Free Ecstasy Bound by Ruth D. Kerce Page A

the one off base.
    While she waited for answers, her stress level maximized and remained high. It wouldn’t ease off until she knew for certain what they were dealing with. And maybe not even then.
    “Come on, come on,” she muttered, tapping the computer screen, eager to find out as much information about what they’d tracked as possible. The computer was working on the calculations. Too damn slowly for her satisfaction. She did not like the look of this.
    Another alarm sounded. A deep comm alarm. Only the crew in this room was privy to that particular warning. She flipped a switch to check the comm channels. What the hell was going on today?
    “Jaeda?” Kirk called out. “I’ve got it on DPCM Frequency 135.”
    “What is it?” she asked as she switched over. “Is it coming from the blip?”
    “No, but it’s definitely an incoming message. Computer is identifying—bingo! As I suspected, given the long-range frequency. It’s ACE.”
    Finally. They’d been out of contact for far too long. Her comm feed crackled, then nothing. Damn it. Her panel was down. Fucking equipment. She clicked on her headphones. “Save it, transfer the stream to me, I’m silent again, and patch me in to General Adair.” A coincidence that ACE was transmitting at the same time they’d picked up this large cluster? Doubtful.
     

 

     
     

Chapter Five

 

     
     

     
    Nav-Control Ship FSMF-36, Deep Space
     
    Frost turned from the navigational panel when she heard the clunk of boots headed her way. Rave. She was approaching with a confident stride and a serious look.
    Rave acted too secure in her position, as if she knew secrets no one else did. Frost fingered the controller dangling from the chain around her neck, making certain it still hung there, knowing the little device would secure her future. She wanted Rave out and Kam in. Soon. Having a strong male by her side would make victory all the sweeter. A male she had complete control over. A male who would turn on his own love, family and people to serve her. In bed and out. Yes. Sweet revenge.
    “Daegal’s fighters are now cloaked,” Rave informed her. “I’ve cloaked our ships in response. Daegal is overly cautious, cloaking sooner than necessary. Earth’s equipment is not sophisticated enough to track us this far out.”
    Frost took close heed of her words. “Maybe he suspects someone is following him.”
    “I doubt it. He would have engaged in evasive maneuvers. The probe I sent out didn’t register any major space displacement.”
    “Can we still mirror his ships or will we need to stay farther back and move into a new space lane to avoid detection?” She knew how to navigate many types of ships but some of the specifics of cloaking were still new to her because the ability had only recently been added to her vessels.
    “As long as we continue receiving coordinates from our contact, we can safely maintain our present position.”
    “The coordinates shouldn’t be a problem.” As soon as the words left her mouth, a stab of doubt pricked at her. Over the years, she’d learned caution was her friend.
    Luckily she was prepared.
    She knew how to think fast on her feet when she needed to. She knew Daegal’s destination. She just needed to stay a safe distance away to avoid detection, which was why she needed to know his coordinates at all times.
    She didn’t want to trigger a collision alarm. Though it was a common occurrence between cloaked ships, Daegal might fire weapons instead of simply adjusting his course, as was standard procedure. Especially if he checked on their identity—again standard procedure—and suspected her ships were part of an “unfriendly” fleet.
    They should simply look like supply vessels to anyone who accessed their official log. She’d ordered all their regular fleet markings removed and entered a false identity and destination into the USLM system, an automated universal monitoring station for space traffic. But Daegal wasn’t