Free Call to Arms (Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 2) by Joshua Dalzelle Page A

or Atlas might be foolish on his part.
    “Request denied, Captain,” he said. “We’re still missing two ships, and I’d rather keep the Artemis here in case we need her resources in the search… or the recovery. As soon as we locate them and ascertain their condition, I will revisit your request.”
    “Understood, sir.” Forrest’s mouth pinched. “ Artemis out.”
    Jackson reflected on the exchange for a moment as well as the unexpected request. The crucible of combat, even the sterile type of combat done from the bridge of a starship over vast distances, tended to change a person… and change them almost immediately. It wasn’t that he was unsympathetic. He understood her desire to leave after surviving a firefight, but he didn’t have the luxury of indulging her discomfort.
    “ Captain Wolfe to the bridge .” Celesta’s voice came over the intercom speaker in his office and from his comlink.
    “On my way,” he said, climbing out of his seat and slipping his comlink back into his pocket.
    ****
    “The Atlas has checked in, sir,” Celesta said as soon as he walked onto the bridge. “Systemic failure with main power is what they’re telling us. Apparently it killed everything: coms, propulsion, steerage… the works.”
    “I’m going to assume Captain Caruso didn’t activate the emergency beacon because he wasn’t sure if the enemy was still out there or not.” Jackson stared at the bright green dot representing the Atlas on the main display.
    “Correct, sir,” Celesta confirmed. “They informed us that they were ready to fire the mains and would be coming our way as soon as they were under power.”
    “And the Icarus ?” Jackson asked.
    Celesta motioned for him to approach the terminal she was using at the back of the bridge. Wordlessly, she pointed to a message that had been sent to the Ares from Captain Jonathan Caruso, CO of the Atlas .
    Captain Wolfe,
    I am sending this message separate from our official communications regarding the Atlas’s power plant failure, as I am not sure how you will want to handle it. While I cannot tell you where the Icarus currently is, I can tell you that she is likely still in one piece. When we split from the formation to intercept the Alpha circling around Xi’an, the Icarus began to lag back slightly. We sent a message requesting that they get back on the line, but we were engaged by the enemy before we received an answer.
    The Atlas took a glancing blow from two of the Phage missiles, something I was unaware they even had, and when we tried to energize the forward laser projectors for point defense, the main power bus failed to the forward sections. We accelerated out and past Xi’an and requested that the Icarus cover our withdrawal until we could fix the problem. They never answered. A review of the sensor logs shows that as we were fired upon, the Icarus turned from the engagement and accelerated away from Xi’an at max burn. Our power plant went into safe mode and shut us down before we could track their trajectory.
    I do not know where Captain Levitt and his ship are. All I do know is that he abandoned us as soon as the shooting started. As I said, I am not sure how you will wish to handle this, so I am keeping it off of official records for now.
    Captain Caruso
    CO, TCS Atlas
     
    “Oh, this isn’t fucking good.” Jackson muttered under his breath, running a hand through his short, dark hair.
    “Indeed,” Celesta said just as softly. “Right now, we’re the only two people who have seen this, and I’m sending it to your personal directory.”
    “Thank you,” Jackson said. “First, we need to find the damn ship. Once that happens, I can figure out what I’m going to do. Obviously we can’t just let him keep it but I don’t know who I can stick in the chair for the duration of the mission.” Despite the seriousness of what Levitt was being accused of, Jackson couldn’t help but feel enormously relieved that the Icarus was intact and