“It’ll be a gunfight at knife range…but they’ll still win it. Your idea’s a good one, but we need something more. We’ve got to find a way to inflict some damage beyond what our guns can manage. And some way to gain an edge with our advantage in thrust.”

Travis stared down at the table, shaking her head. “Any way we can hurt them, we’re in their range too, aren’t we?”

“Unless…” Barron looked up. “We still have those U-111 units onboard, don’t we?”

Travis nodded. “Yes, ninety-four of them, I believe. But…”

“They have stealth capability…”

“Yes, but it’s old and outdated. I doubt it would work against the Alliance scanners.”

“In the field? With the radioactive dust of dozens of pulverized asteroids floating around, degrading scanners?”

Travis’s eyes widened. “That just might work…but we’d have to plan it perfectly. Ninety-four sounds like a lot, but space is a big place.

Barron smiled. “I know just how we’re going to do it.” He slapped his hand down on the desk, and jumped up to his feet. “C’mon, Atara…we’ve got a lot of work to do before that ship gets here.”

*   *   *

“C’mon, Sam, show us!” Walt Billings dropped down from the shaft, stumbling slightly as he landed hard on the deck. “I saw you looking at it when we were up there.”

“Yeah, Sam, come on.”

“We want to see!”

Carson stood in the center of the engineering space, feeling the heat on his face, the redness coming on despite his best efforts to resist.

“We’ve got work to do, guys.” He turned and walked toward the door, but Billings ran around and stood between him and the exit.

“The work can wait a few seconds. We could all use a short break, and something good in the middle of this shit. So, let’s see!”

Carson opened his mouth to argue again, but then he closed it without saying anything. It was pointless. He knew his comrades well enough to realize they would never slack off, never tire of the chase.