An indicator light appeared on Commander Hunter’s EM unit. It signaled contact with Butterfly and the newly established communications network between herself, Butterfly, Lunar, and DSS Exeter. They were still limited by Hunter’s need to use short-range wideband frequencies, but it did give her a voice channel with the Task Force.

“Exeter, Pierce.”

“Afternoon, Commander.”

“Ma’am? You’ve defeated the interference?”

“In a manner of speaking. Patch me through to the Fury bridge.”

“Affirmative. Switching nets.”

A moment passed.

“Fury, Mallory.”

“Lieutenant, I need you to do me a favor.”

“Commander, it’s a relief to hear your voice again. How can Fury help you?”

“Configure the ECCM antenna to all voice capable frequencies north of the data wave on this channel. Wait thirty seconds, then direct maximum power on all frequencies to everything within a mile of my coordinates and maintain broadcasts for sixty seconds. I will re-establish contact then. Hunter out.”

The Commander quickly reconfigured her handheld unit. She utilized her minibot’s op codes to instruct them all to shut down their receivers so as to avoid the destructive signal that was about to be beamed at them.

“Okay, Tom, let’s close that hatch. It’s going to get ugly out there in a minute.”

Huggins helped Commander Hunter bar the records lab door as best he could. Moments after the pressure seal indicators shifted to green, a buzzing sound became audible outside.

“Echo, shut down your antennas.”

“But I won’t be able to hear Butterfly!”

“It’s okay. I can hear her on this unit. I don’t want your systems to be damaged. The ship is going to send us a really powerful signal in a second.”

“Okay.” Echo didn’t sound convinced.

The buzzing sound increased intensity by several orders of magnitude and the hatch began to vibrate. The lights went out in the outside corridor and flickered in the weapons lab. Finally a thump sounded followed by a bang.

Hunter was watching her EM unit’s timer. The moment it hit 60 seconds, the sound vanished. She keyed her intership channel.

“Hunter to Fury.”

“Fury, Mallory here.”

“Enemy jamming equipment has been neutralized. We’re back on the air, lieutenant. Give me the shock leader’s designator.”

“Stand by, landing party.”

“Saddle, up, commander. I want prisoners.”

Huggins retrieved his weapons and the equipment pack.

“Echo, I need you to clear all combat frequencies, re-establish contact with all minibots and get me a sitrep right away. Go to alert condition three, signals silent.”

“Okay!” The little ambulance re-activated her high-gain antennas and began sending scrambled status response op codes to the rest of the data network. Within moments she had permanent multi-frequency channels with all nine task force ships, the marine shock platoons and four minibots on the same network.

“Not bad for a collection of toys, Commander,” Huggins said as he unlocked the pressure door.

“Not bad at all,” Hunter replied with a grin. The two officers emerged from the records lab and began making their way back up the corridor towards Rebel and Wave’s perimeter.

“I have Captain Cleghorn on priority frequency, Commander.”

“Very good, Lieutenant, switch us over, if you please.” Hunter waited a moment or two. “Captain, Hunter here. Status report.”

“Good to hear your voice ma’am. We’re clear to deck five and will rendezvous with you at station control platform three.”

“Affirmative. I need a medical evac from the records lab before we do any heavy lifting. Echo has the coordinates. Hunter out.” She switched her commlink back. “Mallory, I want a full sensor sweep of this station. Find those intruders now. I want bearing and distance in thirty seconds.”

“Yes ma’am. Stand by for telemetry.”

The Task Force flagship turned gradually in the direction of Survey Station Nineteen, bringing all of her most powerful sensors and detection equipment to bear. Life sciences personnel configured the automatic data collection routines and the sensors began a systematic analysis of every cubic foot of the station’s internal volume.

“Got “em, Commander. Deck Two bearing–” Hunter heard someone typing on a control station in the background. “Bearing one zero seven mark two zero zero true your position. Range 80 yards XY plane true.”

“That’s the observation deck. Report force alert status.”

“All vessels are maintaining general quarters per your orders, ma’am.”

“Watch for sudden appearances of enemy vessels. Under no circumstances allow enemy personnel to evacuate this station, or any ship to approach it.”

“Ma’am? We have negative contact with unauthorized personnel aboard the station.”

“Say again, Fury?”

“They’re gone. Previous contact is no longer showing up on the scope.”

“Give me a contact scan of the station perimeter, quickly.”

“Stand by.” Hunter listened as voices murmured in the background. Mallory could be heard issuing orders.

“Negative contact. My only external contact is King One. No change in aspect.”

Hunter ripped her commlink off and threw it down the corridor. After trying to compose herself and failing she slumped back against the bulkhead.

“The minute that jamming equipment went south, they ran up the stairs to Deck Two and vanished,” she sighed. “We almost bought the farm for nothing.”

“Maybe not. We did get the records and sensor data we came for. I wouldn’t be surprised if we can glean something useful from all the data we gathered during the fight.”

“I hope so. I want to know how my enemy keeps blinking out the moment we get close.”

“It is a mystery,” Huggins concluded.

“I don’t like mysteries, Commander.”