“What’s so urgent?”

“That will be all, Sergeant.” Captain Hunter held the door while the marine strike sergeant excused himself, then closed it. He gestured for his sister to take a seat at the conference table, then seated himself in the same chair he occupied during the briefing. He was in his trademark high-energy mode, and his sister braced herself. These conversations went quick and covered a lot of ground.

“Status of Fury?”

“Operational with main power. I left Annora in command.”

“That quick, eh?”

“She’s the senior officer aboard. My XO is a good man. They’ll be fine if there’s trouble. What is going on around here?”

“This has to be kept between you and me, Commander.” Jason never addressed his sister as “commander’ seriously unless there was something dreadfully sober going on. “I just got a love letter from my engineer. Apparently she and my signals officer are playing hooky on Barker’s Asteroid.”

Jayce sat in stunned silence for a moment.

“My sister is speechless? Wow, I’m going to have to write to mom. Are you sure you’re well? Wait, what have you done with Jayce Hunter!?”

“How–”

“Apparently Zony snagged one of the alien communication devices off a downed intruder. Their working theory is those devices are Ithis technology adapted for their human collaborators. They are bio-engineered to draw their energy from their user. The one Yili and Zony are using was running out of energy, but they thought they could use the last of it to zap themselves into the control station out there.”

“Now I know why it was so easy to convince you to take a trip around the edge of that asteroid field. You’re betting they’ll get that gun operational by the time we have to turn back.”

Jason stood and referenced the display of Gitairn space. “There are two possibilities. Either King Two is going to match us waypoint for waypoint and try to wear us down with fighter engagements if we take the long way around–”

“Or,” Jayce continued. “They’ll cut across the asteroid field and make it a botched stolen base maneuver.”

Jason pointed and performed a little victory gesture. “Exactly. Now I’ve been working on the assumption that one way or another I was going to get Lieutenant Tixia up close and personal with that minefield eventually. If we give her enough time, she’s going to have that whole array reprogrammed to fight for our side.”

“And if we can somehow encourage King Two to try and cut us off–”

“They’ll fly right through the asteroid field thinking those mines are still programmed to stand down when they get their transponder signals.”

“The biggest traffic pile-up in fleet history,” Jayce mused.

“If we do this right, Zony will have reconfigured them to open fire on all transponders that don’t match the Perseus Strike Group, and if we do it on time, we could cut their strength by half.”

“And with the Sentinel there to pick off the big boys, we could mission kill the entire formation in one pass. A fine strategy, Captain. I’m surprised I didn’t think of it first.”

“You did.”

“Say again?”

“Archers and cavalry, commander. We’re just changing their hats.”

“What about Dunkerque?” Jayce pointed at the single contact following a hyperbolic course towards the “east” edge of the minefield.

“She’s due to hit the edge of the asteroids in about fifteen minutes. That’s going to be our safety in this formation. If Yili and Zony fail, Commander DeMay can fly through those mines even if they aren’t reconfigured.”

“And if they are? Won’t Dunkerque set them off?”

“She will, if Zony forgets she’s out there.”

“Let’s hope everybody gets everything right and in the right order then,” Jayce said as she got to her feet. “I don’t need to remind you about the first rule of combat, sir.”

“Which is?”

“The first bullet fired blows every battle plan all to hell.”