Chapters (27)
“That still doesn’t make any—” Barrett was cut off by the computer chirping, followed by the first watch com officer’s voice.
“Captain, priority Two-Alpha channel request coming in from the Amsterdam,” she said.
“Put it through, Lieutenant.”
“Aye aye, ma’am.”
Celesta pulled her monitor back around and put her finger to her lips, indicating to Barrett to remain silent before hitting the accept icon flashing on the screen.
“We’ve got a situation, Captain Wright,” Admiral Marcum said harshly.
“Yes, Admiral,” she nodded. “I just finished going through the video—”
“Shut up and listen, Captain!” Marcum snapped, startling Celesta. Barrett’s eyes widened but he maintained his composure and didn’t utter a sound. “This has nothing to do with those bullshit games the politicians are playing on New Sierra. There’s been a development along the Frontier. Something has been … detected … in the Xi’an System.”
Celesta’s blood ran cold at the name and she immediately forgot Marcum’s outburst.
“The Phage?” she almost whispered.
“No,” Marcum shook his head. “At least not that we’ve detected. The brief I received when the com drone buzzed through the system was light on details, but it was enough that I’m ordering you out of the system. As of right now your current orders are to take the Icarus and make best speed directly to Xi’an. You’ll rendezvous there with a CIS Prowler that’s been monitoring the system.”
“Can you give me a bit more than that, Admiral?” Celesta asked.
“I could, but I’m not,” Marcum said. “You’re being deployed on a recon mission, Captain. I need you to investigate what this might be and I’m afraid that if I give you too much detail you’ll be inclined to jump to conclusions that may lead to rash action when you finally arrive in Xi’an. The short answer is that despite the Xi’an System being off limits we have reason to believe a Fleet warship may be stranded there.”
“But—” Celesta tried to interject.
“Your orders are being transmitted as we speak,” Marcum waved her off. “I’m verbally ordering your ship out of orbit; you can go over the data packet on your way to the jump point. No arguments. The next words out of your mouth had better be ‘aye aye, sir.’”
“Aye aye, sir,” Celesta said automatically, but she was staring at the logo for Seventh Fleet as Marcum had killed the channel before she had even opened her mouth.