Kat understood. Her exec was a gifted officer, but he was as indoctrinated in Alliance thinking as anyone else in the service. Kat knew she was too, at least to an extent, but she saw other things as well, realities, dangers. She knew where the enemy was, and standard doctrine called up on her to finish things, to advance and engage—and destroy—the enemy. Immediately. But her instincts were calling out to her as well, screaming for caution. The Confeds weren’t supposed to have substantial military assets deployed to the Rim…yet here she was, facing what could only be a frontline battleship. That was a colossal failure, at least as far as information gathering was concerned. A four-million-ton battleship was a big thing to miss.

She was confident she could defeat the enemy. Even with her belief that the Confederation wasn’t as weak as many in the Alliance believed, she couldn’t imagine the Alliance’s flagship with its handpicked crew couldn’t defeat a similarly-sized enemy vessel. But she was also aware that Invictus was the only ship in the area, the sole Alliance force tasked with holding Santis. She not only had to defeat this Confederation battleship, but she had to come out of the fight with her own vessel in reasonable condition, strong enough to hold out until the fleet arrived.

She’d almost issued the order to swing around Krillus V, to set a course for the enemy ship and begin the final battle at once. But she’d held her tongue. She had an edge now. She was getting real data on the enemy…and she suspected they had nothing at all on her own ship. It was an advantage she intended to press to its fullest effect. Whoever was on that ship, they weren’t like her hardened Alliance spacers. They were vulnerable to fear, to psychological warfare. And she was going to make the most of it. If she could win with finesse, with maneuver—and avoid a toe to toe slugging match—she could minimize her own damage. Keeping her vessel operable was worth spending some extra time waiting.

Hiding, as Wentus and the others probably consider it…

Invictus was on the far side of the fifth planet, the bulk of the gas giant hiding her from even the most intensive scans initiated by any ship near Santis. She’d positioned two small satellites on opposite ends of the planet, her communications link with the probes in orbit around Santis and its moons. She’d kept the probes on passive mode…but whoever was commanding this Confederation vessel, he was no fool. He’d stopped short of the planet, clearly fearing a trap. Now it looked like he had launched fighters.