“Yeah,” Paladin said. “Remember the ziplock incident?”

Several laughed, but Racer looked more than a little chagrined.

“Hey, my wristwatch got caught in the bag, all right?”

“Says you,” Paladin returned, not missing a beat in his dealing. “I still think you were trying to palm the pot.”

Racer rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, like I really needed twenty-two bucks in loose change.”

Steaphanos watched the banter with a half smile, remembering the game himself. As he recalled, Gabrielle had won that hand, anyway, on a straight flush, so any accusations of stealing the pot were more than slightly due to sour grapes.

“Time?” Weston asked.

“Weapons will be TOT in thirty-two seconds, Captain.”

“Keep us moving, Lieutenant,” Weston ordered, rapidly making calculations in his head.

If the torpedoes were going to strike in just over thirty seconds, the enemy forces would be picking up the first light-speed evidence of their strike in just over twenty. Given that the Odyssey was now altering its course to a slightly more divergent tack, they were still over ninety light-seconds from the target ships and about two minutes from being able to read any solid reactions in the enemy fleet.

Unless he ordered the active sensors back online.

The back of Weston’s knuckles itched as he contemplated the satisfying influx of data that would follow that order.

Targeting solutions, enemy positions, full course vectors, and even weapon energy signatures would be at his fingertips, if he could only give that order.

However, it would also give the enemy a positive lock on his position, and even though they might have it already, they may well not have it yet.

So he kept his peace and watched as the Odyssey’s course continued to drop under the system ecliptic as its thrusters sought valiantly to shove the warship along a new path.

Across the reaches of space that lay between them and the alien taskforce, an alien commander was thinking many of the same thoughts as Capt. Eric Weston.

They didn’t know their enemy or his weapons, and the tactics he used didn’t match the target they had been sent to eliminate.

The ship profile was unknown.

Its power signature absurdly weak.

And yet it was ripping through warships with an ease that was…disturbing.

The Masters would not be concerned with the loss of a few ships, or even all of them, if the task was accomplished. However, because of this one ship, five warrior ships had to be diverted from other priority targets in order to take this system according to plan.

That wasn’t an acceptable situation, even if it was a necessary one.

The command of the ship was considering the impact the diversion would have on the extermination when the first warning sensor went off. It was just a minor alert, but the response was quick, just the same. In three seconds, it had been determined that the alert wasn’t tripped by any natural satellite of this system, as this alert was wont to do.