“Afternoon, Commander. Look what I got!”

“Sir? How did you– I mean what did you–” Annora Doverly was rarely this at a loss for words, but then again, she was well aware of Jason Hunter’s twin penchants for putting on a show and making an entrance. This time, he was relaxed with his show-off dial turned up to 11 in the Kingsblade’s command chair at the conn on the battleship’s spacious bridge.

“Jason?” His sister was equally dumbstruck.

“I’m pleased to report we have re-taken the Kingsblade, commander. It’s unfortunate we had to sink her escorts, but this was the ship that mattered. Once I get her back in shape we can go toe to toe with that Sentinel if we have to and Heaven help anything that violates our command area.”

“We can’t man that ship, sir,” Jayce pointed out. “Our crews have been on a four-watch rotation for days. We need to stand down and cycle systems on ten ships, not to mention our fighter wing.”

“Agreed. I recommend we retreat to the Steel Wheel as per our original battle plan. Automated or not, Orca is not going to pursue us on her own after we swept Task Force Poseidon like we did. I want engineering and damage control transferred to my temporary command here. I also want a biological and environmental sciences detail to go over this vessel deck by deck until we know what happened to her crew. We’re also going to need to shuffle some officers before we turn our attention back to the Sentinel.”

“Ambitious plan. I hope we have time to put it into action before the rest of that fleet comes looking for us,” Annora said.

“Then let’s get this parade moving. Madison tells me we’ll be able to get her underway in about two hours. Perseus will escort this vessel to a secure location so we can complete our repairs and redeploy our crews. Then we’re going to take that battle station, big gun or no big gun.”

With the damaged battleship under the vigilant guns of DSS Argent, Hunter’s emergency damage control parties and engineering teams were transferred from flight deck to flight deck by service corvettes. Shipment after shipment of spare parts, fuel, diagnostic equipment and personnel were dispatched from Argent’s reserves. Within an hour, more than 100 specialists were hard at work putting the Kingsblade’s primary systems back together and simultaneously dismantling the jury-rigged automation systems the big ship had utilized during the battle. Lieutenant Islington’s frigate even shuttled a few of the larger pieces of equipment across the half-mile between the two proud capital ships.

By the time the primary systems were starting to come back online, Strike Fleet Perseus had reconvened around Argent and her larger sister ship. Both the Hunters had issued stand down orders and implemented shift changes that allowed their most stressed personnel to finally get some rest and something to eat. Once all the tasks had been assigned and the officers and crews of the eleven vessel fleet knew what they were supposed to be doing, Fleet Captain Hunter summoned his command staff back to Argent’s conference room.

The last time the Perseus officers had met aboard Argent, Hunter was only able to announce his audacious plan to commandeer the Barker’s Asteroid battle station and turn its fearsome weapon back on their enemy.

Now, Captain Hunter was one step away from making that impossible goal a reality.