Wood was still furious with Ali by the time the Endeavour picked him up. If the lift was big enough for him to pace in, he'd be wearing a hole in the floor due to the frustrated energy his anger was generating. Part of him still couldn't believe that she'd just dismissed him and his abilities and essentially shoved him into the escape pod. He thumped the wall with the bottom of his fist at the idea that she believed herself better equipped to do whatever it was she was doing alone. She'd missed the fact that Barker had essentially bugged her ship.

He sagged back against the wall of the lift and rubbed a hand over his face. He'd missed the interceptor Barker had stuck on the Hotpot too. He couldn't just blame her for that.

In the end, to deny to himself he was actually worried about her, he allowed his ego to irrationally and illogically - and he was well aware it was both - resent the fact that she overrode his command, despite the fact that Grey had reinstated her to outrank him. It was her ship and her prerogative. Right now, that didn't make him feel any better about the situation.

"Wood," Grey greeted as he arrived back onto the Endeavour's bridge, "how are you?"

"Fine," Wood said dismissively as he returned to his station and he took in the scene around him. Other than the science bank still looking a little worse for wear and Chopade sitting where Marsh would otherwise have been seated, it was as it had been before Ali showed up a few days ago. All as it should be he told himself angrily.

"Right," Grey decided because he knew better than to push his second in command when he was this tense. "What the hell is Ali up to?"

Grey's mounting frustration bled some of Wood's anger. "I don't know," Wood replied honestly. "She said she was saving my life and then going to do what she could to make sure Barker didn't win," he recalled, "then she left me here."

Grey leant back in his chair in thought, his eyes darting to where Frost turned in her chair as she looked between him and Wood. "If that interceptor really does set the ship to self-destruct, then she'll have decided to make use of it," She explained, noticing Wood look up sharply at the mention of self-destruct. They had the same thought; if Ali was still alive someone needed to have words with her about keeping information to herself. "She'll have gone to intercept Barker's ships."

Grey nodded as he thought over what his helmsman said. "Set a course for Kentar. We'll have to hope her plan worked." Frost turned back to carry out the order. "Wood, can you expand on what Bert Barker's doing on Kentar?"

Wood shook himself out of his thoughts. His anger had flared anew at the discovery that the reason her behaviour had changed so drastically was because the Hotpot was set to self-destruct. What right did she have to hide it? He had quickly come to the conclusion that it wouldn't have changed anything. Other than that they would have made a joint decision to activate it and he'd probably be with her on a suicidal run to try and delay Barker a little bit for the Endeavour to capitalise on. After that scenario ran it's course he turned his ire on the fact that she'd abandoned him for collection without consulting him about what he wanted to do - what right did she have to make his decisions for him? - until that had led to the same conclusion.

"We went to investigate his cell in case there were any clues there, but there weren't. Whilst we were on our way out we were ambushed by a group of taurran soldiers. They didn't cause much of a problem but afterwards Ali was holding her head and said that Barker knew we were there. So we high-tailed it out of there and back to the Hotpot," he explained, then added as an afterthought. "I'm not sure she's a qualified pilot."

Frost giggled at that and even Grey cracked a small smile. "Any further details?"

"Barker himself was near a battle zone. Ali said the site was at a monument to Kentar's first ruler - Vekanta. If she's right about them digging, it's probably there."

"I hate it when the answer just asks more questions," Grey muttered to himself.

"Sir, taurran ships!" Chopade suddenly interjected as his scanners picked up a large amount of activity.

"Go to alert mode," Grey ordered, Wood nodded and started making preparations for a fire-fight and put the Endeavour into alert mode. None of them were surprised that they were fired upon. "Evasive manoeuvres!" He added despite the fact that Frost automatically pulled defensive moves until Wood was ready to take them onto the offensive, both of them already working on their tactics the moment they'd seen the ships and how many there were.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I'm reading four ships, with another three holding back. I'm reading significant amounts of debris in their vicinity," Chopade reported as the readings came in.

Grey almost jumped out of his seat to look over the ensign's shoulder but he managed to restrain himself instead. "Good on you, Ali," He murmured. "That'll be what's left of the Hotpot and however many ships she managed to take out with it."

