves your hand you can bet you’ll be working a double,” John said casually.

“Slavedriver…” Billy said quietly under his breath.

“You know it. Darrel, bring up a map of our location and local systems. Plot out our available jumps and what we know about slip wakes.”

The viewscreen changed and showed much of the information John asked for. Though the slip wakes only extended to just beyond the systems. What he saw wasn’t ideal. Most of the waves were coming from the Confederate side of the border.

“Fuck, our boys are busy.”

“Yeah, it’s roiling up things even here. If they weren’t then it’d be a hell of a lot easier to get home. As it is we get to the two-thirds mark.”

“Captain, how long would it take to send or receive a tight beam communication?” Billy asked.

“A week or more for every five light-years or so. Darrel, what’s the closest Confederate system from here as the crow flies?”

“That would be Psi Serpentis sir. A touch over nine light years from here.”

“So that’d be two weeks to wait for them to receive a message. Then another ten to fifteen before they show up,” John sat back in his chair and began calculating the odds in his head.

“If it was only a week I could see us waiting, but maybe up to a month?” Billy said out loud.

Darrel looked back at them too, “Sit here for a month plus and have even odds of being rescued or keep running with much higher odds.”

“Your presuming the message will be clear and understood. Tight beam communications aren’t meant to be used for long-distance messages. It’s a good thought but keep us moving away from the planet.”

John continued to look at the systems. The closest one wouldn’t work, given the tides, it was estimated to take nearly twice as long as it would get to the Nu Lupi system, except there wasn’t any official infrastructure in place there.

“Looks like our best-laid plans just shit the bed. Darrel, can you bring up the facilities in the Mu Arae system?”

“Sure thing, captain. A couple of mining stations. The fourth planet has an orbital facility attached via a space elevator.”

“And nearly a nine-day transit to there too,” John said as he read through everything in the system.

No Naval Intelligence presence. Minimal military assets as well. The settlers were largely up to their own devices. John smiled at the freedom they had for now. If they ever found something the system was rich in there’d be a rush to cash in. Gold rushes were an almost perpetual thing in Confederate Space.

They needed to get there. But John was conflicted, he wanted that system for selfish reasons. If Naval Intelligence tried to get John, like he was certain they were to do, this would be their best opportunity. And they needed a destination before they jumped out of the system.

“Darrel, you have the bridge. I need to speak to Deniz face to face.”

John left the bridge and walked to the engineering department briskly. He strode in and saw Deniz overseeing the controlled chaos in the room. Deniz motioned him over to his office. John plopped down on a chair in front of his chief engineer.

“You look like a guilty man. Come to confess your sins?”

John grinned, “If you knew for certain an agency was going to try and kill you would you put the lives of others at risk?”

Deniz stopped working and leaned back in his chair and he brought his hands behind his head, “Oof. What system are we talking about?”

“Mu Arae.”

“Well…” Deniz trailed off as he looked at the nearby systems, “Sixteen-hour delta between the two. Man, that’s heavy.”

“I know the right thing is to head to the Aquilae system, but…”

“Normally sixteen hours isn’t much, but in this hunk of job, that’s damn near an eternity.”

“Doubly so in slip space. Fuck me. I don’t think there’s an out for me here.”

“I don’t want to admit it, but I think you’re crazy ass fix will work by the way, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to get there,” Deniz paused a moment, “I can support Mu Arae as a more optimal choice to be rescued in.”

John stood up and smiled, “But it wouldn’t be right to put their lives on the line for mine. It is what it is I suppose.”

John thanked Deniz for being a sounding board and headed back to the bridge. When he stepped inside, he noticed the timer was down to five minutes. It was time to make another announcement. John sat down in his chair and clicked on the ship-wide announcement button.

“We are under five minutes away from making our next, and hopefully last, jump. Despite being a bit longer distance wise the slip tides are more favorable time-wise to get us to the Aquilae system. To be honest, there’s precious little there, but we do have several probes left and we should be able to use them to contact friendly forces for recovery.”

John paused and sighed quietly to himself, “I’m proud of everything we’ve accomplished here. What we’ve overcome is hard to believe. Yet here we are. Our estimated time for the system is seven days. I’d be remiss in my duties if I didn’t warn you all of what’s to come. When we get home, we will be staring into a shitstorm more chaotic and deadly than the central black hole of our galaxy. That’s a small price to pay though for going through what we did. God speed to us all.”

Darrel looked back at John, “How many of us would follow you into a black hole now sir?”

“I hope none of you are dumb enough to do that,” John was laughing.

“So, sir, about my shift…” Billy said from his seat.

“No, shut up. You have work to do. You can try to be suave in four hours.”

“Sir, ain’t no way he’s going to be suave,” Darrel said with a chuckle.

“That’s why I said try.”

“Y’all are being rude.”

Ana then radioed up to the bridge, “Slip drive is in the green. We’re ready when you give the green light.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant. Darrel, if you’d be so kind. Punch it.”

“Done and done captain.”

The generators began spooling up and giving off that annoying buzz. The viewscreen then displayed a portal into slip space to be created. It started as a small pea-sized object and grew and grew until it was larger than the ship.

The ship began to transition into slip space. The entry was rougher than the last time. John began white-knuckling his chair once again. Deniz then radioed in from engineering.

“I was expecting this chop by the way.”

John grinned, “Little warning would have helped.”

“Sorry about that sir. Should smooth out as we finish the transition. Also, recommend we wait an hour before deploying the lightning rods.”

“We’ll follow your lead,” John said as he looked at Darrel, “Bring the scanners up Darrel and begin plotting the most optimal course to Aquilae.”

“Looks like we have some favorable tides, after all, sir. Six days and eight hours. For now, that is.”

Billy then piped up, “Wouldn’t count on that. There’s a convergence in three days. Might turn into a slow slog for us beyond that.”

“Let’s use as little power as possible to get to that point. What’s that do for our arrival time?”

Darrel looked busy at his terminal as he changed the settings of the ship. John’s estimate resulted in a twelve-hour delay but running minimal power may let them stay in slip space another two days. Billy tried to look busy but failed utterly to do that.

“Ten hours more sir. Adds three light years to our estimated jump range too. That puts Mu Area, Psi Serpentis, and Psi Capriconi in our range too. All of which would be more likely to be populated by friendlies sir.”

“Give me a delta between Mu Arae and Aquilae by overall time in slip space.”

“About an hour, but that’s taking some liberties with what the space will be like after that point.”

John nodded, “Mu Arae will be our backup exit. Keep me appraised of any changes in arrival time between the two systems.”

“I’ll enter in a second subroutine to calculate the time to both systems, sir.”

The ship’s rumbling and bouncing feeling stopped. John swore for a microsecond he felt weightless as the ship began surfing a tidal wave. They had successfully transitioned into slip space once more. Now they just need to stay in one piece long enough to jump back to real space in friendly territory. That was of course, far easier said than done.