“OPS, I want one of our Jacobsons reconfigured to try and slip in through the gaps of the Darshik formation. I want eyes on the Ushin planet,” Celesta said. Something didn’t smell right about the entire situation, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. The hell of it was she had no idea if this new behavior she was seeing in the ships down in the system was at all normal. Their lack of knowledge about the Darshik, and in fact their new Ushin allies, was something that she felt was an avoidable and potentially dangerous oversight by CENTCOM. It was one thing to enter into a protection pact, but they’d committed most of their combat-ready forces without much due diligence that she could see and now they were already facing more than double the ships they had accounted for.

“Ready to upload the new parameters, ma’am,” Accari said. “Flight OPS will send it in the next burst transmission. We just want to divert one drone?”

“Yes,” Celesta nodded. “Just the one. It may not make it through, but I want to see what the state of the surface is.”

“The closest Jacobson should be on its way down to the planet within the next forty minutes,” Accari said. “We also have some handshake requests on the Link. Four distinct queries.”

“Confirmed, Captain,” Ellison said over his shoulder from the com station. “Leading elements from the rest of the taskforce are emerging from the jump point.”

“The drones are already raising a hell of a racket down near their lines,” Celesta said. “Let’s keep our own emissions to a minimum; passive sensors only and directional burst transmissions when needed. If the Darshik move at the new arrivals, a few more ships broadcasting as a distraction won’t make much of a difference. Lieutenant Ellison, please tell the new arrivals to pass along that we’ve seen at least three Darshik ships free-flying through the system but have lost track of them.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.”

Celesta discreetly popped a few stim tabs into her mouth and washed them down with a healthy swig of coffee. The ship’s chief medical officer would lose her mind if she knew what the captain was doing, but Celesta instinctually knew that things were in motion that wouldn’t allow her to leave the bridge for any length of time. It also meant that she would be required to stay for an extremely long watch since all the players were spread out across the system. The com delays alone were just over an hour between the Icarus and where the rest of the fleet was deploying.

“OPS, keep an eye on the Link feed,” she said. “I want to know when the New York arrives and I want to know when the Ushin fleet gets here.”

“Aye, ma’am,” Accari said. “How many ships are the Ushin sending?”