The whole team is assembled on the bridge again, Prathea and Xan seated at their usual temporary stations.
Prathea turns to Wil. “What do we do when we get there?”
Wil shrugs. “After all this time, I kinda assumed you’d have thought of something. We don’t really do the plan thing,” he smirks.
“How not at all reassuring,” she says, turning back to her station.
The Ghost drops out of FTL and vectors towards the station. The Borrolo Deep Space Sensor Array is anchored between the orbits of the fourth and fifth planets of the system. There are no inhabited planets in this system, and only one gas giant—the third world.
“Is it here?” Xan asks, from her seat next to Bennie’s station.
Zephyr looks up from her console. “It is.” She activates a control and the main display updates, showing the dreadnought. It’s parked alongside and slightly above the massive sensor array complex.
“Anything from the station?” Prathea asks. “If I recall, it has a staff of several hundred.”
Maxim looks at his own displays. “I think its shields are up. The station I mean. Why does it have shields?” He looks at Prathea.
Prathea shrugs. “I don’t know. I didn’t know it did. Seems like it’s a good thing, though,” she says, gesturing to the screen. “All things considered.” On the screen, the dreadnought has begun firing beam weapons at the array. The defensive shields are shimmering with each weapon strike.
“The reason we’re not picking up a distress call is that that big monster is jamming comms,” Bennie says.
“How do you know that?” Wil asks, turning to his hacker friend.
“Because it’s jamming us now.” Bennie taps a control and the main display updates to a tactical view: a tiny, animated Ghost has just entered a big red circle, centered on the dreadnought.
“Lovely,” Wil says, already working the controls. “I’ll swing us around wide, we can come at from around the other side of the array. Are we—”
“Stealthed? Yes,” Bennie says, cutting Wil off.
Wil winks. “I knew you had value, Cheeto thief.”
Bennie tuts and turns back to his console.
“I suppose we should try to come up with a plan…” Wil says.
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about that,” Zephyr offers. “It’s pretty simple really. We think Gabe is alive, so we need to get back on that ship. As far as we know, our stealth tech is hiding us from it.”
“Following so far,” Wil says, motioning for her to go on.
“We cold coast past the ship, then Maxim and I space-jump over and infiltrate.”
“That seems just a bit dangerous,” Prathea says, adding, “Don’t forget we were on that ship, we saw what it could do. What those drones—”
“Mechano-squid,” Wil interjects.
“I’m not saying that word either,” Prathea says. “Those drones—there are so many. They killed Murta, and possibly your friend. How could you two stand a chance?”
“Everyone’s a critic,” Wil mumbles. “But I agree with Prathea.”
“It’s firing,” Maxim announces. Everyone looks at the main screen as it switches to a view of the kilometers-long dreadnought—which is currently firing missiles, a lot of missiles. “At us,” Maxim adds, helpfully.
“Well, damn,” Wil says. “Guess it can see us. New plan?” He pushes the sub-light engine controls forward, accelerating the Ghost and banking hard.
“Uh, are we charging right at it?” Xan asks.
“Oh, hell no. We’re running,” Wil says. The Ghost arcs wide in front of the oncoming missiles, heading deeper into the star system. “Max, get the aft guns up and running, please.”
“On it,” the Ghost’s de-facto weapons officer says.
The machinery of the massive fabrication center is rumbling now, as the small service drone scurries around, making adjustments. This must be what Bennie feels like, Gabe thinks, waiting for the cooking unit to finish.
Thanks to the ever-diligent and surprisingly resourceful Peacekeeper software, the drone housing Gabe’s spark is able to keep tabs on what the massive dreadnought is doing. To a limited degree, everything the gigantic ship sees, Gabe can see—including the Ghost.
They came, he thinks.
Sending instructions to the Peacekeeper software, Gabe refocuses his efforts on accessing the subsystem he had used before. The small drone scurries out of the room. While Siege Perilous is focused on both attacking the sensor array and the Ghost and trying to eliminate the Peacekeeper software, Gabe has a chance at moving undetected through the less important systems. Interesting, he muses. Cargo bay access is unprotected. Accessing exterior door controls.