“Get the Icarus on an open channel now!” the admiral shouted at one of the com officers. “Broadcast it to the fleet.”

“Go ahead, sir,” the officer said.

****

“Icarus, this is Captain Everett on the Amsterdam,” the voice came over the bridge speakers. “We have five unaccounted-for targets left. I believe they may have executed one of the intrasystem jumps they used against your taskforce to bypass our defensive perimeter and continue pursuing the last Ushin ship.”

“We concur, Captain,” Celesta said. She was standing behind Lieutenant Commander Adler and looking at the target tracks, having already come to the same conclusion before the call came in from the flagship. “If you’re able to handle your two stragglers, we’re about to switch back over to our RDS and we’re already carrying a lot of velocity; we might be able to catch them.”

“My thoughts exactly, Captain,” Everett said. “This goes for any other Fleet warships in the system … you are cleared to engage the enemy. If it isn’t Ushin or Terran, open fire and don’t let them approach close enough to grapple on. Watch the overlapping fire. Amsterdam out.”

“Shit,” Barrett growled. “With everyone running weapons free at random vectors this system just turned into a shooting gallery.”

“Uh, Commander, the channel to the Amsterdam is still open,” Ellison said. “It’s just switched back to private ship-to-ship instead of on the Fleetwide channel.”

“You disapprove of our tactics, Commander Barrett?” the unmistakable voice of Admiral Marcum came over the speakers. Barrett gave Ellison a look that could have melted hull plating.

“We’re all just trying to figure out how to approach this with the least amount of collateral damage, Admiral,” Celesta answered before Barrett could.

“What’s the Icarus’ status, Captain?”

“The RDS pod flaked out … again … when we tried to decel into the engagement,” she answered. “We had too much—”

“Yes, I heard all that,” Marcum interrupted. “I’m just curious how you’re running both of your main propulsion systems simultaneously.”

“My chief engineer has developed a power interface that allows us to use the RDS while keeping the MPDs primed and ready, Admiral,” Celesta said. “Before that it was blowing power junctions out and creating an unacceptable hazard to my ship.”

“I see,” Marcum said. “Do you think you can get it back up in time to catch those five ships? I won’t go into detail, Captain, but it is utterly vital that Ushin ship survives. With the New York still in berth you’re the only ship that can get there in time. Can you do it?”

Celesta looked around the bridge for non-verbal status updates from a few of her crew before answering.

“Yes, Admiral. We can do it.”

Chapter 11

“RDS responding normally to commands, ma’am,” the helmsman reported not even ten minutes after the conversation with Admiral Marcum.