The situation onboard the Odyssey was now reaching fever pitch. There had been more than a dozen fights break out amongst the crew since leaving Grabthor Beta, and the brig was now in constant use. And it was here, in the briefing room, that he found himself unsure of what to say to the cause of the problems. It was a situation that he never felt he would be in, and therefore had no idea how to deal with it.
“Of all the people to cause mistrust and unruliness onboard this ship, I never thought it would be you Kelly.”
Harry’s words were tinged with disappointment and hurt. Kelly Dresden was the one person he trusted more than anyone. For her to attempt to incite some kind of insurrection against him was unfathomable.
“I’m sorry Harry, I didn’t mean for it to go this far,” she replied. Her facial expressions seemed sincere. She was aware of the consequences her words had had on the crew, and she had seen for herself the chaos unfolding, particularly in the lower decks of the ship.
“What I don’t understand, is how someone as intelligent as you can even contemplate the existence of such a place, let alone try and convince others of the fact.”
Kelly’s shoulders slumped, and she shook her head. Neither did she, in truth. One moment she had been enjoying a beer, or as close to it as she could find on that godforsaken lump of a station, and the next it was as if someone had whispered something in her ear. She had felt compelled to investigate, beyond her own interests. She couldn’t explain it.
“The best way I can describe the situation Admiral, is that… it wasn’t me.”
While Kelly expected to be ridiculed for such a statement, the exact opposite happened. Harry’s eyes widened, and his own demeanour shifted to one of extreme discomfort. Wasting no time, he gestured for the two security guards flanking Kelly to be dismissed, and gestured for her to follow him. Confused but relieved, Kelly followed Harry onto the bridge and she stood at his side as he sat down in his chair.
“Computer, locate President Drusilla.”
The command caused several sets of eyes to lock on him in confusion, but Harry paid them no mind.
“President Drusilla is not aboard the Odyssey.”
So it wasn’t her. But someone was responsible.
“Commander Teale, are there any communications being directed at this ship right now? On any wavelength or bandwidth?”
Thinking her commanding officer had perhaps enjoyed too many glasses of Monster Blood on the station, she expected to find nothing, but when her own eyes widened in surprise, and she turned back to Harry, he knew he’d been right.
“Yes Admiral. I’m picking up a very low frequency transmission. It appears to be coming from six-hundred kilometres off our starboard bow. It’s directed at… at the bridge, Sir.”
A smile crept into the corner of Harry’s face as he directed Kelly to take her post.
“Something tells me Commander, that you weren’t to blame after all.”
Still a blend of confusion and relief, Kelly nodded and slid behind her console.
“Tactical, scan for any movement on the starboard side that looks out of place. I’m looking for a cloaked ship or one with some kind of dampening field.”
“Aye Sir.”
The two tactical officers, Clarkson and Perry, immediately began running through the various sensor arrays on the ship each scanning for a different form of disguise. Engine trails, reflective panelling, energy signatures, anything.
“Helm, full stop.”
“Now reading full stop, Sir.”
Harry leaned forward in his chair, elbow poised on his right knee, waiting and staring at the viewscreen. He had been in far too many firefights in the cosmos to be caught out here. Somebody was out there. They were watching the Odyssey, and now the ball was firmly in their court.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are…” he sang under his breath.
His eyes were so focussed on the stars on the viewscreen that after a short while, several of them rippled as if a stone had been thrown into a great lake.
“THERE!” he shouted.
Without a moment of hesitation, the tactical team redirected targeting sensors to the spot indicated by the Admiral.
“Ready Sir!”
“FIRE!”
Both fore disrupter cannons erupted with blue light as beams of energy burst forth toward the disruption and with a single hit, their cloaking shield was disabled, revealing the vessel to be the very same one which had attacked them months earlier.
“Direct hit Admiral,” reported Clarkson. “Their cloak is down, and shields are down to seventy-two percent.”
“Nice shooting Mr Clarkson. Now let’s see if we can get that percentage down a little more, shall we?”
Clarkson smiled, and nodded. He handed weapons control over to Ensign Perry who utilised short bursts of weapons fire to target specific subsystems. Two shots to each engine and the white hot glow as they tried to flee once more, went out like a doused candle. Three more and their thrusters were gone too.
“Systems show all propulsion disabled and shields down to seventeen percent, Admiral.”
Harry grinned and stood from his chair.
“Good work tactical. Commander Dresden, lifesigns?”
Kelly scanned the ship now floating aimlessly before them. But her readings were not consistent. In fact they were downright confusing.
“Affirmative Admiral, but… I don’t understand the readings I’m getting back.”
Harry stepped down to stand behind her and glance at her console. He understood her confusion. The readout claimed there were fifteen lifesigns on board the ship. Then the next moment, they were gone. Then they reappeared but were only showing five. The process repeated ten times, each time displaying a different number of lifesigns.
Harry looked at the ship. He still couldn’t understand why he recognised the configuration. And then it hit him.
“Commander Teale, what kind of signal was the transmission?”
“A low frequency signal with a steady pattern, Sir.”
“And can you pinpoint exactly where on the bridge it was being directed?”
Teale never got to reply to Harry’s question. The disruptor strike hit her in the left shoulder sending her careering to the floor, crying in agony. Before Harry could turn around, six more shots had taken out multiple crew members including both tactical officers. As Harry finally turned around to face the source of the shots, Kelly turned the weapon towards him. Her eyes were glazed over with a milky film of white. But things got immediately worse, as on the viewscreen behind her, five more ships decloaked alongside the disabled vessel and they took up an attack posture. Harry sighed and gritted his teeth with anger.
“The Darla.”