“It was nice of the high command to send us clear across the Confederation so you could be home in time.” Lieutenant Walt Billings looked down from a narrow catwalk, five meters above Dauntless’s main engineering deck. He had a burnt system control rod in one hand, and a fresh one in the other, but his attention had been diverted from the power flow regulator to the conversation taking place on the main deck below. “We didn’t know we had such a big shot down here in engineering.”

Sam Carson looked up and smiled at his comrade. “Yeah, Walt, well you know the fleet admiral and I are like this.” He held up his hand, his thumb and forefinger almost touching. “So, I just asked him if a hundred extra lightyears added to the trip was such a big deal…”

The two men laughed, and in a few seconds it spread to the others working in the engineering space. Dauntless’s crew was tightly knit, but its engineering teams were even more so. They’d only had minor repairs to contend with until now, but they all knew if—when—it came to open war, the survival of the ship would rest on them as much as, possibly more than, anyone else. The gunners took credit for blasting enemy ships, and the fighter pilots notched their throttles with each kill, but when it came to getting a damaged laser cannon back on line in time to fire, or giving the captain maximum thrust when he needed it, it was the engineers who would get the job done.

They tended to relish their roles as the unheralded and unappreciated branch of the service, but Dauntless’s team knew that didn’t apply to them. Captain Barron had made it clear from day one he thought they were the living, breathing heart of the ship, and for almost a year now he had been true to his word, even making frequent visits to the engineering spaces. The captain had picked up a set of tools more than once, and joined his engineers in whatever task they were completing, though it was an open question as to whether his efforts had been of any help. Barron’s lack of engineering skill had become the joke of the section, but the men and women there had come to love their captain.