"Channel closed, sir."

"That should keep them busy until the Nemesis arrives," Ross said, covering his mouth as he yawned again.

"Nemesis reports they're ninety minutes from transition into the system, and then they'll make best time down to us," Easton reported.

"Then let's try to get this all buttoned up before the Fleet gets here so all they have to do is swoop in and hog all the glory," Ross said.

* * *

"Now that they're not trying to hide, we're picking up two CIS Prowlers of an unknown class configuration surrounding our formation. We've also confirmed through the high-power optics that our ships are littered with what appear to be mines concentrated on the main drive and engineering sections of the hulls."

Admiral Xiao sat impassively as his senior officers each took a turn delivering the bad news. It was obvious the Federation's intelligence apparatus had been woefully underestimated by his superiors, and their damnable Prowlers had tracked their movements the entire time. The fact Xiao had unwittingly flown his ships through a minefield was humiliating. It was the type of thing the civilian policy makers couldn't understand how that happened because they were ignorant of the realities of space combat.

During their stalk, his ships had been running at minimal power and had been relying on passive sensors only, letting the comparatively tiny mines track them over the course of days before latching onto a hull. Now, if he tried to run or lock his missiles onto the ghosts flying around his taskforce, Captain Ross would begin triggering detonators.

"Why haven't they just destroyed us?" Captain Lu asked. The man sweated profusely, and his face was flushed and red.

"They're waiting on someone," Xiao said. "The Prowlers are small ships with small crews and little firepower aboard them. This Captain Ross will keep us pinned down with the threat of his mines until a proper Starfleet force can arrive. Since we're still breathing, I'm assuming we're to be boarded and taken hostage while CIS crews tear our ships apart."

"That doesn't bode well for our other ships," Commander Agata Elin said. She was the flagship's intelligence officer and, Xiao suspected, an informant for the Council. "They don't need to capture all of our ships, just this one. Once the regular Fleet ships arrive, they might destroy our other ships and focus on taking us."

"Might I suggest a database purge now, Admiral?" Captain Lu asked. "If they're—"

"And give away the only bargaining chip we have?" Xiao scoffed. "I think not. No, we will try to hold out as long as we can before taking such drastic action. There's little of value in our servers right now, but the Fed spies don't know that. If we purge them, Captain Ross may decide it's easier to detonate his mines and just leave the system."

"So, we are just going to wait for the Fed warships to show up and wipe us out?" Lu asked hotly before seeming to remember he was talking to an admiral. "With all due respect, sir."