It was only natural that when Lee found himself on the bridge of a battleship that he would harbor resentment when, once again, it looked like Celesta Wright was going to swoop in and take it regardless that it was always meant to be a temporary posting. She didn’t doubt that Lee would do his job to the best of his ability aboard the New York. What did worry her was that the lingering doubt of being told he wasn’t cut out to be a destroyer captain due to a lack of boldness or decisiveness might lead him to overcompensate, to make rash decisions that put the mission and his ship at risk.

With a mental shrug she forced the issue from her mind. Her responsibility was to her mission, the Icarus, and Ninth Squadron. In that order. She didn’t have the luxury of worrying about what was happening on the bridge of a Fourth Fleet battleship that wasn’t even going to be in her formation once the operation started. Captain Lee was left in place on the ship by Admiral Pitt and she’d have to trust that he knew what he was doing.

“All hands to duty stations, all hands to duty stations,” Ensign Accari’s voice came over the intercom. “Prepare for ship’s movement.” A moment later her office intercom pinged, as did her com link.

“Captain Wright, please report to the bridge.”

“Finally.” Celesta stood and smoothed out her utility top.

They had received their official move order and since the Ninth was to jump in first, and were the fastest ships in the fleet, Celesta was given clearance to climb up to departure altitude first and come onto course for the jump point. She elected to fly the course on her main engines, not wanting to risk the RDS flaking out and not needing it since the other two ships, the Atlas and the Hyperion, didn’t have the drive refit.

Once the formation had swung around Juwel and reached escape velocity the three destroyers peeled off onto their new course and away from the rest of the taskforce.

“Confirming new course, ma’am,” the chief at Nav said. “We’re where we need to be.”

“Very well.” Celesta stood up. “Helm! All ahead full. OPS, inform Engineering to prepare the warp drive for deployment.”

“Ahead full, aye,” the helmsman said, the deck vibrating as the main engines were run up to full power. They were still weeks away from any actual fighting, but the crew was razor-sharp as the ship was now on her way to meet the enemy. Most were still stinging from the slap they’d received in the Xi’an System and were looking forward to moving on the Darshik with a full battlegroup in tow.

“Icarus is at transition velocity, ma’am,” Ensign Accari called out.