“Lieutenant Commander, I would suggest you forget anything you’ve heard regarding any deployed Fleet ships for the time being,” Pike said, all traces of his usual sardonic humor gone. “I’m not kidding. The shit is about to hit the turbine, and it’s a lot of shit. I’d hate to see you get splattered with any of it.”

“I guess that’s all the confirmation I need,” Essa said. “How about you, Agent? You going to stay squeaky clean as usual?”

“Amiri,” Pike began in exasperation.

“Got it.” Essa held his hands up. “Just watch your back, Pike.”

“Always.”

Chapter 21

The Icarus shuddered back into real-space in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. The navigational data provided by the CIS assets had put them just inside the heliopause of the target system, and at that range the primary star wasn’t much brighter than some of its nearest neighbors.

“Position confirmed, ma’am. We’re as far out as we can get and still be considered in the star system,” the chief at Nav reported.

“OPS and Tactical, begin full spectrum passive scans immediately,” Celesta said. “We are under strict emission security protocols, everybody. I don’t want a damn thing that has a direct connection to an antenna even powered up except for the passive detection systems. OPS will coordinate all requests through CIC, but for now just assume that your equipment is on that list and tell your backshops to sit on their hands.”

“We’re already receiving a lot of thermal and RF energy that indicates a heavy presence down there,” Adler said. “Can you confirm, OPS?”

“Confirmed,” Accari said. “CIC is processing the initial returns and building a profile of probable ship placements based on what we know about this system.”

“Which is next to nothing.” Barrett frowned. “Ma’am, would you rather I go down to CIC to help them chew through the incoming data?”

“You’re not trained as an analyst, Commander,” Celesta chided him gently. “I need you up here, XO. Nav, I want you to plot me a reciprocal course to utilize this jump point as our egress. OPS, tell Engineering I want the engines prepped for a quick start, but keep them cold for now. Let’s just be a hole in space for a bit and see what we see.”

There had been some argument among her senior staff when she’d informed them they had hit the Epsilon jump point for a reason other than escape. She intended to complete the reconnaissance of the second star system the Ushin had tried to lead them to in order to get some answers CENTCOM would likely need about the entire debacle.