Cassie stood in the middle of the room as Mike took a seat next to Shrey up at the front. She had never been on a flight deck this cramped, where she could easily touch all four seats from where she was standing. There was an empty chair to her left, but she didn't take it, not wanting to unwittingly step on any toes.

Helen was already at the right rear station, cycling through various screens. Shrey barely acknowledged Mike's arrival, the pilot looked to be intensely focused on his work. Up on the main display, the ship's status information was being continuously updated.

Helen looked up from her screen, her brow furrowed slightly as she saw Cassie. "Cassie? What are you doing up here?"

Cassie tucked her hands into her spacious pockets. "Um, I didn't know where my station was supposed to be."

"I told her to come up," Mike said, twisting back around. "Thought the greenie should see what those spacer cruisers really look like."

Helen briefly raised an eyebrow at him before he turned his attention back to his console. "Cassie, your station is the engine room with Aqeel."

"Oh, sorry ma'am." Cassie took a step back, her heel on the edge of the doorframe. "I'll head down there right away."

"No, don't bother," Helen told her. "We're almost there. You can stay and watch." A small smile appeared on her face. "Just this time."

Cassie nodded, lingering in the doorway awkwardly.

Helen smile vanished and she turned back to Mike and Shrey. "What's our status?"

"We're looking good," Shrey answered. "Dark generator is at full."

"I'm only picking up the one ship so far," Mike added. "Readings are coming in now."

"What are we dealing with here?" Helen asked.

Mike worked away at his console for a minute before the viewscreen switched, a dark ship against an even darker background taking up less than a quarter of the display.

Everyone's eyes went to the big screen. Everyone except Mike.

Cassie took an unconscious step forwards, squinting at the image. It was nearly impossible to make out that it was even a ship.

"It's Destroyer class." Mike scrolled through the sensor logs, searching them carefully. "Looks like the Horizon Alliance. Holding position. Nothing unusual."

Helen nodded, glancing at the screens of her own workstations. "Log it along with the rest of the scan data. We'll pass everything off to intel later."

Cassie silently sat down on the edge of the free seat. The station's screens flickered to life automatically. She ignored them, her eyes still glued to the image of the rebel spaceship.

"Already done," Mike declared, a little prideful.

"Giving them all this data, we're not exactly proving that we aren't working for intel," Shrey said, mildly annoyed. "If we keep doing this, they'll really start to think of us as one of their damn spy ships."

"Hey, we'd make a great spy ship." Mike flashed a cocky smile. "We're sneaky. We've never gotten caught so far."

Shrey frowned slightly. "I prefer to stay out of the line of fire."

Helen nodded slightly, her expression unchanged. "How long now?"

Shrey looked at another screen. "Entering the bubble in about two minutes. It'll take us another ten to get out."

Mike and Shrey kept watching their own screens.

Cassie shifted. Her cushion squeaked.

Mike looked behind him, his expression changing as his eyes fell on Cassie. "Come look at this." He gestured forwards as the ship on the screen enlarged. The image blurred in and out as Mike fiddled with the settings.

Cassie got up, stepping up behind Mike's chair, staring up at the blocky, almost cube warship as it snapped into focus. It wasn't even a quarter of the size of the Saint Joan, and probably a lot lighter and a lot faster. They'd never be able to outrun a ship like that.

She instinctively held onto the metal pipe frame behind the seat, feeling the need to hold on to something, anything.

It wasn't cloaked, it wasn't meant to be. Red lights on the ship exterior pulsed slowly, as if anyone could notice them out here. This was the Horizon Alliance staking their claim to the asteroid belt. It was still too far away, too far to be visible to the naked eye, but the camera made it look like they were within spitting distance. Only the digital static kept her from making out the finer details.

The laser cannons underneath the blackish hull were not a fine detail.

Her eyes were drawn to them like a beacon. Five of them, in a neat row, each as big as a shuttle. A newer model, a weapon that could take their whole ship out at it's lowest setting.

They weren't the only modification the ship had.

The huge sensor array jutted out the side, antennae reaching out into the void, casting an unseen net across the sky. A net where every strand was specifically tuned to search for the ton of EL-240 in their fuel stores. If the dark generator failed, even for a fraction of a second, it would have their position instantaneously.

While Earth and Mars had developed the technology, the miners were the ones that knew how to use it. Not that anyone had seen this war coming, on either side. The detectors had been originally created for locating deposits of EL-240 on extraterrestrial bodies, but had proved just as useful at locating ships.

This was the piece of technology that had changed space warfare forever.

Nowadays, the only options were to get up close and dirty as fast as possible, or hide. There were no shields, no armour, no covering fire. That was reality when your enemy could blow you out of the sky from half a million kilometers away.

Cassie swallowed, her mouth unusually dry. "Is that... a spacer ship?" She already knew the answer.

"Yeah," Mike confirmed. "Doesn't look so scary does it?"

Cassie nodded automatically, even though she didn't really agree.

"It can still blow us to pieces," Shrey commented dryly.

