Free In the Presence of My Enemies by Stephen A. Fender

replied before Shawn had a chance. “We’re coming up on the coordinates of the battlefield. We’ll have to slow down.”
       “Because of the debris?” Melissa asked.
       Trent slowly nodded his head. “Well . . . something like that.”
       “We have to get to the jump gate,” Shawn injected before Melissa could question Trent’s half-answer. “And that means navigate the field.”
       “But why?” Melissa asked, her tone now as concerned as the ambassador ’s. “Where’s the gate?”
       Shawn got up, a signal to Trent to do the same. “Right smack in the middle. ”
     

“ Nothing surpasses the beauty and elegance of a bad idea. ”
     
    — Lyyrin Dowmeia
    The 5 th Tier of Enlightenment on the Left, 47 th Edition .
Chapter 4
     
       Shawn and Trent arrived on the cockpit level just in time to see a motley assortment of war-torn vessels take shape.  Sylvia’s Delight was still too far away from the battlefield to make positive visual identification of the remains of the vessels, but their overall angular shape betrayed that they had once belonged to Sector Command.
       “Looks like frigates,” Trent said under his breath. “Or what’s left of them.”
       Shawn nodded slowly. “Being faster and more maneuverable, they would have been the first line of offense.”
       “Offense?”
       “Delta Canaras was supposed to be a major turning point in the war,” Shawn began, offering his old a friend a quick summary. “The Kafarans had seized the system a few months into the war, and were using it as one of their primary staging grounds for attacks on nearby Unified worlds . . . back when the Outer Sphere still existed, that is.” Shawn looked out at the spinning, lifeless hulk of a boulder-like Kafaran vessel. It had been holed through in several key places, and most of the starboard side was a battered mess. “Sector Command sent in a fleet, the largest it could muster, and this is what came of it. The Battle of Delta Canaras.”
       “Must have been one hell of a battle.”
       “After-action reports state that it only lasted about an hour, which is amazing considering how many ships we lost.”
       “But you said we won this one, right?”
       Despite the destruction ahead of the Mark-IV, Shawn found himself chuckling. “That’s a matter of perspective. As far as the PR guys were concerned, this was a resounding victory for Sector Command. As for how the top brass felt about it, they had just lost a sizeable chunk of their war fighting machine—both in equipment and manpower. In my opinion, it was one we never recovered from. Had even a quarter of these ships made it out of the battle, the war might well have ended months—or even years—sooner.”
       “That many, huh?”
       Shawn nodded as his mind relayed the inventory. “About five hundred ships in all, but it wasn’t just about numbers . . . it was about the quality of the people. Some of our best, most well-trained people died here. Those are figures that can’t easily be replaced.”
       “Anyone we know?”
       “Quite a few. A lot of guys I went through flight training with didn’t make it out of Delta Canaras. Those who did . . . well, let’s just say they were never the same afterward. As far as ships in general, we lost some really great ones here. The Hornblower , the Westhampton , the Enterprise , the Dul’Tulam …they’re all out here, somewhere.”
       The two men contemplated the scene in silence for a moment before Trent spoke again. “I can’t believe the jump gate is in the middle of this mess. What on Third Earth made them put it there?”
       “The gate was actually much farther away from here. Before the battle, Sector Command latched onto it and dragged it with them. They were afraid the Kafarans might seize it—or worse, destroy it. That’s why we need to get to the heart of this clutter. The flagship still had the gate in tow when it was destroyed. And on