“The ones who shot you down, Steph?” Cardsharp asked, grinning.

“I was flying a frigging shuttle.”

“Still counts.”

“It does not!”

“Burner?” she asked their colleague, chuckling openly.

“Sorry, Steph, definitely counts,” Burner said, smiling tightly.

“Jerks,” Steph grumbled. “Anyway, boss wants to check it out, so we’re going in, and we’re going in hot. So we need to talk formations and maneuvers in a hurry.”

The other two pilots exchanged glances on their screens and then leaned in.

“Sounds fun,” Burner said.

“Agreed,” Jennifer confirmed, but looking less eager.

“What is it, Sharp?” Steph asked, reading her expression.

“I think we need to bring our engineers in on this,” she told them. “Space-warp drives can interfere with one another. Any maneuvers we plan, they need to sign off on, maybe even need to be involved in during the move.”

Steph groaned. “Ugh. Didn’t think of that, but you’re right. Okay, get your geeks in on this while I go shake down mine. Back online in an hour.”

►►►

► “Captains.” Eric looked around the displays arrayed about him.

“Commodore . . . ,” the one in the center, Ian Shepherd, captain of the AEV Hood, responded. “Since we’ve all gone to general quarters, I assume you plan to do something about the distress signals?”

“That would be a fair assumption,” Eric said. “We’re going to transition in system, as deep as we dare, and move immediately to full space-warp drives. We’ve got a good idea where the signals came from, and they’re pretty deep inside the well, so we’re going in hot.”

“Excuse me, Commodore,” Captain Su Lynn Jing of the Song-Jiang interjected, “but I do not understand the need for such speed. Reports on the Priminae lifeboats indicate that they can survive weeks without intervention.”

“They can,” Eric replied. “However, saving those crewmen isn’t the reason for going in hot. I’m more concerned with what caused them to abandon ship in the first place.”

“You think the spiders had something to do with it?” Maxine Ritter, captain of the Kid, asked softly.

“Unlikely, and if they did, then we’ll be arriving too late anyway,” Eric said. “No, I think . . . I hope that we’re looking at an Imperial incursion.”

Ian nodded. “Alright, I can see that. So what’s the plan?”

“The Heroics are going to transition a few seconds before you take your Rogues through,” Eric said. “We’ll go to full drives as soon as we arrive, shining knight armor settings. You lot come in dark, behind us, and go deep.”

The captain of the Aladdin, Benjamin Alhad, frowned as he leaned forward in the display.

“Commodore, am I to understand that you intend to use your Heroics as bait?”