"Buzzkill," Mike muttered the retort, so low that Cassie could barely hear the words.

"Sugarcoating the situation isn't going to help anyone," Shrey responded.

"But they're not going to..." Cassie trailed off as she stared at the screen.

"We're going to fly right by them," Helen said confidently. "They won't even see us."

The cockpit feel into silence as they waited. Cassie stayed still, watching Mike and Shrey's screens over their shoulders. No matter what they said, Mike and Helen weren't as relaxed as they pretended to be. All three of them were focused, the situation at hand had their full attention.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Everyone was uneasy.

They were trying to hide it.

Shrey's screen flashed and Cassie peeked over at the map he had on display. "Entering the bubble now," he announced before everyone fell quiet again.

Cassie didn't even realize she'd been holding her breath until her lungs started to burn. She took in a deep breath, trying to relax, but the small space was suddenly feeling even more cramped and close. The feeling that they were being watched wouldn't go away.

Helen was the first to break the silence. "Status?"

Cassie almost flinched. Her grip on the metal frame tightened. Helen had spoken at a normal volume, but it felt like air horn had gone off in the room. Something inside her made her feel like they should be whispering.

Even if there was no logical reason to do so.

"No sign they've spotted us," Shrey replied immediately, speaking normally. "It's holding in standby."

Helen nodded. "Just as expected."

The seconds inched by. The image on the screen stayed exactly the same. The ship was just sitting there.

Dark. Ominous. Still.

"Halfway there," Shrey said quietly.

"How close are they, exactly?" Cassie asked lowly.

Shrey leaned back, looking up at the screen pensively. "If they looked out their windows, they could see us."

Mike snorted. "Maybe if they had a set of binoculars handy."

"Really?" Cassie asked curiously.

Mike shrugged. "Maybe." He looked up at her. "Really. But who says they even have windows?" He gestured at the image on the large screen. "I don't see any on there."

Cassie scanned the image once again. She could barely make out the airlock door on the side, and this was an enhanced video from their own telescopic camera. Even if they could see the Saint Joan with the naked eye, they wouldn't know where to look.

Not while the cloak was running.

"Let's stay sterile," Helen reminded them. "On task conversation only."

"Oh, right." Cassie finally let go of the chair's frame, wiping her sweaty hands off ineffectively on her dirty pants. She quickly brushed off the beads of sweat that had stuck to the metal pipe before sitting back down. The screens came on. She glanced at them briefly. They told exactly what everyone else had, that everything was fine.

They didn't make her feel any better.

"Wait, something's off," Shrey said abruptly, his voice tight.

Cassie's eyes darted up to the big screen. One side of the ship was beginning to glow red. The camera appeared to be drifting off focus, the image was becoming slightly blurred.

"Shit," Shrey breathed. "They just powered up their engines."

"What?" Mike exclaimed, quickly scanning the information of him again. "They couldn't have seen us, that's impossible."

Helen quickly leaned forwards in her seat, trying to get a closer look. Her right hand gripped the armrest. "Keep it together. We don't know that yet," she said loudly, her tone steady. "Where are they going?"

Both Shrey and Mike were urgently taping, typing and clicking rapidly. Cassie quickly lost track of what they were doing, she was hardly able to read a word off any single screen before it disappeared. They navigated to parts of the system she hadn't seen before. Helen kept her eyes glued to the image of the enemy ship, her expression firm and calculating.

Even Cassie began checking at her own workstation, not that she didn't believe Shrey, but she wanted to see what was happening for herself. Possibly help, if she could.

She was on this ship now, and very much invested in keeping it in one piece.

Using the console, she couldn't find much more information than what had already been said. The enemy ship's EL-240 levels had spiked through the roof. It hadn't just powered up, it was much more than that, like they'd set their engines to maximum thrust.

They were starting to move. And fast. So fast that the computer was having trouble estimating a trajectory.

They were hunting something.

"They're moving..." Shrey's voice wavered uncertainly. "Away from us?" He glanced over at Mike.

"Confirmed." Mike exhaled loudly. "They spotted another ship, that's where they're headed."

"What ship?" Helen asked calmly.

"Not sure," Mike replied, studying his screens. "There's no transponder code."

"Let's take a look." Helen nodded to the big screen. "Bring it up."

Shrey hit a few buttons and the new ship came up on the screen. Even zoomed in, Cassie could tell it was small, and newer than the Saint Joan. No logos, no markings, nothing at all to associate it with either side. Some kind of low-cargo freighter, that was most likely.

A tiny ship, in comparison to the Saint Joan. If it was carrying cargo, then it probably only had a crew of two or three people on board.

Two or three lives.

"It's not one of ours," Mike answered the unspoken question hanging in the air. "Unknown class."

"Probably smugglers trying to breach the blockade," Helen muttered to herself.

"Looks like they got their hands on a bad dark generator," Mike continued. "It's not coming back online."

"They're already dead," Shrey stated flatly, almost detached.

Cassie stared at the ship. Her chest tightened.

He was right.

