Free New Frontiers (Expansion Wars Trilogy, Book 1) by Joshua Dalzelle Page B

Adler gave the final warning. Since the Shrikes were smart weapons that would track and adjust to targets once they were locked on, and given the distances involved, it wasn’t uncommon for up to a five-minute variation from when they expected the weapon to intercept the target and when it actually did.
    “Coms?”
    “Still no response, ma’am,” Ellison said. He sounded tired and Celesta knew he wasn’t alone. During the engagement first watch had been on duty for thirty-two hours straight, and there didn’t seem to be any reprieve until they transitioned out of the system. With a completely unknown adversary she just couldn’t risk swapping out critical personnel like she would if it had been a Phage Alpha chasing her.
    “The two straggling tangos are braking, reducing speed and—no, they’re veering hard off, ma’am. It looks like they may be trying to reverse course,” Adler reported. “The two others are still on a direct pursuit course. Weapons are running silent so I have no update other than I expect sensor returns on the detonation within ten minutes.”
    “Nav, execute emergency warp transition immediately!” Celesta barked sharply.
    “Aye aye!” the startled chief said. “Assuming helm control now.” They all felt the mains run to full power as the Icarus dipped her prow to aim down below the ecliptic plane and surged to their final transition velocity. It seemed like mere minutes before the vibrations ceased and Celesta could see on the main status board that they were being purged and secured from primary flight mode.
    “Two tangos have appeared BEHIND us!” Adler said sharply. “Range is less than one hundred thousand kilometers!”
    “Snap fire aft Hornets! Auto-target mode,” Celesta ordered. “Nav!”
    “Standby for warp transition!” the chief shouted even as the forward distortion ring began to cause the main display to darken. There was a sharp bucking as the ship vanished from the system and, a moment later, a more pronounced shaking as she reappeared two hundred and fifty light minutes outside the Xi’an System.
    “Report!”
    “No damage, no casualties, Captain,” Accari read off his master status display. “Engineering is requesting we secure from powered flight mode until they’ve had time to inspect the warp drive.”
    “Tell Commander Graham he has ninety minutes and then we’re underway whether he’s finished or not,” Celesta said.
    “Aye, ma’am.” Accari pulled his headset back up and began speaking into it.
    “How did you know?” Barrett breathed.
    “Lucky guess,” Celesta said. “The two trailing ships either left the system or dropped back to give themselves a greater degree of accuracy to try and appear close behind us. Since Agent Uba said they were trying to capture Terran ships, and we hadn’t shown ourselves to be much of a threat, it had to be the latter.”
    “That’s not really a lucky guess, ma’am, but whatever you call it you just saved our ass again.” Barrett was still speaking quietly amid the chaos created by a short warp flight on a drive that was not designed to perform such a maneuver. Celesta ignored the well-meaning compliment, still physically ill over the loss of at least two ships under her command.
    “Listen up!” she called loudly. “That time limit isn’t just for Engineering. Get with your backshops and get the Icarus checked out stem to stern … we have no idea what sensor capabilities the enemy might have so we need to be underway as quickly as possible.”
    “I can’t believe this is happening again,” Ellison said as he let his headset slip down around his neck.
    Celesta opened her mouth to chastise him, but he’d said it to himself and, honestly, she shared the sentiment. Not even a decade of peace and in the middle of major political upheaval it looked like they had a new alien threat to deal with. She fervently hoped the Prowler, with its extensive sensor capability, was well on its way back to New