The next two weeks were uneventful. Mind-numbingly uneventful, if Celesta was being honest with herself. After they’d finally made it to the planet and assumed their orbit at an altitude of thirty-seven thousand kilometers, far above and slightly behind the other ships in the Terran convoy, it had been made clear to them that only a small delegation from the John Arden would actually be participating in the meetings with the aliens. This had been bitterly disappointing to many of the officers on her staff who had wrongfully assumed they’d be rotated down to the surface to look around and maybe even be one of the first humans to get a glimpse of the new species.

Instead the crew of the Icarus sat on overwatch patrol above the Amsterdam, John Arden, and the two supply frigates while the alien ships were in a similar formation on the opposite side of the planet. Celesta was grateful the RDS had decided to cooperate and the gravity-warping drive allowed the Starwolf-class destroyer to easily keep pace with the other ships without overflying them at such a high altitude.

“How goes the watch, Ensign Accari?” she asked as she walked onto the bridge thirty minutes before first watch began.

“All quiet, Captain,” Accari said. “Some standard com traffic from the Amsterdam that I’ve had routed to your inbox, but nothing flagged as priority. I’ve heard that you’ll be asked to attend a dinner aboard her as the admiral is getting bored with racing around this planet.”

“Mr. Accari,” Celesta began sternly. “You are now an officer and a gentleman. It is beneath you to insinuate that the admiral is anything but in complete control of the situation. A young officer with a bright career ahead of him would also be careful about letting slip just how much inside information he was getting through an infatuated young woman who happened to be the admiral’s aide.”

“Yes, ma’am. My apologies, ma’am,” Accari said, recognizing his captain’s peculiar sense of humor and not sounding the least bit contrite. Ensign Idris Accari, formerly Specialist Second Class Accari, had been the first watch nav station operator on the Ares under Captain Jackson Wolfe. Jackson had recognized early how sharp the young man was, and in one of his last actions before he’d officially retired from Fleet he had lobbied to get Accari a commission, dependent upon him completing Officer Candidate Training (OCT) as well as the subsequent command schools. Accari had breezed through them without trouble and had been one of the few selected from his class of enlisted candidates for a commission. Those that didn’t receive a direct commission were given the option to return to the enlisted ranks or go through the Academy. Since the Academy was typically a five-year stint, most just went back to their previous commands.