“Status,” Chase called.

“Repairs are underway,” said Wokoma. “The lead hostile vessel has sustained damage to the hull armour, but nothing that can’t be repaired.”

“Good work,” said Chase. They needed a plan to get the last two ships before they could release any more landing craft. They had the element of surprise on their side, now they needed a way to use it.

Wokoma nodded. “Any sort of long-form torpedo attack would be intercepted,” she said. “What state is the drive in? If we could jump in at point-blank range and open fire…”

“So, we have one shot, what do we target?” asked Chase. “A weak point that could take it out?”

Martinez shrugged, got up from his station and moved closer to add, “To be honest, we’re looking at another few hours before we could do even a short-range jump.”

Chase nodded. That made sense. Even with the improved coolant, the engines wouldn’t be ready for them to instantaneously transport. “Okay. What if we fire a torpedo and jump back?” Chase asked. The others looked at him, not getting it. “We put ourselves in the perfect spot to fire at close range and immediately withdraw to a far enough distance that our conventional defensives will be effective?”

Martinez looked at him like he was insane. “No, that wouldn’t be at all feasible.”

Chase stood up and paced the bridge. What had been a hive of activity was now oddly quiet. The workings of the systems were still beeping away in the background, but suddenly relative calm had fallen over the ship.

“We need to think of something,” said Chase.

“We’ve done a pretty good job,” said Wokoma. “There’d be no shame in returning to command and reporting the intelligence we’ve gathered on their ships.”

Chase knew she wasn’t wrong, but he had hoped to achieve something more. “We’re so close. I’m sure we can work something out.” He had Martinez organise a sensor probe to be fired toward the shipyard with copies of their logs.

The quiet of the bridge was suddenly disturbed by a buzzing coming from Wokoma’s station. She hit the button to listen to what had been received.

“Chase, I’m picking up a transmission,” she told him, looking him dead in the eye. “It’s from Grace Dakota.”

“Grace?” asked Chase. “What is she saying?”

Wokoma listened to her headset for a moment, clearly trying to get it all in. “She says she’s found something that can make a difference to what we’re trying to do here. Something about an ancient weapon.”

What did that mean? Chase wondered.

“She say’s that she is sending details on the hostile ships, engine schematics, specifications, weak points…” said Wokoma, “I’m getting the message but the data isn’t coming through…”

“We need to get back to Amethyst,” replied Chase Martinez, get down to the engine room. We have to jump back as soon as possible. I’m not asking for it in the next half hour, but give me options.”

Martinez jumped to his feet and walked over to step into the express elevator. Chase sat back in the command chair and looked over the ship’s travel logs.

“Wokoma, does she have any information on what this weapon is?” he asked.

The younger woman shook her head. “No, it sounds like she doesn’t know herself,” she replied.

Chase was taking an awful big risk here. If they were mistaken, then he would be the one to face the consequences. But he had learned to trust Grace in their time together. She was out for herself and a renegade, but he didn’t think she would be the type to simply screw them over in quite this way. He could be wrong, of course. It wouldn’t be the first time, but he couldn’t make the difference here and had to try something.

There was a signal from the engine room, and Chase clicked on. “Dryden here,” came a voice.

“Yes, Mr Dryden,” said Chase.

“We can make engines ready in five hours. That’s the best speed.”

“Thank you, Mr Dryden,” said Chase. He’d been expecting an argument or, worse, outright refusal. He wondered what Martinez had said that got through to Dryden, but they had been together on this mission and were now in a state of war, and that made people see past what had previously separated them. Chase was relieved that his crew had finally started to unify, even if they were people who had washed up in a team of engineers restoring old ships. Now they were on the front lines of the cluster’s war and proving that they were a fighting force. He smiled, proud of their accomplishments, and that they could soon make ready to jump back to the Pulsar Sky system.

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Chase sat in the command chair, feeling the tension within him. They had a plan going forward. In five hours, they would jump to the Pulsar Sky system and see what could be done. But they had to hang in there until then.

Chase asked, “Wokoma, what is the likelihood of them spotting us?”

She thought about this for a moment. “Their orbit is set to bring them around in the next hour,” she replied.

They had to be somewhere else by then, but without using the drive before, it could recharge enough for a long-distance jump. They needed somewhere they wouldn’t be spotted in that time.

“What other celestial bodies are in this system?” Chase asked.

The holographic display activated. Instead of showing battle readouts, it had an accurate, slightly pixelated representation of the solar system centred on the planet immediately below them.

“There’s an asteroid belt on the edge of the system,” said Wokoma. She tapped a few buttons, and the collection of rocks flashed in yellow. The hologram zoomed out, scaling the planet down.

“Flight time?” Chase asked.

“Half an hour,” Helm replied.

“Right, take us in, but keep us on the edge. I don’t want us getting hit by anything too large.”

Wokoma nodded, and the momentum kicked in for a split second before the inertial dampeners pushed Chase back into the command chair. He made a mental note to add that to the list of things to raise with the shipyard when they docked for more repairs. He watched the monitor on the seat armrest as he pulled up a reverse view and the planet fell away in the distance.

“Are we on their scopes?” Chase asked.

Wokoma shook her head. “The planet is completely obscuring us from their sensors.”

When they came close to the asteroid belt, there were several larger slow-moving rocks surrounded by the smaller asteroids that moved much quicker.

“Bring us in as close as you can to the largest one, but make sure nothing is going to get too close to us,” said Chase.

The Trafalgar manoeuvred carefully, keeping near to the largest asteroid and coming around to use it to block the view of any enemy sensors from the direction of the planet.

“We’re holding position,” reported Wokoma.

“Excellent work,” said Chase. The ship was quiet once more as the sublight drive powered down. “Can we get a countdown until jump time?” said Chase.

Wokoma obliged and threw it up, superimposed over the forward viewport. Four and a half hours remained. Chase got to his feet.

“I’m going down to the engine room,” he said. “You have the conn, Wokoma.” Chase got up and left the bridge. He wanted to walk the ship. He couldn’t simply sit and wait, watching a timer. The Trafalgar, until now, had been mostly empty, a ghost ship in more ways than one. Since they left the shipyards, it had a full crew complement. Whilst not as large as it was designed to handle in its heyday, it made the ship feel much smaller and a busier place.

Most crew knew to nod and give “Sir” as Chase walked by. He returned the nods. The engine room was also busier now, filled with people still on loan from the Nightingale and those reassigned at the shipyard. Dryden was overseeing all of it. A large bearded man was standing over him, explaining why they wouldn’t be able to jump at the designated time.

“It’s too dangerous, even with the new coolant. We don’t know that a jump of that distance would work with the engines having only done a basic reset.”

Dryden shot back, “I’ve run the numbers. It will be fine. Worst-case scenario, we use a contingency point to come out of the jump early. If we plan ahead, it will be no issue.”

“How do you know that isn’t what happened on the first flight of the ship?” the larger man shot back.

Dryden had the uncertain look of someone who didn’t know that at all. “If Chase says he needs us to get there as quickly as possible, that’s what we’re gonna do,” Dryden replied.

Chase was touched. He hadn’t realised he’d inspired such loyalty in Dryden. If anything, he was half-expecting a betrayal the same way he had left Grace Dakota to die on the Nomadic. He cleared his throat to draw the attention of the two men.

“Excuse us,” Dryden said. “I believe you know Lieutenant Nicholas from Star Dock?” He asked, indicated the larger man, who reached out to shake Chase’s hand.