“Raise the Spruance!”

The third watch signals officer raced to open the hailing channel.

“Does the conn have maneuvering control?”

“Aye sir, pilot has positive control.”

“Bring us about heading three two zero. Get me engineering!” The look on Jason Hunter’s face told the story. His ship was nearly crippled and had just barely started to recover.

“I have Commander Teller aboard the Spruance, sir”

“Francis! I want Spruance, Exeter and Revenge to take point until Argent is fully operational, acknowledge!”

“Acknowledged, Argent. Spruance has the ball.”

The two escort cruisers shifted their positions in the Perseus formation forward of their capital ship. There was very nearly an audible sigh of relief on the Argent bridge as the two powerful vessels’ brightly glowing side by side drive sections hovered into view.

“Engineering, Madison.”

“Olivia, where is Yili?” Hunter barked.

“Unknown, sir. We’ve had some failures in our auxiliary couplers. My guess is she’s on deck 31 with damage control.”

“How long to restore the mains?”

“Auxiliary power is on line. I’ll have reactors one and four up in a minute.”

“Very well. Divert all power to forward battle screens until further instructed. Bridge out.”

Exeter came into view from below Argent’s position. The three heaviest ships in the formation were now on the point. The remaining five escort vessels took close-in supporting positions to defend against the oncoming threat.

“Sir, I have a message from Lieutenant Curtiss. It’s pre-recorded, sir.”

Hunter grabbed a headset and listened intently. He whispered to himself as the substance of his engineer’s message became clear.

“What the hell?”

The tactical officer waited patiently for orders.

“Raise Skywatch. I want our fighter cover to break off pursuit of the Agamemnon fleet and return to their patrol stations. Raise Nightwing One on priority channel.”

“Aye, sir. Coding your message.”

“CIC, Briggs.”

“Nathan, give me the bad news and do it quickly.”

“Very well, sir. We have two battle groups bracketing our formation. The first is headed up by the heavy battleship Kingsblade. The other is anchored by the Fleet Carrier Orca. Both groups have multiple capital escorts in the 300,000-ton range. They are all armed with long-range Lancer-class missiles. The Orca has ten squadrons of two-gen Jacks with echeloned shipkiller weapons.”

Silence reigned on the bridge. “Tactical.”

The forward screen switched to display the relative positions of Hunter’s group and the two approaching battle lines. The red indicator icons moved gradually closer to the center, where Argent and her clustered squadrons waited.

“Ten thousand people are going to die in the next two hours if we don’t find a way to put a stop to this,” Hunter said quietly.

“Sir, I have Commander Doverly on priority channel.”

“Annora? Please let it be good news.”

“Sounds like you’re losing your nerve over there, Captain.”

Hunter sat up in his chair. “Jayce?”

“What, you don’t recognize my voice? Fury is awaiting orders.”

“I hope you’re ready for the biggest fight of our lives, Commander. We’ve got six heavies inbound along with a dozen escorts and over a hundred fighters.”

“How are my archers and cavalry doing?”

Jason smiled despite himself. “They’re drunk and asleep.”

“Well, that’s what you get for hiring Irish mercenaries, Captain. The way I see it, we need to give our friends time to do their work. What do you say we make it a race?”

“Risky.”

“With all due respect, less risky than flying between those formations, sir.”

“I’ll grant you that. What do you propose?”

“Let’s take our group around the horn. Permission to keep Annora on our side of the fence for now. I trust you can coordinate CSP with a substitute. We’ll secure Nightwing One in Fury’s landing bay.”

“Permission granted. Hunter out.” Jason swiveled his chair back to face forward. “Alright pilot, let’s coordinate navigation with Spruance and follow my sister’s suggestion. Bring the formation about. Course One Two Four mark Three Three Five. All excess power to aft battle screens. Prepare to engage the mains.”

“Aye, sir. Helm answering. New course on the board and locked in. Escorts acknowledging.”

“Signals, put me on the intership. Let’s hope this works.”