“You reconsider my closet offer, Captain? I’m a little pressed for time at the moment but I could—”

“I need to get back to my ship,” Celesta said.

“Ah, look, Celesta … there have been some—”

“I know what’s happening and I know they’re locking down the station. I want you to find a way to put me on the Icarus,” she pressed.

“Couldn’t you ask for a simpler favor?” Pike asked plaintively and it sounded like he was trying to keep his voice muffled. She could barely make out other voices in the background, most shouting excitedly.

“Damnit, Pike! If you—”

“Lower your voice!” Pike hissed. “I’m not even supposed to be here right now. Listen … get down to Maintenance Dock Delta-Delta-Four and go to auxiliary airlock hatch six-oh-two.”

“Delta-Delta-Four, six-oh-two,” Celesta repeated back.

“Enter alpha-nine-one-seven into the keypad to get into the airlock,” Pike continued. “I’m sending a scan code to your comlink; just hold the display up to the hatch once you’re in the airlock.”

“Is this to what I think it is?” Celesta asked. “I’m assuming it won’t just let me take off even if I knew how.”

“I’m sending it instructions now,” Pike said. “It’ll take you to the Icarus and then make its way back here for me. This one is a bit different than the gen-one. You really only have to tell it what to do; there’s not much in the way of actual controls. Look, I can’t talk right now … just follow my instructions and tell it what you want. It really is that easy.” The channel went dead and Celesta wasted no time forwarding the information to Accari before pulling up the map of the station again to figure out where the hell the maintenance docks were.

Thankfully, they were just two lift rides away; down eleven decks and about half a kilometer of walking and she was there. She was shocked that Accari was already waiting there, looking slightly winded.

“You made good time, Ensign,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Accari breathed. “There’s a cargo lift that runs the entire span of the platform, from the maintenance docks all the way to the com center at the top. I asked another ensign that worked in Logistics if I could use it.”

“A word of advice, Ensign Accari,” Celesta said as she keyed in the code to open the airlock’s inner hatch. “An admiral’s aide is not the type of person you want holding a personal vendetta … unless you like assignments to the listening posts they’re putting up all along the ESA border systems.” Accari looked like he was going to protest, thought better of it, and then just nodded.

“Understood, ma’am,” he said simply. “Although the ensign in Logistics approached me—”