“Very well,” Commander Barrett said. “OPS, stow the warp drive and inform Engineering we’re ready for main engines. Coms, begin getting the necessary clearances to fly directly to the New Sierra Platform and ask them to give us their preferred course down into the system.”

“Aye, sir,” Ellison said. Barrett had been shocked when he’d called Captain Wright’s comlink to inform her they were about to transition into their destination system and she’d given a curt reply that she thought he could handle it.

She was starting to slip. Barrett could see the cracks in the façade as the reality of losing two starships with full crews began to sink in. During her time fighting the Phage she’d never been put in a position like that, and now Barrett feared she was compromised. The guilt and loss of confidence associated with that sort of defeat wasn’t something all commanders were able to get over. He had watched his former captain, Jackson Wolfe, go through something similar after the Battle of Nuovo Patria. While Captain Wright was handling it with a bit more grace, he couldn’t help but be concerned that she might not snap out of it.

“Priority com traffic coming in now, sir,” Ellison said. “Some addressed specifically to the captain but most is just general alert messages.”

“Go through it and give me a breakdown of what you think I need to know,” Barrett said, not wanting to be distracted while he was about to fly the Icarus down into the heavy traffic of the world many assumed would be the new capital.

“The rest of the taskforce was able to escape,” Ellison reported with obvious relief in his voice. “They’ve launched com drones ahead but they’re not due in for another week. We have confirmation from the Prowler that we destroyed two enemy ships and disabled one … no word in the mix about the Leighton.”

“Anything in there about our approach priority?” Barrett asked.

“No, sir,” Ellison said. “We’re being told to queue in behind normal traffic; they’re sending up target coordinates now. Apparently there’s another group of ships due in soon that has priority over us.”

“That has to be the delegation to the Ushin,” Accari said.

“The who?” Barrett turned to look at the OPS officer.

“Shit,” Accari muttered before raising his voice. “Unofficially, I’ve heard that’s the name of the new species we’ve made contact with. It’s either what we call them or what they call themselves. Anyway, the only group of ships I could imagine that would have a higher priority than us would be the Amsterdam, the John Arden, and their escort.”