Everyone looked up sharply, even though they knew that was the likely outcome of what Ali had intended to do, it suddenly seemed a lot more real now. "She's dead?" Lartyne asked.

"Possibly," Grey replied, bracing himself against the arms of his chair as they took another hit despite Frost's best efforts. "There's a chance Bert'll want her alive for now. Scan the taurran ships for her."

Frost and Wood had worked together long enough by now that whenever they were in troubling and dangerous situations Grey would let them shout instructions between each other without interruption, for the most part anyway. Sometimes he would overrule them or throw in a suggestion of his own. Even without Marsh on duty knowing how the pair of them worked they were a ruthlessly efficient unit with Chopade sending both of them useful information or quickly retrieving it when one of them demanded it. If they got through this alive, he would definitely have to put a special commendation in Chopade's file for his ability to fill in for a much senior position than he should be expected to do so.

Since their skirmish at Kentar Spud had been overhauling their weapons and defensive systems to try and increase the power to both. They would need all the help they could get if things carried on the way they were going. They were still horribly outgunned and outnumbered, but at least they had a chance, and the damage Ali had done evened the playing field somewhat. Frost was busy diving and spiralling between ships in ways that not only made them hard to target, but would confuse and disorient their opponents before she would swoop in at perfect angles for Wood to target key systems or flight vectors to control the battlefield.

Their reputation must have preceded them because none of the ships were taking the chance that the Endeavour was going to draw them into ramming each other. That was both a help and a hindrance because while no ship was bearing down on them, it also meant that they didn't stay too close for Wood to get much of a lock on. Even still they were taking heavy damage by the time they had taken out two of the other ships. "I'm not sure how much more of this we can take!" Frost warned as she put the Endeavour into a perfectly controlled, twisting loop around one of the taurran vessels in an effort to make it take the brunt of the attack aimed at them from it's friends.

"Captain Turner isn't on any of the ships," Chopade suddenly confirmed, having finally finished scanning all the ships. It had made Frost and Wood's jobs more difficult as they were forced to limit their own offensive fire to the ships that Chopade had already confirmed Ali wasn't on board. Even when they were only aiming to disable rather than destroy, it was a risk they were not willing to take.

"She must be," Wood corrected, even surprising himself with the statement.

"Well, she isn't," Chopade replied, "I'm not reading any humans on board. I'm not reading any species but taurran."

The ship shook again as Frost was unable to entirely miss the latest attack. Grey turned as the tactical bank sparked with damage, but other than his tactical duty personnel having to dodge damage to themselves Wood confirmed everything was still online with a quick nod. "Disable those ships," Grey ordered, "any way you have to." Normally they didn't aim to destroy ships, but their situation was getting more and more desperate by the minute and none of them were in the mood to play nicely anymore.

Frost glanced at Wood with concern and surprise at the order. He nodded reassuringly at her, as if to say: they could do this, she could do this, and it wasn't her fault that they were forced into this situation. She took a breath as she turned back to her controls and focused on her telemetry and her experience. No one knew what the Endeavour was capable of as well as her and she was a damn good pilot.

They might be one ship against five - discounting the two they'd disabled - but that didn't mean she couldn't herd them where she wanted them. Like a sheepdog rounding up it's flock, though the analogy didn't exactly take into account the relative intelligence or nature of the herd in question, it hardly mattered. She corralled the enemy ships together, bringing them in close as she weaved around them as best she could in a ship the size of the Endeavour. "Get ready to make a break for it after the next pass," Wood warned her, Frost nodded to indicate she'd heard him but her focus was still on her instruments.

One last weave through the flock of ships she'd pulled into a group, finding the blind spots between them and twisting the Endeavour to enable Wood to take his shots. She heard Chopade confirm the direct hit to a reactor and she didn't look back but increased their speed to zoom away from the blast as quickly as possible. "We're a safe distance from the blast," Chopade confirmed still tapping away at his scanners and the information the other scientists were passing his way. "One ship destroyed and the blast disabled another two. It appears the rest are staying behind to assist."

"We'll leave them to it," Grey decided. "Set course for Kentar," He added and Frost entered the coordinates into the navigation system and engaged the light speed engines.