All the ship’s major systems were in the green and she saw Commander Barrett had signed off on the last ship’s log entry. She hoped he had just gotten on the bridge in time to sign the log and hadn’t pulled one of his usual stunts, grabbing a twenty-minute power nap before sneaking back on duty after he’d been ordered to his quarters. With a final inspection of her black utilities she exited her quarters and made her way directly to the bridge.

“Report,” she said calmly as first watch was coming back on duty and getting turnover from their counterparts.

“Still no reaction from the Darshik formations, Captain,” Barrett said. “They have to be able to detect the incoming missiles at this point with their own sensors even if their range is as limited as our own. Our transponder went active on schedule and Lieutenant Commander Washburn added our drone sensor network telemetry to the Link channel that’s feeding updates to the incoming Shrikes.”

“Brilliant.” Celesta nodded her approval. “There was no issue with the integration? There are over two dozen drones out there.”

“She had the CIC put all the data on a composite channel and the Icarus is broadcasting the data, ma’am,” Barrett continued, reading his turnover off his tile.

“Make a note that if this works I want her credited with the idea,” Celesta said. “Has there been any further word from our fleet?”

“Just the standard calls from the New York announcing the second and third Shrike volleys,” Barrett said. “No new orders or warnings. We lost one drone but the cause is inconclusive. It could have been a mechanical failure or it may have gotten too close to a Darshik formation.”

“That brings up an interesting theory, ma’am,” Accari spoke up. He plunged ahead when all heads on the bridge turned to look at him, not just his captain. “What if all these Darshik ships are an automated defense screen? From what we know about the Ushin it wouldn’t take much to keep them at bay; why waste the crews when you could put your damaged and obsolete ships around the planet with simple programming to shoot anything that came too close?”

“Interesting,” Barrett nodded. “We could send another drone in—”

“Wait,” Celesta held up a finger. “It wasn’t the drone that we’d sent to get a look at the planet, was it?”

“Stand by, ma’am,” Accari said, a flush creeping up his neck as the captain asked an obvious question he should have had the answer to. He pulled up his headset and began speaking animatedly, likely to someone down in Flight OPS. The crew down there would have picked the particular drone to receive the updated mission profile and someone likely forgot to update it in the log.