Harbin Low's eyes were closed, and his fingertips rested on the rail of opalescent milled plex in front of him. A coil of pleasure swirled around the base of his spine. He stood on the bridge of the Argent. He'd never commanded a brand-new ship before. And it was Barracuda class, amongst the sleekest and fastest vessels in the armada. His eyes opened a sliver as he smiled at the thought, running his fingers along the rail, shiny and smudge-free.
Monitoring the encounter between pirates and prey from a wise distance, his ship hadn't made a sound beyond the quiet hum of a predator running silent. And he'd already seen the ship's shroud in action when he was introduced to it. A shudder passed through him, recalling the moment. The Argent had been nose-to-nose with a weapon-studded ship primed to fire. Then the space in the viewscreen had shimmered, the only sign that the Argent had become invisible to the other ship.
A cough disturbed his silence, and he glared at his Second.
Delphi Liet was clearly worried. The tell was when she rubbed the scar that ran down the left side of her face. She glanced between him, her display and the viewscreen. "They're at the slip point." Her voice was a hoarse whisper.
Harbin turned his attention to the main screen, which displayed a fractured vision from the various stealth probes they'd deployed around the asteroid field. The probes didn't have any shroud tech, but they scanned as just lumps of metal. He watched as the ship dropped its lopsided cargo, then blinked out.
He gave no orders as he watched the pirates swooping in to collect their prize. They'd only agreed to help agents of the Dominion because of the cadmium smuggled in with the zinc ore. Well, that and the Argent's pulse cannons. Casting his gaze around the bridge, he saw her nervousness reflected in the fidgeting and sideways glances of the rest of the bridge crew.
Good, it keeps them battle ready. But Harbin himself remained calm as their prey disappeared. His pulse ticked steady in his neck. He tipped his head sideways, his eyebrows finally pulling together in some show of emotion. It was strange. It wasn't due to the bots designed to keep him level and clear headed. This was all natural, a combo of years of strict training and a youth spent surviving.
The Argent hadn't been seen. His new ship had performed as per spec, shrouding them in a cloth of stars, the fabric of space itself, and scrambling their signature so they appeared like just another asteroid to any scanners.
"Should we follow?" Liet asked, tapping out a herky-jerky rhythm with her foot. Her worried tell had shifted to the one that said she was ready for battle. His mouth pressed into a line, wondering how she won at cards as often as she did. Regardless, she was a blood-thirsty one. It was one of the reasons he'd fought to have her assigned to his new crew.
"It's the slipstream," the navigator on duty said. "At best, we can try to follow."
"No need." Harbin waved his hand, then stepped back and sat down in his captain's chair, still smelling like the factory.
"But if we don't follow, we'll lose them." Liet's fingers hovered over her console. "The tag is gone."
"But the tagger is still onboard."