“Any special instructions for me Captain?” Alice asked in a whisper.
“Catch everything I miss,” he smiled back quietly.
“Should I nap here or in the ready room?”
The countdown rolled from 00:01:00 to 00:00:59:00, and started to count in milliseconds.
Captain Valance brought up his command display, a ring of eye level holograms that projected in front of the command chair. Alice did the same. “I wouldn't have thought in a million years that we'd end up as the first and second on the same ship, especially not on a Sol Defence Close Combat Carrier.”
“You think you're surprised?” Alice said with a smirk. “this whole thing redefines the term; 'keep it in the family.'”
“You have a point. No turning back now either. Any regrets?”
“I'd do it all again,” she whispered back with a grin. She could see his displays were set to focus on the tactical and security aspects of the ship, along with a display for power systems, shield and weapon statuses. Using that as a guide, she focused her display to keep a keen eye on their course, status of the hangar decks, engines, reactors, computer systems and damage control.
There was a great deal for them to keep their eyes on, and the point was not to micromanage, but to let the occurrences inside and outside of the ship to inform their general orders. Catching something that wasn't being taken care of was important as well, though in their position it wasn't something they could afford to focus on constantly.
The Triton, having a crew of near the optimal size and being in fairly good shape, still wasn't perfect. Some quick and dirty solutions were necessary to get her ready in time. There had also been some modifications done by Wheeler and his crew that made some systems more brittle than they should have been.
There was work left to be done, a great deal of work, and they were going into a potential combat situation without finishing the job or having a chance to explore the entire ship. Who knew what unexpected issues could come up if they actually had to engage in a firefight.
Alice brought up a general status display of the ship on one of the bridge main holoprojectors, a tactical view on the center most projector and left the third one unset.
They decelerated out of hyperspace and all the lighting in the ship dimmed. Systems across the entire vessel were reduced to minimal power except for the energy shielding and cloaking systems.
Tactical screens and holograms started to populate themselves with targets and details. They had come out over three quarters of a million kilometres away from the planet Seneschal. Between them was the octagonal base ship, many many times their size.
“Systems are quiet across the ship sir. Reading no wireless noise or emissions reflected back at us from outside surfaces,” reported Price. “I love these systems,” he whispered.
“In a minute we'll know whether or not I love them.” Captain Valance whispered as he started to help the tactical team pick through the sensor data, looking for the Silkstream IV. “Turn us around just in case Ash.”
Ashley flipped the ship upside down using thrusters only, so if they had to make a quick getaway they could do so under full thrust. “We're ready for the worst, hoping for the best,” she said back.
“Nothing is reacting to our presence sir. It looks like our cloaking systems are doing their job,” reported another tactical officer.
“That's step one. Anyone see the Silkstream?” asked Captain Valance.
“Not on my displays,” said one tactical crewman.
“The filter keeps on coming up with nothing. I'll adjust it,” said another.
“Don't. If the filter hasn't highlighted it, then it's either not there or we cannot detect it yet,” Price corrected.
“Aye sir.”
Captain Valance scanned and devised a quick filter of his own and set it to run over and over again, running through the names of the thousands of ships in the area so it could be highlighted on their tactical displays as soon as it was found. “Move us in closer Ash.”
“You're clear to use main engines. Our cloaking systems can handle it,” Chief Grady informed command.
“All right, speed at your discretion Ashley. Let's head for the half million kilometre mark,” Captain Valance ordered quietly.
They started moving and the navigational holograms in front of the helm lit up, projecting the courses of all the ships on their scanners, marking those that could come close to, or collide with the Triton. There were also gravitational markers, energy field outlines that highlighted areas of strong magnetic influence such as the energy collector from the Regent Galactic base ship. If the Triton were to come too close to any of those fields, whether they were from natural or technological sources, it would interfere with them and any competent tactical or science crew member working for the other side would notice it.
“There's something strange going on here sir. There are several ships floating on the surface of the planet. They look like harvesters,” one of the tactical crew said, bringing her findings up on one of the two dimentional wall displays.
“Look into it more once we have the Silkstream. That has to be secondary.”
“Yes sir.”
“We have to stay focused or we'll get killed out here,” Captain Valance reinforced. There were fighter squadrons, destroyers, even a couple long range carriers in the area. Most of them were out of immediate firing range, and the closest vessels were beneath the Triton's class, but they were still dangerous in such numbers.
“I have them sir! They just came in on the other side of the system!” called out one tactical officer excitedly as he forwarded his find to the main tactical display. It was on the other side of the planet, over a million kilometres away.
“Get us there Ashley, bring us up to seventy percent thrust,” Captain Valance ordered.
“Aye sir,” she replied with a smile, powering up the five main engines.
“Try to get a read on what's going on closer to the planet, I want to know if anything is getting to that ship faster than us.”
They started closing in on a wide orbit around the planet, weaving invisibly between vessels both small and large. Ashley was forced to come within less than a kilometre of one of the larger ships more than once, she listened to instructions from both her navigators, who only focused on the most important information on the obstacles that weren't immediately in front of her or interfering with her direct trajectory. She was one with the controls, and as they reached the closest point of the planet's atmosphere without disrupting their cloaking fields, she guided the ship at great speed, rounding the blue globe while dodging between small substations, satellites and transports.
They came around and tactical was able to glean more information about ships that may be interfering with the Silkstream IV. “Captain, there's a destroyer closing on our objective at a range of thirty kilometres,” announced Price.
“Full burn at your discretion Ash! Get us between the destroyer and the Silkstream. ”
“They're launching small ships sir. They intend to tow her I think,” a tactical officer informed.
“Gunnery deck, your target is my target. Open fire,” Captain Valance ordered as he marked the four shuttles just leaving the destroyer. “Once you're done with that, put some holes in that destroyer. Let's scare them off.”
“Aye! I have your target,” Frost acknowledged.
“Divert power from cloaking systems to enhance shields,” Alice ordered as Jake directed Frost's gunnery team.
“Torpedo and missile bays, target that destroyer and fire two volleys from all banks,” Captain Valance ordered.
“Pitching negative twelve degrees to improve our gunnery profile,” Larry, the primary navigator announced for Ashley. Three of the Triton's main engines rotated so they were still accelerating to close the distance while the ship's nose tilted down. The gunnery deck, laid on a convex curve along the dorsal, or top side of the ship, would be able to target the destroyer and everything in front of them with all her dorsal rail cannons.