"What about us?" Helen asked calmly. "Any signs they've picked up anything they shouldn't have?"

Shrey looked over his console again. "We're good. Cloak is holding."

"They're distracted. They won't be looking for us now." Mike's tone was slightly grim, but there was an undercurrent of relief below that. "This is working out in our favor, they're moving away from us now."

Shrey nodded. "We'll be out of range in 3, 2, 1..." He paused. "We're clear."

The cramped space was suddenly filled with the sounds of movement as everyone shifted and settled, tension drained out of the room. Cassie shoulder's fell. She let herself settle back in the comfortable, well worn chair with an inaudible sigh.

"They're closing in on the other ship," Mike said lowly. "Power levels rising, probably powering weapons."

"They aren't going to bother trying to board," Helen concluded, her tone grim.

Mike and Shrey shared a look. Shrey's eyes flickered to Cassie for an almost imperceptible instant. The next moment, Shrey switched the main screen back to the area map.

In a second, the ships were back to being dots on a map. A little white triangle for them, steadily moving away from the two other ships. A black square for the unknown freighter, with a bright red dot rapidly approaching.

"The destroyer is firing," Mike announced sadly.

They all watched as the other dot blinked once before disappearing from the map entirely. For a long moment, the room was completely silent. The hum of the ventilation even seemed to fade to nothing. Not a single one of them looked away from the map.

"What's the Horizon ship doing now?" Helen was still leaning forwards, her elbows resting on the console.

"Um... it's powering down," Mike answered after a minute. "Going back into standby mode, it looks like."

"We're out of it's high sensitivity sensor range now," Shrey said, with audible relief. "It's not our problem."

"Still..." Helen leaned back in her chair, causing it to creak softly. "Shrey, keep an eye on that ship until we are very, very far away."

"Will do," Shrey acknowledged quietly as he make adjustments on his station.

Cassie wrung her hands. The danger had gone, but the atmosphere on the flight deck still felt heavy, uncomfortable. The battle had sent a chill into the air that wasn't going to fade easily. She saw Shrey's gaze fall on her hands and stopping moving them, awkwardly adjusting herself and finally ending up with her arms crossed instead.

"Does that... happen a lot?" Cassie asked quietly.

"Passing other ships? A few times each trip," Helen said softly. "Seeing a battle like that? Not so common."

Shrey nodded in agreement. "Just be glad it wasn't us."

Mike kept glancing at Cassie, his expression inching towards pity. "That's not going to happen—"

"I know. I'm fine," Cassie said abruptly. "That was just a little more... than I was expecting."

Helen offered her a reassuring smile. "You'll get used to it."

Cassie glanced around. Everyone was looking at her, their expressions a mix of concern and pity. "I'll go see if Aqeel needs me," she mumbled before quickly ducking out of the cockpit.

She wasn't running away, she told herself, pausing in the hallway right beside the door. Her eyes slowly shut as she leaned against the wall, her hair brushing against the peeling grey paint. Her heart was still beating fast. She took a moment to breath deeply.

Her eyes flew open as voices from the cockpit drifted out into the hallway.

"You shouldn't have brought her up here," Shrey said lowly, disapproval bleeding through his calm voice. "She did not need to see that."

"You think I don't know that?" Mike hissed back. "But how was I supposed to know that a random ship was going to decide to decloak right in the line of fire?"

"She should never have been up here in the first place," Shrey repeated. "This isn't a fucking pleasure cruise, we're not here for sightseeing."

"We know that." Mike's voice had lost most of it's edge.

"Really?" Shrey said, extraordinarily sarcastic. "Because you all like to pretend that we're perfectly safe out here. But we're not. We're in the middle of a damn war. This is a battlefield."

"We all knew that when we agreed to this mission," Mike said firmly. "And every single one before it."

"Sure, the rest of us understand the risks," Shrey replied irritably. "But what about her?"

Mike paused for a long time.

So long that Cassie decided to take a cautious step down the hall, setting her boot down on the metal grating as softly as she could. It settled under her weight, making just a whisper of a creak. She frozen in place. Walking away silently wasn't going to be easy. But she didn't want anyone to know she was there.

It wasn't like she had an excuse for lingering in the hallway right outside the cockpit.

"It's not like we can do anything about that now." Mike's voice was so low that Cassie could barely make it out.

Shrey huffed. "She should never had come on board. She's just a kid."

Cassie swallowed nervously, consciously unclenching her hand. She slowly leaned against the bare grey metal wall. So that's what they were all really thinking.

It wasn't as bad as she'd feared. She could work with that.

"Enough," Helen said forcefully. "If you've both forgotten, I was sixteen when I started working on this very ship." There was a light tapping sound. "Sometimes we have to go where we're needed. Sometimes we don't have choices."

"This is different—" Shrey begun to object.

"It's not," Helen said firmly. "And I wouldn't worry about her, she's a tough one."

"You're sure?" Mike still sounded dubious.

"Yes," Helen answered confidently, her voice coming clearly through the hallway. "I can tell."