“Very good,” Celesta said. “Nav! Set course for the middle of the Darshik formation. Tactical, you’re going to have to not only track the enemy ships but be aware of incoming fire from the Terran ships down near New Sierra’s orbit. OPS, you help her with that.”

“Course entered in and ready, Captain,” the nav station operator said.

“Come onto new course, all ahead flank.”

“RDS ahead flank, aye,” the helmsman said. “MPD main engines to zero thrust, plasma chambers still at operational levels.”

“Good, good,” Celesta said, grunting slightly against the acceleration of the reactionless drive as it overwhelmed their artificial gravity and inertial compensators. “Let’s keep them there for now since the RDS pod is a bit temperamental.”

She could only marvel at the power of the new drive as she watched the Icarus race past her old maximum real-space velocity on the main display and get there in a matter of minutes. Commander Graham had told her that he could remove the governors on the system and the drive could reach its top relative speed almost instantaneously, but it would kill all the crew and likely destroy the ship in the process. She allowed herself a moment of nostalgic regret as, even while flying into an engagement where they were badly outnumbered, she could see the end of an era approaching. The old plasma-burning starships were slow and ungainly for the most part, but they required a high degree of skill and coordination to fly, something Fleet spacers took great pride in. Even the retrofitted Starwolf-class ship with a drive pod bolted on under the aft almost flew itself. She had to assume the next generation of Terran ships would be even more capable and just as sterile, almost able to be operated by anybody.

“Updating Shrike target packages, ma’am,” Lieutenant Commander Adler said. “Do you still want one per?”

“Fire two missiles per target,” Celesta said, checking the master armament status window on her terminal to see how many of the specialized munitions were left. “Have the crews reload all eight forward tubes; we’ll snap fire a second volley if it looks like it’s needed.”

“Aye, ma’am,” Adler said.

“Thirteen minutes until we’re in weapons range,” Accari reported. “Ushin ship has made it within the New Sierra defensive boundary; Darshik ships are slowing slightly.”

“Coms! Get on the Fleetwide and warn them that these Darshik ships might try to jump in behind their picket line,” Celesta said. “Are there any Black Fleet ships down there?”

“Two missile cruisers,” Accari said. “The Solstice Wind and the Zephyr, both Fourth Squadron.”

“Coms, order those two ships up off the line to flank the Ushin ship,” Celesta said. “Tell them if my authority isn’t good enough then they can take it on faith I speak for CENTCOM Chief of Staff at the moment.”